Shining Star - Rubie

Congratulations to Rubie who was awarded the Shining Star award for her courageous efforts at South Otago Cross Country in Clinton yesterday. Rubie had a bad fall near the start of the course but picked herself up and completed the course. Terrific attitude and effort Rubie. Room 4 are all super proud of you!!!!

Student of the week - Emma

All of the students in Room 4 know that 'Student of the Week' has to be earned.  Emma thoroughly deserves the award this week.  Both teachers have noticed and commented on Emma's fantastic effort and neatness in her homework EVERY WEEK.  Emma does more than the bare minimum, actually completing EVERY spelling activity that is set, every week.  You are a great role model to others Emma.  We hope you inspire your classmates to take pride in their homework too.

South Otago Cross Country Team

The annual South Otago Cross Country was held at Clinton today and ten students from Room 4 were selected to represent Lawrence.They all ran their very best race, including poor Rubie who fell at the beginning and continued to run the entire race despite have a very sore ankle. Competition was tough, between schools and rivals....and between cousins!

We are very proud of you all for your amazing efforts and we love seeing you all as you 'Strive to Excel'.

Special congratulations to Blake who won his race and retains his title as South Otago Champion for the second year in a row.

Room 4 Speech Finalists

The Junior Speech Recital was held last Thursday in the school library. We had six finalists entered into this years competition.

Year 3

Toby - If I could meet anybody from history it would be Eric Liddell

Josie - Sport is better than music.

Year 4

Abby - Books are better than TV

Connie - It is better to be a kid than an adult

Blake - Sport is better than music

Jessica - Grandparents are better than parents

We were exceptionally proud of all of our speech finalists. It takes a great deal of courage to stand before such a large audience and present a speech and you all did a fabulous job.

Congratulations to Toby and Jessica who won their year group section.

BP Technology Challenge

 This afternoon the junior school had a very special BP Technology Challenge in the gym.

Mrs Hughes and Mrs Kenny had organised us all into teams of 4 or 5. The years 0-4 students were in the juniors section and the year 5-8 students made up the senior section.

 Each team was given a bag full of materials, which contained newspaper, sticky tape, string, paper and a red crayon. The materials had to last the team for all three challenges.

 We had three tasks to complete. The first task was to create a hurdle for a running track. It had to be 50cm tall, 60 cm wide and be able to stand on it's own. The hurdle also had to fall forward when knocked with a foot. This was a tricky challenge and it took us all quite a while to get it done, but eventually we were able to test-drive our hurdle.

 Challenge number two was to create an ANZAC poppy. It had to be at least 1.5metres tall and stand unsupported. A lot of thought had to go into the base of the stem to ensure that our poppy could stand up by itself, and we also had to make sure our stem was strong so that it didn't bend under the weight of the poppy.

The final task was to create a bird scarer. There were no requirements fo this task so we could be as creative as we liked. Some teams created contraptions while other teams turned team members into scare-crows.

Each task required a lot of team work. People in the team had to take turns at being the leader and encouraging others to take an active role in the group. The groups that worked together as a team had the most success.

 Mrs Taylor came down to announce the winners for each section.

The winning team for the year0-4 section was William, Shannon, Max, Connie and Luca.

Congratulations - great teamwork and creativity guys!!!

Thanks to Mrs Hughes and Mrs Kenny for organising such an awesome event - we all loved it!!!

Going 'Old School' in Room 4

 We all got quite a shock when we arrived at school this morning. We were met in the classroom by Mrs. May, who sternly told us to hang up our bags and go outside until the bell rang. She was dressed up as a teacher from 100 years ago and she was being very strict.

When the bell rang all of the classes had to to line up outside their classroom in two straight lines. You had to have your hands at your sides, your eyes forward and you were not allowed to talk. The teachers came passed and they made children pull up their socks, straighten their collar and take their hands out of their pockets. When everyone was standing correctly we filed silently into our classrooms, where all of the desks had been set up in straight rows. The boys sat on one side of the room and the girls sat on the other. Mrs May made us all put our hands out flat on our desks and she came around and inspected everyones finger nails. Anyone with dirty finger nails had to go out and clean them quickly, and two girls with nail polish were sent to Mrs Holgate to remove it 'at once'

 After Mrs May had called the roll we had to take out a sharp pencil and we began to do our handwriting. We didn't use the whiteboard or Activ board or the computer. All of our lessons today were written up on the blackboard (that we hardly ever use!). We didn't put the lights on in Room 4 today either - because 100 years ago there would have been no electricity for lights. 

