No Hat, No Play!

Since Summer is approaching, sweatshirts and trousers are now BANNED! The sun is shinning everywhere around Auckland and I haven't seen a drop of rain around. At Ruapotaka School, hats are to be worn at interval and at lunchtime play. Not only are students wearing hats, but so are teachers on duty.

"No Hat, No Play," is a simple rule used for sunny days like these ones. Students without hats sit under the shelter, to keep nice and cool, on a hot day. The sun is going to burn off for a hard 3 months (November, December and January) and going to the beach or pools in the holidays would be appropriate.

Reminder: Hats are to be worn on heads at all times, and it is not a glove.

Final Technicraft Of 2017

On Week 7 of Term 4, the Year 8 and 7 students had their final Technicraft of 2017. The Year 8's finished off in Mr Grundy's class, while the Year 7's finished their last tech off in Mr Pineda's class.

After weeks of working on a project with Mr Grundy, which was stained glass, most Year 8 students finished it off. Basically, we had to illustrate an image on a piece of paper (e.g castle) and finalise it with stained glass.

Unfortunately, I didn't manage to finish, due to the lack of time I used on tinning the glass pieces together. My design was a volcano, and I was proud of what I created.

Athletics Day 2017

Athletics Day 2017
On Tuesday it was Athletics day. There was plenty of fast paced action going on and it was fun to watch. All classes gathered onto the top field while the parents observed with amazement. I even heard a parent or guardian gasp when Dakbai crossed the finish line. I could tell that they were impressed.

I was also at a loss of words, when I saw the new entrant and Year 1 students pump their little legs to the finish line. Unfortunately, I wasn't cleared to run so I sat under the tree, but still enjoyed watching everyone give it their all and show off their speed. As the Year 8's and 7's dashed past me I could feel a strong gust of wind blowing my hair. They ran like the speed of lightning.

I simultaneously clapped and cheered as the races went on. I didn't criticise, because there was no lack of effort on the field. Everyone ran their hardest and it was a pleasure to watch. Well done to all the first, second and third place getters and to those will be running at the Inter-Schools' Athletics this Tuesday.

I don't want to be too biased but, my favourite runners were Pate, Timote and Dakbai. The effort they put into their races were amazing. I loved watching them challenge each other to their limits. I could see they were nervous, to compete against each other. It was like a fantasy rivalry.

Year 8 Boys (400m dash)

  Year 7 Boys (400m dash)

The Wait Is Finally Over

The Manaiakalani Film Festival was 24 hours ago. The wait was finally over and every schools movie was entertaining. I am proud to represent our film, which was entitled 'Rugby Values.' Our Year 8's gave handy tips about rugby, for example; discipline. Our movie had a clear message which was, The Benefits Of Rugby. We went to Cinema 3 to watch our movie. I was surprised to see all of Ruapotaka's classes make a short-film.

My favourite movie was 'The Time Machine,' by Room 7 of Point England School. It was unique and funny. I can't imagine what the bloopers would've been like.

Enjoy...

The Film Festival Is Soon!

The Manaiakalani Film Festival, is just around the corner. It will be on November 8th. The Film Festival is a local event for Manaiakalani schools like Ruapotaka School, Point England School and other schools around our Tamaki area. This is our School's third year making movies for the Festival.

For those who don't know what the Manaiakalani Film Festival is, it is where our Tamaki schools make short films and they get to showcase them at the Sylvia Park movie theatre. The Year 8's of Room 12 made a film, but I don't want to spoil it ....

Meafou and Vaimoana are our movie presenters. Personally, I think our movie will be one of the best this year, due to our amazing and entertaining actors.

Assessments Are Today

Today, Room 12, had five Maths tests and a Spelling test right after fitness. Our Maths test was a bit tricky at first but as I finished a maths problem, and moved on to another, I started speeding up and eventually finished before the time ran out.

