Apanui Infant School comes home!

What a historic day. Today the first section of the original Apanui infant school was relocated. Several keen community members were there to watch the move at 5.30am. It is once again part of the school! This has been based at the Te Whare Wananga O Awanuiarangi and has been moved as part of the redevelopment of their campus. The remaining two sections will be moved on Friday. Welcome home! Watch this space for further updates.

Athletics Day

What a fabulous time we all had in the sunshine today at athletics! Team two and three children showed off their skills by running, jumping, and throwing in a variety of events. It was great to see everybody participating and really trying their best. Thank you to all of the parents who helped out and to Mr T for his organisation. Well done to the parents and teachers who actually won the relay race...go the over 30's!

School Gala

We had a brilliant turn out for our school gala on Friday and the sun shone the whole time! Thank you to all of the parents, staff, helpers, and visitors who made this day a success. We couldn't have done it without you!

Sean Dewar - Performer

On Thursday we had Sean Dewar perform for the school. Sean has been studying the aboriginal culture from his elders since he was sixteen years old. He shared stories, traditional aboriginal dance, didgeridoo, beat box, and amazed us all with his skills on the boomerang and bamboo spear!
Sean captivated our students with his performance which was a balance between entertainment, humour and information.

A morning with Room Seven

I recently spent a morning in Room Seven, one of our three school immersion classes. What a privilege it was to witness the learning taking place in this room!

Ukulele Kids

On Thursday lunchtimes, a group of about 18 middle school children get together and play ukulele. It's loads of fun!

Library Time

We love our weekly library visits. What could be better than curling up with a good book? Here are Room Six getting into books during library time.

Go For It

All middle school classes have been enjoying their lessons in gymnastics as part of our Go 4 It programme. Here are Room Two children getting into action during one of their sessions.

Apanui - Backing Black - All the way!!

Optical Illusion

Gala

We are collecting items of food each week for our gala. Last week we recieved a huge amount of canned goods -thank you! This week is packaged food week. Please bring in an item of goods for our quick fire raffles. We appreciate your support!

We are the Champions!

I am sure there were a few on the edge of their seats on Sunday night, but the result was worth the eighty minutes of anxiety! We are so proud of our New Zealand team. Way to go! I have posted three questions about the match below. Correct answers will be drawn out of a hat for a prize at the end of this week.
1. Who scored New Zealand's only try?
2. Who kicked our penalty goal?
3. What was the final score?

Term Four Learning!

The year is racing by but we are looking forward to a fun filled, learning focused term. Here is a brief overview of some of the learning that we will be covering over the next nine weeks.
Numeracy: Measurement (time), Number Revision ( place Value, addition, subtraction, mutiplication, division) Visit here to play some great time games. 'Hickory Dickory Clock' is a good place to start!
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/measures.htm

Inquiry: Science: Interacting Systems. L/O Describe how natural features are affected by human actions - Rena disaster

P.E: Athletics (run, jump, push, throw), Gymnastics (Go 4 it - move it!)

Literacy programmes will continue to run with regular reading, writing, and word work. The arts will be integrated into our inquiry unit.

RWC

Our school held our own RWC tournament in the first week of term. All children participated in pool games in a variety of fun sports. Winners then competed in semi finals, quarters and then the final which was fought out between NZ and Russia. Russia came out victorious! Let's hope our All Blacks don't suffer the same fate in this Sundays final!

Children came dressed in black to support our team...Go the mighty All Blacks! Thank you Mrs McIntosh for organising this fabulous event...you rock!

Dance Day

What a fabulous event! Classes worked really hard to create and master their individual dances. We loved them all! Here are a few pictures and videos...sorry I didn't record everybodys!

Winter Sports Day

Thanks Mr Templeton for organising this fabulous day. It is always one of the highlights of our year. This great event allows all children to participate in friendly, non competitive games against other children in our community.

Dance Day

Make sure that you are there on Thursday the 29th of September to share our celebration of NZ and the world. Apanui School is welcoming the world through dance! See dazzling displays of Kiwiana, and stunning splashes of dance. All of this and more...free to watch, free to enjoy, but priceless for the memories.

Apanui School

29th September

1pm (Don't be late)

See you there!!!

Go4it 2011

Our school is in the full swing of the Go4it programme.
We've been really lucky to have skilled sport providers in the school leading us in new fundamental skills. Currently, Team 3 are doing the Bike-it programme.