 Our handwriting today was harder than usual, it was all done in 'copperplate cursive' - which was even quite hard to read. We all had to do our very best work even though we didn't really know how.

 We took time and care as we copied.

 When we were finished we had to sit silently at our desks and wait for everyone else in the class to finish. We had to keep our arms folded and our mouths closed. It was a VERY quiet day in Room 4.

 After Handwriting we did Dictation, which we had never done before. Mrs May read out a lot of information about what school was like in the olden days and we had to write it down as neatly as we could. We had to try to spell the tricky words and add in the correct punctuation without leaving out any words. It was very tricky! If you didn't hear it or couldn't remember it, then you were in trouble because we were not allowed to ask for help or talk.

 Finally it was time to get outside for PE - although even that was very different. We didn't need to get changed or put on sneakers (and we weren't allowed to.) We had to stand outside in our rows and we stretched, up, down, across. Then we ran on the spot, then we marched on the spot, then we lined up in our lines and we went back inside. That was it! That was PE over!

 When we got back inside we learned about 'there', 'their' and they're'. We had to recite the spelling of each word and then put it into a sentence correctly, using the correct word and then also spell it correctly. It was weird all reciting the same spelling words and it was bit scary being put on the spot be Mrs May because you were scared you might get it wrong.

 After morning tea it was reading time. Each person in the class was given a 'Janet and John' reading book from the 1930's. We read the whole book together as a class, all reciting the words out loud at the same time. When we were finished reading it we made word families for some of the words that were in the book, like 'look', 'come', 'down' and 'at.'

Then it was time for arithmetic. We had to copy and complete some sums from the board. They started off easy, but then they got very hard very fast. We had to solve them in our heads.

After we marked out sums we learned our times tables. We had to write down our 2, 5, 10 and 11 times tables and then we recited them over and over again. Some of us actually got really good at not needing our paper to help us remember them all.

It was very hard work sitting still and being quiet all morning. It was strange to stay in our desks the whole time without moving around for anything. Mrs May was VERY strict, which she didn't like very much, she was pleased to be able to be kind again at lunch time.

Tomorrow we are going to be writing quick writes about our morning, so we will publish them to the blog and you can see what we all thought of our 'old school' experience.

Student of the week - Kate

Congratulations Kate - you could be our student of the week every week. You always work so hard at everything you do and you are a terrific leader and role model in our class. Well done.

Ski trip

On Friday and Saturday several Room 4 students (and their teachers) were lucky enough to take part in Lawrence Area School's annual ski trip to Cardrona ski field. The weather was not so kind to us but we all made the most of our time up the mountain and had a fabulous time skiing. A special thank you to Mrs Benington for a great job in organising the trip. 

We all began Friday with a lesson before heading off to explore the mountain with friends and family. 

Unfortunately it was VERY foggy on both days which made it difficult to see where we were skiing for much of the time. This certainly proved a challenge as we tried to explore new places to ski. 

These two epitomise the smiles that were evident during both days skiing. 

Apologies from Mrs O for the lack of photos. She's blaming her phone battery for dying on both days before getting snaps of all of Room 4 skiers. 

We look forward to more fun skiing adventures next year!!!

Cross Country 2013

Today was the Lawrence Area School Annual Cross Country event, held up Gabriel's Gully.

We were very lucky to have a terrific day for competition, not too hot, not too cold, no wind and no rain. The track was soft and dry underfoot so it was perfect conditions for optimum racing and the parents and friends of the school who came to cheer us on were not to be disappointed.

 Abby & Alyssa

 Alesana & Blake. Blake came first in the year 3&4 boys race.

 Connie & Emma. Emma came second in the year 3&4 girls race.

 Hamish & Jenaya. Jenaya came first in the year 3&4 girls race.

 Josie & Kate.

 Lanie & Venessa. Lanie came third in the Year 3&4 girls race.

 Lucie & Max.

 Paris & Rubie.

 Ryan & Samara. Ryan came third in the year 3&4 boys race.

Toby came second in the Year 3&4 boys race.

All of the Room 4 students gave the event their very best effort and some of the positions were highly contested. We are very proud of all of our class and congratulate them on their fantastic efforts.

You make us proud every day - Mrs May and Mrs O

Student of the week - Alesana

We love it when we see students working really hard towards achieving their goals.  This week both teachers noticed and commented on Alesana's efforts with his learning.  Top work Alesana and we look forward to seeing more of this.