That's It For 2011..

The summer school holidays have started and the Room 9 class of 2011 have packed up their books and headed off on new adventures in their education. It's been great fun during 2011 but the Room 9 class of 2012 is only a matter of weeks away and may the fun continue. Check back in a few weeks and see what the new year will bring for us..

Year 5 & 6 End-of-Year Social

Last night (13th December) we had our end-of-year social to farewell the Year 6 students. The evening was hosted by the Year 5's and attended by heaps of parents. Everyone, including the parents performed really well in their dances and by all accounts everyone had a great time. The evening was finished off with the Year 6's being presented with their leaving certificates. Our whole-school final assembly will be held tomorrow, which will finish off the 2011 school year. We wish all of our Year 6 leavers all the best for their futures, you are all going to make us proud!

Mural Project: Part 3 The Unveiling

Today (6th December) we held a small ceremony where we unveiled our completed mural. The weather was kind to us and in front of the whole school, teachers, parents and invited guests Mr. Mansfield invited two of our Year 6 students (who were part of the original creative team) to explain what their inspiration was and what the panels meant. Then Mr. Stoddart who helped the students throughout the project said a few words, and encouraged everyone to enjoy and protect the finished piece. Next Mr. Anderson, our school chaplain blessed the mural for us before finally, our two year six girls unveiled the accompanying plaque. We are proud of our mural and the name "Puna Matauranga" is Maori for "A Place of Knowledge".

Te Wera Camp Day 3

On Friday we got up and got changed then had some breakfast. We brushed our teeth and put our clothes and sleeping bags in the cars then we did the last of our activities which were the spider web (the spider web is a big web and we try to get through it with out touching the rope), and the confidence courses. There were three confidence courses. One you had to work as a team to get the tyre over the post and the next was a rope course that we had to walk along lots of ropes while holding on to other bits of rope without falling off. The final confidence course we had to get to the other side of it without touching the ground. We also used the wobble bed which is a wooden platform that wobbles and you have to keep it balanced with team work. We also made dampers on a fire then we put golden syrup on them and ate them and we also toasted marshmallows. There was also a tower that we had to lift people on your team up to the top. There was a little piece of rope at the top so when you get to the top you clip the rope to the top part of the tower then you don't have to lift them as high. After those activities we did a final clean-up and headed off back to school and home, tired but happy. Camp was really a fun-filled 3 days in the wilds of Taranaki.






By Reuben And Reef

Te Wera Camp Day 2

On day 2 at 9:00am Room 9 went tramping with Ian McAlpine through the slippery and rocky country side. When we got to a particular spot we made a bivouac in teams (which is a type of bush shelter). A little while later Ian McAlpine came around to see our group's shelter to see if we could all fit inside. About ten minutes later we got a biscuit and a lolly and started walking back to camp base. We took a new and hard way through the bush.
When we finally got back to camp we had a quick lunch. At 1 o'clock we went kayaking and did some archery. In the middle of kayaking, Ashley fell in the lake and Superman a.k.a Reuben came to save the day. A little while later we walked back to the cars and drove back to camp to enjoy the flying fox, afternoon tea and the water slide.
That night when we were waiting for dinner we had a little singing practice to pass the time. For dinner we had hamburgers BBQ'd by the camp Dads. After tea we went and played on the flying fox and had quiet time while we were waiting for the big show "CAMP COURT" with Miss Rangi. It was humorous and embarrassing for some people.




By Ashley, Kyla and Willow

Te Wera Camp Day 1

On Wednesday 2nd November 9:30am Room 9 and 8 left the school grounds on-the-go to Te Wera Camp grounds,round 'bout 30 minutes (36 kilometres) East of Stratford. It was just over an hours drive from school.
We arrived at Te Wera just after 10:30am. After parking the car(which took a while) we met up in the hall and had a talk with one of the owner's called Sandy. She just mainly told us 'what to do' and 'what not to do' basically the rules.
Afterwards we had our morning tea packed from home, and ate it outside in the warm sun. That was around 11ish then we got to go to our cabins. Girls and boys were separated into different blocks. We had already sorted who we were going in our cabins with the day before camp back at school, so we unpacked everything and put them in our cupboards. We could only fit 3 people in each cabin, two people in a bunk and one single bed. As a class we had a walk..well really a tour around the camp site. After that, we had lunch packed from home.
Shortly after lunch Room 9 did the first our activities. These included archery, orienteering and volleyball. We were split up into groups of 9 and we had at least 40 minutes for each session.




By Jessica Li, Riana Dhindsa and Aileen Chen.

