Friday 30th August 2013 - Term 3 Week 5

Friday 30 August 2013  – Term 3 Week 5

Value Focus for next week: Quality / Respect

From The Principal

Kia ora tatou katoa, Talofa, Malo e lelei, Bula vi naka, Kia orana Nga mihi nui ki a koutou, Namaste, Nihao, greetings to you all. Welcome to Week 5 Term 3 2013.

The Mathematics Olympiads - were held during this week with great enthusiasm and skill across the whole school. The children work in teams to solve mathematical problems. The teachers were also challenged at morning tea and during the Olympiad. Thank you to the parents / whanau that supported us, perhaps a parent team could be included next year?

Dental Clinic  - The school now has a mobile dental clinic on site until at least February next year. The clinic is settled on a concrete pad in our back car park. Welcome to Elm Park School Marise, Anuj and Jody, we are very happy that you are here and our children will receive dental care.

Daffodil Day - Thank you for supporting Daffodil Day. The money we raised will be donated to the Cancer Society to help with research.

Pasifika Groups - Two of our Year 5 teachers, Miss Hughes in Rm 24 and Matua Faenza Wanoa in Rm 23, are working with a group of Pasifka students this year. The children are learning songs, dances and all about the Pasifka culture.

Year 5 Garage Sale Saturday 14 September 8 – 11 am - We are happy to receive your contributions for this day, please bring them to the office and we will store them under the seating in the Auditorium.

Eastern Schools Koanga Festival - This will be held at Macleans College on Saturday 14 September also. Our students will be performing at 12.15 pm for 20 minutes. This is a day to celebrate and embrace our Maori Culture and Heritage. There will be food stalls available to purchase yummy kai. Thanks to Mrs Koroa, Ms Melville and Matua Faenza for their hard work.

Have a lovely weekend

Kind regards

Trish Plowright

Trish Plowright

Principal

Key Events For Your Diary

Sat 31 August............ Year 5 Skating Fundraiser

Mon 2 September....... Calendar/Card/Diary orders home

Sat 14 September....... Garage Sale

Fri 20 September........ Loud Shirt Day

Fri 27 September........ End of Term 3

This Week In Review

Zone Speech finals – Congratulations to Anahita Mistry with her speech on Child Labour.  Anahita came 3^rd in the zone speech finals this year, which were held at Elm Park School on Tuesday night.  First place was Mitchell Wong from Our Lady Star of the Sea and second place was Daniel Brink from Mission Heights Primary. 

Japanese Group Visit - On Thursday 22 August 78 children from Hoshino Gakuen School visited us for the day.  They were teamed up with year 5 and 6 Elm Park buddies - who broke down cultural barriers through songs, games and class activities.  Well done to our Elm Park children andteachers for making them feel so welcome by showing acceptance and friendliness. This was the third time Hoshino Gakuen has visited us and they are planning to return next year!

Room 20 says: This week, it was time for the annual visit by students from Hoshino Gakuen - a primary school in Japan.  This was the third time the students have visited our school and we were looking forward to meeting some new friends from another country.

The Hoshino students were welcomed to Elm Park School with a pōwhiri at the beginning of the day.  They performed the Japanese version of "It's a Small World" and our Elm Park students performed Underneath the Orange Tree - a traditional Japanese song.  We sang most of it in English, but we learned one of the verses in Japanese.  It was tricky but it sounded amazing.

After the pōwhiri, the Japanese students helped us to learn some Japanese games, calligraphy skills, origami and language.  We were all able to take away a small souvenir of Japanese culture.  After some morning tea, it was their turn to learn about our culture.

We brought the students back to our classrooms and helped them to make a kiwiana artpiece.  One of the Japanese students, Kensuke, was amazed to discover that our current class novel is Kensuke's Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo.  He thought that was awesome!

