VERY BUSY!

It has been very busy recently with a visit from Jaimy's Boxer dog, a trip to the Aquatic Centre in Richmond on Monday and then Mix and Make Day was Thursday.
Our whole Middle Syndicate swam together at the Aquatic Centre, mainly in the Wave Pool and Lazy River. Some parents and Mr Hikuroa swam with us and it was such cool fun. Before swimming, we had lunch on the grounds outside. We all had a super time.
The best things at Mix and Make were making snowmen, working on computers, pine cone decorations, Figgy Puddings, lego and making all sorts of different things out of clay.

Bye from Room 5 for this year and have a great Christmas. See you in 2011.

Pets Day

On Friday it was Pets Day at Brightwater School. Any size and shaped animal could come to school, furry or even woolly. There were three ladies in a marquee showing us how to spin sheep's wool. Almost a hundred animals came to our school. They were in a cage or on a lead.
In the morning we could make up to nine different floral activities and they were judged, first, second, third and fourth. In the pikelet making Room 5 won all the prizes. They are the BEST!
Everyone enjoyed seeing the many different pets. Cameron and Bailey

Museum Visit and Making Pikelets

Room 5 has just experienced an amazingly busy day at school. During Roll time we peer tested spelling and as as soon as we finished it was time for maths exchange.
Next we had a quick morning tea before heading off to the Nelson Museum. Everyone put on these cool funny clothes from the very olden days. Nicky told us what it was like for immigrants traveling from the British Isles to New Zealand by ship, in the 1840s. Pretty awful really!
We all learnt heaps of new and interesting stuff like how to tie special knots and what happens when the ship leans 30 degrees.
Once back at school we ate our lunch speedily, had a short play and then made pikelets for Pet's Day. Everyone helped make and cook them and we even had enough to try some too. They were really yummy. We will have to wait until tomorrow to see if any of our delicious pikelets win any prizes.
So that was our really fun day at school. Cool ah!

Secondary School' Brass Band

What an Unusual start to Term 4. Some of the pupils from the New Zealand Secondary School's Brass Band visited us first thing in the morning. They played several cool songs and a girl also told us about the players and then they showed us their different instruments. It was agreat way to begin the new term.

Natureland Zoo

We had a very, very wet trip to Natureland Zoo but it was still a lot of fun. These acrostic poems demonstrate some of the information that we learned.

Now, where are we going?
Animals! they're so cute, Phoebe.
The tuatara has lived for over 10,000 yeras.
Up in the trees go the monkeys.
'Ready to go guys.'
Evil monkeys! because they bite.
Look at all those animals!
At the start of the blue penguin game I was out.
Nature is good for animals.
Do you want to feel some tuatara skin?
Zoom! look at those guinea pigs go.
Over at Natureland Zoo some animals were not in pens.
Oh, no! look at all the mud at the zoo. Rebecca

Kiwi Sports Day

Positives

• Warm sunny day.
• Didn't have to do school work.
  
• Meet new and old friends from the other schools.
• Learned to play new games.
  
• Everyone got a chance to be good at something.
• Mums and Dads cheering for us.
• Having an extra big lunch.
• Great group leaders.

Negatives

• Walking back to school at the end of the day.
• Not doing all the sports.
• Not having longer at the sports and to play.

Interesting

• We liked some sports more than others.
  

Te Awhina Marae Visit

"Boy that gate is crowded. I meant the gate to the Te Awhina Marae. This place tells stories."
The hall was crowded with Brightwater and Parkland School children, as well as parents. "Hey look, Parkland School is by those cool windows."
It took a long time to get to the Marae, traveling by car. The Meeting House was filled with Maori patterns and carvings. It's flash too. Mr Hikuroa and the Matau each did a speech. Brightwater School gave a gift (koha) to the Marae.
We had a shared lunch and we were allowed two pieces of food at the start. It took a while. Then we went on a tour around the Marae. It turned out, the man who made the carvings in the Meeting House was still working on the Marae. I loved seeing the man carving because I didn't know he would be there. It was a fun day. Matt

"Wow! that's a wonderful place, we had just got to the Marae. What? Why was Parkland School there?" They sung some waiatas to us and they were pretty cool.
"Now food, Yum!" First we had two things to eat and we had turns getting food with Parklands School. People saw the maori patterns on the walls of the Meeting House. Parkland School did a scary haka. The ladies who showed us around were Fire Sue and Fire Sarah.
The Meeting House has a spine, head and ribs.We saw the guy who did all the carvings in the Meeting House (Wharenui). That was pretty awesome! There was weaving and it was about being a life long learner. We learned heaps about the Marae. Brynn

Rally Cars

The exciting and very loud Rally Cars visited our school recently.

Mrs Robert's amazing Carrot.

