Acrostic Poem

This week we have been working on acrostic poems. Here is my poem about Christmas

Christmas cheer in the air
Having dinner as a family
Relatives reuniting
Ice creams melting
Smell the scent of pine
Tiny bits of wrapping paper everywhere
Making cards to give out
A truly amazing holiday
Something to look forward to

All Saints Day

Today is All Saints Day. To celebrate we had a whole school mass in the morning to pray for all those who have gone before us. It is a great celebration and I am truly honored to have been able to go to this mass.

Author Visit

The other day we were lucky to have author Anne Kayes into visit 
and tell us about her two books about the tui street kids. This was a wonderful experience to learn about kiwi books. Here are some photos:

senses poem

This week we worked on senses poems in room 6.
Here is one of mine:

I spy my mum and granddad holding a ball of fluff,
A pristine, white, wriggling lump like a giant cream puff
I put out my hand and feel the soft fur,
Immediately I know that i'm going to love her!
Finally I have one! A long anticipated gift!
I grab my dog which is now under my arm,
The fresh smell makes me feel calm.
I put her down and hear her bark,
She runs around like she's at a park
As the day closes in,
And the nights about to begin
I hold my dog tight,
I love her without a fight!

Calendar Art

Good Shepherd Fair

THE MONSTERS ARE COMING!!!

Marae Trip

On Wednesday the 28th of August Good Shepherds School got on four buses and headed off the unitec marae for an unforgettable experience. We were welcomed into the Wharenui (meeting house) where we learnt about some of the carvings and the history of the marae. Then we made our way over to the whare kai for some morning tea. Later we learnt a song and the boys performed a haka. Here are some photos.

How to Make a cup of Tea

By Jemima

I am learning to write a procedural text for our audience to follow

Ingredients:
Tea bag of your choice
Water
Sugar and/or milk (optional)
Cup
Spoon
Kettle

Steps
1. Fill up your kettle with fresh water. Then turn it on.
2. Put one tea bag into a cup and wait for the kettle to boil.
3. Pour the hot water from the kettle into your cup with the tea bag in it.
4. Leave the tea bag sitting in the cup for 2-5 minutes (the longer you leave it in for the stronger the tea will be).
5. Now if you want, you can put in a dash of milk and/or a small spoonful of sugar and make sure to mix well.

Now relax and enjoy your perfect cuppa!

Mixed Media - Visual Art

You hold the future in your hands.

In Term 2 our Visual Arts focused was on Mixed Media. We finally finished our pieces of art at the end of the term. We started off by creating two hands, most of us copied our own hands as templates. One hand represents our past and the other hand our future. We used lots of different materials and symbols to make our artwork as well as exploring a range of different techniques with watercolor paint. This is my art work.

Cook Island Language Week

Week 3 has been a very busy week with so many celebrations. Good Shepherd School celebrates
our multicultural school with our Cook Island Language focus. We looked at the culture through our reading and made fun fact files. We were also lucky to have Alessandra and the cultural leaders teach us a Pure (prayer) to sing. 

We learnt Aro’a mai te Atua iaku. See if you can say/sing this pure too.

Aro’a mai te Atua iaku.
Aro’a mai te Atua iaku
I te au mea taku kite nei
Te anuanua kua iti mai ki roto iaku
Aro’a mai te Atua iaku

My God loves me
My God loves me
And all the wonders I see
The rainbow shines through my window
My God loves me

Feast Of Mary MacKillop

Another celebration for Good Shepherd School in Week 3 was the Feast Day of Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop. St Mary MacKillop a vital part of Good Shepherd School, this is because she was the founder of the Josephites aka the Brown Joes. The Brown Joes travelled all over Australia and New Zealand helping the poor and those in need. They built schools and that is how we are all students at Good Shepherd School. We celebrated the Feast day by going to a Mass for St Mary of the Cross and also having fun with our buddy class Room 4 as we worked on a St Mary MacKillop Art project.

Whole School Prayers

On Monday 5th of August room 6 hosted whole school prayers. Our theme was The Gift of Faith. We did a song called ‘Open the Eyes of My Heart’ and Jiwoo, Zara and Maggie made hand actions for us. There were also people who did the prayers of the faithful. Overall prayers was a big success and everyone enjoyed it.

