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Green Light Man- The movie

This year "The Digi Club" made a movie to be entered into the MADE awards. This is the movie that was entered and made the finals. (Top 5 movies) Tonight the winner will be announced- Check out the movie. Well done digi club and Mrs Burnett and Miss Byers!- good luck all!

Official results through- 3rd place in MADE awards 2015 for story telling category. Congratulations all involved!! What a great achievement.

CAMP 2015!

Eric teaches us how to make a Shuriken

On Tuesday we had another great Teach me Tuesday time. Eric taught us how to make an origami ninja star (shuriken). It was pretty tricky, but we all persisted and most of us were able to make a folded star.

Here are photos of our teach me Tuesday session and a youtube link for those who want to try to make a shuriken at home.

Term 4 newsletter

It's Term 4 already! Where has the year gone?
It's looking like it's going to be another really exciting and challenging term. Click on the link below to read about some of the things we'll be doing in the Thunderbolts community this term.

Click here to read the newsletter

Teach Me Tuesday with Daniel and Brianna

In week 10 of term 3 we had another great Teach me Tuesday with Daniel and Brianna. Both taught us a little bit about how to do their speciality areas. 
Firstly, Daniel taught us about his sport: Tae Kwon do. We learnt a few basic moves and he showed us how he puts these all together. He was pretty awesome! Watch his Black belt moves below.

Next, Brianna taught us a few basic ballet steps and ballet positions. Thanks to Daniel and Brianna-You were both very confident and patient teachers!

Our enclosure design process

This term we have been learning about the design process. Our learning began with the trip to the zoo where we explored the specifically designed animal enclosures and noticed the considerations needed. We discovered that an enclosure needs to consider three main parties:

• the animal (of course)
• the public
• and the zoo staff

We also learnt that a modern zoo enclosure has to look naturalistic and try to replicate the natural environment of the animal, using planting and features that would be found in their natural habitats. They also needed to have enrichment activities for the animal so that it can continue to demonstrate its natural behaviours.

Our enclosures had specific success criteria:

• to have a private areas for the animal
• to have playing area for animal 
• to include enrichment activities for the animal
• to include public viewing areas
• to include barriers/boundary fencing (that may be disguised with planting)
• to include planting and natural features

We had heaps of fun creating our enclosures. Here are some photos of our finished designs.

Room 8 and 13 collaborate together

Today Room 8 and 13 worked together to make fantastic tetrahedron kites out of straws, string and plastic bags. 

It was a whole lot of fun! 

Here are some photos of us collaborating:

Liam teaches us how to make Cheesy Penne!

We had another great Teach me Tuesday yesterday. Liam brought in a lot of delicious ingredients and we threw them all togther to make a delicious Italian inspired cheesy pasta. 

First we boiled water for the penne pasta. Next we fried onions, chilli and garlic. Next we added a can of diced tomatoes. Then we added mozzarella cheese and a dash of red wine vinegar, salt and pepper and sugar for flavour balance. It was beginning to smell delcious. Last we added torn up basil.

It simmered and reduced, and the cheese melted into a stringy consistency.

Finally, it was time to taste the creation. Mrs Millett spooned steaming pasta and gloopy sauce into little cups. We then sprikled parmesan over the pasta. It was delicious!! Thanks Liam- it was a fantastic Teach me Tuesday!!

Teach me Tuesday - Week 6!

It was Teach me Tuesday again today. We really enjoyed both of our lessons. First up, Feifei and Jennifer taught us how to make origami folding heart boxes. They did a really great job explaining the procedure to us, and were really patient when we needed help too!

Here's the instructions of how to make a heart box.
Start on blank side

1. Fold squared paper in half horizontally and then diagonally.
2. Fold all corners into the centre point
3. Open up and flip over
4. Fold one corner into the first crease and repeat on the opposite side
5. Fold again to the next crease and repeat on the opposite side
6. Fold again on both sides
7. Rotate 90 degrees. Take one flap and align it with the centre crase. Repeat on the other side.
8. Flatten it down. Take the triangles and bring it to the middle. Repeat on the other side.
9. Fold the top point into the centre and fold the flap in 1/2.
10. Repeat instructions 7-10 on the other side
11. Now it should be able to open up
12. Then fold the top flaps into a heart shape (optional)
13. You are finished!

