^  flax curtain  ^

^ Jesse sharpening a stick with a sharp rock ^

^ Side flax wall ^

                                          ^  How we tie the flax   ^                                                

At lunch time Josh & Jesse built a hut out of what was is the forest.

We also found a little group of new entrance girls that,funnily enough 

were coping us they even had a flax knot practicing tree

and we took that as a complement.

we are still building,the hut is still in and  using lots of sticks for strength. 

This is how we cut flax. 

Room 9: Choir Song List

Room 9: Choir Song List

Go to http://www.kidsforkids.org.nz/schools for lyrics for songs.  Click on 'Schools' and you can download the pdf of lyrics.  See you Tuesday Week 1!

Choir Song List

Meet the Room 9 Mascot Mr. Twank

Meet Mr. Twank.  He was discovered when Mrs Culver was choosing a piece of wood from the bin for the fire.  She held him up and said, "Oh  my goodness!  Look at this...he's waving at us."  We think he might be a bear, a mole, a dog or a sloth.  Whatever he is, we love him.  We just couldn't put him in the fire.  Welcome to Room 9 Mr. Twank!

Maths Whizz certificates - Well done Grace!

New creations in Oakura School

In Oakura school we've been building lots of new exiting things for kids to play and to run through.

The first and oldest one of the new buildings at Oakura School is the koru landing. It's cool because it's got fake grass and lots of seats to sit on to eat your lunch on and it has a big concrete and paua shell shaped like koru. It looks amazing.

After that we built the enviro centre. Funny because it used to be over grown grass and weeds. Now it looks bright and beautiful. It has a viewing platform and it has a mini maze of paths and there's lots of the colour green. I think it looked amazing.

Now for my final new part in Oakura School,my personal favourite is a small piece of bush and a big rock statue. It has stepping stones and bright green fake grass. It’s also a remembrance to a teacher called Tanya. It’s an epic place to play.

Written by Isaac

Miss Bain Is Leaving! Welcome Mrs Colver!

Miss Bain Is Leaving!

Miss Bain is leaving because she is going to have a baby boy. So she will hopefully come back term, 2 2016.

We can give her suggestions on the name of the baby. She doesn't want the baby's names to be the name of any of students she's taught. In the meantime room 9 have a new teacher Mrs Colver. Miss Bain has been a wonderful teacher. So if you a reading this Miss Bain give yourself a pat on the back.

Written by James

My teacher Miss Bain is leaving Oakura school because she is having a baby. It is going to be a boy and my idea to what its name is going to be is Nico. My favourite musician is called Nico. I hope she comes back next year but I can’t wait for my new teacher Miss Colver.

Written by Ed Shearer

Since Miss Bain is leaving room 9 Mrs Colver is coming! We’re sad Miss Bain is leaving but super excited about spending the rest of the year with Mrs Colver. Megan Colver comes from Dunedin, New Zealand but spent a lot of time in America with her kids.She is big on being gentle and kind and loves lending a helping hand. Her favourite subject is reading and she loves taking her dogs for walks and skyping her family in America. Mrs Colver is so excited for term 2, 3 and 4 with us and can’t wait to get to know room 9 better.

Written by Lily

Reach 100 maths challenge

Reach 100 maths challenge
W.A.L.T: add 4 two digit numbers and solve a problem.

Art in Room 9

For our art we have had a great teacher Mrs Taylor and she taught us how to do these beautiful pieces of art and the first thing we did is we did around 8-10 lines vertical lines and then we looked at a colour circle and all the combinations and  blends. Then we chose one main colour that had to be included in all three parts of the art. After that it was really cool because we sat there and did some horizontal lines but the longest they could be was 3 lines across. Then we coloured it all in and they are

    Beautiful!!!!!

