Ukulele Jam

Ukulele Salute

     .....  everybody look to the left
            everybody look to the right .....

and you will see 400 excitedly nervous children playing the ukulele in a 'Jam' at George Street Normal school.  We began with the ukulele salute which is done by putting the ukulele on our heads, and listened for the first song.









There was a band there and they joined in with the songs, playing Utana first.  It was really noisy with everyone playing at the same time.  We did heaps of songs and our favourite was Price Tag.  Courage volunteered to do the rapping part and there was one boy from Carisbrook School who was spectacularly good at rapping.














A few days before the Jam, we designed, coloured and decorated a ukulele to go in a competition.  Only two were chosen from each school and when we arrived, all the entries were displayed on the windows.  There were two Highlanders players who judged the top three.  Mya came second.  She won a movie and a voucher.







We all had a fabulous time at the ukulele jam and can't wait to do it again next year.



      





   .....     It's all about jamming, jamming, jamming
                    It's all about jamming, jamming, jamming
                    We just wanna make the world dance
                   Forget about the school work     .....

Planned, written, and edited by R6

Whole School Fitness

This term we have been put into Whanau Groups.  The groups names are Pikorua (friendship), Koru (new life / learning), Matau (determination / leadership), and Manawa (heart).  There are some kids from every class in each group and we all have a group colour.  Pikorua's colour is blue.  Koru's colour is green.  Matau's colour is orange.  And Manawa's colour is red.

Some of the kids in Room 6 have organised a whole school fitness programme that happens at 12.15 each day.  We all go in our Whanau groups and do the fitness.  The activities are Jump Jam, walking, skipping, and obstacle course.  We do each activity for 3 minutes and then Mrs Tobin blows her whistle to tell us that it's time to move on to the next activity.

It's really, really fun.  We like being the leaders.  All of us Room 6 kids are going to get a go at being leader.

Welcome Back to Term 3

We were very excited today because we all received a letter from Taylor - (Taylor and Jack left last term to go and live in Christchurch).  Everyone got a letter - Taylor must have been very busy writing them.  We enjoyed reading them.  She told us about her house, her new school, her neighbourhood and the earthquakes.  She has had a couple of earthquakes and she finds them really scary.







This week, we are all going to write letters back.







Our value for the term is 'Kia Runga Rawa - Aim High' and this week our goal is to set SMART goals for ourselves.  We have decided to have a whole class goal and it looks like this:
     S = specific  (do we clearly understand what we want to achieve?  Yes - plan, write and publish a letter to Taylor)
     M = measurable  (we will know if we have met our goal by having our letter finished by Friday)
     A = achievable  (can it be done, is our task something we can complete?  Yes!)
     R = relevant  (is there a purpose for our writing, is it important to us?  We want to reply to the letters Taylor sent us)
     T = time (we need to get our letters finished by Friday)

And we are all thinking of a creative way to publish them.


 Mrs Tobin wants to know where Jack's letters are - perhaps he is still writing them.
  

Cross Country

We had been practicing heaps, first running around the school and then out along the roads.  We had to go down Bradford St, along Kaikorai Valley Rd, up Glenelg, along Ronay, through the gate by Grason's house and down the hill to the finish line.  Phew!  It was hard work.

Then we had the big cross country along at Balmacewen Int where there were lots of other schools as well.  We were all really nervous.  The Year 5 girls went first.  Xanthe and Salani did really well.
                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                            Ready.  Set.  Go!


Then it was the Year 5 boys turn.  We were all cheering and yelling.  Cameron came 7th.

Next it was the Year 6 girls turn.  Lining up at the start was hard because there were so many people.  Everyone was pushing to see if they could get in the front.  When the clackers went, we zoomed off.  It was a long way round the field - you had to run all the way round the sports field plus up the steep little hills.  I was glad when I got to the finish line.

Katelyn and Krystal did really well.  Krystal got 9th and Katelyn got 10th.

The last race was the Year 6 boys.  By this time we were really yelling loud because Jacob was in second place at the start.  And - he was still in second place at the end.  He tried so hard to come first but he couldn't quite make it.  Well done Jacob.

It was a good day.  We all felt very pleased that it was over.

Abbie Fern (and Mrs T)

Rocky Shore Trip

On the 9th March two excited bus-loads of children went to Warrington Beach.  We were all in small groups with a parent.








We were looking in the rock pools and we saw heaps of different creatures like crabs, sea stars, and chitons.  We were able to touch the animals and we patted some sea anemonies which felt like jelly.

Some groups found a cushion sea star and they picked it up to see the suckers on its feet underneath.  The barnacles were really sharp, one boy fell over and scratched his hands on them.

We also found snake skin chitons - we saw some at the aquarium so we knew exactly what they were.  They stuck to the rocks really tightly.

There was also paua there.  Jason told us that paua had to be a certain length before you were allowed to take it.  Some kids found empty paua shells.

When we lifted up some rocks there were hundreds of crabs under them.  They all tried to scuttle out of our way, but we weren't going to hurt them.  We had to carefully place the rocks back where we found them.