Our first Maths test was multiplication. There were two rows filled with problems to solve. We had one minute to fill in the answers for each column, but we just used the whole two minutes to complete both two rows. The second Maths test was on division, and again we repeated the same process.

Our next two Maths tests were addition and subtraction. And our fifth and final Maths test was a mix of all four previous tests. I had no problem finishing on time but I found out that I got some wrong, because my, "Nine's were shaped like the letter 'a'.

We just finished our STAR Reading Test as well. Mr Reid is currently marking them and we are yet to find out the results. Fingers crossed, I will receive a high percentage correct.

Term 4 Goals

On the first week back to school, Room 12 recorded their goals on a piece of pad paper. We set out our goals and then slid it into our goals folder.

After we had written down our goals, we tried our very best to achieve them. We all wrote a goal or two for each subject such as Maths, Reading Writing and most importantly Personal goal.

My personal goal, was to use my initiative and help out my peers when I see them struggling. My goals for this term are going to be achieved before I move to High School.

A Beginning Of A New Term

Yesterday, was the start of a new term: Term 4, the last term of 2017. This means that soon, the Year 8's will be heading off to college. This year has gone by so fast, and I cannot wait until I become a freshman at Selwyn College. This term, we will be focusing on Athletics, Speeches, Christmas Crossover, Prize Giving and more.

Since it is the last term of the year, we will be very busy, because there are a lot of activities going on. The Manaiakalani Film Festival will also be held this term, where all schools around our local area will either be making a movie, or watching other school's movies.

Today was also the first day of Tech. I am hyped for this term to start and ready to keep on learning new things.

The First Duffy Assembly Of Term 3!

On Tuesday, a man by the name of Michael Mulipola, came to our school to introduce to us his amazing artworks and passions in his life. I was astonished to hear that Michael Mulipola was not only a Samoan illustrator, but apparently he's also a wrestler.

During his time with us, he showed off some of his finest art and sketches, and I was very amused. He drew the likes of Spiderman, Green Lantern, and well known pro-wrestlers. Surprisingly, he has been drawing at a very young age.

Some of his illustrations are in school journals, which we have at our school. After the assembly had ended, we buddy-read with partners. We were actually reading the books that were drawn by him. I enjoyed his comic art the most.

Street Running!

Today was the first time this year, that we ran around the block of Ruapotaka School. Straight after our 5 minute circuit workouts, each group, ran up the steep hill and vacated the school grounds responsibly. Each category of students ran for roughly about 10 minutes or more.

I ran with Saluselo for 1 lap and a half until he blitzed the rest of the way with all his speed and stamina. I didn't want to be caught finishing in last place so I sped up and as I entered the school grounds and zoomed past the courts, I noticed that there weren't many people who had finished.

After me came a lot of other students who I thought would've beaten me, but because I had a head start I was the third Year 8 boy to finish. This was just a practice, but I think I still did great!!

🛠 The Switch Over (Tech) 🛠

Today was the day that the year 7's and 8's switched over to a different activity at Tamaki College's Technicraft. The year 7 students all attended Mr Pineda's 'Graphics' class, which was our previous class. The year 8's including myself, proceeded to Mr Grundy's Workshop and our particular topic is currently glass.

Of course Mr Grundy WARNED us students about what would happen if we didn't follow the rules with respect - We would get either burned, cut, or hurt. Mr Grundy has very strict rules which are intended to protect us.

Our first task was drawing our designs, and mine was not too bad. My favourite sketch was a castle. I'm thinking of using that design to use for my glass activity.

Orienteering Is Back!

Orienteering is finally back, and it's been four, long years since we've last done it. Our guide or teacher, was Mr Leon and he showed us a few symbols or icons on the map of our school. On the first day, Mr Leon gave us all a clip card. All clip cards were unique because they each had different numbers.

It was a bit complicated at first because the clippers were not in alphabetical order, but I managed to execute it and not place last. It was fun simultaneously. The same day, we all trotted around the school with maps, and found each base.