Written by Ally

Technology Challenge during Activity Week

On Wednesday in the middle of activity week, room 9 did a very exciting technology challenge using only six plastic bags, a pair of scissors and two metres of tape. We had half an hour to create a raincoat on someone in your group that is easy to walk in and stops the rain and the wind penetrating through to your skin. After the half an hour of hard work it was time for the test. Everyone who was wearing the raincoat had to walk ten metres and got judged out of ten by Miss Bain to see how easily you could move in it. After that we went outside onto the back field. The people who were wearing the coats got a bucket of water tipped on them and then there whole group got to rip their coat off them. Finally they got judged out of ten, on how wet their clothes/togs were (some people wore their togs). There were no winners and we didn’t have time to do the wind test but everyone still had heaps of fun!

Written by Angela

Poetry websites to help us with our writing

The poem farm
Different types of poems
Poetry Glossary
Buzzle poetry site

Maths Whizz - Most Improved pupils

Congratulations to Angela, Reuben and Ellie for receiving the most improved Maths Whizz certificate for last week.

Marae visit - 20.3.15

Marae trip!
On a lovely Friday morning Oakura school headed to the Oakura Marae by the amazing river. Here we were greeted onto the Marae. Then we played a Maori board game like checkers. We had a massive hangi. I had scrumptious lamb chops!
Written by Fenton 

Learning Sidestroke

Room 9 had a go at learning how to swim sidestroke during our last swimming session where we swam in clothes as part of our survival activities.

Mihi

Listen to a mihimihi here

Oakura Marae Visit 2014

Te Aroha

Tracking Tunnels

Room 9 made some tracking tunnels with Mr Priest, and put them down in the enviro centre. Inside a tracking tunnel there is a small pad of ink. On either side of the ink there is a clear sheet of paper with some paper clips holding it on .We put some peanut butter on the ink because it’s a tasty snack for the pests deep down in the enviro centre. After a while we went to check on our tunnels and we were very successful with the footprints we found!

By Lily

Sand Boarding Fun

On Thursday 12th March rooms 7,8 and 9 went to Back beach to go sand boarding on the massive sand dunes. People were screaming their heads off! Even the parent helpers jumped on some boards. There were some epic fails from their  boards onto the sand. Some people even stood up on their boogie boards. Walking up the sand dunes wasn't very fun and lots of people were moaning. Lots of people looked a bit shocked when they came back up, but mostly the girls. All  the boys were loving it even when they got wiped out! I got a sand cake at the end of  my slides.

By Ellie

Everyone had about 5 turns with awesome sand boarding. Jurij and me got a face full of sand! Fenton was really good at standing on his one. At the start we had to walk down to see if there was any danger. Once we saw where it was clear we started zooming! People were going down head first and on their bums. At the end people were running down. It was heaps of fun. Thanks Miss Bain! :)

Written by Jesse

 Sand boarding!

Sand boarding was super duper fantastically great! Zooming down the dune flying through the air. Room 9 were at back beach sand dunes for activity week on Thursday the 12th of March 2015. My favourite part was when you crash and roll all the way down the hill but you get a mouthful of sand in your eyes. I love sand boarding.   

Written by Ed

On Activity week room 9, 8 and 7 went to Ngamotu beach next to the yatch club. Room 9 was the second class to be called out to go to the sand boarding area. We all got bodyboards with plastic on the bottom because they would go faster. Some people even got there own bodyboards. After we finished the safety rules we saw an adult demonstrate what to do.Then we decided we would only go from the middle because there was a heaps of sandstone blocking the way then we made a boy and girl line and went on two different sides to go quicker. We were so lucky and got about 7 goes. Since we had the plastic boards we went really fast.The annoying part was to climb back up. It was like climbing Mt Everest. We all got one more go and then we had to walk up all the stairs and get on the bus and go to the next activity.                         

By Joseph

On Thursday the 12th of March Room 7, 8 and 9 and the year fives in room 6 all went to Ngamotu Beach to do three activities: Sand sculpturing, Sandboarding at Back beach and Kayaking. My favourite activity was the Sandboarding at Back beach. Sandboarding was fun because lots of people got a lot of turns going down like myself. When you went down you were basically aloud to do anything you want to such as: Stand up, go on your knees. go on your bottom, lie down, go backwards, etc. I had a great time doing Sandboarding and I’m sure everybody else had a great time too!