Check out the sites listed below to read some of the success stories and photos of schools doing the sports. Our very own Apanui School has a mention on both of the pages listed below. Be sure to have a look! Come on... Go 4 It!
www.sportbop.co.nz/success-stories

www.sportbop.co.nz/go4it-photos

Speeches

Students have been working on speeches this term and have presented their speech to their class or a small group. Today classes shared a few of the top speeches at a team assembly. Well done children...there are some future public speakers amongst you!

The Great Rugby Robbery Show

Today students watched the playhouse performance of The Great Rugby Robbery Show. This introduced the Rugby World Cup and some of its history through a laugh-a-minute story which had kids of all ages (including the grown-up kids) in hysterics.
The show encourages students to follow Rugby World Cup 2011 and to support New Zealand (or their own country) It was written by Greg Cooper.

End of Winter Sports

Most team winter sports have wrapped up for the season. It was fabulous to see the last games of hockey this weekend, and participate in the fun parent versus teacher matches. Many of our teams won the overall season trophies. Everyon ecan now enjoy a Saturday morning sleep in! At school we have one more week of winter sports and then next Friday (23rd) have our winter sports day at Rex Morpeth Park...feel free to come and watch!

Rugby World Cup

Classes are learning about the rugby world cup. It is an exciting time for New Zealand who hope to repeat history and win the cup playing on New Zealand soil! Two very lucky Apanui students won an ANZ bank competition and the privilege of being ball boys at a world cup match. What a brilliant experience. Well done Jordan and Jack...we will look out for you on television! GO THE ALL BLACKS!

Room Six Assembly

On Friday, the Room Six pupils led our school assembly. They did a great job and we loved hearing them sing the taniwha song and give a special performance of a traditional Japanese song they are learning. Well done Room Six!

Room Six learn about Japan

It was fabulous to watch the children in room six engaging in new experiences today. Their class have been learning about Japan. Today they were making carp kites and sushi. What great fun!

Tennis

As part of our 'GO FOR IT' programme we are learning tennis. The classes each have eight sessions with an expert in this sport. They are learning some fabulous skills and are really keen to extend their knowledge...so head to the tennis courts with your kids this weekend!

Book Fair

We currently have a book fair at Apanui School. The school receives a percentage of the sales on every book sold, which goes towards purchasing new library resources. The library will be open before and after schools for sales and each class will visit the book fair twice.

Fijian Rugby Team

We couldn't turn down the opportunity to meet the Fijian rugby team today at Rugby Park. It has been a great way to fire the kids up about the upcoming Rugby World Cup.
Check out the cool video animoto slideshow. (Sorry about the Pass-it pics that sneaked into the video).

Soccer Star

The staff have been up learning how to deliver the perfect soccer lesson! Mr Reade even dressed up for the occasion in full Manchester United Strip! Challenge him to a lunchtime game kids!

Carl McTaggart

Today children had a demonstration by Carl McTaggert in hip hop dance. He demonstrated three forms of dance including B.boying (breaking), locking, and popping which is his speciality. Carl competes in international competitions in this sport. Many of our students opted into his special lessons and got their groove on! We have some talented little hip hoppers in our midst!

Daffodil Day

Apanui School always make a fabulous effort to support the cancer society on daffodil day. Our annual parade is an event the pupils and staff always look forward to. The sun even decided to shine for us this morning! Thank you to all of the students who supported this worthwhile cause.

Circle Time

Many of our classes make time in the week for quality circle time. This is partly to teach skills of listening and values, and discuss strategies to help students successfully deal with situations of conflict. Here is Room One during their session this week.

Class Photos

We had class photos on Thursday. Lets hope they didn't all act like clowns like the staff did in this picture! If you placed an order they should arrive in the next few weeks. The children certainly scrubbed up well for the event!

Island Night

The PTA organised a fabulous kids disco to follow up from the school 'Island Night' fundraiser. It was a great evening and students had limbo, hula, and island dancing competitions.Well done to all those students who got into the spirit of the evening and dressed up. Thank you to our fabulous PTA. You rock!

Kicked out of Class!

