Body Combat Class

Well we ahd the first of our group fitness sessions this morning with Danny - the instructor from Les Mills. We took part in a 20 minute class and learnt and used some combat moves. Our next session is in 2 weeks time.

Hopefully there have been lots of people at home making use of the free 2 week les mills memberships that students brought home, these are a great way for us as a school to make some money for new sports equipment and for everyone to improve their health and fitness.

Term 3

Well term three is well under way with lots of great stuff planned. It has been great this week catching up with parents for interviews and discussing all of the great things students are doing and making plans to help with learning progression for the remainder of the year. Our big idea this term is "CHALLENGE" and we will be looking at the challenges faced by health organisations and ways in which we are able to improve our own personal health. Over the next few weeks we will be learing a lot about different body systems and how they work before including bones, muscles, cardiovascular, respiratory and digestive systems and then leading into our changes at puberty lessons.

Assembly Award Week 11 Term 2 - Caleb McArley

Well done Caleb for receiving an award for yuor consistents efforts and hard work in class, a great attitude, keep it up.

Well this term has been a busy one here at school. Students have worked hard in all areas and produced some great Science Fair Inquiry work. School reports are coming home today and these are followed up with interviews in week 1 next term. I hope everyone has a relaxing break and comes back refreshed for another term of learning in 2 weeks time!

Science Fair Awards

Well done to everyone who completed their Science Fair inquiry work. A lot of effort goes into these. We have had the judging and awards were given out at a special assembly today. Well done to the people named below form room 13
Prize Winners

• Georgia Walsh
• James Grigg
• Samuel wardhaugh
• Lucy Bell
• Beau Jarvis Child

Highly Commended

• Ella Anderson-Cahill
• Christine Wierda
• Bruno Willis

Cetificates of Achievement

• Mike Porteous
• Brianna Thomson

"Freshman Shield" Challenge!!!

On the 24th of June room 13 challenged Room 5 for the “Freshman Shield”. Room 5 have had the shield for the whole year so far and heaps of classrooms have challenged them for it and failed. We set up a match of stop ball soccer against Room 5 so we could have a shot at getting the shield for the first time this year. We all met on the turf and the game was on. The scores were close for the first two innings but then Room 13 sped ahead with the scores ending at 24 -18 to room 13! We would like to thank Room 5 for being such a good team to play and congratulations to Room 13 for they are now the new holders of the “Freshman Shield”. Well done Room 13.

Georgia Walsh

Room 13 Science Fair Work

Rm13 Group - Matariki Art Work Photostory

Year 7 Hangi - Friday 18th June

As part of our Year 7 unit this term we are learning about and participating in Matariki celebrations.

On Thursday afternoon and Friday morning, all of the students will be participating in a range of Matariki inspired activities such as flax weaving, Maori art, visiting the museum and observatory.
To conclude our Matariki celebrations we will be having a hangi lunch. This will take place this Friday 18th June. The ‘kai’ group will be in charge of preparing the hangi with the assistance of Mr Herden and a few other senior teachers in the school.

Every year 7 student is invited to bring a lunch pack to school on Thursday morning. This will need to include a frozen piece of meat, for example a chop or a chicken drumstick. The pack should also include two vegetables like potato, kumera, yams, corn on the cob or pumpkin. This pack needs to be wrapped thoroughly in tinfoil with your child’s name and room number on it.

Our kai group will collect the lunch packs on Thursday morning and they will check all of the parcels have been wrapped and labelled correctly and then pack them into crates ready to go in the hangi early on Friday morning.

We would also appreciate any donations of old newspapers or magazines for our art and Te Rakau groups. These can be brought along to school and i will distribute them to the appropriate people. Thank you.

Farewell Kaja...!!

Friday was Kaja's last day here at Balmacewen, we had a shared lunch for her on Thursday to say farewell to her. All the best for your return to Norway!

Week 7 Assembly Award - James

This week's assembly award went to James for a super effort in Maths and some great problem solving strategies. Great work James keep it up!