Next we had a chocolate chip cookie making lesson with Leanne. We all participated to make a cookie dough, and then enjoyed eating delicious warm cookies. 
Thanks Leanne!

If you would like to make the cookies at home here's the recipe.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Ingredients

• 1 cup (softened butter)    

• 2 eggs
• 2 cup chocolate chips
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup brown sugar
• ½ cup white sugar
• 2 cup flour

Method:

1. Put the butter in a bowl and add the white sugar

and brown sugar then mix with a mixer.

2. Break in the 2 eggs. Make sure there's no shells in it.

3. Add the vanilla and then mix with the mixer.

4. Mix flour,salt and baking powder in another bowl.

5. Pour dry ingredients into mixture.

6. Use a spoon to scrape around the edges

7. Pour in the chocolate chips. Mix with a spatula

8. Roll into balls. Place on oven trays.

9. Bake for 10 mins at 190 degrees.

When they are done let them cool down for some time.

AJHS Spell it Out! competition

On Tuesday eight Year 6 super spellers from UHPS competed in the annual AJHS "Spell it Out!" spelling bee. The team consisited of boys and girls from each Year 5/6 class. They were joined by several other local schools inclusing Albany primary, Whangaparoa primary, Glenfield primary, Greenhithe primary and Oteha Valley primary schools. 

In the first round  of the competition the teams had to spell words in categories ranging from "Dog Breeds" to "homonyms". In the second round a group of 24 competed against each other by spelling individual words. It was pretty daunting and each student did really well!

Here are photos from the event. Well done to our 2015 UHPS spelling team: Caiden, Xavier R, Brianna, Levi, Xavier G, Leo, Zaayah and Marina!

And the winner is....

Yesterday Mrs Millett and Mr Millett went to government house in Wellington (where the Govenor General lives!) to take part in the NZ Book Awards. 

Peter's book "The Anzac Puppy" had been nominated by kids all around New Zealand for "Picture book of the year!" 

When it came to the Children's choice- Picture book section Mrs Millett sat with baited breath, and then the announcer said... and the winner is... Peter Millett! 



Thanks to all children and families who supported Peter and his books this year! Very exciting! 

Here are the winners of all catergories in the NZ Book awards this year.

Another cultural experience for Teach me Tuesday!

We had another great teach me Tuesday today. Both Seraphima and Madison taught us about a special aspect of their cultures. First up was Madison. She showed us a rhinoceros made out beads and wire. Next we had the challenge to make our very own key chain or paper clip bead art. It was quite difficult and challenging, but they looked great!

Next we had lesson from Seraphima about the ancient egyptian mumification process. She also showed us a video to illustrate the process further. Then the fun began. We were all given a roll of toilet paper and we had to mumify one of our classmates. It was hilarious! Here are some photos showing our cultural experiences. Thanks Seraphima and Madison!

Room 13 visits the Auckland Zoo

Why is it important to learn about other cultures and languages?

Last week (Week 2) was Maori Language week, (Te wiki o te reo maori). As part of our learning we all answered the question, Why is it important to learn about other cultures and languages? Here are two of our responses. 

Learning about other cultures and languages is not only important, but it is respectful. Other cultures have different ways of celebrating exciting parts of the year, and if we respect that then we are making the people feel welcome.

It is especially important to respect your own culture, because your own culture is important to you and your parents too. Culture and languages go back many years, and differnet cultures rely on you to keep the traditions going. Some cultures have special religious beliefs, and others have special celebrations. 

In conclusion, it is definately important to respect and learn about other cultures and languages because it can help you to understand others' traditions.
By Brydie Q

It is important to learn about other cultures and languages because it is very respectful to the country and culture you are learning about. It is good to learn about other languages because when you go somewhere you know how to speak the people's language. 

It is good to learn about other cultures because then you know what the people usually do, and you can see how they do things differently, or in the same way. Learning about different cultures can change your way of doing things and can help you understand people better.

Now that you have finished reading this you should know why learn out cultures and languages is important.

Term 3 Newletter

Here's a link to this term's newsletter. It looks like it's going to be another fun filled term of learning!

