Sports Activator - Golf

Yesterday Greer was at school for another Sports Activator session. Our focus this time was on golf, with the upcoming Tony Tourell Golf Tournament in Clinton on Wednesday 6th September.

We learned how to grip the golf stick correctly before we started hitting the ball.  We then began by hitting a large soft ball to get used to swinging and hitting the target. After a few practices at this target, we then started hitting a tennis ball and continued to do this for the remainder of the lesson.

There were some pretty interesting shots happening!!

Epro8 Challenge - Regional Final

On Wednesday the Waiwera Builders Epro8 team competed at the Regional Final at Kaikorai Valley College. The boys had had a busy day with Small Schools' Cross Country in the afternoon. They did their very best and came 10th overall in Otago. We are very proud of them! Well done boys!

Small School's Cross Country!

Small Schools Cross Country 2017 on PhotoPeach Last Wednesday was the annual Small Schools Cross Country in Clinton. The sun was shining and we couldn’t have asked for a better day. It was awesome to see everyone having a go and trying their hardest. We also saw great sportsmanship and support from Waiwera students which was fantastic to see. Thanks to all the parents who came down to support the students and good luck to all those selected for Wednesday's South Otago cross country. Brayden, Lucy, James D, George, Maddie, Esther, James L, Bree, Taylor, Caitlyn, Libby, Freya and Ryan!

Keeping Ourselves Safe

Last week, Constable Gordon came in to begin our Keeping Ourselves Safe health topic. She taught us that we have several options for situations and every action has a reaction. Constable Gordon also introduced the KOS Box, where we can put any questions or concerns that we have. The KOS Box is totally safe and confidential to students, the only people who can open the KOS Box are Constable Gordon and Miss Taylor. We have two more sessions with Rochelle and Miss Taylor teaches us lessons in between each of her visits.

Morning Programme - Healthy Recipe

After focusing on Food and Nutrition for the past three weeks, it was timely that our Morning Programme topic was Healthy Recipe. Here are some of the recipes that were shared this week.

Bree got the class to make banana and strawberry Santa Claus. They are very easy to make, one slice of banana, one strawberry and some cottage cheese. Cut the strawberry in half horizontally, put cottage cheese on one side of the strawberry, then place the banana between the strawberry, like a sandwich. Voila, you have a Santa Claus!

Maddie brought in some chocolate chip cookies but the chocolate chips had been substituted for Cacao Nibs. 

Boys' Writing Trip

On Friday Miss Taylor took a group of boys to the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults event in Dunedin. We had 4 workshops throughout our session where two author/illustrators and two authors spoke to us. We heard from Donovan Bixley, Melinda Szymanik, Mere Whaanga and Lisala Halapua. 

Some of their key messages were: 

- that pictures tell 1000 words. 

- Use the pictures for the description and let the story flow 

- The vocabulary that you use in your stories change depending on the genre

- write what's important to you 

Lisala told us about the process of how he gets started on a story:

- Brainstorm 

- Research

- Imagination 

They were all very inspiring and hopefully the boys got some inspiration and tips out of their workshops. Miss Taylor was very impressed with the boys' attention and interaction with speakers.

Author/Illustrator Donovan Bexley 

Author Melinda Szymanik

Mere Whaanga

Author Illustrator Lisala Halapua

Melinda wrote this book, Fuzzy Doodle, and Donovan was her illustrator. It is up for an award! 

Learning to count to 10 in Mandarin

This week our Mandarin lesson focused on counting to 10. I captured this video of the students learning through song.

Life Education Bus Visit

Last Tuesday we had Pip and Harold come to school to teach us about Food and Nutrition. The Senior Room learnt about sugar and fat content in foods and that you should only eat foods that have less than 10grams of fat and sugar in them. 

Some of the other key messages that we got were: 

- Your body is like a car. You have an engine and you need fuel to operate

- Fibre is really important for our digestive system

- The 3 A's

Activity - important to keep active, keep fit,

Appetite - eat healthy and the right amount of food.

Attitude - having a positive attitude towards what we eat but also towards ourselves.

"ROCK WHAT YOU’VE GOT"

There are 7 types of nutrients

Fibre

Carbohydrates or Carbs

Protein

Fats

Water

Vitamins

Minerals

Food Servings

Dairy products 2-3 servings a day

Proteins- meats, nuts etc - 1-2 servings a day

Fruits and veges - 5+

Breads, cereals grains  - 6+ servings a day

Treats - once a week

Thanks to Pip and Harold for coming in to teach us about healthy eating!

Matt Randall Olympian Visit

On Friday we had Matt Randall visit us. He is a former Track Cyclist, Olympian and now he is in an Olympic Support role and an ambassador for the Olympic Committee. 

Matt is a very inspiring speaker and interacted with the students very well! 

He shared some key messages with the students. These included: 

• You can give your best and still lose because there will be people who are better than you. 
• It is how you lose that matters.
• Challenges make you more determined.
• Only you have the power to change the outcome of something.
• Don't lose focus.
• A balanced life is key. 

Sports Activator - Tuesday 1st August

Last Tuesday we had our first visit for Term 3 from our Sports Activator Greer. The focus was on Netball. We learnt a new warm up game which we all really enjoyed. We all had to run around and find people to tag. Once we tagged them we played a game of rock, paper, scissors. The winner got to carry on running while the other person had to sit down. If the person who got you out lost a game, you got to stand back up and carry on. It was heaps of fun and one of our new favourite games. We then moved onto passing skills. We practised chest passes, high lob passes, and bounce passes. Finally, we had a game of ball tag where we were put into two teams and had to tag the other team with the ball to get them out. If we dropped the ball one of the players who were out got to come back in! There was a lot of excitement and energy with this game and we had to use our team work and communication!

These skills we have been practising will come in handy when some of us participate in the Netball Tournament in Balclutha this Friday.

Cross Country Training!

Cross country practices are well underway. The children will make their way around a map of the South Island and then the North Island for each lap of the block that they run. They will earn medals for reaching certain destinations including Christchurch.

It is impressive to see the fantastic effort the children are putting into their training and some healthy competition. Well done everybody!

The Small Schools Cross Country will take place on Wednesday the 16th of August.

Student Council

Congratulations to the six fantastic Senior Room students who were selected for the Waiwera South Student Council for 2017. I know they will do a stellar job in their roles!!