Bamboozables

What are Bamboozables you ask? Bamboozables are a saying/phrase that is made up of a display of words, in an interesting way. The object is to figure out the meaning of the puzzle. here is an example:

Answers:
1. think twice about it
2. walk on water
3. space invaders
4. free your mind
5. keep on smiling
6. it doesn't add up

Click here to go to the Bamboozables web page!

By Jacob

Interschools

On Thursday the 21st of May, children all over Mapua woke up with either a feeling of dread or excitement. Interschools day! After a about 40 minutes in their classroom with their stomachs in a knot of nerves, they headed down to the big tree for a quick briefing before hopping into their cars and driving down to Rabbit Island picnic area. Everyone rushed over to walk the course before their race and came back even more nervous than before. When it came to a new race, a flood of children rushed over to the start line, being careful not to get their spikes stuck in rope. Ready, steady, GO! The children surged forward, running hard for the lead.


ROOM EIGHTS CROSS COUNTRY WINNERS.
There was only one Year 5 girl from Room 8 in the Year 5 girls race: Cassie, who came 11th the Year 5 boys, Charlie and Liam came in at 6th and 7th with Bo and Luca not far behind. Kaze placed 8th in the Year 6 boys and Macy placed 10th in the Year 6 girls.

The people that got through to the next round are very excited and are training as often as they can. Even if you didn't get through to the next round, everyone tried their best and had lots of fun climbing the steep banks, sprinting down the other side and jogging through the grass.

by Macy Morgan

Funny Faces

If you had walked into Room 8 while we were drawing cartoons, you would hear laughter and see 23 smiling faces. After quickly arranging ourselves into our art table groups, we got to work practicing drawing cartoon eyes, noses, mouths and ears. Once we had perfected our techniques we grabbed a piece of good paper and lightly drew our faces on the paper in pencil before going over our designs in sharpie or vivid. Finally, the fun part! Using a straw and coloured dye we blew our choice of colour onto our piece of paper to make hair or a beard on our drawings. Carefully we carried them to a safe place to dry before they were put up on the window, where we can see them every day when we come into our colourful classroom.

By Macy Morgan

DEAR, DEAW, DEAD

In room 8, after morning tea, we have been doing something called 'DEAR DEAW OR DEAD'. This is an activity that we have to participate in. 'DEA' means Drop Everything And. Then 'R' 'W' 'D' means Read, Write and Draw.

 Some people do quick, simple drawings while others go into detail. Some people write short stories, while others spread the story over many days. Some people read short books, while others read long novels.

We all enjoy this amazing activity!

By Jacob

Stuff That People Do At Lunchtime

At lunchtimes, Room 8, and the rest of the school, are busy doing all sorts of interesting things;
- playing ball-tag, cheat and other playground games,
- manhunt, tag and other whole school games,
- playing fun mini games with juniors and middles in the sandpit,
- doing lunchtime activities like Kapahaka, Ukelele and Library duties,
- or walking aimlessly around with friends

We have been doing some pretty cool stuff at lunchtimes!

By Jacob

Spelling to the MAX!

In Room 8 we have been working on the 'C', 'K' and 'CK' sounds in spelling. Here are some of our rules!

-use 'CK' after a short vowel: back, peck, thick, sock
-use 'K' after a consonant letter, long vowel or vowel pair: park, peek, cake
-if we use a 'K' we use 'I' or 'E' after it: kit, kill, ken
-if we use a 'C' we use 'A' 'O' or 'U' after it: cat, core, cut ( sometimes those last two rules don't apply but we haven't learnt about those. )

We use dictionaries to find 'C' 'K' and 'CK' words. We then use the words we've found and spell them. Hope you enjoyed reading about our spelling.

For our writing we have been writing ANZAC diaries by soldiers, or nurses, in The Gallipoli Campaign. We have been writing primarily about life in the trenches and battlefields. Some people chose to write about blood and gore, while others wrote about the hospitals This was mainly those writing as nurses. Some soldiers chose to opt out of the battle for a seemingly quieter life on beds in hospital tents with walls that blocked out the sound of deafening explosions and blood curdling screams of the battlefield.

These are some entries from various authors:

28th April 1915
It has been pouring with rain. We have been busy all night putting triage tags on wounded soldiers. We saved the red tagged soldiers immediately, but those with black tags sadly passed away. There was no way to move with all the dead bodies lying around in the hospital tent.
entry by Lily Hendriksen

1st June 1915
I have been awarded a medal! But I have been shot in the leg. It's just gutzer! I got the medal for bravery because when I got shot in the leg I just forgot about it and kept fighting on.

During the battle I remember a cricket ball sized grenade being thrown into our trench. Luckily for me, its fuse was burning slowly so I picked it up and threw it back into the turks trench before it exploded. I felt lucky because I didn't get blown to pieces but I feel sad for all the turks I must have killed.

I don't like war, it's terrible! All you do is shoot people. The trenches stink. I stink! I am always getting the Gallipoli Gallop. Trying to find a spot to go to the loo, sometimes I cant find anywhere to go and I end up having to pee my pants. I cant wash my clothes or myself because there is so little water and no bathroom facilities . I have to wait until I get down to the beach and wash myself in the sea.
entry by Kouta Roberts

Glossary of Kouta's entry

Gutzer: Horrible
Gallipoli Gallop: Trying to find a toilet in the trenches

Blog post by Jacob

Soldier diaries

25 April 1915

The sound of bombs exploding nearby, the whizz of bullets flying past. It was deafening...

For a while, Room 8 has been reading like mad to find out exactly what happened at Gallipoli in the awful war. We learnt about the disgusting, hard biscuits the soldiers were given as part of their tiny rations and the awful trenches, full of disease. We are planning to use this information to write a soldier's or nurse's diary. The diary will include important information about this awful war. We can't wait to start writing the diaries!