Music games link

Click on the music games below to go to the website where you can play music games to help with your beat and rhythm skills.

Music games

Drama with Tahu from the Ecosantuary

Last homework task of the year!

Please check the homework tab for this week's homework. Please note their are three tasks so make sure to read the task in red too!

Fingers crossed for fine weather tomorrow!

Hi all

The weather forecast is still a bit dodgy for tomorrow so remember to check this blog tomorrow morning and listen to 97.4 More FM for cancellations.

Before you leave the house please check you have:
-warm clothing
-a rain jacket
-sturdy footwear
-a packed lunch
-a drink bottle
-a hat
-sunscreen

-a torch (if you want)

-A SUPPORTIVE AND POSITIVE ATTITUDE :-)

Fingers crossed for fine weather.!

Web address for angles

http://www.mathsisfun.com/angles.html

Nigel Brown Art Evening

Again a big well done to all those students who worked hard on their Nigel Brown inspired art works. Here is a pic from the special evening held at Summerset Retirement Village (thanks Mrs Tasi-Cordtz). I'm looking forward to hearing how Room 13 students went!

The inFORM

Check out the video of the inFORM. Exciting new technology.

 If you want to know more follow this link Stuff article to an article on the stuff news website :-)

Get excited and get writing

Entries are now open for the prestigious Balmacewen Writing Competition. The criteria is very open this year so you can let your imagination (and your pen) run wild. Check out the details and get writing :-)

Balmacewen Intermediate Writing Competition 2013.pdf

Special guests

Balmac students were treated to some special visitors on Wednesday with the Championship winning Otago Volts coming to speak to the school in our new and improved hall. Volts players answered questions put to them by Room 7 students, sharing some of their experiences and offering words of wisdom to their audience.

Nigel Brown inspired art

Throughout the start of this term Room 13 have been working on creating their own work of art based around the art of New Zealand artist Nigel Brown. This Wednesday the class voted on their favourite pieces and the top 5 were selected to go on display at the Summerset Retirement Village.

It was a very close race for the top 5 spots with some real skill on display. The lucky 5 to make it through, as voted by their peers, were Alannah, Taylah, Solomon, Niwa and Abe.

Maths link - nets

Follow the link to the geometry info page and game for nets:

Info page for nets

Nets game

Celebrate the good, shame the bad

As many of the speeches from term 3 mentioned, packaging of products can have harmful consequences if not properly disposed of. Even if the packaging is put in the rubbish it still takes up valuable space in the landfill and uses precious resources (often oil) to be made just to be dumped.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is a familiar catch phrase. Reduce is best, if you can reduce then make sure to reuse, and failing that recycle. 

Below is a link to Unpackit Packaging Awards. Follow the link and vote for the best and worst packaging from the 16 finalists. 

http://www.unpackit.org.nz/

This link was forwarded to me by the Dunedin Curtain Bank - a non-profit community organisation (see article for more on them -  ODT Article).

Make sure you select Dunedin Curtain Bank from the drop down list when you vote as they could win $1,500 to help more Dunedin residents.

Voting is open until 8th November so get your friends and family to vote.

Ukulele in Room 13

First week back (while Mr Cooke is away)

Hi Room 13

I trust you have all had a great break and are ready to get stuck into a busy Term 4 programme. I will be away for the first week as I am going to stay home and help my wife Katherine out and look after our new daughter Olive who was born on the middle Saturday of the holidays.

The only homework I require you to do for week 1 is to practise your spelling words (no sentences needed) and to organise your Term 3 ASPIRE project so that by the start of week 2 (i.e. by Monday morning) you are able report to the class on your progress towards achieving your SMART goal and you are able to talk about the steps you have taken to try and reach this goal.

I look forward to hearing from Mrs Palmer about students who impressed her :-)

Here is Olive:

Future in Tech and Nutrition speaker

Some info for home

Hi all

Just a quick heads up that tomorrow we will be heading out of school for the afternoon to watch the Otago Girls' High School Production. Buses will have everyone back to school but 3pm.

Also a notice with information about Balmacewen's Athletics Day has now been added to the 'Key Dates' tab of this blog.

Enjoy the last week of term everyone :-)

Here are a few pics of the action that took place at the Edgar Centre on Friday. Thanks to the Sports Institute for hosting us and running all the skills and drills.

