Auroa Primary School: International Collaboration

While school has just finished for 2014 in New Zealand for the year we were thrilled to find out that our friends Mrs Yollis and her class from California, USA have created a video based on our students work. Earlier this year our Kapahaka Group created a series of 'How To' videos about different games that were traditional to Maori. Mrs Yollis and her class, across the other side of the world have used that video and work to teach their students
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They would like some feedback about their videos - have they done the correct moves? They would also like to know if there are any other traditional games that are played here, or in your country that you know of.  We're very fortunate to have Mrs Yollis recognise our work, she is famous in blogging, being one of the top teachers in the world with a massive audience.  We were pleased to have 60,000 pageviews this year - Mrs Yollis has had 1.5 million.  She is an amazing commentator and a great online model and friend.   This is her class video:

School Production 2014: Highlights

The year is over for Auroa School and we'll be seeing you all back again in 2015 for the start of the new school year in January. Our year finished with a culmination of the terms efforts with the students School Production. Mr Bloor, Auroa Primary Schools Amazing Audio Visual Genius has created a DVD of the concert which you can order through our school website. This video is the highlights of the show.

School Production: Rehearsal

We are fast approaching the end of the 2014 School Year, with our School production rehearsal today, the School Production at 12pm and 7pm on Thursday and then Friday is the end of the 2014 School Year. These photos were taken in the Auroa Community School Hall during the Dress Rehearsal on Wednesday 17th December 2014.

Y8 School Camp: Slideshow 2

These images are some of the activities that the students were involved in during the Auroa Primary School Y8 Camp which took place in Taupo and Rotorua on Tuesday 9th of December to Friday 12th December.

Y8 Camp: Tom on the Rotorua Luge

During Auroa Primary School Y8 Camp our students had four days of amazing activities last week, enjoying some of the best activities from the Taupo/Rotorua area. One of the highlights came on Thursday when the students from Auroa got to take part on the Ogo in the morning before switching to the Skyline Luge Rotorua. Of course if you weren't lucky enough to come on Y8 Camp then you couldn't experience it - that is unless you watch Tom riding the Luge, with this video that he created with his Go-Pro Camera, including a crash on the first corner of the Intermediate Track. Filmed by Tom on Thursday 11th December 2014. You can visit his blog where he posted this by clicking on the link here.

Y8 Camp 2014: Photos

Y8 Camp 2014 Highlights

Y8 Camp 2014 on PhotoPeach Its the Y8 Camp and these Highlights of some of the exciting adventures that the Y8 students of Auroa Primary School during their annual end of year Camp. Thanks for your visit to our blog Mr Webb and his full class will be returning to action this coming Monday. Thanks for your visit in the meantime and we look forward to hearing from you.

MOA Awards 2014: Sonic Studios Highlights

On November 11th there was a special event for the Schools that comprise the MOA Cluster - thats Matapu, Opunake and Auroa Primary School. A special awards ceremony was held at the Opunake Events Centre to recognise Digital Excellence from our Schools. Mr Bloor produced the following highlights video of the evening. He always does an incredible job with his work and yet again this is another amazing example of his fantastic work. Emily, Kaiah and Room One were all recognised for their fantastic work during the year.

3D Printing at Auroa Primary School

We've had some amazing feedback about some of our recent efforts with our new 3D Printers.  We've had our second most popular video of the year, Michael and Alyssa's Tilt Invention for the 3D Printer - this is second only to 'Barefeet in New Zealand'.  Tahana's portfolio of 3D Printing work is the first in a series and we have other students working to complete before the end of our school year.

We've also had some queries about how a 3D Printer works.  Today Michael and Lucas put together this video from our classroom which shows the 'layering' that the 3D Printer uses to create the build.  You can also see the filament and the spool at the end of this video.  Filmed at Auroa Priamry School, Taranaki, New Zealand on Friday 5th December 2014.
3d printing' from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

Auroa Schools Salvation Army Appeal

Will from Room One has been involved in some fantastic projects for the school and community this year.   One of the things that he organised was our involvement in the Salvation Army Christmas Appeal.   This is what Will wrote about it on his blog:

Between the 25th of November and the 5th of December our school community participated in the Salvation Army Christmas Appeal, were we brought a tin can (non perishable item) or gift for a child less fortunate.  

A big THANK YOU to all the people who donated a gift or tin can for the Salvation Army Christmas Appeal. You have made a less fortunate child have a very very merry Christmas.

Y7 Camp at the Patea Dam 2014

Room 1@Auroa School: Shortlisted for Edublogs Awards!

Today we received some amazing news - we have been shortlisted for the 2014 Edublogs Awards for best class blog. This is a very, very special achievement. These awards are international digital awards and they are generally regarded as the premier online digital awards. One of the special things about these awards are they are not regional or national but international awards voted for people from around the world.

The short listing is a fantastic achievement in itself as there are just over fifty classroom blogs from around the world that have been shortlisted for this award, and it would appear that we are the only page from New Zealand to make it into the voting/shortlisting round.

You can view all the finalists and see their wonderful fantastic work here. Voting is open until December 15th.

Musical Recital - Que Sera

We've had some students involved every week in music lessons during the school year.  Last Sunday the students held a musical recital in the Auroa Community Hall for the local community.  One of the performances from the show was 'Que Sera'.  This is another video put together by James from Room One.

