Rugby art / advertising

We made some artwork today to advertise the Rugby World Cup!  We learnt how to cut a ball shape from paper and how to add the stitches as well!  We were allowed to decide what text to add to our work.

Greeting each other in Spanish

We were each given a special badge to wear to help us remember how to greet people in Spanish!  It was fun to wear the badges because people came up to us to ask us what it said.  We were able to remember how to say "Hello, how are you?" in Spanish.  Now we are learning how to respond in Spanish too!

Mathletics Champions

We have more mathematicians in our class!

Congratulations to RD and DO for earning their Silver Mathletics Awards and special congratulations to KL for winning our class' second Gold Award! 

We love books!

How do you like our new display?   We have put it in the school hall so that the whole school can see it!

Importance of tourism to New Zealand

New Zealand's economy depends on tourism.  

We were asked this week, "Why do we want tourists to come and visit our country?" We came up with three important answers:

1 We want foreign tourists to see our stunning country and the places and things that are unique to New Zealand.

2 We want tourists to bring money into the New Zealand economy so that our people can have jobs.

3 We want tourists to come to our country because we want to show them our Kiwi hospitality.

Messages in advertising

We have been learning about messages given in advertising.  We learnt that there is advertising on television, radio, newspapers, magazines and on posters.  People advertise different things and for different reasons.  Some shops advertise their products to encourage people to visit their shop to buy their things.  Some advertising is to tell us about a future event, and upcoming movie release or simply to tell us that there is a sale on at a shop.

Advertising on television comes between programmes.  The advertisements are called commercials or ads. 

We had a look at an advertisement for 100% Pure New Zealand.  We had to think about what the message was in the advertising.  We noticed that the picture was taken in Paris, France and that there was a huge rugby ball in the foreground. 

We think that the text on the advertising is telling the audience that New Zealand is a beautiful, clean country.  Because the rugby ball is in Paris we think that New Zealand is trying to entice French rugby fans down-under for the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

The Haka (a description)

This year we have done a lot of work on how to write descriptions of objects and events.  Since the Rugby World Cup is occurring in our country we have been thinking about what makes our team special.  JT has written a description of the All Black's haka called 'Ka Mate' which they perform before each of their matches.  This haka is famous all over the world!


The Haka


A haka is a Maori dance that the All Blacks perform at their games.  Most other countries don't have hakas. 


The All Blacks do a haka to scare their opposition.  When the All Blacks do a haka they have to make a scary face.  We also do a haka at school.


The All Blacks do a haka before their matches.  During the haka the All Black leader shouts something in Maori and then the rest of the All Blacks poke out their tongues and spread their legs, bobbing down.  All of a sudden they say the haka and dance.


I think that the haka is really cool because it can make other teams scared and make them loose.  Also, the other teams still imagine it in their heads and it makes them loose.


JT, Year 5


If you would like to learn the haka that the All Blacks have made famous you can watch the following video:

Here is a video explaining the meaning of the Ka Mate haka.

Learning a Korean song

Our school choir is learning a famous Korean song which is translated as 'You were born to be loved'.  Korean language is called 'hangul'.  Everybody in South Korea knows this song.  It is very a popular song to sing on someone's birthday or other special occasions and reminds us that each person is unique, special and to be valued and loved by others.

Miss B has added the video clip here to help the choir enjoy practicing the song at home!

Tourist attractions in New Zealand

A tourist is someone who comes from another country to visit.

If tourists come to visit us here in New Zealand we would recommend that they visit the following places:

• The Auckland Zoo - to see the kiwi and the tuatara which are two of New Zealand's native animals.
• The Sky Tower - to experience the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere.
• The Auckland War Memorial Museum - to see many Maori artifacts including a wharenui.  Tourists can also experience a Maori cultural performance there.
• Rotorua - to see geothermal activity such as boiling mud pools and geysers.
• Wellington - to see The Beehive where the country's politicians work.
• Mt Ruapehu - to see the snow or go skiing (but only in winter!)

What other wonderful attractions in New Zealand can you add to our list?

Learning about drug testing

AR told us that her uncle has been working at some of the Rugby World Cup matches.  His job is to do drug testing which means he gets to watch some games and meet some famous players as well as to take some blood from the them.  The blood gets sent to a laboratory for testing to check if the player has been using illegal substances to enhance his playing.

Using guide words in the dictionary

Today we looked at the words on the very top of the dictionary.  They are called 'guide words'.  We had races to find some rugby related words today using the guide words to help us.  This team of boys were very quick to find the words and were often first!

Being proud of who we are

In class today we had a discussion about what it means to be proud of ourselves.  This is the definition that we came up with:

Pride is being happy about who we are.

In our class we have people who are proud to be Samoan and others who are proud to be Fijian Indian.  We show that we are proud of who we are by sharing ideas from our culture, telling our classmates about our home-country and by using our language. 

We know that being proud of ourselves is a good thing but it turns into a negative thing when we start to show off and think that we are better than others. 

When pride turns negative

it becomes arrogance.

D.O. is proud to be an Arab girl.  Today she bought some traditional food called falafel to school as a present for Miss B.  (Miss B loves falafel!)  D.O. was able to tell us that falafel is made from beans and that it is fried in oil.  We also learnt that falafel can be eaten with rice and also with pita bread.  D.O told us that her family eat falafel every week.  When we smelt it we could see why!

Rugby World Cup Opening Ceremony

Rugby was the hot topic at school today!  It was the first thing we talked about!  All except one person in our class watched the Opening Ceremony of the Rugby World Cup along with the first match between New Zealand 'All Blacks' and the Tongans. 