Here are some pictures of our prayers:

Assembly

Last week Room 6 performed their assembly. Our main entertainment was a drama circle on occupations. We also displayed our mixed media we made in term 2. Some people also shared about what they put on their art and why. We all had so much fun preparing and presenting our assembly 

Here are some pictures of our assembly

Hockey

On Friday we had so much fun with Sport NZ as they came in to teach us hockey. We got to do warm up and drills with the hockey sticks and played against each other in teams. We are already looking forward to next Friday’s session. Here are a couple of pictures:

Egg Sitting

Last week as part of keeping ourselves safe room six took on egg sitting. We had to look after and care for an egg over a four day period. Over the time we learnt about how to care for others and how to look after something fragile. It included naming our eggs, making them beds or homes, decorating them, taking them everywhere and getting a a babysitter if you can't look after it for a while. Overall I had lots of fun and learnt a lot!

Here is a picture of me and my egg:

Multiplication Poster

During maths room six has been working on multiplication posters. My poster is on the question 7 x 0.5. One of my favorite word problems is, if Jimmy made seven "J.J delight" soft serves and they all used 0.5 of a "Jim Bar" chocolate how many "Jim Bar's" would he use?
  

Eden-Albert Cross Country

On the 20th of June, 24 runners aged year 4-6 went to Fowlds Park to represent Good Shepherd at the Eden-Albert Cross Country zones. It was a hard, long race but we all finished it and felt very proud! Lucky for us the weather was perfect! We all left with smiles on our faces and mud on our legs as it was a fun day!

  

GSS Book Week 2019

 Room 6 was hungry for books during our book week. We had a whole week celebrating all things books. We had author visits from Stu Duval and James Russell. Stu presented workshops on storytelling, cartooning and writing.  James shared his books and told us stories. We did lots of cool book week activities in class like making dust jacket covers, wanted posters, bookmarks and story cubes. Finally our favourite day arrived, Friday. We got to dress up as our favourite characters and partake in the literacy treasure hunt.  Overall book week is a fantastic week every year. Room 6 LOVES BOOK WEEK!

Here are some photos from our time:  

My book week character was Clover moon.

Watercare

Water, water everywhere! On Friday of week 6, we were lucky to have Sally from Watercare come to teach us more about the water. We did a drama activity and experiments. Firstly we examined the process that water goes through to become drinkable water in our households. Our drama was based on the process that the water goes through to be cleaned. We were the water going through each stage. We had so much fun as we ventured around the school. Once we learnt how water is cleaned we then had to try and clean the dirty water ourselves. We had to create a filter system in partners. We had to do four different tests for our experiments. We experimented with a range of filters to try and test which filter system was the best.

Cross Country

Good Shepherd School had been busy training for cross country this term and finally the day arrived. In week 6 we all arrived at school in our running gear and had our house colours painted onto us. We were eager and ready to go and win house points. Overall the race was long and required a lot of stamina, but we were prepared. Here are some pictures from our races.

Samoan Language Week

This week was Samoan Language Week. In Room 6 we learnt a lot about Samoa and the Samoan culture. We watched Cultural Hub clips about the Samoan alphabet, animals and body parts. Did you know that the Samoan alphabet has only 17 letters? Also during reading time room 6 did a scavenger hunt on facts about Samoa, where they searched the classroom for clues to complete their Samoan puzzle. We had experts teaching us greetings and phrases, our experts were Matila, Remy and Rosa.  

How the Water Cycle

I am learning to inform my audience though an explanation

By Jemima

We use water all the time but we never stop to think where it comes from. Every day water heads off on an amazing adventure called the water cycle. A cycle is an endless circuit that repeats itself over and over again. 97 percent of earth’s water is salt water leaving the last 3 percent to be fresh water, but out of that only 1 percent is drinkable. The three main stages of the water cycle are precipitation, evaporation and condensation. It all begins with one heavy cloud.


The first step of the water cycle is precipitation. Precipitation is when a cloud gets too heavy and full of water and falls in the form of snow, rain, hail or sleet. Precipitation is like a balloon with too much air in it causing it to pop. After it has rained water gathers in oceans, lakes and rivers. It also pools in puddles. That leads us to the next part of our journey.


Straight after a rainy day the concrete is damp with rain water but the next hour it is as dry as a bone. No, the water did not magically disappear it was turned into water vapor with the heat of the sun. The sun steals the water turning it into an invisible gas called water vapor with its heat. The water vapor travels up to the sky and begins the last stage of the water cycle, condensation.