Mural Project: Part 2

The start of the painting with colours was an exciting stage after the hard work of going around the outlines in black house paint. For the colours that we needed, we started with our primary colours and then mixed our own to suit the part of the mural we were working on. Then we were on to the painting, we had to be very careful that we didn't go out of the black lines. On our board, we first painted the leaves and after that dried, we painted the tree trunk. The key thing was to use layers and slowly build up from our base layers. The job of painting was very detailed and it was easy to become frustrated because we tended to make the same mistakes over and over. We put that down to the fact that we had to concentrate for long periods at a time. We reckon it was all worth it in the end because all of the boards in the mural look absolutely salubrious!





By Donna and Bronwyn

Mural Project: Part 1

During this stage we started painting the outlines with black paint. We used Resene house paint for this task. We got told to start in the middle so we wouldn't get paint on ourselves and work out to the side. We had to use a thin brush and carefully go over the pencil lines before we could paint in between with colours. The black outlining was a detailed task and took us 1 to 2 days just to complete.




by Dee and Rebecca

Mural Project: Introduction

We have recently started creating a mural for our school grounds. We have done this with the help of Mr. Ray Stoddart who is an artist and ex-art adviser. Our mural is being designed by students and will depict the things that we see as important to us in and around our school. It will consist of 3 large panels and 5 smaller panels. Four of the smaller panels will show the native trees that represent our school houses which are; Koromiko, Puriri, Rata and Totora. The 3 larger panels will show various other aspects of school life.
A strip of Kowhaiwhai (a maori pattern) will run through the bottom of each panel linking them together.
This first stage involved a lot of planning, discussion and decision making about design and content. We took photos of various points of interest around the school to assist us. Once we were happy we then divided our boards up into grids and proceeded to draw our designs in pencil onto them. This was intensive and painstaking work and took about 3 days.

Once the mural is finished it will be mounted in the school grounds for everyone to enjoy.

Rugby World Cup Champions 2011

Yes! The New Zealand All Blacks have succeeded in winning the 2011 Rugby World Cup for the second time in 24 years. After a nail-biting final vs France at Eden Park in Auckland in front of over 60,000 fans captain Ritchie McCaw led his gallant squad to victory and became the second New Zealand All Black captain to hold the Webb Ellis trophy aloft. France were at their best and almost caused heartbreak for the entire country but could not break the ABs dogged defense and conceded a vital penalty on full-time to allow an All Black victory by a mere 1 point! All Blacks 8 - France 7.

Mr. P (very happy)

School Cross Country

On Friday the 1st September, Fitzroy school held a cross country at Peringa Park and on a paddock through the trees. In the paddock there was lots of cow poo and thorns. We walked from school to Peringa Park at 10:30am and finished at 2:10pm that was 3 hours and 40 minutes, wow that’s long.
The 5 year olds had to run 2 laps of the soccer fields, 6 year olds had to run one lap of all of Peringa Park, 7 years had to run 2 laps of Peringa Park, 8 years had to run once around Peringa Park then a lap of the paddock, 9 years ran 1 lap of Peringa Park then 1 lap of the paddock then another lap of the Peringa Park, 10 year old boys and 11 years did 1 lap of Peringa Park 2, laps of the paddock then another lap of Peringa Park.
On the day some Taranaki rugby team players came with the Ranfurly Shield to show us. We’re lucky.
By Chad

Fancy Dress Ball 2011

We had a great time at our recent fancy dress ball held at the New Plymouth YMCA. Everyone got into the swing of things and dressed up in some fabulous costumes. Even the teachers dressed up too. Lots of parents came along to watch us dance and we hope they enjoyed themselves as much as we did.

SPEECH FINALS 2011

On Friday the 23rd of September we had our school speech finals! With people from rooms 6, 7, 8 and last but not least room 9 competing. There were speech topics from Budgies to... sharing a room with you younger sibling.
The winner was Liam Mataku with his speech on "What would you do if an alien came to live in our school?" He won the Julia Cloake Speech making cup.

Second place was defending Champion Donna Luo with her speech on Animal Cruelty and third place, biting at everyone's tails, was Jake Bowling with his speech about his adventures on the Gold Coast. Congratulations to all our participants and especially to the winners!

The Whispering Woods

Once upon a time long long ago,deep in the woods there lived a woodcutter and his wife. Although he didn't have children, he was content with life. He lived a simple life with his wife, Bertha. Bertha had the kind of face you wish never to set your eyes on. Although she was a cruel,sour and vindictive old lady, oh how he loved her. She had a crooked wart-covered nose, and bushy eyebrows. He didn't seem to see that side of her,that everyone else seemed to see. He would give her scabby feet massages and insist that she was to do no housework, and to rest.

Then one snowy winters night Bertha fell ill, very ill. The old man did all that he could do to save her but she died a terrible death. Although many people loathed her they gave their sympathy to the old man.

