Pohutukawa's Natureland Visit

Thank you, from all the teachers of Pohutukawa Syndicate, for all the wonderful help we received last week when we went to Natureland.  We have been really lucky this year with so many volunteers.  Without this help, special trips to the Suter, Museum and of course, further afield wouldn't be able to happen.

Natureland provided us with a celebration of the Inquiry Learning we have been doing this year, as Nelson Central School begun their Enviro School's journey.  We know exactly how to care for our environment which will, in turn, help save our native species.  New Zealanders needs to protect this as we are really lucky to live in such a unique place in the world.

Check out our Syndicate's video of the Natureland Trip.

Natureland

Room 9 plays

We love performing in Room 9.  Thank you to all the wonderful parents and grandparents who came along on Friday afternoon and watched us.  It was great to have such a supportive audience!  Please enjoy the plays by clicking on the links below.

The Mouse's Tail

Starring Patrice, Sophie, Van, Zephyr and Jacob

Tui in a Tree

Starring Jude, Felix, Cooper, Jacob, Sean and Lockie

The Little Red Hen

Starring Salwa, Bella, Hendrix and Cherry

Fearless

Starring Scarlet, Claudia, Emi, Tosca, Lulu, Alex and Cooper

Teddy Bears' Picnic Treat

Room 9 celebrated making it to 100 scales on their team chart last week with a Teddy Bears' Picnic at Fairfield Park.

We had a fantastic time playing on the playground, taking a walk along the butterfly walkway and playing games with Joe, Courtney and, of course, our teddies!

It was another scorching hot day, but once we got there we had a lovely time under the shade of the trees, eating our lunch and digging into the treats Kathryn had brought (check out our video).

The Teddy Bears' Picnic

Finishing off the day with a swim in the pool was very welcome and refreshing.  What a fun time we had!

THE BIG GIVE

Room 9 were very generous and donated some lovely things for the Fifeshire Foundation's annual Big Give Appeal. 

We enjoyed participating and being contributors last Wednesday when More FM came to visit. 

We know many Nelson families will benefit from our generosity.  

Thank you The Big Give!

Life Education - Harold the Giraffe Visits NCS

We loved going to see Harold the Giraffe in his flash bus.
















Ingrid taught us about different feelings and how we can make people have warm fuzzies or cold prickles. 













We discussed how we feel in different situations.

We also learned how Harold likes it when we use our brain aerials and are kind and thoughtful towards others.






Catching his kisses was a cool thing to do too.  We hope you enjoy sharing our bookley Harold gave to us to work through.

Summer is here

The children loved cooling off in the refreshing water on Friday when we had our first swim in the pool.  It was made even more special as we joined some of our Pohutukawa friends from Room 11 and 12. 

Remember to pack togs and a towel every day so we can make the most of this glorious summer weather.

Summer Disco Success

The School Community Group pulled off another wonderful evening of fun for our tamariki.  Everyone enjoyed the dancing, posing in the photo booth and tucking in to the deliciously donated food.   Thank you again to the team of hard working parents and to the children who embrace these memorable events.

Visitors to NCS

We've had some exciting visitors to the school over the past few weeks. 

Last week a group of 'bikers' travelling the country to raise awareness for family violence as part of the White Ribbon Appeal came along.  We heard from Constable Charlotte and were reminded how important it is to know our address and how to call for help in an emergency. 

Then, this week some of the cast and props from the brand new Kiwi Christmas movie visited us.  We even got to see the sleigh Santa travels to New Zealand in!  It was really interesting to hear from the children in the film and ask them questions about the job they did.  A few of each class were lucky and got to sit in the sleigh for a photo!

Cake Stall Success

Pohutukawa Syndicate really got behind the cake stall fundraiser last week.  We had an abundunce of sweet, yummy treats to sell to our School Community.  Thanks to your generosity, we managed to make a whopping $500+ that will go towards the cost of our end of year trip to Tahunanui and Natureland.

Saving the Native Birds with Rick

What a great experience we had when Rick and Cat from the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary came to Nelson Central School.  We learned of the wonderful work they are doing to protect New Zealand's native birds.  We saw stoat traps 'in action' and heard about the big fence that is keeping out the pests.  We learned how 26 million birds die in New Zealand from rats, stoats, possums and cats, among other predators.

To help to protect these special creatures Rick arranged for us to make bird houses, courtesy of Mitre 10 Mega.  We worked so well together, cooperating with each other and being good team members to create amazing, safe bird houses.  These will be put up in the school grounds and in the nearby community to encourage our birds to nest locally.

