Rippa Rugby

Life Education

Gymnastics

We are practising our gymnastics skills in PE at school at the moment. Our class are competing in a gym festival on Wednesday 30th May at the Rec Centre. There will be over 250 pupils competing at this event from our district. We need to be able to balance along a beam and perform a cross vault on the boxhorse as well perform floor routines. Here is Chloe and Josh showing off their skills in the hall during one of our practices.

By Zoe

RNZAF

The netball season has begun...

There are several members of Room 7 who are playing netball on a Saturday morning at the Rec Centre. They are playing in the Future Ferns competition and usually play between 10am and 12noon. Our teams are called the Mot South Stars and the Mot South shooters. The players are learning to spread out on the court and defend their partners closely. They are all very enthusiastic and are showing great sportsmanship skills on the court. Come down a watch if you get a chance...it is great to have supporters on the sidelines cheering us on!

photostory

Our new classroom

The builders have started renovating the new classroom. They have joined room 2 onto

it with a deck and corridor area.

Mrs Nicholls is hoping that it will be ready to move into soon!

Cinders' Shoes

We have been reading this poem in class and some of us have even learnt it off by heart...

Cinderella tripped and stumbled
Through the palace door
Perhaps that might have been because
Her feet were really sore

Glass shoes would pinch your toes and heels
And make your ankles hurt
Not only that, they wouldn't hide
A single trace of dirt

Though in the end she really had
More luck than both her sisters
Poor old Cinders must have had
Some big and painful blisters!

Jump Jam

This is us teaching the some other kids the new moves to Jump Jam in the hall. We were teaching them the Macarena dance on Friday, it was fun. On Fridays we have privilege where we get to have three choices of fun activities but only if you make good choices - you don't go to privilege if you make bad choices!

Sometimes we get to make pop corn it tastes GREAT! Other times we get to play dodgeball or soccer, we even bring our bikes and skateboards to school and ride them around the school as a treat.

By Jadine

Autumn is here...

In Autumn I see the colours, pretty leaves falling down my neck.

In Autumn I like having leaf fights.

I love to see the leaves shining in the sun.

We discovered what colours they turn into.

I like the colourful leaf carpets that your feet sink into.

Slowly the leaves fall on your head.
In Autumn I hear the leaves swishing and falling to the ground.

Our class went out to the oak tree in the playground and had an Autumn leaf fight at school -it was so much fun, some people ended up with bits of leaves all through their hair!

by Luke

End of term party!

On the last day of school we had a class party. We had lots of yummy food and drink. We played pass the parcel and musical chairs. Breeze won pass the parcel, she won an Easter egg, some pencils and a notebook. Miss Robinson gave us a balloon each and a funny hat to wear. We also had an Easter egg hunt with clues. We had to run around the school finding the clues that Miss Robinson hid. The eggs turned out to be in our desks!

Monarch Wings on Fire

Butterflies fly and caterpillars chew
Everyone sees them flashing out of
the sky
See it's bright colours in the sky
The caterpillars move so slowly
But butterfies fly a little bit faster
Their wings are so pretty in the big
blue sky
Your wings are on fire
I try to play with you but you just fly
higher

By Chloe G

A zoomin' life cycle

A sparkling butterfly
zooms past me with
It's beautiful colours
It flies past
Drinking nectar from flowers
It's such a shame that it dies
After it lays it's eggs
As little as can be
As you hatch from a tiny egg
You turn into a squirming
Caterpillar

By Corban

Butterfly Day

Yesterday the Middle Syndicate had a "Butterfly Day". Pupils dressed up in costumes and at 9am we watched a video about butterflies in the hall. We visited the elderly patients at the Commmunity Hospital. We joined together and had a shared lunch in Rm 6, there were lots of delicious cakes and biscuits in the shape of caterpillars, chrysalis and butterflies. Mrs Latimer read us a story called "Hurry and the Butterfly". We all had a fantastic day, thankyou to all the parents who helped to make this such a success.

Danyon Loader

On Friday March 23rd 2007 Luken and Miss Robinson went to the High School to see Danyon Loader who won two gold medals at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

Here is Luken getting Danyon's autograph signed on his schoolbag.

by Luken

Wise Owl

Room 3 and Room 7 walked down to the Motueka airfield on Tuesday where The Royal New Zealand Air Force have set up a camp. Sergeant Hopkins showed us around the camp and explained how the pilots train to do special formations in the air. It was a really interesting trip. We got to climb up inside the cockpit of one of the planes and pretended we were flying it!
Fireman Sam also demonstrated how they put out fires and showed us all the equipment on board the fire truck. Breeze was lucky enough to be chosen to ride in the front seat.