Written by Brodie

For Activity week room 7,8 and 9 were lucky enough to come to Ngamotu beach to do

three activities, sandborading,sand sculpturing and kayaking. All three of them were so

much fun. Sand boarding was our second activity. First we got our boogie boards and then we

checked for any danger such as sharp rocks, grassroots etc. We then lined up in two lines

one boy line one girl line. We walked up the dunes and went down the dunes one by one. We

each got about 5 turns and then we had to catch the bus back to Ngamotu beach. Sand boarding was stupendously fun!

Written by Harry

On Thursday 9th March Room 7, 8 and 9 went to Ngamotu beach for activity week. We then travelled by bus to Back beach with boogie boards. The sand dune was massive but we started halfway for safety. Most of us had more than four goes and had a wonderful time.  It was warm but not too hot which made it a perfect day. Check out the pictures!

By Amy

Kayaking at Ngamotu Beach

Activity Week Awesomeness

On Thursday 12th of March rooms 7,8 and 9 all went to Ngamotu beach for one of the activity week challenges.  First room 9 did sand sculpting, we had an hour and 10 minutes to make what ever we could put our epic brains to. There were lots of creative ideas like octopus, model of Taranaki, jet ski, a seaweed pizza and last but not least my favourite by a mile a four person couch, mini tv and a see-saw plus a phone.

Then after morning tea we went sand-boarding at black beach. It was really fun but leg aching pain fun.  There were lots of cool looking ways people went down on their boggie-boards like backwards, standing up, on your knees or just going face first.  Going down the hill was the easy part, getting back up the sandy hill was hard work, I almost felt like dying half way up the humongous hill.  After this mind blowing epic activity we caught the bus back to Ngamotu beach to go kayaking.

We all put our togs on and then raced to get a life jacket.  We got split into 4 teams, I was in team 2.  We had a team talk, then speed to get a kayak and later when we got onto the water we played a game that you had to capture the chocolate while someone kayaked away and someone had to try steal the chocolate off the back of the kayak.  After that we all got changed back into our clothes ready to go back on the bus, it was the best day ever!!!

by Isaac Barbour, Room 9

 

Kayaking

On Wednesday 11 March we went down to sandy Ngamotu beach on one of our days for amazing activity week.  Our last but my favourite activity was spectacular kayaking.

Kayaking was awesome!  We got into teams first, then we got into a comfortable single or double boat and we excitedly paddled out. Sometimes we had to ‘raft up’, which meant we had to hold all of your teams boats.  At the same time the loud instructors were giving out yummy sweets. I got one but I gave it to another boat. It was annoying because the weather turned from bad to worse and we had to come in. There was also a disgusting sewer leak, that was the worst part. But I still love kayaking and I hope I can get out there another time.

by Reuben

Kayaking at Ngamotu Beach

For activity week room 9 went to Ngamotu Beach for sand sculpting, sand boarding and

kayaking. I’m telling you about the kayaking. Room 9 went kayaking last. When we

got told what to do, we all got into groups and got a kayak. Some of those

kayaks were so BIG. I had trouble getting on my pink  DOUBLE kayak!

When the people helping us with the kayaks blew their whistle and shouted

“RAFT UP”, we all had to paddle as fast as you could to the people in your

group and get in a line. Everyone had to hold each others kayak and shout

for an example team 1 “TEAM 1 RAFT UP YEAH!” with an interesting

voice! When it started to rain chocolate was falling out of  a mans bag and in

the water. People would grab it! Later on when it was still raining pitter patter

brown sewage looking water came out of a rock (where I believe a pipe lived)

like a waterfall EWWW! In the end, all of your group had to get on 1 kayak only!

