Term 4 Week 4

You may have noticed a new Mural on the end of Room 17. This was completed by the Muritai Art Ambassadors.

This is a little bit to describe the meaning and story behind it. ‘Chatting Children’ is our adaptation of Philip Trustums “Gossiping Women”. We had been looking at Philip Trustums work in class, and we had already made our own single piece of art (using his style), we had loved the whole process of adding random shapes and colours, so when the opportunity came to create a mural, we had to choose his style. Of course, we didn't copy Philip Trustums art, we simply incorporated his style into our mural. At first we found it difficult because we wanted a mural that would reflect our school, the children, the teachers and our beautiful community and setting we have here in Eastbourne… A LOT to fit in! But then we chose to make it more compact, and just base it around the amazing relationships we have between student/ teacher and student/ student.

Here at Muritai, we value the key competencies; Relating to Others, Thinking, Participating and Contributing, and Managing self. We decided to have different characters doing things that we all do at school, painting, gardening and relating to each others, etc. On the first board we have a female teacher literally “pouring” knowledge onto the child's flower (his mind) and helping it bloom and grow. On the second, we have two children interacting with each other, they are seemingly completely different but still get on. And on the last board, there is another teacher playing a game with a student, at Muritai we enjoy sport, so of course we had to incorporate it!

 If you step back and look at all three murals put together, you can see the two teachers on the outer boards guarding and supporting the students, giving them a safe and healthy environment to learn in. We are incredibly proud of our work we have done over the past months, and we hope you love it just as much as we do.

 By Rosa, Isabella, Eva, Amalia, Orla, Milly, Aless, and Prawa The Muritai school Art Team for 2015

Term 4 2015

Term 4 Newsletter

Kia Ora everyone,

Welcome to Term 4 of 2015. It’s hard to believe we are now in the final term of the year. It is fantastic to finally see the sun after a long, wet winter.

Firstly, a massive thank-you to everyone who helped out during our very successful Arts Extravaganza  at the end of Term 3. It was a huge process for everyone involved. Thank you to all the positive feedback we received. It is always a challenge trialling something different - we believe giving the students more variety made the show a success. 

As usual, Term 4 is set to be another busy one.

Below is a run down on the term. Feel free to contact your child’s classroom teacher if there is anything you wish to discuss further.

Literacy

Our writing focus for this term is poetry, where we will be exploring the connections between poetry in song lyrics while exploring a variety of figurative language. We will be looking at several current topics in the media to create a Year in Rap!

We are continuing to develop comprehension skills through our reading programme and integrated inquiry topics.

Numeracy

We start the term revising some key concepts from the year. We will be focusing particularly on fractions, decimals, place value and operational strategies. After 3 weeks of revision, students will be returning to their home rooms for maths where they will be covering Algebra. Rest assured, your child will still be learning at their current level by the classroom teacher differentiating the programme to suit everyones needs - similar to our literacy programme.

Integrated Studies

Our major focus for Term 4 is our current Sexuality Road unit which has been specially designed for Year 7 and 8 students. Throughout this unit we will be discussing changes during puberty, reproduction, relationships, the influence of the media, peer pressure and rights and responsibilities as we get older. Thank you to everyone who came along to our information evening at the end of last term. Hopefully you went away feeling fully informed about the content of the lessons. The classroom teachers will endeavour to keep you up to date with lesson content that has been covered through email and the classroom blogs. We think this is a great way of keeping you in the loop, especially if you’d like to initiate any conversation with your child at home. Once again, if you have any questions regarding this unit, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Along with this unit, our students will be involved in One Heart Day. This is an initiative developed by Cassandra Treadwell's organisation So They Can. The students will receive additional information about this by the end of week 1 but below is a brief explanation:

PPP - Personal Passion Projects

Due to popular demand we will be offering this opportunity for our senior students to delve into their passions once more. The teachers were blown away by the efforts of the students in term 2 and how the vast majority were confident at directing their own learning. Next week your child will be asked to develop and share a proposal to their teacher. This will be a plan of action that will spread throughout the first 5 weeks of the term. Students will have Friday mornings dedicated to working on their passion project but it is expected they will also need to use some of their own time at home to complete it.

Physical Education

An exciting term for PE is planned, starting off with Athletics. The children will be taking part in Long Jump, High Jump, Vortex, Shot put, Discus and Sprints. This leads in nicely to our school athletics day. We end the term with Swimming starting again down at the local pool.

EOTC

Planning is well underway for the Year 8 Abel Tasman adventure and the Year 7 EOTC week. We will be meeting with the students regularly to ensure they are fully prepared for the exciting week at the end of the term.

Important Reminders

Reporting to Parents

Teachers will very shortly start writing academic reports for each student. This is a summative assessment on the progress and achievements your child has made throughout the year. These reports will be coming home at the end of the term. Also at the end of the term, students will bring home their clearfile with work samples from throughout the year. Along with this hard copy, students will also have work samples in their Google Drive account. We will be encouraging our Year 8 students to print or save their samples to a personal account or usb before the end the of the year. 

Stationery Check

Many students are now missing pens, pencils, rulers, plastic pockets and calculators. These are necessary for everyday class work. Can you please ask your child if they need any items and replace them. Thank you.

