Abseiling - Berwick Camp - Elliot Cottle

We’d just finished archery, and we were all nervous, yet excited about doing abseiling. We started at a small spot below the abseiling course. We were told what to do, and we put on our harnesses, with a little assistance from the adults. It was a small but steep walk up to the top of the short cliff.

When asked who wanted to go first, the others acted a little nervous, however, I stuck my hand right up, followed by the others. The adventure masters man began pulling the rope back to the top He told me to put the rope in a pile on the ground. He attached the harness to it, and finally, I was off. I started on a long, wooden bumpy slope which was very steep. The man told me to let go of the rope with my right hand to go down faster, and that I had to sit down and keep my legs straight. As I stepped on to the rock wall, he told me to move to the left. A short while longer, I was on the ground.

We all had the option to have another go. I zoomed down the wall the second time round, almost halving my previous record. Before we knew it, it was time to move onto the next activity.

THE CONFIDENCE COURSE Berwick Camp - byOlivia Gold

Time flied by as I conquered the confidence course, over, under and through obstacles I went.

As Anna and I began at the starting point, I quickly started to enjoy myself. Balancing over the rails then restlessly climbing my way up the staggered tyres, then I made way along two wires a fair width apart. Next I clambered along two wires, criss-cross with each other. This took some time as the wire lowered, lower and lower until you gave yourself a wire burn on the underside of your legs. After I balanced over a long wire with a rope to hold your weight. I then swung from tyre to tyre nearly falling off, along some wire then some more wire, then a couple of logs which you had to walk across but the catch was that they were not stable. Up a tunnel of tyres which dripped water as you eventually clambered up them, over high moving steps which became slippery after a while. You then came across a log high above the ground that you had to balance across. Next came some bars that became quite slippery after a while, then you had to make your way over another long line of wire, I then casually made my way up some wooden stairs across another long line of wire then I made my way down a knotted rope which kind of gave me a bit of a wedgy. Next up the “NUT CRACKER”

I swung across the nut cracker, hanging onto a very fat rope, hoping not to let go. I landed on the net gripping with all my might I then swung the rope back to the next person in line to conquer the nut cracker. I then journeyed my way up the rope wall over the fat log. I then army rolled my way over the top net trying not to stare down, down, down to ground. After I then made my way down a wall of tyres that jiggled when you clambered down them. Next I balanced over wooden planks that were in the shape of an “X”. I then ran to the next obstacle, climbing up a wooden ladder that I found quite slippery, through a rope net that squeezed you up tightly, it helped if you knew how to perform breast stroke! I then walked across wooden stools, balanced over another wooden plank, across another line of wire and another then up a wooden pole that lead to a high line of wire, I walked slowly across the fine line of wire and finally down a large, fat, fireman’s pole.

We then all finished with heaps of burns, cuts and bruises but with smiles on our faces ready for a new start tomorrow.

Week 5 Term 2

Well there are still a few tired looking faces this morning after our busy week at Berwick Camp last week. It was a fantastic week that had everyone involved in a range of activities and adventures. I am sure there will be many lasting memories and stories from this camp. This week in the class we are working on many follow up tasks from camp. Please check back here soon for some photos and stories of our time at camp!! There are still a few pieces of lost property here at school left over from camp, so if you are still missing some gear have a look here in the classroom. Once again thank you to all of those who were able to help out wiht our camp.

How to Get to Berwick

http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Chapman+Street,+Wakari,+Otago&daddr=berwick+forest&geocode=FSBGRP0d73spCilRgp9bhKsuqDFcaOOAJHN5Ew%3BFWCzQv0d_kEjCinlwhDIgxYsqDFAZnmEhu8ABQ&hl=en&mra=ls&sll=-45.873398,170.495281&sspn=0.026951,0.055189&ie=UTF8&ll=-45.950672,170.255127&spn=0.215312,0.441513&z=11&layer=c&pw=2

Mega Math Month Improvements...

Well we are continuing to show improvements in our Mega Math Testing. Last Friday our class average was 85.8% and Today our average was 86.1 - a small improvement but still improvement! Our final Friday test will be next week at camp, so that may bring some challenges to students after a busy few days of action before this!!