As time went on the old man's moods became dark and soon his life started to close in on him. No-one came to visit him anymore and how he longed for a soft, kind voice to talk to. Soon people began to forget about him altogether and all of this soon started to drive him insane. Some days he would just sit in his old rocking chair, staring out of the window muttering words to himself. Time eventually did its job and soon hundreds of pests and animals began living in his house, but of course he didn't notice or even care, he was too busy making conversation with his couch.

One day a young hunter named Phillip was tracking deer when all of a sudden he heard a rustling sound in an old abandoned house (well he thought it was abandoned). On closer inspection he spotted a brown ruffle haired creature. His hunting instinct said shoot it! Bang! A bullet ran through the old man's heart. As it did it was like the whole world froze for a moment and the young man suddenly realised what he had done. Now if you ever stroll through the woods and you stop to listen to the quiet whisper of the leaves you might just hear the soft, soothing sound of the Old Man and Bertha.


The End
By Donna

New Plymouth CrossCountry

Fitzroy School held the exciting New Plymouth cross-country event on the 6th of September 2011, at Peringa Park. There were heaps of different schools from all over the city that competed which was a great challenge for both supporters and runners. Around 40 runners from our school tested their skills on the course running from 1km-3km over flat park land and farm land. Each age group had up to 50 runners in it so the competition was stiff. Our team did reasonably well with several runners gaining top 10 placings. As an added bonus there were some delicious sausages and yummy cupcakes for sale to quell our hunger after we had run. Thanks for all the Parent support, it was a fun event.

By Bella.

Room 9's New Interactive Whiteboard

Room 9 got a new interactive whiteboard on Monday the 29th of August
which was very exciting for all of us. When the technicians had finished setting it up, Room 9 explored the board making a Mr Potato-Head which was a great laugh.
Room 9 also uses the interactive whiteboard now for work and fun and sometimes Room 8 comes in and shares the interactive whiteboard too. We are still learning how to use the board but I reckon we will be experts by the end of the year.

By Rebecca.

Red Cross People Savers Course

On the 2nd of August 2011,room 9 did a Red Cross People Savers Course.
We had an instructor called Brian, Brian told us about the the D.R.S.A.B.C which stands for Danger, Response, Send for help, Airway, Breathing and Circulation. If a person is unconscious the first thing you should do is the Head tilt Chin lift so when you tilt the head back the airway is open. Brian told us about the Recovery position, you do the Head tilt chin lift, put the arm closest to you out, put the arm that is futher away from you on their chest, roll them over by the hip and the shouder, bend the top leg, put the arm that's on the chest on top of the other arm and then do the head tilt chin lift. You must point their mouth to the ground so if they are sick and puke they won't choke on it.
Brian taught us how to put on a dressing (doctors word for bandages). He demonstrated what you would do if you got glass stuck in your arm and how to put a dressing on it. He also showed us how to make a sling for a broken arm, then he showed us how to bandage someone's head and we also wrapped someone's arm up in dressing.
We also learned what to do if you choke and we played a game about it. We had a 1.5 ltr drink bottle with a cork in it which we used as a gun. We put the bottle on our chest, made our hand into a fist and put it on the bottle. Then we put our other hand over it and squeezed hard. Whoever fired the cork the furtherest wins. The girls won.
We had a great time and we all hoped to do it again.

By Jack and Riana

My Dad's Marlin

This is my Dad's 97kg marlin. Dad and his friend Tom caught it. Tom was the skipper and Dad was the angler. The tackle was 28kg. The marlin was caught by trolling between the Tank Farm and Tapuae. They trolled for about half an hour before Dad got the strike. It took Dad about 45 minutes to play the marlin and to land it. The marlin was caught around 7.30am under fine weather and a calm sea. This is the second marlin my Dad has caught with Tom.
The first one weighed 129kg so it was a bit bigger than this one. Both marlin have been smoked and the steaks stored in the freezer. Since writing this Dad has caught a third marlin in the same spot that was also 97kg, exactly the same weight as the other one. In the future any marlin Dad catches will be tagged and released.


By Reuben

AWE Water Safety Programme

Recently our class participated in a water Safety programme sponsored by AWE and New Plymouth District Council. Every day for one week our class was picked up outside the school gates by bus and taken to the New Plymouth Aquatic Centre where we were taken through a whole series of water safety exercises and activities. We learned to jump into the water safely from a height with and without lifejackets on and we also learned to tread water correctly. Other activites included staying afloat with anything we could find to help us e.g. plastic bottles and clothing.

On the second to last day we went to the beach where we were taught how to use a surfboard and then we had a surfing competition. That was great fun even though it is the middle of winter here. We're tough! Here are some photos of us at the beach surfing.