Que Sera - Musical Recital from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

James' Mountain Biking Jumps

This is James second video showing some of his extreme sports activities that he is involved in during his spare time.  James has created this video, filmed and edited it himself and then posted it on his log.  Its a fantastic example of student created material that is exciting to watch.


Mountain Biking Jumping from Myles Webb on Vimeo.
What activities do you like doing in the weekend? What do you think of James' video?

Music Recital Performance: Happy

This year we've had some students who've regularly been involved in additional music tuition during the year.  Last weekend on Sunday they had the opportunity to put on a recital performance for the local community in the Auroa School Hall.   This footage is of the group performance of 'Happy' if you look at the performance you can see numerous members of Room One in the performance.  This is another video which comes from James blog.


Happy: Music Recital from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

Whanau Day at Auroa Primary School 2014

Last Thursday Auroa Primary School held our Whanau Day Competition for 2014.  This was organised by Gemma from Room One.  It was an amazing day of competition between the four houses at Auroa Primary School - Auroa (Red) Hinengakau (Blue, Haua Roa (Yellow) and Haua Piko (Green).  They competed in eight different competitions looking to gain points for their houses.   It was an awesome competition ultimately won by Auroa for 2014.

Tom and James: Snowsliding

While we're currently in the start of Summer in New Zealand, and we're approaching the end of the 2014 School Year.   (In New Zealand the school year starts in February and Ends in December).
During the year we had a number of students use blogging as a way of producing material for online as part of school keys program.   James has been up to so much this year, and he's made a whole lot of his exciting experiences available for people to watch.   This is him and Tom from Room One sliding down the slopes of Mount Taranaki, Taranaki, New Zealand.
James and Tom Snow Sliding from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

Mountain Biking: Go Pro - James

Students are completing their digital credits for their Keys Program, which is the School Keys program for students to work in their own time towards being placed on the School Honours Board. The Digi Key is the last in the set of five and as part of school program, and is to be awarded during school prize giving. James from Room One has created some amazing media as part of his key. This is only one such example of the work he's been up to - James has created a huge amount of media on his student blog this year. James has passion for action adventure, this video which he's created is an example of how he spends some of his spare time - mountain biking. James has filmed, edited and presented this work completely on his own.
GoPro Mountain Biking: James from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

Final Tech for 2014

On Wednesday 26th of November students from Auroa Primary School attended their final Technology Session for the year at Opunake High School. Our Y8 students had Food Technology and as a celebration for their final session the students held a dinner at the High School. These images were of the final meal. Year 8's Restaurants on PhotoPeach

Tahana's 3D Printing Portfolio

The students in Room One have been working on a variety of tasks as we approach the end of the year. One of the projects that students are completing are part of our schools Academic Keys program, and as part of that looking at our digital projects. One of the new devices at our school is the Ultimaker 2, 3D Printer. Students need to design a series of projects related to the use of the 3D Printer. Today in class Tahana finished the first attempt at his digital 3D printing program. He's completed four out of five prints and explained the reasoning behind each. You can read his fantastic work here:

Alex and Fred TMNT Presentation

In Room One to celebrate Auroa Primary Schools Book Character Day the students of Room One had to select one of the characters that were featured and research and find information about the character. Mr Chittenden the Principal of Auroa Primary School was dressed as Leonardo from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Alex and Fred choose Mr Chittenden as their inspiration and created this Google Presentation about the Character.

Recount Writing: Kaponga Soccer by Alex

It was a nice sunny day to play soccer. It was the day that we had to go to Kaponga to play for the Y7/8 (11 year old to 13 year old) Soccer Tournament for Schools for our local area. We had to get into the car to go to Kaponga School.

We hopped out of the car then we practised for a few minutes but I sprained my ankle when I tried to slide tackle the ball. So I had to sit down and rest and wait for the team to practise.

The first game was coming up and I couldn't play in it because my ankle was still sore. I tried to run but it was still sore and I couldn't. I tried running on the spot and I got to play in the third to last game.

I got up and started to defend the goal and I got to play three games before my ankle started to play up again, so I went off in my last game and rested again. At the end of the day we lost all of our games. Everyone in Room One is writing recounts for the end of the year, this is by Alex from Room One who was part of one of the two Soccer teams that Auroa Primary School put in the Y7/8 Mount Spa cluster competition.

What do we have for School Lunch in New Zealand?

Mr Webb is spending some teaching blocks in the moment in Room Eight.   Room Eight is Mr Webbs favourite place to teach and the students have two wonderful teachers, Mrs Berry and Miss Nicolas.   Mr Webb and his students are doing some work currently on lunches and what students have to eat, a worldwide project with some other teachers from around the world.

Yesterday in Room Eight the students went to their bags, got their lunches out of their bags, brought them into the classroom and laid them down on the learning tables and took photographs of what they had for lunch.  These are the photos that some of the students took.


What items for lunch that the students eat in New Zealand can you recognise? Is there anything that you are not sure about? That you don't understand? For our overseas visitors our school is located rurally in South Taranaki and our students don't buy their own lunches before or during school, they have to make them and bring them to school themselves.

Alyssa and Michael's iPad Tilter: 3D Printer Design

We're very excited that this week in class we've had our two new Ultimaker 2 Printers working nearly full speed so our students can complete their 3D design projects.   Today in class we had a special project worked on by a group of students.    Alyssa and her brother Michael have worked on a 3D Print design for a tilter that will allow Alyssa to use the iPad with more ease.  Currently she finds it difficult to tilt the iPad and needs assistance.  Michaels and her design addresses this as it allows her to use it with more freedom and independence.   Filmed and created by Michael and Alyssa from Room One, Auroa Primary School, Taranaki, New Zealand.

