Farewell to our Leavers

At our final assembly on Wednesday, we farewelled our 2010 Leavers. We wish them all the best with their next journey and hope they come back to visit regularly!

Letter to the Mayor of Greymouth

26 November 2010

Dear Mr Kokshoorn,

On behalf of Auckland Point School in Nelson, we would like to pass on our love and sympathies to the people of the West Coast.

This morning we had a special ceremony for the Pike River miners and their families. We all lit a candle in remembrance of the miners.

Most of our kids donated some money for the Pike River disaster. We have been following the news each day and we know that all the people involved in the rescue did the best job they could. You and Mr Whittall have handled the situation with great dignity. We would like to express our condolences and donate this money to help assist in some way.

Some of the children at our school have been to the West Coast and we like the scenery and the beaches. Our teacher is from the West Coast and she told us that the people on the Coast are incredibly special.

We hope that you will be able to put the 29 men to rest and recover their bodies.

We wish the people of the West Coast and the miners families all the best and our thoughts are with you all at this difficult time.

Best Wishes

Taylor, Solmaz, Buda & Rion

Year 6 Students

Auckland Point School

Nelson

Pike River Miners

On Friday we had a special ceremony for the Pike River miners. It was a great time for us all to think about the families who have lost someone special because of this disaster. We have been following the story since it happened on the 19 November. We collected $150 to send to the Greymouth District Council and we wrote a letter to the mayor Tony Kokshoorn. Mrs Wadsworth is going to the public memorial on Thursday in Greymouth.

Inter School Athletics

Last Tuesday we went to Saxton Field for Inter School athletics. We were competing against the 6 other Nelson Schools. We got 3rd overall for the 11 year old girls. It was a really hot day and we were all exhausted by the time we got back to school!

Art with Judy Keylock

Today we started an art project with Judy Keylock. She is helping us to create something special for the buildings around our school. We started today with paper clay and we got to create our own designs on them. Watch this space for progress!

Well Done Amir

Amir got 3rd place in the TVNZ Netguide Web challenge for 2010. He designed a website about our edible gardens here at school. Amir and his Mum flew to Auckland for the award ceremony.

Well done Amir, we are all very proud of you!

You can see the website here

Adrenaline Forest

Christchurch Camp!

We had the most amazing week at camp in Christchurch. The buzz is still going on in the classroom as we discuss the highlights of our trip. We worked really hard during the year to raise the money we needed to go on camp. It was well worth all the hard work as our camp will be one we will always remember. The highlights for most of the class was the ice skating and Adrenaline Forest. We didn’t feel any after shocks and the class was incredibly well behaved. Everywhere we visited commented on how great our manners were.

A big thanks needs to go to our parent helpers; Gabi, Vicky, Kay, Cameron, Sarah & Mal. Also a thanks to Georgina for all her help with fundraising and coming on camp with us.

Cowpat Bingo

Cowpat Bingo was another success this year. Caramel the cow stole theshow and was an absolute star. It took her 2.5 hours to do her thing and she even went to sleep for nearly an hour! When she got up from

her nap, a winner was determined. She did a great big pat right in the middle of square number 810.

Tackle 7's Tournament

Last Tuesday, 9 kids from Nile room went to Saxton Field to represent Auckland Point School in a tackle 7’s tournament. We won our first game against Clifton Terrace School but lost the rest. That didn’t matter because we gave it 100% and made we looked fantastic as a team. The best game was the one we lost to St Joseph’s because we made strong tackles, scored great tries, had solid defence and did lots of running. Unfortunately they did all of that too, with a little more!

The day was sunny with no clouds at all. The hardest team was the funniest because it was more of a challenge and more tackling to do. I think that was the best bit about it. Auckland Point School didn’t make it to the finals but that’s ok because we tried our best. Hampden Street and Victory made it in the finals and we think Hampden Street school won. That’s just a guess though because we only got to see the start of it because the bus had arrived and we had to go! When we arrived back at school we got a 2010 Makos poster and a lollipop.

