Mt SPA Swimming Sports

A Winning Team

What an absolutely amazing day!!!! I would like to sincerely thank Kay Pointon and her team for planning and executing a "well oiled" plan. Feedback from other schools and parents has been very complimentary so thank you to all involved.

Thanks must also go to our students who performed admirably. You are all a real credit to the school. We have many competent swimmers, and they had a great day.

Home and School worked hard behind the scenes in the blistering sun to provide food and refreshments. Thanks everyone.

Thank you to Mr Frank and Mrs Roach for organising our swimmers on the day.

Our Taonga

Yesterday afternoon we saw the last of the teachers sharing their taonga with the school.
Mrs Williamson shared her greenstone. She talked about how the greenstone needs to be blessed. She also shared how a greenstone is special to individual people. If the greenstone is not meant to be then it may break or be lost.

Mr Frank shared the story of his Grandfather and the whistle that he used during WWI.

Mr Sefton talked about the wedding rings he wears. He explained that they were important to him because of the meaning behind them. 

Kitchen Garden Donation

We would really like to thank Pauline Sandford for her donation of a lemon tree and herbs for our Kitchen Garden. Pauline's support for this amazing project is very much appreciated. The children from Room 13 were very excited about being able to plant the new additions to the garden. Thanks also to Hamish Wilson and his Dad who have put together an awesome plan for our garden.

I would also like to sincerely thank Monique Sinclair and Kaye Mourie. This project would not be possible without their help.

Room 13 Hockey Stars

Today Room 13 practised their hockey skills with Rhonda. I thought they did a really great job. They were really focussed and seemed to really enjoy their practise. Well done Room 13.

PRIDE Team

 Meet our amazing PRIDE Team Leaders. These students have been selected by Mrs Williamson to be leaders in our school. Over the next few weeks these young leaders will be undertaking some leadership training. They will then be expected to assume an active leadership role in our school. These students will be setting up their own blog to share what they are doing with parents, students and the wider community. Congratulations to all PRIDE leaders.

Triathlon Spot Prizes

Congratulations to all of those students who participated in the second triathlon last week. Three students from Opunake Primary School had their names pulled out for spot prizes. They were Charlie, Hamish and Quba. Congratulations.

Charlie W

Hamish

Quba

 Well done also to those students who have been participating in the triathlon as a team. Dallas participated with Tyler and Liam worked with Jaden. These boys worked effectively together and their effort has paid off by coming in 1st and 3rd in their races.

Dallas, Tyler, Liam and Jaden

 We have one more triathlon left that will be open to students who are 7 years old and older. This is a good chances for students to get a practice in before the Weetbix Triathlon that is coming up.

Taonga - Family Memories

During the last two afternoons Teachers have shared their special "taonga" with students that are special to them.

Here are some of the examples of the "taonga" they have shared with the students:

Mr Lodge and his old home movie footage from over 30 years ago.

Mrs Weir shared a painting of her family her daughter made when she was 7.

Miss Hale shared a sketch book that her Grandfather started. Her father and Miss Hale have also added drawings to the sketch book.

Mrs Potroz shared a fossil that her Grandfather sent to her from England when she was a little girl. The fossil was from a mine that her Grandfather worked in.

Miss Churchman brought along a violin that was her Dads. She told us that the violin was about 300 years old and has been handed down through her family.

Miss Churchman even played the violin for us.

Miss Ogle shared her Scrapbook and Ancestry App that shows her family tree. 

Today the whole school has been involved in a number of co-operative learning activities as part of our new unit. We are learning about how the past influences who we are today. We started by learning about archaeology and how archaeologists can make predictions about what happened in the past from fossils and artefacts. Artefacts are objects that have been created by humans. Teachers have shared special "taonga" with students that are special to them. They brought the artefact (object) along to school and have shared the story that makes this object special. In the next week we will be asking students to bring a special "taonga" (treasure) along to school and share the story behind the object with their class. 

As part of today's work students pretended that they were archaeologists. They will be given a packet of puzzle pieces that they have to put together. Once they have put their puzzle together; they will have a pictures of about 15 artefacts. They have to make inferences about how that group of people may have lived based on the artefacts in their puzzle.

Please follow our blog to learn more about what is happening each day in the unit.

Kristina Carlson

Today Ms Carlson joined us from Canada.Ms Carlson will be working as a trainee teacher in Ms Ogle's class between now and the end of the term. We are very pleased to have Kristina as part of our team. It is great that our students get to know more about other countries first hand. Welcome Kristina.

Small Sticks Hockey Training

Today all students in the school worked with Mark Lyes, who is the Regional Development Officer for Taranaki Hockey. Mark was very impressed that many students had retained and built on the skills they learnt last year. Students will have four more sessions before the end of the term. Mark is hoping that some of these students will choose hockey as their winter sport this year.

Cool exercises to help students with their co-ordination

 Practising hockey drills

 Now to practise the skills in a game. Room 14 had a great session.

Try-Athlon

Today Opunake Primary School students participated in an inter school Try-Athlon. This is an amazing event organised by Kay Pointon and a team of able helpers including many Opunake Primary School parents. Our students had a great day and enjoyed every moment of this challenging event.

 Dallas, Jevyn, Pharrell and Brody getting ready for the cycle event.

 Ariana getting ready for action.

Hamish completing the swimming leg of the Try-Athlon.

 Charlie and Jazlin

 Ivy and Quba

 Waiting patiently for our events.

Meet and Greet Art Exhibition

Here are some photos from our 

Meet and Greet Art Exhibition 

held in our Learning Centre tonight

Look what Liam won!

Today in assembly Liam and Tristan had their names called out as the winners of two spot prizes from the Triathlon they participated in. 

Liam won this awesome helmet. Tristan won some free passes to the local swimming pool. 

Liam

Congratulations to all of those students who participated in the triathlon last week. 

We look forward to seeing what happens at the next one.