Our Ski Trip

Yesterday was a great day.
We're so lucky in New Zealand to have access to experiences like this!

Thank you again to all of the parents who came along.
We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

Geocaching

Due to us having all of our Year 6s at Cycle Safe this week, our Year 5s in Room 14 have had a chance to spend some time together exploring something we think is really cool. 

Earlier in the week we solved this problem, as we were revisiting some of the concepts we have been learning about through our geometry focus this term. Stella make some connections and told us about her experiences Geocaching, which is an activity that involves an item, or a container holding a number of items, hidden at a particular location for GPS users to find by means of coordinates posted on the Internet. It turns out that the activity of Geocaching involves using a lot of the mapping knowledge and skills we have been looking to develop recently. 

Stella told us that her grandad, Rodney, is a keen Geocacher, so we asked if he would like to come in and tell us a little more about it this morning. 

Rodney explained to us how GPS works, how Geocaching works, and he even shared a few of his personal experiences of Geocaching. Can you believe he has found nearly 7000 items since he began hunting in 2002?

If you are wondering how many there are hidden in Christchurch, just take a look at this map. 

Here is a video of our hunting through Cypress Gardens today. We used iPads, compasses and our appetites for adventure to help us in our search. 

Thanks again to Rodney for taking the time to come in and speak to us! It sounds like the Geocache website will soon have some new members. 

Beach Education

We had a successful trip out to North Beach Surf Lifesaving Club today for our beach education programme. It was great to see all Room 14 children refreshed after the holidays and ready to get stuck in.

The day began in the clubhouse, where four local lifeguards took us through 5 key points for children to remember at the beach, which we then acted out in role play activities.

The 5 points were:

1. Always swim between the flags
2. Always have an adult watch over you
3. Always listen to the advice of lifeguards
4. If in doubt, stay out
5. Never swim or surf alone

We went for a swim later in the morning, where some of us were working on our body-surfing techniques and others were being courageous by dolphin-diving under the big waves.

For the rest of the day the lifeguards taught us some lifesaving games, told us a little about their jobs, and we also had time to get creative and build sandcastles. 

We were lucky that the rain held off for us and that the weather didn't disrupt our programme. The key messages were a great reminder for the children about being safe in the water, considering our national accident statistics have been so bad this Summer. We will revisit water safety when we start swimming at school later this term. 

CanSail Trip

This morning we had an exciting adventure on Lyttelton Harbour. Our Year 5s went sailing aboard STV Fox II, a 54' gaff-rigged ketch. The boat was first launched in 1922 and is one of the oldest sailing vessels in New Zealand.

We enjoyed the thrill of crewing a small ship. Fox II required several of us on each line, needing coordinated crew-power to haul on the sheets and raise six sails. This was a great activity for raising awareness of leadership skills and responsibilities in a team, which are key understandings we are looking to develop in our Year 6 students for next year.

Another highlight was being humoured by the hard-case instructors!

Our trip took us on a return voyage from Naval Point Yacht Club (Lyttelton) to Diamond Harbour.

Woodend Camp 2014

What an amazing time we had at Woodend last week.

We spent three days challenging ourselves, developing new skills, working together and creating great experiences we may never forget.

This week we will be putting together a collaborative camp journal and reflecting on our experiences for our portfolios ahead of our 3-way conferences in Week 4.

We would like to say a special thanks to our Room 14 parents, Bryan, Shane and Tobi, who accompanied us.

Room 14 Children Make The News

We are so happy that Connor and Jennifer, along with Asianna and Kate from Room 13, were able to take part in a junior cricket showcase for the visiting royals in Latimer Square today. This was part of a promotion for the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup.

It was great to see them enjoying themselves on One News tonight.

One News Video - Sir Richard Hadlee Praises Prince William's Cricket Skills

Getting Moving With Statistics

You may have seen a tweet of ours a few weeks ago about measuring our pulse. We were trying to find a way of calculating how many times our heart beats in a day. This led to some great discussions about what affects our heart rate and what an ideal heart rate is.

We found out that it's good to get your heart rate up and do some physical activity everyday. We learned that this can help us to think more clearly, focus and therefore achieve more in our learning. It was also interesting to find out that a lower heart rate when resting is often a sign of good health.

Our consensus was that we should try to integrate more fitness in our learning this term, which opened up some opportunities linking with our statistics focus.

Here are some of the activities we've been involved in over the last couple of weeks...

Ski Trip Video

Here is the What's Up Bromley? news clip that we played in assembly this week.

Year 6 Cycle Safety

What an effort this week in the Cycle Safe Programme from our Year 6's. We have been hearing great things from the instructors about their listening skills and sensible attitude towards riding on the road. Here they are road-ready and looking for a challenge...

 

Kiwisport - Cricket

This term we have been working on throwing, catching, striking and fielding, so today we were able to put our skills into use in a game of modified cricket.

Cassius and Roman made some awesome run-outs and it was great to hear people supporting others.

Measurement Challenge

Millimetres, centimetres or metres? Which would be more appropriate?

Today we completed a measurement challenge. We had a list of objects or landmarks around the school to estimate the measurements of, then we went and took the actual measurements.

Many of us showed great task management skills to complete the challenge. It was a great chance for some children to display the skills and attitudes they require to earn their learner license.

Top Team

Top Team were running teamwork activities this afternoon for the senior school. Fantastic weather and lots of fun. Thank you to the parents who came along to help.

Swimming

We had an enjoyable first swim of the year today. A wide range of abilities, but lots of enthusiasm shown from everyone. The hardest part for most was having to get out!