Leadership Course

On Friday the 3rd of August, 9 Room 8 children went to a Leadership forum. At the course there were visitors who spoke to the audience and the kids got morning tea. Not only Fitzroy School went, there were a whole lot of kids (roughly 6oo). One of the highlightswas when some kids got on stage and did some dancing and won Mcdonalds and Itunes vouchers. One lucky girl from Toko School won an Ipod Touch and $60 worth of Itunes. Fitzroy School is very lucky as we have one talented girl Keana Fox who went up on stage to thank Lisa Tamati.

The purpose of the Forum was to encourage and inspire the leaders of the next generation. Our group especially liked what Lisa Tamati had to say because you knew what she had done was real and amazing, even with bad asthma. She spoke well, had heaps of confidence and was full of interesting facts and opinions.

These are some of the visitors quotes:

Learn to love learning - Hekia Parata
Dont listen to can't, you can - Jamie Fenton
A CHAMPION is someone who gets up, even when they can't - Glenn Anderson
Take the next step - Lisa Tamati
Age is no barrier - Lisa Tamati
BE THE BEST YOU CAN BE - Lisa Tamati
Enjoy the choice, its yours to make - Mike Brewer
Friends- a dog won't carry your coffin - Mike Brewer

Chris Cairns visits

Chris Cairns, former NZ cricketer, came to talk to us about Railway Safety. His sister Louise had been killed on a railway track in Christchurch. He had a saying ' Use your brains, tracks are for trains' and talked to us about how to be safe around tracks and trains. He had a quiz where one of the juniors eventually won out of the whole school, because she wouldn't sit down! Daily News photographers were there and at the end of the talk took several photos with the school behind Chris and his railway people.






Jack Shearer scores big time with
Chris Cairns

New Zealand Post Awards

Four Room 8 kids each sent a poem to the New Zealand Post Schools Writing Competition. We have all our fingers crossed for these kids, hoping that the poems will be published:



PLASTIC

The fake plinky plastic was let loose
While drifting away
In the crowded jar
Of moving jam.



The translucent material
Burns a lot of her weight off
When she glides
In the sacred sky.
The rubbish man

Has a gob full of trouble
While trying to fetch
The teasing pest.
It runs like a fly.
A chicken taste
Springs off the plastic
Like a bird rebounding
Off a window.
The deafening chuckle sounds like the light house’s fog horn.
Its dreadful.
Unfortunately
The plastic spreads
AROUND the WORLD
Swimming down sewers,
Floating down drains.
It gets filthy
Through that process.
You should be glad
This object is not you.
I predict that she's getting old
Because she’s forming wrinkles.
I'm hoping
She’s not sick
A bit pale
Looking at her skin on the outside.
Its hard to believe
That this translucent fabric
Is born under the sea
In a bed of oil.

By Ruby






Rose

Fine delicate layers

Of rose petal
Wrap around the sprinkling nozzle
Crimpled layers whisper
Unbelievable secrets
From a fine beautiful face
Rose blossoms happily
Proud to show off
Her gorgeous deep red skin tone
She dances to the rhythm
Of the wind, swaying gently
Dreaming of a miracle
Beware of her sour bitter taste
And the sharp pointy spikes
That emerge from a thin green body
Rose uses her thorns
To prick the hands
That try to pick
The life out of her

By Keana

CRICKET BALL

The apple-like ball,
Creates an illusion of movement,
As it speeds towards me,
Like a steam train.
A pattern of string,
Encases the ball,
Around the middle,
Like a python squeezing its prey
It tastes bitter and dull,
Like a droning voice,
And it smells like a wealthy man’s shoe.
It’s smooth like a precious stone,
That has been on the riverbed,
For thousands of years.

By Jack

Pencil Sharpener

Scratch scratch!

Each turn causes the wood

to RIP right off!
But the battle isn’t over

The pencil needs to avoid
the HUGE blade

of the sharpener.
The human

spins the sharpener again

but now the pencil is getting very weak.

Rip!

One more spin…

The battle is over

The sharpener wins!!

By Jake

Armed Offender Squad

A Helicopter came like a bird with four wings.
The vibrating wind howled as the chopper landed on the Rugby field.
Armed Offenders looked like action figures as they ducked out as low as can be to avoid the spinning blades.

Men in BLACK!

The Armed Offenders were a group of four.
They crept out of the helicopter like assassins in slow motion.
The Armed Offenders were very careful with the gear.












They were loaded up alright.
From steel capped boots to bullet proof vest.
The balaclava covered their faces like they wanted to be unknown.
Helmets and goggles kept their heads protected.
Walkie Talkies  helped them to communicate.