Sun Hats & Drink Bottles

It’s term 4 and each child needs a hat to wear everyday outside.  Students not wearing hats have to stay in the shaded area. It is also recommended the children have their own named drink bottle at school. As the days get warmer it’s important they are fully hydrated.

If you have any concerns or worries please contact your child’s teacher by leaving a phone message at the office or by email: teachers surname @ muritai.school.nz.

Kind Regards The Year 7 and 8 team

Term 3 Week 9

The Elements

What an incredible couple of weeks it has been in the senior school! Its fair to say everyone is pretty exhausted after the conclusion of our Arts Extravaganza - The Elements. It took a huge amount of effort and time to ensure the show was a success. We have received a huge amount of positive feedback from the community on the quality of the performances and the variety that was on offer. It really gave individuals the opportunity to shine in their chosen area of the arts. 

The teachers are particularly proud of our senior students over the past month. They have shown commitment, dedication and leadership throughout the entire process. They are a huge component in  making the show such a success.




 The shots from our photography group were AMAZING!! What outstanding quality - I can easily see these on the wall of an art gallery!

  Epro8 

 We have continued our success in the Epro8 challenge. Epro8 Challenge is a competition, an engineering and problem solving race where schools compete to build large structures, solve practical problems, engineer machines and construct electronic circuits. Our two teams competed in the semi-finals on Tuesday afternoon. Congratulations to Macey, Daan, Fergus and Keiran who have qualified for the grand-final at Raroa Intermediate this coming Tuesday evening. Well done guys, we are incredibly proud of you. Best of luck for Tuesday!

Tournament of Minds

 Along with the success of our Epro8 team, our Tournament of Minds team also competed in the National Final at Hutt Intermediate on Saturday. They also competed in a Maths and Engineering section. The team was locked down for 3 hours to create a solution to the challenge they were presented. Throughout this 3 hours they were also asked to complete a spontaneous challenge. Once again, they were not allowed any assistance from adults.

Great news, these guys won! The team were clear winners on the day and thoroughly deserve the win. The next stage is International! Traveling to Sydney to compete against teams throughout the world! Watch this space for more details.

Term 3 Week 7

Its been a while this our last update but that doesn't mean nothing much has been happening in our Senior School. Below are some highlights from the past three weeks. Special thanks to some of our students who have contributed to this post.

Football 

On Tuesday the 18th of August at 12.15pm a group of Year 7 & 8 students went to Bishops Park to play against the Wellesley B team. The Muritai team played really well and won 7-4. The goals were scored by Matthew Jones x2, Macey Caughley x1, Alice x3 and Ella Giles x1. Overall they really enjoyed themselves and would love to do it again. Thanks to everyone who came down and supported us!

By Macey Caughley

Netball

On Thursday the 20th of August the year 7 and 8 netball teams went out to Taita to compete in a Netball tournament. We played against a variety of different teams.

Our games were 20 minutes with 10 minute halves. The games started at 9.30 and our last game finished at 12.00.

Both teams played really well, thanks to our coaches and all the supporters.

Epro8

On Monday the 24th of August two Year 7/8 Muritai school teams of four entered a competition. Team 1 was Noah Oakshatt, Tilly Potter, Tessa Treadwell-Burke and Shannyn Thompson. Team two was Kieran Smith, Fergus Hart, Macey Caughley & Dann Tokeley. The competition we entered was an engineering and building competition called ePro 8. We were set with limited supplies and had four tasks and had 3 and a half hours to do as many of the tasks as we could do. The first task we decided to do was to make a Mars space rover that could carry 5 kg and for more points we could make it remote control, go back and forwards and or stop if it hits any objects. When we had finished we pressed a big red button that lets off a song and lights to mean we are done. We had made a mars rover that could carry 5 kg. After that we had 1 and a half hours to make a crane that had to be 1.8 m high and carry 1 kg. We managed to complete the task in the nick of time, we had 2 minutes till the time was up. Once we had finished it was prize giving and team one came 3rd and team two came 4th! This means both teams qualify for the semi-finals on Tuesday 15th September.


By Noah Daniel-Oakshatt

Art Show - The Elements preparation

Last week the students have been working incredibly hard getting prepared for their art extravaganza in week 9. We have had students involved in a variety of creative experiences including the art of taking the perfect photo, learning lines for a play (William Shakespeare's MacBeth no less!), creating a music/dance act with percussion, painting on fabric and of course wearable arts. All the acts are inspired by 'The Elements - Earth, Wind, Water and Fire'.

The teachers have been incredibly impressed with all the students creativity and enthusiasm over the past week - what incredible kids we have at Muritai!

A special thanks to all our wonderful parents who volunteered their time to help out during the week. We could not have done it without you!

Don't forget to purchase your tickets from the school office. Its going to be a great show!

Scratch Projects

As part of our Technicraft programme, all students have a six week block working with Ms Coton on computer programming. They use the 'Scratch' tool for creating games and activities. Below is an excellent example of a project completed by Emily B in Room 22 - excellent work Emily! For more projects, check out Room 22 classroom blog.

