Pounamu Atawahi Blog 2019
Term 4 Week 2
This week has been awesome we are all stuck into our SDL and have our first level 5!
Julia Jackson made a cool video and showed us for her presentation and showed the 4 Nga Matapono strands in the presentation!
We are stuck in our speeches and are writing them at the moment! Some of the teachers have presented their speech and all we can say is they were funny!
Harold is still here and Miss Fairbairns whanau group went on Monday it was a shaky experience! We haven't done much it’s pretty much the same exept during the afternoon we do mindfullness and stuff on the rugby world cup! How about that win this weekend?
Hope you have a great day
Written By Katie Brunn
Term 4 Week 1
Yay, we are finally back for our last term! ): But we do have some exciting things to share about what we have done during this week.
As always we all ready have gotten stuck into SDL and are ready to learn! We have a special guest at school right now! He’s a tall animal with the name Harold! That's right we have Harold the giraffe at school right now! He’s going to be teaching us about health, kindness and more! We are all EXTRA excited to have Harold at school again!
Also this week Miss Fairbairn's whanau group did plant to plate on wednesday.
I hear they did some yummy recipes like; broccoli and cheese fritters and lemonade
It was loads of fun to learn about planting and cooking! Everyone did a part and contributed!
We also had desk applications and some lucky girls got their desks back or got to have a desk this term!
For writing we are all doing speeches about different things, you have to present it in a few weeks when you are done.
Sadly this term the year six’s of this year are leaving this term! But they will be going to start a new journey at intermediate!
That's pretty much all that's happened in the first week of term 4!
Written By Aidan Mace and Katie Brunn
Term 3 Week 9
This week we have been checking out the awesome talent in this school. We had the auditions for Riverdale’s Got Talent, and the finals are next week. There will be lots of different talents, such as dance, music, drama, well, too many for me to say! We have so many awesome talents in our school!
Next week is also Right Choice Day, so make sure your manners are up to scratch!
Next week in Creativity, Mr Carter is the teacher-in-charge, not Miss Kenyon and Miss Field.
Good Luck to the All Blacks this weekend!
Written By: Allie Ward
Week 8 Term 3
This week we are continuing on our rivergeddon games and calendar art. It's getting really busy towards the end of the term and we have finally gotten back into writing since we couldn't that much last due to being busy.
Next week is the second to last week of creativity. The wall is full so it will be a challenge to get in for the last two weeks of creativity!
Quiddage next week will be the last quiddage of the term. Business’s need to thrive at the next one so the have enough to retire at the end of the year!
On tuesday there was ICAS writing exam and last week the ICAS digital technologies exam on tuesday that week.
By Aidan Mace.
Week 7 Term 3
It was yet again another busy week at school.
We started making our calendar art . We are doing it around our Whiringa wha. I won’t tell you any more you will have to wait and see.
DanceNZ Made Riverdale school had a dance group that went to the Regent Theatre to compete in this event. They were super lucky to take away 1st runner up which means second in dance talk.
I reckon the highlight of the week was definitely book character day . Everyone came in bright colourful costumes. It was an awesome day
By Julia
Week 5 term 3
This week we have had some minor changes around the school and in the classroom
We have changed how we sit for lunch and have a specific area, we sit closest to the car park on one of the netball hoops sides, and you must in the netball court where you have been told to sit, the first time we do this the teachers will be taking us out after P.E now enough of that time to talk about the math workshops
The maths workshops have minorly changed so, there are 3 split up sections with all different workshops there are 38 workshops but all together but split up there should be around 12 in each, there’s subtraction and addition multiplication and division and last but not least proportions and ratios so that's not that different you just show up and learn
Not that much happened this week but we can tell you a bit about writing!
Mrs Kenyons group has just finished picture books and are moving onto character description, some kids have presented there picture books to the year 2’s like Bailee M and Yuzuki L/J, Aiden and Angelo and some others it's really cool to see some people getting into writing picture books for the little ones!
