Room 23 Mini Olympics

On Wednesday 26 September Room 23 participated in their very own Mini Olympics. It was a great success. All of the students had a lot of fun. The overall medal winners were: Bronze- France, Silver- New Zealand and Gold- Jamaica. Check out the photos and video of the day!!


Click on THIS link to watch our Olympics video

Mini Olympics - picture slideshow

Room 23 student's memoirs

Gently my eyes flutter open.

I sit up gingerly, my hair matted from the nights adventures and my blankets still clinging to my legs. Outside, the morning seems as reluctant as I am to face the day. The sky is an inky blue, the edges of the horizon a blend of candyfloss and honey. Dew glimmers on the grass like tiny diamonds and I can just make out the silhouette  of a cat stretching in the dawns embrace. Sleep still wants me stuck in the warmth and safety of my bed, but I struggle against it, stumbling, falling, thrashing my way down the narrow hallway for breakfast.

The sound of homemade tinkling noisily into my awaiting bowl awakens me from my trance. I slop yoghurt messily on top and milk spills over the muesli and bench top as I rub residue from my wary eyes. I dig in, the oast and coconut feeling like sandpaper on my tongue and before I know it, the muesli is gone. The rest of the morning getting ready is a drag. I move slowly around the house, picking things up and dropping them, wandering pointlessly until I realise how late it is. 8.15 flashes in my face as I grab my bag and attempt to pull my shoes over my grubby white socks. I feel my face turn pink from strain, and as I turn around, I see Marcia pull fish faces at my window. Marcia isn't a fish, shes my best friend, and she is early. I glance at the clock. 8.20. Okay, maybe not late. On time.

"COMING" I bellow, skidding into the bathroom to kiss mum goodbye. The 30 second conversation is the same "Got your lunch?" "Yes mum" "Homework?" "Yes mum" "Cellphone?" "Yes mum". "Goodbye" "Love you" "You too". I race outside to find Marcia standing there.

"No need to rush"

Everything is wet and shining with morning mist, a rainbow hanging like a banner overhead. Spring is begging to emerge, magenta, saffron and lush green flowers brushing my legs as I walk. Behind me, a stream of bubbles and ducks weave in and out of the pond weeds, searching for breakfast. It sounded like a dream, or a fairytale. But it wasn't. If this is a fairytale, this is the part where I am trapped in a castle. No, I was walking to school.

Ashleigh Young

London Olympics 2012

Wow! The 2012 London Olympic games have been and gone!
Room 23 students have been following the games very closely. We had regular discussions about how well our New Zealand team was doing. We are so proud of our team with 13 medals all up! 6 Gold, 2 Silver and 5 Bronze.
We have looked at the history of the Olympic Games and what the symbols represent. The students each chose a country they would follow in the games. They wrote reports and learnt about the different countires participating in the games. The students also followed a New Zealand athlete. They are creating a poster or 3D object to represent these athletes. The students will be planning and creating their own Olympic Games to participate in. This is an exciting upcoming event.
Stay tuned for photos in the next few weeks!

GRANDPARENTS DAY

Friday June 1st was a very special day at Otumoetai Intermediate School. Why? Because it was Grandparents Day!! All of the students grandparents were invited to come and join their grandchildren for a day of fun at school. Room 23 students were lucky enough to have 16 grandparents come and join our class for the morning. We had a fun block asking the grandparents what their school was like when they were 12 and 13 year old children. School was VERY different back in their day with many grandparents getting the strap when they were naughty in class!! Room 23 students taught their grandparents some math games followed by an exciting and creative challenge...they had to make clothes out of newspaper! There was a set criteria to follow: They had 45 minutes to create their masterpiece. It needed to have a hat, pants/skirt/top/dress, shoes and if they had accessories they received extra points!! This was a fun and exciting challenge that finished off with a very entertaining catwalk. 
Congratulations to Naomi's group and Jackson's group who came first equal! 
Well done to all grandparents who were involved. We had a wonderful time hosting you, and we hope you had just as much fun!

Here are some pictures below of the creating and modelling of the newspaper masterpieces!

Grandparents Day Fun!

Grandparents Day - Online Slideshow Creator

KNOWLEDGEATHON

Otumoetai Intermediate students are participating in the KNOWLEDGEATHON! This is the biggest school fundraiser of the year!
This is where the students have 100 general knowledge questions to learn over the next month or so. There are categories about New Zealand, Sport and Recreation, Scientific World, Art & Literature, Around The World, Living World, Entertainment, Vocabulary, and other Bits and Pieces.

Room 23 have a goal of raising $60 each from sponsorship! The more money we raise the more prizes we could win! Each night the students are expected to practice one of the categories and in class we have a mini test to see what they know and what they still need to learn. We hope all students in room 23 can get 100 out of 100!

Watch this space...

Novel Study

For the first half of the term room 23 students are doing a novel study in reading. Each group has a different book that they are reading. Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne, Once by Morris Gleitzman and Ties That Bind, Ties That Break by Lensey Namioka. All the students are thorougly enjoying their books and are learning to think critically about the text they are reading.