Ipad Tilter from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

We're going to discuss the video tomorrow thinking about things like, should we show the making process, can Alyssa demonstrate how it works and have her speaking about it.

A special nomination for Room One: Edublogs 2014

Yesterday Room One was humbled to receive notification that we had been nominated by our friends from 6RC in Sydney, Australia for the 2014 Edublogs Awards. 

This is a very special nomination because these are global awards for blogging and educational work featuring the best class pages from all around the world.

 Our next step with the process is to await the shortlisting of the finalists, which is occurring on November 24th.

You can read more about the awards at this link. You can read the nomination from 6RC here. We would like to thank 6RC for the nomination and wish them all the best for the shortlisting.

Procedural Writing: Sandwich Making for Lunch

James Rock Climbing Adventures

One of the amazing things from this year has been the students who have been producing their own original material - James in particular has been documenting some fantastic adventures throughout the year of some of the amazing activities that he has been involved with. This video, filmed by Go-Pro is James Rock Climbing, one of his hobbies. You can also see Tom featured in this video as well. Visit James Blog for more information.

Procedural Writing: Making a Sandwich

Procedural Writing: How to Make a Sandwich

Procedural Writing: How to Make a Sandwich from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

This is the photo essay publishing of a video created by students in Imovie that shows the steps that you need to take to make a Nutella Sandwich. Filmed by Lucas, Tom and Michael and recored at Auroa Primary School on Tuesday 18th November.

Kaiah - Dark Horse: Best MOA Awards Music Video

In the 2014 MOA Awards we had some students from Room One who did exceptionally well.  Emily as you know was one of four Room One Finalists for 'Senior Student Blog of the Year' and the eventual winner.  We also had Kaiah as a finalist in that catergory, and also for Best Senior Music Video - a catergory that she won against some great competition.   This is the award winning entry that she created and starred in, which qualified her for the grand prize.

Dark Horse - Kaiah from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

3D Printing Into the End of the Year.

We're very excited in Room One to have Auroa Primary School purchase two new Ultimaker 2 3D Printers. These have been printing out our 3D Design Projects that students have been working on over the past term or so. The students from Room One are busy working on their official Google Presentations, in the meantime here's a sneak peak of what some of our students have been up to.

 Mr Chittenden, our Principal, set a challenge of having the students design and engineer a holder for a whiteboard duster suitable for the classroom wall. This design was created by Tahana from Room One. This is the original design that he planned with the measurements. This is his prototype print - which is in Glow in the Dark Filament!

Procedural Writing: How to Make a NZ Sandwich

The Book Thief: Review by Alyssa

Rm3: More MOA Awards Excellence

Since so many of you loved the post from Room Eight from the MOA Awards we'd thought that we would continue highlighting some other amazing work from some of the Auroa Primary Schools Finalists.   Room Three were also nominated for the Supreme Award, for this simply stunning video from their students 'Around the World'.  The story and all the work are original.  Its a breathtaking piece of work from a fantastic group of students who received the recognition that they deserved.   Mr Spice's Room Three Class page is also fast approaching 30,000 blog hits, which for a first time blog, in its first year is a fantastic achievement.  You can click on the link to the Room Three Blog by clicking here.

MOA Awards: Best Junior Music Video

On Tuesday night at the Opunake Events Centre we had over 500 people attending our Digital

Awards for the MOA (Matapua, Opunake and Auroa Schools) Cluster of Schools.   There was some amazing work on display, one of which was the Best Junior Music Video.  This was created by students from R8 at Auroa Primary School who are year one students (five years old).  They did an amazing job and Lauren also managed to get best Actress for her efforts.  You can click on the links to the fantastic Room Eight site by clicking here.

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MOA Awards 2014

Last night in Opunake the MOA Cluster (Matapu, Opuknake and Auroa Schools) held their first annual MOA Awards to recognise digital excellence. The awards ceremony was an amazing night with students from throughout the area recognised for digital excellence. Room One from Auroa Primary School featured in the awards with Tom, Tahana, Kaiah and Emily featured in best Senior Blog Awards, with Emily taking the win. Kaiah was featured in Best Music Video (Senior) which she won, putting her in the Supreme Award Winner Catergory. Room One also managed to take the award for Best School Blog. These pictures were taken at the Opunake Events Centre on a fantastic night.

MoaAwards2014 - Video Maker

International Food Collaboration: What do they eat in the USA?

FoodCollab2014 - Video Maker

Australian Junior Robocup 2014

Do you know who are the national champions for Australia for the Junior Robocup? That's correct the answer is Auroa Primary School from Taranaki, New Zealand. As regular readers of this site will know earlier this year the Robo's (James, Tom, Michaela and Lucas) completed the Junior Robotics Robocup Triple Crown winning first the regional Whanganui Robocup Competititon, then winning the New Zealand National Competition in Dunedin before travelling to Brisbane to take on the Australians. The Boys triumphed in that and this video is a combination of photography and film from that event. Created by Lucas and James, Room One, Auroa Primary School, by footage supplied by Mrs Knappman.

Junior Robocup - Australian Nationals. from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

Character Book Day Projects: Wheres Wally?