Celebrating Creativity Y7 Assembly

Last Friday Room 13 organised and ran the Year 7 Assembly. The theme was 'Celebrating Creativity'.

During the assembly we shared some of Room 13's ideas on creativity (what it might look, sound and feel like). We also shared some famous quotes on creativity. We showed our creative 3D fruit bowl artwork which we started during our trip to the Dunedin Public Art Gallery and finished in class (thanks for lending all the materials Miss Brady). Magnus shared his very well thought out speech on the importance of creativity in schools. We also had Kelvin show off his short story book and illustrations and heard Sarah d play Michael Jackson's Thriller on the clarinet. As the assembly was only 25 minutes long we didn't have time to share all of the other creative masterpieces that Room 13 have been working on. I guess that's what the blog is for!

Well done to the presenters - Blake and Helena - and everyone else who shared their work. Tino pai Room 13 (we are getting pretty good at this assembly stuff).

Anyone with ideas?

If anyone is keen on taking the lead in this let me know. (Mr Cooke)

AB's comp

ATTENTION ALL WRITERS!

Beyond this Story

This national writing competition is now open to all New Zealand students in years 7 and 8.


You are to write a story based on a historic event or person (preferably with a NZ connection).



Your entry must be no more than 750 words and must be received by 
5pm 16th November 2013.

Conditions of Entry

Well done!

Well done Room 13 marathon runners!

Good luck marathon runners!

Good luck to all of you completing the kid's marathon on Sunday morning. Well done to those of you who have been putting in the hard yards during PE and fitness over the last several weeks.

Takahe - post-reading activity

Hi Takahe

1. Synthesising your new learning - Create a list of 10 things that Balmacewen children could do after school in order to reduce their screen time.

2. Watch these two clips then (in your reading book) summarise your opinion and new learning about the issues of screen time, using the internet, the importance of activity and exercise.

Follow the links below to see the clips.
Techno toddlers
Thinking offline

Enjoy!

Throughout this week we have been learning about the body and its functions, this topic includes puberty, the much dreaded subject. During these weeks we will be learning what happens to us during this period of time we will also be learning information that will help us to get through it.

By Sarah H (Week 4 Class Reporter)

Evie's Report About the Human body

This week we have been learning about the human body and all the different sytems and how they work. Some of the systems were the digestive system and the nervous system. There are many more. The nervous system helps you feel things. The digestive system helps you break down your food so it can help you grow. The body uses many different ways to absorb nutrients from food. The most interesting thing I have learnt is how all the organs work together. It is important to learn about the human body because you know how to look after it and take care of it.

By Evie

Respect Rap

atTENtion: Assembly: Here is the finished product!

Tino pai rawa Room 13!

Well done to everyone involved for such an outstanding assembly. It was great to see everyone contribute and get involved. A big thanks to Room 10 and an even bigger thanks to Mrs Cooper (a.k.a. Jane Campion) for her hours of editing work. I will add the rap video to the blog as soon as I get my hands on the file. Next stop… the year 7 assembly in week 6. Let the ideas flow!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Mr Cooke

Moro Marathon

This term Room 13 have been doing the kids moro marathon in parts each day. The moro marathon, is not eating Moro bars, (unfortunately) but is running 40km in small parts. Mr Cooke is getting us to run at least 2.1km every day. This is 5 laps around the hall and certain classroom blocks. Everyone does their very best. Some do 5 laps a day (like me), and others have done up to 10 laps. After each run, we write the number of kms in our book. We also got maps of the marathon. We were told to colour in one bar of the track for every km. Also for $2.50 we can run the last 2.195km on the day of the moro marathon. So far, this has been great for our fitness and health and it will carry on doing so. And maybe we might be able to have some Moro bars after all that running. 

 By Abe (Week 3 Class Reporter)

Respect Assembly

This week we teamed up with Room 10 to run this weeks whole school Assembly. The theme is respect and how we treat each other. Mrs Cooper had come up with a respect rap and a video to go with it. Some children had been given solos and even the teachers get their own solos! The class got divided into 6 groups, five of them are doing role play and the other one was the interviewing students around the school. I had to interview Evie. The role play groups had been given items (eg. Mint, band aid, etc.) and each had a meaning like the juicy fruit meant to stick with it and you can accomplish anything. The role play will be live tomorrow at Assembly.


