At the Orchestra

At the orchestra we listened to fantastic music that was from the 1600's to the 1900's. The beautiful music was played at the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington.

Musical instruments played music from great movies, shows and a long time ago. There was a funny person who gave the conductor a wig and a stick.... because that's what conductors sometimes did in France in the 1600's. Monteverdi was using a big, thick bamboo stick to conduct the orchestra when he he wacked the stick on his foot. He didn't go to the hospital straight away...and ten weeks later he died of blood poisoning!!! The trumpet played the Indiana Jones music.

Dylan liked the Mozart music best. Thomas liked the Bethoven bit. The ballet bit was good too. Xavier thought he looked like a ballerina man. We heard lots of new instruments. We learned some new ways of clapping too. So have fun conducting your orchestra... but make sure you don't whack your foot too!!!

FLOOD AT SCHOOL

Last night powerful, rushing rain fell at St Francis Xavier school. It created a gigantic puddle on the big kids court. People were playing in the puddle but that caused some problems....

• lots of balls got stuck in the puddle because it was so deep and the kids would get soaking wet shoes;
• it was creating a flood that stopped us from playing on the court and wet our shoes when we walked over to the toliets;
• we were getting grumpy teachers because the children were getting wet and they didn't want upset parents.

We had to get a truck to unblock the drains. Sarah's dad's workmate used a sucking machine from the jet truck to unblock the drain. Then the water disappeared into the drain and cleared the court. Now he just has to sweep the leftover twigs and rocks off the court. He's going to have to be careful to put the rubbish into the bin or onto the ground or the drain will get blocked again!

It's not just St Francis Xavier school that had gigantic rain problems. In Titahi Bay there were heaps of cars floating on the flooded road. In other places in the North and South islands kids are sweeping the water, rocks and mud from around their houses instead of going to school today. Remember to watch the 6 o'clock news on TV, listen to the radio, check out internet (NZ Weather) or TVNZ http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news to get more information.

My Greatest Feat

We're wearing our pedometers to see who'se the fittest person around our school!! My Greatest feat is a challenge to walk to the Rustburg stadium in South Africa. We are trying to walk the length of New Zealand and we'll be tracking our progress on a map of South Africa. The All Whites are soccer players and they'll be playing for New Zealand at the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Watch our progress by clicking the link to the MY GREATEST FEAT website!

Celebrating Catholic Schools Day

On a really rainy, wet day Rooms 4 and 7 went to a really flash school called St Brigid's to celebrate Catholic Schools Day. Our day there was spectacular and awesome: we took part in a Connect 4 championship, a smashing, splashing game of soccer and an awesome liturgy with worship songs, a pretty school candle and Bishop John.

How to Make Your Way Around Our Future School.

A few weeks ago we built a road....and this afternoon we built a school of the future! We thought we would need: floating chairs, robots for each student, personal go carts, jet packs floating desks, a cafe, vege garden sky scraper elevators, squash court, video game room, fishing hole repair room, chocolate swimming pool, engineering room, cooking room....and so much more!

We planned, designed and built our model school and pot bear people inside. Then we wrote directions for how to find your way around our school of the future!

What do YOU thing would be in a school of the 22nd century?