Thanks to Rick and Cat as well as our wonderful adults who gave us a hand to create these safe havens.  Check out the photos on this link - we had an amazing time!

Protecting our Native NZ Birds on PhotoPeach

Bugs - Our Backyard Heroes

At the beginning of last week Room 9 visited the bug exhibition at Nelson Provincial Museum.  John, the educator, allowed us all to get up close to real live bugs.  Some of us were even brave enough to touch stick insects and locusts!

It has really sparked our inquiring minds and we can't wait to study more about minibeasts this term.


Museum - Our Backyard Heroes from Kathryn Robertson on Vimeo.

We have poets in Room 9!

This term we are learning how to write poetry using a model.  In Room 9 we have been using adjectives and similes in our writing to create some wonderful poems.

Please call in to the classroom and check out what we have been doing.  Here's a sneak peak!

We chose our favourite animals and wrote "I wish I were..." poems.  

We brainstormed words to describe our red balloon and wrote some more poetry.

Firework Art

Room 9 loved exploring ways to make prints on black paper to create an effective fireworks display all of their own!

We used straws and cardboard to make these monoprints.

Masked Parade was A-MAZING

What a wonderful Nelson event the annual Masked Parade is.  Nelson Central School have historically only entered every two years and we worked so hard to produce masks fit for this occasion.  The theme was "Around the World" and our school chose to represent animals from different continents.

Our look was so vibrant, especially the Takahe masks from Aotearoa.  We were watched by so many in the crowd and desperately tried to spot our own relatives as we walked around the town.  The Room 9 children behaved brilliantly (I can't quite believe how they kept going!) and I was very proud if each and every one of them.  Thank you to Emi's dad, Alain, who joined the other guitarists to enhance our performance.

Even though we did not win, we were very proud of our entry and Room 9 especially loved our masks!

Smudge and Marley visit Room 9

We were very lucky to receive a visit from two woolly, well behaved lambs this week.  Thank you so much, Carol (Emi's grandmother) who travelled all the way over from Takaka with the little bundles of joy!

We used our experience to think up some similes in our writing.  Some of these 'star' in the following video of the event.

I hope you enjoy watching Smudge 🐑  and Marley 🐑

The Visit of the Lambs from Kathryn Robertson on Vimeo.

MASKED PARADE is ALL GO

For the past few weeks of Term 3 Room 9 have been busy creating their masks for the Masked Parade.  The takahe are so looking forward to the event, due to be held on Friday, 27th October.  Keep the date free!  A notice will be sent home this week and details will be in the school newsletter.  We want as many children as possible join us on Friday afternoon for the event.   Rehearsals start in earnest this week!

We're back and into Term 4

Welcome back to everyone after the holidays.  And, Room 9 warmly welcomes our new student Salwa and her family.  Our Mihi Whakatau was held today for all our new students and was extra special as we formally welcomed Cherry and Salwa to Nelson Central School.

Room 9 had another visitor today - Patrice brought in her Pomeranian Griffon puppy, Wolfie.  He was very cute!

Finally, remember hats are compulsory this term.  They must be wide brimmed so they best protect the children from the dangers of the sun.  If you need to get one, hats can be bought from the office.

Busy end to Term 3

Wow, what a whirlwind term!  We finished with a Fun Day Friday, reaping the benefits of our very own garden.  The rhubarb muffins were delicious - thanks to the expert, and enthusiastic, bakers.

It was a day to celebrate at our whole school assembly, held at the Masonic Lodge Hall.  Well done Zephyr for your certificate, successfully completing Reading Recovery.

It was a sad day as well.  We wish Anne all the very best in her new role at Nelson College for Girls.  We will miss you very much in Room 9, and think NCG are very lucky to have you.

Baby chicks visit Room 9

Room 9 had some very cute visitors this morning.  Scarlet allowed her three newborn chicks to come along and meet us all.  They are only 3 weeks old!

They are called Noodles, Tulip and Binky and Binky is the boss.  She is a barred rock hen and the other two chicks are Hyline hens.  They are really good layers and Scarlet will get about 20 eggs from each of them every month. 

We hope to have them back to visit at the end of the year when they are almost fully grown to see what they look like.  Thank you Laura and Scarlet for sharing your special feathery friends.

Tamariki Toa rehearsal

This afternoon Tamariki Toa were rehearsing and needed an audience so Pohutukawa and Kowhai Syndicates as well as a few Kahikatea classes were treated to some wonderful Kapa Haka.

Tamariki Toa are a group from Te Pouahi who are off to the National Kapa Haka competition early next term and are practising around the clock to be ready to represent Nelson Central School.  We think they already look slick and amazing - ka pai tamariki!