Week 3 Term 2 Assembly Award - Olivia

Well done to Olivia for receiving this weeks assembly award. received for a Super effort and focus on her Science Fair. Super progress here Olivia!

Assembly Award Week 2 Term 2

Well Done Jaydon, your efforts and attitude in the classroom over the last 2 weeks has been great. A super affort with things despite having the annoyance of a broken arm!

Maggi Kitchen Show Down

Well I was treated to a pretty tasty lunch on Friday when Sam and his group for the Maggi Schools Kitchen Show down gave me a taste test of their creation. The recipe has been designed by Sam and has been prepared and cooked by him and his team. It consisted of Lamb Coftas, Pumpkin Croquettes and a tasty salad. A supr treat, I'll be keen to give any more feed back on their creation int eh coming weeks and think they will do well in this competition. They are now one of the 30 chosen teams to continue in the competition, you can follow the link here http://erinsimpson.tv/2011/?page_id=833 to read more about the competition. Good Luck Team Balmac! Mr Sloan.

Science and Technology Fair 2011

It seems that everyone is making some great efforts in selecting an idea and devising some sort of question/inquiry or invention to carry their work out on for Science Fair. We have been having some great discussions in class and it is great to see so many students motivated to get stuck into their work on this. Remember that there is plenty of time to complete this as long as people stick to the time line we are working to for the steps here at school. If any one is reall ystucka dn struggling to get things going we can discuss and help them with ideas.

Berwick Camp - Consent & Health Profile Sheets

Please find copies of the Camp Consent and Health Profile sheets available for downloading on the right hand bar of this page. It is very inportant that these are completed and returned to school asap. There have been hard copies sent home in bags today (Friday 6th May)so check the bags!!

Mega May Math Multiplication Month....Marvellous Movements!!!!

A Fantastic start to our Maths Multiplication Focus. Our baseline testing on Monday had the class showing an average of 71 for the 100 times tables. With some focused work on these tables and a bit more of a brain wake up from holidays our class average score for today was 82!!! A fantastic result, the challenge is to be able to continue to show improvements over the coming weeks so keep working hard!!

Some Science Fair Projects from the past...

Here are some previous science fair projects that have caught my eye, take a look at the topics and presentation of these, it may help spark some inspiration for your work this term!!...

Week 11 Term 1 Award - Aaron

Well done Aaron for receiving the assembly award this week. A Fantastic effort put into your Sea Creature Creation!!

Term 1 Wrap

Well Term 1 has flown by! We have had lots of interesting things going on here and students have worked well on all tasks and challenges set to them. It has been great to see so many students getting involved in sports teams, music lessons, writing extension and other extra opportunities here at Balmacewen. I have enjoyed seeing the very creative pieces of work relating to our recent Sea Creature Creations and Octopus Homes. Term 2 will be another busy one....with 2 of our key events listed here...

Our Class Camp to Berwick in Week 4 (23rd-27th May). If you haven't received the notice that was sent home the other day with some introductory information and a slip looking for helpers - check the bottom of school bags over the holidays for remains of this notice and other notices, or alternatively you can view copies here on the blog.

Science Fair.....for many these two words will bring on some stress from the memory of the year 7 Science Fair!! Last year there were some great pieces of work for Year 7 Science Fair. This year students will be building on skills they have developed and learnt from last year's work. Over the holidays is a good time to have a think about ideas that may be of interest for students to use for their science fair work. The hardest part of the Science fair is finding an idea to investigate and use for their work. I will be giving guidance and support especially in terms of organisation and time management throughout the term to ensure everyone is on track and doesn't end up running out of time/doing an all weekend effort the week before things are due! - More info on Science Fair early next term.

I hope all students are able to enjoy some time out over the break and come back recharged for a successful Term 2.

Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to the successes of the class programme this term. I have appreciated the help that has been given on class trips this term and look forward to working with you and your Son/Daughter all again in Term 2.

Cheers

Andrew Sloan

Anna Lindsay - Southland Exchange-Water Polo Wednesday 13th April

I jumped out of the van filled with a mixture of excitement and nerves. This was it, the big game, the game we lost last year 16-0, this time round it was different, we were going to win.