As part of Auroa Primary Schools Character Book Day all our students had to produce a Google Presentation on a character who was featured during the day. Mrs Auld our receptionist choose to be 'Wally' from the 'Wheres Wally' series of books (we think its 'Where's Waldo for our American friends which we thought was funny). This presentation was produced by Leila from Room One. The images that are contained in the slideshow are taken from the series of books by the author.

Character Book Day: Cat in the Hat

Character Book Day at Auroa Primary School saw lots of different characters from literacy present in many forms. One of these was the Dr Seuss creation, the Cat in the Hat, from the story of the same name. Alice and Kaiah choose this character as their topic for their Character Book Assignment and this is their slideshow

Thank you Mrs Yollis

There are many wonderful educators who are around the world who we've had the pleasure to be in contact with. One of the very best Bloggers in the world, and we can say that because she's had 1.4 million page views, is Mrs Yollis whose a classroom teacher in the USA. She has an amazing blog which you can click on here. She also has a fantastic Photo Blog where she features photos from around the world.

The latest photograph on her blog is one that was taken from our school field, it was taken by one of our students and showed our local landmark, Mount Taranaki, in all its splendour.

Students Independent Tree House Adventures

We're approaching the end of the 2014 School Year, incredibly, and in the meantime while we're busy and working hard towards the end of year concert, assessments and lots of work. Some of our students have been combing adventure with blog publishing. Tom was the first student to do this who created this fantastic video of his tree house:
Toms Treehut from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

Not to be out done Michael from Room One just published his super deluxe tour addition (which also features a cameo from Logan from Room One). Both students have created this work independently to show their online audience what they've been up to:
Michael's Magnificent Tree Hut from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

Character Book Day: Dayna and Meg's Slideshow

Last week at school Auroa Primary School had their annual Character Book Day, where students came dressed as their favourite book character. This slideshow was created by Dayna and Meg from Room One, created in class on Wednesday 5th November 2014. Book Character Day 2014 on PhotoPeach

Hunger Games: Book Character Day

This Google Presentation was created by Meg and Emily from Room One, Auroa Primary School.  Last Thursday we had our Character Book Day, and this character from the Hunger Games series was created by Meg from Room One and Emily from Room One.

MOA Awards... Coming November 11th...

Mt Spa Soccer Results 2014

Today at Kaponga School, Auroa Primary School claimed a famous double.  Auroa had two teams in the Y5/6 competition, both managed to qualify for the semi-finals, then had to play off against each other.   Rico, Danielle and Riley's team was able to progress through to the final against Opunake Primary School, where they were able to triumph with Caleb scoring a hat-trick.

In the Y7/8 Competition, Auroa again fielded two teams, looking to win a competition that we had not won for fifteen years.   Tom and Michaels team found the going tough but represented the team well, including a legendary goal from Tom against Kaponga, scored from half way.

The real story of the competition came from the other team featuring Keifer, Isabelle, Heavenlee, Logan, Lucas and Captained by Harley (and others).  Pool play saw them defeat Kaponga B 3-0, draw with Matapu School 0-0.  In the final pool game the team played against a strong Rahotu team and lost 0-1.   This meant that qualification for the semi-finals could only occur if other results went Auroa's way.

This duly occurred leaving Auroa to take on top qualifiers, Kaponga 'A' in the semi-finals.  A game that was drawn 0-0 at full time, with numerous chances went to sudden death extra time.  Lucas floated an amazing cross into Logan who drilled the ball first time in the roof of the net.   This meant Auroa were in the final, and had to play against the Rahotu team they'd lost to in pool play.   Logan again proved the difference, striking from just past half way early in the first half.  The strike proved crucial because despite numerous chances  from both teams, including the opportunity for a brace for Logan, the final score remained 1-0, with Auroa claiming the win for the first time since 1999.

Character Book Day 2014

On Thursday Auroa Primary School celebrated 'Character Book Day'. We had a huge number of students dress for the occasion, representing a huge amount of characters from literacy. These are just some of the winners from the different classes of Auroa Primary School.  Who can you recognise from famous books? Do you know the name of the character and the book the character is from?

Character Book Day 2014

Character Book Day 2014 on PhotoPeach

Mt SPA Cluster: Academic Day 2014

MtSpa2014AcademicDay - Video Maker

Today at Opunake Primary School the Mt Spa local cluster held their annual Academic Day where the local schools competed in a variety of competitions: spelling, mathematics, literacy and general knowledge.

The Auroa Primary School team consisted of Tahana, Emily, Isabelle, Thomas, Tom, Meg and Michael.  

In Literacy Auroa were able to tie in first equal place with both Kaponga and Opunake.   In general knowledge Auroa were runners up to Manaia Primary School.   Auroa were also runners up in Mathematics to Manaia.   No surprise that the winners of Academic Day for 2014 were Manaia Primary School, with Auroa claiming second place.

