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...)

Having a Ball at The Gardens School Part 2

Some comments about the ball from members of Huia 1:


... I was wearing heels and my friends and I were laughing because I was a lot taller than my partner. It felt good being tall because I am the shortest in the class. There was punch which tasted like Just Juice Bubbles, and heaps of supper. There were chocolate eclairs and I love those...
Jessica

I felt nervous but it was OK. I had to do the Grand March with Tracey and she was really slow - maybe she shouldn't wear high heels.
Jakob

... Last year I was really nervous, but I slowly started to get more confident. On Wednesday night I really enjoyed myself. The best bit as when we taught Mrs Chetty to fist pump. I thought Terrence and I were the best fist pumpers though. I think it was more fun than last year's ...
Ben

I have improved in dancing. I used to hate dancing but now I like it.
Danny .

...Everything looked amazing. All you need to do is have a good attitude and have fun. Rachel, Krizelle and I were taking photos of each other in front of the Eiffel tower with little lights that hung from it. I had the best night ever.
Annella

I felt uncomfortable when I first started but then, after a while, I came out of my comfort zone and I had lots of fun. I had a great time. I was surprised because I was one of the leaders for the line dances and I think I am more confident about dancing with people and in front of people.
What was funny was that we got free dancing time and when a song came on, everyone screamed really loud - and when the lights went out, everybody screamed. A great memory was that everyone was so nice when I danced with them. I wore some of my sister's jewellery and a black dress that goers black, grey, white. I liked how my mum did my hair, and I felt good.
Tegan.

...It was awesome. During dancing, I have learnt to keep in time and use a bit of style in my dancing. At the start of the term I was very nervous and didn't think I could make it to the ball. But, I didn't have many fears except for the fact that I might have fallen over in my heels.

When I arrived at the ball I was very excited because Hunter arranged for her uncle to take us in his very cool car. It was read and white and fitted six of us in it.

I liked how the hall was decorated. It had a beautiful cardboard Eiffel Tower. I was surprised how confident I was with all my dancing.
Caitlin

Last year I was not very confident with my dancing and I would avoid doing it in public - but now I can strut my stuff without a care in the world. I think Hunter, Tegan, Caitlin, Sarah I, Sarah J and I made an entrance in our fancy car. I will probably never forget that when the house lights went out some of the girls screamed loudly. I loved my dress because it was different in its blue-green colour and how it looked on me. I won a special Mickey Mouse pencil case for being enthusiastic during all six weeks of dancing practice. I love Mueve la Colita because I can put my own style into it.
Ricki-Jean.

At the start of the term, I had completely forgotten most of the dances from last year. But, when we started to dance to the music, I started to remember. My favourite dance was the Grand March to the Marseillaise. It was probably the hardest to learn but also, in my view, it looked the best.
Nikhil.

...My special memory is shuffle fist pumping. I won a prize for the Macarena and I came second in the statue waltz with Tanya as my partner.
Matthew.

...This year I was more confident in dancing.
Chris.


... At first I didn't like dancing but now I do because I have a lot of confidence and I think it's pretty fun. The best part was when Ben and I were teaching people how to fist pump - including teachers - like Mrs Chetty and Mrs Loakman. And, it was cool as!!!!
Terrence.

...The night was awesome because Hunter, Tegan, Caitlin, Sarah, Ricki-Jean and I went in this really awesome old car....There were lots of nice dresses and everyone was so good at dancing Mueve la Colita... Last year, when I was a Year 7, I wasn't that confident, but I know I am really confident dancing with boys now. Mr Yates danced with a chair when we were waltzing around the hall - he did that last year, too.
Sarah J.

The ball has just been. I had a great time with everything, and there was a lot of supper. We played statues - the waltz version; it was fun. My favourite dance was Mueve la Colita because it is very enthusiastic and it makes you want to smile. I got chosen to start off the snowball waltz, along with two other couples.
Hunter.

Mrs Chetty came to the ball. She was telling me to shuffle and I shuffled - then she started laughing. Nikhil and Taleyah won the statue waltz. There were a lot of good dancers like: Michael, Danny, me, Ricki-Jean, Tegan, Hunter, Trent, Sarah J, Fili and Ben.
Jackie.
When I first started dancing, I was scared but as we kept learning dances I started to feel more confident. As Taylor -Paige and I arrived, we forgot our tickets so we had to go back home and get them We walked in the door and all the lights were off and there was only fairy lights.

