New Students for 2014

It was wonderful to meet our Year 7 students for 2014 at Meet the Teacher Evening on Thursday night. The way you listened and the great questions many of you asked show just how enthusiastic you are about your learning journey! Our present Year 7 students were keen to look at the lists on Friday morning and found they already knew some of you through previous schools or sport and cultural activities, and they are certainly looking forward to working with you next year. A big thanks to all the parents who came. It was wonderful to meet you and we also look forward to seeing you lots during next year.

Totara's 12 Days of Xmas

On the first day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
A pukeko in a ponga tree
....

We also have a video of our item at the concert. We filmed this on our new ipad and you will see, as you watch it, we were still working out how to use it! To see the video, please click here

Room 21's Cultural Activities

Recently Room 21 was fortunate to spend some time with the Japanese students from Ritsumeikan High School. They showed us four traditional Japanese activities.

1. We used origami paper to fold shapes like a star, a jumping frog and pikachu.
2. We played a traditional New Years game called Fuku Warai. 
3. We wrote our names using calligraphy pens and Japanese characters.
4. We watched a Japanese tea ceremony called Sa Dou and got to drink this green sweet tasting drink.

We really enjoyed all these activities. Check out the photos!

Learning with Lego

Over the past five weeks Room 19 have been learning about forces, structures and mechanisms.

 

Using Technic Lego kits we have been designing and building devices that can move heavy loads and span gaps. This has been a fun way to learn about science!

 

Have a look at some of our fantastic creations:

Concert Night

We are currently putting the last minute touches to our team concert item.  Props are being made, costumes being sewn and lines being rehearsed.

 

A reminder to families that:

• Concert night is Wednesday November 20th, starting at 7pm
• Tickets for this event are currently on sale at a cost of $2 each.  These can be purchased from your child's teacher.
• There are limited tickets, with no door sales on the night!  

We look forward to seeing you all there!

 

4 Huhu Grubs

7 Eels a Swimming

10 juicy fish heads (being constructed)

Important Dates and Dodgeball

Time continues to fly and it's hard to believe that we are already heading in to Week 3 of the term! We have some important events over the next few weeks, so everyone please make a note of the dates and details:

• 30th October - Grandparents morning
  Assembly starts at 9.00am in the auditorium. Please make sure you have invited your Grandparents along! 

• 31st October - Kapa haka dress rehearsal
  Gold coin donation to watch this before the group head to Nationals.  Rehearsal is at 12.30pm in the auditorium.

• 31st October - School Spelling Bee
  Good luck to the students competing from our team!

• 7th November - School Athletics/Tabloid sports day
  All students will be taking part in this.  If you are members of our Totara athletics team then you will be heading to Porritt Stadium to compete. The rest of the Totara team students will represent us at Tabloids back at school.

• 13th November - Music Group concert
  A time for students who have been involved in tuition to showcase their talents.  Also great for students who are thinking of learning a musical instrument next year to come and have a look.

To finish off here are at couple of photos of our Dodgeball game with our Japanese students from Ritsumeikan during PE time on Friday!

 

Term 4

Hope you are all enjoying your holiday! Please use the last few days to ensure all your uniform items are organised and that you have all the stationery you need. Term 4 is always an exciting and busy term with lots of interesting school wide events like the athletics and tabloid sports, the team performance evening, softball for lunchtime sports and the Recognition Assemblies! We have an exciting learning programme planned and are looking forward to seeing all Totara students bright and early on Monday morning.