Edu Amazing Race Demo

Two fantastic online teachers, Mr Will Chamberlain and Mr Craig Kemp have created an 'Edu Amazing Race' site and were looking for ideas. We thought that this was a great idea at school and we entrusted Kaiah and Brylee from Room One to take care of the details. They came up with a format, we didn't identify where we were in our video so their were some clues: the biggest geographic feature in our area, which is a Mountain (Mount Taranaki) which you can see clearly in the background of our video. A clue about rugby and also we are a country based school (we also thought that our accents would be a clue when we did the video and looked back at it afterwards). Because their idea is based on the amazing race we wanted to have a challenge that could easily be replicated by people watching the video so we came up with kicking a rugby ball from one end of the field to the other in under 2 minutes. The ball has to be caught on the full by the person that is catching and then the second person can run around and repeat the process. We weren't sure how hard this would be if someone didn't know how to catch a rugby ball, so we had to guess about the timing. This video was created, edited and produced by Kaiah and Brylee from Room One on Tuesday 28th October 2014.

Edu Amazing Race - Episode One from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

Room One's Hockey Skills With Sport Taranaki

Hockey2014 - Video Maker

Auroa Primary School 1-2-3...

On Thursday 23rd of October Room One was lucky enough to have five students competing in the Y7/8 Lions Speech Competition Final at the Kaponga Town Hall.   Will, Michael, Tom, Emily and Riley P. did an exceptional job representing Auroa Primary School against students from Kaponga Primary School, St Patricks Kaponga and Matapu School.

The results for Auroa were impressive because Auroa achieved the perfect result.  The 2014 winner (and defending champion) was Tom from Room One.   Emily was placed as Runner Up and Riley P. took third place.  Tom and Emily are now moving forward to the next stage of competition finals taking place in Hawera in early November.  We wish them the very best of luck.

Official Calf and Lamb Day Video 2014

Mr Bloor does an amazing job with the videos and media that he creates for the students Auroa Primary School. This is the official release of Lamb and Calf Day 2014.

Calf and Lamb Day 2014

Not only was it the most important show day at Auroa Primary School this year its probably the event that has generated the most questions and interest from our visitors around the world: Calf and Lamb Day.  To view a recount of the entire day from the perspective of a student entering a calf click on the link to Alice's blog here.  To read about the Championship winning Senior Lamb you can click on the link to Emilys Blog (which will shortly reach the mark of 10,000 pageviews for the year!) here.   You can also see a photo of the reserve (runner up) lamb by clicking on the link to Lucas's blog here.   You can read Izzy's recount about being in the Calf competition here.

The slideshow that you can view below here is of some of the art activities that students from Auroa Primary School were involved in this year.  In each classroom students had to produce four pieces of art for judging.  The 'Snail' picture that you can see on this post is Riley P's prize winning snap. Calf and Lamb Day 2014 Art on PhotoPeach

Calf and Lamb Day 2014: Calves

CLD2014Part2 - Video Maker

Calf and Lamb Day: Lamb Photos

Today at Auroa Primary School we held of annual Calf and Lamb Day, a huge event for our school and a wonderful event for so many of our students. These images were taken by Logan from Room One during the event.

CLD2014Lamb - Video Maker

Calf and Lamb Day 2014

Its here - the biggest day in Auroa Primary Schools calendar for the year. The 2014 Calf and Lamb Day. We have one hundred students who are bringing either Calves or Lambs tomorrow and our students have been preparing for their classrooms with their art displays, some of which you can see by viewing the slideshow below: Lamb and Calf Day 2014 on PhotoPeach

Lamb and Calf Day 2014: Photographic Entries

Lamb and Calf Day 2014 Preparation

Its coming this week, the biggest single event of 2014@Auroa Primary School takes place, Calf and Lamb Day. Around one hundred Calf and Lambs have been entered in our competition by our students who will be competing for supreme prize, on Thursday 16th October. As part of the day students are preparing art based activities for displays in the classroom. These photographs are some of the Auroa Primary School students from Monday 13th October 2014.

LambCalfDay2014 - Video Maker

Lamb and Calf Day 2014

Thanks so much for your visit to our class blog.  We've just finished the term three holidays for 2014 and students of Auroa Primary School will be returning to school on Monday 13th October 2014.   We've got some massive school events occurring this term as we move towards the end of the year. This coming week we have our 2014 Lamb and Calf Day on Thursday 16th October.  You can follow the link to this amazing event on our school website.  We've also used the fantastic work of Mr Bloor, who produced this brilliant highlights video from the 2013 event.

We will be recording this event when it occurs and will be posting media once the event has occurred.  Stay tuned.

Those of you who are looking to collaborate or communicate with the class we look forward to getting in touch with you this coming week.

Lamb and Calf Day Plans

This coming Thursday on 16th October Auroa Primary School are holding our biggest day of the year, our Calf and Lamb Day Fundraiser. The whole school and local community will be buzzing. Room One have some special responsibilities on the day, part of which are the fundraising that takes place on the courtyard outsides Room One to Four. We've already had our market day this year, where our students ran businesses, and this is another opportunity for our students to show their ideas and creativity 

Thomas Report about NZAIMS Golf

During term three we had students from Auroa Primary School competing in several national and international events. We had our Girls Basketball team competing against 23 schools from all over New Zealand. We had our Robotics team claiming regional, national and international honours. We also had our Golf Team competing in the NZAIMS Games in Tauranga. The team put on amazing performance making sure that Auroa were well represented. Brylee claimed individual third, and the team came third in the competition. 

Thomas, who was part of that team wrote an amazing recount about the event: 

NZAIMS Games 2014 
Day1 Omokoroa golf course. The day started off chilly we had to be at the course at 7.15 am for the managers meeting and collect our cards and get the run down on how the day was going to run. This course was a lot like our home course Manaia. We tee off at different times and we weren't in the same groups as our friends. Fletcher and Brylee tee off first at 8 am on different tees then Riley and Thomas went of at 8.28 also off different tees. The day warmed up and so did we. Thomas shot 114 Fletcher shot 106 Riley shot 107 and Brylee shot 106.

