Rm 1 Wheels Day

As a special treat for completing our class sticker chart, Room 1 had a wheels day.
Some of the senior children from Room 9 set up 3 tracks on the bottom court for us to follow. We all bought our scooters and helmets from home and scootered around the different tracks which were very challenging and fun.

Christmas Rotation

On Friday we had a Christmas Rotation in the Ngake Hub. We were split into different groups, which meant we were working with children from different classes. There were four Christmas activities to do and we had so much fun. Below you can see photos of us all in various classrooms making either a reindeer, a gingerbread house, a christmas tree or an angel.

Christmas Party

What a busy week we have had!

On Tuesday we had our Christmas party in the hall and then Santa Claus came carrying a sack full of goodies and handed them out to us all.  We told him we had been good boys and girls and he asked us what we wanted for Christmas.  He didn’t stay too long as he had to get back to his Grotto to continue getting all the toys ready.  
Only 7 more sleeps to go!!!!!!!!

Pack the bus

This term our school value is Empathy. Every year we are always thrilled to take part in this event, where we are invited to bring along a gift to place on the bus. By doing this we are helping families who are not as fortunate as we are. Over three hundred gifts were donated by our school and we hope this will make Christmas a happier time for everyone.

Rooms 1 and 2 are learning to swim.

The Ngake Hub are having swimming lessons on Mondays and Wednesdays this term. All we need to do is cross the playground and jump in the warm school pool, we are very lucky!

Our instructors are helping us gain confidence in the water. We are learning to:

- get into the pool safely 
- put our head under the water
- blow bubbles in the water
- make starfish and glide on our fronts and backs
- dive under water to get diving rings

 We have all made good progress and are having lots of fun.

Room 3 and 4 Become Paleontologists

This term we are investigating dinosaurs and extinction. Room 3 and 4 children learnt about the difference between fossils and bones, and made some of our own dinosaur bones out of salt dough. Next we got to excavate them after learning about some of the techniques that paleontologists use to dig up the bones. You can see us carefully uncovering the bones and fossils with our paintbrushes.

Cricket Coaching Sessions

Ngake Hub have been lucky enough this term to be involved in some weekly cricket lessons with 2 coaches from the University Team. We have been learning throwing, catching, and even skills to hold the bat. Here is a photo of Room 3 in action with our warm up game.

Kilbirnie School Athletics Day

What a wonderful day we had at the school athletics day! While the older children from Matairangi Hub and Whataitai Hub were busy doing sprints, high jump and long jump, etc, the Ngake Hub were busy enjoying some fun running, jumping and throwing activities. The children had a great time participating in everything from an obstacle course, to sack racing and even an egg and spoon race.

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

What a wonderful start to Term 4.  On Wednesday, Rooms 1, 3 and 4 had a trip to Te Papa to see the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.  We all got on the bus and were so excited, as before the trip we had learnt about the different instruments in the orchestra and now we were going to see them.

The wonderful Te Papa

Finally arrived

We arrived at Te Papa and had morning tea in the amphitheatre, then we divided into groups and set off on an adventure to explore the different exhibitions.  There was so much to see and we looked at lots of modern art, dinosaur exhibitions and we also got the opportunity to experiment with colour and reflection using mirrors. We visited the discovery centres, where we did lots of "hands on" activities.

Morning Tea

Exploring the dinosaurs

Who's there?

Reflections

Making our own curious creatures

Music time

Special white gloves to protect the dinosaur

Exploring the caves

Fossil dig

All the groups came together in Te Marae and then the "magic moment" arrived.
Hamish the compere, was so funny and made us all laugh a lot.  He introduced all the different sections of the orchestra and the musicians were very friendly.  They played the "Can Can" music and we were allowed to dance, even the teachers.  Hamish then read us three stories and the orchestra played alongside him.  When the story was happy the orchestra played happy music and when the story was sad the orchestra played sad music.  Having the music playing alongside the story made it so much more interesting. The concert ended with us dancing the Can Can again and then we returned to school on the bus. We were very tired but had a lovely day.  Who knows, someone from Kilbirnie School may play in the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra one day.

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra playing in Te Marae

Story time with Hamish

Listening to the amazing Symphony Orchestra

Dancing to the Can Can music