Unfortunately, people had their map taken off them because it was not facing North. The following week, Mr Leon came back and handed us all a clip card and a map. We had to clip the card by using the map to find our destination.

I had heaps of fun and it was fun doing orienteering after four years.

 Orienteering (First Lesson)

 Orienteering (Second Lesson)

🏆 The Performance Was A Success! 🏆

Today, all the classes convened together in the Multi-purpose room to perform in front of each other.

Each class presented a spectacular performance, with their beautiful singing, entertaining dances and even a catwalk dressed in Samoan and Tongan cultural and traditional outfits. My class, executed a wonderful, Pacific song called 'How Far I'll Go' from the movie Moana. All performances were astonishing, starting from Room 1 and ending in Room 12.

One of my favourite acts, was Room 6's catwalk because it wasn't only amusing, it was also unique and different from the other classes. After watching every classes' item, I really think that the parents will be keen on coming to our school to watch our performances.

Room 1 - performed a 'Samoan Sasa'
Room 5 - sang 'Le Aute'
Room 6 - modelled a 'Catwalk'
Room 7 - danced to 'Coconut Tree'
Room 9 - sang 'Little Birdey'
Room 10 - executed a nice song, 'E Otua'
Room 12 - sang 'How Far I'll Go'

🎥 Movie Making For Manaiakalani 🎥

On Wednesday, (about 2:20pm) Mrs Golder gathered the Year 8s of Room 12 into Room 11 to start thinking about making a new movie. Last year, our entertaining movie was called 'The Focuser.' The genre of that one minute clip was an advertisement that was selected by the Ruapotaka School staff members to be the best film of Ruapotaka School that year.

This year, our topic is based upon New Zealand history, which is very major to our school, simply because Ruapotaka is a Maori term. First we came up with an unanimous decision which was the Rugby World Cup 1987. Seven students outvoted the other six which is why we are focusing on that topic.

Everyone in the Year 8 cluster will contribute to this movie which we hope will be successful.

✏📚 The Begining Of Term 3, 2017 📚✏

Finally, it is the first day of school, since the last day of Term 2 ended. When I was walking through the school gates, I was so nervous and apprehensive because it was the first day back. But then I remembered, that it was everybody's day back. I was thrilled to see my friends after the two weeks holiday.

During class time, Mrs Golder and Mr Reid gathered everyone on the mat to teach us new maths subject such as fractions, ratios and proportions which I have learnt last year. 

There will be a lot happening this Term like inter-school rugby, netball, and cross-country. I cannot wait to see where our learning will take us Term 3, 2017!

Skipping (Update)

Skipping is now six days away and we Room 12 have been persevering with our skipping, ever since we have started. Our group routines and warm ups have been upgraded with the assistance of our teachers Mrs Golder and Mr Reid.

Last time, our warm-ups were just ten skips forwards, backwards and side-to-side, but now, we added ten more skips to make it twenty each.

My group has improved from last time and we have been practising to execute more advanced skipping manoeuvres. All the teams put in a great effort to make their routines entertaining, using their own special skills.

🌟🌟🌟 The Return Of Matariki! 🌟🌟🌟🌟

We are currently learning about Matariki and how it is special to New Zealand.

Matariki is a celebration or an event that is celebrated during the winter solstice (Southern Hemisphere only). Matariki literally means the 'eyes of god' or 'little eyes.' When the new moon rises, it is a signal to a new year; the Maori New Year.

The seven stars of Matariki (a.k.a seven sisters) shine brighter and are more substantial than all the other stars in the sky at night. On Matariki day, people grow new crops, or replace the ones that they have already planted.

Some celebrations last up to at least three days or less, possibly more. Many people around New Zealand fly kites, light fireworks, perform kapa hakas and special dances at festivals. Matariki is really an event to be remembered and be carried on in the future.

Practising Our Skipping!

For the last few weeks, Room 12 have been training, to do skipping with each other. To begin the lesson, Mr Reid told us to form rows and columns with Meafou and Isabell in the front facing us.

