Room 2's Learning about Te Aori Kori-String Games

On Wednesday we started learning how to make different kinds of shapes and patterns. The early Maori used to play with the strings because in those days they didn’t have any TV's or computer games. It was also good practise for manual dexterity for future weaving activities.  Firstly we started off making the ‘Cup and Saucer’. It was a bit confusing but by the time we kept on learning it we got used to it. Then we learnt how to make an “Eiffel Tower”  from the shape of  the

“Cup and Saucer” We also learned how to do the “Two of diamonds” and the ‘Parachute’. We had a great time learning different kinds of patterns and shapes, and next time we would like to learn the “Blinking Eye”.

The French Rugby Team

During the Rugby World Cup 2011 the Auckland suburbs Milford and Takapuna will be hosting the French rugby team as they will be staying in a hotel in Takapuna. It is very exiting to have the privilege to be able to host this great World Cup in New Zealand and even more thrilling to have this opportunity to be able to have this team to support (obviously as well as the All Blacks).We hope that they will be very comfortable over here as we will be as hospitable as possible.

Our Library

                                                                                           

At Milford School, we have a library, librarians and lots of interesting books. We have a section of fiction picture books as well as a section of fiction chapter, some non-fiction chapter books and story books. We also have a selection of non-fiction fact books.  We have specail culture books in our Library including Korean, Chinese, Maori and French books. Librarians have skill to enable us to borrow books. The person who runs the library is Ms. Combe. Everyone likes the visiting the library, browsing through the books and selecting exciting new books to read.

                                                                            

Milford's Got TALENT Auditions

In Weeks 8-9 of Term 3, Milford's Got Talent will start. Two weeks ago Mrs Vane announced that entry forms could be collected from her office. There are six categories, the categories are:
Instrumental-Solo
Instrumental-Group
Dance
Singing -solo
Singing-Group
Variety-Juggling / Magic / Comedy

We all hope that there will be a lot of competitors, as we all know ...  MILFORD'S GOT TALENT!!!!!

Friends.com Drama Performance

On Thursday the 18^th August two people from Friends.com came to put on a show for the Year 5/6’s. The show was about how to be safe on the internet and not to text bully. The show featured four characters; Emma, the new girl, Hannah, a bully, Dylan, a ‘loser’ who has a fake facebook account and Mike, a popular person. We learnt that it is against the law to have a facebook account if you are underage or not if that is not your real identity, never let anyone use your phone, even if you know them really well and much more. Everybody learned a lot and had a lot of fun!

Maths Week Winners

Recently we have had a few competitions and quizzes related to Mathematics as it was Maths Week. The winners of the Jelly Babies competition for Year 1-3 is Gabby Quin and the Year 4-6 winner is Hugh Parsons.

The design a number competition winners are, Year 2 winner was Eloise, Year 3 winner was Taige, Year 4 winner was Amy, Year 5 winner was Na-Ra and Year 6 was Tane. Congratulations to all winners!

Enviro-Gate Rubbish Audit

At our school, we have a group who recycle rubbish that is collected at our school. This group is called Enviro-Gate. This term Enviro-Gate has had a rubbish audit which is when the kids in Enviro-Gate collect all the rubbish in the school and they put the rubbish in the rubbish bags.This picture shows some of the rubbish in our school. We are learning about how much rubbish our school produces everyday so that we can work out ways to reduce the amount of rubbish produced and recycle what we can.  We interviewed two of our dedicated members of the Enviro-Gate, Blair and Georgia, who enjoy Enviro-Gate very much! 

Year 6 Syndicate Assembly

Year 6 syndicate assembly was on Wednesday 24^th of August. All the Year 6 classes gathered around the hall. There were 6 certificates given out (Georgia and Cynara in Room 1, Harrison and Rhiana in Room 2, Syvert and Yeni in Room 4). Also, the Mathex competition winners got their certificates (Jun, Micheal, William and Grace in Room 4). Then, the Year 6 students heard Yeni playing the Flute. After that the teachers reminded the Year 6 about the school rules. The Year 6s’ have had a great time so far this year and they will have a better time in the second half of the year. The Year 6 students are looking forward to their visit to TNIS to experience what an Intermediate school is like.



