Sunday, July 24, 2011

Last Day of Term Two

The Last day of Term 2 was a mufti day. Because it was raining, we did dancing for sport. Here are some of the dances we are learning:

Cotton Eye Joe:











The Gay Gordons:(Music-Scotland the Brave)




Other dances we have learned so far are: Saturday Night Fever and The Circle Waltz which we use the music for The Potter Waltz from the movie Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Performing Arts Workshop at Alfriston Primary School

Some of the the weird and wonderful class of Huia1 have participated in this year's PAWS (performing arts workshop) a Alfriston Primary School, along with the some other students of our intermediate team and students from Brookby, Clevedon and Alfriston Primary Schools. The workshop consisted of four categories: drama, dance, choir and orchestra.

The students who took part arrived at Alfriston School at 9 0'clock, excited by the unknown day ahead. [The whole point of the workshop is that you don't know anything in advance about what you are doing during the day, except what category your in.] We were then split into our four groups, where we practised our moves/songs/activities/instruments.



At the end of the school day, we returned home, after rehearsing in front everyone else. We were expected to return roughly 3 hours later so we could perform to our parents, and show what we learned in the space of less than 6 hours.

The choir performed a quodlibet *(a fun song in several parts) about the instruments of the orchestra, and opera ('Speed Your Journey' * from Aida) and shared La Bamba * with the orchestra who played two other pieces:"Rockin' Round" and "Lean on Me". The dance group performed a line-dance and a hip hop routine, and the drama group demonstrated four games that practise improvisation [the art of making things up].

The performance ended with thunderous applause and everyone was re-reunited with their proud parents. Everyone will probably say, if you ask them, that they thought the performance was "good" and "fun", but deep-deep down people thought that it was educational and awesome.

By Ricki-Jean













Shayla added:

On the 13th of July some people from the Gardens, Clevedon, Brookby and Alfriston went to Alfriston for a one-day workshop.The options were drama, dance, orchestra and choir. The option I chose was drama. I picked drama because I thought that I was quite good at acting, and my mum put me in to acting classes awhile ago. But the thing was, I did not like the way that I was always late to school on the days I had acting class.

When everyone got to the hall, the teachers introduced themselves and they told everyone where they had to go. But they had to wait a while because some people got dropped off at the wrong place, so a teacher that worked at Alfriston School had to get them and bring them to the real hall because everyone thought it was the community hall right next door.

All of that day the drama group practised or what ever you picked to do, but the thing that I liked the best about drama was that we just played games that involved acting. The rest of the groups just needed to practise, practise and practise but we just needed to learn how to play the games.

When we performed at 7 o’clock, all of the children were in black - well, some of the children had blue jeans, but there was one kid that had blue sleeves.

* This is not us singing - they are the songs we sang, though.

Friday, July 8, 2011

¡Viva San Fermin!

Our next Spanish topic has made its way to the class of Huia1. Take a guess as to what Huia1 is learning about!

It runs from the 7 of July to the 14. The week-long festivities are kicked off on the 6th at midday by a rocket. And every morning they release 6-7 bulls into the streets of the town, who are then guided to the bull ring.

The answer is:
San Fermin!

Instead of the usual Friday Spanish where the Year 8s split into 3 groups that go to separate classes, the classes merged and became one mega-class, where we all learned about San Fermin and how every morning they had bulls run through the streets of Pamplona in Spain.

Year 8 students hold their pañuelos ready for the festival to begin.

By Ricki-Jean
Meanwhile, in Pamplona, this is what it looks like just before the festival begins.
(Photo from http://www.sanfermin.com)

Click here to learn more about the story behind the pañuelo (red scarf).

Check out our 2010 award-winning video about San Fermin.

Here's a link to the script and its translation. It's also got information on the making of the video.

Here's the San Fermin song we learned today. It's very, very fast!

Uno de enero

dos de febrero

tres de marzo,

cuatro de abril

cinco de mayo

seis de junio

siete de julio

¡San Fermin!

A Pamplona hemos de ir,

con una media, con una media,

A Pamplona hemos de ir,

con una media y un calcetín.


Uno de enero

dos de febrero

tres de marzo,

cuatro de abril

cinco de mayo

seis de junio

siete de julio

¡San Fermin!


Here is a video of the chupinazo - the official opening of the San Fermin Festival.


Here's a video of the first encierro of the year - running of the bulls through the streets of Pamplona


LinkHere are some amazing photos of this year's chupinazo.


Here are some amazing photos of this year's first encierro.


Here's a link to a news item about an Australian getting gored by a bull. Read to the end of the article and see if you can find what the Australian did wrong. It helps if you understand what faux pas means.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Wednesday 6th July and Thursday 7th July



Wednesday:
Help Support The Gardens School cooking team
:
Some of our Intermediate team are in a cooking competition. Check it out here.

Click here to cast your vote for the wildcard entry to the finals of the competition.
---oOo---

Congratulations to Jackie and Matthew who achieved 25/25 in the second part of our 100 Need to Know Spelling Words test today. (Krizelle, Ricki-Jean and Callum have already achieved this and didn't need to resit the test.)

Thursday:
Congratulations to Ben, Hunter and Sarah J who got 25/25 for the second part of our 100 Need to Know Spelling Words Test.