For warm ups, we skipped ten times forwards and backwards. If we failed in our attempts, then we had to keep going. We then, had to get into our skipping groups. We were not allowed to have all boys and all girls in one team. My team members were Min Zin, Henry and Alexandra.

We are still working on our routine, for the demonstration. There are still a couple of more weeks until the skipping day. After skipping, our energy dropped, because we were skipping for so long.

It was amazing seeing that everyone had worked together in their teams and I am looking forward to the skipping demonstration.

🏃Exercising Our Bones!🏃

Every morning, after the first bell rings at school, everyone in the junior and senior blocks get ready to do fitness. For daily fitness, the seniors (rooms 9, 10, 11 and 12) run around the block roughly around ten minutes.

The only times that we don't attend fitness, is on the weekends, on wet days, and if there are important events. The teachers stand at different points.

Mrs Golder = top of the hill

Mr Reid = near the basketball hoop

Miss Misela = near the toilets

Ms Riley = near Room 9

I mostly jog, with Azahar, Timote, Lupe, Mika and Min Zin.

National Milk Day

Today was National Milk Day, for all schools who drink milk in New Zealand. The company who delivers milk to most schools in New Zealand is called 'Fonterra Milk For Schools.' National Milk Day is held every 1st of June.

Our school drinks milk every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. There are a couple of factories that help Fonterra to deliver milk for students all over New Zealand. The milk is made on farms from around the country.

Fonterra first established somewhere during 2001. Two companies (New Zealand Dairy Group and Kiwi Co-operative Dairies) merged together to make Fonterra.

We are lucky to be one of the Fonterra schools.

A Fresh New Start To Technicraft!

Wednesday was the beginning of a new session for Technicraft, and that class was Graphics with our new teacher, Mr Pineda.

There were 5 students in Mr Pineda's D.V.C class: me, Alipate, Azahar, Meafou and Teremoana - we had one task. We had to draw our own logos for juice boxes. My design was apple juice. I was sitting next to my friends, Azahar and Pate.

Unfortunately, most Year Seven and Eight students were at a soccer tournament, (which, they placed first with Stonefields). While they were absent, the rest of us split up at Tamaki College, with the Year Sevens at Mrs Tuipulotu's cooking class.

Eventually, the bell rang and we ran out of time. Luckily, the three of us (me, Azahar and Pate) finished, our project. We drew our logos, coloured them in and added little details like shadows and putting in secondary colours. I remember that we did a similar topic last year when I was a Year Seven.

Last year, our theme was lunchboxes. We had to make up our own fast-food restaurant and draw a design on the lunchboxes to match the name of the restaurant.

We still have 13 weeks until Graphics finishes, and then we move on to Mr Grundy's woodwork class. I can't wait for what will happen in Mr Pineda's class during those 13 weeks.

😢 The Last Ever Cooking Class For 2017 😢

Wednesday was quite odd, because it was the last ever day for cooking at Technicraft and it didn't seem like it. It all started after we disembarked from the bus.

We walked casually to our cooking class and waited for our teacher Mrs Tuipulotu. As we walked in the classroom, we saw the ingredients on the whiteboard. "Blueberry muffins!" Mrs Tuipulotu shouted.

As soon as I read the ingredients, I knew exactly what to do. Well, I think that everyone knew what to do. After we put our food in the oven, we waited for at least 15 minutes, with it burning at 180°. While we remained patiently, Mrs Tuipulotu was on her computer and we were talking to each other.

The timer went off, and we rushed back to our stations. We all took out our trays out cautiously. We then, put the food onto another tray to cool down the muffins. This wasn't the way I expected the last cooking class to go, but it was still lots of fun that day.

🎤 The New 'Lip Sync Battle' Champions! 🎤

I have never witnessed an assembly so fascinating and exciting as the one I had seen on Monday (08/05/17). There were entertaining dancing, award-winning students and even hosts that were loud and clear. On Monday, the syndicate assembly was spectacular.

