Myths: Connor and the Spider by Nathan

Conner and the Spider

Conner was a normal dude in a normal house built into a hill in the country… until one day when his life was changed… for ever!

It was a dark and doomy day when the beast descended from his mountain cave (before the portal started up) and came down in to the valley.

Conner was out walking when the beast went into his house, trashed it and stole his father’s legendary diamond sword. When Conner got home he noticed instantly that the sword was gone. He ran outside and saw footprints in the mud that the now beginning rain had made leading up to a mountain in the far distance.

The sword was legendary because Conner’s father had killed the only giant acid shooting spider in the world with that sword. Before he –Conner’s father had died he had taught Conner how to track the spider if another spider ever came along so Conner knew instantly that that’s what the tracks were from.

“It must be after that sword which with my father killed the first spider” Conner said to himself. Then he rushed into his house only to grab some food, some spare clothes and a backpack to carry the stuff in. then he rushed out and started the long walk tracking the spider. Three days later the tracks of the spider went into a cave and disappeared into a blue haze. It was as hypnotic as a python’s eye. Conner tried to follow but the blue haze was a portal that had started when the spider came back to his cave and he was teleported to the other side of the mountain.

He was walking back up the mountain when he fell into a hole in the mountain and when he got back up a god appeared and the god said to him “that hole that you fell into then, is a secret way into the spiders cave. So secret in fact that even the spider doesn’t know about it –not that he’d want to, he’s too big to fit into it.” Then he gave Conner a magic axe that he could use to shut down the portal at the end of the fight.

Conner sneaked into the hole –he was going to take no chances even if the spider didn’t know he was there. Finally he came across some metal bars. He swung his axe and the metal bars splintered and broke. He ran out at the spider and before the spider knew what was happening Conner had cut off one of its legs! But the spider had a surprise for him too and shot acid at him the shot missed but hit the axe instead and it was blown into smithereens. Conner looked wildly around for a way to escape and his eyes fell on his father’s magic sword ran over dodging in-between the spider’s legs and picked it up. The spider shot acid at it but it could not be destroyed. He ran at the spider and cut off its head. Then he destroyed the portal and went home. He hadn’t become famous for killing the beast like his father had but he had rid the world of a fearsome dangerous beast. He had completed his quest.

By Nathan      

Confirmation with Bishop Colin.

http://www.postcardsforpeace.org/design-competition-winners/

Congratulations to Eleri who won the international Postcards for Peace Design competition for ages 8-11. Well done!

What does Peace mean to me? by Keeley aged 9 from St Teresa's School in Bluff NZ. 

Peace is being kind, which means people giving each other handshakes, holding hands in unity, and caring for each other. Peace is being Peacemakers and not Peacebreakers. Peace means no more war. No punching! 

When I close my eyes and think of peace I see praying for Syria and the children who are suffering. 

People love each other and they dont say I hate you. 

Peace 
Everybody
All of us together
Caring 
Everything should be about peace.

Peace means people helping others, no war, people being kind to each other and trying to be a peacemaker. 

Peace 
Everyone is kind
 Another happy thing 
Caring and sharing
 Every day everlasting 

Eleri age 10 St Teresa's Bluff NZ

My peace poem by Nathan St Teresa's Bluff NZ 

Peace is good 
Everyone needs it 
All around us 
Caring for other people
 Earth needs it

Peace to me means wars stopping, peace at home, peacemakers not peacebreakers. When I close my eyes and think of peace I see... black and white children playing together.

Praying
Earth peace
Amazing
Cease wars
End of sadness

Ayla Aged 9 

Winners of the speech comp. Well done Ayla. Third place.

Our fabulous netball team in action at the ILT Stadium for their final game of the season.

Checking footprints in our tracking tunnels

Creative report writing on invented animal.

The Zambie by Zayne.

A Zambie is a cat like animal. It has slimy skin and long feathers so it can glide. It's so strong it could move a huge rock. It has good eyes and it can see through fog and it can see in the darkness. It only needs water when it's slime comes off but it will regenerate its slime on its skin. They are very  rare. You would be an millionaire if you owned one. They live in the jungle and they sleep in the bush to keep camouflaged but their skin is dark green.  The slime on their skin is green. Sometimes it is unfriendly to humans  but only if you annoy it or attack it. It only eats leafs and vegetables.

