Putting on the polish!

With less than a week left till our first production performance we are busy putting the polish on our Uno's Garden performance. If you are wanting to watch the show get in quick to get your tickets on the day/nights that you prefer...they will sell out!

Here is a taster of how fabulous our syndicate will look:

Calendars

It's calendar time. This is always a great fund raiser for the school and provides you with the opportunity to purchase a unique art work as an early christmas present.

Syndicate Assembly Wk9

·      Sport: 

*The ASB Girls Soccer Tournament is to be held on Thursday in week 10. Mr. McMillan will be finalizing the teams this week.

*Muritai School will have some stackers competing at ‘The New Zealand Sport Stacking Championships’ held in Palmerston North on Saturday 15^thSeptember.

*Tennis

There is a tennis tournament next term for boys and girls.  Mr. McMillan would like to see anyone who is interested and has had tennis coaching or plays for a club.

*Touch

Touch notices need to go to the office.  They need to be by this Friday.  No form No play!

·      Maths

*The Y5/6 ‘Mathswell’ competition team had a great time last Thursday evening at Berhampore School in Wellington.  It was a really tough competition.  Well done Lauren, Mia TB, Max W, Monty D, Lucy C and Liam F for your efforts.

·      Artsplash Choir

*The Y4-6 Artsplash choir are going to Wellington, on Wednesday, for arehearsal at the Michael Fowler Centre.  They will leave at approx.10.00am (rehearsal @ 11.30am) and return to school at approx. 2.00pm.  The concert is at 7.45pm on Wednesday night.

·      Production: 

This is the final week of preparation so make sure you:

-have all of your costume sorted and at school in a named bag

-continue to cooperate to ensure maximum concentration during practices.

-read the notice (email) that will come out this week about times and places

·      Behaviour expectations

It is so important to be ‘better than our best’ when there are relievers in the classroom.

·      Book work

We expect that bookwork be done to a high standard.  You need to have ‘PRIDE’ in all of the work you do.

·      Homework: 

*Room 11, 12 and 13 will begin the new homework this week.  It is a NEW and improved version of homework and it includes – Reading, Spelling, Mathletics, a relevant activity and ‘Extra for Experts’.  All of the required homework is due in by Friday.  

·      Welcome Felix!

*Felix has started today in Room 11.  Welcome to Muritai School Felix!!

·      REMINDER about Mathletics: 

* Free Parent Access!

You can register for free parent access so you can view your child’s progress and certificates.  Visit www.mathletics.co.nz/parent Fill in the required fields and submit Record your new username and password.  Each student’s Mathletics account holds information relating to individual results and progress.

Please ensure that your child is the only one to access and use their account.

·      4 C’s:

* Last week’s goal was ‘Co-operation’.  It was great to see most of the students co-operate with each other and teachers through production preparation.  This week’s goal is to use Common Sense  - things that are ‘normal around our school’ e.g. walking in the corridors, picking up rubbish (even if it’s not yours), letting others through the door ways, looking after your own property and respecting others’ property etc.

And the winner is...

Y5/6 Speech competition Final

The final of the Y5/6 speech competition was AWESOME!  

All of the finalists did a great job. 

The winner of the Y5 category is...Andrew Sutcliffe

The winner of the Y6 category is...Milly Griffiths

The 2012 overall Y5/6 speech champion is...Milly Griffiths!!!  Well done Milly!!!

Syndicate Assembly W8

·      Sport: 

*The ASB Girls Soccer Tournament is to be held in week 10 of term 3

*Congratulations to the Y5/6 Girls and Boys hockey teams as they won the Central Zone trophy by coming 1^st and 2^nd respectively.

*Y5/6 Boys Hockey feedback:

“They took direction very well, and outplayed teams with players with much more experience by working well as a group, backing each other up and showing superior fitness (and bravery). They exhibited good sportsmanship on and off the field, supported the girls when possible and were a real credit to the Muritai School. Most importantly they all seemed to enjoy themselves and are all very keen to play again”.