Here is a list of what we really liked about the Opening Ceremony:

I liked when Jonah Lomu met up with the boy who acted and stood near the shiny trophy.  JT

I liked the haka that the All Blacks did.  SS

I liked seeing my auntie in the crowd!  SC

I liked when the two ladies sang 'The World in Union'.  SF

I liked the boy who acted as a great rugby player, the fireworks and that the All Blacks won!  KL

I liked the fireworks!  They were so colourful!  RD

I liked seeing the people dancing and singing from the top of the tall building.  LG

I liked the fireworks and when the All Blacks won the game.  RD

I liked the part where the hammerhead sharks were swimming in the water.  It was clever when the dancers made themselves look like sharks too.  ST

I liked how the Moari woman did the karakia while Maori patterns appeared on the stage.  SF

Flags galore

The week before the Rugby World Cup started people started to put flags on their cars to show which teams they were supporting!  It was amazing to see all the Tongan supporters!  They seemed to be everywhere with their lovely red flags.  Of course there were lots of black flags to cheer on the All Blacks and a sprinkling of other flags.  See if you can pick the countries represented by these flags:

Learning VALUES from rugby stars

At school we learn the values that are important to have if we are to live together in peace and harmony.  Some values relate to our competitive side.  We are looking at the values that we can relate to sports as well as our life in the classroom.



One value that every rugby player at the World Cup has right now is PRIDE.  We have also noticed that the Tongan supporters are very proud of their team and enjoy waving their flags and wearing red.  It is good to be proud of our heritage and background.  We have many cultures represented in our classroom and each one of them is special and important.  We must be proud of who we are and where we come from.  Listen to what Selala Mapusua from Samoa says about being proud of who they are.

When you work together as a team it is very important to have CAMARADERIE.  That is a fancy word that means that you have a strong bond with your team mates.  Camaraderie means that you will enjoy spending time with the team and that you will support each member happily and with enthusiasm.  We can also build camaraderie within our classroom setting and school body by being friendly, supportive and kind to others.  Ignacio Corleto from Argentina describes the camaraderie within his team.

To compete at a high level in sport or any other discipline you must have PASSION.  To be passionate means you have a strong desire to achieve something or to be the best you can.  At school we too should show passion for our learning because we all want to be successful in our lives.  We can show passion for learning by doing our homework, always producing our best work and taking the initiative to learn things by ourselves.  Russian rugby star, Vasily Artemyev talks about his passion for rugby and his desire to compete.

Most people want to be good at something but very few people can say that they were the best in the world in their chosen field.  Being a CHAMPION is something all sports-people strive for.  At school we should strive to be champion learners!  It is important to try to be the best people we can be so that we can make positive contributions to our families, school and society.  Hear John Smit from South Africa describe the victorious moment when his team became champions.

INTENSITY is an interesting word used to describe the pressure of a given situation.  Rugby players experience high levels of intensity during matches and lower levels at practice.  At times in our lives we too face increased levels of intensity, for example, during tests, in a family crisis or when we have to perform in public.  At school we need to determined and focused on being successful even in stressful or intense times.  Todd Clever, an American rugby player talks about the intensity of playing top level rugby.

Another value to be considered in life is TRADITION.  When we think about tradition we think about the special heritage we have and special rituals we follow.  Each culture has special traditions that make them special and unique.  Our school has traditions too, for example, at the end of the year the children who attend school every day are invited out to lunch!  Traditions are important because they help give us a sense of belonging, help us feel safe and secure in our identity, as well as wonderful moments to remember.  The Rugby World Cup has traditions too!  Jeff Wilson, a former All Black, discusses some of those.

Special performance from Reading Group

Some students from the Middle School Reading Group including four students from our class performed in the school assembly today.  They have been working on their expression and fluency.  It was great to hear all the students recite their parts so confidently.  Great job guys!

Black-out Day

What an exciting day!  All week we could feel the tension rising and the excitement building and now the day has arrived - the opening ceremony and first match of the Rugby World Cup.  To show our support of our All Blacks and to show how proud we are to be the host nation for the tournament we joined the Black-out day.  It looked great to wear our national colour. 

We blew up black balloons and our caretaker set up a banner and put some New Zealand flags on the fence outside our school.  Lots of drivers passing by tooted their horns to show their support and to encourage us. 

  

Just before we went home Mr P and Mr A kicked a rugby ball around on the field! 

They are pretty good kickers!



Difference between ROTATION and REFLECTION

We each made two flags - one All Blacks flag and another of our own choice.  We used the flags to learn the difference between ROTATION and REFLECTION in Maths. 

Here are some examples showing rotation:

JC showed us four different ways of rotating his flags:

Here are some examples of reflection:

TP showed us some four ways of reflecting using her flags:

Alphabetical order

This week we have to learn how to put words into alphabetical order.  To do that our teacher wrote down the twenty countries that are participating in the Rugby World Cup and we had to put them into the correct order.  It is sometimes a bit tricky to work out what to do if two or more names begin with the second letter.  In that case we have to look at the second letter and decide which comes first in the alphabet.

Visiting the Library

We visit the Panmure Library every three weeks.  It's always fun to go there and to sit down to read a book.  At the moment the Library has a rugby display with lots of colourful flags and a goal-post too.  They have books on display about Ireland as well as green and black balloons and banners because the Irish are the second team for our area.

We like scanning our books using the checkout machines!

Excited about Duffy books

Once again we are thankful for our Duffy sponsors, the Ellerslie Sunshine Rotary Club and our school, for donating funds which enable us to get some really cool books.  This time we were lucky and received two free books!  We can't wait to go home to show them to our parents and to read them.

Rugby Activity Packs

To celebrate the Rugby World Cup we were given Activity Packs!  We were so excited to get the colouring, game, stickers and information in our packs.  Now all we have to do is to wait two more sleeps for the opening ceremony and first game!  Horray!