We made it!

Congratulations, 

you made it to the end of the term!

In this blog post, Rimu would like to share some of the things we have been up to...

1. House Rewards and Dress up as a Super Hero Day

2. Our Rimu Hot Chocolate Fundraiser 
(we made $170 - go Rimu!)

3. Student Leadership Badge Presentations & HERO Assembly (presented by the House Captains)

4. Mrs Spragg's Visit!

5. Cross Country training

6. Winter Learning Journey

AND

7. Holiday birthdays!

Here are some photos from the week -

Our House Captain presenters from Friday's HERO Assembly in their shiny new badges!

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Look who showed up to visit!

It was so great to see Mrs Spragg again 

and hear what she has been up to. 

Some of us got to share our own stories with her too!

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Here is Delilah, Michaela, Alvin and Ethan's 

training plan for cross country...try it out over the holidays!

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Will you do the Winter Learning Journey...? 

YOU SHOULD!

HERE IS THE LINK

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And finally, some birthday shoutouts for the holidays...

Michaela on the 7th

Shay on the 10th

Ethan on the 11th 

Maddie on the 13th 

Farewell from Mrs Taylor & Mrs Spragg

 So long, farewell ... we hope that Rimu class has an amazing 2020 with their new teachers. Thanks for a wonderful three years. We can't wait to read about what you all get up to this year. 

A box with an envelope saying CLUES ... weird way to start Term 3 Teachers

As the students arrived on Monday morning they found this box sitting on a table. It was a mystery and we were intrigued. 

Mrs Taylor and Mrs Spragg welcomed us all and went over some things for the day and the term and then it was time to have a look at the box.

Mrs Spragg read out the box and invited Zahrah to come to the front and open the envelope. We wondered what would be in the envelope. Would it be money? Or get out of school cards? Our hopes were high.

It was a picture of a shovel! What?!

Check out Zahrah getting all the clues out of the envelope.

So a bunch of pictures of things that have something to do with each other? Hmmm, it was a mystery. 

We spent a minute chatting with one another about some ideas. 

Sam came up with the idea that you would hit the outlaw with the spade and then bury the evidence with the other spade, then you could get past the lizards and dig up the treasure. 

Rhys wondered if you could put the lizards down the outlaws back and then hit him in the face with the spade and then dig up the treasure with the spades. 

Grace wondered if it was a book.

Sam had the pleasure of opening the box for us.

Oh! It was a book (well-done Grace).  A book called Holes. 

Mrs Spragg read out the back of the book and then Mrs Taylor read us the first two chapters. We are really excited to find out all about Stanley and why he has been sent to Camp Green Lake, and who his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing'-great-great-grandfather is. And what is with the lizards?!

Mia is the teacher

As part of our writing unit on Non-Chronological Reports we have been working hard on publishing our work. Mia was the first member of the class to get her's published and it was very impressive. In fact, most of us thought it was very professional.

Mia had used a programme that most of us hadn't seen before. It is called Visme.

A few of the class wanted to learn how to use it and so Mrs Taylor suggested Mia heads to the small group area. Next minute there was most of the class in the small group area and Mia was taking a workshop on the programme.

It was wonderful to see one of our students teaching the class. That is a pretty great moment for a teacher, to see a student teaching the class, on the spur of the moment, teaching others something they have learnt. 

Do you teach each other in your class?

Drum roll please ...

Our Brilliant Blogger this week is ...

Click on the link to check out Zack’s awesome blog and his fantastic blog about being a Detective.

Link to Zack’s Brilliant Blog

What does yeet, a backwards flip and Kings all have in common?

To answer that you would need to chat with one of our Year 8's or Mia, our Year 7 School Council Rep.

On Thursday the 30th of May they headed along to the National Young Leaders Day with Mrs Spragg. This is a special day for our Year 8's as they get to hang out together and listen to some awesome speakers share their insights into leadership. The teachers also love it because of how inspiring the speakers are (and they learn some hip language to use later in class, eh guys?!).

Everyone was pretty pumped once we got to our seats. There were music and superheroes. Pretty loud and exciting. Though a few weren't so sure about what this was going to be like. I mean, adults in superhero costumes, we weren't so sure. 

Suddenly, Phil, our attitude speaker from a few years ago, was on the stage with a girl called Liz. They explained how the day would work, talked us through our booklets and got things started. 

We heard from three speakers; Sala, Ronnie and Dr Lehan. They talked about how we needed to take time to listen to those around us and how we need to lead with compassion and by listening to each other. 

Soon it was time for a break and some sunshine. 