Then at the end I jumped off the kayak and ran as fast as could which was not

that fast, to shore shivering down my spine and everything, without my towel, just my

soaking wet and very sandy apple red school hat!
By Janaye :)

For Activity Week we went to Ngamotu Beach. On Thursday, Room 9, Room 8 and Room 7 went to Ngamotu beach. My class, Room 9 went kayaking. First we got given life jackets and then the instructors gave us the instructions and put us into groups. There were 4 groups, I was in group 1, my instructor was Andy. We had 10 people in my group, 2 girls and 8 boys. We first learnt how to raft up, it is when you have to get together with your group and all hold on to each other's kayak. Then we got started, I was on a double with my friend, Janaye. Then we got into the water. It was super hard for me because Janaye and I had to paddle at the same time, it was also hard for me because when my group had to raft up two people had to climb over all the kayaks and I also had to do it with someone. Then I was in a single kayak. At the end the kayaking session it started to rain and disgusting brown gungy liquid came out of the drain pipe. We also had to all get on 1 kayak and my group did it! But we didn't get chocolate :(. It was an awesome time at Ngamotu beach doing kayaking. It was the best activity for Activity Week.

Written by Kate

Amazing Race Fun

The Amazing Race

On Monday the 17th of March Rooms 7,8,9 and some of Room 6 were at the beginning of their big adventure [activity week]. For Rooms 8 and 9, and some of Room 6, it was the amazing race. First we were told our teams and were given a sheet with 34 challenges to do around the school. You had to try your best to complete them all before morning tea. One of them was you could make 3 paper planes, (at the most) and once you got 3 in the recycling bin, you would write down how many tries it took. I thought it was the hardest. Next we got given an adult to supervise us. My group was given Bob (Gina’s mum).Then we were given another sheet with 6 challenges on it, but this time it was around Oakura. Although, like every amazing race there was a twist. We were only allowed to cross the road on the pedestrian crossing, for some teams this was a real challenge.One of the challenges was to create a scene outside of the surf life saving club on the beach. My team did one of someone saving someone (Bobs idea). Finally it was the race back to school. Luckily Bob knew a short-cut back through the back of the park, which helped a lot.

A big thank you to anyone who helped make it happen, and to all the parents who helped as well, it really made a difference to us, as you can see.

By Grace. 

The amazing race was actually amazing!

The day started off with rooms 8 and 9 in one classroom to get put into teams. The first part of the amazing race we did around the school. There were more than 30 challenges. My favourite activity was the paper plane activity where you had to throw paper planes into a recycling bin. The hardest was the ball throwing activity because all the team members had to throw 3 balls into a bucket in a row.

The rest of the activities were around the village and were really fun. We had to take photos of what we did for some activities.

Thank you to the teachers for organising the week and the parents for helping out to.

By James.

Weta hotels creating and information

Weta hotel creating at Oakura School

On activity week on a Wednesday room 9 made some weta hotels. First a person from DOC came in (they save the amazing wetas if you did not now). Second we got into groups of four or five. Then we got three bits of rough wood, one had three bits cut out of it. That was the weta’s bedroom and the two others bits were just plain bits of wood cut neatly into rectangles and we got more stuff like bolts, plastic, see through stuff for windows, a staple gun ,hammer, nails and some other things. After getting all the stuff we slowly and for some quickly got building our hotels. Fifth when it was hammered and stapled together Andy drilled a hole right through it. At the end we put a roof on it and my group put sawdust on the roof. Hopefully we save the weta.

Created by Isla  

weta pictures and information
weta information video - we stopped at 4minutes 55seconds

Information websites:

Department of Conservation

Kiwi Conservation Club

The Natural Heritage Collection

Kiwi Workshop

The day started off with someone coming in to teach us about the kiwi. We learnt about its habitat and its eggs, they were massive, almost 3x the size of a normal hen egg! Then there were the predators. The lady doing the talk brought in a stuffed weasel, stoat and ferratt. We found out that the stoat is the smallest, the weasel is the 2nd largest and the ferratt the biggest. After that Miss Bain looked up some kiwi calls, and we got to listen to them.

