Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Melville Intermediate - Teaching Maori Using Skype

Today we had a session with students from Waiuku Primary School. Hayze and Mackenzie from Room Eight spoke to Waiuku during Maori Language Week, and worked with the students to help them with their Mihi (traditional Maori Greeting). They were keen to talk with us again and show us how they had improved - and wow what an improvement they'd made since last time. They had obviously been doing a huge amount of practise. This video shows some highlights from that session.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Melville Intermediate - Inter Intermediate Table Tennis 2011

Int Intermediate Table Tennis 2011 on PhotoPeach

Today the Waikato Inter Intermediate Table Tennis competition was held in Hamilton.  Melville fielded a Boys and Girls team in the competition.   The Boys finished 6th and the Girls managed to come 4th.  Well be updating this post with team reports as they come in.   Well done to everyone involved and to Mitchell who took these images and filmed this video of Kyle from Room 18 in competition.  A big thank you to Mitchell's Dad and Otis's Dad who helped with the school teams on the day.

This is Alicia from Room 5's account of Table Tennis:
We walked into this giant hall, there was about sixteen teams there and some of them looked very serious - others were relaxed. Some of the other kids and I had the worst case of the butterflies. The hall had about 15 tables. The girls first game was against Morrinsville. Amythst and I were the first two to play off. We won the first and second game, so we didn't have a third game. Then it was Sita and Anika's turn to play against the other two players, unfortunately they lost both of their games. In our singles I won both my games, Ami won both, Sita won 1 and lost 2 and Anika won 1 and lost two. We played Berkley School, it was a very interesting game, we all lost except one of mine and Ami's doubles and two of Ami's singles. She was winning pretty much every time. We made it into the finals. We had to play Berkley again, and it was the same result. At the end of the day we were so tired from playing so many schools but we were ready to hear the results. "Melville Girls 4th" said the lady in charge. "Woo hoo" cheered all the teams that we were friends with.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Melville Intermediate - What we know about Denmark & the USA

As our friends in the United States of America and Europe have returned to school we thought that it would be a good time to recap about our students knowledge of other countries.   One of the connections that we were lucky enough to make last year was with Vonslid School in Denmark, they really have some of the best online work that you will ever see from that side of the world and its always very interesting to see their views on things.  They have many different levels of schooling and work but a great place to start is on their main English class page which you can click on and visit here.  Today we grabbed a camera found some students who were available in this case Shayne and Hayze (who is one of our Maori speakers online) and asked them to recall facts about Denmark.

Denmark: Shayne and Hayze from myles webb on Vimeo.

Other than New Zealand the second most visits that we receive is from the USA.   Even though its far away it has a huge cultural influence on us, we're about to start Skyping again with classrooms in the USA, since our knowledge about Denmark went so well we choose two outstanding pupils, Bradley and Mitchell and asked for a few short words about their knowledge of the USA

R8 Knowledge - USA: Bradley and Mitchell from myles webb on Vimeo.

Finally since this had worked so well we took both and combined them with the students from Room Eight that were in music extension preparing for our end of term concert next week.   Ronnie and Jess spoke from Room 12 spoke to them in the music room - Lana, Kelly, Shania and Shaylee.

Untitled from myles webb on Vimeo.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Melville Intermediate - Tasks for Week Nine for Room Eight

Week nine is upon us with just this week and another week to go before the end of term three holidays.  For your tasks this week there are some slightly different things to do.  Firstly you need to go to this site here, which is entitled 'Draw a Stickman' its been brought to our attention by the wonderful Allanhk from Appleby School.  You can click on this link to go to her wonderful class page.  Secondly once you've completed that task you need to complete some commenting.  The commenting this week needs to be at the three class pages listed, needs to follow the correct procedure and format and needs to be completed by this Friday.  You are going to travel to the USA and leave comments on Mrs Yollis Class page in California, Mr C's Class blog in Missouri, USA and Mr McClungs class page in the USA.  These are all teachers who teach at different levels so take care to select a piece of work that you like or find interesting and leave an appropriate comment.

