Cross-country

On Monday the 25th of June was the interegionals year 5-6 cross-country.We arrived at Saxton field by car. When we arrived we put down our bags and walked the coarse where we would be running. It had been raining recently and the coarse was filled with really deep mud. There were two creeks that we had to cross. One was ankle height with mud on the side. The other was bogy and probably slightly deeper than the other one, or so I thought...

The year 5 girls were first. They had to run two and a half laps of the slippery coarse, it was the same as all the other races. My race (year 6 boys) was the last race. When each of the other races finished, the more nervous I got. After cheering on the year 6 girls it was time for my race. I walked with my friends onto the starting line. There butterflies in my stomach, there about 70 runners. We did some stretches and got ready.

3...2...1...BANG! The race started. Everyone sprinted to get to the front. I got stuck behind a line of people, the track was pretty cramped. Eventually the race spread out. I came to the first creek I ran through it water sprayed onto my legs. I went up a slight slope it was riddled with mud. Every time I took a step I slipped back down again. I bent down and used my hands to pull myself up. Soon I came to the second creek. I took two steps through it and cried in surprise as half my body disappeared under the bogy water. When I came out I was soaked up to my waist, I was flailing my arms round to keep my balance and my shoes felt heavy. I kept running. On the second lap I knew what was coming. I tried to jump the deep creek and I only got my knees wet. Near the finish I went into a sprint.

 At the finish I was panting like a dog. A lady gave me a card with my place on it. I got 24th. The cross-country was really fun and I hope I get to do it next year. 

By Travis

Kids for Kids Concert

On Wednesday 20th June some of us went to the Kids for Kids concert with Suzanne Prentice.
There were ten schools and we had to sing eighteen songs. Mr Taylor had to pick two soloists for the show. Jamie and Molly were chosen. They tried out for the song tomorrow and ... got in

The first three songs we sang were "O what a night", "If I were rich man" and "Food Glorious Food". We then sang Hello Mother, Hello Father and Suzanne dressed up as a little boy named Timmy, half way through she started snorting.  Once we had sang 9 songs we had a half time break.

Near the end a large pussy cat (a human dressed up) came out and started to dance with the conductor and hugged a little boy.  Poor him.

 We all found it fun and enjoyable, and we hope to take part when Kids for Kids comes back in a couple of years time.

 By Isabel and Millie

Water Pump Rocket

This term we have been doing a science project called A Water Pump Rocket.
This is what you need: Plastic bottle, Clamp, Water, Table, Wooden stand, Pump with tube/cork.

This is how we did it:
1. Approximately fill bottle 1/3 with water.
2. Drill a hole through the cork the right size so that the tube fits tightly.
3. Thread the tube through the cork then through the hole in the stand and without tipping water out fit it into the bottle.
4. Once you've done that start pumping the pump and the bottle will end up in the air.
5. You can also try this with different amounts of water.


By Tia

Milk into Plastic!

Do you know you can make milk into plastic?  Here's how!

Equipment:                                                   

Parent
250ml milk
Stove
3 tsp vinegar
Fire extinguisher
Matches
Table
Pot

Method:

1. Pour all the milk into the pot.
2. Light a match and light the stove. *
3. Place pot on stove and wait until milk is warm.*
4. Take pot off stove.*
5. Add all 3 teaspoons of vinegar to pot.
6. Mix with teaspoon until porridge-like.
7. Take it out of the pot and knead it through.

Well done! This is a type of plastic called casein. (pronounce k-seen)
*Ask an adult to help you.

By Georgina

Archery

When Room 9 went on camp, we had a rotation day. One of the activities was archery. Archery is a sport in which people shoot a target with a bow and arrow.

Do you know how long archery has been around for and do you know when archery came to the Olympics? Well here are the answers:- 1) Archery has been around since 20,000 B.C. Can you imagine that! 2) Archery was introduced to the Olympics in 1904 as a team sport.

At camp our target was a stick with a apple on it and on top of the apple was a dead crab. I hit the stick and the apple managed to fall off with the crab.

Most people found it hard to hit the target.  Those who hit the target got a mini Moro bar.

By Tia

Camp's Marshmallows

 "Ahhhh go away",  I said to the smoke as it got in my eyes. In the 4rd week of Term 2, Room 9 went to camp at Marahau. We had lots of fun but I really liked the marshmallows. We had 3 packets of marshmallows so we had quite a lot. We could have them as marshmallows and biscuits (called smores), or we could have them as just normal toasted marshmallows.

