Science Display Boards

by Sophia
For ten adventurous weeks, the Kawau Team worked harder than ever on some amazing science display boards. After weeks and weeks of work, everyone’s boards were starting to look marvellous.

There were six materials, that we could chose from to investigate for our presentations. These were: glass, plastic, rubber, paper, metal and fabric.

The boards were judged on a score out of 100. We had to create our own science experiment to test a poroperty of our chosen material. We have been learning science experiment skills this year in science.

We’ve have  done lots of exciting experiments such as a dry ice experiment. We also did another experiment with two types of sugars. Brown and Castor sugar. We lit both on fire and watched to see which one would burn faster and start to rise up.

Mitcham Primary School Visitor

Today a colleague of Miss Keightley ( a former Macleans teacher) visited Macleans Primary. This colleague was from Mitcham Primary School in Melbourne, Australia. Her name is Ms Pikia.

She visited us in the library and she was nice and friendly. She was looking around the school. She enjoyed looking at the Matariki art that is displayed in the library.

She took a long, tour around the school. She liked the colourful murals outside, as well as The Jumping Number Caterpillar. She got really interested in the MLE, and she spent a lot of time in there talking to students and teachers.

Ms Pikia enjoyed her visit to Macleans Primary.

She hopes to visit again.

St Johns Training

Donna from the St John’s charity came and taught students from the Kawau team about taking care of ourselves. Donna also taught us how to treat a person with heat stroke or hypothermia.

First we learned about minor wounds, stings and burns. Donna instructed us what to do when you get a minor wound. Donna immediately put us into groups and we cleaned and bandaged the different types of wounds that Donna had drawn on us with a red whiteboard marker.

After that we learned about burns and if  Donna drew a burn on our hands, we had to had to run it under cold water for 20 min(it was just a cup with no water) Next we covered it with glad wrap.Then we learned  about stings. Donna said the very first thing you have to do when you when you get a sting is ask the patient if they had got stung before. Next we had to pull it out as fast as we could with a card or piece of paper. You can also do it with you nail. Later, we froze it with an icepack.

Basketball Success for Macleans

Macleans' Thunder - Division Champions!

Congratulations to the Macleans Thunder Basketball Team  who won the final of their division last Wednesday evening.  It capped a very successful night for our basketball squad with all three teams achieving wins in the last round of competition for this season.  Thank you to our school coaches for training the teams. 

Macleans Thunder   20     Wakaaranga 12  (Division Winners)

Macleans Mavericks  7      Pigeon Mountain   2

Macleans Magic  9       Pigeon Mountain 8

Chocolate Sales

By Sophia, Raegan and Anna  

In the last two weeks, there has been a roar of exciting squeals from the juniors about thrilling chocolate sales.

Chocolate sales is one of the most dramatic events, because last year the person who sold the most boxes in the school won a HP Chromebook! This year it’s a new bicycle.

There was a box of chocolates to sell for every FAMILY.

Inside the chocolate box were all the products from the Cadbury company. There were three Caramels, three Black Forest, three Crunchie, three Milk Chocolates, three Moro Bars, four Dreams, four Perky Nanas, three Picnics, three Orange-flavoured Twirls and three Time-out big-sized chocolate bars. Each were two dollars, while there were thirty chocolate bars.

At assembly, Mr Bayly ( our principal ) made a lucky draw for the first few people; and that was really intriguing. “Rugby Balls for the six people who get their name drawn out” he announced and everyone cheered blissfully. Then it was time for the moment of truth....who would win the bike for the most boxes sold?

This was a fun fundraiser for all the kids in this school.

Lloyd Elsmore Swimming

by Nimrit

The year 3-6 students are having swimming lessons for 7 weeks at Lloyd Elsmore every Friday.

We travel by bus to the pools. The bus is really nice because it had heaters but sometimes I get annoyed by the noise others make.

Each class is booked in to a different time slot. There are three stages of swimming: level 1, is for people that aren’t very good in doing different styles, level 2, is for kids who are in the middle swimmers and level 3 is for expert swimmers who can swim 2 or more laps without touching the bottom of the pool.

There are three really nice instructors and they help you learn different swim styles. It’s really fun to learn different swim styles. It’s a great way to learn how to swim confidently and everyone likes the lessons and the juniors can’t wait to start swimming at Lloyd Elsmore.

    Breathtaking Trip to Ambury Farm

By Raegan and Nimrit

Recently, Rangitoto team went on an amazing trip to Ambury Farm. The reason they visited the farm was to learn about different types of  materials and fibres.

First they went to a barn and played an entertaining matching game. They had some photos and plastic bags with all sorts of hair fibres.

Next they went to the shearing shed and watched a farmer shear the sheep's wool off. After they finished watching the sheep,they were lucky and they got to go down the sheep chute.

Next they looked around the farm. They saw chickens,cows,horses,turkeys,goats, sheep and pigs. They also went to a bug garden and saw some interesting insects.

It was a fun time for the Rangitoto Team because they could learn more and experience a lovely farm.They got to learn about fabrics and fibres.

Our MLE (Modern Learning Environment)

by Sophia and Anna

Over the summer holidays, Rooms 8, 9, 10, and 11 were refurbished - although there was still ongoing refurbishing for the doors. For the first few weeks, Room 10 and 11, were stuck in the hall while Room 9 was enjoying the library.