Click on the link here.

Bella's teach me Tuesday

Today we have another great lesson from one of our classmates. Bella taught us how to speak, read and write words in mandarin chinese. 
First she read a section from the english version of "Charlotte's Web". Next we learned how to write and pronouce some of the key words from the passage, (barn, hay, cow, horse, fish and cat). Then we highlighted these words from the chinese translation. It was really cool! Here are some photos showing our lesson. Thanks Bella! we really enjoyed learning more mandarin. 

How to write a great story!

Thanks to Peter Millett aka author extraordinaire we can all get a few tips to writing a great story. Here they are:

Paper plane design

Today we had a paper plane design challenge.

Each team had to build 2 different types of paper airplanes. One paper airplane had to be designed to fly as far as possible. The other airplane needed to stay in the air as long possible.

For the distance category, each team threw paper planes while we recorded with chalk the furtherest distance out of 3 chances. 

For the time in air category, each team threw their paper plane while Mrs Millett timed the flights.

All teams did a great job with their designs, making modifications to improve the speed and aerodynamics of their planes. 

The winning paper plane in the distance category was Brydie's team including herself, Eddy, Eliot and Felicia.

The winning paper plane for time in the air category was Leanne's team including herself, Beau and Amy!! Well done designers!

What is one of the most important inventions of all time and why?

Today for our thinking question we had to answer this question: What is one of the most important inventions of all time and why? It was a pretty tricky question. Some of our ideas were: the internet, robotics, the TV, cars, electricity, the incubator, computers and laptops, bags, the seat belt, the traquilizer dart, the flushable toilet and even war. The most popular suggestion was the phone. We had to think about why our choice was the MOST imporant- that was harder still. 

Here are two people's thinking about this question:

"One of the most important inventions of all time is the airplane. Airplanes can take you where you want to go in the world like Korea, Australia, China and NewZealand. The reason why it was so important is because it made the journey much faster. You can now travel to Korea in a few hours, instead of it taking days by ship. 
An airplane can also be used for sky diving and also the airplane can go up into the air and you can open the door and jump!
Airplanes also can be used for delivering products from one country to another."
By Daniel Kim


"In my opinion I think numbers are the most important invention of all time, because if there was no numbers there would be nothing at all!
Some poeple might think that medicine is better because it saves lives, but think about it...when people make medicine how do they know how much stuff to put in it without numbers? 
Also, telling the time would be hard. For example,
"See you later!" said Bob
"Later when?" asked John
"I don't know!" replied Bob
See? If there was no numbering system we would have nothing.
In conclusion, I think numbers are the greatest invention of all time!
By Eliot H

So what do you think? Make sure you justify your answer!

Waiouru Army museum surprise

When the Congdon family were on holiday they happened to go to the Waiouru Army museum. While they were there they spotted this! Thanks for taking the photo Taylor.

Who is someone you admire and why?

Today we were asked the question who is someone you admire and why? We all had to express our thinking to answer the question.

Here are three of our responses to the thinking question of the day.

My Mum- By Jennifer K

My mum is someone I admire because she lets us follow our dreams, like I like ballet and she gives me ballet lessons. She even lets my sister do gymnastics even though you can hurt yourself. She always fixes problems that me and my sisters have. I also admire mum because she always makes sure we are safe and aren't spoiled.

My mum doesn't push me so I can be at the top, she just wants me to do my very best. If we so something well, she congratulates us. She makes sure everything is fair as well. She teaches us to do someting we don't want to do, but does fun things as well.

My mum is a hard worker, so she's super tired. She somethimes gets a bit cranky, but I understand because she has done the best for us. She tries to make work a little better by letting us play some music. 

I love evenings because I get to see her, so I do my homeowrk before she gets home. She makes sure we are well and healthy by giving us fruit and vegetables. She dances with us sometimes and makes sure we are all OK. Sometimes she surprises us with sweets and chocolates!

I love my mum because she is a good role model. I don't know what I would do without my mum!

Lebron James- by Levi N

I admire Lebron James because he is a basketball legend! He tries SO hard and never gives up! He tried his best in the finals, but he didn't win. He deserved to win. He was fouled so many times and the referee didn't call the other team. He pushes himeslf to the max. He never gives up!