SOLO taxonomy hand signals

We use SOLO taxonomy to assess our writing and show us where we are and what our next steps are. Students of all ages can use SOLO levels, rubrics and frameworks to answer the following questions:

• What am I learning?
• How is it going?
• What do I do next?

SOLO Taxonomy (structure of observed learning outcomes) provides a simple, reliable and robust model for three levels of understanding – surface deep and conceptual (Biggs and Collis 1982).

At the prestructural level of understanding, the task is inappropriately attacked, and the student has missed the point or needs help to start. The next two levels, unistructural and multistructural are associated with bringing in information (surface understanding). At the unistructural level, one aspect of the task is picked up, and student understanding is disconnected and limited. The jump to the multistructural level is quantitative. At the multistuctural level, several aspects of the task are known but their relationships to each other and the whole are missed. The progression to relational and extended abstract outcomes is qualitative. At the relational level, the aspects are linked and integrated, and contribute to a deeper and more coherent understanding of the whole. At the extended abstract level, the new understanding at the relational level is re-thought at another conceptual level, looked at in a new way, and used as the basis for prediction, generalisation, reflection, or creation of new understanding (Hook and Mills 2011).

                        Couper and Keeley using given success criteria for Instruction Writing to make a                                                           rubric showing the steps at each stage.

Lots of petting for Brownie

peace poetry

                                                        

                               My Peace Poem

Always be friendly

You have to say no more wars        

Now peace starts with me.

By Nathan        

                                   

Article about us in the Southland Times.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/82979546/st-teresas-school-pupils-celebrate-schools-peace-week

Front page of the Eye today

SOLES FOR SYRIA

http://www.soles.org.nz/

On Thursday 11th August, we will be having a shoe less day for Syria.

From our headgirl Teneille:


"Tomorrow we are having a Soles for Syria day where we will not wear shoes for a day and give a donation. I contacted the students who are running it and said we are going to take part. They want to raise $50,000 for Syria. "

Soles for syria

This week is NZ Peace Week. The theme for this is Dialogues for Peace.
The Peace Foundation New Zealand, started Schools' Peace Week to educate people of the consequences of nuclear war and to campaign for a world of nuclear weapons. The date of Schools’ Peace Week commemorates Hiroshima Day on 6 August, and Nagasaki Day on 9 August. The event has become increasingly popular in New Zealand and abroad each year and students are engaged in various activities, which promote peaceful practices in our schools and communities.  By making small changes we are able to empower people to create a safe world based on justice and human rights as well as to build a sustainable environment and peaceful relationships.
We have been making peace jigsaws which will link together to show unity. We will also design a mural which will be painted onto the school wall in Term 4. Yesterday Joanne from the Express newspaper came to interview us and take a photo. She was amazed at how much work we were doing around the theme of Peace. We also made posters to show what a peacemaker and a peacebreaker is. The children are trying hard to be peacemakers in our classrooms.

Pugs

Pugs
They are from China they where bred to be a guard dog. They have a mark on their forhead that was mentioned to say 'Prince'in Chinese. Some say they are the cutest dogs.
And they are. It costs over $1000 to get one and medical costs are expensive. Sometimes their eye balls can pop out. If you see them doing that you just have to put them back in and not go to the vets but it happens a lot in one day you will have to. Sometime they will stop breathing because of their flat face. If you want to see more go here 
http://pugtips.com/health-issues za/  and that's my report for pugs.
By Couper

Insect hotel

The juniors have built an insect hotel to attract bugs to our garden.

Dougal listening to Tiare read.

Dreamweaver telling stories at school today.

Spider girls tried to find spiders

Sunflowers being cut out.

Sunflowers from room 3

Junior art. Sunflowers

Sunflowers by Sarah

School by Irene.