After the lunch break, we heard from a 12-year-old Beckenham School student who organised the last climate change protest and wrote a song about climate change. She was very passionate and had clear ideas about why she cares about this issue. 

The final quest was Kings, a hip hop artist from Auckland. He shared some of his story and how you don't have to have the best stuff or be the best to try things and go for your dream. Then he sang a few of his songs. That was pretty cool. We all got our boogie on (or at least our head bopping). 

Here is a wee glimpse of the cool time we had. 

It was a really great time and everyone left with something that made them think about how they can be better leaders. Check out some of Mia's blog to read more about her thoughts.

MIA'S BLOG

Drumroll for our Blogger of the Week ...

Our Brilliant Blogger this week is ...

Click on the link to check out Zahrah’s awesome blog and her biteable about her journey of learning to
ride a bike.

Link to Zahrah’s Brilliant Blog on Cycle Safety

Inspired by ...

Normally on a Tuesday, we would be working on Being a  Detective, but since Mrs Taylor wasn't around Mrs Spragg decided to get arty. This was very exciting because as much as we love being detectives, we also love art!

Did you know that Rimu Year 5/6 have a really good idea what Matariki is? 

Well, they do and after a brief discussion, we watched a wee video to help to fill in any gaps we had. Mrs Spragg also asked us to look at the style of the art that is used to tell one of the Matariki stories. It is in Te Reo, so we had to use our reading skills to follow along.

Mrs Spragg then read us the story of Mother Earth and Father Sky by Gavin Bishop to help us understand the background of the story we saw in the video. It is in this book.

Mrs Spragg also zipped us through a different Matariki story to help us understand that there can be one or more stories to explain phenomena, like the Matariki stars. 

We did have to keep an eye out for interesting artwork to inspire us in our own artistic creations. 

Explaining the process of what we were going to do, Mrs Spragg drew a design on the board. She then explained that we were going to create our own design inspired by the stories and artworks we had seen. Next, we were to sketch the design onto our pieces of paper, drawing lightly so the pencil wouldn't show through. Using black PVA glue we were to paint over the pencil line and let it dry.

Once our paint was dry we began to add watercolour paint to our pictures. Mrs Spragg explained how we use watercolour, adding a little bit of water (not too much or we soak our paper) to the paint. We had to make sure it wasn't too dry either. We were then shown how we can blend the colours. We had to be careful not to mix the paints together, this was very important! 

What a lot of fun we had. These photos probably say more than words can. What do you think?

Mrs Spragg is going to back them onto black paper and hang them up. These will be shared when it is finished.

Do you like art? Have you used watercolour before? Does your school or class have plans for Matariki?

Who is the Blogger of the Week?

Our Brilliant Blogger this week is ...

Click on the link to check out Julia’s awesome blog and her fantastic writing about dreams that come true!

Link to Julia’s Brilliant Blog

Rimu stood up to Bullying!

Last Friday was Pink Shirt Day. A day where people all around New Zealand wear pink to show that we don't tolerate bullies in our playgrounds, classrooms or workplaces. 

Rimu was no exception. 

We don't think that bullying is ok. In fact, our class treaty has a number of agreements that talks about how we should treat each other. We review this treaty regularly to remind us of what is expected. 

Sometimes we do forget. Sometimes we aren't kind and caring towards each other. But we know that we need to keep learning this. The thing that helps us with this lesson is the adults in our lives modelling kindness and caring towards the people around them. And thankfully our parents do. 

They also support us by giving us their pink things to wear. 

Don't we look SUPER!

Did you wear pink on Friday? What do you do to stop bullying?

YMS B'Ballers got some air!

One Friday afternoon our bouncing basketball team, the YMS B'Ballers, had their first game for the session. This is the second year the team have played together. Ants, the coach (Rhys' Dad), has been working hard with them on defence and offence, as well as shooting some great hoops. 

The game was exciting and fast moving. We played Hillview and Toby kindly offered to play for them as they were short a player. Everyone worked hard to 'mark up' and to keep the ball moving towards our goal. Toby did say it was confusing at times to get the ball and then have to remember not to throw it to his friends. 

By half time we were well ahead in points and so a few people had the new job from the coach of getting others to have a go at getting a goal ... and boy they did. There were much cheering and excitement from the sidelines as everyone shot for a hoop. 

 

Well done team on a great win! And congratulations to Toby who not only selflessly played for the other team, he also played incredibly well for our team in the second half, scoring a magnificent goal. 

Special Note: Thank you Ant & his fab crew of men who came and put in the new basketball hoop at school - Arc Projects you are fabulous and we so appreciate the time and energy it took.