Getting Ready for the Swimming Sports

The Middle School Swimming Sports is on 4th March, so it was time to practise the races so we knew what to do on the big day.

First, our best swimmers swam free style up and down the length of the pool so we could see who was ready for the competitive races.  You need to be able to swim a length of the pool without stopping to be in the competitives.

Then everyone had a go at the Wheelbarrow, the Dolphin Push and the Flitter Flutter.  

All swimmers will compete in two races: some people will compete in the competitive race and one novelty race, and other people will compete in two novelty races.

In the Wheelbarrow, you swim with a buddy: one person runs with a noodle around 

their waist, and the other person holds onto each end of the noodle and kicks to provide 

extra power as they are pulled along.

In the Flitter Flutter, you have to keep a glass of water balanced on your flutterboard
as you move through the water.

Potato Salad

Room 18 looks after the vegetable gardens near the front of the school.  The soil was VERY hard and dry after nearly eight weeks of Summer holidays.   Everyone worked hard to get ready for planting.  We pulled out weeds, watered compost and dug it in with our trowels.  Imagine our surprise when we dug up 23 potatoes!  It was just enough to make potato salad . . . yum!

Our surprise haul!

After we had washed the potatoes, Mrs Bear boiled them up in the staffroom at
lunchtime.  We picked mint leaves from our class garden and tore it into little pieces 
to add some flavour.  Most people liked the minty smell on our hands.

Emma and Sam sprinkled in the mint.

Charlotte and Nathaniel stirred in the mayonnaise.

Everyone tried the potato salad - there was even enough for some second
helpings.  Afterwards, we made a chart to see who liked it.  Oh, oh!  When we 
checked our Maths, we discovered that six people hadn't voted.  

This is Kadence's recipe to make potato salad.

Here is Otis's recipe to follow to make Weka Potato Salad.

Valentine's Day

In Room 18, we celebrated Valentine's Day, by making a card for someone we love.  First, we copied the traditional 'Roses are red' poem, and changed the words to suit the person we were making the card for.  We published these poems in our best handwriting and decorated them with our brand new coloured crayons.

Then we designed our own art pattern using different coloured dye: some people painted stripes, others zig zags and swirls.  When they were dry, we cut them up so we could weave them.  After that, we glued them onto our heart shaped card.

It was interesting to discover how many shapes or images say something, without even using words.  Hearts mean love, a butterfly means change, lions mean strength, a white dove means peace, and so on.  A heart shape definitely suited a Valentine's card, and everyone managed to secretly give theirs to someone they love.

Here are two of our Valentine cards, but you can see them all on the Art Gallery page and read our Valentine poems on the Published Work page:

Weka Team Sports

The whole Weka Team has team sports together on Thursday afternoon.  In summer, we play rippa rugby, rounders, cricket, softball and tennis.    For the first week, Room 18 played rounders with Mrs Bear.  We had two teams: the Bananas and the Strawberries. 

At the end of play, we shook hands with the other team and congratulated them on their game

Writing about our holidays

On the first week of school, everyone was excited to share their holiday news.  After talking about it, we all wrote about what we had done.  Then we illustrated our stories using wax crayon and dye.    When they were finished, we all enjoyed reading our own and other people's.  It was interesting to find out about all the things we had done collectively, as a class: fishing, swimming, camping, shopping, playing with friends, snowballing, elephant riding, surfing, snorkelling, golfing, visiting family and seeing new places.

Here are two of our holiday stories, but you can read them all on the PUBLISHED WORK page.

Room 18's photo shoot