Marvellous Monarchs

Our class has been studying Monarch butterflies for science this term. We have some swan plants in our classroom and we have been watching the caterpillars transform into a chrysalis and then into a colourful butterfly. This monarch has only just hatched out from its chrysalis and is getting ready to fly.

Feet First

On Wednesday 7th March, approx 40 pupils from Motueka South School met at the Rec Centre at 8.30am. They formed a "walking school bus" and took part in the Feet First campaign. Lots of parents and teachers walked the pupils safely to school. Miss Robinson handed out balloons and spot prizes to children who were involved at the school gate. We are hoping to continue doing this each Wednesday morning until the end of the term.

District Swimming Sports

On Tuesday 6th March, the inter-school swimming sports were held at the High School Pool. 2 pupils from Room 7 competed in this competition. Luken raced in the butterfly, freestyle, backstroke, and breaststroke events. Shana Tova raced in the backstroke and freestyle events for her age group. They had a fantastic day out! We are very proud of them both.

Pheasant Catchers

This term we have been listening to "Danny - The Champion of the World". We each designed our own pheasant catcher in class. The next day we brought along the materials we needed to build it. Here we are busy constructing our 3-D pheasant catchers. Some pupils used nails, wood and skewers to create their design.

Musical Marvels!

This is Mrs Hudson. She comes into our class each Tuesday afternoon to teach us music and Maori. She plays the guitar and we sing lots of cool songs. Our favourite song at the moment is "We will rock you"!

We sometimes play musical instruments and practise rhythm and beat. We have been learning to greet other people in Maori and other languages such as Samoan. We always enjoy it when Mrs Hudson comes into our class.

Welcome Back to School!

It's the start of another school year. We have all had a wonderful holiday over the summer and we are now ready to get back into school routines and focus on our learning again.

We are lucky enough to have an American student teacher with us for 6 weeks this term. Her name is Kristin Brown and she is from Iowa.We are looking forward to working with her.




Puppet Show

We have already had a very busy start to the year. We have watched a puppet show called "Peter and the Wolf" which we all really enjoyed. The puppets were made of foam rubber which made them light and easy for the puppeteers to manipulate. We learnt a lot about the different musical instruments that were used for various characters.















David Beckham, watch out!
George Campbell came over from Nelson to do some soccer coaching with our class. He taught us lots of new skills and how co-ordinate both of our feet. It's amazing how many tricks he could do with the ball! He is going to visit our school every Wednesday for the next 3 weeks.
I think David Beckham and Ronaldo better be careful, we are a very talented bunch!

Up...up...and away!

Our new classroom arrived at the end of Week 1. We all went out and watched it being hauled into place with a huge crane. It will become Room 2 and Mrs Nicholls will be teaching in there once they have painted and refurbished it.

The classroom had to be lifted very carefully using thick steel cables and then placed gently on top of the foundations. It was nerve wracking to watch, we thought it might land in the swimming pool!

Class Sleepover!

On Friday 8th December we had a sleepover at school with Miss Robinson. We pitched some tents and we had tea together. After tea we had a water fight and we set up a water slide! It was heaps of fun. We played spotlight when it was dark enough and Miss Robinson read us a story before we went to bed. Some children also played soccer and rode their bikes all around the school. We had some parents who also stayed the night with us, some people kept them awake all night!!
In the morning we had breakfast in the staffroom and then some children gave each other special massages - it was very relaxing!!
Our parents picked us up at 10am on Saturday morning.

Constable Garland

On Friday 8th December, Emily's dad came to visit our class to speak to us about his job as a policeman. He has been a police officer for over 20 years! He works in Nelson as an educational officer, this means he goes to different schools to talk to children about the police and tries to educate the community. He said the most important thing you can learn is to get along with each other...this is so that you can make good choices as an adult and not get into any trouble with the law.

Dan Carter!

Miss Robinson was very excited to meet Dan Carter at the Richmond Mall on Tuesday 12th December. He was signing his book that he has just published and is touring around bookshops in New Zealand at the moment to promote it. He is Miss Robinson's hero...(because he is such a great rugby player of course!)
There were hundreds of people at the mall all queueing up to see him and they were all taking heaps of photos. He is one of the best rugby players in the world. He is also Hunter's cousin!

Tasman Store Fire!