We did a big Balmacewen cheer before going through the doors. We were going to just walk straight through the doors but the lady at reception stopped us and made us say hello. Some of the girls were already changed but I wasn’t so I quickly got changed and raced up the stairs. The game was due to start at 11.00am but it was only 10.30am so we had plenty of time to warm up.

Seeing as we were the first ones there we had to set everything up, we got the goals from outside and put them in the water and then we got the scoreboard out and set that up. By then it was about 10.45am so we did a bit of a stretch and then swam some lengths of the dive pool to warm up. Ben and Michael (our coaches) arrived and they took us through some drills, like shooting, passing, catching and attacking (stealing the ball off them).

Our opponents had arrived and they were doing their warm up. We got out of the pool and got ready. Caps done up tightly, (and we were also wearing two pairs of togs as they are really rough and normally pull your togs down). We had a little pep talk and then the first seven got into position. Brianna was swimming off and I was beside her as we are two of the fastest in the first seven.

The whistle blew and we were off. They were good, really good; they gave us a bit of a run for our money. The game went so fast, it felt like it was over so quickly. But as they called the final whistle boy can I tell you what an amazing feeling it was. We had won, we did it. We were all so excited, we were screaming and everything. The final score was 7-3 to us. It was so exciting. We jumped out of the pool to do our cheer, Maddie called as she has the loudest voice ever. After that we lined up and shook hands with them.

The boys were already in the water warming up so we got our towels and went up to sit on the diving boards. We watched and screamed encouragement to the boys who actually didn’t need it as they were winning by a long shot. Their total score was 13-0.

We all went and got changed and on the ride back to school we were thinking how proud we were of everyone and how good we have gotten since last year and how happy we were to have beaten those red shoed southlanders.

By Anna Lindsay.

Room 13 Class Sasa Video

Earlier this term we put together and performed our class Sasa. Below is a video of our performance.

Sea Creatures

Below are some snapshots of a few of the great "Sea Creature" and "Octopus Home" homework project creations we have had presented to the class this week - Some great efforts and creativity shown in the work produced.

Berwick Camp Newsletter 1 2011

Please find below a copy of the notice that has been sent home wiht camp dates and costs for 2011. If you are able to assist with our camp in any way please let me know asap so I can add you into the mix when planning activities. A parent helpers document is able to be downloaded on the menu to the right of this posting.
Newsletter 1 Camp 2011

Video Year 8 Group Sasa

Tomorrow, When the War Began - John Marsden

Click Here to hear the interview with the author of Tomorrow, When the War Began - John Marsden

The above link is an audio interview with the Author of our class novel - he talks a bit about the style of his writing for young people and why he has written the book the way he has.

Week 9 Assembly Award - Reuben

Well Done Reuben! You were the recipient of this weeks assembly award, received for "A good display of time management and organisation skills"
Well Done!

Design a Home for an Octopus...

It is great to see ideas flowing and the creativity of many students. Your "Home for an Octopus" needs to be well designed to care for and contain your Octopus. remember you will need to explain all the detail and logic behind your design and model. All Octopus Homes are due to be presented on Friday 1st April.

Week 7 Assembly Award - Ngaru

Well done Ngaru for receiving this weeks award in Assembly. Your certificate was awarded for a fantastic effort with your writing unit and for consistently showing and using good manners in the classroom. Great Stuff!

Portobello Aquarium Trip Photos

Balmacewen Swimming Sports Results

Well done to everyone who competed in the school swimming sports today. It was great to see so many people giving ti their best and supporting each other. from all of heats students qualified for the finals and room 13 had some students who were placed in their finals events - Aaron Roydhouse - 2nd 25m Backstroke Olivia Gold - 1st 50m freestyle, 1st 50m Breaststroke, 1st 50m Backstroke Anna Lindsay - 3rd 50m Freestyle, 4th 50m Breaststroke, 4th 50m Backstroke Final House Point results (everyone who swam earned points for their house, extra points awarded for places in events) 1st CHAPMAN - 739 2nd LYNN - 635 3rd HIGHGATE 555 4th SHETLAND 536

School Swimming Sports Friday 11th March

Remember to pack a good lunch and make your way directly to the pool on Friday morning. You will need to be outside the pool at 8.45am to get your name checked off and ready to race!

