Farewell

The singing of our team song at yesterdays farewell assembly was amazing. Totara students stood tall and sang our Totara part with a huge sense of pride. It made us very proud to be part of Totara Team!
We would like to wish all the 2014 Year 8 students a fond farewell and best wishes for their next learning journey at secondary school. We like to follow your achievements so please keep in touch.
Next year will be an exciting time for Totara Team with new Year 7 students and Year 8 students taking on leadership roles. The end of a year always brings change and this year is no exception with many teachers moving to different classes and teams. Ms Parker will remain in Totara Team but will be moving to Room 12. Mrs Yeoman is moving to Room 19/20 which will be part of Tanekaha team and Mrs Scoble is moving to Room 4 which is part of Kahikatea team. 2015 will be a little different for us all but Totara Team will always have a special place in our hearts!
Mrs Yeoman and Mrs Scoble.

Recognition Assemblies

It was wonderful to see a large number of Totara Students receiving awards at our final Recognition Assemblies. Lots of family members attended the assemblies and we were all treated to some fantastic singing and excellent dance and drama performances. We had students being acknowledged for their service roles in duties such as Road Patrol, PE Monitors, Koru Monitors, Staff-room Monitors and School Librarians. We also had many students who were recognised for their sporting and cultural endeavors. Excellence, leadership and citizenship were other areas that Totara students were recognised for. We are very proud of the students who were recognised and are sure their achievements will be inspirations for next years Totara students.

Technology Challenge Winners!

A big congratulations to our Technology Challenge Team!  They won the competition with their fantastic cupcake decorating skills, managing to capture key elements of our team in their designs.  

For their efforts they won a $20 gift voucher from the Sugar Bowl (our local cafe and judges of the competition) which Mrs Johnstone presented at our team assembly.  Lucky Mrs Yeoman gets to accompany them and have a treat too!

Technology Challenge Team

• Room 19 - Angel Taipari 
• Room 20 - Jessica-Ann Linton-Brown 
• Room 21 - Toby Hafliger 

Our Technology Challenge winners - with Mrs Johnstone

Reminder - School Magazine

Just a reminder that this years' school magazine is available for pre-order. To secure your copy, place $10 (cheque or cash) in a named envelope and drop it in the student mailbox.

All orders must be in by this Friday, December 5th. These are very popular so don't miss out!

Kelly Tarltons and Auckland Zoo

Room 21 had fun writing descriptive sentences about some of the animals we saw at Kelly Tarltons and Auckland Zoo.

Important Dates - Term 4

It's hard to believe we are already half way through the term!  Time is flying and things just seem to be getting more hectic.  Just a quick post to keep you informed of some important dates on our calendar.

Assemblies:

• Thursday December 4th
  The first of our formal assemblies. This recognises students that have been involved in Service roles around the school
  
  
• Monday December 8th
  Sports recognition assembly
  
  
• Wednesday December 10th
  Cultural recognition assembly
  
  
• Friday December 12th
  Final Merit recognition assembly
  

Parents/caregivers are very welcome to attend these and students will know a couple of days in advance if they are being recognised at these assemblies.  All assemblies begin in our school auditorium at 10:30am.

Other important dates:

• Monday December 15th
  Year 8 Graduation Social. This event is by invitation only and tickets must be pre-purchased at school. 
  
  
• Tuesday December 16th
  Final school reports sent home
  
  
• Thursday December 18th
  Last school day for 2014, students will finish at 1:00pm.
  
  

EOTC - Rooms 19's Artwork

As a follow-up from our EOTC trip, room 19 has been doing some artwork to show our experiences and how we have also been learning about camouflage and survival.

Here is just a small selection of our many pictures:

QR Code Competition Winners - Again!

Congratulations to Room 19 - QR Code Competition Winners.  You did it in Term 1 and now term 3 too! 

A fantastic effort Jakeb and Sam, we are extremely proud of your double achievement.

EOTC - 2014

What a fantastic time we had on our EOTC trips to Auckland this year!

First we visited Kelly Tarlton's and learned about sealife and how our lives can impact these creatures.  We had the opportunity to walk around the centre, interact with some exhibits and see the feeding of stingrays, ocean fish and even sharks!

Our next stop was Auckland zoo where we had free time to explore the zoo before a BBQ dinner and a night safari where we could feed cabbages to the hippos.  We stayed in the Old Elephant House overnight and had an excellent morning of ice skating at Paradice Skating Centre before returning to school.

A huge thanks to Kelly Tarltons, Auckland Zoo, Paradice Ice Skating and Turley buses; you all helped make this a wonderful, enjoyable and educational event.

