Bastille Day Fun and crepes for lunch too.

We had chefs, fashion models and designers, cyclists, mime artists, artists, onion sellers and French colours. It was the best day!!!

Mr. Osmond served us Champagne (The non alcoholic variety) DELICIOUS !!

Our Fun French Assembly

We had a fun assembly and we danced to La Marseillaise.

Mr. Osmond has ridden on the Tour La France circuit. He rides his bike a lot and is really enthusiastic about  cycling. He wore his French cycling clothes.

Arriving at School on Bastille Day

Bastille Day was so much fun. We all dressed up in French style clothes and brought French food to school to share.

Another piece of writing from Georgina who is 8 years old and loves writing.

1998 Queenstown Earthquake Nightmare!

The 1998 Queenstown Earthquake was a tragedy. Millions of  people died. I was lucky to survive. It was so long ago but the memory plays vividly in my mind.

I was in school when it happened, as I was only seven. We were doing Maths and I was nearly  dying of boredom. I was drifting off to sleep when I felt the earth shift and I heard the windows smash. I realised it was an earthquake which meant the tectonic plates were moving. My classmate screamed beside me as glass spiked her. But I wasn’t listening. I was thinking about my mother. She died in an earthquake, and now I will die the same way. I felt a feeling that I have never felt before. Fear.

 “Get under the desks!”  My teacher yelled, “because the roof is falling.” Everyone scrambled for their desks but I couldn’t move. I was paralysed with fear. I heard my teacher calling , then I heard the roof creak, and strain to stay on top of the school, it was a  battle between the roof and the earthquake but, finally the roof  surrendered and fell on top of me. It felt like I was in a really fast jet boat in the water and I fell out and broke my back. A bit like that. But 1000 times worse. I winced with pain. I tried to get out but my feet were trapped by an iron beam.

At last, the earth sighed  and the earthquake stopped, and then it was silent. Hmmmmmmmmm. The sound of  a  electric drill filled the air. Hmmmmmmmmm. It sounded like people were searching for survivors in the school!  “ Survivor!!” Someone yelled. “Hang on kid, we’re coming!’ A painful hour later they found me but they couldn’t get me out because I was trapped by a iron beam, not a wooden one.

 

When all hope was lost a man came up with an amazingly genius idea! “Let’s slip her shoe off!”

“Brilliant”

“Fantastic”

“Genius”

They slipped my shoe off and I was free! I was so happy until I came out of the school. Rubble and corrugated iron was all over the place and  lifeless bodies lay on the concrete. A man came up to me and said he would walk with me to another town. I was glad he offered and I gratefully excepted. We walked to Dunedin and now I still live there and I am 50 years old. I feel like I will live forever.

Georgina

Rebekah was student of the Week

       Visiting South Beach

On Wednesday the 8th of June, Fordell school travelled to sandy South Beach to collect pumice.

 First we got out of the cars to the opening of South Beach. The waves were crashing down and the sand was blowing across the beach.

I took ten steps and then finally I found some pumice laying all alone in the sand half buried. I picked it up and started to find more pumice. Soon my bag was full with pumice. The bag nearly ripped because it was as heavy as a junk food eater elephant and I was really struggling to carry it, so I put it down.

Later Tineisha and I wondered around South Beach and decided to play tag. It was very fun playing tag but I nearly stepped on a sharp and pointy stick facing upwards and it would have hurt.

After we ate morning tea. I ate crackers, pretzels and a nut bar. They were yummy like chocolate cake.

After I ate my morning tea, Tineisha and I went searching for unusual looking shells. Some of the shells sparkled in the sun and some looked like one thousand years old. After collecting the shells Tineisha and I set them out on the sand dunes. It was fun because it was like selling seashells from a shop.

Next it was time for me to do something else so I went over to where Georgina and Libby were. I wondered what they were doing ... They were sliding down the sand dunes!!! It looked like fun so I joined in and I had a great time with them even though we got sand up our undies.

 Later in the day it was time to go back to school and start to make the pumice towers.

I enjoyed the trip and I think Fordell school should have another trip to South Beach one day!!!

By Rebekah

Rebekah got student of the week for being commited to working. She works steadily all the time with excellent results. She listens and follows directions very well.

Best work of the week.

Olive did her maths work so neatly this week she got the pencil in assembly. She always uses a ruler well in her maths book and she devised a way of recording her Think Tank answers so it was easy to follow in marking time.

Poetry Readers of the week.

Christian and Georgina both read this week's poem fantastically. The poem got faster and faster and Georgina  did it perfectly. Christian read it so many times before the competition that we couldn't believe it was him reading it. Well done!!!

Kate's Illustrating

Kate is an illustrator for children's books. She also writes and illustrates her own books. She came to our school today to show us how she does observational drawing from photographs to start her ideas. She also showed us how many times she drew each picture as she developed her ideas and put her story boards together. Some pictures she draws 20 times !!!  This is before she begins painting.
We are using story boards to plan our writing so it was interesting to see how illustrations are put together in the same way.


Then we did observational drawing looking at the shapes and spaces people made in photographs.
We really enjoyed learning more about drawing from Kate. 

Observational Drawing with Kate

Kia Ora. This is Maori Language week and we are using every day greetings as best we can in Maori. 

Our language focus this term is French and we have done the Oui programme.

We can now count to ten in four languages. Do you know what languages they are?

Tahi  rua  toru  wha  rima  ono  whitu  waru  iwa  tekau

Un  deux  trios  quatre  cinq  six  sept  huit  neuf  dix

Uno  dose  tress  cuatro  cinco  seis  siete  ocho  nueve  diez

One t wo  three  four  five  six  seven  eight  nine  ten

Best Work of the week.

Georgina has the neatest work for this week. Her homework is done with pride and her book is very neat. She has got a pencil in assembly today for being Studio Two's neatest worker and taking pride in presentation. The pencil says 'Principal's Award' on it and we are graphing who gets one so we can keep track of who takes pride in their presentation.

Georgina is also our student of the week for displaying one of our values: Compassion. She is very kind and invites others to work with her when they haven't got a buddy.

Libby's Homework.

Libby is only 8 and in year 4 and she knows nearly all the basic facts. She practises every night and always does her homework neatly. She is also a thoughtful worker in class. Her Mum wrote in Libby's homework book, "I am very pleased with Libby's math! She flew through basic facts practise tonight! So proud Libby!" That makes us all feel good.

Well done Libby. She was also the most expressive, fluent poetry reader this week.