Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Lost Property Left Over From Camp

Here's a link to The Gardens Give a Little fundraising page.  We are fundraising for a sculpture to reflect the many cultures within our school.

Here's a link to the latest school newsletter.

Here are some items of clothing still left over from our Year 8 camp. They've all been washed, so they may be more recognisable than they were straight after camp - although some of the white socks have experienced a bit of permanent colour change ...
Let me know if any of these are yours.

One pair of never-will-be-white-again socks; two mis-matched (but look like a pair) of white socks with green soles - one says "Bonds"; one pair of grey "Bonds" socks; two odd white socks; two odd white socks with blue heels.
One pair of Blues (rugby team logo) socks - look a bit more purple than blue; one pair of black boot socks with grey band; one pair of small new-looking grey socks.


One pair of black boot socks with dark-grey band; one pair of white socks; one hair brush; one black long-sleeved polyprop singlet - size small; one black t-shirt - size medium.

One Reggae Nation Jamaica t-shirt; one odd one-was-white sock with grey band and heel; one black sock with holeproof written in yellow;

One single black fitted sheet.

One blue rain jacket "Franhold" brand, with plastic triangle badge with 'Hason' written on it. 


One pair of black shorts - Adidas brand. Also, one pair of long track-type pants - Hallensteins brand, size 12.
One pair of  long weatherproof pants to match rain jacket above.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Huia 1 Update

Latest school newsletter. 

It's been a very busy term.
Here's a few things we have been doing this term.


Your life in jelly beans - a video we enjoyed watching.
--~~~o0O0o~~~--

For reading, we are studying the novel "Private Peaceful" by Michael Morpurgo.
One of the recurring themes in the novel is the children's nursery rhyme "Oranges and Lemons". We decided to do a bit of research on this nursery rhyme. Thanks to Karmveer for the links to each of these bells.

Oranges and Lemons
Oranges and lemons,     
Say the bells of St. Clement's.    
You owe me five farthings,     
Say the bells of St. Martin's.     
When will you pay me?     
Say the bells of Old Bailey.     
When I grow rich,     
Say the bells of Shoreditch.      
When will that be?   
Say the bells of Stepney.  
I do not know,     
Says the great bell of Bow.     
Here comes a candle to light you to bed,     
And here comes a chopper to chop off your head!
Chip! Chop!Chip! Chop!   
The last man’s dead!
The story behind Oranges and Lemons  
Here's what it sounds like with the bells of Saint Clement's actually
ringing  out the tune of the nursery rhyme. 

Some of the topics we have been learning about recently:
- Nelson Mandela
- Helen Keller
- Mount Tarawera eruption
- The Wahine  Disaster
- The  huia bird
- The North Island brown kiwi
- Sir Edmund Hillary
- The story behind Queen's Birthday Weekend

Saturday, May 25, 2013

After Camp: the photos


Thanks to Mrs Whitehead and Mrs Robinson for these great photos. As you can see, we managed to have a lot of fun learning -  in spite of, and sometimes because of, the weather.

Here's the link to the video about boys learning about electric fences...

Friday, May 24, 2013

Sunrise over the last day of camp

At last - the sun! Be prepared for much wet laundry heading home - some of it mud coloured, and possibly some you've never seen before - with happy kids (and some tired ones...)

Check out some of the boys learning about farming technology - and teamwork. 

Happy Campers - Day 4

More rain today but we still managed to get a lot done:
Cooking toasted sandwiches on a hobo stove.
An early morning walk to visit the cows, orienteering, cooking on hobo stoves, a walk to Crab Island, a beach clean up and a clean up of one of the walking tracks, and the mudslide - all before dinner. Tonight's dinner: small tuna rolls and grape-juice-based sangria for tapas, empanadas with salad - and a special potato curry by Mrs Singh, one of our parent helpers; chocolate pudding,ice cream and peaches.  A very busy day and a very special evening for our last night.
More weather and science at camp. I guess we know where the real Rainbow's End is now.





Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Happy Campers - Day 3

Look what we found at the beach after Mrs Whitehead's lesson on the habits of the mud crab. Two of these are not mud crabs.
This is our view in the afternoon, after it stopped raining, or was it just before it started raining - or both?
Team building activities with High Wire Trust instructors. This was the winning team.
This is what happens when you are late to  High Wire instructor's activity. (It only happened once!)

A happy camper!

