A vote of thanks to our parents

From left - Brydie (Rm 13), Ms Mckenzie,
Amelia and Milly (both of Rm 12) jump off a wall
at Kaiteriteri beach.  

Hello everyone! You may have noticed we haven't published anything on the blog for a while - that's because we have been very busy preparing for camp. We went on camp with Room 12, meaning there were 36 students on camp - that required a lot of organising!

We went on camp last week - and it went on for 5 days and 4 nights (two spent at Whenua Iti Outdoors, one night at Appletree Bay on the Abel Tasman Coastal Track, and one night up Takaka Hill at the Caving Club Hut). During the week many of us faced our fears, achieved life long goals and made stronger relationships with the members of our group - including the  Whenua Iti Outdoors instructors.

We owe a big vote of thanks to the instructors but also to our parents for their amazing support. Without our parents, we wouldn't have been able to pay for our camp, and we wouldn't have had all the right gear either. They also made sure that we were happy, healthy and feeling ok about camp before we left.

The beautiful Appletree Bay, where each of the 3 camp
groups spent a night after a 2 hour hike.

This year's camp was different to other camps in that there were no parent helpers needed apart from Alfie's mother - a BIG thank you to Jane for staying on the whole time and supporting Alfie and the other students when they needed it. Some students were a little nervous about going away for 5 days without their parents. This was a big ask - but again, no one worried about this factor of the camp, so thank you parents for going over this with us
and telling us to chill - which everyone (especially Sean of Rm 13) managed to do.

Everyone in Room 12 and 13 enjoyed themselves immensely, and a lot of the students not only did things they never thought they could do, but actually liked it:

"My biggest challenge was sleeping under a fly at Appletree Bay, but in the end I actually found it really fun and it was my favourite part of camp" - Johanna, age 11

"Coasteering was pretty scary (especially jumping from rock to rock) but it was really fun as well" - Jade, age 11

The parents must've been supportive when reading the programme and realising that their child(ren) might struggle with some activities on it. So thanks again parents for being really supportive and encouraging when reading the programme with us. As you can see readers, the Room 12 and 13 students' parents were amazing and us kids wouldn't have gone on camp without them. So, for the third and final time:

From the very appreciative Year 7 students and Room 13 blog team

Sumdog

Here is a computer screen shot of the
most popular game amongst Room 13 - Dress Down

Room 13 have started using an interactive internet site called Sumdog.  Sumdog has lots of different maths games and problem solving tasks on it. You can also create an avatar and make virtual friends with people in your class or school. You have a home page that changes depending on the games you play. You can play games with your virtual friends as well as people from around the world who are online. There are different stages (which are named after animals) depending on how many games you have played. I asked some Room 13 students about their Sumdog experience:

"It's really cool and really fun. I have lots of virtual friends" - Zak

"It's a really fun game. I like it a lot" - Brydie

When the teacher signed Room 13 up for Sumdog there was a NZ competition running for all NZ Sumdog users. Sadly Room 13 didn't have enough people going onto Sumdog on a regular basis, so we weren't shown on the scoreboard. However, Room 13's Sumdog accounts still exist, so you're likely to find a few of the class laptops in use!!! Good luck with the next competition (if there are enough players to enter)!!!

By Georgie

A maths game we tried

Rhea from Room 12 in action

On Tuesday the Room 13 maths class (which combines some of the students from Room 12) played a game on the Interactive Whiteboard to help the students with their subtracting. The problems were written on the board and the students had to "fill in the blanks" on the board using the Interactive Whiteboard marker. Most of the students hadn't used the whiteboard before so it was quite an exciting experience. I spoke to Olivia (one of the Room 12 students who comes through to Room 13 for maths) about the game:

"The game was fun but it was quite a challenge" she told us. "I didn't get to use the Interactive Whiteboard but it was fun seeing my friend Lucy have a go with it."

I also spoke to Room 13 student Zak:

"The game was quite fun - and I got to use the Interactive Whiteboard pen which was fun too."

Connor of Room 13 tries out the
Interactive Whiteboard

The game not only helped the students with their subtracting; it helped them with their "tidy number"
knowledge too. The game sounds pretty fun, yet at the same time you're learning about subtracting tidy numbers! Sounds like this game was a success!!!

By Georgie

Ki-o-Rahi

Ki - O - Rahi

A Maori man named Maihi came to Room 13 to teach us a really fun game.  The game is called

 Ki-o-Rahi. He told us that everyone would enjoy it, and he didn't tell a lie. 

The game focusses on two things: attacking and defending.  The game is played on a field that looks like a donut with a little segment cut out of it, in the middle of the donut is a big barrel. Scattered around that donut, are seven poles. There are two teams in play; Taniwha and Ki-oma. The Taniwha start of in the donut boundaries. They can not leave the boundaries. Ki-oma must have three guardians in the hole of the donut guarding the barrel. The rest of the Ki-oma must scatter around the donut, preparing to catch the ball. The Taniwha  need to try and hit the barrel with the ball. If the guardians get/catch the ball, they can throw it over the donut to the other Ki-oma. The Ki-oma then needs to run around touching as many poles as they can, but the twist is that the Taniwha can then chase them. If the Ki-oma is tagged, they must throw the ball to their team mates. The team mates then have to try and hit the other poles. You can not hit a pole twice. To bank your points you need to run through the donut and into the guarding zone. Those are the basics of the game.

We all loved the game,  and we were very thankful that Maihi taught us this game.

I love Ki-o-Rahi and I hope it catches on!