Camp to Rotorua and Taupo

What an amazing Rotorua and Taupo camp He Puna Hangahanga had last week. Non stop fun and exploring two great towns. We learnt that Rotorua is a volcano! That freaked some of us out until we were told it last blew thousands of years ago.  Exploring all the different hot pool and gysters was fascinating and we even got to be scientists! On a beautiful morning the views from the gondola were amazing. We loved racing down the hill on the luge, whizzing past all the adults. We learnt about different birds, fish and other animals at Rainbow Springs and had a great trip on the boat to see the rest of the area with a big splash at the end. Sleeping in a cabin with our classmates was noisey and often smelly at times! Sitting around the table at meals times we talked about our day and what was ahead for us next. Roaaaaar! The lions were so loud. They loved eating their feed of meat. Lots of us had never been so close to a lion before. Rotorua Redwood forest walk was amazing especially at night with the beautiful lanterns (made by local artists) that lit up the wooden bridge walk. We couldn’t believe how high we were in the Redwood forest. One of our favourite adventures was on the duck tour on a WW11 landing craft for an amphibious sightseeing around Rotorua and their lakes. Singing, laughing and blowing our duck whistles louding going as fast as the vehicle could take us. In Taupo we could not believe the rush of water as we looked at the Huka falls. What a great sight. At the prawn farm we had a tour and walked around the farm trying lots of different activities. Lots of us went fishing for prawns but only a few of us were successful and caught one.

We would love to thank the parents that helped us over our time at camp. It would not have been possible without you. Not to mention all the other parents and families that supported us with fundraising to get us there.

For some of us, this was our last camp at Carlton and we will take away lots of great memories. For the rest of us we can’t wait for next years camp! I wonder where we will be exploring?

St John First Aid Course

On Wednesday we were lucky enough to have Mel from St John come and teach us a first aid lesson. We learnt the steps to take if someone was injured and/or unconscious. We also learnt what first aid kits should have in them and how to bandage a wound. It is really important to know what to do in different situations. Thanks Mel for teaching us all about St John and first aid.

Shake Out

"Earthquake!" Mrs Palmer shouted. Drop, cover and hold! Some of us were under tables holding onto a leg, some of us were on the floor and well away from the windows doing the drop, cover and hold position. Mrs Palmer stood in the door way to keep it clear for us to get outside. After a minute Mrs Palmer said the shaking had stop for now and was safe to get up. We walked out the back door and met the rest of our class on the field by our class number. Some of our class were outside doing fitness with Mrs Steadman and had to do the drop, cover and hold position on the field! Charlie said Mrs Palmer gave him a fright when she shouted out earthquake. But that is what a real earthquake is like. It happens when you are not expecting it! Our class did a great job during the national wide shake out drill inside and outside the classroom.

Inter School Cross Country

Mrs Palmer took a team of 20 to the Inter School Cross Country last week. We were lucky enough to send 5 of our class to represent our school. They did an amazing job and placed high as there were about 200 competitors in each race. Travis was 12th, Mase 20th, Yoonsu 50th, Vetaia 80th and Mack 91st. We are so proud of the effort you put into the race. It was challenging, long and muddy!

Year 6 Visits

This week our Year 6's went to visit Wanganui Intermediate to try out some of the specialist subjects. We were put into groups and rotated around four of them. At cooking we made fruit kebabs. In science we planted a pea seed which we hope they grow when we take them home. We loved robotics where we programmed robots and they had a fight with each other. Hard materials was cool as we got to make a wooden pen. Creating animals for a outside scene was challenging in the art session. Our morning was lots of fun and we even got to have morning tea sitting around the fish pond.

Wanganui Intermediate invited us to their production 'The Little Mermaid'. For some of us it was the first time in the Opera House. What an amazing place. The show was fantastic and we all really enjoyed the singing, props, costumes and seeing some of our old Carlton School students in the production.

Hundertwasser Art

We learnt about the artist Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser. He was born in Austria, lived in other countries and in his later life he lived in New Zealand. His artwork was individualistic and unique and he did not follow tradition art rules. He gave a name to this creative and unique process as “transautomatism”. In his work, he rejected straight lines and was fascinated by spirals, as he noted that here are not straight lines in nature. He commonly used bright colours in his artwork. We created our own Hundertwasser inspired artwork using paint and felt pens.

Rutherford Visit

Last week we were lucky to have some students from Rutherford Junior High visit us. They came to tell us all about their school and what they could offer year 7 students next year. Their school band played two songs to us too. We were able to ask questions to the teachers and students. It was great to see Coral and Rajveet who were at our school last year who are enjoying Rutherford this year.

Monsters

Check out our monster art! We planned monsters in our art books.

We chose our favourite monster and created a bog version with crayon and dye.

After that we used our clay skills to create a 3D version.

 

Midweek

Did you know some of our boys have been writing the Midweek column. They always get it checked by Ms O'Connor before it gets sent off to the paper. Pretty clever huh! Here is their latest column.

Rutherford

We have started back at Rutherford again this term. For active learning we are cooking, sewing and creating something at woodwork. We are having heaps of fun learning new skills. Watch this space to see what we create!