Reading Activities

During reading we read procedures. We really enjoyed following the procedures to make a mural, a shelter and a bedroom sign. The mural and shelter group had to cooperate and listen to each to achieve the task.

Gymnastics

Over the past three weeks we have been doing gymnastics sessions at school. Our first session was on balancing. We balanced on different body parts including doing head stands. In pairs we tried some balancing poses together. Next was spring and landings. We all remembered how to do motorbike landings and keep ourselves safe when springing off equipment. Rotations was our most challenging session as we were striving to do cartwheels correctly. Turning our bodies 360 turns and rotating around the play equipment was lots of fun. Our last session was to put a routine together in groups. That was harder than we thought, including everything we had learnt over the weeks. We all persisted to achieve our routines and then showed them to each other.

Rutherford Junior High School

The Year 6 boys went to Rutherford Junior High School last Wednesday morning to have a 'taster' on what intermediate would be like. We started the morning off by listening to the Year 7 and the Year 8 bands play and sing to us. The choir and Kapa Haka group sang to us too. It was great to see some of our ex Carlton students involved in those groups. Next we split into three groups and rotated around three activities. In the gymnasium where we were in two teams playing dodgeball against each other. One game was us against the staff and Rutherford Year 7 helpers. During robotics, we were in groups with a Year 7 student building a robot to battle. It was a challenge to construction something in the short time but it was lots of fun battling each other. Our last activity was cooking. Again we were in groups cooking meat patties and constructing a burger. Yum! What a way to spend a morning at school. We ended our morning with a Ruruku and took an information booklet home to share with our families.

Dog Education

Kelly from Kelsview Dog Safety came to talk to the Pou Herenga Rua. Her dog Peaches came along with her so she could demonstrate how to be safe around dogs. One of her messages was not to tease your own dog but teach them tricks. Peaches could speak like a tractor, give high fives, chase a ball and return it and shake hands. That must have taken a while to learn those amazing tricks. These are some of the points she taught us on how to be safe around dogs.
Always ask permission from the dogs owner or an adult before you pat or touch a dog.
Never pat a dog on its head always touch the back or shoulder.
If a dog is eating stay well away.

Basketball

Over the past few weeks we have been learning basketball skills. Such as chest passes, bounce passes, dribbling and shooting the ball. This week we put all our skills together and played mini basketball games. We had so much fun and it was great to hear so many of us encouraging each other during the games.

Emotions

This term in inquiry we have been learning about emotions, what triggers them and how we can bring ourselves back to a calm happy state ie mauri ora. We had some lessons on how to use digital cameras. In pairs we took photos of ourselves showing different emotions. Can you guess what emotions we are showing?

Yoga

Yoga was calming and fun! First we warmed up to music learning different yoga poses. Next we played a fun game where we had to freeze in a tree position. It was tricky trying to balance on one foot. After we relaxed our body and learnt some breathing techniques to use when we are feeling frustrated and if we are finding it hard to get to sleep at night. Thanks Emma for a great session. We all learnt something from our time with you and some of us might come and join one of you yoga sessions after school.

Team Building Activities

Last week Mrs Palmer gave us some challengers to do in small groups. The first one was for each member of our group to lift and then lower a hoop by only using our index finger. It had to stay straight and not bend. This required us to communicate clearly to each other and work as a team to not drop the hoop. Our second challenge was to complete a puzzle. Each of us had to run down to the end of the court and collect one piece of the puzzle and bring it back to the team. As each puzzle piece came back we tried to put it in the correct place to make the puzzle. We were all very competitive during our first attempt and wanted to try it for a second time. During the second time each team discussed some tactics we could use to make our team quicker than the first time. It worked and we had different winners.