Finally its the World Cup in New Zealand for Rugby Union at present, one of the best reviews I've seen on the world cup has come from Matthew in Room Seven, St Marys School in the South Island.  Visit his review of Week Two of the World Cup and leave a World Cup related comment or question by clicking here.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Melville Intermediate - Pakuranga College Perform

On Monday 19th September 2011 Melville Intermediate had a very special performance from the Pakuranga College Vocal Group.   This took place in the Melville Intermediate School Hall and was filmed by Shania and Kelly from Room Eight.

Melville Intermediate - Check out this great post

Every now and then we like to highlight some wonderful ideas and work.  In this case were visiting Room Seven at St Marys in the South Island of New Zealand. 

One of the students in that class, Matthew has been writing reviews of the Rugby World Cup which is presently happening in New Zealand.  We really love his reviews which are a good summary of the whole tournament, if you haven't visited Room Seven to check out the work, then click onto the link here to do so and leave Matthew a comment when your there!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Melville: Survivor - Episode One

One of the big projects that our students are working on at the moment is the production and filming of an episodic show for the school TV Station and the Internet.   We've been busy shooting a program that is called Melville: Survivor.   Behind the scenes we have a lot of students working, including having four seperate camera's running and a lot of challenges (like filming outside in the wind, trying to keep up with the students that we are filming).  This is the first episode that was filmed on Tuesday 20th September 2011.   Thanks to the presenters from Room Eight Shania and Kelly and also the production team: Ben, Kris, Mitchell and Lana.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Melville Intermediate - Prep Recounts for Newsletter

This term the yr 8s at Melville Intermediate have been working on PrEP which is a Primary Enterprise Programme, We had to creat a buisness and name it, treat it as if it was a real buisness. My buisness was called ‘Sweet Treats Deluxe” in my group was Marcia, Morgen, Kennedy and Mackenzie.
On Friday the 16th of September at our school was our PrEP market day. As people arrived with their products, the excitement grew and everyone was buzzing. As the clock struck 12:30pm all the year 8s went outside to start the setup process, we had so much to do, and so little time, everyone rushed around making sure that their buisness would go according to plan….. Once we had set up our gazebo and our tables, we started to set out the food, it smelt nice, and looked real nice too!!

Finally 1:00pm came, and the year 7s, teachers and parents, which were our consumers were outside looking to buy. We saw all the year 7s sprinting out of the classses.My stall went really well and we sold out, it seemed that everyone enjoyed the sweet hit of the food that we had sold. We had a really big queue for most of the time. The bell rung just as it started to rain, perfect timing! PrEP was over, the time went so fast, and it was pretty fun!

The only downside was that we didn’t have enough 1 misms, so we had to keep asking the people to come back later and get the change. For the year 7s (soon to be year 8s) I would advise to keep your prices in 5s. It was fun and all the hardwork had paid off, but the day went to fast! I hope the year 7s had fun(:
Recount by Jenna Christiansen, Room Eight.

Melville Intermediate - Prep Recount from Room 8

This is it - its Friday 16th September Prep for 2011.  Weeks... even months preparing, really paid off, Spookers was ready? I felt excited but worried thinking, what if someone won't show up? I brought the Chilly Bins, cups, decorations, four packets of lollies and two big bottles of slushie syrup (rasberry and blue lagoon) to Shaylee's house.  In Spokers we had Hayze (me), Shaylee, Shayne and Benita.  While I was at Shaylee's house she brought out nine bottles of fizzy and we felt like drinking them all.   After we got everything sorted we both walked to school.  When we got into class I spotted Shayne and she told us her Mum was dropping the ice off.  There was no sign of Benita, she never came.   I made a sign for what we were selling... slushies 5 MISMs, spider drinks 5 MISMs and 5 MISMs for Lucky Dips.    We brought in the slushie machine from the Warehouse.    Brrring the bell went, time to set up.   It was tricky at first because everything was blowing up in the air... everything went messy.   We had so many customers that we sold out everything.  It was a great experience and I hope to do it again.  Report by Hayze, Room Eight.