Miss Fairbairns writing is like Mrs Kenyons except we didn't do any character description we are still working on our picture books some people are finished, some are still publishing ad some are drawing, it's cool to see all your ideas go onto paper to be printed out and finished, there is a-lot of hope in writing right now because it's getting better and funner for us
In Mr Carters you had to pick a piece of writing you had already done with him then conference he would give you feedback on whether you should edit now or do it while you were publishing and then after you published you have to go back to him and he would double check it to make sure it's good enough to turn in and finish completely!
That's pretty much it we have still been doing SDL as always and going on with our normal lives at school!
Written By - Katie Brunn
Week 4 Term 3
This week the sports explorers went on an amazing trip to the lido.
And they got pizza for lunch! (Lucky)
Ms Kenyon's whanau group’s picture books look amazing.
Some are even finished!
Some people are starting to use the shpero’s and build courses for the Ollie's and.
And people are also doing minecraft builds
Written by - Aidan Mace
Week 3 Term 3
This week was really cool! We are getting introduced to rivergeddon where you make a game, right now we are doing some exploring on unplugged and plugged games/activities.
We are really getting into baking in creativity with Miss Fairbairn! They have done alot of kind hearts and stuff for teachers its really cool!
In writing we are doing it in whanau groups, Miss Fairbairn and Miss Kenyon are doing picture books and Mr Carters doing something around Titanium the song.
Not much has really happened this week.
Overall its pretty cool!
Written By - Katie Brunn
Week 10 Term 2
This week is completely normal again!...
Except that its the last week and we had right choice day!
We got to make our very own box cars and watch a movie! The teachers gave popcorn out and a cookie in the middle of the movie if you were lucky!! Some kids made extremely big boxes that could fit loads of kids! Others made smaller boxer (That broke apart well at least mine did)
We basically did box cars and then just did some normal stuff in the classroom it was loads of fun getting to do the boxcars again AND get to watch the movie on the NEW projector! Oh yea! We just got a new projector from the Manawatu sound company (I think that's what it is) and it’s really cool! Thanks to Brandon Gilbert for helping out!
And that was what happened! In the middle of the week we mostly did work if you were wondering!
- Written by Katie Brunn
Week 1 Term 3
We are back! It's the start of the term and w are ready!
Some stuff has changed like Mr Bron having to help out by being the deputy principal (Check the student agency post or read the notice your child was given on the first day) now the maths wall has changed, the SDL sheet sort of changed and level 4’s are the only ones sitting on the seats!
That seems like a lot to take in but we are adjusting pretty well! But i'm sure everyone is very tired from the holidays!
We all pretty much have done what we normaly do but soon we will have more info on quiddage!
Thankyou!!
- Written by Katie Brunn
Shilohs amazing Pou art!
Petras Cool Word art!
Troys great draft!
Week 6/7/8 Art weeks
For the past 3 weeks we have been doing art just plain art.
In week 6/7 we were making a real piece of art that will be displayed for the art expo.
There were 3 optains:
Pou art, where you made a piece of art with korus and patterns that are traditional to maori culture
Mask making, where you got to make a mask and put loads of cool things on it, and learn cool techniuqes with paper to put on your mask
Word art, where you got to learn cool tape ripping techniques and got to do dot art!
It was really cool learning so many techniques over the weeks we had 3 different teachers in week six on tuesday it was super cool because we got to learn even more techniques like caricuture, and shading oh and dont forget the amazing tape and metal sculptures Mrs Mercer did!
We also learned about loads of different artists like Paul Dibble and Banksy!
These last few weeks have created amazing pieces of art that will look great at the art expo!
Week 5 Term 2
This week we got to do art the whole week! We learned awesome techniques like dotting, making strip art, cool patterns and we are learning a new technique!
Other than that we had Miss Deniston in our class for the morning on thursday it was loads of fun getting to see one of the teachers that sadly left!
Sadly the Cross Country has been postponed to June the 10th in 1 week but more training time!!
Now that all that's been said I guess there’s nothing else, pounamu atawhai has really been great!
