Athletics Sports at JPC

 St Mary's School Athletics Sports 2014 at JPC

On Friday we had a highly successful Athletics Sport's day at the great venue of JPC. Everyone had a fun day participating or cheering on members of their own house group.








Mill Hill rocked in the house chants.

 The trees provided welcome shade from the sun.

Will Florence finishing strongly again.

Willem shows that participation counts as well.

 Lots of cheering went on during the house races.

We all know who the most awesome house is !??!

Waiting for your turn and getting the right technique are both important to success in the events.

Hailstorm

 Hailstorm

Last week Room 6s Athletics' practice was rudely interrupted by a sudden hailstorm, which dumped a large amount of hail on the ground. As you can see below the children had a whale of a time, once the hail stopped, running around in it, collecting it and of course throwing it at each other. These sorts of events are also good opportunities for further learning. The children could discuss or research how hail is formed in weather systems or write a recount or 'moment in time' description about the experience. 

Maori

Maori in Room 6 in 2014

Room 6 are a little lucky in the fact that Mr Bach is able to teach them a little French, as well as Maori, for their second language learning throughout the year. The children also received a little Maori language, culture and art teaching from our regular class relievers, Mrs Hall and Mrs Kusabs, in earlier terms. This term Mr. Bach has switched the language focus back on Maori and the children are learning greetings including a more formal greeting or introduction of yourself, called a mihi. A mihi traditionally recites who you, your family and your tribe are, where you come from and some of the things that are meaningful to you such as a nearby mountain or river. The children all completed their own mihi on a Google Doc and will be presenting them to the class. 

Click on this link to see Mr. Bach's mihi on a Google Doc -  Mihi Link.

Google Presentation

Google Presentation is one of the programmes that the children can choose to use on Drive to present learning or to prepare for an assembly or other whole school activity. Presentation is similar to power-point but is easier to use, even when installing images and videos. Like all the Google programmes everything is saved automatically as you go into The Cloud, a very useful feature when working with forgetful and impatient children.

Here is a presentation created by Joshua and Jake in Room 6 for school assembly.

Key competencies

 Key Competencies

As part of a general education, the New Zealand curriculum requires the teaching, learning and practising of five key competencies. The one Mr. Bach emphasises the most to students, as the key to all learning, is Self Management. Some students aren't learning because they struggle to focus, listen, carry out instructions, work independently for periods of time or understand the concept of time and place for different activities in life. The other four key competencies are Participating and contributing,  Relating to others, Thinking and Using Language Symbols and Texts.

Above - Room 6 show good self management skills during assembly.







Right and Below -
Room One students display the key competency of Participating and Contributing by taking part in assembly.

Holidays are over

Spring Holiday Fun

Mr Bach thoroughly enjoyed his break and despite the strong winds was able to catch a few trout, including the 10lb monster on the left from the Ohau Channel. The fishing season opened on October 1st for many spots around Rotorua and the weather has at least been warmer. Mr Bach is all refreshed and ready to attack a last term for 2014. Hopefully children are also rested and ready to learn some more. There are some children who are so close to achieving at the national standard and one more term's concerted effort could be all they need to get there.

Relating to others

Relating to Others

One of the Key Competencies in the NZ curriculum is Relating to Others. This can be in a social sense but also includes relating to their classmates appropriately during learning. In Room 6 we have found that Google apps has been very helpful in giving children the opportunity to collaborate on documents in real time, with each child on their own device. Children have been discussing how to make a document or presentation with their collaborators and deciding who does what on a particular project. This is great experience in real life collaborating and relating to others on a more professional or formal level. Problems need to be resolved, including conflicts between collaborators.

 

Library Time Room 6

 Room 6 - Library

Room 6 has its library time on Tuesdays from 11:45-12:30. As you can see there are lots of different choices made by students as to what they do at the library. The only condition is that it must involve books and children must read their own book for at least some of the time while they are there.