Mar & Dax in Mar's Tomb - written by James Grigg

Legend has it the the great warrior Mar and his furry friend Dax built Haven City but during the process Mar was crushed by concrete, so the builders made him a tomb.
In the south port of Haven City his tomb stands in front of the deadly Barron Praxis’s Palace which stands at 200 metres high.
“The legend is fake.” Everyone in Haven City does not believe the legend except for Mar’s farther, Damous. There is also a kid called Jak who also believes it and wants to find out if it’s true or not. The next day Jak went to the tomb and climbed up it hoping no Krimzon Guards saw him. When he got to the top he found a way in. He went down an elevator into Mar’s Tomb and when he got to the bottom a huge door with the Light and Dark Eco symbols opened. When he got in and went down some stairs he saw a man praying. Jak went to ask what was wrong. He said “My name is Damous, Mar’s farther!” Jak looked surprised and carried on thou. “What’s your name?” “I’m Jak.” “Where are you going?” “To find Mar’s Tomb!” “Ok!”
Jak carried on and then he walked into a room then all the doors closed, then a giant snake fell from the roof. Jak turned into Dark Jak which uses Dark Eco and fought the snake. 10 mins had been then out of no where Dark Bomb! He killed the snake then an ottsle named Dax fell from the roof. “You killed my snake!” “And you are?” “An ottsle that used to be a human but now a furry mess who has a headache and my name is Dax, OK!” “What’s an ottsle?” asked Jak. “Weasel and an ottsle combined.” “Well I gotta go.” “Hey wait how did you kill him?” “If I tell you will you be quiet?” “Yes.” “I used my Dark Eco powers, OK!” “What?” said Dax. “I said shhhh!” “Ok.” “Follow me.” Jak and Dax leave the place and bump into Damous. “Hi Jak and ummm furry mess.” “See I hate my life!” said Dax. “ Hey Damous, I have a question, what did Mar look like?” “Ummm I’ll show you.” They all looked at the picture. Hey that looks like you Jak!” said Dax Then out of no where BOOM! A robot controlled by Barron Praxis lands behind Damous and shoots him! Damous says 5 last words. “Find my son for me.” Then dies. “Bye farther.” Said Jak “Jak lets kill that robot and Praxis!” Jak turns into Dark Jak and Dax runs and hides. Jak then turns into Giant Dark Jak then somehow grows wings like Light Jak. “Time for Dark Bomb!” “Jak NO!!!” “Why?” “The place will collapse!” “Right.” Jak punches left, then right, then an uppercut. Praxis is down, then Dark Strike that blows the robot up and kills Praxis! “That’s for killing my farther.” “Nice Jak.” “Don’t call me that call me by my real name, Mar!” “OK.”
2 weeks later Mar is the leader of Haven City again.
“Mar can I use your jet board?” “No.” “Please?” “No.” “Pleeeaase?” “NO!” “I’m using it anyway!” “DAAXXTTTEEEEERRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Tim Tam Slam Photos...

Some action shots of our recent Tim Tam Slam's

Lucy Bell - The day that it rained Jellybeans

Verse 1

The day that it rained jellybeans, no one will ever forget,
How they pinged and panged on the buildings,
Brightening up the sky with their rainbow colours,
The day that it rained jellybeans, no one will ever forget.

Verse 2
The day that it rained jellybeans, no one will ever forget,
How the children danced around in delight,
And gathered as much as they could carry,
But the roar of them all falling grew so deafening,
That everybody ran inside,
The day that it rained jellybeans, no one will ever forget.

Verse 3
The day that it rained jellybeans, no one will ever forget,
Watch how this dying granddad smiles a smile so fragile,
Watch how his weak hand closes over one of these precious pieces,
How he smiles so sweetly and closes his eyes,
Into an everlasting sleep,
How he will dream about the day it rained jellybeans,

A truly bizarre day indeed.

Georgia Walsh - National Young Leaders Day

On Monday the 31st of May I went to the NYLD ( National young leaders day). It was so much fun. There were so many great leaders. the first person that came and talked to us was Justin Vaughan who is a cricket player that trained as a doctor but got rung up one day out of the blue and go t asked if he would fill in for a injured player in the black caps from then on he played for there team. He encouraged us to take every chance you get because you won’t regret it. Our second speaker was Mark Inglis who told us his amazing story of how he lost both of his legs and that he still climbs he just tries that little bit harder. Throughout the day we had great advice from James Blake, Nick Tuitasi, Alison Shanks, Matt Gibb and Rob Harley. I filled in my whole booklet with advice from the start of the day till the finish. The hosts were really cool they were Charlie off “What Now”, Alice Gallager and Whitney Pa’u because they got us all involved. In the end we all had a great time and I hope that maybe I can go back next year. This link takes you to the NYLD website for more detail on the day I attended http://nyldnz.org/

Georgia Walsh

Year 7 Presents...

Year 7 Presents

Week 6 Assembly Award - George

Well done George for receiving this week's assembly award for "A positive attitude towards all of your learning and always sharing a great smile" Good stuff George!