Day 2 Omanu golf course. The day was hot as we didn't tee off till 12 pm. The course was a mess as the whole course had been cored and that made it really tricky cause the ball didn't roll it just stopped dead. We all played in the same 3s or 4s as we had played in the day before. Thomas shot 112 Fletcher shot 102 Riley shot 113 Brylee shot 99.

Day 3 Tauranga golf course. We tee off 12.30 pm as we could have ago against a pro on a 120 meter hole getting closest to the pin and I bet him and won a pitch marker. I was super pleased with myself. This was my favorite course had some very big steep hills on the front nine and flat tricky fairways on the back nine. We only had a couple of rain showers all afternoon mum was pleased. Today I got to go round with Fletcher and Riley was in the group behind us and Brylee was in the group in front. Thomas shot 100 Fletcher shot 102 Riley shot 105 Brylee shot 97.

Day 4 final day Mt Maunganui golf course. We tee off at 8am another early morning for us and today it was raining. This course was also amazing and lots of bunkers on the fairways and by the greens. We were all feeling the strain on our body's our legs, backs and feet were getting so sore but we had to soldier on. Today I got to go round with Riley. Thomas shot 106 Fletcher shot 107 Riley shot 112 Brylee shot 105. We had prize giving once everyone's cards were handed in. Brylee got 3rd overall for stable ford points for the girls over 3 days and as a team over 4 days we got 3rd. We all got medals we were stoked with all our effort. These were mine and mums thoughts about NZAIMS Games 2014.Bronwyn " was awesome experience, the golf courses were great, the children were really lucky to be able to go and meet other children that also have the same sporting interest" Thomas " felt very lucky that I was able to go and play on these golf course. I really enjoyed it"

Return of the Kings! - The Robos

This video is for everyone who couldn't be present to see the Robos, Auroa Primary Schools Robotics Team, return to New Plymouth Airport on Monday.  The boys are the New Zealand National Robotic Theatre Champions, but also have won the Australian title as well!

Its been front page news in the Taranaki Daily News, as well as online as well.  A superb achievement from the team.  You can read online articles about the teams victory here.

We are extremely proud of the entire team of students and their amazing achievement.  Mrs Knapman, our Robotics teacher also deserves the warmest congratulations for her efforts in working with the team.  This video was filmed at New Plymouth Airport on Monday.

Return of the Kings from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

Auroa School: Australian Robocup Champions!

Breaking News! The Robos Auroa Primary School Robotics team 'the Robos' have had an amazing achievement claiming first place in the Australian Robocup Competition!

The Boys are already regional and national champions and today in Australia, the team have been declared champions competing not only against teams from Australia but China as well. We are going to be publishing footage and details of the event when it comes to hand.
The Robos 25/9/14 from Myles Webb on Vimeo.
In the meantime for those of you who want to see what all the fuss was about this video is from Thursday 25th September, the day before Tom, Lucas, James and Michael travelled to Australia for competition. They showed their full performance, which was considerably different from previous versions to the school. Recorded by Harley from Room One.

This version of the performance is significantly different from the boys national winning performance, for Australia the Boys had to work with a three metre square mat (instead of 1.8m).  Also in the New Zealand version our Boys were limited to four robots, for Australia the team had to adapt to having unlimited robots as well.

On behalf of the school we would like to congratulate all the team, their families and friends for the fantastic support that they have received for this amazing achievement.   It goes without saying that there is significantly more material to come.

Good Luck to the Robo's!

Today, while it is the start of the school holidays for term three in New Zealand not all our students are taking a break. Our national winning Auroa Primary School Robotics team 'The Robos' is taking part in the Australia Junior Robocup Competition in Brisbane, Australia. We of course will have footage of this extremely special event shortly. Good luck!

RobosFinalRehearsal - Video Maker

Auroa Primary@Taranaki Trophy Finals

On Thursday 25th September Auroa Primary School had a very special event, our boys rugby team made it through to the final of the Taranaki Trophy. It was the first time for Auroa Primary School that we had made the final. Standing in our way of glory was a daunting prospect, St Josephs Hawera, who had won the corresponding game at Auroa School earlier in the season by twelve points. Auroa were hoping for a similar half time score from this game, which had them leading at half time.

TaranakiTrophy2014 - Video Maker

However the final ended up being straight forward. St Jospehs played an awesome game and took a convincing 0-22 lead going into the second half. The final score ended up being 19-67 to St Josephs, however Auroa Primary School were proud of our Boys team for making it through to the final, and a number of the team will be looking to back up next year. Harley from Room One was on site during the final, he took these images and also recorded the game. We'll be shortly posting his amazing footage from the event, filmed on Thursday 25th September at Yarrows Stadium, New Plymouth.

Tom and James: 2014 - Highlights

We've had some students involved in some amazing projects at the moment, and during the course of the year. Tom and James, who are both competing with the Auroa Primary School Robotics Team in the Australian Junior Robocup at the end of this week, in Brisbane, have had some amazing adventures this year. What's more they've been able to document and record some of their amazing experiences. This video is highlights of some of the things that they've been up to - a highlights of their adventures. A hundred percent student created and designed.