Usually, the teachers would say “we’re hoping to move next week” but it wouldn’t happen. Then, finally, we moved in on a Thursday, and kids carried furniture to the new rooms. It didn’t take long to get used to the new rooms

The first day in MLE was not bad. Everyone liked the smell of the brand new carpet, which smelt like lavender. It was also easier to access the other rooms since they were not far away from each-other.

So Mrs. Harper and Mrs. Deutschmann made a new system for the MLE. Room 10 was called South Cove, Room 9 was called North Cove, the middle area was called Sandy Bay, and Room 11 was called Sunny Bay since the sun always shone in Room 11.

We also have a new teacher who teaches in Sandy Bay called Whaea Hohaia. She helps out with teaching literacy and maths. She didn’t have her own room to use but she takes groups in the Sandy Bay area or the library.

We became more of a family than a class. Everyone became friends and everyone was loyal to one another. We moved around in the spacious area very quickly. We also didn’t have to walk to far for Kawau Team meetings too because all of us were close together. Usually the Kawau team meetings were in Room 11.

 We no longer spend the whole day with one teacher. We go to other rooms and work with different teachers for numeracy and literacy.

People who have earned a silver license have a choice over where they want to do their independent work.

        

Youth Town Fun

by Nimrit and Reagan

Before the holidays the Rangitoto and Waiheke team had an entertaining program called youthtown. It’s a great way to get outdoors and get fit at school. There’s also a holiday program and many more activities.

Shark, Ship and Shore is great game that all the children enjoyed. First an instructor called out shark shore or ship.Then the kids have to run to the correct side but the last person there is out.

They also played Simon Says and Hospital which the students enjoyed it too. Hospital is a a really is a fun game where if you get tagged you have to go to hospital and do five star jumps.

Another great game was two-sided dodgeball.

Some children liked Youthtown because they enjoyed playing games and learning new and exciting activities to help gain confidence. Although there was a lot of rain during youthtown, kids still enjoyed splashing about and letting go of stress, just having fun and relaxing.

Youthtown was an inspirational and an educative program for children.

Terrific Camp at Chosen Valley

 Term 1 Week 10

Over the past few astonishing days, the Kawau Team went on an absolutely breathtaking Camp at Chosen Valley.

The night before Camp, many of us were too excited to sleep, thinking about the fun activities, scared if we're going to get homesick, or embarrass themselves.

There were all sorts of fun and entertaining activities.  The Confidence Course, Flying Fox, Gaga, Orienteering, Trolleys, Team Building, Balancing Island, Archery, Air Rifles, Building Rafts, and Kayaking.

The Trolleys were one of the activities most people looked forward to. We were given a trolley which part looked like a kart with ropes to control it.  You have to pull either right or left while leaning the same way. You ride it downhill, and at the end; you steer it into a puddle of mud. Sometimes people would either miss it or slowly ride into it without getting splashed.

When it wasn’t raining, a boy who was doing the Trolleys got his whole body (including his face ) covered in mud water and crashed into the gate. That's when the gate fell on him.  CRASH !!

The first night in the cabins was very noisy and some people in the cabins were very messy. Teachers patrolled the cabins during night-time and would usually get back to their cabins by 11 pm. Most teachers only had about four hours or more/less hours of sleep because every now and then, there would be chatter. Some people even SNORED or talked in their sleep during night time!

Despite the hard rain and even flooding, we still kept going but instead, we had a wet day programme. On Thursday, it started raining when we planned to go outside but, thanks to Mrs. Deutschmann, she made up a new programme.

On Tuesday, we had normal showers.  Then on Thursday it surprised us. The showers were blocked so we got showered with a hose and the water was cold! Everyone got changed into togs after morning tea and lined up in front of the chapel and everyone got a turn to be sprayed with the hose ( which had ice-cold water in it,) and got showered, but we only had about 15 seconds. Some people who were covered in mud   ( because of the Trolleys), were shocked.

We ate dinner at around 5:30 and usually would have awards at 8:00. But of course, you couldn’t forget the hot chocolate! The teachers would often say “Straight to sleep girls / boys” and then “Lights Out”.

Some people enjoyed the food, also, people even went for second course! But I know I definitely enjoyed the dessert! ( One of them was French Vanilla cake, covered in drizzled chocolate sauce; AND we even got at least 2 chocolate buttons hidden  inside!) So delicious, mmmm! ( But sadly there was no seconds for dessert. )

Apart from the teachers not getting enough sleep these past few days, I bet everyone had a good sleep on Friday night because it wouldn’t be too coldor hot and it would be comfortable in your own bed. Also, sleeping in a sleeping bag sometimes annoys me, and without all that chatter or the flashes of torches,  I bet most of us went straight to sleep as your head touched that pillow - I know I did because I was EXHAUSTED!

 But after all, it was one of the most thrilling experiences / adventures we’ve EVER had

without our parents.

When we came back from Camp, some of the Web Reporters had an interview with Mr. Bayly.

We asked Mr. Bayly a few camp questions: 

Why did you choose to go to that Camp out of every other camp?

I think  it’s a really good camp for Year 5 / 6’s. There’s some easy activities, hard tasks and a few very challenging tasks. Also, I like the way how the whole camp is close to each other, and we’re all together. Quite compact, and not too far to travel. ”

Did you ever get homesick?  

“ No”

What fear (s) and challenge (s) did you overcome? 

 Coping with the rainy, cold weather. ( Which included FLOODING!!!! ).”

We're Setting up a Web Reporters Team

A small team of reporters from Kawau Team,  will use this blog site to publish reports about the learning experiences of students at Macleans Primary School, Bucklands Beach.