Here is a sample of the hundreds of photos that were taken during EOTC:

Maeroa Cultural Quilt

Recently our Principal Mrs Bain retired. Students from each class created a square representing something special about the culture of Maeroa Intermediate. The squares were then sewn together to create a Maeroa Cultural Quilt and this was given to Mrs Bain as a farewell gift.

This was the square designed by Room 21. It represents all the teams and their team colours.

This is Room 20's square and represents the international languages we learn and the languages some of our students speak.

This was the square created by Room 19. It shows the different uniform styles Maeroa has had over a long period of time. 

The last photo shows the finished product..........the Maeroa Cultural Quilt!

Room 21's Service Learning Project

As our Service Learning Project this year Room 21 decided to support the Maeroa Stage Challenge team by creating some of the costumes and props they needed. We had fun making wacky hats and brooms for the scarecrows as well as tutu's and headbands for the fairies. We felt very proud of ourselves when we watched the dress rehearsal at school and saw how great our costumes and props looked. Several of us went to watch the evening performance and the Maeroa team was absolutely fantastic!

Totara EOTC - Weeks 7 & 8

Hard to believe that it's that time already - EOTC is nearly upon us!  

A reminder that Mrs Yeoman's group departs for Auckland at 8:45am on Wednesday the 3rd of September.  Please ensure students and adult helpers are at school no later than 8:30am.
They will return at approximately 2:30pm on Thursday the 4th of September.

The gear list that was issued to students on Friday can be found on our EOTC Page. Please ensure all students and adult helpers have the equipment required.

Ms Parker's group departs at 8:45am on Thursday the 11th of September, returning at approximately 2:30pm on Friday the 12th.  Students and adult volunteers in this group must again have all the gear required.

We are looking forward to a fantastic trip in which students will consolidate their learning about animals, camouflage and survival.  A big thank-you to the many adults who have given up their time to accompany us, without your help this trip would not be able to go ahead.

Watch this blog over the coming weeks for photos and evaluations of our trip.

Jump Jam 2014

School Jump Jam Competition Winners 2014!

A special thank you to our make-up and hair helpers Vicky, Catherine and Jessica - you were fantastic and really appreciated!

Have a look at the photos of us getting ready and warming up!

Jump Jam team competition

Due to the recent measles outbreak, the Jump Jam team competition has been postponed.  It will now be held on Wednesday 30th of July,  9:00am start in the auditorium. 

Parents/caregivers are welcome to attend and support all our students as they take part in this fitness challenge.

Reminders

Wow, it's been a busy term!  Hard to believe it's already Week 8.  Just a few quick reminders of up coming events as we countdown to the holidays!

• Conferences:
  This Tuesday 24th and Thursday 26th.  We are looking forward to catching up and discussing the reports that you received on Friday.  Students will be leading these conferences and sharing their learning and goals.  Remember it's still not too late to set a time.  Please contact your child's teacher to see what times they still have available.

• Jump Jam team competition:
  Wednesday 2nd, 9:00am start in the auditorium.
  Parents/caregivers are welcome to attend and support all our students as they take part in this fitness challenge.
  

• EOTC:
  Dates have been booked, thank you to all who paid their $50 deposit promptly.  Please remember the full amount of $180 is due at the beginning of Term 3.  A newsletter will be going home this week with more details.

Easter in Room 20

The challenge! Find as many things as you can, starting with the letter 'A', and fit them into your matchbox! There was also only allowed to be one of each item - students were not allowed to fill a matchbox with apple seeds! They were also invited to decorate their matchboxes. The prize? Easter eggs, of course!
The winning team: Tessa Baker and Tiana Holland managed to put 22 items, all beginning with 'A' into their matchbox!

 And the best dressed matchbox went to.... Jay-Jay Finlay, Madison Edge and Rebecca Major!

This is what they all looked like:

Cross Country Training

It's that time of the year again - Cross Country training has begun!  Goals have been set by our students and they are working hard during our PE sessions to improve their personal fitness levels.

Our school Cross Country is scheduled for the afternoon of the 19th of June. We encourage our students to bring their sports shoes to school regularly for training as on the day they must run in shoes.

We are looking forward to some great individual efforts and team results! 

Room 19 - Trivia Winners

Congratulations Room 19 - Trivia Winners for Term 1

QR Code Competition Winners

Congratulations to Room 19 - QR Code Competition Term 1 Winners.  A fantastic effort Jakeb and Sam, we are proud of your achievement!

Jakeb and Sam with their prizes

The prizes



Jakeb & Sam's presentation
(Note: Their presentation was even better than shown here!)