Room 12 were the hosts, and Rooms 11, 10 and 9 were the audience as well as their teachers. We had another lip sync battle and this time, Room 11 (The former L.S.B champions) were defending their prestigious title against the other classes.

Here were the contestants:
Room 9 - Jacob and Diego (Options)
Room 10 - Dominic and Peni (Let It Go)
Room 11 - Meafou and Vika (Rolex)
Room 12 - Mika and Lupe (Rolex)

The winners and new Lip Sync Battle Champions were Dominic and Peni from Room 10. Their performance and effort was super entertaining and they should be proud of themselves. The belt was passed to Room 10.

🍳 The Return Of Technicraft! 🍳

Last week on Wednesday, (The first week of Term 2) we started Technicraft at Tamaki College again. The last time we went to Tech was in Week 9 (Term 1). On the first day back, we made truffles.

The truffles were the easiest and quickest recipe so far. The ingredients were oreos, coconut, condensed milk and chocolate. First we broke the oreos, then put them into a bowl. Then we added some coconut and poured milk on top of the crushed cookies.

After that, we mixed them together and put the bowl into the refrigerator to cool it down. Next, we melted the chocolate in a separate, smaller bowl in the microwave. We then took the two bowls out of the refrigerator and microwave.

Finally, we rolled the truffles into balls, and applied the topping which was the melted chocolate. Lastly, we rolled the truffles into more coconut. I made four chocolate truffles. They tasted sweet and appertising. I enjoyed the first tech of Term 2.

🏅 First Award For Term 2!! 🏅

On Monday, there was quite a special assembly. This was because it was the first time back to school after the Term 1 holidays ended for 2017.

Over the holidays, there were two very important events. Easter Day and Anzac day. Anzac Day was important to us because we had learnt about the topic and even had our own special ceremony in the multi-purpose room.

Sadly, I couldn't attend the ceremony because I had left early. Anyway, after we sang our national anthem, three special people from specific classes (Rooms 1, 11 and 12) were called up to the front of the audience and received a book and a certificate.

I was one of the students who earned a book and a certificate. The book was called D-Day, which was based on World War Two. After school, I read the first five chapters of the story. It's a really interesting narrative, that involves a lot of complex vocabulary.

I'm looking forward to reading more of the story in my free time and find out what will happen in the conclusion.

😂 Too Much Laughs With Our Hilarious Visitor 😂

On a Thursday morning, a person by the name of Robert Rakate, and Henry visited Ruapotaka.

It was a bit unexpected, because Mrs Pederson said that as she was walking out of the staff room she saw them and invited them to our Duffy Assembly. Robert Rakate used to work for the Mai.FM radio station. 

We saw Henry last time, at Tamaki Primary School. They were both very entertaining and funny. The room filled with laughter, joy and excitement every time Robert Rakate stood up and said something. He told us stories about his favourite stories and his year eight son. His favourite book growing up was Astrix. I have never heard of that book, but it sounds pretty interesting.

He inspired me to keep reading books in the near future and stay on my 'A' Game. When we recieved our Duffy Books (my last one from Ruapotaka School) it reminded me of all the memories of the other Duffy Books I had while growing up. 👍

Link To More Photos →Click Here

🎥 Te Oro Slide Presentation 🎥

A couple of weeks ago, some students from Rooms 11 and 12 had the opportunity to form a group and make a slide presentation for Te Oro. Only the best of the best were picked.

The people who were great artists and great writers. They were Me, Mika, Saluselo, Athens, Meana, Maia, Katrina, Min Zin and Isabell. During the first few days, we spent time organising our ideas on what we wanted to do on the slide.

My ideas were to make a pie graph of our local pests, and also a banner. I used different colours for each slide. Our main purpose was to make it interesting, unique and entertaining.

Two more weeks are left and we will be  working on doing a voice over. I can't wait to see our amazing slide show.

