A Story From the Papakura Courier

Photo: IMOGEN NEALE

EVERY PENNY COUNTS: Students from Kelvin Road School’s Maori bilingual unit created a coin trail poster for children in Samoa.

Instead of writing stories about what they did in the holidays students in Kelvin Road School’s Maori bilingual unit asked if they could use the time to do something for children in Samoa affected by the tsunami. After a brainstorming session they decided to make a coin trail poster and send it to Samoa. Teacher Rachael Taylor says a lot of the children had seen coverage of the tsunami on the news and really wanted to do something to help.

So they spent three days asking friends, teachers and parents for any spare change – be it 10 cents or $2. With the help of kaiawhina (teacher aide) Ripeka Croft they also created a giant poster filled with bright images of Samoa – from an umu to coconut trees and jandals – and heartfelt messages of support. After sticking the $60 in coins down the poster weighed as much as a hard-backed dictionary. Mrs Taylor says the children really enjoyed making the poster and wanted to take it to Samoa themselves.

Failing that they hope the money is used to buy schoolchildren pens, pencils, rulers and rubbers.
In a note the class has attached to the bottom of the poster they write: "We want to give something special back to the children as we are fortunate enough to have a classroom with lots of resources and equipment."

Mrs Taylor hopes the Red Cross will be able to get the poster to Samoa on behalf of the school and the youngsters who created it.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/papakura-courier/2983170/Pupils-are-trail-blazers

Whakarite Mara o Ruma Wha

Ka wehewehe a Whaea Davina i nga whenua mai te keria. Ka mahi nga tautoru me nga tauwha ki te huri te whenua. Ka mahi poka a Whaea Davina mo nga huawhenua. Ka whakato a Ruma Wha i nga koau, silverbeet, kokihi me nga retihi. Ka mirimiri matau i te whenua ki te taha o nga huawhenua. Ka hoatu a Te Aomihia te wai ki te awhi i nga huawhenua kia tipu.

Na Ruma Wha

On the left Isaiah is practising his writing of words. On the right is Sohill and he is matching his words. The work is Room 1 never stops. These children are learning to read and write words today, but next week it will be chapter books!

The holidays were great.....unfortunately, when Xavier and Rawiri returned their beautiful sunflowers were not looking too flash. After all the boys' work, the snails came along and munched on the plants leaving just the stalks. We put down snail bait which the snails also seemed to enjoy. They went all frothy and died. We might try again in the same spot and hopefully we can have better success. Room 23 has some sunflowers as well......maybe they want to plant some in our now empty plot?

Today Kelvin Road School celebrated being the 50th school to become a Red Cross Breakfast Club school. We had a lot of guests and some of us performed for the guests. One of our guests was Mrs Collins, our MP, plus Mr Penrose, our Mayor. As with all celebrations there was a cake. Robert and Te Kawehau helped cutting that up.

Our breakfast club is on Monday and Thursday mornings and Mr Robertson said that since it started, our attendance for those two days has improved a lot.

Breakfast is a really important meal and we must have it every day....even if it is at school.

Sunflower Planting

 

During the last week of the term we planted our sunflowers outside.  The weather was pretty bad and they got bashed around a bit in the afternoon but they should be OK.  We planted them in 3 different places.

Position 1: Ariana / Lacy / Logan – this spot is behind Room 19.  It is not an overly visible spot, but it is well protected from the weather and near a tap to make it easier to water them.

Position 2: Rawiri / Xavier – this spot in outside the PE shed.  This spot is a great position to catch the sun and is really visible.  It is a bit risky because a stray bouncing ball may hit the growing sunflowers.

Position 3: Te Aomihia / Frances – this is a good spot in the new garden outside Room 14.  Hopefully we can use the fence to tie up the sunflowers when they get really big.  These plants should be safe from bouncing balls.

 

View Full Album