Science Night

Science Night took place on Tuesday April 1. There was a great deal of excitement as students and teachers set up the experiments on the tables. Totara was set up in the corner and we took full advantage of our allocated space!

To one side there were students from Room 21 conducting Fair Tests to create salt crystals using food colouring and pink salt. Meth burners have been used in Science over a very long time and were used here to create the most beautiful salt crystals.

To the other side the students of Room 20 talked about their upcoming bottle house, blew up balloons with the aid of baking soda, vinegar and lemon juice and made wasp traps in an attempt to combat the wasp invasion currently affecting New Zealand from end to end.

Set up on a table at the front was a group of students from Room 19. They laboured over Technic Lego and explained the technical information behind their structures that demonstrated pulleys, levers and mechanisms.

Truly the fastest hour on record sped by as students amazed visitors with their scientific knowledge and answered a huge range of questions earning themselves a well deserved red koru for their efforts.

Thinking like a Scientist has enabled students to think more extensively rather than to simply accept the obvious. In class students have investigated a huge range of scientific possibilities endeavouring to Think like a Scientist and succeeding.

Maeroa Triathlon

On Monday afternoon 33 courageous Totara students participated in the Maeroa Triathlon.

We had 10 entries in the team section where one person was the cyclist, another did the swim and the third team member completed the running circuit.

We need to make special mention of 3 students-George, Tiana and Ailee, who competed as individuals and did all 3 disciplines!

Every single one of our students completed the event and certainly displayed the virtue determination!

50 teams were entered in the Team Event and we are so proud of Blake Watson (Cyclist), Jakeb Stent (Swimmer) and Yami Losaki (Runner) who won the team event. This is an amazing achievement!

Cricket Workshop

Totara students were fortunate to participate in a cricket workshop run by Carl Schwarz from Kiwi Sport Waikato. We had a fantastic time! Carl had us working non stop but our perseverance paid off as our throwing, catching and batting skills really progressed during the workshop. Thank you Carl for leading these workshops. We know you are heading overseas to play cricket in Devon County, England, and we hope you really enjoy the experience.


Photos from Room 21

'

Photos from Room 19

Top Chocolate Seller!

We were all very proud of Libby Johnston who was the 3rd top chocolate seller in our recent school fundraiser. Libby sold 14 boxes of chocolates which is an amazing 336 individual bars and totalled $840. Libby's prize was a touch screen phone! Fantastic effort Libby.

The money raised from the chocolate sales will pay for all students in our school to attend the Life Education Trust Programme later in the year as well as buying additional iPads and tablets for our classes.

Science Roadshow

This week Totara Team visited the Science Roadshow. What a fantastic experience! To start with the presenters demonstrated a wide range of exciting experiments based on the Material World that had our heads literally exploding with amazing facts and questions.

We were then able to explore the exhibits that were set out around the Gym. All the exhibits were hands on, the explanation boards were easy to interpret and the helpers from Room 4 were great at supporting us with our science learning. Many of us took up the opportunity to enter the science focus quiz.

We finished the experience with another presentation that was based on the Living World. Again lots of amazing facts and models! Many of us left wondering if the digestive track, that the presenters gloved hands were holding, was really real?

Balloons Over Waikato - 2014

This week we have seen many balloons flying over Hamilton as part of the Balloons over Waikato festival.

On Friday we were lucky enough to have a balloon visit our school. Many students and parents turned up early to see the balloon inflate and a short lift-off. Team Totara's Sam and Blake were chosen as helpers to get the balloon ready, quite a unique opportunity!

Below you can see photos of Sam and Blake helping on the day.  You can also see photos of other balloons we saw this week and the balloon at our school.

Room 20 in Term one

A lot of work has been happening in Room 20. Students are settling well and it is as if we have always been together!

Homework is a cause for concern as many students are not completing it. This term was to be a trial. If homework was carried out well then I would reinstate the rewards programme. Thinking about this I have decided that I will start it in Term two. It will mean that each week that homework is completed will see students earn a step towards the final reward. e.g. Week one earns the first step to being able to watch a video chosen by the class. Week two confirms that the students will be able to watch the video. Weeks three and four earns popcorn, and so on until week nine. Students who complete homework for all nine weeks earn the last week of term with no homework.

PE gear needs to be at school every day. Dance/Drama requires PE gear to be worn and other events arise that also require PE gear to be worn. Sincere thanks to those who have been doing this already.

Uniform is usually a high standard with just a few slips. Canvas shoes are NOT to be worn at any time. They are not supportive and they smell in the wet and the heat. Try working in a classroom with them! Maeroa uniform requires sandals or lace-up shoes and socks. Having sustained a serious injury to my foot I realise how good a decent shoe is.

