owai16

It was our lucky day, Owairaka made it in the semi finals of the Eden/Albert soccer tournament. We challenged Balmoral in the semi finals and we were evenly matched.. Ethan was our only chance of blocking 5 penalties but Balmoral went though the finals. Our coach was proud of us, we thought he was going to cry but he didn’t, at least we made it to the semi finals.

Here are some facts about your body that we learnt at the Life Education Caravan this week

• If you pull out all your veins and arteries and connect them all together it will go around the world twice .
• If you pull out your small intestine it will be half a mile.

Andrew and Francis (Room 16)

It’s been a pretty busy last couple of months in the life of Room 16. Amongst the many activities we’ve been involved in (including a fantastic PREP Market Day at the the end of last term),  All-White Soccer player Ivan Vicelich has been taking coaching sessions with us every Tues, our Roots of Empathy baby, Arnette is now over  six months old and is starting to crawl. And if that wasn’t enough, Mr Pressnell’s new born baby son, Luke, also came in to say hello. I wonder who’s coming this term.

Room 16 gets some expert soccer coaching

Baby Arnette getting stronger and stronger

Buy, buy, buy

Baby Arnette came Room 16′s way last Tuesday and it was obvious how big she has got since we last saw her. As you can see from the photo, she’s now able to lift her head up for a longer period of time. We measured her and she has grown 12 cm since the last time we measured her. Mum Toni says she is sleeping (the baby, not her) much better and drinking heaps.  Thanks for coming in Arnette, see you again soon.

After two weeks of writing application letters, CV’s and some interviews, Room 16 will finally get to hear who has been successful in their initial job applications. Mr Pressnell spent all weekend reading through CV’s, letters and after much head scratching, making a short list. Announcements will be made within the next few days. Congratulations to all successful applicants. For those who were unlucky not to get the job they applied for, well, there are still a number of other jobs that require your expertise. Good luck!

On Friday 20th March, we had our very own Race Relations day. Everyone was excited about it. Pupils saw outfits from India, Samoa, Tonga and a whole lot more costumes and food from other countries represented in our school community. Even our teachers  came dressed for the day. After an amazing shared lunch, we had an assembly where other cultures performed on stage. When it finished, everyone was tired from their performance but happy after a fantastic day.

Our Roots of Empathy baby, Arnette, came to Room 16 on Tuesday and it was amazing to see the progress she has made in three weeks. Already we have noticed that she can now:

• Hold her head up for 16 seconds
• Grab toys
• Make eye contact with the person who is talking to her
• Respond to people by making noises at them

Many thanks to baby Arnette and and her mum Toni for giving up their time to come and see us.

In Room 16 last week, we used a “tournament prioritiser” to find out what we, as a class thought was the most important thing we need to help us survive in the world. First of all, we narrowed it down to eight, then we used our “prioritiser” to work out which we valued the most. After much debate, Room 16 decided that all they needed was “love”, which beat “health” in a hotly contested final. Here were the final results.

Last Tuesday 17th February, Room 16 had their first visit from our Roots of Empathy baby, the very cute and sleepy Arnette. She was so quiet and peaceful when she came into the classroom ,that she didn’t wake up for about half an hour.

When she did eventually wake up, she was bright and happy, having a good look around at all the Room 16 students. Being only 8 weeks old, she was quite small, she weighed in at 4.4 kg and measured 53 cm in length.

Many thanks to her mum Toni for giving up her time to introduce us to baby Arnette and we look forward to seeing her make great progress over the coming year.