 

  Gardening

 The sun was shining for a little bit last week so it was great to get out into our garden. We spent the session planting new plants which were purchased through a grant from the Bayer Institute. We are looking forward to seeing them get established over the coming months.

Tournament of Minds

 Yesterday we had two teams represent Muritai at the Regional Tournament of Minds competition. This is an accumulation of six weeks work on a maths and engineering challenge. One of the key rules of this tournament is the teams must not seek any outside assistance from adults. Both teams works incredibly well throughout the process and delivered great solutions on the day. One of our teams stood out from their competitors and were awarded 1st place! This means they now qualify for the National in a few weeks time. Well done to all involved!

Term 3 Week 4

A cold couple of weeks at Muritai! Here's the highlights from the past two weeks.

 Science with Ms Coton

For the past two Friday Ms Coton has been working with classes in Science. Classes have been investigating the question ‘What is fire?’ As part of the lessons students have learned about the chemical processes that occur when things burn, made careful observations of flames, learned about thermal energy, used wine guns to model chemical changes at the molecular level, and had fun investigating different ways to put out fire.

Key Competencies

This year the teachers and students  at Muritai are learning about the New Zealand Curriculum's Key Competencies - Thinking, Using Symbols Language and Text, Relating to Others, Managing Self, Participating and Contributing.

People use these competencies to live, learn, work, and contribute as active members of their communities. More complex than skills, the competencies draw also on knowledge, attitudes, and values in ways that lead to action. They are not separate or stand-alone. They are the key to learning in every learning area.

Successful learners make use of the competencies in combination with all the other resources available to them. As they develop the competencies, successful learners are also motivated to use them, recognising when and how to do so and why.

Our senior students created a resource that we hope can be used not only in our classrooms but in other rooms around the school, to create an awareness of the importance of these Key Competencies so we can all be successful learners.

Here is Room 22's slideshow. Watch this space for more from Room 23 and 24!




Jump 4 Star Jam

On Wednesday we headed to the hall for some Jump Jam! Its been a long time since many of us had a go at this... we loved it! Of course, this was for Jump 4 Star Jam. Starjam is a platform where young people with disabilities can meet together to make new friends, learn new skills and have lots of fun by taking part in weekly workshops in song, dance, guitar and percussion. They then share these talents through a variety of performance opportunities. Starjam is 100% funded by private trusts, grants and donations. 

What was even better about our session was Rosie and Helena were able to share their routine they created for their Personal Passion Project in Term 2. Awesome work girls!

Some great moves to Ice, Ice Baby... word to ya mother!

Beehave

Our Mike Weston mural has finally complete! It looks fantastic in the playground. A big well done to our Art Ambassadors, some other Room 24 helpers and Mrs Allen. Check out this awesome time lapse movie Noah from Muritai TV created which documents the entire process. Top job!



Fraction homework

We were incredibly impressed with some of the homework completed by students based on fractions and percentages. Nice work Matiu for getting into the kitchen at home and created some very tasty chocolate chip bikkies! Nom, nom!

Disco

What a great  way to end the week with a bit of dance off! Looks like a heap of us had a great time at the disco last Friday - great dancing and great company!

Term 3 Week 2

Term 3 is now in full swing! Its hard to believe we are half way through the year already! Here's some snippets of what the seniors have been up to at Muritai for the first two weeks of the term. Badminton For PE of this term our Year 7/8s are focusing on improving their striking skills. To start the term we are in the hall learning at the art of badminton. What a great game! We are learning there are quite different skills needed from other striking sports like tennis.

Gossiping Woman - Philip Trusttum Over the past couple of Fridays Mrs Allen has been working in Room 22 and 23, teaching drawing techniques using works from the artist Philip Trusttum. The students have experimented with creating a series of drawings using colour, black and white and different textures. Below are some examples of some finished or near finished pieces - looking good!

Northland Film Competition We are immensely proud of Samantha, Isabella and Emma in Year 8 who have just received 1st place in the Northland Film Competition. The 3 girls entered their short film they made from their Personal Passion Project in Term 2. These girls worked pretty much completely independently throughout the entire process, including using their own initiative find and enter this competition. The film was shown at the ANZAC Theatre in Dargaville and was judged by a large panel which included Winston Peters!! The judges commended them on their acting and filming techniques. Congratulations girls - what a top job! $300 is coming your way!! Muritai TV Speaking of film making, Olivia and Mila from the Muritai TV team have also been busy filming and packaging up an movie on inform students on what bullying is and what we can do about it. Well done girls, this is an important issue to talk about with your peers. I like how some interviewees talked about bullying being something that is ongoing and repetitive not a one off event. Rubbish audit At the end of last term of Enviro Ambassadors initiated a rubbish audit throughout the school to gauge how much waste our student body was producing every week. They put their maths skills to the test by using just 10% of student population to make some general statements about the waste we produce as a whole. The purpose of the audit was to find out how much knowledge the students had about waste disposal (eg compost vs waste) plus create an awareness around our waste and how we could do things better. Watch is space because in a couple of weeks the team will be actioning a 'Nude Food Week' across the school. Sounds exciting guys!