Recent Activities in our class and school

Click here
if you are looking for more information about our STANZA award-winning San Fermin movie.

It's been a busy term. Here's some of the highlights so far.

Cooking in Spanish

Year 8s have been learning how to cook in Spanish, with Mrs Lee. They have made chocolate cake and tortillas, following a recipe entirely in Spanish for the ingredients, measurements and instructions. Mrs Lee explained the instructions in Spanish only (with some helpful gestures).

Reading the recipe - tortillas
Reading the recipe - chocolate cake.
The finished tortilla.
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Speech competition:

Richard and Kumiko were our class finalists for the Intermediate Speech competition. Kumiko's speech was about World Vision and Richard's speech was about the blood-alcohol limit for driving.

Click here to find out the results from our school newsletter.

Swimming Skills Day:

On the 29th of November some of the intermediate students took a bus to Papakura Pools for a whole day and learnt about water safety. We had groups of 16 students and rotated every half an hour on each activity. There were 6 activates which were kayaking, critical thinking, wearing life jackets, diving, deep-water skills and life-saving. We listed the objects that could float and save possibly save our lives, buckets, empty milk bottles, any type of ball etc.

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Our garden at The Gardens:

Mr Stone, our caretaker, has planted an apple tree in the garden outside our classroom. He is going to espalier it along the the wall. We also have sweet peas also growing up the wall. Our garden is a cuttings garden to prove that you can grow a garden without spending any money.

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Dancing:

We have been doing a bit more dancing and taught our Australian guests how to do the circle waltz. We have now polished the Maxina and can do the veleta.

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Sonnets:

Earlier this year we learned about sonnets, and many of our students entered a sonnet-writing competition.

Congratulations to Rebekah, from our class, who was placed third in New Zealand for the primary school section of the (NZ) Stratford Shakespeare Society's sonnet writing competition. Congratulations to Shae and Jessica, from Huia 2, The Gardens, who came first and second in the competition.

Rebekah's sonnet:



LOVE?

On paper love is just a boring word,
Accompanied by page and common lines.
Is love an emotion we all have learned,
And gradu'ly this feeling soon declines?
What is this feeling that steal all my heart,
And leaves it in pieces and in a mess?
I have tried to discover this strange art,
But then end up with worry and distress.
Hard is it to write about these feelings,
Like love and hate and joy and grim on page.
New things to us your live are revealing,
Learning new emotion while we age.

When the word love comes alive,
Hold on, it's going to be a rough ride.

By Rebekah

Our New Video......On Air!

Click here to go to our latest movie.


This is our entry in the STANZA Junior Video competition.

Recently we have created this movie because we are learning about San Fermin in Spain.
Thanks to all the people below:
Director/Co Director:
Nikeeta
Brittany

Camera Operators:
Nikeeta
So Yoen
Brittany

Editors:
Mrs Lee
Mrs Vincent
Brittany
Nikeeta

Viva San Fermin:Rosie
Speakers:Rebekah
Richard
Mighael
Hunter
Bulls:
Bailey
Donny
Rosie
Nikhil

Music Directors:
Nikeeta
Brittany

Special Thanks To:
All the people in Huia 1 for participating and making an awesome effort!
Mrs Lee
Ms Fowler
Miss Gifford
Mrs McCartry
Mrs Hansen
Paris
Madison
Hunter
The Gardens Hospice Shop
Volunteers from other classes in the Intermediates
and all the people who gave a helping hand.

The making of the movie:

Students from our school entered a competition, organised by the Spanish Teachers Association of New Zealand, to make a short movie called:

"Las celebraciones en español son divertidas"

Here is the link to our movie:

We chose the Festival of San Fermin because we had learned a bit about bullfighting when we listened to Kea 2's debates and we wanted to find out more about why it was important to the Spanish people. We discovered that bullfighting, in Pamplona, is part of a much bigger festival and we wanted to try to experience something of the excitement of the festival.

Script for San Fermín movie

Rebekah - ¡Oye amigos! ¡Estoy muy emocionada! Hey guys! I’m really excited!

Richard - ¿Por qué? Why?

Rebekah – Porque mi madre dijo que vamos a ir a Pamplona el año que viene. Because my mother said that we are going to go to Pamplona next year.

Richard – ¿Por qué Pamplona? Why Pamplona?

Rebekah – Hay un festival allí cada año, llamado San Fermín. There is a festival there every year, called San Fermin.

Richard - ¿Qué fecha es el festival de San Fermín? What date is the festival of San Fermin?

