Mrs Grace, our Gardens School Corrrespondent in Egypt

Here's a link to the credits and script from our award-winning Spanish video.

Here's an email from Mrs Grace, a teacher at The Gardens School, who is now working at a school in Cairo, the capital of Egypt.

We have been following the situation in Egypt in current events over the year so it is interesting to have an eye-witness account of what is happening.

We hope Mrs Grace stays safe and we look forward to hearing more from her.

(Thank you Mrs Grace for leaving us messages on our chatbox.)

Well Friday night brought my first experience of live gunfire. It happened in or near our street and was followed by blaring sirens. I don’t mind admitting I was terrified. I know I asked for adventure but this is just plain stupid!!! We’ve packed our suitcases in case we need to make a quick evacuation, but are hoping it won’t come to that. School is closed Monday, Tuesday because people have to return to their hometowns to vote – think Mary and Joseph travelling to Bethlehem.

Everyone is on edge and hoping for a good outcome.

Anyway must go, the buses are leaving early to get us all home on election eve.

Take care and I’ll keep you posted.

Cheers, Carolyn

Los países que hablan español

Here is our latest entry into the STANZA Primary School Video Competition

We are learning how to ask the question "Where is...?" (¿Dónde está?) and reply with "It is here." (Está aquí.) We are learning the names and locations of countries where Spanish is spoken and we are also learning to recognise the flags of some of these countries.

Ben: ¡Hola clase! Hoy vamos a encontrar los países que hablan español.
¿Dónde está Cuba? Venezuela? Costa Rica..?

Estudiantes: Está aquí, al lado de México, Colombia..

Ben: ¿Dónde están Las Malvinas?

Callum: Aquí, este de Argentina.

Ben: ¿Puede encontrar otros países?

Ben:¿Dónde está Nueva Zelanda?

Todos: ¡Está aquí!

CAST:

Chris C

Tracey P

Jasmine F

Michael H

Te Amo T

Ricki-Jean W

Callum M

Madison L

Yatin S

Tegan M

Caitlin M

DIRECTORS:

Hunter K

Sarah J

Señora Lee

THANKS TO:

Trent G, Harrison O, Vaughan W for help with editing the movie

Mrs Whitehead for the use of her large world map

Mrs Montofre for the use of her Chilean flag

Huia 1 for the use of props

Señora Lee for the use of other props

Mrs Vincent for help with props and students

and to everyone else who helped put our movie together

No students were harmed in the making of this movie.

MMXI

Competition Details:

2011 Theme: Aprendemos español a través de la cultura
(Learning Spanish through culture)

Students should integrate the teaching of one topic of the Spanish curriculum with
culture in the video.

Possible topics: colours and flags; calendar and festivals; popular sports; food and
cooking.

Video specifications:
Two (2) minutes maximum in length.
Please follow copyright laws.
Videos should be appropriate for all ages.
No commercial content is permitted.

Athletics Day

Here are some of the photos of athletics day on Friday, taken by Mrs Whitehead. (Rimu House colours are red, and Mrs Whitehead is in Rimu House, in case you were wondering why so many of the students are wearing red...)