By Sarah d (Week 3 Class Reporter)

Before:

Friday is near... GET PRACTISING!

Chance to win the class a Lone Star meal

If anyone is interested in entering this competition please let me (Mr Cooke) know so I can give you some feedback on your menu (as I'm told I have a refined palate - e.g. I'm fussy).

Open Day

On the  6th of August it was the open day for Balmacewen. Students came to our school from all across Dunedin to check out what we do here at Balmac. I was assigned to help in the fabrics room. We had some great fun making hanging decorations. I thought the year 6's did very well, some struggled but at the end of the day they had a great product. It went for the whole day and I enjoyed it a lot. There where also other technology classes open that the students from different schools went to such as Art, Hard Materials, Cooking, Robotics and of course Fabrics. The process of making the hanging decoration was fun. First of they had to pick 2 shapes of the same design to sew together. They next had to pick a button of there choice to sew onto there shape. After they had completed that they sewed a ribbon onto the top of there back piece of fabric. There where lots of different ribbons they they could choose from. The next stage of the process was to sew together there two pieces making sure they had sewn on the button and the ribbon. they didn't sew all the way up they left a little gap so they could stuff the inside of there decoration with fluff. They thanked us helpers and left with a cool hanging decoration! I'm glad that there are going to be lots of friendly faces to see next year at Balmac!

By Solomon

Here are some finished products made by the Year 6 students:

 

Mandarin

Ne How

Over the past two weeks room13 has been learning Mandarin with our Lao Shi (Our Teacher).

Here is a video of us singing our first song.

The name of the song is Ne how(Hello)

Volleyball

Volleyball

This week we have been learning volleyball skills. Some of the skills are the  dig, serve and the underhand serve. One of the skills I did not like is the dig because it hurt my arms.

The one thing I like about volleyball is learning the underhand serve.

The way you do the underhand serve is place the ball on the bad hand and swing your good hand towards the ball, then hit it with the top of the palm.

We all had fun learning some new skills with the volleyball.

KFC Not so Good For Rainforests

Green Peace has been trying hard to stop the rainforests being destroyed by KFC using mulch from the trees to make there packaging. 

The Colonel’s been keeping his chicken fresh with packaging made from rainforests. Despite the impact on Sumatran tigers KFC have been using rainforest packaging made by Asia Pulp and Paper, a company also exposed for using illegal timber. KFC thinks turning the tigers’ home into trash is timber rippin’ good – but rainforest makes revolting packaging.

We need thousands of people to join the revolt to change the Colonel’s secret recipe for destruction. Sign up by creating your own revolting packaging. Pick a character, fill in your details and watch them come to life. Then share with your friends and build up the biggest revolt. GET revolting!

Please Donate Now...!

 I used to be big in Indonesia ,now look at me. I just get covered in sauce and thrown away. That’s rubbish!!

 http://www.kfc-secretrecipe.com/en_us/nogood

Coped From Kfc No Good

Fractions in action

Cross Country

Cross country

The 2013 cross country was an extravaganza.

All room thirteen pupils tried their hardest.

When I started running nearly everyone was trying really hard to get to the front some people ran competitive and others ran for fun.

When we got up to running past the large turf (where the crowd was situated) the crowd was roaring, cheering for Lynn,Chapman,Highgate and shetland.

Their raucous cries could be heard from the far side of the track.

On the second lap I got so puffed I had to take a break, after that I ran until I got to the finish.

I came 68th.

I then walked to the house scoring desks and gave my placing to the lynn score representative.

One room 13 student Emese came 11th place which was an excellent place and there are many others that did welll.

-Kelvin  

Ballet at school

Ballet

On the 29th of July, at 1:20 pm, Room 13 were heading down to the dance room in the PAC (performing arts centre), for ballet. Every year at Balmacewen Intermediate, the Royal Society of Ballet, up in Auckland sends a representative down to the school to teach the year seven students ballet.

Soon Hannah, the dance instructor had us all running around, and when she said stop, we all had to stop.We played a number of different variations, and then all lined up in 3 rows. Then Hannah began teaching us the 5 different feet positions, and after that the 5 arm positions. She told us about the 3 most important  things in ballet (posture, turnout and pointer toes), and also impressed upon us the importance of strength and flexibility. She taught us sautes, plies, tendus,ton-leve, enchainments and port-de-bras.After that we covered mime and choreography, and at the end we had a talk about ballet shoes. Everyone in room 13 enjoyed learning about ballet, and we look forward to doing it again sometime.

