Balmacewen X Country Bailee & Fallon

On Friday the 21st of August we had the Balmacewen Cross Country in our class - room 13 Bailee Porter came second and she will be going off to the Otago Cross Country Champs as well as Grace Perry and from the boys we have Kieran Allnatt . Kieran Allnat is in Highgate , Grace Perry is in Shetland and Bailee Porter is in Lynn so we are looking forward to that !!!

By Bailee and Fallon

Josh Askin - Squash Competition

In the weekend I played in a squash competition that if you came a good placing you would get in the Otago or Nationals team. I came first and got in an Otago team and a Nationals team so in the holidays I am going to the North Shore. I played three games and won all of them the scoring was first to 15 and point a rally and best of five games. I won a squash bag that I sold for 100 dollars and got a voucher worth 150 dollars for Otago Sports Depot. I am lookng forward to the competition in the Holidays!

Year Seven Shield Challenge

Two weeks ago Room 13 challenged Room 1 to a game of stopball for the Year seven shield. We won the game 10-4 to us. Today Room 11 has challenged us to stopball for the shield. If they win they get the shield if we win we keep the shield. I hope we win to retain the shield!! Photo coming soon
Writen by Natasha

Update From Hanna

Hi Room 13,
This week was a week of museums. First there was the science museum, plus planetarium. A dark dome and silence welcomed us into the space theater, except for the occasional murmur of voices. All of a sudden a loud voice blared from somewhere in the room. I switched on my audio guide to hear the babble in English.
We sat in amazed silence, soaking everything up like sponges. My mum managed to get a few photos. A few dozens of experiments and loads of hands on exhibits later, we decided to go home.
After spending half a rainy day inside our flat, Kiasmar, a modern art gallery, seemed very attractive. I didn’t get what most of the artworks wanted to tell, and none were very eye-catching. Who knows what the artists thought! Next came the ‘old masters’, century old artworks. The paintings were fascinating, a huge contrast to the Kiasmar. On the same day we went to the Natural history museum of Finland, with beautifully presented exhibitions, including loads of Finnish mammals, common household bugs, and skeletons. It was pretty cool!

Hey hey (goodbye) from Hanna.

BRAINPOP

Check out this fantastic site we have been using in the class, There are some great things relating to the body that we are learning about. You will need to log in to use the interactive games,

User Name: anna3

Password: anna3

There will be a new user name and password next week to use.

check it out http://www.brainpop.com/

Hanna Ott - Greetings from Helsinki

Dear room 13,
This sunny week we went exploring Helsinki. First we wandered around Lauttassari which is where we live in Helsinki and found a beach five minutes away! I was wrong when I thought Helsinki didn’t have a beach. After a night’s rest we went to the National History museum of Finland where they had lots of cool things to see and do, but there was one painting that really caught my eye. It was called “Attack” and had a maiden and a two headed eagle on it, and the eagle was trying to pull the Finnish book of law out of the maiden’s hands. The maiden symbolized Finland, and the eagle Russia (no offence, Russia!). The two countries are neighbours, and there were a whole lot of wars between them.
On a sunny day we drove to an outdoor swimming pool where the swimmers trained for the Olympics in 1952. There were 10 meter diving boards and a wading pool, plus an aqua jogging lane!
We have a sauna in our house downstairs; it’s on 2 days of the week, men and women on separate days. Saunas are a Finnish tradition. Lots of Finnish residents have a sauna in their house or back yard, and if they live near a lake, they will jump into it to cool down!

Sunny greetings from Helsinki,
Yours,
Hanna.

Hanna Ott - Greetings from Finland

Dear Room 13,
After a few days at my grandparent’s house, we went to a zoo in Cottbus. There were a lot of animals and we watched some getting fed. There was also a paddock full of goats that we were allowed to brush. It was pretty cool! A day later we caught a train to Berlin and took a plane to Helsinki in Finland. We arrived after 1 and a half hours’ flight and, when we had gotten our bags, took a bus to the city. Helsinki is a modern city near the sea, but I don’t think they have a beach! However, there are scattered historical buildings, including a huge cathedral in the middle of the city. Here they speak Finnish and Swedish, which are the two main languages, but most Finns can also speak quite a bit of English.Finnish looks strange like this: PYÖRÄVUOKRAAMO which means "rent-a-bike". We are not renting bikes at the moment, but a 1 bedroom apartment which has wonderful high ceilings and is very comfy to live in. I sleep in the living room on a spare bed.
That’s all for this week,
Yours,
Hanna.