We started with the grand march and next we did Mueve la Colita- I got a prize for that. There was supper and drinks. The punch was very fizzy - it made my eyes water. Wednesday the 5th of October was the best thing for that week.
Renae.

Overall, my favourite dances were the merengue, the Maxina and the snowball waltz and I think that the best dancer was Ben.
Madison.

I liked the statue waltz because I am really god at staying still and so was Terrence - he was my partner. When Mrs Vincent said we had to act the Eiffel Tower and a tourist I wanted to be the Eiffel Tower but so did Terrence, but he outranked me by saying,"I am taller." Terrence and I got into the finals but we did not win.
Shayla.

Everyone dressed their best and brought a plate of food - either savouries or sweets. What I enjoyed best was the freestyle dance. The lights were turned down and the music was played. We started a jumping Follow the Leader line. I won a prize but I forgot what for. During supper we took photos in front of the Eiffel Tower. It was a fun night and I didn;t realise that I had gained more confidence in dancing.
Krizelle.

I learned that you have to be confident. I also won a prize for great dance moves. When our parents came we did some dancing to show them what we've been learning.
Sarah I.

Having a Ball at The Gardens School Part 1

Here's the first account of our Year 7 and 8 ball last Wednesday, and some of the photos.



On the evening of the 5th of October, the Intermediate team of the Gardens School gathered around the school hall. All wore their best dresses and suits and, as was required, their best attitudes. Many tried to make a grand entrance but they were shortly outshone by what they discovered on arrival.

The classic blacked-out windows greeted ball-goers and hid from passers-by the fabulous decor inside, which included a definitely-not-to scale Eiffel Tower, many Christmas lights and a supper that could be considered a feast fit for a king. In the background, French music complimented the theme of the night nicely - "A Night In Paris".

We began the night's dancing with the Grand March which is often performed at posh, formal balls. It starts with boys and girls in lines, shortest to tallest, and when the music starts the front two join arms and walk towards the host/hostess and everyone else follows along until everyone ends up in lines of 8s. We walked to the French national anthem which matched our theme.

We then broke into columns to dance Mueva la Colita, which in Spanish means "shake your bottom" or as Mrs Vincent says, "Move your tail." This was followed by the famous Macarena which although it is danced frequently many get it wrong, as one student kindly and thoughtfully demonstrated the correct way to do it. (Thank you, from Mrs Vincent.)


We then pulled out some dance moves that belong in the late 1970s and danced to Saturday Night Fever which then broke into the Circle Waltz, then through the Maxina, the Palais Glide, the Gay Gordons, the Merengue, the Veleta, and a statue waltz.

After most of the organised dancing, we had supper, followed by a snowball waltz, led by the best dancers of the night so far. Next the house lights were turned off and the disco and laser lights shone and we all started free-styling to some more recent tunes.
Thank you Mrs Whitehead for the group photos.

by Ricky-Jean


Here's a slide show of the ball photos. The link is currently 'private' which means it can only be accessed by using a link to it. You won't find it by searching or by finding it randomly.


If you have any photos you would like added, can you email them to me kayv@thegardens.school.nz and I will upload them to the blog. Others will have to wait until we are back at school. I hope you are all having a good holiday - from Mrs Vincent.

La Copa del Mundo de Rugby

For our Spanish classes today, Mrs Lee organised an article about the Rugby World Cup. See how much of it you can understand. Can you choose the best statement for you at the end of the article?

La Copa del Mundo de Rugby

Muchos de los equipos de rugby de todo el mundo están en Nueva Zelanda para jugar en la Copa del Mundo de Rugby.

Hay un equipo de Argentina. Lleven un uniforme de color azul claro y blanco.

No hay equipos de otros países de habla española, solo Argentina.

El equipo de Nueva Zelanda, llamado Los All Blacks, ganó su primer tres partidos de rugby. Llevan un uniforme de color negro con un helecho de plata.

Aquí en nuestra escuela, tenemos las banderas de todos los países que están jugando en la competencia.