He was Cleveland born, but when he left to play for Miami, there were riots in Cleveland and they burned his shirts. But, in the 2014-2015 season he returned to Cleveland and everyone was shouting, "Hallelujah!"

He will always be a star in my eyes. Everyone else thinks he is one of the best basketballers of all time!

Peter Millett- by Eric Z

Someone I admire is Peter Millett!

Why? because he makes humorous stories for kids, and that inspired me to start writing stories on google drive. Plus, he's one of the top authors in New Zealand, and his stories bust out bore and shove in laughter and puns. Also, wouldn't it be awesome if you saw yourself on T.V!

I wish there were more people in the world like Peter Millett, but that's not important, what is, is that he makes children laugh. So that's why I admire Peter Millett!

Teach me Tuesday today!

It was teach me Tuesday again today! Today Mrs Millett didn't need to do much teaching, because we had two lessons from room 13 students and one lesson from some UHPS korean parents.

To start, James taught us how to make chocolate mint cookies. We really enjoyed working together to make these scrummy treats! They tasted delicious too James- thankyou. 

Next, Mitchell and Rohan taught us a few basics of playing the guitar. They showed us how to play a few chords and also demonstrated some guitar pieces too.

Lastly, we were very lucky to have some of our parents teach us how to play a korean traditional game called Jegichagi. The Jegi looks like a badminton shuttlecock which is made of a small coin (or cap), a plastic bag and a rubber band. In the game the player kicks the jegi up in the air and keeps on kicking to prevent it from falling to the ground, (much like a hackey sack).

We had heaps of fun with all our lessons! Thanks to James, Mitchell, Rohan, and all the UHPS korean parents who gave up their time to teach us how to bake, play the guitar and play Jegichagi!

Peer Mediator day

Today our peer mediator leaders had a great day together working with teachers from the "Peace foundation" and with students from other primary schools. 

Their task was to plan out the programme for Term 3's Peace week, and also think about how they can do their role even better. 

It was an inspirational time for all involved. All came away with great ideas and a little bag of goodies for their efforts. Thanks Mrs Leonhart for organising the day for our peer mediators!

Musical instrument artwork

Last week we printed from our musical instrument cardboard blocks. Yesterday Eddy, Jaxson, Feifei and Madison made this movie of our finshed artworks. 

Teach me Tuesday (on Wednesday)

It was Teach me Tuesday again today, but it was on Wednesday this week because our two teachers were at Interschool Cross Country yesterday! 

Today we learnt how to play Solataire with Taylor who patiently explainied and re explained (and re explainied again) the quite tricky game of Solataire. We had heaps of fun! 

Next Logan showed us how to make Gooey slime out of dishwashing liqud and cornflour. It was fun... and messy too! Thanks guys- we can't wait thill next Teach me Tuesday!

Musical instrument presentations

This term we have been learning about musical instruments and have written informational reports. Here are four of them.

THE HARP
By Seraphima Y     

Introduction

The harp is a lovely sounding stringed instrument that sounds very peaceful and calming. In this report you will learn all about the harp including its features, how it makes its sound, its history, and where the harp is from.

Features

The harp has very specific features. Harps are usually played in the orchestra and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Usually the harp stands 42 meters and has 47 strings. The harp usually has a golden base and sometimes can be wood. They are 36 kilograms also not forgetting the main parts of the harp the soundboard, the strings, and the neck those are all pretty important parts of the harp.

Sound                   

The harp sounds amazing and is calming and peaceful. The music is described as chamber type music. It has a gentle flowing and rolling sound. The harp is usually played as part of an orchestra, but was originally played by itself. It is a quiet sounding instrument, but the sound carries a long way. The harp sound is produced by the harpist plucking the strings. The strings are different lengths and each makes a different note. The sound is created through vibrations in the strings that are connected to a sound board.

History of the Harp

The harps history is very interesting and pretty cool! Harps are one of the world's oldest instruments. The earliest evidence of the harp was in ancient Egypt in 2500 BC.  The modern harp is a result of an instrument that was invented thousands of years ago in Europe. When hunters discovered that their own bow string could be used for an instrument they were very impressed with this amazing sound. As we all know that the harp has a bass. The harps bass is what we think is always gold well it’s not you see the Harp can sometimes be made of wood which is not as special as the gold but much cheaper.