Thinking like a Scientist
The school focus is Thinking like a Scientist. It applies to all that we do as the students are challenged to look past the obvious in what they are doing. Creates some really amazing discussions!

This week will see us take part in the Science Roadshow and then we will be taking part in the school Science Night. I will be asking for volunteers to support our table on that night. This week will also see us carrying out some amazing experiments - watch this site for photos of what we do!

Science in Room 21

Our big focus this term has been thinking like a scientist. We have completed a wide range of experiments and been working hard to use the science lab equipment safely, fine tune our observational skills, make predictions, ask questions and make hypothesis based on the experiments results. The slide show below shows some of the experiments we have completed.

Swimming Sports

We had a fabulous day for our swimming sports. The water was warm, many of our students dressed in our team colour purple, there was certainly plenty of cheering from Totara students and everyone swam with great determination!

The Results:

We were very proud as 34 of our swimmers received placings in their events. 

• Totara Team was placed 2nd for overall points.
• Jakeb Stent was runner up Year 8 Boys Champion.
• George Armstrong was first equal Year 7 Boys Champion.

Science continues in Room 19

This week we explored the properties of solids and liquids. As a class we made Oobleck which consisted of:

• A cup of cornflour
• ½ a cup of water
• a few drops of food colouring (Ms Parkers favourite colour!)

This substance presented us with many questions. While it looked like a solid and acted like a solid, it also had many properties of a liquid.

We had great fun learning (and making a mess!) and learnt how the strength of the molecular bonds determined the properties displayed.  Here's a couple of photos - unfortunately more were not taken as clean-up became a priority.

LET THE MIXING COMMENCE!

SAM PROVING THAT A SOLID CAN BE MADE

Science in Room 19

Our school wide science focus this term is 'Thinking like a Scientist". Through this the students are encouraged to develop their own curiosity and generate/ask their own questions with the experiments we do.

This week we carried out an experiment where we placed wooden skewers through blown up balloons.  Many thought this was impossible.  We had great fun and plenty of popping balloons as we rose to the challenge.  Many students were successful and well done to Kennedy who managed to get over 10 skewers through her balloon before it began to deflate.  

We had many questions and had a great class discussion about our thoughts and ideas.

Below is a YouTube clip explaining the science we discovered and also a few photos of our fun!

To see the YouTube Video - Click here

Important Dates - Term 1 2014

Hard to believe we are already heading into week 3 of the term. A big thank-you to all families for their support with organising all the students with the correct stationery, uniform and swimming gear.

As a team we are looking forward to meeting with parents/caregivers and discussing our student's learning goals at our upcoming conferences in week 5 (4th and 6th of March).  A reminder that the conference slips need to be returned to school as soon as possible so that we can book and confirm times.

A couple of other important dates to note are:

• School Swimming Sports - Wednesday 26th February (9:00am start)
• Interim Reports are being sent home on Friday 28th February
• School Photos - Monday 10th March

We look forward to many more blog posts this term showcasing our students and team. Please check back here regularly for more news and information.

Time to get organised!

We hope you have all had an enjoyable holiday.

There is only a little over a week of the holidays left so now is the time to get your uniform organised. Year 8's it's really important you check to ensure everything still fits, that you have a PE shirt and shorts, and you've got your black or brown sandals. The uniform outlet is mentioned on the home page of the Maeroa website.

Swimming will be our first major PE focus so you need to have swimwear- we are so lucky to have such a large swimming pool that's solar heated.

Many of the stationery shops are advertising back to school deals so it's a great time to buy your stationery.We would like all students to have their stationery on the first day. The class stationery lists are displayed on our blog for you to refer to.

We have updated our timetable so you can see when PE, library, tech/arts and Assemblies are on.

Enjoy the last week of the holidays. The three of us will be popping into school throughout next week so you are welcome to call in to say hello. If your teacher is not in when you come you're welcome to say hello to one of the other teachers in our team.

School starts on Monday 3 February at 8.45am. We look forward to seeing you all on Monday.

Graduation Dance

The Graduation Dance for Year 8 students was held in the last week of term. As a team we spent time learning social dances like the waltz, cha cha, hip bump and the bunny hop. Students were really looking forward to the evening and it certainly was a fantastic night! The Gym was transformed and looked amazing. The girls were stunning in their beautiful dresses and the boys very handsome in their shirts, ties and trousers! The supper was delicious with a range of yummy food including the chocolate fountains! We spent the whole night dancing and had a fabulous time.