We finished off our session by teaching the students a simple song with rakau sticks.  They picked it up so quickly.  Check out Levi and Kensuke below:

It was a flying visit - nowhere near long enough in our opinion!  The Hoshino students only flew into NZ the night before and they were gone again by lunchtime.  After leaving our school, they drove down to Rotorua for a 3-day farmstay, and then flew back to Japan. We hope they enjoyed their time with us.  We are looking forward to writing to our buddies and learning more about their culture.  

Looking Ahead

Materials Required for Insect Hotels - As part of our native planting Enterprise, Room 13 students are also building insect hotels.  To construct these we would appreciate donations of the following materials:

Bricks with holes in them, concrete blocks, PVC piping, pieces of old spouting or guttering, broken terracotta/china planter pots, firewood logs, corrugated iron, bamboo canes, chicken wire netting, straw.

We would be grateful for any materials, in any condition, brought to Room 13 by the 9^th September.

Materials Required for Inquiry Project - Room 20 and 22 need some help collecting materials for their Inquiry projects.  If you are able to help with the following, please send to Room 20: Brown bottle tops (from chocolate milk),  dark blue bottle tops, light  blue bottle tops, silver/grey bottle tops, Newspaper.  Thank you for your support.

Focus on Children

Room 25 taught the Japanese students a bit of New Zealand culture by showing them how to do Maori weaving.

POSITIVE SOCIAL INTERACTION WINNERS
Congratulations to the following students who were selected and acknowledged this week for their responsible, friendly behaviour.
Room 1	Rory Grant
Room 2	Moana Tanuvasa
Room 3	Saanvi Gupta
Room 4	Jack Neilsen
Room 5	Trinity Onesi
Room 7	Kody Ward
Room 8	Emma Newman
Room 9	Dayton Nolan
Room 10	Uveen Wickramage
Room 11	Everest Kahi
Room 12	Chloe Stopforth
Room 13	Yohan Manecksha
Room 14	Anahira Knight
Room 15	Summer Evans
Room 16	Gabrielle Kemp
Room 17	Eli Wood
Room 18	Tanielle Nomdo
Room 19	Ayden Larsen
Room 20	Linny Onesi
Room 21	Belal Hatem
Room 22	Kristopher Ngamoki
Room 23	Emma Perry
Room 24	Tyler Derham
Room 25	Ella Ho
Room 29	Nevada Lim
Room 30	Charlotte Muldrew
PERSONAL PRESENTATION
The following students were voted as the overall weeks winner in their year level for the most neatly presented in their uniform.
Year 1:	Naledi Maholwana
Year 2:	Ella Roy-Boyd
Year 3:	Mandy Ngo
Year 4:	Kyle Stapleton
Year 5:	Zion Nolan
Year 6:	Louise Skinner

Community Notices

Pakuranga Athletic Club. - Junior Track & Field 2-14yrs. Pre-season training is free and available for 5-14yrs with basic skills taught by volunteer parents. All children interested in joining athletics are invited to attend. Experience not necessary.

Please register via email at pakrun@gmail.com and see our website www.pakrun.org.nz for club information.

Tamaki Sports Academy - offers mentoring, coaching, and work experience to South Auckland youth who have dropped out of the mainstream school system but show some sporting talent.

A major fundraiser for the academy, and an excellent source of work experience for our members, is the free metal collection service we offer. We will pick up any old metal - computers, whiteware, roofing iron, metal piping, venetian blinds, batteries, car panels, cars, metal shelving, filing cabinets, machinery, lawnmowers, engines, and so on. If you do have any metal rubbish to get rid of, we are keen to pick it up for you. It is a win-win for both of us. Thank you to everyone in advance, and to those who have donated metal to us previously.

Many thanks, Tricia, Ph 021 808921

Healing from divorce - is not easy. It’s long, and sometimes painful process.  “DIVORCE CARE” is week 7 course that provides support for people struggling with the ongoing effects of divorce. Cost $40.  Wednesday’s  18^th Sept- 30^th Oct;  6.30 pm to 8.30 pm.  Cost $40.  Phone Diana for more information 021 262 4797