Inquiry Topic: Pests

In the beginning of our topic about pests, my class had to do a K.W.L chart of what we knew about the subject. Our topic was unique and different to the other schools in the Manaiakalani Cluster. I didn't know much when I first studied Pests until my research increased my knowlege. Here is my evidence of my prior knowledge.

Then after days of research, we started writing an explanation of what we knew about pests and also facts about them too. Here was my completed task.

Why Are Pests So Environmentally Unfriendly?

Pests are animals, creatures and insects that create destruction towards the environment and towards people. They mostly create chaos in people’s houses, gardens, crops and even chew and swallow our food! This is called contamination which means that they poison our food with their diseases.

Pests are often unwanted because they transfer diseases and cause people to be ill. When pests unite, they have to be exterminated with pesticide. This is called an infestation. When they unify, they could possibly cause twice as much damage as they do alone.

Mosquitoes slurp on people's blood and cause them to have a fever or itching. This could lead them to have malaria, which makes humans vomit and give people headaches. In serious cases, it can cause your skin to turn yellow, give people seizures or even death.

People should control pests. Especially because they are extremely damaging to the environment and towards the human kind!

A Brand New Tabloids!

Last Wednesday (15.02.2017) after lunch play, the whole school gathered and lined up in front of Room 1.

We lined up because just recently, we made houses. They were Kikorangi, Kakariki, Kowai and Whero. They are all colours in Maori. Blue, (Kikorangi) Green, (Kakariki) Red, (Whero) and Yellow. (Kowai) When we lined up in our houses, our teams got split into two so there were eight teams altogether.

The reason why our teams were split up, was so they could compete against each other. After our teams were split up, we followed the teacher we were with and played an activity. My first activity was passing the tennis ball to my teammates and see how quickly we could do it.

Then we went to Mr. Reid and played soccer. After all the activities we did were over, we lined up in front of Room 1 again. Our team had a total of 35 points so we came second.

Duffy Show!!

Today, the whole school watched an amazing and entertaining Duffy Assembly. It all happened at 11:00 am after morning tea play was finished. Every class lined up in their rooms and started walking to the multi-purpose room.

Unfortunately, after the bell rang, I had to quickly rush to the staff room for tea-duties with Lupe. After we finished, we ran to the multi-purpose room to join the rest of the school and watch the show.

The show was about a super hero Global Girl who is a weather girl but also has dyslexia. She can't read so when she tries to change the weather, it turns into a disaster. Suddenly she lands on a different planet.

On Planet Earth, she meets a young boy, Duffy  who loves to read.  She asks him to help her on a mission to save the weather. He travels with her to different countries such as Australia, Tokelau and Africa.

Soon after they finish their missions, Duffy helps her to read because she didn't learn to do this in school.

It was pretty funny, but most of the time I could either not see because I was at the back, or couldn't hear because the juniors were screaming. Other than that, I liked the show because the actors were very loud and clear.

That show was one of my favourites from the last year ones.

First Senior Syndicate Assembly For 2017!!! 😁

On Tuesday 7th February 2017, was the first ever Senior Syndicate Assembly of 2017.

Room 12 (My Class) hosted the assembly and it was amazing and entertaining. Firstly, Lupe introduced everyone to our assembly and welcomed Ms Riley because it was her first ever assembly with the senior block.

After a couple of lines from the students in Room 12, we sang our first song called 'Be Happy' by Velody. After that song, Lupe presented the certificates for people who did better than before. Vaimoana and Timote received the certificates in our class.

After the certificates were handed out to the students who were better than before, Azahar called on the dancers from each class to dance to their selected songs. Soon after this, Room 9 danced to 'Juju On That Beat.' 

Next, Rooms 10 and 11 danced to the same song as Room 9. Lastly, Room 12 danced to 'Hit The Quan.' Finally, we sang another song called 'Lean On Me.'

It was a great assembly to start the year off.