Ancient Egypt

Where the harp comes from?

The ancient harp was played in many countries. Evidence of harps can be found in art from China, The Middle East, and Africa. The Harp was first invented in the Middle East which is around Egypt thats pretty cool huh! It was also popular in Celtic lands of Wales, and Britain also Scotland and Ireland. Nowadays harps are found all around the world.

Irish Harp

Conclusion

I hope after this report that you know much more about the harp. I hope you liked this report and learnt a lot! The harp is a lovely gentle instrument as you can see.

The Oboe  

By Andrew L

The oboe is a long tube woodwind instrument. This report will tell about  appearance,history,sound and a famous oboist.       

Appearance

The oboe has lots of interesting parts. Oboe has a long narrow tube and at the end there a bell shape end which is called a bell. The oboe has 45 separate pieces for the key and all the woodwind instruments has a reed but a oboe has two reeds stuck together. Oboe’s made out of black wood.      

History      

The oboe has a interesting history. In the 17th century the became one of the solo instruments. Michel philidor and Jacques Hottcterre for inventing the oboe. The oboe was used in the military or in the orchestras. The oboe play with the string instruments and it use to have two key.         

Sound          

The oboe has amazing way to make a sound. Oboist blow through the double reed then it make the reed vibrate then the air will escape though uncovered holes but not all the air will come out of the holes some will come out of the bell which makes a sound.        

Famous oboe players    

The oboe is common around the world. There is 123 well known famous oboist in the world and Johann is one of them. Johann christian fischer was a German composer and a oboist and one of the best known oboe soloists in Europe during the 1770.          

The oboe is a very calming, peaceful sounding woodwind instrument. It is special because it has a double reed in the mouthpiece. This report has covered the sound, appearance, history and a famous oboe player.    

THE VIOLIN

By Madison R

The violin is part of the string family. It can be played with by plucking or with a bow. This report will tell you about the history of the violin, where it comes from, famous violin players and what it look like.        

The first violin was created in Italy and had 3 strings, but the modern violin has 4 strings.  The french king Charles IX in 1560 ordered 24 violins and one of the violins are still in existence. In 2006 a violin was made by the most famous violin maker Stradivarius and was sold for 3,5 us million.   

The violin was made in italy by Andrea Amati in 1555 in Cremona, Italy that is more than 450 year a go!   

There has been many wonderful and famous violinists. Some of them include:

Arcangelo Corelli: A fun fact about Arcangelo is that he did not like to play high notes.

Niccolo Paganini: A fun fact about Niccolo is doctor dissected his hand to see what was so special about his hands.

Antonio Vivaldi: A fun fact about Antonio is that he was called Prete Rosso ( his red hair )

The violin is a carefully made hollow wooden box shaped like a hour glass.

If you look closely at the bow, the strings are made of wood and horse hair.

There are many different parts of the violin. The pegs help to tune it, the fingerboard helps to make the perfect sound and the chin rest is where you put your chin to make it easier to play.

The violin is a very popular instrument for people to play. It plays high parts in the orchestra, and has a pretty sound. I hope you learnt a lot and now know     more about the violin!

By Liam B

Intro

A guitar is a hollow peanut shaped instrument with a neck and strings. This report will cover the types, parts, uses and the strings of a guitar

Guitar types

Electric guitar: electric guitars are a type of guitar that uses electric pickups  

A banjo is another type of guitar with a round body. The Lute is an old fashioned instruments that has a bent end

At the end of the neck a Spanish guitar is another type of guitar with nylon strings

Strings

Guitars can have up to 12 strings. There's a company called the fender company the fender company makes around 90,000 strings a day.

Uses

guitars are normally used for rock pop and jazz music sometimes is used for classical music and folk music too.

How the guitar makes its sound

By plucking the strings the sound goes into the hollow parts of the guitar the sound bounces around and comes out amplified(louder) so you can actually hear the sound the guitar is making.

Conclusion

In this report you learnt about the types uses strings

and how the guitar produces sound. The guitar is a very popular stringed instrument that can be played both electronically or acoustically.