Condensation is when the water vapor in the sky is cooled and turned back into water droplets and made into clouds. As you get higher in the sky the atmosphere will get colder dropping down to around one degree celsius which is what turns the water vapor back to water molecules to form a cloud. Once a cloud has collected too much water it will get rid of it with precipitation.


So next time you take a drink or wash yourself take a second to think about the fabulous journey it has taken and how you might be drinking water a dinosaur bathed in thousands of years ago. The water on earth is so important and we must all play our part to use less water and protect it.

Kids Lit Quiz

On Monday, eight year six students went in two cars to St Cuthberts School to take part in the kids lit quiz. The lit quiz is a literacy based quiz with questions on popular kids books. There were ten categories like Harry Potter, newspaper, fairies and more.  Each category had ten questions. My team came last but we didn't care because it was all about having fun.  
 

Science in a Van

We were lucky enough to have the team from Science in a Van come to share their science knowledge with us in time for science week. We learnt about balancing, the periodic table and did fun experiments. We all learnt a lot and had lots of fun. 

R.E Triangle

Over the week we have been making triangles for Religious Education. One of four sides had Baptism and the Holy Spirit on it and each of the other sides had either Faith, Hope or love on it because they are the gifts of baptism.

Water Cycle Experiments

Yesterday Room 6 did some science experiments on the water cycle and air pressure. One of my favorite experiments was when we pushed an open balloon full of air into a bucket of water. As the air escaped it bubbled up and spilled over the edge of the bucket. Here are some photos. 

Water Cycle

This week we have been looking at the water cycle. The water cycle is the cycle all water goes through before we can use it. The three main steps are Precipitation, Evaporation and then Condensation. An interesting fact is that 97% of the earths water is salt water which means that only 3% is fresh water. 

Slop poster

Over the start of the year we have been learning how to be sunsmart using Slip, Slop, Slap, Wrap and Slide. My group made a poster on Slop. It is important to slop on some SPF 30 plus 20 minutes before you go outside and reapply every hour.

Up, Up and away - Dr Seuss

This is my hot air balloon that we created to show that our goals are going to take up to new heights. 

Growth Mindset - Goal Bunting

Each student in room 6 has made a bunting triangle to show our Growth Mindset goal and motto that we want to work on. Come and check them out. 

Jesus Strand - Religious Education

During Term 1 we have been learning about Jesus the Son of God. This is my cube on how Jesus showed us that God loved us all as his children. We are blessed with the gifts of faith, hope and love.

St Joseph's Day Tabloid Sports

Tuesday 19th March was St Joseph’s Day Feast Day. The whole school attended mass to celebrate the leadership Saint Joseph showed. Saint Joseph is also special to our school because Saint MacKillop and the Sisters of St Joseph were inspired by Saint Joseph. Saint Joseph is also the foster father of Jesus. The following day, the whole school came together to celebrate with fun tabloid sports in our houses. We all got to play so many fun and exciting games. Thank you to our leaders who prepared this. 

Swimming Sports

Room 6 had a wonderful day at swimming sports. When we all went to the turf we split up into our houses. Thank you Sharyn and parents for helping us with the non competitive swimming and competitive. Also thank you parents for coming along and supporting your children. Good shepherd students thank the teachers very warmly, as every year as they set up and prepare this event for us. I’m sure that every student enjoyed the event. I saw everyone compete with my own eyes and they all did well. The people who lost don’t have to be sad because they should be grateful they got a swim in the warm weather also because there’s always time and effort to improve.

Ash Wednesday

Today was Ash Wednesday. We went to church and sang some hymns, got the ashes on our foreheads, sung happy birthday to a little girl starting school on her birthday! We then went up and got a blessing.

We did make an attempt to keep our ashes on our foreheads, but that was a fail due to swimming and itching it off. We had a good day and hope everyone season of Lent and it is a time of preparation.

Shrove Tuesday

Tuesday was Shrove Tuesday. We all had a great day in room 6. The festivities started with the burning of the ashes on the turf. This was a new and exciting experience that not many of us had seen before. 

Later on during Religious Education we learnt more about Shrove Tuesday and Lent. People used to get rid of all their luxury items such as flour, sugar, butter, eggs and milk by making pancakes. We were even able to enjoy some pancakes of our own. We all thought it was a great start to lent and we are looking forward to the lenten season as we prepare for the death and resurrection of Jesus. We are the season of Lent and it is a time of preparation.

