THANK YOU R13!!

Thank you R13 for an amazing year.  You have all been incredibly supportive of each other, encouraging and you have come together as a family.  

R13 easily became the champions at attendance, winning the cup multiple times this year and applying yourselves to all areas of school life. 

I wish you all the absolute best as you move into intermediate. All the best for 2015 xxx 

Prizegiving

CONGRATULATIONS to R13's prizegiving winners:

Vidhant Sami - The Graduates Cup (Top year 6 Te Puawai Academic Award)

 Justin Yem - Outstanding Progress in Numeracy

Clarissa Vaikai-Lee - Community Spirit

Watties Cans Film Festival

Last night a group of Room 13 students went along to the Watties Cans Film Festival 2014.  We all met at Manukau movie cinemas at 6.30pm and were joined by many other students from rooms 12 and 14. We also enjoyed the company of Miss Magaoa, Miss Manuele, Whaea Edith, Koka Renee and Whaea Donna.  

We all went to watch Guardians of the Galaxy which was enjoyed by everyone.  Here are some comments by students:

"It was funny, it was cool. I really enjoyed watching the movie with my friends."

"It was fun hanging out with my friends."

"I enjoyed the movie because it made me happy and laugh"

"The movie was very funny. Everyone was laughing."

Come and join us on Wednesday 12th November for the Watties 21st Annual Cans Film Festival at Manukau Cinemas.  Room 13 is going to watch "Guardians of the Galaxy" which is showing at 655pm.  If you haven't seen the trailer yet just click here.  

It works like this - take in a can of food and swap it for a movie ticket.  Simple!!  If you want to see what else is showing then just go here. (I would recommend getting your tickets as soon as possible as they sell out quickly.)

YEAR 6 CAMP!!!

Year 6 camp is coming up in just 2 weeks!!  From Tuesday 18th - Friday 21st November we will be going to the Presbyterian Camp in the Hunua Ranges.  If you want to check out their website just click here. All year 6 students across the school have been invited to come along.  

We look forward to an enjoyable week out in the Hunua Ranges. We will be doing all kinds of exciting activities and with the addition of MAIA coming along to run team building activities our students are destined to bond and connect as a group.

I am personally excited to take my class as the majority of year 6 students from Room 13 are going.

Athletics Day

Today is athletics day. Come along a watch us down on the field.  Races start at 9.15am with our junior classes racing first followed by our seniors.  

Come and support our students by cheering them on!

There will be cakes, sausage sizzle, drinks etc for sale.

                                

CPS Speech Competition

On Thursday 11th September, Clendon Park School held it's speech finals.  Each of the finalists set a very high standard for next year. The finals were divided into two categories - Year 5 & 6's  and Year 7 & 8's. Our guest judge was Mrs Anne Grady who found it incredibly difficult to judge our students.  

Room 13's very own Vidhant was a finalist in in the Year 5 & 6 category with an entertaining speech on John Cena's career.  Vidhant was a strong contender for first place and comments such as "very dramatic" and he had a "very good introduction" which captured the audience's attention immediately.  Vidhant was awarded the very prestigious position of 3rd place. Well done Vidhant for all the hard work that you put into your speech.  We all look forward to seeing you take out first place next year : ) 

Year 7 & 8 Speech Finalists

(from left to right) Danii (yr 7), Mrs Grady, June (yr 8), Katania (yr 7), Latisha (yr 8)

Year 5 & 6 Speech Finalists

(from left to right) Leilani (yr 6), Kane (yr 6), Vidhant (yr 6), Hope (yr 5), Mya (yr 6), Mrs Grady, Gemini (yr 5)

Fiafia Night Performance

Last Thursday many of our Room 13 students performed with the Te Puawai Kapa Haka (TPKH) group at our Fiafia Night. For just over a week TPKH worked incredibly hard learning 3 new waiata.  The end result was a fabulous performance which, despite all the odds, made their tutors incredibly proud of them. 

A huge thanks has to go out to all other students of Room 12 and 13 who supported our performing students by being patient, working independently and helping their teachers without complaint.  See our roopu (group) photos below.  

If you want to see more photos of TPKH visit Room 13's windows.

Fiafia Night ... watch this space!!!

Te Puawai Kapa Haka group has been practicing relentlessly in anticipation of our performance at Clendon Park School's 2nd Fiafia night of 2014.  Our students are so incredibly committed that Whaea Edith and I have been blown away by their dedication.  We even called a practice last Saturday morning for 4 hours which all of our performing members attended.  Watch this space for an update, photos and video which will appear in the next 36 hours.  Good luck Te Puawai, we're proud of you.

If you want to check out Te Puawai's blog please click here.