Yesterday there was a fire at the Tasman Store and it burnt to the ground. We heard the sirens go past our school about 12.30pm. Luckily the fire didn't spread to the art gallery or the petrol tanks otherwise there would have been a huge explosion!
No one was hurt or killed in the fire but the owners will be very upset as they have lost everything. The police are investigating how the fire was caused.
We have been learning about "People who help us" in our community this term at school. The fire service do a wonderful job at helping people in our town. Firefighters have to be trained especially so they know what to do in a serious fire like this. What would we do without them?

Athletics Day

On Tuesday 14th November we travelled to Lower Moutere on the bus to attend the district athletics. We took part in lots of different events. Hunter came 3rd in the 8 year old boys competition. The relays were exciting to watch, our school was in the lead for ages but then we lost!

Push Play Day

On Friday 3rd November it was national Push Play Day all around New Zealand. We were invited to Goodman Park to take part in a hip-hop dance session. St Peter Chanel and Riwaka schools also came along. We all had such a cool time, the dancers were up on stage and we watched them perform and tried to dance like them.
Taylor, Jadine and Summer were lucky enough to get chosen to dance on stage with the Star Academy performers.
Here is a photo of Jadine on stage - nice moves Jadine!

Rabbit Island

On Tuesday 24th October our class went on a trip to the Aquatic Centre in Richmond. We travelled by car. When we got there, Lisa came and spoke to us about the safety rules for the pool. We all had such a fantastic time in the wave pool and in the heated pools. Some people tried to stand up on the surfboards. Even Miss Robinson went swimming with us!
For lunch, we drove out to Rabbit Island and had a picnic. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the beach. We had so many surprises along the way. We found stingrays and a shark washed up on the beach. Some people dug a hole and buried it in the sand and we even had a funeral for it!
Here is a photo of Lenny the thresher shark with some of the pupils from Room 7 - watch out Jonty, it might bite you!

Tennis Coaching

On Friday 20th October we had a tennis coach come to our school from Nelson. Her name was Vanessa and she helped us to develop our tennis skills and taught us some new games. We found out that tennis is a great game for improving our fitness as well developing our hand/eye co-ordination. We had lots of fun and learnt heaps of new things. Room 8 also had a coaching session with her. She is coming back in 2 weeks time to teach the seniors.
We are hoping some pupils might join a local tennis club now that they have seen how much fun it can be.......
Here are some photos of Vanessa and Room 7 pupils practising their skills.

Tree Walkers

On Thursday 12th October we had some visitors to our school. They have been walking school to school around the Motueka District spreading the word about the importance of trees and the need to plant as many as we can. They donated some native trees to our school which we planted next to Room 1. We sang songs and danced with them while they played musical instruments from around the world. Some of the people who spoke to us were from Belgium and one lady was from San Fransisco.

End of Term Party!

We celebrated the end of Term 3 with a class party. We took all our desks and chairs outside and set it up like a banquet table.
A friend of Miss Robinsons came to visit us, her name is Mrs H. She brought some GONK eggs along for us to eat, they were delicious!
We also played "pass the parcel" and Jadine won some gel pens. We played musical chairs and Hunter won that game.
We are hoping to have a "sleep over" at school at the end of Term 4 but we have to work hard and fill up our sticker charts first. We are going to try really hard to make good choices this term.

A tribute to Steve Irwin

Room 7 were very sad to hear that Steve Irwin was killed by a stingray last week.
We wrote about what he meant to us and why he was so special...

Our famous Wildlife Legend
Steve Irwin says "Holy heck what a beaut!"
He loved playing with animals but unfortunately he died from a bull ray barb. It went right through his heart. If it went in his leg he might still be alive. He made 46 documentaries about crocodiles. He is famous all around the world. His family is very sad and his daughter is going to be like him hopefully.
We will miss you!
By Russell


Steve died doing his favourite thing...going near dangerous animals. He got stung by a stingray, it went thorugh his chest and made a hole in his heart. Ouch!.Everybody is sad especially his family and friends.
By Sapphire

JELLYBEAN JUMBLE!

Last week we carried out an investigation for our statistics unit in maths. We wanted to find out how many jellybeans were in a packet and which colour was the most popular.
Each group had a packet of Jaybee Jellybeans. First we had to estimate how many we thought would be in the packet. Next we had work together as a group to sort the colours and then record the data onto a graph.
One packet had 115 jellybeans in it, others had less than 100. The most popular colours were yellow and blue. One packet had 25 yellow jellybeans!
The best part of this activity was getting to eat the jellybeans afterwards..yum yum!