Norway's National Day

Last week we had Kaja and her Mother share some info and activities about Norway's National Day - Check out the PhotoStory that Kaja, Gemma and Jocelyn have put together below by pressing play - the background music is Norway's National Anthem.

Week 5 Assembly Award

Well done to Kaja who received this weeks assembly award for "Continually Showing a positive attitude and giving everything her best" well done Kaja keep up the great work!

Week 4 Assembly Award

Well done to Alex Hanan for receiving this weeks Award - A super effort and improvement in our May Mega Maths result this week. Keep up the efforts here Alex!

The Room 13 Top 5 Pics...

Above is a photo story made by Ella and Brianna with some photos from our trip to the Orokonui Ecosanctuary.

Orokonui Photos

Above is a slide show of our best photos from Orokonui. We have to choose our top 5 photos from these to enter against the other year 7 classes and then make choices for the Otago Wildlife Photography Competition. You can post your favourite photo numbers in the comments section below the photo show (each pic has a small number at the bottom of it). All voting must be made asap as our school entries must be in by Monday 17th May.

Week 3 Assembly Award

well done to Mike for receiving this weeks assemby award for - A super contribution to our Science Experiments and discussion work - Good Stuff!!

Food For Thought....

It has been quite alarming to me to see the amount of good food being thrown in the bin each day here at school. (The Photo above shows the Croissant, Biscuits and Sandwich that were dumped yesterday - maybe you recognise them?) We have talked about it and I hope that students start to realise the cost and effort that goes into providing them with school lunches! I have worked in schools where students werren't even lucky enough to come to school with lunches, so it concerns me when students are throwing away food that many children aren't lucky enough to get at all!! Hopefully we can see some improvements here soon... some eye opening statistics below that have been highlighted to students...

The World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the world is well-fed, one-third is under-fed one-third is starving- In the time you have taken to read this blog page today at least 200 people have died of starvation. Over 4 million will die this year.

Every 3.6 seconds someone dies of hunger

It is estimated that some 800 million people in the world suffer from hunger and malnutrition, about 100 times as many as those who actually die from it each year.

One out of every eight children under the age of twelve in the U.S. goes to bed hungry every night.

Half of all children under five years of age in South Asia and one third of those in sub-Saharan Africa are malnourished.

Every year 15 million children die of hunger
statistics taken from http://library.thinkquest.org/C002291/high/present/stats.htm

Week 3 Term 2 Puzzles to solve

2 puzzles to solve this week. All answers must be in to me by 9am Friday!

May Mega Math Month has started...

Today we sarted our baseline testing for our Maths Multiplication Month. All students were given 3minutes to complete as many of a 100 times tables sheet as possible. The final scores have been recorded and students wil be coming home tonight with their summary sheet that we will be using to track progress and improvement over the next 4 weeks. Our class average today was 54.1 - which is the average of all student scores completed and answered correctly. We had 2 people complete the 100 in less than 3minutes with only 1 error each! Students should be making basic facts recall a part of their home work and spending some time reciting these in order to improve. The notice that came home last Friday has some good ideas for improving and practising these skills. The links to some of the good sites to visit are below:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/numbers/wholenumbers/multiplication/timestables/ The BBC’s website has a huge amount of educational material including a great section on times tables
www.mathisfun.com – Some great tips on how to learn your times tables in the number and then multiplication section
www.multiplication.com – Lots of good times tables ideas and games
http://www.prongo.com/math/multiplication.html - A class favourite here at Balmacewen.
http://www.helpingwithmath.com/resources/online_flashcards/flashcard_multiplication03.htm - Simple online flash cards

Assembly Award - Week 2 Term 2

This weeks assembly award went to Rachel for being such a positive and pleasant class member who works hard in all areas. Well Done Rachel keep up the good work!

Mind Puzzle Solutions Week 2

Well done to all those who managed to solve the problems this week. A big well done to Beau who ahs been the first to correctly solve all puzzles so far.
Answers: The hole in the tennis court can be filled with water which will make the ball float to the top so you can get it.
The coffee puzzle - the customer had already added sugar to their coffee, so when the same drink was returned with the fly removed they took one sip and knew it was the same drink as it was sweet from the sugar!
Well done to Beau for solving the Coffe Puzzle and the Hole in the court puzzle was solved by Beau, George, Flynn, Bruno, Ben, Zoe and Georgia. Wathch this space for next weeks puzzles coming soon!

