BAG IT (motec)

Bag it is the name of our MOTEC topic, well structures really, but half of us don't remember what it's really called. We are making all kinds of different bags such as the duffle bag, barrel bag, man bag/shoulder bag and the weekender. First we have to make cut outs of the bags shape and make sure they are all cut very precisely. Then, if we want to embroider words or logos onto one of our shapes, then we must do that before we do anything else. If we don't want words or logos on our bag we can carry on to sewing some of the bits together until most of our structure is made. Then we add on the extra's encluding straps, zips, velcro strips and pockets.  Soon enough we will have a spectacular bag! We are all so looking forward to the rest of the year at Motec  and wish to complete everything to A1 standards!

By Kurtis and Daniel.

PS we will post some photo's next week   

Inter schools swim meat 2012

We assembled at the big tree.    Today is the big day I said as we got into are cars as we were driving to the pool we chatted and laughed and were excited and nervous at the same time.

As we went to sit down there was the big mapua school flag this meant we had a place to sit and nobody else could take it.
My race was first and I was nervous we jumped into the water and then the man said take your mark paused and then clapped the 2 pieces of wood and we were off I was coming first in the first length of backstroke then Daniel Treverza came up and over past me in the breaststroke He won the race but I came second.
As the day went on we were doing very well but it was cold it felt like the middle of July not the end of February we were all raped up in blankets. Even the people that were not swimming seemed to be cold!!!  
We won the relay by a mile and we haven't done that in ages it is always Riwaka school that seems to beat us!!!!!!!
But not This time.

By James Fleury

School Swimming Sports 2012

Yesterday on the 21st of February we had our annual school swimming sports.  This took up 3/4 of our day. Only years 5 to 8's participated in this event. The day started of with cold weather with a bit of rain, but that didn't stop us!!!! We headed off in the cars to Riwaka's  school pool where the swimming sports was going to be held.  Pretty much as soon as we got there we started the races starting with the youngest and getting to the oldest. The fist race was the open championships which was one length of backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle. Then there was the backstroke we had finals for each event except for butterfly and the open championship. For the finals they choose the 6 fastest times off all ages. Then they moved onto breaststroke followed by their finals. Before Freestyle we had a butterfly demonstration swam by the strongest swimmers, that knew the stroke. Freestyle was our final individual race. We had two races that were our house relays. Blue House won the first relay Green House came first in the teacher chair race!
So over all it was a great day!!!!!

By Eva and Sophie 

MOTEC hard materials

We arrived at MOTEC at 10:30am and jump off the bus eager to get started.  We sat down on the chairs provided and waited for Mr Barton to tell us to head off to the work rooms. He reminded us about the rules and then sent us off to our rooms to get started.

Our group's teacher is Mr Barton he told us to get our folders and get started. We grabbed a piece of wood and got started.

First we had to take 10mm waste off each end and then measure how much each side of our box would be. Ours were 200mm so we ruled 200mm then 10mm waste. We did that four times then we cut them out. Next we decided what joint we would do. We chose the Rebate Joint. Just then Mr Barton told us it was time to pack up so we put all our stuff to together and put it away. Then we went out to the bus and went back to school.

By Theo and Dylan

Edited by Finlay

Tryathlon!!!

On the 17th of February, Mapua School had its annual triathlon. All students were expected to participate, and although some of them did not particularly enjoy triathlons, they all did their best. The triathlon included running around the field, biking around the field and swimming in the pool before sprinting to the finish. The whole school took part in the tryathlon, even the little 5 Year olds, who have only just started school, tried their best. Parents and grandparents showed up to watch their children compete, and I'm sure that they were all proud of the effort put in by all of the students. 

The children sat in their year groups and the teachers started with the younger kids, calling them to the starting line to do their race, then worked their way up to the older ones. The 5 year old's needed a buddy to help them with their race, so all of the Year 8's found a buddy to run with.

After all of the class races, the teachers made up a team of three (Mrs Stephens running, Mr Clearwater biking and Mrs Shepard swimming) to compete against the two student's teams, one boy's team ( Theo running, Daniel biking and Kurtis swimming) and one girl's team (Lara running, Cailin biking and Kinsey swimming). There was also Mr Searle and Mr Mackenzie, who both did the whole thing. In the end, The boy's team won! Go students!

All in all, everybody had a great day, even those who didn't enjoy their race certainly appreciated spending the time outside in the sun, instead of working in the classroom! This year's triathlon was probably the best one yet, I wonder if next year's will be better...

Blog posts for Tryathlon and swimming sports please.
Lets get our news events up promptly.
We need people to blog about the Tryathlon and Swimming sports urgently.
What would be an appropriate target to have items posted,  so that events remain newsworthy?
Discuss and set targets and responsibilities on Wednesday.
Mr Searle

Home Learning Week 4 Term 1

Motec

Every Thursday we go to Motec; a local technology center in Moteka. The year 7's go on Wednesday.

At Motec we do 4 different subjects:

Animation, Wood work, Cooking and Sewing. Their motto is in the second photo.

In the past we have made pizza,camp stools, pillows and lots more.

We split in to groups of ten with one teacher per group and we do one subject per term.

This term I am doing cooking. In every subject we do we have a main project e.g. In sewing last year we made pillows for our main project and

then we made wheat bags after that.

I am looking forward to eating my delicious food this term. Mr Searle said he would like a taste as well.

By Maia.

By Maia. 

SWIMMING!!!!!!!!

For the past week we have been training for the tryathlon by doing swimming and running every morning.  We have been doing 4 laps and lengths practising for friday when the tryathlon is going to happen. Please come and watch us on Friday. from 11am. By Sophie.

Teddy Bear’s Picnic!

Today Mapua School had a Teddy Bears Picnic. The intermediate students now eat by their classrooms, so the teachers challenged them to organize days when the school can together to eat lunch and do something fun together. Tegan and Molly, both year 8’s, organized the picnic and then went around the classrooms and informed the students about the event. Everyone had to bring a teddy bear or soft toy to school and at lunch time they brought their food and their teddies and the school sat at the back of the field and had a picnic. After everybody had eaten, the children had a choice to either go and play or stay to listen to stories, read by some other Year 8’s. There was even a gorilla puppet, which Finlay carried around, that talked to people!

Everybody enjoyed the picnic and the fun it brought. All in all, everybody enjoyed themselves and had heaps of fun , and even though the weather was cloudy, it didn’t stop us from having a great day! It won’t be long before there is another event to enjoy, and the students are definitely looking forward to it!

Kelly Prosser

Emma found the little kids went crazy about Bertie's adventures.

James face painting was done by Angus. He was a great leader for the juniors, showing them some clever card games.