Week 4 Term 2
In week 4 we have really been going good loads of kids are starting to level up to 3 and 2 its super cool!
Last week on friday there was a HUGE announcement! The Epro 8 team that went to finals won! its super cool that riverdale won this year and is really exciting!
Now all that’s said this week we had the walkathon its really cool to see everyone walking jogging and running to raise money for our school we get help from special people like awatapu college students it’s just really amazing!
In creativity lots is happening from dances to plays from plays to websites there are really really great things happening in creativity now that that’s said I think I shall wrap up this writing!
Week 3 Term 2
This week we got to have time to write a creativity plan and a few people get picked from the wall, this week in creativity some girls were painting the table and are having a second week to do it.
We are really starting to get better with cross country training seeing that it’s coming up soon later this month
The walkathon is on the 22nd of May everyone is very excited for the walkathon which hopefully won’t get postponed again!
Other than that we are really getting back into things for term 2!
Written By: Katie Brunn
Week 2 Term 2
Hi guys
This week has been amazing this term the focus at school is art so we have been tinkering and creating some awesome masterpieces that you will see around the class.
On Friday next week, we will have creativity retains all around the school there will be heaps of fun things to pick from such as jewellery making, kind hearts, drums, jump jam and a whole bunch more.
By: Julia Jackson
Week 1 Term 2
Yay! We are back at school and have started creativity!
This week around 15 kids were picked to do creativity and some of the projects were amazing Sophia & Holly made a dance and Jessica A Made a Korean website I’m not going to list everyone's projects but all of them were very good, taking into mind that they only got 3 days
Other than creativity Epro8 was on this week and from what I've heard it was loads of fun!
We have pretty much done what we usually do!
Written By: Katie Brunn
Right choice day!
Term 1 Week 10:
This week we had right choice day. It was AMAZING!
In the afternoon we had some free time.
Some people had the choice to clean up and earn snidges.
At the end of the day we did He Whakawhetai and went home.
Now it is the holidays!!!
By: Aidan Mace
Term 1 Week 9
This week was AMAZING!! We choose two class councillors, Macy and Aidan and they are hopefully going to do a great job and be supported just like the last class councillors.
This week the Rippa tournament was on AND WE WON AFTER SO MANY YEARS!!!!! YAY!!!!
Miss Fairbairn also has apparently been putting pins up on our digital pins that you can earn more about on Student Agency!
Most kids this week turned up unlike on Thursday last week when we had around 20 or 30 people away, but overall we are all back and back in the running.
We have also been introduced to a new SDL (Self Directed Learning) sheet everyone is very happy with the changes on how we do work in Pounamu Atawhai.
Written by Katie Brunn
Term One - Week Eight
What an amazing week! Camp was great we all got to do amazing things like building campfires or seeing the glow worms!
There were 3 rotations, bush, tramp, and river. On the bush one we got to build a stick fort thing with little supplies on tramp you had to walk a 1-2 hour track and my personal favorite, river we got to build a raft and learn how to riverwalk don’t forget the delicious roasted marshmallows while we built our own fire!
One thing that was probably the most memorable was how many bee stings people had!!
We also played spotlight and saw glow worms and the people who weren’t seeing the glow worms did this track where the parents scared you and you were blindfolded it was so much fun!
Some people also tented and you had to set up and take down your own tent! We all had a great time at camp and we hope that Poutama has a good time too.
By: Katie Brunn
Term One - Week Seven
First of all, I would like to thank all those heroes who helped the people in Christchurch. God bless you. Now is the time to come together.
Now enough of that, let's get to the fun stuff!
We have Fun Fridays every week, and the rotations are;
Miss Fairbairn: Magazine making. We get to make / print out / make magazines on canva!
Mr Carter: Music. We get to use musical instruments and musical online tools!
Mr Bron: Rich Maths. We do all sorts of fun measuring tasks!
We are presenting our Camp Presentations this week. So what we did is, we all got into groups of 2-3 and had to write stuff like ‘How am I feeling about camp?’ and ‘Where is Camp Rangi Woods?