We also did a treasure hunt where we had to go all around the beach where we had to find all sorts of things.  My group won the smallest feather.















After we had lunch some of us built sand castles while others went back on to the rocks to keep looking at more creatures.  One group built a marae and it was really cool.  Some people dug so deep, they found water.  At the end we all got a lollypop.

It was an awesome day.

Amber-Rose

Leaders Day

On the 14th of February Room 6  had their first Leaders Day.  First of all, we had to be leaders and teach others in our group something.  We had a lot of fun doing that.


Two girls from Southern Steel, Demelza and Shannon, came to talk to us about being a team member. They told us that to be a good team member you have to be respectful towards others, encouraging, and have courage. Also they said everyone can be a leader, even if they are very shy. Leaders have to say put-ups to other team members to make them feel good about doing something.

We got into groups and we all got a theme such as Rippa, fashion designers and the army.We had to get everyone excited and inspired to do the theme.

At the end we all got a sticker saying "We stand behind the Steel"




Katie was teaching  PALs at our Leaders Day.  PAL means Physical Activity Leaders.  She showed us how hard it is to do things when you're blind.  We had a buddy and one of us put a blind fold on and we went for a walk with some obstacles.  We had to tell them what was coming next.  We went up a hill, through  door ways, under low things, and up stairs.  Then we swapped and we went  down hills and up again.  It was very scary because you don't know where you are going.  You need to trust your buddy for this activity.

Another thing we did was play a game called 22 Scoodoo where there are 3 people in jail and the rest of the people are out of the circle.  You have to try to get the people out of jail, but there is a twist - you can not get hit or you end up in jail.
to get people out of jail you need to give them 10 high 10s.  You win when everyone is out of jail.  If you all get in jail, then the boppers win the game.


With Clare we did peer tutoring.  For peer tutoring we went into buddies and one of the buddy was the student and the other on was the teacher.  We did some writing with pictures and some other people did some sentences and they had to finish it off.  

In peer mediation we learnt the three listening ways.  The first one is busy listening - this is a bad thing because you look like you're listening but you are really not.  The second one is 'me to' listening where you are talking to someone and they butt in and start talking about something else.  And last but not least, it is active listening when you  use your eyes to show that you are listening to the person talking and you ask a question at the end so they know you are listening.

Leaders Day was really cool and we hope we can do it again next year.


Xanthe, Bella, Natasha & Lynley

Welcome 2012

Here we are - the best looking kids in the school in the best class in the school.  I'd like to welcome three new faces - Logan, Declan and Aleks, and two old faces who I really didn't expect to see - Taylor and Jack.


Following is some thoughts of the first few days at school:






On Monday night I was a wee bit nervous because it was the first day back at school and I had a new teacher and new classmates, but on Tuesday morning I wasn't that nervous.  I was up bright and early, got dressed and went to school.  It was soooo cool.  We got to choose where we sat so I sat with Bethany, Amber, and Sarah.  It was nice.
Lynley

On Monday night I was super nervous.  I hadn't been to school for 6 weeks and I could hardly get to sleep.  Finally, Tuesday morning was the big day.  I brushed my teeth, combed my hair and put on my nicest clothes and shoes.  Mum drove Bella and I to school.  We ran to our class; we were nervous but really excited.  We hung up our bags and got ready for class.  All our friends started to come in and we were so happy to see them.
Katelyn

On Tuesday morning I felt very (100x) nervous because on that morning it was my first day being a Year 6 and being in a completely different class, which can be very scary.  I got into class and found out who was sitting by me, then Mrs Tobin, our lovely teacher, taught us some games.  One of the games was People Dominoes and you have to choose someone who has something the same, like if you were wearing a skirt you would pick someone else who was wearing a skirt.  Another game was Hunt the Human.  That was where you had to find someone who had a birthday in the same month as you, and so on.  At the moment we are doing banners about ourselves.  We are also doing the cross country where you have to beat your time each day, well try to anyway.  My feelings for Room 6 is that I'm enjoying it, I'm not nervous, and we do lots of cool things.   I love being in Room 6 and being a Year 6.
Natasha (Tash)

On Monday night I was very happy that I was going back to school to see all of my friends and then I had to go to bed until school started.  In the morning I was really happy that I was in Room 6 and Ethan is in Room 6 and he is my friend.
Jack

At school we got to choose where we wanted to sit.  At the end of the day did black, red, green, and yellow hat thinking about our classroom layout.  We decided it was too squishy, people couldn't move around, and some people had their backs to the board.   We had to write about the desks so we could make it better for the next day.
Cameron & Logan

I really am enjoying Room 6.  It is a start to a new adventure.  I will be very sad when I leave. (so will I, Taylor.  Let's hope you're with us for a while yet.  Mrs T)  We have got a wicked teacher, Mrs Tobin.  She is so fun to be around.  I think when everybody leaves this classroom they will be as clever as scientists.
Taylor