Student Writing

*****  Please check out our "Some Stories to Share" tab above to see some of the amazing pieces of writing that our students are doing. *******

IT Expo

Last night CPS had our annual IT Expo.  Every class went all out to produce a stunning display of their work. It was exciting to see so many parents and whanau come along to support their tamariki. 

Room 13's display was based on our most recent topic of "Inventions and Inventors". Five of our students displayed their own individual research and we were treated to a wealth of knowledge about Tea Bags from Anna, Netball by Sina, the humble Magnifying Glass from Chris, Video Games by Terei and the delicious Sandwich from Justin. The did a wonderful job of both their display board and brochures that they produced on Microsoft Publisher.

Meanwhile the rest of the class were presented with a mystery item that was sourced from the local inorganic rubbish collection. The Cowboys (aka the boys team) was presented with a rather shabby looking carseat which was transformed into a pretty groovy go-cart while the Panthers (aka the girls team) were presented with a rather simple, plain looking wooden chair which was transformed into the "Snazzy Chair." Each group had to improve their mystery item using materials from the inorganic rubbish collection. 

Everyone who attended the expo were encouraged to vote for the item that had improved the most. At the end of the day, when all votes had been tallied, the girls one by 5 votes!!  Look at our photos below and tell us who you think should have won .... and why ....

TPKH debut at CPS Fiafia Night

Tonight was the finale to weeks of practices and hard work for the many cultural groups of CPS. After a successful Noho marae for our year 5 & 6 mainstream classes we decided two weeks ago to pull together a small kapa haka group from  these classes. Whaea Ata, Whaea Edith and myself were pleasantly surprised to see the high level of response from our year 5 & 6 students in wanting to join Te Puawai Kapa Haka (TPKH) - 30 students!!!.  We were only two weeks out from the highly popular annual event and the students gave up every lunch time and practiced over and beyond what we had hoped for. 

Matua Richard whipped the boys into shape as he taught them a new haka (Tika Tonu) while being a high standard role model for them all to aspire to. 

Whaea Edith's amazing voice and ear for music perfected the voices of our group in a beautiful choral (Hareruia) which was headlined by our very own Steve (Rm 9). 

Whaea Ata's pure dedication and patience (which only an angel could possess) calmly refined the actions to Toro Mai and capably lead TPKH during choral on the performance night due to the unfortunate absence of Whaea Edith. 

Whaea Maxine and Miss Manuele kindly sewed additional kakahau for us as we did not have enough to go around and they were willing to give up time in their already busy schedules to help.

I would also like to make special mention of Matua Dereck who was more than accommodating when it came to teaching those students who chose not to participate in TPKH. However, even though these students and Matua Dereck were not directly involved with TPKH it must be said that without their support and willingness to forgo our standard daily routines the success of TPKH would have been a little harder to come by.

Please check back soon when we post a video of our performance.

Top attendance second week running.

Can you believe that Room 13 has taken out the attendance trophy for the second week running.  They morale in Room 13 is high as they strive to keep the trophy by attending school every day.  As you can see they are very very proud.

100% Attendance

Room 13 has claimed the coveted attendance trophy for week 8 with 100% attendance.  This is a huge achievement that we have been striving for since week 1.  We hope that this will not be the only time that we will lay claim to the attendance trophy from the continual reigning champions, Room 6. 

Community swim is nearly over

Community swim is nearly over. We have had some great improvement in R13's swimming skills. Many of our students are now able to swim a length of the pool while others are well on their way to achieving this goal.  Isabel swam a massive 200 metres this week non-stop and shows great promise in further developing her stroke. Well done Isabel!!  Check out just how happy our class is with their amazing instructors - Pauline (L), Sheldon (M) and Josh (R).

We're half way there folks!!

Yes it's true. Week 6 is over and we are half way through the term!!

R13 has had a busy first 6 weeks. We have all well and truly settled in and everyone is working well together. We have a 91.2% attendance rate for the year to date. This is wonderful. Keep it up R13!! 

Please check out Peteli's KiwiCan Report under the "Some Stories to Share" tab above. 

This week at community swim at Manurewa Pools we learnt about water safety and survival. We used life jackets and learnt how to roll backwards in to the pool, swim for safety and how to rescue someone by throwing a floating device to them. Check out our photos below. Fun was had by all.

Kiwiana

During topic we are exploring New Zealand and its diversity. We have just started creating our new masterpieces with the theme - Kiwiana. Here are some pictures that we are drawing our inspiration from. Check back again soon to see our amazing artwork.

Languagenut

Tena koutou katoa, Languagenut is a new website that we have been exploring during ICT. It is a website that is helping us to learn new kupu for te reo Maori. Check it out and see what you think.

Room 13's Picasso's

During our first two weeks at school we created our own master pieces inspired by Picasso's Weeping Woman. Here is Pablo Picasso's famous piece of art work created in 1937.

Here are some of our own creations - all Picasso's in the making!