They were really lovely but we had to toast them first. I like them burnt but that's just me. Others like them to be perfect and others like them plain.

By Jamie W

Cockling on Camp

One of our camp activities at Marahau was cockling.  Cockles are shellfish with two shells (bivalves) that you can eat.  We found them mostly under the mud at low tide.  Using our hands, dug a hole about 15cm deep and felt for the cockles.  If they were too small, we put them back so that when they grew, other people could get them.

After collecting 10 - 15 each, we took them back to camp.  They were put into a large pot of fresh water to try to get rid of some of the sand.

Later that day, the parents set up a fire with a big plate over it and cooked about 20 - 30 at a time.  The cockles were ready when they opened up.  I tried them, but didn't think they were very nice.  The vinegar made them taste a bit better, but they are not my favourite food.

By Jason C

Orienteering

At camp we had heaps of experiences and played and did heaps of activities [games].  One that I really enjoyed was orienteering.  I was in a team of three: me [Rebecca], Hannah and Max G
It was a race! 

First we where given a map. We had to follow these dots to where they were and search around for a peace of paper with letters on it.  They where hidden well so we had to look hard. We also had to make sure that other teams didn't see us other wise they would follow us.

Once we had found them all we raced back and got a good time of about 48 minutes.
Next we had to find out what the word was. The letters were mixed up so it was quite hard but we managed to unravel it. The sentence was 'Orienteering is a great way to exercise'.

Later we found out who won. We didn't win. Hamish and Tia won but we came second!

I loved camp and I hope we can go back and do it all again sometime.

By Rebecca  

Mini Golf on Camp

On the last day of camp we went to Kaiteriteri and  played mini golf. There were 18 holes. I was playing with Louie. He won by 4 holes I think.  I think we played for about 27 minutes. It was really awesome.

The trickiest hole was the 18th hole.  It was difficult to get the ball to stay on the top level without it running back down.   The easiest hole was the 4th hole.  Some of the adults played as well and it sounded like they had a lot of fun too.

By Shaun and Taylor-May

Photography on Camp

On Thursday it was rotation day. One of our rotations was photography. We took turns in our groups. I was group 2 and we did photography second to last. When it was our turn to do photography I was so excited I wanted to scream! We got into Buddy's (I was with Molly) and each group got a camera and you took turns at taking pictures. The adults who were supervising us were Angie (Zak's mum), and Trish (Max G's mum).

We walked about 20 minutes down the road to an awesome art place. We took heaps of pictures on the way there and at the place and on the way back,  so we actually took a lot of photos.  At the art place there were heaps of cool stuff like a throne chair made of wood,  heaps of statues and heaps of other neat stuff like that.

On the way back we didn't take as many photo's because we took most of them on the way there. There was a bridge with heaps of flowing water under it. On the way back Trish said that we should start singing because we looked bored, so we started to sing 'Mary and her little lamb' and 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' and then we couldn't find any more songs to sing so we made up our own song and that was awesome.

When we got back to camp it was lunch time,  hotdogs! Yum yum. While I was eating my lunch I told my friend's all about it.  That night I dreamed happy dreams about photography.

By Phoebe

The BIG walk

First we hopped on to the boat and met the boat driver. Next he told us some boat safety tips and told us where we are going. It started up going really slow but it started building up power. First we went to Split Apple Rock to see what its like to see in real life. It was amazing to see what it was like.

Next we went to Anchorage to start the amazing walk, but first we had a snack. We carried on our journey to and James was in the front and Izaak was in the middle/back. Our legs were aching, sore and asleep. We walked for one and a half hours and then we stopped for lunch at a sandy beach.

We started walking after lunch and our legs were aching straight away. We walked until there was a grassy area for a rest and a snack.

From there, it only took forty five minutes until we got to camp Marahau. We were exhausted after our BIG WALK.

By Izaak and James 

Biscuiting

We went to camp on the 15th of May. On the last day, we went to Kaiteriteri. We got to do biscuiting. Biscuiting is when you get a tube/biscuit and tie a rope to it, then tie the rope + tube to a boat in the sea/ocean. Whoever is in the boat makes sure you have a second person (just in case something goes wrong!). You then pull the person on the tube along for as long as you/they want. You can get two types of tubes, 1) a single tube, 2) a double tube.