Lynski Dravitski: September 19th Highlights - Rugby

These highlights, filmed by Riley M. from Room One are of the Lynski-Dravitski Shield Challenge game between Auroa Primary School and St Josephs Opunake, which took place on Friday 19th September, at St Josephs.  The shield is contested each year between Auroa and St Josephs.   Auroa were able to win the shield for the first time in 2013 and were looking to defend it for the first time.  Following clear wins in Soccer (12-0) and a convincing win in Netball, the Rugby team was looking for a clean sweep.  Having only lost this season to St Josephs (Hawera), who we play in the finals of the Taranaki Trophy at Yarrows Stadium this Thursday, Auroa was looking for a solid display.   The game in the early stages was dominated by St Josephs who at one time took a twenty point lead.

ST Joes Opunake VS Auroa from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

This video shows the last parts of the second half as Auroa begun to swing control of the game back to themselves. Its our first game of 2014 filmed with different equipment. We are thinking critically about such an exciting game (which ended in a 36-36 draw) and what we could do differently with the filming. Would a tripod have helped? Is it better than when we used an ipad but we couldn't zoom in on the action? What rules would we have for the camera person in future that would help the recording? Riley wasn't expecting to be given the job, circumstances meant it was thrust into his hands, and he filmed the action at St Josephs School, Opunake, on Friday 19th September 2014.

Visit Mr Boylens Class Page

Visiting Mr Boylens Class page.  You need to click on the link to this class page.  Look/view some of the posts.   Can you locate where in the world the class is located? How can you tell this? What information leads you to make this conclusion?

Find a book review from a student in Mr Boylens class.  If you have read the book that they are talking about leave a comment to the student who has written the post (remembering the criteria that we have discussed for posting comments on other students work).  If you have not read the books that are listed in the post then find another post from a student that you find interesting and leave that student a comment.

Taranaki Daily News Online: Robotics.

Those of you who missed the feature on 'The Robos' Auroa Schools National winning Robotics Theatre Champions can access the article online from here.    The big news at school from last week is the fact that the team of Tom, Michael, James and Lucas (all from Room One) are now preparing for the Australian Robocup which is taking place this weekend in Brisbane, Australia.  

The team is preparing all this week, before departing on Friday on this hugely exciting adventure.  A great opportunity for students to fly the flag of Auroa Primary School overseas.

Odd Shoe Day@Auroa Primary School 2014

On Friday 19th September Auroa Primary School held a mufti-day and odd shoe day, as a fundraiser for Camp Quality, which is a Camp that specialises in providing Camps for students with Cancer.  Al the students from Auroa Primary School were able to wear mufti clothes and were encouraged to wear different shoes as part of the day.  Kaiah and Meg from Room One went around Auroa Primary School taking images of all of the students who supported such a worthy cause.

OddShoeDay2014@APS - Video Maker

Auroa Primary School - Lynski/Dravitski Results

This afternoon Auroa Primary School retained the Lynski/Dravitski Shield defeating our rivals St Josephs Opunake.   Auroa Primary School won Soccer 12-0.   In Netball Auroa defeated St Josephs 32-21.  Finally in Rugby the score was 36-36 in a extremely close and tense game.   More footage to follow.

Coming up this week on Thursday 25th September the Aura Primary School Rugby team have the final of the Taranaki Trophy Competition at Yarrows Stadium against St Josephs Hawera.  The teams has already met in competition this term, with Auroa taking a strong half time lead at half time which St Josephs Hawera were able to overturn to win by 12.

MT SPA - Cross Country Results 2014

On Thursday 18th of September the top students from Auroa Primary School who had placed well in our school Cross Country travelled to Manaia Golf Course to take place in the 2014 MT SPA Cluster Cross Country.  MT SPA is the collective grouping of the Primary Schools in the area.

The students who were competing were looking for a top ten finish with the hope of moving forward to the next stage of the competition, namely the Taranaki Primary Schools competition in Hawera next Wednesday.

Room One students who achieved significant results were Emily who finished in top position and won the Senior Girls race.   Izzy came 5th and Alice placed 6th.  Jack was the top finishing R1 boy, in 3rd place just ahead of Michael in 4th, with Keifer rounding out the R1 results in 10th.

There is reports and media from this event to follow from the students shortly.  In the meantime once again Mr Bloor has done a fantastic job producing some amazing work and media from a school event.  This is our school cross country highlights for 2014.

Megs APS Market Day Recount

Sold Out - Meg's Market Day 2014 Recount

My stomach churned as I stepped foot in the classroom. I eyed up the work that need to be done and felt lightheaded. I knew standing there wouldn’t help, so I pulled up my sleeves and got head in work.

Dragging those desks on to the deck and seeing everyone else setup made it feel so much more real. As we lay out our product on the desk war broke out over what goes where and what lay out looked best.

“SALE STARTS NOW” announced Mr Chittenden through his bullhorn. Suddenly a swarm of children came barreling towards us. Coin after coin, Note after note, we were quickly making quite a large profit. After twenty minutes we were sold out and exhausted!

In the end we were all so proud of the product we had put forward to the community and each other. We made around two hundred dollars. Drinking jars are a hit!!!      

Recently we held our School Market Day to celebrate the end of our AKO (inquiry) for Term Two and Three, as regular followers of this blog will know. Each of the students wrote a recount about the significant event. This was authored by Meg from Room One.