                                                           

Hear to See

On Thursday the 18 of August, Rooms 2 & 4 went to the Bruce Mason Centre to see the ‘Hear to See’ theatre performance. It was a story about a boy who was addicted to video games at the expense of his friends and family. He learned his lesson by experiencing Maori culture and learning to appreciate nature.  The objects played were the conch shell, the sticks and the voice rock. We enjoyed the show because it showed us all a lesson about respecting nature and to value our relationships.

Gardening Club

Last Tuesday, Alex and Inmoo from the Media Club interviewed the Gardening Club. They were planting some potatoes and making a potato garden. They were digging the garden to find some potatoes and they could find some small potatoes. While digging they found some insects. We interviewed some of the students in the Gardening Club. The first student we interviewed was Travis. He said he is really enjoying the club and the reason he joined the club was that the Gardening Club looked really exciting and fun for him. There were two groups in the Gardening Club. One of them were digging some potatoes and the others were sorting out composts. One student from the group who were sorting out composts was mixing some limes and other ingredients for the compost bin. The Gardening Club was trying their best and the garden was becoming beautiful with lots of plants and flowers.

Director of Learning

Our Learning Director is Ms Keen. She used to be a Year 6 Teacher in Room 2. In June 2010, she decided to do this job as she felt there was a need for teachers to have extra assistance to help them work with individual students and groups.  This will help students get more specialist teacher learning time.  She also helps the teachers to continue their professional development around 'Assessment for Learning'. Her favourite thing about this job is that she get to meet all of the classes. She says that personal qualities such as persisting, understanding with empathy, managing impulsivity and other habits of mind are very important.

Mid-Winter Toy Drive

Christmas

Salvation Toy Drive

At the end of Term Two, a lot of children brought a brand new toy for the disadvantaged children in Auckland to have something to open at Christmas. We had a special assembly where Ms Baker put all toys on the stage. She made us think how lucky we are and how sad it will be for the children who don’t get a present in Christmas. We collected heaps of presents and we felt really good helping others.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   



Maths Week

This week is Maths week at our school and we have been doing a lot of fun Maths based things. We have several competitions like guessing the weight of the jelly-bean jar and designing a number character for our own Year group. We are also holding a Mathex competition for Yr 4-6. The Mathex competition is when teams compete against each other in Maths quiz teams.

                                                      

Room 2's Fantastic Science Experiment

On Friday 7^th of July, Room 2 did an awesome Science experiment. We worked as a group of three. The experiment was about which material would be the best insulator.

 The experiment wasn’t perfectly fair because each jar had a slightly different sized surface and we also didn’t have a control. We had to bring four different materials to wrap around the jars. Then we poured boiling water and measured the temperature every five minutes. We also had to write the Title, Aim, Hypothesis, Equipment, Method, Results (table filled with temperature data and line graph showing organised data) in the correct order like a real scientist.

Our group was called A+ (which was Claire, Scarlett and Laura). Our conclusion was that the best material out of the four materials we tested, was the newspaper. The insulator that didn’t work as well was the wet suit material.

 Room 2’s experiment helped in our science learning!

IPAD2

Thank you from all the Milford School children to the people who voted for us to win an IPAD 2. We finally won one IPAD 2! We are still voting to try to win another one. I hope we do win another one. Please vote for us at www.yellowlocal.co.nz/schools .      

Term 3 GATE Classes

On the 3^rd of August 2011 our first GATE classes for Term 3 started up and running. These GATE classes are for gifted and talented children in academic areas. The first two GATE classes that started on this day were: GATE Environmental Studies and GATE Writing. The children in these GATE classes are carefully chosen by their class teachers. All the children hope to be chosen as it seems an honour!   

Be A Young Inventor!

At Milford School, Year 6 students are learning about inventions and inventors in Term 3 in a Social Sciences topic titled 'Be a Young Inventor!' An invention is a object that has been made first or has been upgraded. A person who invents something is called an inventor and inventors try hard to discover the secret of what technology can do and create an object that can help people. Sometimes an invention can be good and some can be rather bad (guns, bombs, etc.). Inventors fail and fail on what they are trying to do but mostly, they keep on trying until they get what they want. Inventors can become really famous and rich. Sometimes inventing can be dangerous and some can freak people out when they are first invented like X-rays did. We are learning how to use Internet research skills to search for famous inventors such as Thomas Edison, The Wright Brothers, Alexander Graham Bell, Sir Thomas Crapper etc. We are enjoying our topic this term!

