Welcome to Room 21 2012!

Welcome to the start of another new year in Room 21. Check out these photos to see what we have been up to so far. 

The Year 7 students in our class put together a movie about the Treaty of Waitangi. We have been learning about the treaty in class. The movie was a re-enactment of what might have happened leading up to (and during) the signing of the treaty. They all had a lot of fun making the movie. 

 Every Thursday for the past couple of weeks, we have been lucky enough to receive some netball training from our instructor, Liz. We have picked up lots of new skills to help us improve our skills and understanding of the game. 

During our Art session, students had to select a cartoon character or superhero to draw that best represented them. They came up with a range of characters such as SpongeBob, Smurfs, Ariel, Dragon Ball Z etc. Which superhero or cartoon character best represents you?

EnviroTravel

In the following movie a team of scientists travel into the past and future to see how we can make changes to help save our planet. It screened today at the Manaiakalani Film Festival at Hoyts cinemas in Sylvia Park.

Pollution is a major threat to the sustainability of our planet. With each passing day, the air we breathe and the water we drink becomes adversely affected because of the amount of pollution that is produced and released into the environment. One way that we can prevent this is by reducing, reusing and recycling.

EnviroTravel from Team 4 Pes on Vimeo.

Rugby World Cup Finals

Sitting at the end of my chair waiting nervously for the game to start not knowing if the Mighty All Blacks would take it out in the end or having a major upset against the fearsome team France.

As Richie Macaw and Thierry Dusautoir (captains of France and All Blacks) led their teams out of the holding rooms and into the end of the tunnel where they would experience the last 80min of the Rugby World Cup and battle out in the final for that William Webb Ellis cup. Lining up together you could see the determination of both teams eagerly wanting to win that cup and take it out to make their country proud. Soon as both teams came out the camera went straight to the crowd, you could see a sea of white and black backing up the All Blacks. Excitement was really in the air.

After the National anthem both teams ran out onto the field as the All Blacks were getting ready to perform the Haka. The Haka was led by Piri Weepu the scrum-half. The All Blacks performed the haka with pride and dignity. But the french weren’t afraid to put up a good battle.

The whistle blew and Piri Weepu kicked off to the french. That’s when I knew that the game was going to be really intense. Seconds after seconds then minutes after minutes nobody was scoring. I guess my parents finally knew I was quite not together with me screaming and yelling at the T.V yelling “pass the ball or are you serious reff” I guess I couldn’t help it. Finally the All Blacks tried. An outstanding try by Tony Woodcock. It was amazing. In the second half France scored by that wasn’t enough for them to win the Webb Ellis Cup and take it out.

Richie McCaw led his team to victory and was very proud of his boys. They made history. It has been 24 years since the Rugby World Cup has been to New Zealand and 24 years since they have won it.

Champions!

The most important game in New Zealand Rugby history was about to begin. The game that would really show who was the the real number one team in the world. The All blacks were in the final showdown with the very fortunate French side. The All Blacks were heavy favourites with undefeated streak, while France had already lost two pool games against New Zealand and Tonga!

I was watching the event on tv. The atmosphere was huge! Even I was getting nervous just watching the crowd build! The crowd roared before and throughout the game. The game was about to begin. The two teams were about to jogg onto the field. They came onto the field and sang their national anthems (I stood up and sang it too!). The All Blacks performed their fearsome haka and the match was about to begin.

France came out flying quickly getting the ball into their possession. Surprisingly the French were not kicking the ball away as they normally did in their recent games. Instead they were using the ball spreading it quickly around the park trying to counter the might of the All Blacks defence. France were on the front foot in the first 20 minutes, dominating the set pieces with strong scrums and decisive line outs.

The All Blacks needed to establish themselves as the dominate team in this game. So they capitalized on a chance close to the Frech try line with a beautiful set piece move ending up with the prop Tony Woodcock cashing in for the first points. This was a big kick coming up, Weepu was given several chances to take the lead for the All Blacks but was denied both times. This kick would give the All Blacks a bit of breathing space but unfortunately Piri Weepu failed to convert. They went to halftime with the lead being 5-0.

The All Blacks were struck with yet another injury to young gun Aaron Cruden forcing Stephen Donald to come on and make his debut in the World Cup! Fortunately Donald stepped up to the challenge and converted what would be the winning penalty! I was ready to faint in the dying minutes of the game with the clock ticking and the French behind by 1 but having the ball inside the All Blacks half. I nervously watched on as the clock ticked....... YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The All Blacks were given a penalty, all they needed to do was win the line and hold onto the ball. YEEEEAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!! THE PLAGUE IS FINALLY OVER!!!!!! 24 YEARS OF WAITING HAVE FINALLY COME TO AN END!!!!!!!!!

by Tanielu

Cross Country 2011

Here's a little riddle: what do most people look forward to, is very competitive and is kinda like a battle of the fittest ?...Cross country !

Every year, we hold a cross country race. The way its usually set up is in age groups but this year it was a bit different. Instead of age groups, we just raced in years. For example all the Year 7 girls race each other, Year 7 boys race and so on.

Something that was also a bit different was the race course. Instead of just a run around the reserve and back to our field, we ran a race course that was 3.5km ! But luckily for the Year 7's, they only had to run 3km.

As soon as the Year 7 boys were out of sight, the Year 8 girls lined up along the starting line. Miss V explained the race course to us and we waited anxiously for Miss V to clap the clapper. "On your marks" she started "get set..." CLAP ! As soon as we heard the 'clap' we shot off like lightening bolts and tried to overtake each other.

We hadn't even gotten to halfway when we saw the boys catching up to us. Most of us girls started sprinting as soon as we saw the boys, but others were calm and collected and didn't even try to keep in front of the boys. Unfortunately, I was one of those girls. Taking our time, kind of just strolling through the bush.

For a while we started to just stroll along, but then we felt quite de-hydrated so we started to power-walk. A long while later, we saw our school poking through all the ferns and trees, so we started to walk faster. We had nearly gotten to the finished line when we were told by Mrs Lagitupu that we still had 1/2km to run. Puffed out, we went back to walking and finally got to the finish line.

I had known that I wasn't going to come first because I was competing against people like Etta and April. But my goal was to not come last and guess what? I didn't !

by Sela