WSPPA SWIMMING CHAMPS

I'm so PROUD!!!  Well done team on an outstanding day at the 'WSPPA Swimming Champs' at Whangarei Intermediate School.  You all swam with determination and represented the school with pride.  On a personal note, it was a special moment to witness my son, Josh, winning the Year 4 Backstroke event and our Year 4 squad coming third in the relay.  To see and experience these, and those other SFX children compete and achieve, makes my job even more rewarding...so thank you!  A huge tino pai to those parents and caregivers who assisted on the day.

Reuben (Year 4 Freestyle - 3rd)

Emma, Alice, Reuben, Angus (Year 4 Relay - 3rd)

Josh (Year 4  Backstroke - 1st)  & Isaac (Year 4 Backstroke - 3rd)

Alice exhausted after her race.

Waiting patiently...and hanging out with their mates!

WSPPA Place Getters

Nathan, soaking up the action prior to his race.

Room 14 members - Isaac, Reuben, Alice, Maddison and Nathan

Maddison thinking about her race plan.

Space Invaders - Life Education

Today, we visited the ‘Life Education’ trailer with Nadine.  Life Education is a mobile classroom that tells children about health education.  Each year, the Life Education Trust visits over 1,300 schools and 225,000 children and informs them about healthy living, while also teaching them about their uniqueness.  

The focus for our class is ‘Food and Nutrition.’  Over the next few weeks, we will be learning about our magnificent bodies and how we need to look after them.  Food was the lesson for today.  Nadine spoke about the food triangle and the food traffic lights.  We discussed where food comes from and what foods to eat.  We had loads of fun...and learning!!!

Katy and the Skink

Last week, Katy showed us a skink she found in her garden.  This is her story...

Abuse (Keeping Ourselves Safe)

The Digital World (Keeping Ourselves Safe)

Today, we talked about 'digital technologies.'  These are techno devices, such as: cell phones, digital cameras, the internet, playstation, emails, etc, that are in our homes and that we use on a daily basis.  We then discussed ways such devices can be both safe and unsafe.  This will become more important to us, especially as we get older and (some may) begin texting and emailing as a way of communicating to and with others.  This discussion lead on to ways that young people are being bullied through the use of these techno devices.  ‘Cyberbullying’ describes how one can be bullied and teased through the use of digital technologies,.  All of Room 14 agreed that we need to be treated with respect - including those who are our friends.  To finish off, we watched an episode of ‘Hector’s World.‘  Our next lesson is on ‘Abuse.’ 

Katy's Praying Mantis

My mum found a big praying mantis our garden. My brother, Mike, named it Shoco.  Shoco was in a jar alive for four days. He had been tapping the top of the jar every day.  Shoco is green and is about two centimetres long.  I took Shoco to school and showed the children and Mr. Werder.  When we got home, I released Shoco in the garden but he flew on to my finger.  He felt like a sticktap.  He crawled on my Dad's arm.  (By Katy)

The Real World (Keeping Ourselves Safe)

Constable Jasmine spoke to us about identifying behaviours by other people that make us feel unsafe or uncomfortable.  She gave us cards which had different situations on them, then we had to rank them from ‘most safe’ to ‘least safe.’  The situations were, for example:  Someone stops you to ask for directions, Mum and Dad are fighting, You arrive home to an empty house, You walk home on your own, Your teacher gives you a pat on the back, etc. We discussed and debated these within our groups.  Constable Jasmine helped us decide on these rankings by using the STAR (Stop, Think, Act, Report) strategy; this helped us make decisions when behaviour from those around us is ‘safe’ or ‘unsafe.‘  Thanks Constable Jasmine for speaking to us about ways we can keep safe at home and in our community.