Orokonui Ecosanctuary Visit & Photography Competition

Please find attached a downloadable copy of the notice coming home today about our trip the Orokonui Ecosanctuary. We are using this visit as an opportunity to take some wildlife photos for the up coming "2010 Otago Wildlife Photography Competition" run by the Otago Museum.

extract fom http://www.otagomuseum.govt.nz/otago_wildlife_photography_competition_2.html
Otago Wildlife Photography Competition 2010

It’s that time of the year again - when the search begins to find Otago’s best amateur wildlife photographer!

Now in its eleventh year, the Otago Wildlife Photography Competition issues a challenge to Otago residents to work their magic with the camera, capturing either a plant, an animal or an example of human impact on the natural environment.

Presented in partnership with NHNZ and supported by Jonathon’s Photo Warehouse, the Otago Wildlife Photography Competition has grown to become an important part of the local photography calendar. The competition typically attracts around 1,000 entries, and with a $1500 worth of photographic accessories prize pack from Jonathan’s Photo Warehouse up for grabs, 2010 is expected to be another bumper year.

All amateur photographers living in Otago who have taken a great shot of a plant, an animal, or an example of human impact on the natural environment since 1 January 2009 are invited to enter. The competition is divided into two age categories – 14 years and under and 15 years and over, with category prizes also on offer.

Entrants have until 5pm on Monday 17 May to submit their best photos. The winners will be announced at a prize-giving ceremony on Wednesday 2 June, with the exhibition opening in the Nature Galleries the following day.

Orokonui Visit

Week 2 Term 2 Puzzles

Well doen to all those who handed in some answers to last weeks puzzles and managed to solve the puzzles correctly. Have a go at the two puzzles for this week, all answers need to be into me by Friday 9am.

ANZAC Assembly

Today our school assembly was one of special significance. We held an ANZAC Assembly to commerate and remember those who have served in wars for our country. We had some presentations shown to us made by Room 24 students followed by 2 special guests. Our first guest was Mr Trevor Graham - he had written a song called "Monuments In Every Town" - a song which sings about the war monuments that we find in most towns throughout NZ, he played the guitar and had a year 8 student; Caitlin sing for him. OUr guest speaker was Mr Fred Daniels who gave us an ANZAC address and spoke of the way in which we acknowledge and remember the significance of war in today life. A very special assembly and a good way to add to the learning we have done relating to the ANZACS in class this week.

Kitchen Chemistry Pics

This week we started some of our Kitchen Chemistry Experiments - We have been learning about making observations and commenting on what we are seeing happening and what we think is making thise observations. We will be doing many more experiments in the coming weeks and this will give us some good skills in making predictions, observations and conclusions which could be very useful for our Science Fair work.

Week 1 Term 2 Puzzles

Challenge yourself and keep that brain firing. Try solving these puzzles at some stage this week. Once solved return your correct answers and be in for a prize! Good luck! (everyone has been given hard copies of these puzzles, if you have trouble seeing the text just increase the zoom on your page browser)

Balmacewen Science and Technology Fair Term 2 2010

No doubt you will have heard about the ‘Science Fair.’ It is a school wide event that has been happening at Balmacewen Intermediate for a number of years now. We are always very successful and a number of students go on to be very successful at the Otago Science and Technology fair each year. It is a great opportunity for students to undertake and inquiry of their own choice.
WHO: All Balmacewen Intermediate students will individually complete a science fair project guided through the process by their classroom teacher/
WHEN: The Science and Technology fair takes place over the course of Term Two. All students complete a project which is due into their classroom teacher for presentation in Week 10, Monday 21st June.
From here all projects will be exhibited in the hall later that week and judged. The best entries will be selected to represent Balmacewen at the Otago Science and Technology fair.
WHERE: Students will carry out science investigations and learn how to put their project together, create graphs and procedural writing techniques in class. They will get some class time to work on their projects and the rest will be made up of homework time for the term.
WHAT IS A SCIENCE FAIR PROJECT?
A science fair project can be an invention, investigation or experimental research. There has also been a change that includes aspects of ICT use as part of an investigation – developing a new programme, animation techniques, Robotics etc.
TIMELINE GUIDELINES
 HOLIDAYS – WEEK 1: It will start with a big question, idea or aim that the student wants to explore. For example: ‘How can I keep the fizz in my fizzy for longer?’ ’ ‘How can I make myself safe on my skateboard coming to school in the mornings?’
 WEEKS 1-3: Next the students will need to research and gather background information around this big idea.
 They will use this information to make a hypothesis or (in the case of an invention) come up with a prototype or plan.
 WEEKS 3 – 7: From here the students need to come up with a plan for how they are going to carry out their experiment, invention or investigation. They need to remember to use a fair test, think about what they are changing and measuring and repeat their testing at least three times for accuracy. (This will be explained fully at school by their classroom teacher)
 The students carry this plan out over the next few weeks and keep a log book and take photos of the process along the way.
 WEEK 8: Next the students put together their results. They may use graphs, tables or written observations.
 WEEK 8-10: They then summarise their results, making reference to their hypothesis.
 They will be given details and explanations at school as to how they must present their inquiry onto a display board. Samples of previous projects will be on display in the library and parents are also welcome to come in and look at these for ideas. (Pictures of these may also be on some class blog pages.) The display boards are available from the school library for $10. The rest of the information goes into their log book/clear file which will be kept with the display board for the judge’s reference.
The GUIDELINES used here are approximate and may change slightly.
We will have a lot of discussion and sharing of ideas in class and there will be notices coming home with additional information. But this gives you a basic run down to help you get your head around it all. If you have further questions please feel free to get in touch with me.

