Maeroa Oratory Competition

This term our major English focus has been writing and presenting a speech using the school wide speech topics for 2013.

We soon discovered this involves lots of thinking, research, brainstorming and plenty of opportunities to write! Once our draft speech was written we shared it with people in our class and their feedback enabled us to develop it even further. We then wrote our speech onto cue cards and spent the next few weeks working on the delivery of our speeches. This was where we aimed to learn some parts of our speech off by heart. We practised making eye contact with the audience, trying to include gestures and really importantly speaking with expression as well as ensuring we didn't speak too quickly or softly! The motto 'Practise makes perfect' seems to fit well here!

Our speeches were presented to our class, then 5 students were selected from each room to present their speech at the Totara Team Speech Finals. After these presentations our team nominated 7 students for the school semi finals and following these Totara Team had 5 students selected to present their speech at the Oratory Finals.

On Wednesday evening Dana Collins, Stanley James, Bella Scott and Jakeb Stent did a fantastic job presenting their speeches at the Oratory Finals and Totara Team, along with their families, were extremely proud of them. We would also like to acknowledge Jessica Hale who was one of the announcers/hosts for the evening. Huge congratulations to Stanley James who was the winner of Section 2.

EOTC Week

Room 21 would like to say a huge thank you to our teachers, student teachers and our fantastic parent helpers who made our camp at Tui Ridge Park so enjoyable. We had a brilliant time trying new activities, achieving our goals and really getting to know all the people in our team. Hope you enjoy looking at some of the photos and work we have completed about our experiences.

Archery: How to fire an arrow.

Do you want to find out how to shoot an archery arrow? Keep reading to find out how to do it safely.

You will need: an open space, a target, a bow and an arrow.

1. Firstly find the nock in the end of the arrow. Place the string in the nock of the arrow, making sure the odd coloured cock feather is facing outwards.










2. Hold the bow up with one arm and use the other hand to hold the rubber piece on the middle of the string. Stand in the starting position which is standing sideways to the target.

3. Slide your fingers under the arrow, close to the bow. Move your feet and body so you feel comfortable. Make sure the arrow and your arm holding the bow are straight. Look at the target, lining the arrow up with the middle of the target.











4. Pull the string and arrow back as far as you can.











5. To shoot the arrow slowly let go of the string.










 6. If you have more than one arrow repeat steps 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

















7. Once everyone has finished shooting you can all move up to collect your arrows. Put one hand firmly on the target and the other on the arrow and pull the arrow out carefully.










Written by Ruby and Jessie.

All New Zealand Kids Should Go On Camp!

It should be compulsory for everyone to go on a school camp because you can get past your fears; have time away from your family and classroom; and camp gives you a chance to make new friends.

One reason camp is good for you is that you make new friends. At Totara Camp I got to know Callum really well. I encouraged him to do the high ropes and abseiling. I said to him, “You should do it. It’s not too bad!”

   

Kids really enjoy learning new things at camp. It gets boring doing school work inside all the time so it’s a treat to go outside to learn. It is also nice to be away from your family so you get to live with your classmates for a few days.

Camp gives you a chance to overcome your fears. One fear people may have is heights. At Tui Ridge Camp there was a flying fox and it was 85m up in the air. I know that Kane overcame his fear by doing the flying fox. Another fear some people may have is speed. On the mountain biking people overcame their fear of speed by riding down the mountain bike trails.

Another reason kids should go on camp is to be active and stay off the electronic devices.

Every student in New Zealand schools should be able to go on camp so they can have fun learning outside, be active, make new friends and overcome their fears.

By Maddy

EOTC Week

The students in Room 20 had a fabulous time at camp. This is just a snapshot of what we got involved in - you really had to be there! Some of the kids overcame some huge obstacles and achieved heights that they had never dreamed they would.

High Ropes at Tui Ridge

Jack said, “ The instructor ended up flying because she couldn’t take the weight of some people!”

Markus said, ‘One of the parents who was with us let us down really fast and then stopped it so that we bounced! I went down spy style.”

Daniel barrel-rolled off the log and Heidi, a parent, came flying forward!

Ailee said it took Tiana 5 minutes to get to jump off at the end and Ailee liked making the bridge wobble.

Shagufta didn’t go because she is afraid of heights but enjoyed watching everyone else.

Mountain Biking at Tui Ridge

Euan didn’t enjoy the mountain biking at all!

Markus’ shoes started out with white and ended up brown!

Tiani said, “I came down this hill and I did this big drift thing and I ended up falling off my bike! It was fun!”

The puddles were big enough to swim in as Bella discovered!

In the car park Daniel was riding along and wanted to test how good the brakes were. He flew over the handle bars! He concluded that the brakes were good!