As the bell rang to get ready for Prep me, Robert and Ben put our lunch away and got started.  I carried the tables out to where we would be doing our game.  Then we finished everything we needed to do on the game.  Next half an hour we didn't do much because we didn't want the Y7's to know what our stall was about.  Robert went to the computer and played Minecraft and I watched him.  When we were allowed to get the other things ready we got our things and went outside and when we were putting up our signs it began to rain.  Soon it brightened up and everything was ready.   The bell went and the kids came out of their rooms and slowly they asked what it was.  Soon we had a lot of people trying our game.  Our prizes were going fast but we had lots of stock.  We didn't have much change so those people left.  Soon after Prep started Kris came around because I ordered a key ring, so I paid my 10 MISMs and I got a key ring.  Prep went on and we got more customers.   Soon the bell rang again and it was the end of Prep.   We packed up and we were inside.   We counted the money and we'd made $171, and we had a profit of $46.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Melville Intermediate - Prep part four

This is the final highlights video from our huge market day at School last Friday.  Filmed by Mr Bell on Friday 16th of September 2011.

Prep Market Day 2011 Part Four from myles webb on Vimeo.

Melville Intermediate - Market Day Part 3

This is the second to last video from our school market day that was held at Melville Intermediate School last Friday.  It involved every Y8 student in the school creating a business and taking care of every aspect of that business including the production of a good.   The students were extremely nervous prior to Friday as each of them wanted to have an opportunity to compete (with of course there being a prize for 'most innovative' group and 'most MISM's [Melville Intermediate School Money]' from the market day... the results are to be announced this Thursday at assembly... stay tuned for those results and enjoy Mr Bells wonderful camera work.

Prep Market Day 2011 - Part Three from myles webb on Vimeo.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Melville Intermediate - Prep 2011 in Photos

Melville Intermediate - Prep Market Day 2011: Part Two

This is the second video in the series of highlights from our schools massive market fund-raising day at school on Friday 16th September 2011, filmed by Mr Bell our music teacher.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Melville Intermediate - PREP Market Day 2011

For the past seven weeks at school our Y8 students at Melville Intermediate School have been working towards one big day, the PREP (Primary Resource Program)and PREP Market Day. It involved them all running their own business and creating balance sheets, creating and manufacturing a product, taking care of the advertising and promotion of the product and finally selling it on the market day. Market day was huge, the weather held more or less on the day, nearly every student in the school was involved and we had a large number of adults and parents from the local community come in. While not everyone could be there, particularly those of you who are overseas we also had Mr Bell the school Music Teacher filming and many photo's taken. This video is the first of four from the day detailing the stores and the products.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Melville Intermediate - Prep Advertisments

Tomorrows a huge day for Melville Intermediate School, our 2011 Prep (Primary Enterprise Program) Market Day. All lunchtime the students who are Y8 at Melville Intermediate School will be working their stalls selling to the Y7 students. Ben and Hamish from Room Eight made a last minute trip around the various classrooms focussing on the advertisements that are around school so you can get an idea of what tomorrow will be like.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Melville Inter Intermediate Basketball 2011

On Tuesday our school competed in the Waikato Inter Intermediate Basketball finals which were held at the Te Awamutu Action Centre.  Our Girls had already competed two weeks ago in the nationals and took a little while to adjust to the different scoring and time frame in the tournament.   They were undefeated in pool play beating Fairfield Intermediate 22-2, Matamata Intermediate 18-6 and Peachgrove Intermediate 18-8.  