*Water Polo – The finals are this week.  Make sure that you check your emails for times etc.

*North Island Primary Schools Ski Championships – The following Y5/6 students took part in the championships last week:  Tobias Knight, Max Hahn, and Mathew Jones.

·      ‘Mean Green House’ competition

*Grace Allan, Ella Tait, Eva Oliver and Lauren Redpath (of Room 13) have been working on a project over that last few weeks, which they have entered into the ‘Mean Green House’ competition.  They have put a lot of hardwork and effort into this project.  You can see the video they made, as part of the project, on Room 13’s class blog.

·      BP Technology Challenge

*Last week Muritai Scholl sent 2 teams to the BP technology challenge.  Pablo, Eden, Ella T, Charlotte W and Grace Ogilvie made up the Year 5/6 team.  The team had great success, placing 3^rd in the ‘known challenge’ section of the event. 

·      Enviro School

*The Enviro Team (Eden and Rosa) will be setting up a new compost bin for the students to start putting food scraps in to.

·      Maths

*The Y5/6 ‘Mathswell’ competition is this Thursday evening at Berhampore School in Wellington.  We wish our team all the best!

Problem solving: Lauren, Mia, Max

Activity: Monty, Lucy, Liam

·      Production: 

*You need to bring in all of the things you need for your costume by Monday of week 9. An email has been sent home explaining what is required.

·      Y5/6 Speech finals are today.  Good luck to all of the finalists!!!

·      Homework: 

*Room 11, 12 and 13 are coming to the end of the inquiry homework.  All of the required homework is due in by Friday.  Room 14 has an extra week as they started the inquiry homework a week later.  There will be a NEW and improved version of homework starting in Week 9 and will include –Reading, Spelling, Mathletics, inquiry and an ‘Extra for Experts’.

·      ‘Tell the teacher’: 

*It is always important to ‘tell the teacher’ about any incidents that happen in or outside of the class.  The teacher needs to be informed of things that are contrary to the class OR syndicate expectations.

·      Mathletics: 

* Free Parent Access!

You can register for free parent access so you can view your child’s progress and certificates.  Visit www.mathletics.co.nz/parent Fill in the required fields and submit Record your new username and password.  Each student’s Mathletics account holds information relating to individual results and progress.

Please ensure that your child is the only one to access and use their account.

·      4 C’s:

*Consideration (moving silently through the corridor during learning time) was last week’s goal.  This week’s goal is Co-operation, we need to ensure that we co-operate with students and teachers through all of the production preparation.

Mean Green House Comp

After a whole lot of blood, sweat and yes even tears 4 students from Room 13 have finally completed their Schoolgen Mean Green House Competition entry. The students were required to explore eco houses, draw their own house, build it, record all their work in a portfolio and then create a video that shared all the fascinating details of their house. Here is the result:

And the finalists are...

It was a very difficult decision this year with so many speakers presenting their speeches to such a high standard. However a decision had to made and the students from Year 5 and 6 that will progress to the Finals on Friday are (In no particular order):

Year 5

Max Hahn

Phoebe Evans

Andrew Sutcliffe

Lucy Crawford

Year 6

Hannah Moffat

Harry Summers

Louis Rutherford

Milly Griffiths

Congratulations finalists and to all those who presented!

Syndicate Assembly W7

 Today we met as a syndicate and talked about what is coming up this week and also what we aim to achieve. 

·      Macey Caughley (Bad Habits) and Harrison Summers (6 weeks in a wheel chair) presented their speeches

·      Sports – Zone Hockey Tournament on Tuesday 28^th August

·      BP Challenge – Thursday 30th August

·      Production – Help needed for the painting of the backdrops.  Please contact Ms. Berry ASAP if your parents are able to assist.

·      Speeches  - Top 8 finalist to be confirmed by Tuesday and the FINAL will be held on Friday.  An email with names, times and venue will be forwarded as soon as we make the final decisions.