NZCT NZAIMS Golf 2014

Last week Auroa Primary School competed in the NZAIMS (New Zealand Association Intermediate and Middle Schools) Tournament. We were won of 238 schools competing in sixteen sports. We had teams in Girls Basketball and Golf. The golf team had a special time taking 3rd in the teams competition and Brylee Winter achieved 3rd in the Girls stroke competition. These images were taken from Monday September 8th to Thursday September 11th in Tauranga, Omokora, Omanu, Tauranga and Mount Manganui. They were taken by team manager Mrs Elliot. Slideshow created by Thomas and Riley P. NZCT AIMS Games Golf on PhotoPeach

Guest Post from Sua@Taupaki School

This term students from Auroa Primary School in Taranaki have been learning Korean under the instruction of Mr Spice from Room Three. As part of our learning we were looking at other students to help us. We used our contacts and were lucky enough to make a connection with Sua, a student from Taupaki School, in Auckland. Sua has been sensational help to our students, Tutoring us in Korean and sharing her knowledge with our learning. She's recently written a post about the experience of working with our students. You can click on her post here.

This extract is taken from her post:

As an immigrant in New Zealand, it’s quite a pleasure for teaching my language to the Kiwis, and of course learning English too.

I am teaching Korean to Auroa school students at the moment, and I am waiting to do that for every single week, because even though they have a bit of an accent, slightly incorrect pronunciations and stuff, it is quite a joy to hear Korean in the middle of the teacher’s office, especially in a absolute Kiwi school. Plus,they have started the Korean lesson at the beginning of the year (but they started Skyping with me in the middle of term three) and in fact, I have as a bit surprised by so less accent at the first time of Skyping!

You can click on the link to read her entire post here.

Auroa School Robotics: The Regionals

Such excitement at the moment at Auroa Primary School. Earlier this year we had a number of teams (nine) competing in the Robocup Regionals at Whanganui. This was the first step for our teams for an attempt at the national New Zealand title. The Robos, Tom, Lucas, Michael and James were able to win the regional competition and as some of you will know from visiting our class page or school page they have also recently triumphed and won the New Zealand Title for Robotic Theatre. We couldn't be more proud of the boys and their fantastic effort. We've been holding onto some amazing footage at the different stages of competition and now its been completed we are able to officially share some of the previously footage was a closely guarded secret. This is the footage of the original Whaganui Robocup Prize Winning Performance, the team (les James who was unavailable as he was overseas) taking the title in convincing fashion.

The Robos: Whanganui Robocup Performance from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

The biggest news related to this are not only The Robos regional, and national champions, later this term they are taking on the Australians as the team are preparing to go to Australia for the Australian Robocup at the end of the month. We will be of course updating the blog with posts about this and shortly sharing footage with you of the Boys National winning performance in Dunedin.

Auroa Primary School: Mr Toft's Cup Challenge!

As we mentioned earlier in the week we saw a challenge from Mr Toft in Canada involving rubber bands, string and cups.  You can click on the link to the original post here.  We didn't see the video original video in Canada, it came through Mrs Monaghans A Room With a View site and she posted about it when a class in India competed the challenge.   A great idea that started in one country and now four different countries have completed it at the very least.   Thanks to Mr Toft, Mrs Mongahan for the great idea! Filmed at Auroa Primary School on Wednesday 17th September 2014.

The Cup Challenge 17/9 from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

Auroa Primary School - Our Special Visitor Returns...

On Monday we had an unexpected visitor at Auroa Primary School - Scott Donaldson, who had attempted early in the year to kayak between Australia and New Zealand.   Unfortunately he was unable to complete this amazing feat, having to abandon the attempt just short.  The story didn't end there of course, because his abandoned kayak eventually washed up on the farm of one of our students, before it was recovered.  It featured on the national news! On Monday Scott came back and brought his Kayak with him and answered some questions from students at Auroa Primary School.  It was another opportunity to see the kayak up close and this time to also here Scott talk about his amazing adventures.   These pictures were taken by Harley from Room One on Monday 15th September, 2014.

ScottDonaldson2 - Video Maker

Some of the other classrooms of Auroa Primary School have written already about Scotts visit. If you click on the link here you can hear about his visit to Room 8.

Mr Tofts' Cup Challenge by way of the UK

We're always looking for examples and opportunities to collaborate with classrooms around the world.  Recently we were looking at Mrs Monaghan A Room with a View: Class Three.   They featured a fantastic video that mention Mr Toft and his class from Canada - where the original post was from.  We tracked it down, listening carefully to the instructions and have had a rehearsal today to ensure that we can complete the video/task in full tomorrow.   These images were put together by Kaiah, Meg and Brylee.

Featured in the Student Blogging Challenge

Today Room One discovered some fantastic news - we've had our work featured in Miss W's Student Blogging Challenge.  The challenge which is run every year, features the best online work and is a great introduction to online blogging with classroom and student challenges.   Miss W has highlighted the work of Alyssa in writing an introduction about Auroa Primary School and our area from the start of the year.   You can click on the link to see the feature here, and you can sign up for the blogging challenge here.  If you want to click on Alyssa's blog you can do so here.

Its a great introduction for blogging for teachers looking for resources and ideas and wonderful to see some of our other online friends mentioned - Mrs Yollis from the USA and our friends from If Only the Best Birds Sang in Ireland.  You can click on the links to the wonderful work of these fantastic teachers and classrooms here.