Exciting Term 4

This term has been full of fun and new activities. This has been the best Term 4 at Wainui, and also the last one for me.

Just Dance & Furniture Olympics 

Everyday before school we go to the hall and either do Just Dance or Furniture Olympics. Just Dance is a game that you can play with a phone. You hold the phone in one hand and do all the actions that are on screen. We don't use a phone though we just put it up onto the screen and copy it. We have been doing just dance because it relates to our Culture City. The Teachers chose dances that were from other places from around the world. For Furniture Olympics we go into our Buzz groups and try make the piece of Furniture the teacher calls out.

Kapa Haka
Here is a link to my Kapa Haka blog post.

Athletics 

For 3 weeks we had been preparing for the day of  Athletics. The day finally came. Everyone dressed up in their house colours and put on face paint. We walked over to the reserve and sat down in our house colours. 1st was sprints, we cheered on all our team mates and clapped when they got a placing. 2nd was high jump it just kept on growing higher and higher until there was a winner. 3rd was Ball throw we get 2 throws and they judge the furthest one. We last did long jump.

Orientation day

We jumped on the bus and headed off to our intermediates. On the way the bus driver forgot to pick up the other school. So we had to go around the block to collect them. Once we had gotten everyone on the bus we drove the school. While we were their we went to our classes had a swim in their pool and had a barbeque lunch. When we got back to school everyone was talking about our awesome the school they chose was.   

This is my last year at WBS. I am really excited for next year because I am going to a new school with new kids. I am also nervous because lots of the other kids are a lot bigger then me.  

Kapa Haka Festival!

"Wheels on the bus go round and round".... All I can hear is the sound of excited Wainui school kids singing their lungs out. Finally we arrive at the Turanganui Kapa Haka Festival. and we all stumble out of the bus. It's a  Wednesday morning so I'm still tired. We wait under some shelter till the other school finishes their performance. We quietly walk into the hall while everyone is applauding and find a seat. After their performance we go back outside and have a talk to the teachers.

I race over to where all the others from the front line are getting on their piupiu. I pull my piupiu out of the sock and undo the lace. A teacher gives me a hand with putting it and soon it is swaying in the wind. We make our way to the hall and wait for the host to welcome us onto the stage. " Can we have a round of applause for Wainui!" We stride along the stage in our lines. We sing 3 songs before the poi. My piupiu following my steps.

"Poi kiamau", I slowly kneel down still doing the actions hoping I can get back up again. It comes to the part when I have to stand up. I hold my breath, "Phew" I make it. We do a few more songs and then we walk of stage while everyone else applauds for us. We jump back on the bus. I wonder, what will it be like next year?   

 

Marae Noho

Last week the whole of Nui syndicate went to our schools Marae. Our Marae is called Te-Poho-o-Rawiri. When we arrived we waited awhile on the concrete. All the kids stared up at the marae and all the carvings in amazement. We got asked to take off our shoes since it's a Maori tradition. Haere mai, Haere mai, Haere mai Auntie buba and Auntie Charlotte welcomed us into the Marae. Once everyone was fully in the Marae, Papa Albie and Jonas Te - Aho took turns speaking. After they had finished welcoming us in they talked to us about all the traditions and how it came to this location.

We had some Kai and then we got split up into small groups of all ages. The teachers had set up some activities for us to do in our groups. On the first day my group did Rako, Old maori games, String games and and a walk up Kati hill. Our Rako were made out of plants and we played games with them. For the old Maori games we played with poi's knuckle bones and old spinning tops. With the string we learnt how to do tricks and games with it. (For the rest of the day all the kids were playing with them.) We walked from the marae to the bottom of the hill and then to the top.

Before dinner we set our beds up and once we had done that we lined up for dinner. That night we had nachos for dinner made by the parents. After dinner our parents came to watch a performance first up we did Kapa Haka and then there was more performances by different kids. After the performances we got ready for bed. I shared a mattress with Olivia. In the morning I had spaghetti on toast. Once you had finished breakfast we went onto the court had a run. Overall I really enjoyed my stay.

          

   

Stopping homelessness

This term we have our speech competitions, mine is stopping homelessness. It has to be over 2.30m otherwise it won't get you into the finals. Our inquiry topic is Hauora (Well being), and our speech has to connect to it. In a speech you have a introduction, three main points and a conclusion. In the introduction you say what your speech is about, how you can change it and usually a fact. For your main points you make a point and write about it. For the conclusion you say what you should do to change it.

In our writing workshops we have been learning lots of different sentence structures. They have also given us ideas that we could put into our speech. I'm a little bit nervous since I have to do in front of the class.

   

Duolingo

This week the teachers decided to add another option to the word work. Word work is a priority that we have to do every week, there is different choices like poetry, handwriting, Kiwi kid news and now Duolingo. Duolingo is a cool website where you can learn other languages. You press on the language you want to learn and than say how long you are going to spend on it each day. I chose Russian and am doing it for 10 minutes each day.

You do courses, in the course it might ask you to pronounce something or spell it. In others it gives you choices and you have to press the correct one. When you get better you unlock the leaderboard so you can see your progress and tell how good you are compared to everyone else. Overall I think it's a fun activity and I love doing it every week.

   

Because of Winn Dixie

Every term our class has a shared book. This term we read Because of Winn Dixie, it's a book about a girl and her dog. The girls name is Opal, she wants to buy a bright red collar for her dog but she doesn't have enough money. The owner Oatis says she can work there to save up. The next day she goes early to work and spots Oatis playing guitar to the animals, they seem to love it.

On the walk back she meets the Dewberry boys. Winn dixie runs into a backyard and the twins say he won't survive because it is the witch's house. She walks into the backyard and she sees a lady feeding him Peanut butter by spoon. She gets to know Opal and soon they are great friends. Opal goes to the library to find a book to read aloud to Gloria Dump. She reads it aloud so she doesn't hear the past.

Mrs Franny block works at the library. In her desk draw she has a stash of littmus lozenges they taste sweet and sad. In the book that she gets for Gloria dump they have a barbecue party. They decide to do the same. Oatis brings his guitar, Mrs Franny block brings littmus lozenges and Opal brings Winn Dixie. Mrs Franny blocks announces that she wants to put littmus lozenges back in business.

Escape from Kraznir!

This term in my writing group we have been writing a storey called 'Escape from Kraznir.' Every week we have to finish off a chapter. We have slides that we look at so we know what to do each day. I have only done 2 chapters. Some days in our story we have fights and others we are just walking. I chose my name to be Gabrielle and I am the leader of the spies. Kraznir is trying to take over Slinsil, so we got sent to find out his plans.

On the first day we escaped from the dungeon with the chest, got past the guards and collected food. Then we went down a tunnel that led to a cliff, we slept there for the night. On the second day we climb the mountains, fight the Wargs and find a wizard.

At first I thought it would be fun, it was for the first chapter but now I'm not quite sure. Personally I would rather do quick writes, if you don't know what one is than you can look at one of my other blog posts. Would you like to do something like this?