Handball

Over the last two Monday’s we have had Geoff from handball New Zealand come and teach us how to play handball. It is a really fast game as you are only able to hold the ball for 3 seconds. The goalie is the only one who is aloud in the goal circle. We have had a lot of fun playing and learning about handball. Some of us had never heard of handball before this. Towards the end of the term we will be going to Saxton Field to take part in the handball tournament with other local intermediates.

Active Schools Trailer

Every Monday Peta and Jenny from Sport Tasman come to our school with a sports trailer. It is loaded with $16,000 worth of sports gear. Peta has been teaching us how to be leaders and create games using the equipment. We will be able to take St Vincent and Trafalgar Rooms through some exercise drills.

Mini World Cup

In the last week of Term 2, we went to a Mini World cup football tournament at Saxton Field. Our team was Mexico. We played 5 games and we lost them all. Adam scored our first goal. Our game against France was the hardest. They were extremely good and most of their team scored goals. Mrs Hockley's son, James, came to the games and he encouraged everyone. He did some warm ups with us and refereed 3 of our games.
We all enjoyed the hot food that was being sold at lunchtime! During the lunch break spot prizes were handed out and Adam won a pencil case. We all had a great day and were very tired at the end!
A big thanks to Sharleen, Carmel, Ashleigh, Margartte and Loren.

By Rion and Mac

Suter Art Gallery

The Suter Art Gallery

“Gilding The Lily” - Mike Ward Exhibition

On the 23rd of June, Nile Room went to the Suter Art Gallery’s interesting Mike Ward exhibition. There were four types of art there: graphical design, wearable art, sculptures and jewellery. Mike Ward is a politician and he designed our school logo. It has a few stick figures holding a sign which reads ‘Auckland Point School’. Mike Ward loves the environment and he tries hard to care for the Earth. He perseveres at everything that he is determined to do. The exhibition was interesting and fun. Mike Ward himself came to the exhibition when we were halfway through drawing ourselves holding signs. He seems friendly and we got a photo with him. A staff member of the Suter, Esther, told us about the exhibits and suggested some activities for us to do. We all drew a picture of ourselves holding a sign and we had to write down something that we think is special to Nelson. The exhibit was very interesting.

Mac’s Overseas Adventure.

I have just got home from a 5 week adventure. I went to Scotland for my aunty’s wedding. My Dad hadn’t been home to Scotland for 14 years. We went from Nelson to Auckland first. Auckland airport is really cool. We left Auckland and Hong Kong was our first stop. I didn’t like it that much. It had a funny smell and it was really hot. When you went outside, it was like walking into a heater. It was hard to breath. Then we went all the way to London. It was an 11 hour flight. I didn’t get any sleep on that flight. This is where we met up with Grandma and Granddad. I hadn’t seen them for 3 years. We drove to Scotland from London. It was torture having to sit in the car for 8 hours to get there. When we got to Scotland I slept for hours. Grandma and Grandpa’s house was a cottage and it had this gravel type stuff on the outside walls, that attracted heaps of snail! On the inside it was like a fancy New Zealand house.

In Scotland I met lots of Dad’s family friends. I also met 5 of my cousins. In Scotland we visited East Colder, Edinburgh, Stirling and Crimond. We got to see the Edinburgh dungeon. It was really scary. I tried Haggis and it was disgusting. When we left Scotland my Dad was really sad and he cried. It will probably be ages before he visits Scotland again.

The highlight of my trip was my aunty Pamela’s wedding. It was really fun and I ate a lot of cake!

I was really happy to get home. I missed the smell of Nelson. I also missed Mum, Bamma, Tim, Wallace and my class.

By Mac

Warriors Visit

Today we had Simon Mannering and Michael Luck from the Warriors come to school. They spoke to us about themselves, how they got into Rugby League and what they enjoy about it. At the end we had a quiz and people who answered correctly won a prize and had it signed by Michael and Simon. Trey even got his cast signed! It was neat to have some famous New Zealand sports stars at school.