Tres viernes atrás, todos los estudiantes hacen las letras de la palabra ‘negro’ con sus cuerpos, en el campo de juego.

Hay muchas turistas en Nueva Zelanda en este momento y hay muchas fiestas también.

Mi equipo favorito es ___________________.

Espero que ___________ ganen La Copa del Mundo de Rugby.

Me gusta el rugby
No me gusta el rugby

Voy a mirar los partidos de rugby en la televisión

No voy a mirar los partidos de rugby en la televisión

Voy a ir a partido de rugby

No voy a ir un partido de rugby

Here is a link to Rugby World Cup information - in Spanish.

Here is a link to information about Argentina at the Rugby World Cup.

Survey- Who will win the Rugby World Cup?

Wednesday 28 September
Tegan and I are doing a poll to see how many students think the All Blacks will win the Rugby World Cup. Let’s hope a lot of us think they will win.

We think that nearly everyone will choose:
ALL BLACKS

WHO DO YOU THINK WILL WIN THE RUGBY WORLD CUP AND WHY?

Tegan said, “The All Blacks will win because they have won all the games they have played and because they are awesome. GO ALL BLACKS!!!”

Madison said, “I think the All Blacks are going to win because they have Sonny Bill Williams and Dan Carter on their team. GO ALL BLACKS!!!!!!!!!”

Mrs Vincent said, “The nation’s self-esteem rests on the All Blacks winning. If they lost, I could not bear another four years of discussions about who should be the All Blacks’ coach. Also, the country would plunge into a long gloomy depression if they lost - so it is vital that they win. But, I would like Argentina to come second.”

Hunter said, “I reckon that the All Blacks will win because they are strong and the Rugby World Cup is being held in New Zealand so they have to win it for us Kiwis.”

Sarah J said, “The All Blacks will win because they have won all their games so far, so if they win their next game they will go into the quarter finals.”

Ricki-Jean said, “No doubt about it! The All Blacks by a long shot! The Auzzies and the French can try, but the Kiwis’ll always win!”

Jessica said, “The All Blacks are going to win because they are the awesomest team ever and have won all their games so far. GO ALL BLACKS!!!!!”

Krizelle said, “In my opinion, the All Blacks will win the Rugby World Cup because they had beaten their toughest opponent in their pool!”

Renae said, “All Blacks by a mile.”

Fili said, “Samoa because they won two games and might be in.”

Karnjeet said, “The All Blacks because they haven’t lost any games”

Ben said, “All Blacks because they are the best team in the world at the moment.”

Matthew said, “England all the way because they are the bomb!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Terence said, “All Blacks because they can beat England!!!”

Cullum said, “The All Blacks because they are real good at rugby.”
Wade said, “I think the All Blacks will win because they smashed France, Tonga and Japan.”

Michael said, “I think the All Blacks will win because they have won all their pool matches.”

Chris said, “You know who it is. ALL BLACKS!!!! because they’re epic.”

Donny said, “All Blacks because they’re cool.”

Nikhil said, “The All Blacks because they have a good coach, they have a good game plan and they have really well trained players.”

Jackie said, “I think the All Blacks will win because the All Blacks win every time. GO ALL BLACKS!”

Jakob said, “All Blacks because they have won every game so far.”

Danny said, “I think South Africa or All Blacks would win because they haven’t lost any games yet.”

Bhaban said, “The All Blacks will win because they thrashed all the teams that they have played in the Rugby World Cup 2011!”

"I think the ALL BLACKS will win the RWC because if they don't I am taking the rest of the year off!!!!!" said Mrs Fowler (Principal).

"I think the ALL BLACKS will win the RWC cup because if they don't, Mrs Fowler is taking the rest of the year off and I don't want to do her job!" added Miss Gifford (Associate Principal!).

We also asked our special visitors what they thought...

"The ALL BLACKS will win the Rugby World Cup because all of New Zealand wants them to - they haven't won it in 24 years - and because they are in the best condition. They showed when they played France that they have got a steely determination to win." (Kelli Kawhia-Conrad, ERO team)

"The All Blacks will win because they have a very good coaching team who have observed other countries' strategies in the game. They think of how they can use new strategies and techniques for every game. They also know that New Zealanders are barracking for them. It's about National Pride. Go the All Blacks!" (Another ERO visitor).