Thanks Miss Bain and all the other teachers for organising activity week.

:  ]                 Written by Jago

On one of the days in activity week we had a lady come to room 9 from kiwi trust.

She taught us about kiwis and their predators.

Here are some facts:

1) Did you know that kiwi eggs are enormous ?

Or

2) That their nostrils are at the very front of their beak?

I learnt heaps about kiwis.

But my very favourite fact was that they had tiny wings just about 1/2 cm thick or just about

2 cm big. Well it's kind of impossible to write down all the facts that I learnt. You could actually do kiwi research yourself.

Juraj

Kiwi calling - click here to listen to the different calls.
We listened to the different calls of kiwi.
We learnt that the males have a higher pitch call than the females.

RAINCOATS NEEDED FOR THE AMAZING RACE

Room 9 - Please bring a raincoat to school this week as it looks like there is rain in the forecast.

http://www.metservice.com/rural/taranaki

BYOD Tuesday and Wednesday

Room 9 - Please BYOD on Tuesday and Wednesday for the amazing race and the weta hotel making.

Can't wait for activity week!

Air New Zealand and Te Papa competition

Air New Zealand and Te Papa are giving you the chance to win a trip to Wellington and some fantastic technology prizes from HP for your class.

Click on the sentence above to find out more.

Activity Week Timetable

Swimming Sports

On Thursday the 5th of March the year 4’s through to the year 8’s took part in the Oakura swimming sports at Okato pool. The weather was perfect for the occasion. Everyone had a great time don freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and flutterboard kick. At the end the teachers even did some synchronised swimming! Thank you to everyone who helps make our swimming sports possible every year.

Written by Angela.

Life Education - Brainy Bunch

On Monday and Wednesday R9 went to visit Harold. On the Monday we went to learn about the body. It was really cool, we learnt about the all of the main organs and how they work. On the Wednesday we learnt about stress and stress busters. Surprisingly, screaming into a pillow works AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Thank you Mark and Harold for teaching us amazing things.

Written by Lewis.

Life Education is a fun healthy way of teaching kids about life in general including the human body ,ways of relieving stress etc. Life ed recently visited Oakura school; Room 9 took part in the life ed program and learnt heaps.We looked at the human body and what it needs to stay healthy on Monday. On Wednesday we learnt how to handle stress and how the brain works.We all enjoyed seeing Harold the giraffe and his jokes were very funny. We can’t wait till life education visits next time.

Written by Lily.

Life Education

On Monday afternoon room 9 went to see Harold the friendly and awesome giraffe. About 15 minutes earlier we saw Tam. Tam is a doll that shows the inside of your body. After that we had to make a human puzzle out of things that we need to have to survive. It was really great meeting them Mark Harold!!

Written by Caden.

Animal Tracking with Mr Priest

On Thursday we had Mr Priest in Room 9. First we sang some songs in maori and then learnt a little about wetas and sang a little song about wetas. Then we continued on with our animal tracking tunnels from last week. Everyone in Room 9 put in an outstanding effort and got the job done. Then we walked down to the Enviro Centre and set up our animal tracking tunnels. I’m sure we all enjoyed having Mr Priest coming in and teaching us. Thanks Mr Priest!

Photographs and writing by Brodie.

On Thursday 26 February, Mr Priest came into our class (Rm 9) and showed us some weta's in a glass box. After that we got into groups of 2-5 people and made animal tunnels for the Enviro Centre. The tunnels give us information of what animals are down in the Enviro Centre.

First we got ready with our equipment - wood, foam, plastic, paper clips, paper, ink, peanut butter, stapler, tape and big real estate signs. Mr Priest explained how to make the tunnels and then we got started.