"Skelly's Bones"

CLick on the comments link below this posting and enter your 14 answers for the cryptic puzzles - remember you must have the correct spelling of the bone to be correct! - Good Luck - your posting won't be visible on here until they are all marked on Monday.

Jordan McEntee Longbeach...

Long Beach Trip 09
Yesterday our class went to long beach. We did rock climbing, we had to find fake money in the dark cave with a torch, then we had to solve a riddle, then we went to go in this big sand thing and dig up a bag of crunchies , then after we found the bag we went to go make a sand city our group made it very well it had a bar a shop and it had a big castle inside of it, it had about 6 houses in it. The rock climbing was really fun I climb to the top of them all but the biggest one I could not climb that high, in the cave challenge, it was really hard to find the money in the dark with only a little bit of light , My highlight of the day was the rock climbing .
Written by Jordan

Tom Chin - Longbeach Trip

Long beach Trip
On Tuesday the 28th July room 13 went to long beach.
We drove from school to the beach in groups, when we got there we stood around until everyone arrived, then we walked along the track to the beach.
Then we got into our groups and went to our first activity my groups first activity was sand castle building.
After the sand castle building we went to rock climbing.
The rock climbing instructor “Dave” told us how to put on the harness and safety rules.
Then we put on helmets and Dave told the parents how to belay.
I really enjoyed the rock climbing it was hard but fun!
After that I played a bit of rugby then got ready for the cave challenge, my group then went to the plastic bag where Mr Sloan told us to go, then we were given a piece of laminated paper with a riddle on it.
Then we got into a big stretchy thing and walked to the caves.
Then we had to look for 26 pieces of fake money in the caves once we found all the cards we had to uncover a code.
Then we had to go back into the big stretchy thing and walk back to where the plastic bag was.
Up the bank were four cones and buried in the sand was a bag of crunchies and whoever found it first got four chrunchie bars And everyone else got one.
I found the bag first so I got four bars, then we packed up and went home.
Written by Tom Chin

Rockclimbing Trip - Dione Barratt

The rock climbing trip
Tuesday 28 July
We listened to the Black eyed pea’s CD while eating lollies it was so much fun. We finally reached long beach It was freezing cold. We got to where we would be rock climbing it looked so high. When it came my time to climb my heart started racing like a gray hound in a race. I had gotten half way up the cliff I thought to myself I can’t go any higher but I had my team mates at the bottom convincing me that I could do it and I did I made it to the top of one. I felt extremely proud of myself and tried to do the rest of them. Once we had finished rock climbing we went to the pitch black caves. When have to find fake money to get a part of a clue. The search was on we set of into different parts of the cave. We split up into groups of 2 or 3 people Clayton and I went of to search for some money “I found some” I shouted I raced back to receive a clue. Once we got all of the pieces we started to figure out the clues. Once we figured out what the clue was we went back to where we started and looked for a bag of crunchies we looked for ages until “I found it “shouted Jordan we all ate pour crunchie bars until our next activity. This was sand sculpting. We made a small village with a dairy and a pub and lots of little cottages with a castle at the front we had a mot with water in it. On the way back from long beach we told scary stories and ate lollies and sang to the black eyed pea’s CD. It was an awesome day.
By Dione Barratt

Longbeach Photos

Greetings from Hanna!