We are also linking our learning from the novels we are reading with our topic study. We have researched the ideas in the text we are reading. Once and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is about the Jews, Nazis and Holocaust and Ties That Bind, Ties That Break is about foot binding in China. We did not know a lot about these topics so we are doing a research project each about them to find out more information.

We will put photos up of the finished products when we have completed them all!

Term Two's Friday Project

This term the students who aren't involved in the academies will be participating in a class project. This project is called 'what's in a video?' Throughout the project we will be learning about various camera angles in static and moving images, learning about storyboards and how to write a script. Once we have learnt this we will get to make our own video's in groups we have chosen.

Here are some pictures below of what we did on Friday. We were learning about different camera angles in static images. We looked through various magazines and newspapers and identified the different camera angles that are used in photos and movies.

These are close up, long shot, zoom, low angle, high angle, eye level and medium shot. We are learning about these so we can use them when we make our video.

Who visits our class blog?

As part of our homework in week one we had a look through our class blog to identify who visits our class blog. We were amazed to see that people not only from Tauranga but all over the world!! We have had visitors from Germany, America, Australia and Canada! We chose one of these countries, found out five facts about it and drew their flag. We have presented these on our wall.
Some of the facts we found out were:
-Over 312 million people live in America
-Germany exports more goods than any other country in the world
-Justin Bieber was born in Canada
-The first US President was George Washington.

Have a look at some of the photos below

End of Term One!

Wow! It is already the end of term one. Ten weeks have flown by very fast!
Room 23 has had a very exciting and successful term. We have covered Add/Sub and Algebra in Maths. In writing we completed a poetry study, a memoir about an event in our lives and a diary entry from the perspective of a soldier, pilot or nurse from World War One. This linked in with our Anzac Day topic study. We have been working on our reading needs and have covered using prior knowledge, inferencing, finding the main ideas and summarising to help us when we are reading. Term One has been busy, but successful! I hope everyone has a fun and exciting holiday.
I wonder what term two will bring...
Lots of fun and exciting learning opportunities i'm sure!!
We will be taking a break from out blog for two weeks...so check back in then to see what room 23 students get up to in term two!

Music Technology

Follow the link below to Room 26's blog. Mrs Bassett took a video of some of room 23 student's in music tech on Thursday! Can you guess what song they are playing?
http://room26-otuinter.blogspot.co.nz/2012/03/technology-part-1.html

Anzac Biscuits

Today room 23 students made Anzac biscuits to finish off our Anzac Day unit.

An Anzac biscuit is a sweet biscuit popular in Australia and New Zealand, made using rolled oats, flour, desiccated coconut, sugar, butter, golden syrup, baking soda and water. Anzac biscuits have long been associated with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) established in World War I. It has been claimed the biscuits were sent by wives to soldiers abroad because the ingredients do not spoil easily and the biscuits kept well during naval transportation.

We had a lot of fun making our Anzac biscuits and MOST of them turned our great and tasted yummy. The students worked together well and there were no kitchen disasters which was a bonus! Hopefully we get another chance to use the food tech room again soon!

Here are some of our finished products. Check out our slideshow below too!

Anzac Biscuits Slideshow

Anzac Biscuits1 - create a slideshow

Anzac Day Presentations

Today room 23 students showed their Anzac Day presentations to the class. Over the past few weeks they have been researching questions that they wanted to find out about Anzac Day. They worked in groups and came up with a range of presentations from powerpoint, posters and even a diarama! Here are some photos of the presentations!

Our Writing Wall

Room 23 students' created a writing wall to display all of their wonderful stories! We have completed a poetry study, and a memoir about a significant event in our lives. The writing wall looks awesome and the students should be very proud of their work!

Our Class Jigsaw!

Room 23 kids

Made a giant jigsaw

The pieces together

Half covered the floor

Just like the puzzle

We all fit together

Making good friendships that might last forever

Each of us is different

Unique, not quite right or wrong

Doing our best

Makes our class strong

If one piece is missing we’re not quite complete

Being a valued class member

Makes us feel neat

Room 23's wonderful portraits!

Kizoa slideshow: Room 23 Students - Slideshow

Joseph Kony.

Hello to all of our pageviewers, sorry we haven't blogged in a while, it has been a very busy week!
This post is to inform you all about Joseph Kony- a.k.a- the new Hitler.
Kony lives over in Africa, and he is the head of Guerilla Group, which is a group in Ugandia that kill innocent people.
What we have recently discorvered, is that he gets young children while they are asleep, gets his army to abduct them and then forces them to kill their own parents/ neighbours. He turns the girls into sex slaves and make the boys go to war. The kids are our age and younger. Imagine this- you are sleeping and then suddenly you are being taken away and given a gun to kill your parents.
He locks them up and makes them fight for him.
The thing that we can do to help these poor people, is to make him known. You need to make him famous. If he is famous, the American Army will have a better chance at finding him and killing him. What you can also do is sign the pledge, one vote saves thousands of lives. Please go to this link and pledge.
http://kony2012.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/
It would mean the world to so many invisible children.
Thankyou.

Splash Paddle And Dash Cancelled!

