Kapahaka road show

Last Friday Breens Intermediate and Harewood School visited Woodend School as part of their kapahaka road show.  Our senior kapahaka performed first and did us all very proud.  There were excellent examples of poi, haka and even tiaha.
Thank you Matua Travis for including us in your road show - it was a wonderful opportunity for us to experience kapahaka and see what we are capable of achieving.

Dance

This term we have been looking at Dance in other cultures.  We have been learning a range of dances eg line dancing, stomp, shuffling and slap dance.  We are all enjoying learning the dances and the children pick the moves up very easily.  It is great to see them developing their confidence and most even performed in front of the class -some even went solo!!  Check out some of the pictures below.

Be sure to come along to the final assembly and see us perform our slap dance!!

HANGI

On Friday 18th November Woodend School had their 2nd Hangi.  It was another awesome day with entertainment provided by the kapahaka groups, choir and the school band.  Big thank you to all those families who donated vegetables and meat - without your help these things simply couldn't happen.  Another HUGE thanks go to the Tiweka family for all of their hard work to make sure this event could happen.  Rm 15 were involved with digging the hole and setting up on the day.  See some photos below.  As you can see there is a very friendly and caring culture within our class as students played hand games waiting for their turn to dig.
The whole was just big enough to fit Rm 3 in!!

As you can see there were plenty of pumpkins to cut!!

Happy Holidays Rm 15!

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all having a good rest and enjoying your school holidays after an amazing time on camp.  I had such a great time and I am sure that you all did as well - I have many photos to show you all and will put some on the blog soon.

Enjoy the last few days of holidays and I look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday ready for an exciting last term!

Mrs Siave :)

Woodend School Fair

Wow - what a day.  Thanks to everyone who came along and supported our school at the fair.  It was a fantastic day with so much to do, see and eat!  There is a huge effort from PTA, parents, teachers and students to make this happen - thanks to everyone who was involved!  We had a great day.

Special thanks to all those who supported Matai syndicate and purchased a paper brick.  If anyone would like to place an order come in and see us - we are pro's at making them!

POLICE DOGS COME TO WOODEND!

Last Wednesday Miss Webb organised several police dog handlers and their dogs to come along and show is what they do.

There were 2 working police dogs, one dog in training and a drug dog.

It was absolutely amazing to watch how the dogs responded to their handlers and obeyed their every command.  We were lucky enough to see them in action, when they attacked a "criminal" on the rec.  Mr Barber was very brave and gave it a go - although he was not keen to run away and let the dogs chase him!

After the demonstration everyone was able to meet the dogs and their handlers, ask questions and give the dogs a pat.

It was a great day and well worthwhile as now there are several children in Rm 15 who have chosen their career paths and now want to be dog handlers!

Thanks Miss Webb for organising this great day :)

Go Emily! 

Go Mr Barber - run!

Tongan Visitors

On Wednesday a Tongan Church group visited Woodend School.  We had a special assembly where our kapahaka group performed for the very first time.  We sang our national anthem and talked to them about the New Zealand flag.  The group were amazing singers and proudly sung their anthem and talked about Tonga.  They also performed a haka as well as a traditional song and dance.  It was a wonderful opportunity to learn about another culture and to hear how things differ in Tonga.

Because we couldn't have any Rugby World Cup games in ChCh we had our very own game involving buckets and a rugby ball.  Some students were chosen to play the game and represent Woodend - New Zealand.  Unfortunately we didn't win that game but fingers crossed the All Blacks can!!

Thanks Rod for organising this very memorable day.

CAMP 2011

On Thursday Mr Skekleton, Miss Webb and myself visited Living Springs ahead of our camp on 5-7 October.  I took a couple of pictures to give you a sneak preview of whats in store for you.  It looks amazing and I am sure we are all going to have a wonderful time!!