On Friday we were so lucky to have a visit from the king of Jump Jam, Brett Fairweather.  

Our instructors had an opportunity to perform  Can't Stop the Feeling and Geronimo with the school and Brett shared with us one of his new tracks- Bruno Mars'  24K Magic .

We are so very proud of our school community who have raised $5800 to help support Matthew's journey to Singapore .  Great job School Council!

We have a group of keen enviro kids in Rakau who began planning how to make a bug hotel for our school. We hope to be able to observe all kinds of creatures in it to help with our learning.  I can't wait to see them get started on it in 2018. 

The Year 5 & 6 children  enjoyed getting creative when we completed some cool Christmas reindeers. 

Such a variety of colourful reindeers were created!

Buddy Reading

We really enjoy getting together with our friends from Korimako on Fridays to read in the library.  Such a neat way of connecting and building relationships with each other.  

 

Walkathon and Kapa Haka

This morning Breens Intermediate's Kapa Haka group visited Ashley School.  We were blown away and inspired by how passionate and amazing their performance was.  They have superb singers!  We too showed great pride as we performed our cultural festival items to them in return. Well done Kapa Haka group.  

 It was also so lovely to see how children from both schools interacted with each other during morning tea together.  

We also held a Walk-a-thon to support  Matthew,  one of our students today to help raise money for his journey to Singapore for treatment.  

It was great to see the whole school out together as we walked and walked the afternoon away.  Thank you Mr T for organising the great music to keep us going!

We are a step closer to having our new learning space as Totara was lifted up off the ground onto jacks on Wednesday afternoon.  Over the weekend they will shift Ti kouka, Totara and the Star Room onto the back field while they work on the new foundations. 

The 240 second Poem!

We had 240 seconds to use our senses and absorb our playground surroundings. We then came inside to write a poetic response. This is Lachlan's:

THE ENVIRONMENT AROUND ME

I hear children around me. 

The birds chirp high in the trees.

The wind blows against my face.

I feel the brush of the grass.

The vision I have from here is just as clear as glass.

The pine needles prick my legs.

I hear the sound of the builder’s drill.

The wood clanks on the ground.

I smell the sawdust up my nose.

I wonder when morning tea will be as my tummy starts to growl

The Year 5 & 6's had fun getting creative  on Wednesday afternoon when we decorated and folded these cool stars. Perhaps they may turn up on your Christmas tree!  We showed lots of perseverance and thinking  during this process! 

We are writers!

Over the last couple of weeks we been writing a range of stories in which we have to think carefully about our word choices and the phrases we use to create a picture in the reader's mind.

Here are just a few of these in response to an image of a ride at the show!

Once I stepped onto the death ride I knew I had just taken the biggest risk ever in my life. I heard the loudest scream come out of my mouth, since about 6 years ago. Then it happened, the bar dropped over my head all of a sudden and it started to spin like a fidget spinner, it was probably going 93 km per hour. It felt exhilarating.

Riley 

I heard myself screaming with absolute terror ,I was really frightened and anxious. I could hear the whir of the ride moving round and round. The sound of the people below sounded like the hum of an old propeller plane.

I saw the colours of the ride flash past my eyes at a terrific speed. The people below were like miniature spinning toys that looked like they were tiny enough to pick up.

I felt the rubbery fell of the handle as it got warmer as my hands wrapped round it. I felt the cold wind as it dashed past me at a tremendous speed.

I wondered would this horrid ride ever come to an end? When the ride eventually finished. I wondered whether I would ride the horrid ride again and decided definitely not.

Emmeline

As I stepped closer and closer to this outrageous spinning ride I thought to myself this is going to be fun. When I finally got on my seat I Immediately forgot what I was doing. I have too many emotions that I can’t explain as the supervisor push the red neon button. As it progressively gains speed I start to feel dizzy and nauseous. I thought I was going to throw up. I heard everyone screaming, squealing and yelling as they wondered what made them get on this ride.

Deacon

I felt the world churning like butter in a barrel. I felt like throwing up. I heard screaming and yelling. My shoulders ached as I putt all my weight on them.I was dizzy sick.I felt like the world was going to spin out of this universe. Blood rushed through my veins and the people beside me were petrified. I knew the ride was about to end but I still thought to myself would this ride ever end? As I looked around all I saw was a blur. I just managed to make out people at a hotdog stand. I could feel the wind brushing past my face.

Lachlan

I heard the wind violently blowing in my ear, people screaming their lungs off and the ride screeching while we were going round and round. I saw a massive crowd throughout the whole show. I can see the massive ferris wheel looking like it’s going to collapse and people as pale as vampires. I felt dizzy in my head and I felt like the whole ride was going to fall and shred to pieces. The wind was blowing in my face like a hurricane. I was wondering if I was going to vomit because I had a snow cone before I hopped on. I wondered "will this ride ever end?"

Lewis

I heard screams of enjoyment, sickness, fright and I also heard some people pass out, I also heard the birds tweeting in fright as the huge ride nearly hit the poor bird!

I saw someone chunder and then barf all over the people below us, it was so disgusting because the wind had blown it everywhere! But I think the people who got the barf on them were raging with anger!

I felt as if I was about to puke, but my stomach refused to ruin this ride for me. I felt a wave of excitement as the big ride stopped and then out of nowhere…. IT DROPPED, I was spiralling downwards at an outrageous rate then it stopped and came back up. I felt nauseous!

I wondered when this ride would be finally over as it was giving me an outrageous headache, I wondered how many times people have puked on this very ride. I bet there would be so many!

Sophie

Some more term 3 highlights.

GEOMETRIC ART

The Year 5 and 6 children worked carefully on our geometric art on a Wednesday afternoon.  We are really pleased with how they turned out.  At first most of us found it really tricky to use a compass to create circles.  We persevered and were proud of ourselves when we achieved it. Now we are keen to experiment with how we can create different patterns using circles.

LEARNING ABOUT OUR EMOTIONS

We were lucky to have Michelle come and run an emotions workshop with us this term. We learned about the kinds of emotions we all experience at times, how we experience them in our bodies, ways we can manage our emotions and some relaxing and calming exercises. We have found these skills really helpful and are looking forward to another visit from her next term.

OUR NEW LEARNING SPACE

This is our new learning space for Term 4 while our classrooms are rennovated.  

We  have already spent our first day together in the hall and are excited about how we will use this space, the library and the break out spaces during Term 4.  

Enjoy the holidays everyone!

Lesley spreads her Message!

Lesley always gives us lots of fantastic ideas on how we can all help our environment and reduce rubbish!  

Today she shared with us a local initiative by a cafe to get rid of  unnecessary plastic straws by using re-useable metal straws. Plastic straws cannot be recycled and have been found causing terrible harm to animal life. You may have seen the picture that circulated the internet recently of the turtle who ended up having one pulled from its nose .   

Her simple message to us was next time we order a drink we could make a difference by simply saying "No straw please".

Lesley also showed us some great options for creating funky re-useable shopping bags so that we stop using plastic bags.

Check out this cool one made from a t-shirt from the Op shop!  Look out for one of Lesley's workshops on how to make these in the school holidays.