The helicopter dropped a smoke grenade                                                 This is it after it has run out






  

      

 These are some of the lucky kids who got to hold or wear the gear





















The Armed Offender Squad came to Fitzroy School to get an idea of what it would be like if someone walked onto our school and did something not very nice.

What a Start!

A warm welcome from me to all the Room 8 families for 2012. It has been a fantastic start to the year from the kids, who are already showing me 'who they are' in so many positive ways. In fact, I have told them they have set quite a high standard of what I can expect - so there aren't any excuses for it not continuing!
It will be another busy year for Fitzroy School kids and staff. I look forward to it and being involved with the families.
Kind regards,
Rosey P

Art Panels

Most of you would have seen our murals last year. We think they look great and would like to share Donna's and Courtney's speech that explains what they mean.








'Kia ora and welcome. Today we unveil our first set of murals at Fitzroy School. Each part of this mural "Puna Matauranga" represents our community, our school, us. This mural represents who we are and simply shows the shape of our school life inside and out of it. We thought long and hard about what was important to us. The Kowhaiwhai pattern represents the importance of Maori culture to us. The white is the life that flows all the way through us, the red shows what and who has gone in the past, especially our ancestors and the black is the unknown or the challenges we all face.


We planned for ages before deciding what was to go on the panels. We thought the elements needed to be really important to us all. Firstly the school library came into mind. Also sport was a huge part of our school so we painted the sports panel and of course our local environment was important too so the Te Rewa Rewa Bridge was included. These three things make up the larger panels. The smaller panels represent the native trees and birds in our school grounds. Four of them have our traditional House trees in them - Puriri, Koromiko, Rata and Totara.


After about three weeks of hard work the mural was completed and here they are today.
We thank Mr Stoddart for inspiring us and helping us to make the mural the way it is. We'd like to thank all the students who took part in the painting and the many school kids who painted a leaf or a line.
THANKYOU!

Lego Rugby World Cup 2011

Four of the Room 8 boys have recently made a cool video of the Rugby World Cup using Lego as well as IT skills. It is a bit long to fit on the BLOG 'space' so here is the Youtube link for you to go to. We hope you like it!

Terrific Te Wera Camp!

This is a compilation of reactions to our camp. Our Learning Intention was to share some of the experiences using strong, precise nouns, verbs and adjectives.

Part 1: Along the Forgotten Highway

The never-ending windiness of the Forgotten Highway
The emptiness and peaceful silence of the road
No city life invading the countryside
Windy roads as twisty as snakes
An emerald green sea of rolling hills
Leafy green giants guiding us to our destination
Faded memories in the old, burnt sheds
Shades of clouds on the open hills
Schools so small I could hold one in my hand
Shocked eyes of Fitzroy kids seeing terrifying Halloween puppets hanging from a tree
Untouched land across the heart of Taranaki
Abandoned, rusty railway tracks leading us closer to Te Wera valley
Passing lots of train tracks, but never seeing a train cross -
maybe this place is truly forgotten



Part 2: 'Cabin Cosy'

Opening the door to our new home
Check walls and under beds for spiders and bugs
You sink into bed like squishing into a marshmellow
Moths fly like stunt planes around the shaded bulb
Darkness spreading across the room as we finally doze off
The blinding shine of a midnight torch
The stormy sea sound of rustling sleeping bags
The sleepy voice of a roommate rocking in our lazy boy
Rain hits the cabins with the sound of a rainstick
Some neighbours squawk like birds through the night while some snore like hippos
Birds squawk like alarm clocks between 6 & 8 in the morning
Constant cleaning and tidiness worries
Who knew a tiny cabin could get so messy!


Part 3: Challenges, Fun and Achievements


Climbing the steep hill was torture to the human soul
Don't grab the gorse when you're sliding down the hill!
Wow! A muddy giant emerges from the bottom of the wetlands
Mansion sized bivouacs were woven out of enormous ponga fronds
We smelt death from the eye popped cow, napping in the marshland that cost it it's life
The black and yellow dragonflies looked like Taranaki helicopters landing on my kayak
My nerves grew as people lifted me up to go through the spider web without touching the sides
I used all my strength to pull myself up the mossy wall in the black night
I concentrated so hard in trying to land the arrow in the bullseye, that my eyes went blurry
The sweet taste of damper dripping in golden syrup.
Camp Court made embarressment roll around in our tummies
The thorns glued themselves to our legs while we looked for orienteering clues
Adrenalin and excitement pumped through our veins as we slipped and slid along narrow ridges
The prickly gorse warned us to leave it alone
My friends gasped as we longed to reach the destination
The bouncy, strong volleyball hit high off our hands
Worried looks as we faced the climbing wall
The great teamwork achieves the challenges or wins the game