We got our signs and measured the sign with a vivid and marked it. Then we got a ruler and dented along the sign. We folded the sign into a tunnel and taped it till it was strong. Then we got the wood, foam and the plastic to see if it was the right length then stapled it on to the wood.

We put the plastic under the foam so the ink would not soak into the wood. Then we painted the ink on and stapled the paper clips to the wood at each corner. We wrote our names on the paper and slipped it under the paper clips.  We put some peanut butter on the ink and slid the wood into the tunnel.

Then we put them under bushes in the Enviro Centre and maybe over night some animals, like hedgehogs or rats, might crawl up the tunnel and eat the peanut butter. Their feet get wet from the ink and when they walk out the other side they leave footprints of ink. You can then figure out what animals footprints they are and what type of animals visit or live in the Enviro Centre.

Written by Kate

On Thursday the 26th Mr Priest came into our class and finished off our animal tracking traps.

He also brought 3 wetas from his garden!!All the traps are finished now.We set them out in the

school enviro centre and left them there.I hope we will go have a look at the traps next week to

see what prints we got.Some of you might not know how we get the prints but I'm going to tell you .each group got a piece of wood from Mr Priest and made a square or triangle tunnel out of some card board.In the middle of the wood we stapled on a piece of thik fabric with a plastic sheet underneath so the ink wouldn't run out .Then in each corner we stapled on a paper clip.We soaked the fabric with ink and put the paper under the paperclips in the very middle of the fabric. We put on peanut butter. We slid the wood and every thing else on top, in to the square tunnel and put it into the enviro Center next. Now we're waiting for an animal to walk in one end, then have some peanut butter and then walk out the other end to leave a foot print.

By Juraj

Room 9 Class School Councillors 2015

 

 

Some rm9 pupils told the class why they wanted to be a school class school council member yesterday. The class wanted to know the following:

 

• Why do you want to be a class council member?
• What qualities do you have that will make you a good choice?
• talking to others
• thinking of ideas
• listening to others ideas
• negotiator
• communication skills
• What evidence or proof do you have to back up your points?

 

We all voted for who we wanted representing our class. Congratulations to Angela and Isaac who are the 2015 room 9 class councillors. Lily and Jago will be representing room 9 as a school councillor if Angela and Isaac are unavailable.

Buddy Time

Room 9 pupils spend some time each week with their buddy from room 4. Last week we were working on a spelling activity together.

Maths Whizz

Maths Whizz

Oakura School has signed up for a year with Maths Whizz, an online maths tutor. Click on the link above to learn more about the website.

All year 3-6 pupils have a log in password and will do an online assessment so that the activities are at the right level for each pupil.

To be able to use your own device to access Maths Whizz, read the following information given by the Maths Whizz administrators.

For optimum performance please ensure that you have the most updated FLASH player and are using an updated Internet Browser – Google Chrome is recommended.

iPAD – if you wish to use Maths-Whizz on the iPad then go Puffin Academy and search for Maths-Whizz and login through Puffin Academy.

 

Swimming - Backstroke arm and turning technique

Room 9 are all fantastic swimmers! We have been practicing our backstroke arm technique. We are also learning how to turn against the wall. Have a look at this Olympic swimmer to get some tips.

Turning technique:

Another backstroke turn tutorial:

New Gmail Accounts

The year 5&6 pupils now all have their own gmail accounts.

You can easily work out your friend's email addesses.

All addresses follow the same format...

first name (lower case), followed by the first letter of surname (lower case), followed by the last two numbers of the year born (e.g 06), followed by @oakura.school.nz

An example would be louiseb81@oakura.school.nz (this isn't a real email address).

To access your gmail account, go to google and click on sign in (top right hand corner of the screen).

Happy emailing! 

Rocket! Ordering Numbers Fun

Room 9 have been working on our understanding of place value. Today we were comparing and ordering 2 digit and decimal numbers. We played the rocket game against a buddy. Ask a room 9 pupil to show you how to play or click on the link below to find out how to play. 

Try it yourself! 

Rocket Maths