We are very excited to hear what Mrs Griffin, our Australian P.E. teacher, thinks but she is not here today.

...Miss Griffin thinks that you are all deluded as Australia are CLEARLY the best team in the tournament to date!...

Our conclusion is that most of us think that the All Blacks will win, so let's hope they put our words into action.

by Hunter and Tegan

What happens on Tuesdays

As soon as the morning bell rang, the whole Intermediate Team went down to the hall to perfect our dancing for the ball, which is next week on Wednesday. Lots of us are very excited about the ball. We have to bring a plate of food for students and teachers to eat on the night. Lots of us are coming to the ball. If you want any more information on the ball go to "www.huia1thegardens.blogspot.com" and click on the Information about the ball" tab.

In Huia 1 we do buddy reading with Tui 1 students (Mrs Bradshaw's class) because it gives us practice to give us confidence when reading to other people. Nearly every Tuesday we do
it unless it is a rainy day or if we are not prepared. Last week, we went down to the library to choose a book to read to our buddy class, so we would have a week to practise our reading aloud.

Today, at 1:35 p.m. we started reading to the juniors. We only had a short time so we had to read clearly but fast. After we did buddy reading, we collected the books to take back to the library and got Hoani a new book.

By Sarah & Tegan & Hunter

What's happening in Huia 1?

(Monday morning)
Huia 1 students are already getting back into school mode after the weekend - along with the rest of the school.

This term we have been doing lots of work on Aztecs and we are doing a project in class where you have to make up a question and research it using resources - that is computers and books.

Every Monday morning Huia 1 does a current events quiz. This morning we learned that England has introduced a new type of transport, called Pods, for people to ride in at Heathrow Airport.

Huia1 is reading Private Peaceful at the moment and we are talking about the key
information. Our class recommends Private Peaceful to any keen reader - it's by Michael Morpurgo. (Note from Mrs Vincent: A movie of Private Peaceful is being filmed in England at the moment. Check it out here and here.)

Huia 1 has been learning to find places on a map and and how to do mapping skills. In our Social Studies books we have a page on New Zealand facts and another on world facts and we have been adding to them every week since the start of the term.

During Term 3 we are getting ready for the wearable arts and we are in groups of three. Lots of people have started making their outfits.

At the moment there are E.R.O (Education Review Office) people around the school. They go around schools in New Zealand visiting them every three years to make sure the curriculum is fulfilled. So, we have to be on our best behaviour while they are at our school until
this Friday, then next week they are going to a different school in New Zealand. It's nearly the end of term .

By Sarah J and Hunter

Weeds are closer than you think...

It was Monday 19th of September. Hunter, Renae, Caitlin and I decided to weed our garden to make it look lush and full of plants without the extra weeds. So we started and after 20 minutes we thought there were a lot of weeds.

The next day we had to weed still because the weeds were still there and it was so annoying because they weren’t going away.

The next day we had to get some soil because the old soil was looking really bad and dry. So we went and got a wheelbarrow and it was so heavy so we had to get some boys to come and help us while Renae and I were raking the soil Hunter and Caitlin were cleaning the bricks and tiles.

After the soil was all dry we put geranium and busy Lizzie cuttings into the soil and it looked magnificent. By the end of the day we all were really tired from gardening.

By Tegan

Two caterpillars were found - and given to Mrs Whitehead in Kea 1 to take home for her chooks.

(Note: Here are the rescued and replanted self-sown sweet peas which had ended up in the weed bin...)

Other things happening in Huia 1: (by Mrs Vincent)
Jessica's poster about the Rugby World Cup. Her chosen team was Argentina. Our last posting (see below) was viewed by people at the school I visited when I was in Argentina - and they noticed Callum's poster of Argentina did not have the Malvinas Islands on it. (They are called "Falkland Islands" in our atlases). So, Jessica made sure she put them on her poster.


Annella had a puzzle for us.
"How can you tie a knot in a piece of string, without letting go of either end of the string."
She asked for volunteers to try it out.







Finally, she demonstrated how to do it.



Students are making works of wearable art to tell the story of the rise and fall of the Aztec Empire. Here's what some of it is starting to look like....