Mrs Lee would also like to thank Hunter, Sarah J and Ricki-Jean for giving up their lunch time to help her with the Juniors ukulele assessments.
Add Image
Today was the day Huia 1 had their hot-chip-lunch for achieving top in New Zealand last week for Mathletics.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Tuesday, 5 July: Day Zero

The unusual class of Huia1 has entered what we call a "Day 0", a day when Huia1 simply does not follow the normal schedule, when silent reading and catching-up-work reign supreme. Not handwriting, portfolio work and Anthology, but a "major" clean up. This operation, manned by Sarah J. and Hunter, covered the area in front of the whiteboard, to our teacher's very own desk! [ you would be surprised to see what it's usually like].

The teacher, who normally would have been talking about Sir Peter Blake or where Tibet is, has retired to her desk and is typing away on her laptop marking our work with us individually - only stopping once in awhile to question a student as to what he/she is doing.
The back bench
Mrs Vincent's Desk [clean]



By Ricki-Jean

Note from Mrs Vincent:
Day Zero - when there are too many students away from the classroom (sports day /ill) for the planned programme to be effective; a day which provides wonderful opportunities to do all those activities we never seem to have time to do.

Thank you to everyone who helped in our major classroom tidy up and portfolio-sorting.

Monday, July 4, 2011

Leadership Week starts well at The Gardens School


Today, a fascinating event featured during the weekly assembly, that occurs first thing Monday morning. An award was presented - a most important and invigorating award.

The Sir Peter Blake Young Leader Award

Our very own, Benjamin Mata received the award, which was presented to him by Mrs Mary-Ann Gawne from the Manurewa branch of the Westpac bank. Westpac are sponsors of the Sir Peter Blake Trust.

Ben was given a medal, a Westpac bag, a DVD about Sir Peter Blake and a framed certificate.


Ben with his medal, framed certificate and Westpac bag, with Mrs Mary Anne Gawne, from the Manurewa branch of the Westpac bank.

By Ricki-Jean

Above is the criteria that is used to determine the school leadership award.
Click on image for a clearer view.

Follow these links to other articles about Leadership Week.

Sam Johnson from the Christchurch University students' 'clean-up' army.

Other 'emerging' leaders recognised throughout New Zealand.

---oOo---

Speaking of team work...

Stunning work last week from Huia 1 for achieving First Place in New Zealand for Mathletics for Week 9 of Term 2. The class competition runs weekly, but the top student competition runs daily. Our Krizelle was top in New Zealand and the World for a day and our class achieved second in the World for the week, with 178,552 points. The winning class, (Mrs Mitchell at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Primary School, in New South Wales, Australia), achieved a massive 213,997 points.

Everyone achieved their 1,001 points minimum expectation, with Krizelle surpassing her own goal to achieve 40,005 points! So, everyone has earned their entry to the hot chip lunch on Thursday.

Other high achievers were Sarah I with 21,554 points, Fa'afili with 12,557 points and Tegan with 10,559 points.

This afternoon, we had a phone call from Jamie from NZ Mathletics head office, congratulating us on our achievement.

We wish Kea 1 (Mr Yates) success (which involves hard work and determination, we discovered) in their goal for New Zealand and World domination this week.

At time of publishing:
Mr Yates's class is 4th in NZ and 7th in the World
Kamaldeep is 3rd in New Zealand for Monday; Sophia is 8th and Jaime is 10th.
Click on image to make it clearer.

Friday, July 1, 2011

Day 5 of our Campaign for World Domination

Once again the classroom of Huia1, early this morning, featured a sight so unusual, so strange, that it belongs in Huia1. Many crowded around the brave few that had devoted themselves (for the 20 minutes before school-time, morning tea and lunchtime) to maintaining the well-deserved spot of Number One in New Zealand and, hopefully, the World in Mathletics.

By Ricki-Jean.

Continued by Mrs Vincent:

Everyone has been too busy trying to get to Number One in the World to complete today's blog entry. Taking every available minute, excluding lesson times, everyone contributed towards achieving Number One in New Zealand again this week.

It's exciting to see our names on the Mathletics World Hall of Fame.

Krizelle, Number 1 in New Zealand and Number 1 in the World, Friday 9:00 p.m.
Callum, 8th in NZ and 23rd in the World on Friday.

Renae, 83rd in New Zealand on Friday
Tegan 34th in New Zealand on Friday
Sarah I, 10th in the World on Friday

Some comments from Huia 1 students:
"It was fun, because I beat my record and I got 8,000 points. It's going to help my times tables. I'm really good at maths and I should be in Mr Yates class now - because I know all fractions." Danny

" I've gone well. I've never got as many points as I've got now. I've got better at maths. Even Mrs Whitehead said so." Shayla

"I'm going well. My goal was to get on the Hall of Fame and I got there and I'm 13th in New Zealand. I've achieved my goal and I'm getting better at maths." Tegan

"Did you know we are second in the world now?"

"I felt proud of myself when I got top of the world. But I was very lucky to have the talent from my Mum and Dad." Krizelle


Leadership Week - Monday 4th July to Friday 8th July
Red Sock Day, Friday 8th July

We are all wearing red socks next week to remember Sir Peter Blake and the work he did.

" In 2011, Red Socks Day will be held during Leadership Week on Friday 8th July – to encourage schools, organisations and individuals throughout New Zealand to celebrate leadership in action and to remember a great New Zealand leader, Sir Peter Blake. Take a look at the photos, video and links for some inspiration, or celebrate in a way that reflects your particular group, vision or values."

Also, check out our earlier blog which has some excellent links for more information.