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Wakaaranga School

The senior school cross country
The senior school cross country will be run on Monday 6 September at 11 o'clock if it is fine.
If it is raining we will hold it on the first fine day.

Shanshan scores a win at the Mandarin speech contest

Shanshan Jin, represented Wakaaranga School at the mandarin speech competition held at St Marks School on Wednesday night. Her speech �The night to survive� won the competition. Our congratulations go to Shanshan and to St Marks for organizing the final.

Mary Dawson, principal for a day

COMET, the education arm of the Manukau City Council, runs a scheme where business people can be a principal for a day in a school. Mary Dawson, executive director of the Auckland Regional Migrant Services Trust, was our principal for a day last Wednesday.

. Here�s what she had to say about the experience.

Thank you for an excellent PFAD opportunity. I hugely enjoyed being in your school for the day, and felt really uplifted to experience for myself such a great environment that obviously works for both children and teachers. Having the benefit of your time, energy and knowledge, hearing about the principles that guide Wakaaranga and getting some idea of the school�s curriculum was a real bonus for me � they being so fundamental to all round quality and achievement.�

Mary Dawson

Year 4 rocket through the Solar System

On Tuesday 31 August, the Year 4 team travelled to the Stardome to learn about the Solar System. It was a fascinating day. We sat in reclining seats and looked up into a huge dome. They took us on a journey past each planet in a space rocket. We learnt many things about our Solar System. Following that, we were treated to a peep at the current night sky over Auckland. It was amazing! Did you know that the prominent constellation in our night sky at the moment is Scorpios?

Our choir sings out

The school choir sang beautifully at the Farm Cove Choir Festival on Wednesday and Thursday night last week. Mrs Megan Clotworthy was the conductor. The choir sang a medley of popular songs.

Teacher shows off his talent

Today Year 0 and 1 enjoyed a wonderful surprise. A clown performed some magic tricks and conveyed the important message of being kind to everyone. Here is a report of the event written by Room 3A student, Guang Hao Fan.

A Big Surprise

Today Mrs Govender had a big surprise for us. So we went to the hall and saw Mr Ackerman dressed up as a clown. The first trick was the handkerchief trick. He had a small magic wand. The second trick was a very funny trick. It was a hat trick. One student went up on stage to Mr Clown and he put a magic hat on the boy's head. The hat was green and when Mr Clown said "one, two, three" we screamed "Abracadabra!" When the hat was red, it didn't fall off. Isn't that magic? For the third trick the clown juggled the balls. He juggled three balls. We were very lucky to have a surprise.

Year One students collect money to save the rhinos

Over the last few weeks, Alexandra Early has been collecting money to help save the rhinos in South Africa. The students in Years 1-3 have been bringing their pocket money, their tooth fairy money, their birthday and Christmas money to put in the rhino tin. Today we took off the lid and tipped all the money onto the table. We sorted the money into sets- 50 cent, $1, $2 and paper money sets. Mrs Early took it home to count. We raised $167.40!

Native Tree Planting at Wakaaranga Creek

On Thursday 26 August, 2010, Room 6d and Vlad from Mrs Martin's class went to Wakaaranga Creek to plant trees with some students from Pigeon Mountain School. We learnt many things about planting trees and we planted a lot of trees. We planted the trees because we want to stop the mud from the bank entering the water, and to have a brighter future.

Robyn and Michelle taught us how to plant trees and helped us when we were stuck. We had to plant trees with a partner and I was with Becky. We had turns at digging and planting to make it fair. Our team planted about 10 to 15 trees in total. We had a lot of fun and we got very muddy and wet. All our shoes were covered in mud so they were pretty hard to dry afterwards!
Elly Kang

Year One delve back into the past at the Howick Historical Village

The Year 1 children and teachers went back 160 years in time to learn about life in early New Zealand. The students toured the village viewing cottages, water pumps, toys, tents, wagons, tools and machines of long ago. They experienced outdoor games and parlor games played by children in the past.

It was an exciting experience for them to be taught by a very strict teacher in the old school room. They were subjected to a nail inspection and writing on slates. Making their own butter was a highlight of the day. The students thoroughly enjoyed the experience and returned reluctantly to the present. Thank you to all the parent helpers!

Our students have a whack at cricket

Jamie Lloyd from Auckland Cricket, in association with the Howick Pakuranga Cricket Club, engaged with our students by offering Milo Awareness Lessons this week. Students in Year 2, Year 3 and Year 4 took advantage of this great opportunity and enjoyed some great cricket related activities, rain or shine!

The Breakers help our team

Hayden Allen from the NZ Breakers joined in with the Wakaaranga school basketball teams this Thursday for their weekly practice. Hayden then took two senior classes in the afternoon on Thursday and Friday to help promote key basketball skills. This was a great opportunity to learn some basketball techniques from a professional basketball player!

Year One's assembly was wheely good

The Year Ones presented last Friday's assembly and everyone enjoyed a variety of items. There was a wheels theme and Mrs Morrison's and Mrs Dean's classes did a great dance to the Pushbike Song. Chitty, Chitty Bang Bang featured along with, I've got a car that's made of tin. The wheels items concluded with the song Daisy, Daisy and Bronte and Jehaan on a bicycle built for two.

A touch of humour helps win a speech competition

Vlad Muresan�s very funny speech about his baby sister proved to be a winner in the Y5&6 speech competition on Wednesday. Vlad will go forward to the area speech competition later this month.
Hannah Williams won the Y5 section and was only one point behind Vlad with her speech about how she hates to go to bed early. The, Judge, Mr Alistair Munro, said all the speeches in the competition were of a very high quality and it was very difficult separating them to find the winners.