I went on the double twice, once with Zak and once with Millie. Then I went on the single. On both biscuits it was very bumpy, but it was great FUN! On the single biscuit, I think there was sand on it and it kept rubbing against my legs, but I tried ignoring it.

By Tia

KAYAKING

On our camp on Tuesday and Wednesday we did some kayaking. First we learned how to paddle on shore before we got in the water. That was quite easy.  Once we were in the water we did some paddling around the area. Once we got  used to it we had some challenges.

First challenge, spinning in a circle, second challenge, holding our boats together and each of us one by one, we had to walk across each others kayaks and get back to our kayaks without falling into the freezing cold water. After our attempts at walking on the kayaks we raced back to shore and that was the end of our kayaking trip.

By Sola and Hannah.

Solo

On the second day of camp after dinner we did the Solo. The idea of the Solo is to just sit and be left alone in the dark with your thoughts and no talking. We walked along the beach in the darkness and were left at different places. The people who were sat down first were left on their own for longest and the people who were a bit scared of the dark were only left for about 10 minutes.

I personally was left for about 15 or 20  minutes. We sat for what felt like ages on our own. The stars were amazingly bright and it was a cloudless night so it was a fantastic experience. Walking back we were freezing and very thankful to Fiona as she gave us all a hot Milo.

By Molly

Samurai swords (noodles)

Samurai. A game of strategy and challenge, a game of senses and violence, a game of...  whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, what?  A game of FUN!!! After dinner at Marahau on the 17 of May, we played a game called samurai.

2 people were blindfolded and spun around 5 times and placed back to back while Mr. Taylor moved some swimming noodles around.  After that he shouted "And... Go!' and the 2 people on the ground scrambled around the floor searching for the noodles and once they found them they stood up and used their senses to try and find their opponent and whack them 3 times and that makes them the champion! 

After that, the children that had parents with them on camp got to verse their parents, if their parents agreed... all of them agreed.

By Millie and Zak!

Possum hunting

When we went to camp in Term 2, Week 4, we went possum hunting. Not the type when you shoot real possums. These were wood cut out's with reflective stickers as eyes and they had a number on their tummy.

When you find a possum you write the number on your card, but the twist is you have to find as many possums as you could in 30 minutes. We were in groups of two and my group got 1st place.

It was really dark, it was really fun and I hope to do it again sometime soon.

By Max G

Science Experiments

Abseiling

Group 3 preparing for the exciting experience.

On our camp, a special visitor came to teach us how to abseil. His name was Andrew Smith.

After we had got our harnesses on and blah, blah, blah, we went to the top of the tower up a steep ladder.  Then we took turns abseiling down the tower.  He let us down slowly, and then we walked slowly down the tower.  It was a bit hard the first time, but it was easy the next time.

We jumped to get off and that was the fun bit!  Then the next person went up for their turn.  And the next and so on.

I had a super time!  If you are doing abseiling on your camp, give it a go!
By Georgina

Kaiteriteri day

This year Room 9 went on camp to Marahau. We were all excited when we left school, but when it came to the end we were all a bit sad.

On the way back, instead of going straight home. we stopped at Kaiteriteri for some rotations. They were biscuiting, mini golf and beach fun (playing on the playground). I was in group two. First we did mini golf. My partners were Lochie and Max. There were 18 holes we started at hole #9 and when we got to hole #17 we would go to # 1 because at # 18 your ball would and not come back.

Next we did biscuiting. First Max and I went on the double biscuit. It was great fun. Then I went on the single biscuit twice.  I did some massive jumps because it was extremely fast. Biscuiting was great fun.

After that we did beach fun. Me and my friend played on the flying fox for a while then we went on the swings for a bit. When you scraped your feet on the ground it made a farting noise.

 When everybody had had a go on  everything,  Mr T rounded up all the groups. Overall I think it was a great camp and I can't wait till next years camp.  By Hamish

Marahau Camp 2012: Cooking Damper

On camp, on Tuesday evening, we cooked damper.  While some people went kayaking, other people went to collect damper sticks for the whole class.

Later that night we got some scone mix and wound it around a stick.  Then we held it over the fire until it was crisp.  If we didn't spin it, it would be burned on the outside, and raw in the middle.

Some people cooking damper

We filled up our damper with jam and margarine.  It was so delicious that I wanted another one, but we were not allowed.