School has so fun in the last week we got to do paintings  of sunflowers and a starry night  their  all really pretty !!!!!!!!   For the social studies  fair me and my friend Hannah did it on James Henry Whitaker. It was so much fun.   Maths is                  my favorite subject  and on multiplication and division  I am  finally on early stage 8. We also done cross country that was fun I was really puffed after it  though  cause there was so much running.        

School has been great so far!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This term we have done beach clean up, cross country, Anzac commemoration, social study fair, art, kapa haka. 

2016 so far at school.

School has been amazing!!!!!!!!!!
So far this year we  have done so much, like beach clean up, kapa haka, oh and did I mention that I got head girl so exiting!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 We also did social studies and entered the Social Sciences Fair. I did mine on Samuel Morse.
(This is not my board but you get the picture)
We also did speeches. I did not win but my friend did and I'm happy for her.

I am really sad about leaving to go to High School at the end of the year.   

Cleaning the shcool

Cleaning the school is boring from moving wood chips to taking out Staples out of the wall. Some times I think our teacher is  a very smart person for putting a Staple gun on auto fire.
When were move in hay to the chickens I would be a crash test dummy and ride on top I fell out 3 times didn't hurt. We made a pass out of the wood chips and built a small wall around it and blocked of a way to get on. Picking up junk at school : well once we were pretending to be a sniper sniping cars and blowing them up, and there's muddy place in our way so we went through getting stuck and if we get something for doing it we well go to this place in our grounds that the person beside us throws bottle over and we grab them and put them in our bags. Doing this was fun when it made our huts better but now it's getting really bad here. I like drawing now in breaks. Evey thing they do to make this place better takes  stuff away that we like so it gets boring here.When we take staples out of the wall I stepped on like 5 last time. 

Now there's a thing we are to make less mess and less fights: 1 day the boys are in the hall. Girls get 4 days and most of this we do in our breaks and our work things not environment Friday and we will do it just before lunch so my hands where wet because they didn't have a towel to dry our hands and now they have this thing where we have to start having  like roles in Friday when my favourite part of that day was getting yum food so now it's boring and I love going home now as lot more than anything in my life I hate this. We did planting trees like a week later we put a fat hill  of wood chips and that kills trees by crashing them most of the stuff we do here it's ... unless or makes the brakes bad thats it.

St. Teresa's is awesome.

Hi my name is Nehemiah and I am happy St Teresa's because I am smart. I don't get bullied and I have lots off friends. And I heard that it will push me to be good at stuff.

Alley Cats

Sleep creep in the night while everyone is asleep.
The alley cats come out.
They go into the rubbish bins. 
They chew on the bones and eat the scraps.
Alley cats run to go and get their friends while then dogs are watching over the alley cats.
The dogs come out and hide. 
The dogs lick their lips  and quietly come out. 
The alley cats see the dogs and run off. 
They see some kids. 
The kids let the alley cats in. 
The dogs run past and can't see the alley cats. They leave cats. 
The dogs go back home to get some sleep.

Impressionist art.

The Sun

The sun reminds me of spring.
Spring  reminds me of yellow.
Yellow reminds me gold.
Gold reminds me of medals.
Medals remind me of cheese.
Cheese reminds me of mice.
Mice remind me of cats.
Cats remind me of fish.
Fish remind me of water.
Water reminds me of drinks.
Drinks remind me of the rain.
The rain reminds me of the sun.  

reminds me of

                                     apples remind me of trees .
                                   trees    remind me of autumn.
                                     Autumn reminds me of levees.
                                   levees  reminds me of sticks .
                                   sticks  reminds me of boats.
                                   boats  reminds  me of pirates
                                   pirates reminds  me of treasure.
                                    treasure reminds  me of  gold.
                                    gold reminds me of meddles.
                                    meddles reminds me of  champions.
                                   champions reminds me of winning.
                                   winning reminds me of losing .
                                  losing reminds me of trying.
                                trying reminds me happiness.
                              happiness reminds me of this poem

                             .