Room 6 Assembly

 Assembly

Room 6 was on assembly duty again a couple of weeks ago and a number of children got the chance to read in front of the school. This is always a great opportunity for children to get experience of talking in front of an audience and gain in confidence as a result. Unfortunately, in his excitement, Mr Bach forgot to take any photos, so I have included a few snaps of Room 14's wonderful performance that was part of their assembly a while ago.

Rotorua Trout Fishing Hotspot

 Rotorua Trout Fishing

It is probably no surprise to many St Mary's families that Mr Bach is an avid trout fisherman. It is only since living overseas that I have truly come to appreciate the world class trout fishing opportunities we have in Rotorua, at a price everyone can afford. It is at this time of year I start to think of the opening of the season to come on October 1st and of the more pleasant summer fishing, in the sun. Fishing is a great sport for children to get into for fun and for keeping active. Below I have re-posted one of my fishing post from last year with tips on how to get children started in trout fishing. 

The Ohau Channel has some huge brown trout lurking in it. 

Summer Trout Fishing

If you are out and about around the Rotorua lakes over the summer you may well bump into Mr. Bach, either fishing from his orange kayak or fly fishing along a stream bank. On the left is a nice 4lb brown trout Mr. Bach caught after school one day last year just below the Devon Road bridge. This trout was returned to the water soon afterwards to continue its journey upstream to sanctuary. Summer is a great time to take kids out fishing, with the weather warm, and the trout seeking cold water to shelter from the warm lake water that they hate. The Utuhina stream has trout in it over the summer slowly moving upstream, as it is a cold, spring fed stream. It is easily accessed as it wanders through the city. Summer also provides streamside vegetation that hides the wary trout from walkers and wanderers, who may disturb them. There are fewer trout than in autumn and winter but also fewer anglers.

Tips to help kids start catching fish - 

1. Find out the pools, overhangs and other places fish generally lie in a stream and begin fishing into these places without looking in the water first.

2. Use streamside vegetation to hide yourself from the fish and wear camouflage or dull coloured clothing.

3. Use strong fluorocarbon nylon - fluorocarbon may be more expensive but trout just cannot seem to see it at all - unlike normal nylon. Trout can be hard enough to hook, as it is for a child, without the frustration of constantly losing them because of snapped nylon-  and what if a really big fish is hooked? You need to give a kid a chance - leave the sporting, light line fishing for experienced adults. I use 15lb Maxima fluorocarbon.

4. Be patient and move slowly and carefully near the water - sudden movements scare fish.

5. Try early morning - the early bird catches the worm - and beats other anglers to the pools with freshly arrived, gullible fish in them.

6. Try in the evening or at night when fish are usually more active and feel safe feeding.

7. Teach children to catch and release - children will obviously want to keep all of their fish when they first start consistently catching trout, but encourage them, at some stage (especially if the freezer is full), to start putting some trout back for others to catch, or to help sustain the fishery by allowing some fish to return to the water to spawn upstream, and produce the next generation.

Writing - Moment in Time

 Writing - Moment in Time

It can be hard to motivate reluctant writers, at times, to put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard! Sometimes writing postcards or letters can be motivating or even making lists. Reluctant writers may need to do shared writing with you rather than on their own. Story writing can also be motivating for certain children at times, but sometimes 'Moment in time' writing may be a bit simpler for younger writers. Look at a scene in real life or in a photo and imagine yourself in that scene. Describe what you see and what is happening and also what might happen next... Mr Bach took these photos on a recent visit to Papamoa. Plenty to write about, and add into, these scenes... for example.

Health Promoting Schools - 5 a day healthy eating

 Health Promoting Schools

The Health Promoting School's Team, lead by Mrs Todd, had an edible art competition last Thursday, to promote healthy eating and the '5 a day - fruit and vege' message. There were some wonderful creations by some students around the school, as you can see from the photos below. Well done to Callum and Joshua from Room 6 who are part of the team and helped judge the competition.

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