Rebekah –El siete hasta al catorce de julio. Pero la fiesta se abre en el 6 de julio en mediodía, con un chupinazo. The 7th July until the 14 July, but the party begins in the 6th July at midday, with a sky rocket.

Hunter - ¿Dónde está Pamplona? Where is Pamplona?

Rebekah – En el norte de España. In the north of Spain.

Mighael - ¿Cómo es el festival de San Fermín? What is the festival of San Fermin like?

Rebekah – Hay desfiles, música, baile, bandas, unas corridas de toros, y cada mañana, los encierros. There are parades, music, dancing, bands, bull fights, and every morning the running of the bulls.

Mighael – Quiero ir a un encierro. I want to go to a bull run.

Hunter - Yo también. Me too.

Richard – Para mí, quiero ver una corrida de toro. Me, I want to see a bull fight.

Mighael - ¿Quién es San Fermín? Who is San Fermin?

Richard – Él es el Patrón Santo de Pamplona. He is the Patron Saint of Pamplona.

Todos – ¡Viva San Fermín!

No bulls suffered in the making of this movie...

We learn that some things are the same and some things are different

On the 7th of November some students from Wodonga South School, Australia, came to New Zealand for an exchange program.

They were picked up from Auckland Airport by their host families. We had to wait for almost an hour until they finally came out of the doors. Most of them woke up at 4:00 a.m. to get the bus at 5:00 to get to the Melbourne Airport at 11:30 a.m.

Here are some quotes from the students themselves:

Karen: I personally think that it is much more greener than Australia. It is great that we don’t have to wear shoes because in Australia we have to wear them all the time.

Zoe: Everyone is really nice. The times are different to Australia, and so are the lunchtimes. This school is a lot greener than our school, and your field is square; ours is oval.

Darcy: Much greener than Australia. Everyone has been really welcoming and nice to me.

Sarah: Everyone is so nice, their school is so big. the time is 2 hours different to Australia, they do things different in class like they don’t wear shoes in class. The weather is really cold compared to Australia.

Ande: The Rangitoto trip was great, the view was awesome. I like not having to wear shoes at this school. When I was walking through the water it was up to my thighs and when I slipped over and got soaked and I was cold.

Braiden: When I came over, the families were very welcoming and have been really nice to me.

Michael: Way different than our school. It’s larger than our own school as well.

Liam: The school is very different to our school. We moved classes to do maths. With subtraction they use a very different technique. They have a big rectangular pitch, and we have an oval. The two schools are both good schools to be at.

Georgia: The school is different because they have a break first, then lunch. The school is bigger and much greener.

Ash: The school is so big, so much bigger than South and has heaps of kids. All of the kids here are so nice and so is my host family. I want to stay here for longer.

Cassie: The Gardens School is so cool. It’s bigger than Wodonga South for sure. Everyone is so nice and wanting me to say, "six' or "fish and chips".

Thomas: I had fun at Rangitoto and the climb was easy to get up.

Avery:It’s been fun so far. I liked the ferry and the climb of Rangitoto.

Abbey: The school is bigger than ours.It is good that we don’t have to wear our shoes.

Wodonga students update their blogs in our computer suite.

And the people that are hosting them:

Caitlin: I am hosting Karen and I really like how she is enjoying it so much! Everyday we find something fun to do, e.g scarecrow tag, guides, dancing, etc. At Rangitoto yesterday everybody looked like they were having SO much fun!!!! It was funny to find out that they call jandals “thongs”.

Louise: I’m hosting Cassie and Michael. My family and I are really enjoying them being here.

Matt: I’m hosting Braiden and he hosted me when I went to Wodonga South last year. We had lots of fun then and now we are having lots of fun since we already know each other.

Connor: I’m hosting Liam. It's really fun because we get to do things he wouldn’t do and we go to really cool places.

Jack: I’m hosting Thomas n he is a really awesome kid because he is a brown belt at karate.

Abbie: It’s been a great experience to have a person from another country come and stay at my house. Abbey has brought us an Australian game of Monopoly, and we have had lots of fun playing it.

By Caitlin (on loan from Kea 1 while Mrs Whitehead is at Athletics Day), Darcy, Zoe and Karen (on loan from Wodonga South School).

Bienvenidas a nuestras amigas australianas

Bienvenidas a nuestras amigas australianas

Welcome to Huia 1 to Darcy and Zoe from Wodonga South School in Victoria, Australia. They are part of a group of students on an exchange visit to our school this week.

Already we have discovered that we pronounce 'fish and chips' and 'six' differently.

Already, Zoe and Darcy have learnt some Spanish.

Madison and Zoe, Darcy and Kumiko.

On Top of One Tree Hill