By Daniel Scott.

School cross country coming up

Tie your laces in double knots. Put on your gloves for an early morning run in the frost. Dust of that old sweatband and prepare yourself for SCHOOL CROSS COUNTRY!

This will be held on the first Tuesday back in week 1 of term 3 (July 30^th)  so start training.

Good luck!

Author's Visit courtesy of Room 13

We were lucky to have Abe’s Grandmother Barbara Else visit us this Friday and speak to us about her new book The Queen and the Nobody Boy which is a finalist in the New Zealand Post Book Awards Final in the Junior Author category.

Barbara read us segments of her new book and answered some questions from the audience. It was great to get an insight from such an established and skillful author. Thanks to Abe and his family for the hook up.

Personalising your class dojo avatar

How to get your secret code...


1. Log in to your student email account
2. Send me (rcooke@balmacewen.school.nz) an email asking for your secret code.

Your email needs to start by greeting me (e.g. Hello Mr Cooke)

THEN (on a new line) ask me for your code (make sure to use a question mark to punctuate a question).

THEN (on a new line) finish by signing off your correspondence.

e.g. Thanks, Your sincerely, Kind regards (your name)

REMEMBER TO PUNCTUATE YOUR SENTENCE CORRECTLY!

If you complete this task I will send you your secret code and you can go to student.classdojo.com and customise your avatar!

Mmmm

Tim Tam Slam

The Floating Tea Bag

Class photos for sale

What a sharp looking bunch of people we have in Room 13 this year illustrated by our fabulous class photo. I have added a rough photo of it here if any parents would like to see it before they decide on whether to purchase on. Please remember to get your forms in by Friday!

ASPIRE presentations

A huge congratulations to everyone for completing their first every Balmacewen ASPIRE project! The standard of projects was excellent this year. It was great to see so many people utilise electronic resources. Of course there we also some fantastic projects that kept it to hard copy. A special mention must be given to Taylah for her beautifully presented scrap book. Taylah along with Abe, Soli, Daniel and Dmitri received excellence certificates but it was a hard call because so many projects were fantastic. Next up... SCIENCE FAIR! 

Y7 small ball skills tournament

Small  ball skills tournament

On Friday Room 13 played in the first part of the Year 7 small balls  tournament. The second part will take place this Friday. Last Friday we are played Coney Island and won. It was a close game and both teams played well. Then we played Beehive. When Mrs Copper was explaining the rules it sounded hard but it wasn’t really, it was so fun but we lost. I would like to play it during P.E. with Room 13 . After that we played non-stop cricket with Mrs Tasi-Cordtz. It was a really close game but we lost in the end. I really liked it and I can’t wait to play five games next week. I think I have a good team and I can’t wait to play 3 bats, target, bench ball, a game we don’t know, and long ball. My team captain is Kevin my co-captain is Sarah D.

BY ELLA

Small ball skills

Year sevens know last Friday we did small ball skills tournament, Ella and I thought it was great. I am in room 13a we were with Ms Downie on the room 5 courts playing Bench Ball. It was close in the end but sadly we lost. We were happy for the other team and then went off to do our next game.

The next game was with Mr Napier. It was a target game that was fun as well. As you got closer to the end it got a bit harder. Some people struggled when they got to the end but they got there in the end. Then Mr Napier called out last ten seconds “10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 times up everyone”. We line up & waited to be let go.

We all took a breath then moved on to our next game, it was with Mr Cooke playing three bats. We started off fielding with 24b batting. In the end we got wasted 22 -108 Mr Cooke thought it was a bit embarrassing but our team didn’t mind and were happy for 24b. Three games was enough for one day and we went back to class and for morning tea.

Moring tea was a time to get some food to fill up. It did and when morning tea was over we had our energy back and went back to doing school work. 

Next time we hope we can come first in a game or a drawJ. We really like playing sports especially the tournament & can’t wait till our next game on Friday.

By Evie

Well done Holly!

This week's Year 7 assembly award went to Holly for Working well with others. She was presented this by our special guest, former Balmac student, Black Fern and New Zealand Women's Rugby Sevens player, Kelly Braizer.

Tino pai Holly!