^  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