A tasty lesson in win win...

We wrapped up our win-win lessons today by discussing the 'tumor twins', competing and comparing. We talked about what made competition healthy, and how when winning at all costs becomes the focus, competition can become dark and dangerous. Comparing our own performances is a good thing, but comparing ourselves to others can lead to a number of problems. These ideas had nice links to the Olympics.

However the highlight of the afternoon was the creation of our win-win pizza. By considering everyone's preferences and doing a bit of maths, we created a pizza to keep everyone happy:-)

Poets in the making

This week we started exploring the poets within! Our first creation is a poem based a recipe, designed to make someone angry. Here are a few of the 'dishes' that have been created...

One beautiful platter of fishing clothes doused in a spicy dip of scariness, all delicately laid on some dirty school uniform.

A piping hot plate of tangy old fashioned unhelpfulness marinated in a delicious not listening sauce, this is a favourite to everyone (except Mums!)

A crisp argument heated just to the right temperature between right and wrong.Served with a sprinkling of ‘I’m right’.

An intriguing cocktail of authentic not as smart as you and distinctive being wrong for the perfect accompaniment to a delicious dinner.

A roasted trio of fighting, dirty clothes and a pile of week old laundry, blended together to make a symphony of flavours. On top of a big fat chunky cut of, it’s her turn to set the table, finally topped off with a creamy dolloping of talking back.

An intriguing blend of a crisp tardiness seasoned with a pinch of homework excuses finished off with a glazed homework excuse .

Learning about win win...

Today we did an interesting activity with a 5 X 5 grid, some 'x's and 'o's and two groups of students. The goal was the earn a lollies by placing 4 symbols in a row on the grid. Ask your children what they learnt from this activity!

One round of the activity nearly ended in no sweets being earned. In another round one group earned 2 each. The last round needed some teacher intervention to encourage the groups to focus on the objective (getting lollies) rather than making the other group get none. We worked out that by helping each other every participant could have got 2 or 3 lollies each ... TEAMWORK RULES:-)

Toys are go!

We've done it! Books are published, cards have been created and the final stitch has been sewn. Come and see our wonderful display in the Hall on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.

Basketball Tournament

 Room 19 were well represented at the Canterbury Primary Schools Basketball Tournament. The boys played with drive and great teamwork. They were placed 4th overall. The girls played eight closely contested games. Their most impressive game was against Rangi Ruru, the eventual winners, the score was 6:8 to Rangi. Awesome effort Oscar, Grace, Danielle and Sabine.

Endangered Narratives

As part of our endangered species inquiry we are creating narratives based on the threats our animals face. In writing our orientation we want to be creative and informative at the same time. Here are some that are hitting the nail on the head...

The sun stood innocently in the Spanion sky falling further with every minute that passed, and when twilight set in the night shift started. Under the still darkening sky the compressed muscular body of the lynx stretched her long hind legs and her powerful jaw in the cooling mountain air...

... Koa was awoken from the hissings of the snakes rummaging below to find their prey; he hoped that he was not the next one in line. He could hear his tummy rumbling and he reached for his most favourite food of all, eucalyptus leaves. ...


As the towering pines catch the incy raindrops on their delicate leaves you hear a lot of interesting sounds in the humid forestry . The slight sound of powerful waterfalls that could take a small fragile figure barreling down to its wavy falls . Trees whispering here and there make you realise this unusual sound seems like its trying trying to comfort you somehow letting you know you’re not the only one it this piece of forestry land ...


The sharp breeze whipped through the bare pines and shook the frosty snow off the leafless branches. The snow seemed to fall in slow motion but finally it landed on the back of a raccoon that was scurrying away. The sun was up travelling through the bright blue sky. Its rays hit the snow turning every last bit of it into a sparkling new world. A polecat stretched and hurried off to find some breakfast. Far away in the distance woke the roar of an engine, an engine of a huge yellow beast that could tear down the whole Taiga in one lift of its enormous tongue. ...

Come along to the Science and Technology Expo in week 10 to read the rest of our narratives.

Snow Day

Enjoy your cosy day at home. Not much action here, just beautiful big snowflakes.

Feel free to do some work on your orientation for your narrative in Google Docs:)

See you all tomorrow ... Miss D