Technology Project

We have made scale models of what we think our adventure playground should look like, when it’s had an upgrade. We spent a lot of time planning our designs so we would know exactly what materials we would need. We worked in groups or 3 or 4 to create our designs.

Here are some photos of a few of them.

Tree Planting

On Thursday 3 June, we went to the Tahuna back beach to plant trees. This is to help the beach from eroding. Steven from Nelmac showed us how to plant properly and we got into pairs and got started. Between Nile Room and St Vincent Room, we planted nearly 700 trees. It was really warm and sunny so it was good to get out of the classroom after all the wet weather we have had.

Rugby League Competition

On Wednesday, 22 children from Auckland Point went to the Tahuna Playing Fields to play league. Andrew and Mike from Tasman Rugby League organised it. They came to our school last term to teach us league skills. We went on a bus with 2 other schools. Nelson Central and Tahuna. When we got to the playing field Mike organised the teams. Nile Room played Nelson Central and we won 3-2. It was an exciting but painful game. When you fall to the ground in a tackle it hurts. St Vincent Room played Victory. They lost 6-1. It was a good game and they all had fun. We cheered when Rowan scored his try.

On the way back everyone was so noisy on the bus. Some girls were singing Justin Bieber! It was annoying. We will be going for the next 6 weeks and we are looking forward to competing again next week.

By Rion and Mac

Sea Week Boat Trip

On Friday 12th March as part of sea week Caleb and I went in Mrs Hockley’s car to the Ministry of Fisheries. When we got there we went inside the building and went to the conference room where lots of people were massing. There were people from Victory School, St. Joseph's, Tahuna School and lots of other schools. After that messing around an important looking man came out and talked to us about the fish for the future. After a long talk we finally went abroad the catamaran and the captain talked about safety rules and told us about the ship and it’s history. Then we were off! It was so exiting!! We played a game called sea legs. You had to keep your legs on the boat without falling over on the deck. I never fell over on the deck but lots of other people fell over. When we reached the outskirts of the marine reserve the scientist lowered the underwater camera and looked around the seabed. They only saw spotty, and then they raised it up and we stated going into the marine reserve. When we got in the marine reserve they lowered it back again I didn't see anything because I spewed up my bumper bar that I had for morning tea! The people that were in the cabin saw: spotty,cod,starfish and crayfish. The marine reserve is for protecting fish because you can’t fish in there. I think there should be a few more marine reserves around our area. After all that commotion we headed back to port. I really liked the boat trip and the people were really nice and supporting.

By Buda

Inter School Swimming Sports

Here is our swim team who went to Hampden Street School last Friday. They all swam really well!

School Triathlon

We had a very successful school triathlon and a large number of children competed as individuals this year. Mrs Wadsworth put all the cones out to mark the areas where we had to go. The juniors went first and then the seniors. We all finished up at the pool. After the triathlon we all had an iceblock. It was hard work but everyone had a great time.

Swimming

We have had a really successful swimming season this year. We have enjoyed our upgraded pool and have been swimming 3 times a day some days! Lots of practice has been done on our kicking and arm strokes.

Bike Safety

On Friday 22 February Constable John and Constable Garland came to school. They came to teach us about biking safely on the roads. We worked on riding fast and having to brake in a hurry, pretending a car had pulled out in-front of us. We also had to ride slow and control the bike so we weren't wobbling all over the place. Constable John set up an intersection and we had to work out who was turning where and who had to give way. This was quite tricky for some people. Constable John taught us about collision points at an intersection and that you shouldn't go until you are 100% sure it is safe. I enjoyed the intersection activity and I learnt about using hand signals and keeping them up for 3 seconds so other motorists can see them.

Escher

Rugby League

Today Andrew and Mike from Nelson Rugby League came to do some drills with us. They are trying to lift the profile of League in the Nelson Area. Today we learnt how to hold and pass the ball properly. They will be with us every Monday until the end of the term.

Welcome Back!

We have had a great first week back at school. The children are all buzzing and keen to get into work. We have spent the first few days learning about each other and our learning environment. We have been swimming each day and our new pool is fantastic!