This week there were some minor disruptions to classes... but the learning kept happening! The cable guys have taken over Apanui and have been working their way through classes installing fibre optic cables for our high speed Internet. On Tuesday Rooms two and three had a day in the hall. They had a fabulous time making pizzas and solving 'fractional pizza' problems. They also squeezed in some marimba and ukulele time and had a short daytime disco! Today Room One had their turn in the hall. They also spent time learning some catchy tunes on the Marimba. Way to go Team Two for making the most of all situations and thank goodness for the hall...it would have been a little chilly if we didn't have this great space!

Snow in Whakatane!

Excitement was high as the kids experienced snow on Monday. Debate is still out about whether it was snow, hail, or 'snail'. Either way, it was fabulous to hear about the children's experiences. OK... there wasn't enough to make snow angels, but there was no harm in trying!

Go For It...Pass It!

The team have been having daily sessions with M.J who is teaching us large ball skills with a focus on passing and catching. M.J is an excellent netball player and the children are really benefiting from her expertise. We have also had two of the stars from 'The Magic' netball team doing workshops with us...thanks Julianna and Arahi! Here are some images of the kids fine tuning their skills!

Science Day - Sound

We had so much fun yesterday! Learning was evident everywhere as children were engaged in experiments and learning experiences to do with sound. We had a blast with Professor Vibration, Professor Amplification, Professor Highlow, Professor Echo, and Professor Explosion . Ask your child what they learnt!

You need flashplayer to view this slideshow

Weird Science Day - Sound!

On Tuesday of next week ( 9th August) Team Two are having a weird science day. Children will be moving around the classes participating in five different learning experiences and experiments to do with sound. It will be a great day! Children can dress up as a mad scientist for the day if they wish. Parents are welcome to come and join in the fun.

A reminder that we have a teacher only day on Friday the 12th of August, so school is offically closed.

Cartooning Workshop

Today eight students from each class were given the opportunity to extend their artistic talent and participate in a cartooning workshop with Stu Duval. They had a fabulous time! Here they are focused on their learning, and sharing their sensational drawings.

Riddle - Homophones

In word work and spelling this term, we will be learning about homophones (words that sound the same but have different meanings). To get your brains going, here are two riddles. The answers are homophones! Remember to post your answer as a comment to go into the draw for our blog raffle! Don't forget to include your name and room number.
An example is: A baby boy from the sky = sun's son.
1. An inexpensive chicks cry. __________ ___________
2. Without strength for seven days. ___________ _________

Stu Duval Visits

We love it when Stu Duval comes to share his stories with us! This year was no exception! He had us all captivated with his story 'Why Possums Hate Bright Lights.' His storytelling expertise and talent for art and cartooning really is amazing. You can find out more about him on his website http://www.studuval.co.nz/

Here are some images of him during our session today. Tomorrow some lucky students will be working with him on cartooning techniques. Today he briefly shared with the team how to make cartoons from letters and numbers, or 'an s, two dots, a prickle, and a line!' Ask your child to show you how! The kids have been doodling in their books ever since!

Thanks Stu!

Westpac Helicopter

Earlier this year, we had a mufti day to raise funds for Westpac Helicopter. We won the regional competition and got the opportunity to send five of our young fundraisers on a helicopter ride over Whakatane. The children selected had all made significant contributions to school fundraising ventures this year. Well done guys...when you do kind things for others the rewards are great!

Stars at Apanui

Apanui School is full of talent! It was astounding to watch our rising stars take to the stage at Thursday's 'Stars at Apanui'. There were phenomenal performances by individuals, the auditionees, kapa haka, school choir, and the amazing Mr Reade! Mr Reade organised this event and has worked so hard with the pupils to get them 'stage ready'. Thanks Mr Reade! Here are a few short clips of the kids in action. I would love to upload them all but I was so transfixed by the performances, I kept forgetting to take photographs! You guys were all amazing!

Matariki and Maori Language Week

All of our classes have structured Te Reo lessons twice a week, one of these being led by our expert Whaea Whitiri. These sessions are invaluable for raising students understanding of tikanga (values) and Te Reo (language). Last week was Maori Language Week. In addition to our language sessions, classes worked on a variety of activities to celebrate this event and wrap up our unit on Matariki - The Maori New Year. The immersion classes visited the observatory, all classes have been working on their Matariki Newspapers in Education, and learning is evident everywhere! The pictures below show some student projects from room seven, and room two making rewena bread and harakeke putiputi (flax flowers).