Parents got a text this morning, informing them that the SPD, is cancelled!
Due to bad weather conditions, it was canceled. Not posponed.
Everyone is really upset about this, but the people who were going to participate, still got a sports badge.

Bad Start To Autumn!

Today is the first day of Autumn- yes, the year is going quite quick.
Room 23 is located next to a HUGE bunch of big trees, and today has not been the best day for them.
High voltage winds are erupting through the school, torturous rain and indigo clouds are some of the things we are experiencing right now. We hope this doesn't affect our p.e time or our class time.

Phones In Class

First block was atrotious!
TWO phones went off in the timespace of ten minutes. This is very distracting, as the rule is NO PHONES TURNED ON IN CLASS. Or they have to be on silent.
Trent Cameron and Irene Lee did not put their phones on silent, and both started making noises. Miss. Culton took care of it by confiscating the phones until the end of today, hopefully they learnt their lesson.
Because if your phone is on and making noise, it distracts us from our learning. So please, if you are going to enter room 23- HAVE IT ON SILENT OR NOT ON AT ALL.

Treaty Of Room 23

It is very important to us, that everybody is having a nice time in room 23.
We have a class treaty that everybody must follow.
The main points of it are...
*Do not run
* Do not talk over others
*Do not be mean or use putdowns
*Always do your very best
* Do not distract others
There is alot more, but those are the main things to keep our class as best as it can be(:

Speak Up!

Bullying is in-tolerable, not good on anybody and totally un-acceptable at OIS.
Otumoetai Intermediate has a programme called SPEAK UP!
If you are feeling un-safe, un-happy, being bullied or just having a hard time- you must speak up and tell somebody about your worries so you feel safe and happy here.
You can start by telling your friend or parents, and if it continues then go to tell your teacher or Mr. Sheedy.
They will deal with it, and you can go back to having a great time!
It is completely safe and confidential to speak up. And you feel much better afterward.
Please do not be the smaller person, and bully somebody else. If you are feeling upset or angry, go take ten minutes just to sit alone in a quiet spot and calm down. Think about it- nobody gets anything out of being mean.

Class

Recently room 23 has been having Mrs Mayhead as our class .
We ALL think she is really chilled back and calls us nice names (:
She has taught us how to a maths grid and she play around the world with us so we can be the best that we can be in maths .
She read a book about anzac day that has to do with our unit study (topic as you'll see in the post below)  .
Today is a very special day as it is leap year and Jackson B-Day  happy b-day to him .
Jaime and Bolly are going to take a few photos of our art and writing so you know hats going on in Room 23

Jaime

Leap Year!

Today is the 29th of Febuary- this only happens once every four years. But this year it is a leap year! So we get one extra day in the year.
Jackson Filipo, pupil of room 23, has his BIRTHDAY on the 29th of Febuary. So he only really gets a birthday every four years. He is twelve today, but technically only three!
Imagine only having a birthday once every four years!

Bolly.

What are we learning about today?

Today we have Mrs. Mayhead, and she is teaching us about Anzac Day!
ANZAC stands for Australian New Zealand Army Corps, and Anzac day is a special day for Australia and New Zealand, to remember and honour those who were killed or injured or served well for our countries in the war.
Some ways we remember:
* Bake Anzac biscuits
* Go to a dawn service
*Wear a red poppy over your heart
* Study war/ Anzac day
* Listen to stories about it
Anzac day is on the 25th of April.
Many people get up VERY early to go to the dawn service, which for Tauranga is usually held at the mount by the Rememberance Stone.
Or you just get up very early to watch it on television.
In many familys, people have Anzac biscuits. They are biscuits that were sent over to the men at war because they were healthy, low g.i, yummy and lasted a long time before going off.
They are very easy to make and are VERY delicious, but you might ned a toothpick to get the oats out of your teeth!
We are doing a lot of activities in class based around Anzac Day, and we are all looking forward to honouring the brave soldiers.

Bolly.

Schooling is very important.

Without school where would we be asked a fellow member of our class?
Well, without school- where would we be?
In jail?
No friends?
Isolated from growth in development of careers?
In a zoo?!
Well, we could be in all of those places.
But at Otumoetai Intermediate School, we have a great range of amazing teachers, pupils, oppourtunites, classes and  leaders!
These all help us become the best student we can be. And prepare us for the rest of our lifes.
From Student Leadership, To sports academy, To dance and drama academy, To kapahaka, To music, To art- to sitting at a desk learning second languages!
There are so many oppourtunites to grasp- so GO FOR IT.
And that is what room 23 strive to do.
Hope.
Strive.
Achieve.
And you will be sure to have an amazing time at Otumoetai Intermediate!

Touch Tournament

Room 23 is very talented in their sporting abilities. And as great as we are, we did VERY well in the touch team, but we are SO sick of winning and being better than everyone that we let the other teams win. So we came fourth, just to make others feel better ofcourse.
We will win next time- don't worry. We aren't THAT nice(:
Thanks for reading, remember- SPEAK UP.
<3

Room 23 Is The Best!

Room 23 is  the bestest class in the world, with the coolest people :D
We enjoy sport, writing, maths, reading, playing and most of all lunch time :)
Please follow our blog!