Week 5 Assembly Award - Abby

A great role model - showing manners and a great attitude and effort in all learning gained Abbey recognition at this weeks Assmebly, well done keep it up!

WAVES - Magazine Cover - James Nind

Red and Black Mufti Day - Friday 4th - $$ for Canterbury Earthquake Appeal

Remember to come along in all of your red and balck gear tomorrow for our school mufti day to help raise some funds for the CHCH Earthquake Appeal Fund

Art Gallery Trip

Below are a few pics from our trip to the Art Gallery this morning. We worked with John the Art teacher there to create some images of life under the sea. As well as the creating we were given a little tour around to get us inspired and thinking about the messages in different works of art.

Little Red Riding Hood and the Shark! - Shaan Kumar

Once upon a time there was a girl named little red riding hood because her grandmother had once knitted her a little red coat that she adored so much that she wore it every day and night. Unfortunately red’s grandmother had fallen into the deep dark ocean just a day ago. No one knew where she was and if she had survived because after all, she always carried an oxygen tank with her that would last about 5 days!
“Red!” Reds mother yelled out “I need you to go look for grandma”
Red was also really good with swimming. Sometimes she was called aqua red instead of red. “Ok ma” Little red riding hood said as she started skipping of towards the ocean.

Reds mother was just about to tell her to not talk to any strangers but then she stopped herself. Who would she meet in the middle of the ocean anyway?

So ,little red stet of on her journey and headed out to the ocean on a very little row boat and only carried 4 things, 2 oars, scuba gear and a oxygen pump for when she had to jump into the ocean. After about 5 minutes red decide to jump into the water to look for grandma and with a splash, she was in the ocean. Suddenly it struck her ‘if I find grandma I’m going to need to give her something’ Just then she saw a shark coming towards her! Not knowing what a shark was she kindly greeted him with a “hello”
Seeing that red was not afraid the shark was stunned.
“Excuse me but do you know if there is anything here I can get for my grandma?” Red asked. “You’re grandma? Where does she live?” The shark answered seizing the opportunity for tasty meal. “She swam around these part’s, probably making a house of rock because she was good at that” red answered. “Look there are some dutiful coral leaves in the corner over there that I am sure you’re grandma will love!” The shark said. Red looked absolutely delighted and swam over to the coral leaves and tucked them under her shoulder. Red turned around and saw a house made of rock! She had found her grandma! She knocked on the door. “Come in dear” Said a rough voice as she walked inside. “Oh what a strange voice you have” “Just my voice box going old dear” “Oh what sharp teeth you have” “just all the rocks I’ve had to eat” “Oh what strange hair you have” “The sea make’s me bald darling” and with that little red riding hood kicked him as hard as she could and raced over to the cupboard where grandma was tied up in and grabbed both of them and bring them up to the tiny row boat. Since the shark was not in the water it suffocated and died. Red had saved herself and her grandma plus they had a delicious meal that night, Shark!

Week 4 Assembly Award - Cody

Great stuff Cody! - your certificate awarded for some fantastic efforts with your creative writing along with displaying a top attitude towards everything here at Balmacewen.

Kiwi Golf Lesson Photos

Olivia - NZ Junior National Swimming Champs

Last Friday I traveled to Wellington. I was swimming in the Junior Nationals. At this meet I swam in 100m Freestyle, 50m Freestyle, 50m Butterfly, 50m Backstroke and represented Otago in a relay team. My best individual placing was my 50m Freestyle race. I came 12th in New Zealand! and did a new PB of 30:65 for this event. My relay team came 5th in New Zealand which was great. I enjoyed this meet very much and went there for an experience and came back with exactly that.
Written by Olivia

Balmacewen Powhiri Photos

Balmacewen Powhiri 2011 By Cody and Ngaru

On the 13th Of February Balmacewen Intermediate gathered in the school hall for the Powhiri.
Powhiri means welcoming the year 7 students and any new staff into the school of Balmacewen, this is done by the year 8s. There was a haka to welcome the year 7s into the hall.
After the haka Mr Hunter the Principal did a speech to the school and then a year 8 and a year 7 spoke to everyone. After the speech the year 8s sang a waiata to the year 7s then the year 7s sang back to the year 8’s.Then we ended with a hongi and some Kai sharing which was some biscuits. We had then successfully welcomed the year 7 students into our school and we are now one big school community.