Dear room 13,
On Tuesday 14th July we packed our bags and flew to Auckland. There we stayed a couple of hours before flying to LA in the evening. We arrived at12 noon on Tuesday 14th July! Our hotel was great, a 5 min walk to the beach. The water at the beach was warmer than Dunedin’s, but not amazingly warm. 2 days later our plane to Frankfurt went. After a 1 hour stopover we moved on to Berlin, where my aunt and cousin waited. Berlin is a huge city, about 4 million people. However, we went to a small village about a 1 hour drive from Berlin. There we were near a lake, and the water was warm enough to go swimming every day. We caught frogs there and played “sardines” in a sunflower field with my cousins. Again we went back to Berlin to catch our train to Betten, a miniature village where my grandparents live. There we went to the forest for mushrooms and blueberries. When we cycled back a thunderstorm broke, but we got home safe, and we had enough blueberries for a large cake.
I’ll write again in a week. Have fun!
Yours truly,
Hanna.
PS: What are you doing in tech at the moment?

Longbeach Letter

2009 Longbeach Letter

An Update

Hi All,
Well almost the end of another successful term and already we are getting lots of interestng stuff organised for next term. Our Topic Focus for next term is "Changes" We start the term with a look at the human body systems and focusing on our health and the ways our body works and lives. We look at communication and peer relationships and focus our day at Longbeach on positive communication. This than follows on into our changes in puberty lessons, a parent info evening for year 7 parents is planned for Monday 27th July at 5.30pm for anyone who may have questions about our programme (a notice will be out early next term about this).

There is a notice coming home Thursday about the Longbeach trip, we rely on parent help for this day out with transporting and assisting with small groups at the beach. If you would like to come along to help please let me know asap.

School reports will come home with students on Friday afternoon and we will follow up with interviews Week 1 next term.

Until next time
Andrew

Science Fair Awards

Well the Science and Technology Fair was a great display of student achievement and hard. It is fantastic to say that Room 13 students made excellent efforts with their work, in addition many students from room 13 were recognised by the judges and awarded for their work as listed below. Absent from photo - Zach
Prizewinners

• Nic Anderson - Hover Magic
• Karl Bjornerud - Earthquake

Highly Commended

• Dione Barratt - K9P
• Bailee Porter - Fun Fog Facts
• Clayton Woods - Otago Harbour
• Zach Perkins - Stepin' Up
• Grace Perry - Eggs or no eggs (Prize Outstanding Presentation)
• Zoe Noble - Sniffex
• Georgia De Raad - Breakfast Boost
• Tayler Stewart - Agar the Horrible

All very deserving recipients, great efforts and pleasing results!

More Science Fair Pics..

Well almost everyone has had the chance to share their Science Fair Inquiry work with the class and explain what they did. It has been great to see students' thinking about what they have found out and thinking about what they could do to improve their work if they were to do it again. There are some very good reflective thinkers in the class! Parents are invited to come along and view all the work in the school hall. Viewing times are as follows; Wednesday 24th June 1.30pm-7pm, Thursday 25th June 9am-7pm, Friday 26th June 9am-10.30am. Come and check out all the wonderful work if you have a chance!

Science Fair..

Assembly Awards

Well Done to the following Room 13 students who have received Principals' Assembly Awards over the last 3 weeks;

Week 6 - Bailee Porter

Week 7 - Zach Perkins

Week 8 - Tayler Stewart

Great efforts with your learning!

The Eternal Question - Why?...

A few questions to think about...

Why does the sun lighten our hair, but darken our skin?

Why is the man who invests all your money called a 'Broker'?

Who tastes dog food when it has a 'new & improved' flavour?

Why do they call the airport 'the terminal' if flying is so safe?

Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?

Why isn't there mouse-flavoured cat food?

Almost here...

Science Fair.......Well the School Science Fair is almost here and it is great to see so many people talking about and asking questions about how to add those final touches to their work. Students will start presenting their work to the class this Thursday, we will have all presentations completed by Wednesday next week. All Science Fair Investigations will go on display in the school hall from Wednesday. Parents are welcome to come along and view these pieces of work from Wednesday through to Friday, I will let people know of the times asap.

For the remaing weeks of the term we are going to be learning about the relationships between the Earth Moon and Sun and will make a special focus on the celebration and occurance of "Matariki" which is on June 24th this year. Your child will be able to tell you all they know about their learning over the coming weeks.