My Poem by Anahera

Money remind me of piggy bank
Piggy bank remind me of Birthdays
Birthday remind me of cake
Cake remind me of presents
Presents remind me of toys
Toys remind me of the shop
The shop remind me of money

Ciera's poem

Cats remind me of rats.
Rats remind me of ants.
Ants remind me of black.
Black reminds me of Dougal.
Dougal reminds me of dogs.
Dogs remind me of bears.
Bears remind me of fur.
Fur reminds me of cats.

school

School reminds me of house's.
House's remind me of people.
People remind me of games.
Games remind me of hopping.
Hopping reminds me of falling.
Falling reminds me of crying.
Crying reminds me of cuddles.
Cuddles remind me of playing.
Playing reminds me of school .

Trains

Trains 🚄 reminds me of planes✈
Planes remind me of cars 🚘
Cars remind me of roads 🌉
Roads remind me of cement➖
Cement reminds me of concrete slabs 📘
Concert slabs remind me of scooters
Scooters remind me of bikes🚴
Bikes remind me of down hill
Down hill reminds me of uphill
Uphill reminds me of rollercoaster's
Rollercoasters remind me of trains

Wati's poem

Dogs reminds me of cats .
Cats reminds me of kittens.
Kittens reminds me of mice.
Mice reminds me of cheese.
Cheese reminds me of ham.
Ham reminds me of pigs.
Pigs reminds me of farms.
Farms reminds me of sheep.
Sheep reminds me of lambs.
Lambs reminds me of dogs.

Working bee on playground.

Playground boxing.

Snowy the fox

I was standing there in the freezing snow. 
I was trying to find food. 
I dived in to the the deep snow,
trying to find field mice.
My first try I came up with nothing.
Second time I came up with a field mouse.
I was no longer hungry.
But the snow still fell.
I was still cold.

Why sugar is bad for you by Nehemiah.

Why sugar is bad for you by Nehemiah.

Sugar is bad for you because it fills you with empty calories and fat. It also rots your teeth and can give you cancer.

If you eat too much junk food, which is full of sugar, you will get fat.

People that don’t exercise won’t achieve anything. If you don’t exercise the sugar energy turns into fat. This can cause fatty liver disease. When people eat a lot of sugar they can get diseases like type 2 diabetes.

Sugar can also cause cancer. It can cause addiction. You get addicted to the sweetness. Sugar can give you heart disease. It’s not the fat that kills you. It’s the sugar! British people consume 238 teaspoons of sugar a week.

You can get vitamin C sugar or fat sugar. If you eat too much sugar you can become lazy. It brainwashes your brain to thinking you have loads of energy but if you don’t use the energy up, it turns to fat. If you eat too much sugar you might die of fatness. Sugar is bad for you!

Irene's speech about why pitbulls should not be banned.

Hi my name is Irene and I would like tell why Pitbulls should not be banned. I think that banning Pitbulls is stupid because …

The Pitbull has no inherent dangerous characteristics and banning would make no progress in safety.

Pitbull’s do not have the strongest jaws of all dog breeds in fact out of study that included Pitbulls, Rottweilers and German Shepard the Pitbull has the weakest jaws.

 Pitbulls may attack often but this may just be because they are   trained to do so. Some people just buy Pitbulls because they want tough dogs that can attack and be violent.

People who want dangerous dogs train them to be this way .just because Pitbulls attack more than any other dog doesn’t mean they attack a lot or a dangerous amount of time

They are dangerous because they are purposefully trained as a breed to be dangerous. If Pitbulls were banned another dog breed would be trained to be just as dangerous and no progress in safety would be made.

Some pit bulls get bad rap because of their irresponsible owners. We must as a society stop blaming the dog and start blaming the owner.

The average domestic dog has a jaw that can force 320 psi of pressure. In this same study the Pitbull maxed out at only 235 psi. Chihuahua’s have more bite than pitbulls!

With proper training and handling your Pitbull can learn to live peacefully in the company of other dogs and often cats as well.

Ken Howard award winning actor from crossing Jordan was saved by his Pitbull shadow during a medical crisis.

Though Pitbulls are athletic and love to play if they had their druthers they would be sleeping on the couch 24/7.

Pitbulls are very   easy to train all they want to do is please you. As they are so sensitive to your feeling verbal training comes easily with this breed.   