Carmel College

On the 10^th August, some students from the Carmel College Orchestra came to perform wonderful music for us to enjoy. Some instruments in the orchestra were the Flute, the Violin, the Double Base and the French Horn. It was an interactive show as they asked two volunteers to come up and conduct the orchestra. Those two 'conductors' were Sophie and George. Our whole school attended and we thought it was very good and may inspire some Milford School students to learn one of the orchestra instuments.

                                                                              

Korean Teacher Visit

On Monday the 8^th August, nine Korean primary teachers came to Milford School. They will be spending two weeks here. The purpose of their visit is so they can learn more about education in New Zealand and share their learning with their students when they get back to Korea. We hope they enjoy their visit at our school and learn a lot.  The classes they are assigned to are as follows:

 Y1 – Room 17     -> JungWon (Cindy) CH             

Y2 – Room 11     -> YeonHee (Clare) CHUNG

Y3/4 – Room 9    -> JeHeon LEE

Y4 – Room 8      -> JuYoung (Ju) KANG

Y4 – Room 7       -> YeoJi HWANG            

Y4 – Room 18     -> JeongShin YU

Y5 – Room 6       -> KyeongAh (Reina) KIM

Y6 – Room 4       -> MiKyong SHIN

ESOL -Room 22     -> Nari CHANG

IPADS

At Milford School we have the chance to get an IPad. Coming 2nd on the list, we need less then 20 votes (in double points) before the 21st of August 2011. Every vote means we get TWO nominations. We need 250 nominations altogether to win an IPad, until all 50  IPads have been won. We are so close. Each school can win up to five, so every nomination counts!

Kahurangi Dance Theatre

Towards the end of Term 2, we had some special visitors show us Maori Dances from around the Pacific Islands. The dances were from Samoa, Fiji, Vanuatu, the Cook Islands and more. The people who performed at our school were called the Kahurangi Dance Group. They were wearing very bright and vibrant clothes. They were very good at singing and doing Poi actions. We learnt a lot about Polynesian and Maori culture and we had a lot of fun!  

St John’s Ambulance Visit

On 2 August, the St John visited Years 1-3. They learned about basic first aid. Ruby from Room 16 thought it was fun. She told us that they talked about firemen and they watched movie. The movie was about the boy and his dad being sick and called 111. Miss Perry, a teacher from Room 16, said it was informative and they learned lots of things including what to do if somebody is sick. Children also learned about what not to do if people are sick.

ICAS English

On Tuesday 2^nd August in the middle block ICAS (International Competitions and Assessments for School) English was on. Some Year 4, 5 and 6 students participated.  A lot of Year 6's thought it was complicated including me. Alex E from Room 2 said, “I thought it was quite challenging in parts but I think overall all of the students who participated found it mainly common sense”. We will all have to wait quite a few weeks to see our results which will be either participation, credit, distinction or high distinction. 

School Team Photos

On 4^th July, our school had its “Team Photos” day.  There were Netball, Cricket, Swimming, Hockey, Gardening Club, School Council photos and many more.  We had lots of photos taken and some people even got 4 or 5 photos taken! We had to remember to wear our school sports uniform and a nice smile. In a few weeks time, we will be able to order photos of our choice.

Badminton

Milford School has a Badminton team who practise every Friday. Recently, there was a Badminton tournament which was held at the North Harbour Badminton Centre. Competing in the tournament from our school were 3 teams. In team 1 there was Oscar Guo, Craig Lim, Tony Rhee and Sung-Guen Choi. In Team 2 there was Esther Park, Yeni Shin, Luke Trafford, and Calix Shi. In Team 3 there was Janice Lim, Emma Pattinson, Harry Bark and William Lee. Team 1 easily beat their opponents and got into the finals. They did really well and came 1^st overall. Team 2 came 3^rd overall and Team 3 was never announced. Team 1 surprised us when they brought the trophy back again. They won! We are so proud of team 1. Go Milford!