See ya L8R!
Written By: Allie Ward
Term One - Week Six
This week is year 4-5-6’s did swimming sports on Thursday, Great job to everyone who particapated! and on Tuesday was the last try-out for choir next week will be the actual choir
this week is assembly at 12:30 - 1:00 ish. Also this week Jessica Small made a big accomplishment by reaching level 3!
This week workshops are going well and there are lots of new level 2s too
the house captains and deputies were chosen last Friday.
Boy deputies: Cameron, Cruz, Henry, Matty
Girl deputies: Allie, Holly, Sara-Lee, Macy
Boy captains: Manaia, Dylan, Saul, Malakai
Girl captains: Jamaerah, Jessica, Lily, Isabel
So there are your captains and deputies for 2019 This does not mean that we don't still need other kids help!
Written By: Aidan Mace
Term One - Week Five
This week went great! Parent teacher interviews which will be happening very soon. Be sure to come and see all of your kids test results. Te puawai started this week for year 4 - 5. Make sure to encourage your kid to do it if they are not, they will have a blast!. For the last couple of weeks in class we have been learning about safety to make sure we can keep ourselves safe. This week we got a lot more level twos. There are privileges starting to take place for those who get higher in license levels. This friday we had house meetings all teams needed new captains so they were nominated at this meeting. Congratulation to those who were nominated and are now captains. This week we started talking about camp thank you to the parents that will be helping us on camp. So let's face it was a jammed packed week with lots of exciting things starting up let's hope next week is not as busy see you then.
Written By: Julia Jackson
Term One - Week Three
This week we had the Twilight Picnic. Many favorite parts were the Magic Show, performed by Mr Pike. Nearly everyone there got a Henna or got their face painted. There was also a family quiz.
The book fair was very popular, and the Hermione pens ran out before I could get one . There was Rippa rugby on the field, which was also very popular. The pool and the photo booth were also open.
The teachers started giving out pins and some people have six already! Maybe there'll be some level 2’s by next week! Same with the snidges. The highest amount right now is about 500 but there'll be more.
Written by: Allie Ward
Term One - Week Four
This week was amazing! Choir try out sessions will be going on for another 2 weeks and we had 1 session this week, the people who didn’t go to choir learned about abuse and the types that could happen, we also are learning keeping ourselves safe in the real world because it can be a bit unsafe.
We have also opened the new PE shed and te takaro has now been re-opened if you haven’t heard on the Monday it’s just Piako Tahi and for the rest of the week it’s everyone! We also had our first level 2 this week congratulations Lucas B that’s big!
Now that our waka faces are up and we all signed the treaty a few weeks ago this is really a team we hope that it will stay awesome until the end of the year
Written by: Katie Brunn
Term One - Week One
Kia Ora, and welcome back to Riverdale School 2019. We are so excited to have you all back within our team and get stuck into learning! We hope you all had a nice, relaxing holiday full of adventures and fun.
We are a team of three this year and are stoked to be able to get to know each and every single one of your students. We have evolved a plan to enable our strength teaching to be emerged within the learning we do in Pounamu Atawhai. If you have any questions or queries about your child please come in to speak to any one of us here.
We have a jam packed year ahead and we can not wait to get started. Keep an eye out on this page for photos of your tamariki on this site to see a little about what we get up to this year. This website is updated weekly, and soon the students will run this page.
Written by: Miss Fairbairn
Term One - Week Two
On Friday we are having our assembly it starts at 12:30-1:00. This week we started swimming lessons and maths and literacy and SDL, snidges and pins group work on our assembly on afternoons while others do other things.
On Wednesday 20th February 5:30-7:30 the parents will have a chance to meet the teachers,make some connections in our school community and have some family fun.
There will be: Picnic tea, Scholastic book fair, Tabloid games , Face painting, Swimming, Photo booth, Magic show AND Special VIP guests!!! So come to our Twilight at Riverdale (in place of the Duathlon). Be there or be square!!
Written by: Aidan Mace