Written by Ngaru and Cody.

House Captains and Group Leaders for 2011

Well today after the school powhiri all 4 House Groups met and chose their Captains as wel as sub-group leaders for 2011. All candidates had to prepare a small speech to present on why they should be chosen to lead their house. After Student voting and teacher deliberation the leaders were announced. It was great to see so many Room 13 students stepping up and going for the leadership roles. After all the decisions were made, Room 13 ended up with 7 students in leadership roles!!
Lynn House Captain - Aaron Roydhouse
Lynn Group Leaders - Sam Kilsby, Anna Lindsay & Emma Ward

Chapman House Captain - Maddison Crawford
Chapman Group Leader - Olivia Gold

Highgate House Captain - Abby Hubbard

Surf Life Saving Competiton - By Maddison Crawford

Last weekend at Warrington beach I competed in the "Southern Regions Ocean Athletes". This is a surf life saving competition for all the surf clubs in the South Island. This event is held over two days. On the first day all the individual events are held and on day two are all the team events. Saturday was a good day as I got placings in all my events.Sunday was also good but the weather did not hold out and the sea turned rough. That still did not stop me!!! My next event was run swim run, as I came out of the water I could here the girl's breath behind me and could see every one screaming at me to run.With every thing I had left I sprinted down the finish line and came first. Next up was the board relay I was the last Board paddler and as I ran out of the water my team was first.Just to top that at the end of the day the St Clair Club (my club)won the event. Next Wednesday I go to the National Surf Lifesaving Champs in Mt Manganui. It will be tough competition but will do my best and hopefully come home with some medals!!!

Mufti Day - Wednesday 16th Feb!

Remember Mufti Day tomorrow, we are raising funds for the Cancer Society as part of this weekends Relay for life. $2 if you want to come in mufti tomorrow!

Mathletics

At last week’s Meet the Teacher night we outlined the web based mathletics programme that we would like to sign our students onto for this year. Some classes trialled this programme last year including Lisa Shea and myself and the benefit of this to our students was huge with great improvements shown by the students throughout the year. I strongly recommend signing your child onto this programme. As parents we are always looking for ways we can support our child’s learning.

What is it?

A web based online programme that your child and you can access at any time. The students have their own unique log in and password and parents can also register to monitor their child’s progress.

They would be using this to reinforce concepts covered in class as the teacher can set activities to complement the classroom programme. They would be using it as part of their maths rotation over a typical week in class. It provides instant feedback, enjoyment of maths, plus online tutorials and ability to select activities to challenge or reinforce their learning. There is also a live online game where they can challenge other students from all over the world in the speed, accuracy and recall of their basic facts. This can also be set by teachers to match the level of the individual student.

To sign up as an individual it would cost you up to $100 for the year. We can sign our classes onto mathletics for $30.00 per student for the whole year.

You could visit the website to have a look www.mathletics.co.nz. Please return the slip that has come home wiht the notice (Monday 14th Feb)below to me at school. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me.

Assembly Award Week 2 - Will

Well done to Will for his efforts with the "Kid For Sale" advert!! A super effort here. Check out the advert posted here too.

Class Council

Our Class council representatives were selected today after telling students why they should be chosen. Well done to Aaron Roydhouse(captain) and Maddison Crawford(deputy) we look forward to your work in representing the student voice in the school this year.

Week 1 Assembly Award - James

Well done to James on a positive start to life here at Balmacewen Intermediate, you are blending into Balmac life nicely.... your award for...A positive approach to joining year 8 here at Balmac, a great attitude!!
great stuff.

Day 1 Term 1

Well day one has flown by and it has been great to meet everyone who is part of the room 13 team for the year. Your homework task for tomight is to respond to the letter I have written you. Tell me a bit about yourself, things you enjoy, things you find difficult and things you wan to achieve this year. Do you have any other talents we didn't find out about today? I look forward reading you letters and learning more about you and helping you achieve your goals throughout the year. Your letters are due to me on Thursday morning, thanks.