What's Been Going On In Room 13 Lately

Kahikatea Swimming Sports was a great buzz on Thursday 25 August at Cannons Creek Pool. Just about everyone in the syndicate competed and some superb swimmers graced the tiles. In lane 4, above, Cian has just nailed 50m of backstoke. Equally impressive was Esha, who Ms Souter noted had a quality backstroke technique. Others to stand-out were: Maia-Jet, Kaelab, Mathayus, and Acosta in freestyle, and Grace in backstroke - but to be honest the rest of the class wasn't far behind and I was really proud of their effort. It must be noted that Maia-Jet was lightening fast and led the relay team. Keep it up.

Ko Wai Au came to a wonderful conclusion on Wednesday after a superb year of possibly life-changing learning about ourselves and others, empathy, social and conflict resolution skills, te reo and tikanga Maori, and so much more. Thanks to the team at the Whanau Centre - they were magnificent and were totally connected to the kids. Here you can see the climax of the kids setting life-long goals, by smashing through them. A great metaphor and an inspiring series of moments. I hope they all keep their aspirations in a safe place and reflect on them in 5 years or 10 years time.

I got a bit carried away by the Olympics and tried to slip in a few classic events and skills this term, including the 280m running time trial, the 100m, the discus, and in these photos, the mighty shot put. We teamed up with some maths extension (ALiM) kids from Room 11 and extracted quite a bit of Maths with Statistics out of the charging and heaving, e.g., measurement, comparison, sorting data, calculating mean and median averages, identifying the range or measurements etc. Good stuff. Semisi nailed the shot put and broke the tape by going over 8m. It was an 8m tape. It will never retract again. Kalea showed good technique as well, using her hips to generate more power than that provided by her arm. Choice.

This term we have got a nice little relationship going with Room 16, which began with a mission to the Countdown construction site nearby. In these photos you can see the kids totally engaged in reading and being read to. It was one of those beautiful, quiet moments when everyone was in a zone and the power of the tuakana-teina connection became evident. Well done everyone.

Here we have Jahmane smashing the 25m flutterboard at the Creek.

Two more pics of the Ko Wai Au team and Room 13, along with Thonshai, Regan and Shayne preparing to smash their goals.

 Stilt Making in Room 13 for Matariki.

A Seriously Fun Challange. All Fingers and Toes Intact.

Watch your fingers, Croshan. The kids seemed to really enjoy getting the tools out and getting on with the job. There were a few problems to solve along the way, like poorly behaved nails. But nothing that couldn't be rectified.

Tyzharn was really into his stilt building. There's a lot more to it than you might think. The design needed to be practical, and the stilts strong and easy to use and hold on to.

Semisi takes one small step for mankind.

There were several skills required to complete the project. Not breaking Matua Lindsay's drill bits was one of them. Here Matua Terry and Jahmane prepare some pilot holes for nails.

The finished product was outstanding. There was something for everyone, from beginners to pros. They've been in action for over a month and there have been no breakages (or serious accidents) yet. Woohoo!

Kalea didn't have many problems mastering the technique.