School reports will be sent home on the last day of term and these will be followed up with parent interviews in Week 1 of next term, I will have a notice out regarding this soon.

Keep up all the great efforts in all that you do, and most importantly keep warm and healthy!

Science Fair .....

Well the School Science Fair is getting close now. It is great to see and hear about all the investigations that are going on and being carried out by students. By now most of the testing should be complete and students should be starting to make some conclusions from what they have found out. Remember that the "Log Book" is an important part of the Science Fair and this should include notes of everything students have done in relation to their inquiry. It is great to see students getting their display boards and taking these away to start presenting their findings. We will start presenting pieces of work tot he class atht eend of next week for those who are complete by then. The last date for all work due is Monday 22nd June - no extensions on this as Science Fair is Wednesday - get organised and give your self some time to spare!!

The picture above shows a typical display board layout. Any issues with your work come and see me asap - do not come to me on Friday 19th and tell me your issues. I am really looking forward to seeing some wonderful Science Fair Inquiry work.

Stream Report form Karl - Week 6 Term 2

We went back to the Kaikorai Stream on Tuesday for our regular monitoring of the stream and it’s water quality. It was a very nice day, and the water was much warmer than last week. Some of the girls were even spraying people with stream water from one of the containers. Anyway, here are the results: The average pH level was 7.5, which is perfect for plants and animals to thrive in. The average dissolved oxygen level (mg/L) was 10.60. The average water temperature was 8.2. All of these are good. Yay!
By Karl Bjornerud

"Y7 Freshman Shield" Challenge

Today room 13 managed to win a game of stopball against room 11 the current shield holders, well done on the great game everyone, I wonder who our next challenge will come from...

Maths Multiplication

It is time to sharpen up our maths multiplication facts!!! We will be focusing on imporving the speed fo recall and knowledge of times tables over the next few weeks, these are the building blocks for further development and knowledge of multiplication and division, listed on the side bar of this page are links to some web sites which have some great interactive activities stuents can use to improve their basic multiplication facts.

Young Leaders Conference - Malcolm McIver

On the 25th of May, I, a class councillor, went to a young leaders conference. It was all about leaders talking to us, future leaders, about being a better leader. The leaders were world champion cyclist, Alison Shanks,
former policeman, Nick Tuitasi, Highlanders, Steven Setaphano & Alando Soakai, Justin Jones, who kayaked from Australia to New Zealand and more. Alison taught us to believe in ourselves, Nick taught us to choose our friends carefully, Steven & Alando taught us that a good leader needs a good reputation and Justin taught us that you have to plan it before you do it. Other things that we learned are never give up, be prepared for everything and pay attention to what other people have to say. All in all it was a fun day.

By Malcolm McIver

Assembly Award

Well done Hanna Ott for receiving this weeks assembly award for - A positive approach to all your learning, and for being a great member of room13!

Slammed... Tim Tam Slammed!!

Yesterday we did a Tim Tam Slam!! Recently we've been doing procedual writing looking at rules and methods to help us with our up coming science fair! Lately we have been doing a procedual writing on how to make the ultimate milo and how to do a tim tam slam. Mr Sloan decided to take some to the next step which was making them, which had also mean't the fun part of procedual writing!

Each person brought a coffee cup for their milo to be poured in so we could all carry out the tim tam slam!!

Check out the Photos Below

By Deanna and Caitlin

Slammed!!!!...

Netball - Benchball

Yesterday we played a new game using our catching and throwing skills we have been learing and practising relating to netball. We had to learn some new skills for throwing like chest passing and a bounce pass. The aim of the game was, like in benchball, to get all our team on the bench by throwing to others on the team. FUN!!!

We didn't have any places like WD and C we just had to stay in our zone. We had to play girls vs boys and that was a weeeeeee bit unfair. We had one person on the bench who we had to throw the ball to. It was a lot of fun. I think that we should pass it round more just my thought. We're almost ready to play another class. We would win!!!

The first game we played the boys won (boo), but they had more people (UNFAIR!!!)

But we all had fun and got to practise our skills that's what counts.

By Caitlin and Hanna!