 Here are some facts about why I think Pitbulls should not be banned:

Pitbulls are no more vicious than golden retrievers. 

Pitbulls can’t lock their jaws.      

Pitbulls always test high as one of the most stable breeds of dogs in the country. 

Would you like it if pitbulls were banned and your dog got taken off you?

And that’s why I think pitbulls should not be banned .

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Teneille's speech about why we should recycle.

Why we should recycle.

Hi, my name is Teneille and I have a question for you. Would you like to live in polluted air? I know I wouldn’t!

 There are lots of reasons why we should recycle there’s pollution to landfills their all polluting our air. Next thing you know where dying and suffocating. If we don’t start to recycle we will die.

Here are some reasons why we should recycle.

1.    We need to reduce pollution. We can do that by:

Recycling more and not sending things to landfills.

2.    Reduction in landfills: the size of landfills can be significantly reduced if we start to recycle. Yes that’s right, it’s that easy!!!!

3.     Conservation of materials: all the new products are made from the raw materials which are produced from harvesting the natural material.     

How long will litter last?

Aluminium cans….500 years.

Glass bottles….1, 000, 000.

Plastic bags….10-20 years.

Plastic jugs….1, 000,000.

Tin soup can….80-100 years.

Disposable paper….500 years.

Rubber boot sole….50-80 years.

Leather….50 years.

Wool sock….1 year.

Orange and banana skins….3-4 week.

Cigarette butts….1-5 years.

That a lot for just litter.

Only an idiot would not recycle! If that person did not recycle we would all die because of how polluted our air is. Did you know? That not only is it bad to put electronics into the land fill, they are filled with valuable resources and materials including metals, plastic and glass. So, instead of throwing them out you can donate them to a charity organization or recycle them.

Here are some of the things I know about recycling.Recycling benefits everyone, REALLY! There is a limited amount of space on earth for us to live on!! Because we do not recycle. Recycling one ton of paper can save: 4,100 kilowatts of  power, 172 trees and 7000 gallons of water (that’s two tanker trucks!)

My school is trying to get a green gold award. We recycle paper, so then trees can get sent to us. We have also been renovating our adventure playground and keeping our school clean. So now I hope you can see my point of view of why we should recycle!!!!!!

Hannah's speech on rats on Bluff Hill.

Rat traps should be set on Bluff Hill by Hannah.

Would    you   like   it  if  there  was   no  birds  chirping   when  you  go  for  a  walk ?  It   might  happen   because of rats.  Hello  my  name  is  Hannah.  I am   9  years  old  and  I  am  going to tell you  about why   rats   are   not   good  for  birdlife. 

        There are three types of rats Norway ship and kiore. Kiore are poor swimmers. If   you   aren’t   setting traps to catch  the   rats    the    number of   birdlife  will   go  down. If  this  happens   I   will   go  wild   because   when  I go  for a walk  I  would  not   be  able  to  listen   to birds  chirping. 

Ship rats are causing the most damage  to our wild life  and nature because they are good climbers so they can climb up to the highest nests in the trees.

DOC administers 230  islands off the coast on NZ.   15 of these islands have kiore, maori rats.  Rat traps on DOC administered islands   would    reduce   the rats by  only  four   percent . Doc, heath and regional authorities are involved in posing operations to ensure risk to humans the environment and non- target   species is minimized. 

Bluff  has   set  up   rat   traps  at  Bluff  Hill. Rats   have  a major  impact  on  New  Zealand  wild life   because  rats  eat  native    animals  and their  eggs.   If you aren’t   trapping rats  more, poor birds   and their eggs  will   suffer .

You can help by putting poisoning in your house and set rat traps somewhere safe outside. If we don’t do something one day birds will be extinct and  we need do something or else other people won’t  grow up listening to birds chirping  like us and chasing birds or watching them.

Rats are not good for bird life and nature. It is now winter so the rats are coming out and going into our houses so put up rat traps or poisoning in your house.. I do rat trapping with my grandad up Bluff Hill you too should do something to help the birds. Thanks for listening to my speech.