The Girls then defeated hosts Te Awamutu Intermediate 32-12, putting them into the final in their very final game of the season.  We had to play Peachgrove Intermediate again, who played an awesome game against us and claimed a well deserved 20-26 win.   The Boys had a couple of close games, against Fairfield and Cambridge Intermediate Schools and represented the School well on the day.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Melville Intermediate - Rucks for Mr Miller

Mr Millers class from California have been following the Rugby World Cup, you can see their wonderful class blog here.   They're following the progress of the Eagles at the World Cup 2011, as a result they posted on their class page about the concept of 'rucking' and asked for assistance in an explanation... step up Room Eight! We were having a play for the first time with the new flip cam, it meant that we were using it without too much rehearsal, so tomorrow at school the students are going to review their work, look at it again and make some decisions about the video, and how they can develop and improve on it.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Melville Intermediate - Room 14 Preview of Prep

This Friday at Lunchtime Melville Intermediate School have their 2011 PREP (Primary Enterprize Program) Market Day at School (between 12:30pm and 1:05pm) we're going to have a huge day at school, as a preview to the day Mitchell and Kris from Room Eight have been talking to students in the different classrooms about what their businesses are and what to expect on Friday.  This afternoon the spoke to some of the students from Room Fourteen and filmed this video.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Melville Intermediate - TV Station Broadcast Promo

At Melville Intermediate School all classrooms are linked by a TV Network that has begun broadcasting again.  We've got an opportunity for students to receive the daily notices and see footage shown relating to school events.  This week we've got the debut of a new classroom competition involving all of the students of Melville Intermediate School.  In New Zealand students at Melville are either Y7 (10-11) or Y8 (12-13).  The competition is a combination/tribute to 'Survivor' the TV show that some of the students watch.   This is the promo for the competition which were running on the School Network and online.  Room Eight students have key behind the scene roles in producing, filming and presenting the show, which we will be showing in episodes online.  This promo was filmed by Lana and Shania on Friday 9th September 2011.
Melville TV Station Promo: Episode One Preview from myles webb on Vimeo.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Melville Intermediate - AIMS Basketball Review

On Sunday 28th August Mackenzie, Marcia, Kennedy and I went to Tauranga to represent our school at the AIMS opening ceremony.  The opening ceremony was at a new stadium that has just opened in Tauranga.  (AIMS stands for Association of Intermediate and Middle Schools - Mr Webb).  We saw a lot of our friends and a lot of different schools from around the country.   The opening ceremony was one of the highlights of the tournament.

On Monday we were waiting for the rest of our team to come.  As we got there we waited, and waited and waited.  We soaked up the atmospherem and took a look around.  Still we were waiting and Mr Webb was getting distressed and kept reminding us that the others were going to be here, but every time that he said it, it made me more and more nervous.  Finally they came and we were ready.  Our first game was against Te Kura Kokiri.  We didn't know a thing about this team.  We started to warm up and I kept getting nervous.  When we first saw them they looked really small but they were good.  The ball went in the air and we won the tip and after the first touch of the ball we were on a roll.  We won this game 31-22.  Our next game was against Kaitoa Middle School and we had played them last year.  The beat us last year for the third and fourth play off but this time we won 46-36.  Early in the morning on Tuesday we were playing a team that was also unbeaten this far in the tournament and unfortunatly we lost 27-35 to Murrays Bay.  After coming off that unlucky loss we still had to play Hastings Intermediate.  They had lost all their games and we were hoping that that wouldn't stop.  We redeemed ourselves and won 39-25.  The next game was against a school from Christchurch called Chisnallwood Intermediate.  We won 71-5 and everyone got time on court.  We came second in our pool and we played Tauranga Intermediate in the quarter finals.  It was a good game and we won 43-31.  We had worked so hard for the past six games, it paid off and we made the semi-finals.  A brand new day came upon us and we played early against Sacred Heart College who hadn't been beaten yet.  Unfortunatley we couldn't break that and we lost 31-41.  As everyone thought it was over, but no we had to play for third and fourth and we met Kaitao Middle School yet again.   It was a really good game and we won 44-30.

After a hard working week we placed 3rd in New Zealand with Murrays Bay coming first and Sacred Heart College coming second.  It was a really good week and I'm sure everyone enjoyed it.  I would like to thank Andrea Randall, Joanne Wilson, Matt O'Brien and most importantly our supporters who came out everyday to watch us play (espically the Katoa family and Haweara whanau).

Report by Kalesita Latua, 8KB.