Day three and all's well. The day started with an early morning walk with Mrs Whitehead to meet cows. She has some great photos, but you'll have to wait to see those. We had another great activity session with the instructors from High Wire Trust, with lots of team building challenges, goal setting and self-evaluating. There was no mucking about, and no lateness was tolerated. (See photo above.)

In the afternoon, we went down to the beach to explore for evidence of mud crabs. We managed to get back before the downpour.

Dinner was hamburgers - patties cooked on the barbecue in the rain by the fathers and some of the hardier boys - and apple crumble.

There has been a bit of rain but we are all fine.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Happy Campers Day 2

View of waterspout on the Manukau Harbour this afternoon. We had a very good view of this from our cabin steps. The best kind of outdoor education!
We've had another great day - with a range of weather.  We started the day with beautiful weather and a walk around the park with the park ranger and camp manager. Students learned to climb a fence and a gate in the proper way, and how to identify electric fences. 
Students head for the cattle, after being given instructions on how to herd them.

Cattle, observing being herded by kids
 We fed huge eels and visited an old homestead of the first settler farmers here. Then we came back for homemade soup and pies for lunch, and an afternoon of games and activities. For dinner we had roast chicken and roast potatoes, carrots and peas, followed by ice cream, jelly and fruit salad - then later Milo and home baking. (We are loving the home baking, by the way.)
To finish the day, Mrs Whitehead and some of the parents took a group of students on a night walk up to the look out for a view of the lights of Auckland.

Monday, May 20, 2013

Happy campers - Day 1


We are having a wonderful time already. We are doing outdoor survival activities with the Hirewires Trust staff. Happy kids, happy parent-helpers, happy teachers.
Dinner tonight: Spanish tortilla and nachos, followed by fruit salad ans ice cream.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Information Updates

Here's a link to our latest Year 8 camp newsletter.  

Here's a link to our latest school newsletter (Term 2 Week 1).

Congratulations, team, on a very polished and well-prepared Anzac Assembly on Friday. Our guests from the Manurewa RSA, and our  other visitors  were very impressed with your work.

We will have some writing and photos of our Anzac assembly posted soon.

 - WANTED - 
Empty and cleaned

we need these for making hobo stoves for outdoor cooking 

 and 
clean ice-cream containers - with lids 

to use for camp activities  

and

lemons 
for camp also

If you have any of these to spare, could you please bring them to us at school. 
- Thank you -    

Monday, May 6, 2013

Welcome to Term 2

We had a wet 'n' wild start to Term 2 today.  We hope the weather will be better in time for our Year 8 camp on two weeks' time.

Wanted for camp:
- clean 2 litre ice-cream containers and lids 
- clean, empty sweetened condensed milk cans

Our main focus for this week is preparing for our Anzac Assembly on Friday morning, as a follow up to  our homework research on the history of Anzac Day and the Victoria Cross.

 


Intermediate Team's Anzac Assembly 

Friday May 10 
11:00 a.m. 
The Gardens School Hall 
with special guests from the Manurewa RSA

Parents and community are invited to attend this special event, hosted and run by our Intermediate students. 

   


Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Lost and Found: What's living in our garden?

 Here's a link to Kereru 1's  video about bullying. It has some powerful messages.


Read the latest school newsletter; you never know when Mrs Fowler will ask us a question about it at assembly.
Our swan plant was looking pretty sick. Over Easter, the three caterpillars disappeared. We thought they weren't old enough to make a chrysalis, and wondered if someone  had taken, or harmed them.
But this week, three caterpillars appeared on another healthier swan plant at the other end of the garden. We wondered if someone had transferred them. There does not appear to be any other monarch caterpillars around our garden this year. 
The aphids - and lady birds are back.



You can almost see the bee's knees . . .


Another caterpillar in our garden. This is not a monarch caterpillar. Is it helpful or  harmful? What kind of butterfly or moth will it change into?


We enjoyed reading about  Mrs Whitehead's pigeon (kerereu) rescue. You can find out more about it here.   We are looking forward to hearing about its progress.

On Sunday, Karmveer and Corbin are representing us at the Sunrise Walk to help raise funds for the local hospice. The class have brought donations to help support our two boys and the cause.