Science Fair

Kaja & Elizabeth - Norway

Today and last Friday we have had Kaja's friend Elizabeth here at Balmac visiting while she is in New Zealand on Holiday wiht her family. Today Kaja and Elizabeth shared an interesting slide show of photos and told us all about life in Norway and some of the things they enjoy doing there. Below are a few pics of them playing Hand ball which is the 2nd most popular sport children play in Norway. Thanks girls it was great hearing and seeing about your wonderful country

Week 8 Assembly Award - Hannah Bremner

Well odne to Hannah for receiving this weeks assembly award for "A hardworking and positive approach to everything that she does"

Well done Hannah!!

Asking Good Questions...

It has been great to see some of the fantastic questions everyone has been coming up with after our lessions on "Asking Good Questions" The questions that students have now written are going to be used to interview a Grandparent or someone form a generation before their parents. The interview questions will be based around "What it was like growing up and childhood compared to the way we have it now" giving the students some information and hopefully opening up an understanding of some of the changes and similarities as our world has changed over time and the way they are shaped by their past. Studnets will be starting their interviews from tonight and need to have the interview completed by Monday 29th so we can organise reporting on these...good luck...

Swimming Sports

A big well done to everyone who competed in the school swimming sports this morning at Moana Pool. It was great to see everyone giving it their best in all races. We had some successes in trhe finals with 3 students getting placing in their finals, an extra special well done to those who are listed below.

Austin Clarke - 3rd 25m Backstroke
Samuel Wardhaugh - 3rd 50m Backstroke & Free style, 2nd 50m Braststroke
Brianna Thomson - 3rd 50m Feestyle & Backstroke.

Asking Good Questions????

As part of out topic work this term students will be carrying out interviews on a grandparent or someone from a couple of generations before them. As part of this interview preparation students will need to come up with some suitable questions that will see them get the best information and answers from the people they interview.

HOMEWORK for tonight is to come up with 5 interview questions to ask me(Mr Sloan) on Thursday afternoon (Yes tomorrow!! 18th March) about my childhood. This will be a practise and also a challenge to see who can get the most information out of me in just 5 questions.

Today we have talked about asking good questions and the difference between open ended questions and ones that just give a closed answer of "yes' or "no"
I look forward to hearing all of te good questioning techniques!

Week 6 Assembly Award - Georgia

Well done to Georgia for receiving the Assembly award this week for "Always putting an extra effort into all that you do"

Georgia - My Great Great Grandad....

I was asking my Grandmother about my homework on NZ Identity and history and she pulled out this big book about our family. In the book there were the original tickets and receipts for the ship "Margaret Galbraith" which my Great Great Grandad Philip Milburn and his family came to New Zealand on in 1879. My Great Great Grandad Philip was 5 years old when he came on the boat to Otago NZ. These tickets and receipts are very old and brittle - Mum was able to copy them for me to bring to school to share. My Great Great Grandad - had an article written about their journey here which I have read and it sounded pretty breathtaking! I feel very lucky to have seen and heard about these. The photo shows me with the photo copies of the ticket, receipt and article about the trip. Below is a copy of these for people to have a look at.

Georgia Ticket

Settlers Museum Photos

Check out some of the cool photos of us all dressed up as earl settlers during our trip ot the Otago Settlers Museum in the slideshow below

Week 5 Assembly Awards

A big well done to Samuel and Couper for receiving Principal's awards in Assembly for their efforts and work on their photo story of camp.