100 Pound!

Big fat carrot,
Looks like a cow.
Yum, yum, juicy,
I'm gonna eat it now.
Crunchy and delicious,
Chewing away like mad,
Oh, no, yucky worm,
That tastes really bad!
Zak

Scrumptious Carrot

Strange, dull, orange carrot.
Bumpy, lumpy, a treat to eat.
Wonky, crooked, bendy, split.
Overweight carrot,
Like fat fingers.
Dirty!
Ethan

Little Visitors

What's those woolly things outside? Could it be .....
It is, it's two lambs! What a surprise for Room 5. We got to feed the lambs with little glass bottles. Our class fed the lambs warm milk. Their names were Cherry and Buddy.
It was hard to hold the bottle because they tugged on it. I had to hold the bottle with my two hands.
I liked patting the lambs because they were so soft to touch. Georgia

Brightwater has Talent

Look at our fantastic Kapa Haka Group.

Strike!!

Fantastic, a really cool band called strike came to Brightwater school last Friday. The interesting people that do strike are Sam, Steph, Takumi and Adam. Strike played songs with different items like huge drums, a big xylophone and a normal drum and long log drums from the cook islands.

It was a good show because Strike have a exciting beat and rythm , but there was one thing that was a bit bad, and that was when Adam only played one song. Strike is a very intelligent band, and very entertaining. Tynan

School Cross Country

It has been a really busy week at school.
On Thursday afternoon we walked all the way down to Snowden's Bush and it was a loooong way. The Middle syndicate was running first so we didn't have long to wait before our girls took off at a great rate. They ran round the park beside the road and through the beautiful native bush on the muddy track before heading back to the cheering crowd. Our boys went next and they sped ran the track too. Jack, Peita and Aria were the best performers from our class and have been chosen to represent Brightwater school at the inter school cross country next Tuesday.
We all ran our best race and it was cool doing a real cross country race.

Visit from Nelson Museum

What an amazing morning we had at school on Wednesday. Our Syndicate welcomed Cindy Batt and Nicky Green from the Nelson Museum with a waiata before they took us through the history of several maori instruments. They showed us how to play them and one flute was even blown with your nose. Shells, rocks, and wood were used to make the various instruments which were all very precious.
Next we each made our own koauau out of bamboo. Our first job was to remove the membrane from inside by sanding and then smooth the ends as well. Finally we decorated the outside with black markers and attempted to blow them to make a musical sound. It was really hard work but some of us were successful!
Cindy and Nicky also told us some maori legends - Case-moth cocoon and Maui, Legend of Fire as well as Matariki (Maori New Year).
At the end of the day the Syndicate met together again and performed the haka and poi as thank you to Cindy and Nicky. They thought we were really good and we had an awesome time.

Visit by Robyn Belton - famous illustrator

Yah! Robyn Belton was at school on Wednesday, it was cool. Robyn is a famous illustrator.
She drew a picture and it was super fast. Shall I tell you what I think about her. She's a really good artist. Robyn started drawing when she was three years old. Now that's a long time ago.
She drew a picture of Herbert the Brave Sea Dog with a dolphin in the deep, cold sea by a rock. Robyn is amazing because she draws very, very fast. I thought it was cool and nice for her to have a visit. by Rebecca

Wow, Robyn Belton has already been to our school today. She has long curly, blondish hair.
Robyn told us about the story, 'The Duck and the Gun' and she read it to us which was only two pages, which is okay. The bad thing was that they ran out of copies of 'The Duck and the Gun' and the good news was that they made a different copy and it was the same story.
Robyn and her friend read the whole story about 'Herbert the Brave Sea Dog. After that when Robyn was drawing a picture of Herbert her Secretary was showing us about the real dog of Herbert and the real person of Tim, on the whiteboard.
When she finished the picture we all looked, it was incredibly awesome.
We were rushing to get our bags and to go home after a great afternoon. by Reggie

Awesome! yesterday Robyn Belton came to Brightwater School. She was in Room 12.
When I was sitting down I was thinking, wow look at that picture of Herbert. Robyn must be learning a lot if she is that good. After that she showed us the pictures in a story.
It was cool, like more than cool, it was amazing!
We toddled back to class. Robyn was amazing at drawing. by Holly

Bad Hair Day

On Wednesday 28 of April it was BAD HAIR DAY at Brightwater School. Everyone could have bad hair and we had to bring a gold coin for the Rescue Helicopter. Brightwater School gave the Rescue Helicopter $375.20. We went to the front field court to do a parade. Mr Dobbie lead the parade and Mr Baldwin gave out free tattoos.
It was a great day. I want it to come again. by Brooke Searle

Cool Autumn

Autumn feels quite chilly in the morning and at night. You can hear leaves rustling under your feet. The coolish dew on the wet grass goes on your feet. The deciduous trees are loosing their colourful leaves and the leaves look like snow flakes falling from the sky. Shawn Beer

ANZAC Day

Early one morning on Sunday 25 April at 9 clock the Berkett family went down to Brightwater to remember the soldiers who fought in the wars to keep our wonderful county. All people in Australia and New Zealand celebrate ANZAC Day, and put wreaths on the war memorials. Aimee

Sand Timers

We had really cool fun in Maths because we got to make our own sand timers. The bottom was cut off a small plastic bottle and Pete drilled a small hole in the lid. Next we put some dry, fine sand into our containers and we timed the sand running out for one minute. A mark was put on the container catching the sand so we knew how much to put back into our timers. A minute actually takes a long time when you are watching the clock!