Our Rugby Picks for the Weekend:
(Winning team and winning margins written first)
Brumbies 13+ against Highlanders Picked the winner but not the right margin
Chiefs 1 - 12 against Reds
Blues 1 - 12 against Hurricanes
Rebels 1 12 against Kings
Crusaders 13+ against Force
Sharks 1- 12 against Stormers
Cheetahs 1-12 against Bulls

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Caterpillars Up Close


 At lunchtime we saw three caterpillars on the stalks of the swan plant. We were going to relocate them to a healthier plant, but they were too hard to pick up. We will try it again when they are on a leaf, so we can pick the leaf off and then wait for them to crawl onto a leaf on the new plant.

The caterpillars were moving their heads a bit. (Well, we think they were their heads - it could have been their tails.) We need to work out which end is which.
I wonder if the aphids worry about the caterpillars?

Can you tell the anterior (front) from the posterior (rear)?

The head must be the end that is munching on the leaf. We think there are longer antennae at the head than at the tail.  At the posterior,  the feet are like suckers holding onto the stalk; at the anterior,  they are just like little fingers - not suckers.




By Alisha and Ramandeep


Highlanders win 1 - 12 against Reds
Hurricanes win 13+ against Kings
Chiefs win 1 - 12 against Blues 
Brumbies win 1 - 12 against Bulls 
Cheetahs win 1 - 12 against Rebels
Crusaders win 1 - 12 against Stormers
Waratahs 1 - 12 against Force

Our current results are:
  • Season Score:  132

    Round Score:  31

  • Current Rank:  33,796 Out of 75,605


Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Look Who's Back in our Garden ...




How many caterpillars can you see?
Can you see the tiny aphids?

Photos by Alisha

Friday, March 22, 2013

Our Rugby Picks for this week

 Here is this week's school newsletter.

Here are our choices for the Super Rugby games this weekend:

Chiefs  win by 13+ points against Highlanders
Result: Chiefs 19,  Highlanders 7. Well, we predicted a win, anyway, but we were wrong about the margin. 
 
Crusaders win by 13+ points against Kings
Result: Crusaders, 55 Kings 20. We predicted this one correct correctly. 
 
Bulls win by 1 - 12 points against Reds   
Results: Bulls 18, Reds 23. We got this one wrong.

Cheetahs win by 1 - 12 points against the Force
Results: Cheetahs 19, Force 10. We picked this one, too.  

Sharks win by 1 - 12 points against  Rebels
Results: Sharks 64, Rebels 7. We picked the winners - but not the margin.

Stormers win by 1 -12 points against the Brumbies
Results: Stormers 35, Brumbies 22. Our margin was only one  point out. Not a bad prediction!

Blues win by 13+ points against the Waratahs
Results: Blues 27, Waratahs 30. We were well out on this one. 




oooO0Oooo


And here's a link to the video/advertisement called: Paper is not dead.  It's our favourite video of the week - so far.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Bits and Pieces

This week's school newsletter. 

Our Class Treaty signing:

We have been learning about the Treaty of Waitangi, and based our own classroom treaty on events which happened at Waitangi in 1840.

Amber (as Captain William Hobson) reads the treaty to those gathered at the meeting. The class discuss it and give their opinions.
Everyone signs it. There is a bit of competition to to be Hone Heke (who signs it first) and Kawiti (who doesn't sign it on the day, but adds his name above Heke's at a later date.)
The completed Treaty:


 We, the students of Huia 1, 
agree to:

be in the right place,
at the right time,
doing the right thing,
which would be making 
cool choices. 
---- o 0 o ---- 
 More Fun with Puns: 
Well done, Ramandeep, for finding this example of a pun.   
Can you work it out?
Origin of photo unknown. 
 

 Spot the mistakes: 
Here are three photos of interesting errors found in Cambridge this past weekend. Can you work out what the interesting error is in each photo? 





 Heteronyms:
We have been learning about heteronyms. These are two or more words which have the same spelling but have different pronunciations and meanings. 

Can you think of different ways to pronounce, and different meanings for these heteronyms:  sow and sow, does and does, record and record, and buffet and buffet? 

Heres is a quite challenging game to place to  find the heteronym  to match each meaning.
Here is another game to find the heteronym - part II.

 Here are some pictorial heteronyms: Can you work out what they are? (Origins of images unknown) 














Monday, March 4, 2013

Pun With Comprehension

 From Grammarly.com 


The Year 7s had fun trying to work out what each animal is saying. We had turns reading it out aloud - as if we were each animal.
We learnt what a pun is . . . 





Unsure of origin of this comic.