Shine Week

A sea of orange flood Good Shepherd School on Friday the 8th of March. This week was shine week. We raise money to help people whose lives are affected domestic violence. In support we all wore orange clothes and brought a gold coin donation to help the charity. Here are some pictures:

My Accident Story

February 2019

By Jemima 

I am learning to entertain my audience through a recount.

Have you ever felt you were breaking the speed limit but you were just riding on a wooden toy in your hallway? Well about eight years ago I had a horrible accident involving the most harmless thing you could think of! A little wooden busy bee with wheels.

At the crack of dawn, two year old me thought it would be a very wise idea to get out my favourite toy and ride it up and down the hallway. In my speedy pyjamas I climbed aboard and built up speed on my bee. I felt the wind brushing through my hair, my feet lifting off the ground, what a great feeling it was!

Then there came a sudden crash! I filled the house with a massive cry. I was now on the ground, and my bee beside me. As I lifted myself off the floor I could see the blood pouring out, I felt around my face and could feel a massive spilt in my chin. 

Mum ran in shouting out things like, “What happened?” and, “Oh my!” Then just as all good parents would do, my mum got me in the car as I braced myself for the tragic day ahead! Hours later we were still in A+E as my chin would not stop bleeding. As soon after it did stop bleeding I was seen by the doctors and they were able to paste it up. 

I was very lucky to not need stitches but to this day I am very cautious when it comes to small wooden toys with wheels! Overall this was not the best day!

My Mihimihi

Mihimihi 

Jemima

I am learning to: introduce myself and others, and respond to introductions using my personal information 

Tēnā koutou katoa, 

Nō Aotearoa ahau 

Ko Maungawhau tōku maunga

Ko Waitemata Harbour tōku moana 

Kei Tamaki Makaurau tōku kāinga ināianei 

Ko Te Hapara pai tōku kura 

Ko Lipscombe tōku whānau 

Ko Anthony Lipscombe tōku pāpā 

No Aotearoa ia 

Ko Francesca Lipscombe tōku māmā 

No Ngati Ingarangi ia

Ko Jemima Lipscombe tōku ingoa 

Nō reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā Kātou katoa. 

Charism

Did you know the reason Good Shepherd School named their syndicates Connolly and Sheridan? Connolly and Sheridan were the names of the first two sisters that worked at Good Shepherd School when it opened. That is just one of the fun facts we learnt this week when we explored the charism of our school. The charism of our school is the flavour of our school, it is what makes us Good Shepherd School. Over the week we looked at the history of the school and unpacked the visual Image of the Good Shepherd Cross with the values, scripture, feast days and the St Mary MacKillop sayings. We unpacked the values and why we have those values. In groups we identified what each value looked, sounded and felt like before making up definitions. Another new fact I learnt was that the sisters of st Joesph are also called the Josephites and the brown Joes.

 

Piece Of The Puzzle

In Room 6 we are all a piece of the puzzle. There are 29 students and we each complete our puzzle. Without one of us we would not be Room 6. During the second week of school (once the year 6 were back from camp) we spent time learning about each other and completing our piece of the puzzle. We learnt that we are all different and unique made in the image of God. But we also learnt that sometimes people need a little helping hand to make learning fair. Check out our pieces of the puzzle in Room 6 Foyer to learn more about each of us.

“It’s always the small pieces that make the big picture.” 

Leadership role

This year I am proud to take on the role of Journalist. I look forward to this role because I love to write. It is an exciting opportunity and I can't wait to take on the job this year!!

Year Six Camp

While the rest of the school was sleeping, enjoying their last day of the school holidays the year six were awake grabbing the last of their essential camp items. Stuffing the cars full of luggage we hit the road making our way up to MERC, Long Bay Beach for the annual Year 6 Leadership Camp. It was a fun, busy and hot week with lots of activities and things to do. There was so much to do with out amazing instructors and helpers, activities like paddle boarding, archery, abseiling, kayaking, rock climbing, giants ladder, stack’em and the list goes on. After the camp day we had plenty to do at night with the camp mass, school council voting, the talent quest and even a spooky game of spot light.

My two favourite activities were rock climbing and orienteering.