¡Asemblea!

On Friday 27th August the Intermediate Team were responsible for organising The Gardens School monthly assembly. Each team takes responsibility for an assembly on the last Friday of each month- this time it was our turn.

We were ready a few minutes early so while parents and other classes were arriving, we quietly sang some of the songs we had learned in Spanish, accompanied on guitar by Mrs Lee.


Because the previous week had been International Languages Week in New Zealand and because we have many different languages spoken by the students or families at our school, we decided to have a multi-lingual introduction to our assembly. Check out the video below to see some of this introduction, plus the National Anthem sung in Maori and English (accompanied by Mrs Lee, Rebekah and Mark on guitar). Kumiko began the introductions in Spanish and Japanese and the video starts just as she finished her part.... (please note - we are having technical difficulties uploading this video.... we will keep trying)


Kea 1 and Huia 2 read aloud some of the sonnets they had written and showed some of their art work. Then we watched a slide show about our Team camps at Awhitu prepared by Nikeeta, Brittany, So Yeon and Alexis.

"High Five" certificates were given out by Ms Gifford (for people with any five certificates received this year) and then Tracey from Kea 2 gave an account of their class activities so far this year, including an explanation and demonstration of the hobo stove which had been so much fun at camp. (Check out Kea 1's blog to find out about their new gardens.)

Our item was next, and Ben introduced it by saying, "What's special about Huia 1?"

Kumiko answered, "We do roll call en español! " and then we all called out our numbers in order from wherever we were sitting in the assembly, finishing with a very clear "veintiocho" from Hunter.

Kumiko continued,"We talk in Spanish every day!" and Rebekah called out each of the questions we go through in class at the beginning of every day, while Ben held up charts with the subtitles in English, and the class replied in Spanish :

Rebekah: ¿Qué día es hoy? (What day is it today?)

Todos: Hoy es vienes. (Today is Friday.)

Rebekah: ¿Qué fecha es hoy? (What is the date today?)

Todos: Hoy es el veintisiete de agosto, dos mil diez. (Today is the 28th of August 2010)

Rebekah: ¿En qué estación estamos? (What season are we in? )

Todos: Estamos en el invierno. (We are in winter.)

Rebekah: ¿Qué tiempo hace? (What is the weather like?)

Todos: Esta lloviendo. (It's raining.)

Rebekah: ¿Qué hora es? (What time is it?)

Todos: Son las dos y cuarto (It's quarter past two.)

Rebekah: ¿Qué pasa? (What's happening?)

Todos: ¡Asemblea! (Assembly!)

and Ben continued...

"We have a blog, we enjoy learning about poetry and illustrating our Anthology books; we have learned about Shakespeare and Wordsworth; we can use big words like shadenfreude, posthumous, sanctimonious, draconian and lieutenant; we love reading Michael Morpurgo books; we use our dictionaries every day; we have taken over one of the Poutama gardens to make a cuttings garden; and… we have made a class movie about gumboots which has already had over 500 hits on you tube….

Mrs Lee's Year 7 Spanish class performed a Spanish alphabet rap and a group of Year 8s did a short play with two girls (Rebekah and Shae) discussing, in Spanish, what they would wear to a party.

R: Buenas tardes (Good afternoon)

S: Hola, ¿Qué pasa? (Hi, What's up? )

R: ¿Vas a ir a la fiesta de Alexis, esta noche? (Are you going to Alexis’ party tonight?)

S: Sí, ¿y tu? (Yes, are you?)

R: Sí, por supuesto. (Yes, of course.)

S: ¿Qué vas a llevar? (What are you going to wear?)

R: Compre una camisa roja. ¿Te gusta? (I bought a red shirt. Do you like it?)

S; Qué guapa! He ido a comprar también. Compré una bufanda negra.

(It’s great. I have been shopping too. I bought a black scarf.)

R: ¡Que sorpresa! Yo también. Tengo una bufanda crema. (What a surprise! Me too. I have a cream scarf.)

S: Tengo un vestido verde y las sandalias cremas. (I have a green dress and cream sandals.)

R. Me gustan tus sandalias. Tengo unas botas blancas. (I like your sandals. I have white boots.)

S: Excelente. Hasta noche (Excellent. See you tonight).

R: Bueno. Hasta pronto. (Ok, see you soon.)

After that, all the Intermediates sang "Blue Suede Shoes" accompanied by about 15 ukulele players and a group of back up singers. Our assembly finished with a mass Jump Jam performance of "Kiss Me, Honey Honey" led by Claudia, which was repeated as an encore as the guests left.

For many of the participants, it was their first experience in public speaking. Most were nervous and all did a good job. It was a very successful assembly and everyone was pleased it went smoothly after all our practices and preparation.