·      Our team GOAL for the week: moving through the corridors silently during learning time (Consideration)

And the finalists are...

It was a very difficult decision this year with so many speakers presenting their speeches to such a high standard. However a decision had to made and the students from Room 13 that will progress to the Semi-Finals on Friday are:

Max Hahn
Phoebe Evans
Louis Rutherford
Euan McLaren
Charlotte Wilson

Congratulations finalists and to all those who presented!

And so it begins...

Today we sat the first of our two asTTle tests. This was a writing test that required the students to write about an imaginative event that didn't take place as was planned, hoped for or expected. This test challenged students to not be limited by their experiences and to create an entertaining story with a twist! We were particularly focusing on the students spelling, punctuation and grammar as this is a syndicate focus this year.

We also joined up with Room 14 and held our first production practice. Having heard a synopsis of the introduction we now understand how Ms Berry has turned the book, Uno's Garden, into a school play. We then choose and divided into our 3 dance groups; Animals, Activists/Hippies and Suits/Business People. Over the next few weeks we will be spending more time choreographing and practicing our dances until they are perfect!

Syndicate Assembly

Today we met as a syndicate and talked about what is coming up this week, what we have been achieving over the last few weeks and also what we aim to achieve.

• Hockey team is organised and slips need to be returned
• Girls football team still has opportunities available to participate
• Arts Club is up and running as an option for the Year 6 students.
• Speech Semi Final this Friday. Each class will be informed of their finalists by Wednesday.
• asTTle testing will be taking part this week, with both a writing and mathematics test being used to assess where the students are at.
• All classes inquiry homework underway...Keep referring to the marking schedule. And ASK A TEACHER if you have any concerns.
• Production practice starts today! You will need to be incredibly patient at times during this process.
• Some students had the opportunity to participate in the Hutt City Green Gold waste tour...With so many passionate students, it will be easy to continue our green gold path.
• Well done Year 6's earning 10 mins extra play for our syndicate!!! Keep up the good assembly behaviour.
• Focussing on being respectful and kind to all members of our school regardless of friendship circles. Remember: If a problem seems to big to sort out or continues...see a teacher.

Speeches

Speeches are well underway with a fantastic variety of speech topics and presentations so far. I have been very impressed with the preparation of the speakers. The top four speakers will advance to the speech semi finals and then from there the top 8 to the finals.

Well done those who have overcome their fears of performing!!!

Maori Language Week Challenge

With Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori (Maori Language Week) almost upon us the challenge for all Muritai School students is to do with the longest place name in Aotearoa and the second longest place name in the world.

The year 5/6 challenge is to be able to memorize as much of the place name as possible. The place name is named after the hill in which "Tamatea, with the big knees, who climbed mountains, the land swallower, who circumnavigated NZ, played his flute to his beloved. "

The place name is:

Taumata-whakatangihanga-koauau-o-tamatea-turi-pukaka-piki-maunga-horo-nuku-pokai-whenua-ki-tana-tahu.


This video will help with pronunciation although it is not perfect:

Up and running.

Day one, Term 3 and straight back in to it! Amoung other things today we revisited our informative and interesting reports.

Firstly the students had to identify the areas from their reports in which they can improve. Then they picked four of the identified areas to write this terms goals on. Some of the draft goals are as follows:

My goal is to take more care in the presentation of work I will do this by taking time and not rushing.


This term I need to recall my basic facts quickly and accurately by practicing them lots.


My first goal for the term is to participate in class discussion often and when speaking, talk clearly and effectively.


More to follow!

The love of the game...

In a break from classwork those students who were interested participated in the emotional drama of penalty shootouts during Euro 2012.

Matariki

With Matariki only days away Room 13 and 11 participated in a fun kapa haka session where we learnt the traditional Maori children's game of whai or string games. Many of the students were able to follow the complication processes to make the many different shapes possible.


Matariki (Maori New Year) is a time of celebration and many children participate in games and making activities during this time. Here are a few photos of Room 13 in action: