The NEXT Foundation- Summer Learning Journey

Today we had a special assembly to launch the Summer Learning Journey programme along side the Next Foundation. The SLJ is to help students with their reading. The Next foundation thought it was a good idea so they gave money to help with programme. As our class got filmed I thought that it was quite weird having a camera around us. Rachel is the person that started the summer/winter learning journey talked to us about how 6 clusters around New Zealand are taking part. We had visitors from the Manaiakalani chairperson Mr Sneddon, Ms Grant, Mrs Lee, Mrs Jenson, Bill Komode the CEO of the Next Foundation Mr Grady the chairperson of the board of trustees, Hazel from Woolf Fisher and our principal Mr Johnston. I think that the summer/winter learning journey is a great programme which really develops our reading and writing skills.

Cleanup Crew

Our maths focus yesterday was geometry. To help us with this we did a coordinates  challenge were you have to follow the directions. If it say 6, 3 you have to go across first then you have to go down to get the correct mark. I think I found this easy because I have worked with coordinates before and it came up with a weird picture. 

Tech Experience

On Friday we had our last Tech lesson for the year. Our first rotation was Food Tech we got to make mince pies, chicken kebabs with potato salad and more. We learnt some good recipes and used different  cooking equipment to help us bake/cook foods. Our next rotation was graphics, we made MDF clocks. My clock was a camera because I enjoy photography. This was a long process because we did a lot of planning and colour choice was quite hard because you had a limited amount of colours. I think my finishing design turned out better than I expected. Now our last rotation was stained glass, my design was a boat. I think this was the most interesting rotation because it was something new and I haven't tried this before. This was quite long to make because I had over 4 pieces of glass to cut. I think the Friday tech experiences were very fascinating because we tried something new this year and we had things to take home. 

Summer Learning Journey

On Friday, Hazel from University of Auckland came to talk to us about the 

Summer Learning Journey. This holiday's theme is Journey Through Time in New Zealand. It sounds very interesting, and adventurous. I would like to know more about New Zealand's history. This could be a great way to learn about our history, because as well as having an adventure, you are increasing your skill with comprehension and writing skills. 

P.E @ Tamaki College

On Friday we had a extra rotation of P.E, Social Science and Robotics. I got put in the P.E group, we got to learn some leadership skills and to work together as a team. Our warm up game was infinity tag we all knew how how to play which made it quite easy. Our first game that we played was Bench Ball, there were two teams then they selected had to pick two catchers. The two catchers had to catch the ball from the person in there team, if they catch it they would be able to go on the other side. As we had another round of this, but if you shoot the yellow ball in the hoop you would win the game. Our next game was Samoan Softball it was the same as Softball but you could either kick it or throw the ball with your hand. After you hit/kick the ball you could either run to the other side but you had to leave your hand on the wall. Our team didn't win but we had fun playing and had a lot of encouragement going on and a lot of leadership that happened. 

Athletics Inter-school

Yesterday we had out inter-school athletics. I participated in four events which was 400m, 100m sprint, high jump and long jump. I place 4th in 400m, 3rd in 100m sprint, 2nd in high jump and we didn't get told what we placed in high jump. I think our school did really well because we are a small school but placed mostly in the top 5. 

Graduation Dance

Since graduation is coming up the year 8's had been having dance lessons. We have learnt the cha cha, rock and roll, circle dance and the barnyard dance. One of the hardest parts was learning the thread the needle which took place in the rock and roll dance.  I think it was the most complicated dance move that we have ever learnt. My favourite dance is the circle dance because it is fast and upbeat.