Today Room 8 decided the time was right to harvest some of the vegetables we planted in the garden at the end of last term.
We picked some snow peas...
cut the broccoli...
and the purple cauliflower...
then picked some leaves from the silver beet and kale plants.
We washed them, chopped them and created a delicious vegetable stir fry.
Some of us predicted that the purple cauliflower would turn white when it was cooked, but it didn't. It kept its beautiful colour.
We appreciated and enjoyed our yummy meal even more, knowing that we grew the plants, harvested the vegetables, prepared, cooked and served them ourselves.
The students in Room 8 have been very interested in the upcoming general election which is happening this weekend, so this week we have been learning about how an election works. We talked about political parties, policies, MP's, the Prime Minister, campaigning and the voting process. We watched Carlito's cousin (and former BMPS student) Phoenix Pule'anga talk about the importance of voting and having your voice heard.
Today we held our own Room 8 elections. We formed our own political parties, named them, then came up with 5 policies which we then presented to the class.
Here is the Light party sharing their plans for New Zealand...
We then voted...
Once we voted, we had Savannah and Lauti tally up the results.
...and the people voted...WAIRUA to lead our country!
Some of the things we learnt today were:
➤ It is easy to come up with ideas, but harder to think of HOW we could make them happen.It made us wonder if politicians were always able to deliver on the promises they make.
➤ Public speaking isn't easy! Body language, expression and confidence are important when delivering your message.
➤ Some people in Room 8 voted for parties that made big promises that may not actually be good for the country e.g. Children will be allowed to play video games all day and not do any school work. We wondered if that sometimes happens in real life.
➤ Towards the end when two of the parties were very close in votes, we realised the importance of every single vote and how it can count towards the overall results.
Look out New Zealand, we have some up and coming politicians in Room 8 who all have the power to make a difference in the future!
It started on Monday with an opening assembly hosted by
Rooms 19 and 11 where we learnt about the beautiful Tongan culture and language.
Throughout the week we researched the history of Tonga, sang Tongan songs, listened to music and created tapa art based on Tongan symbols. We also made delicious watermelon 'otai.
The closing ceremony on Friday was a wonderful celebration of the learning that happened in each class.
As part of our learning pathways topic 'Helping Heroes' Room 8 children decided they wanted to plan something nice for the awesome staff at BMPS. After lots of research and discussion we decided to make week 7 Angel Week. We were each assigned a staff member that we could be an 'Angel' for. We planned and created a special treat to be delivered each day that week.
As part of Angel Week we made invitations and invited everyone to a special morning tea hosted by Room 8 where we shared a video we had made. We all had roles to play. Our Sistema musicians planned and rehearsed a playlist of music to entertain our guests, we had a group of children creating a banner and other decorations, children in charge of setting up the audio/visual equipment as well as children researching recipes and cooking food. Take a look at what we have been up to...
Here are our lovely staff enjoying morning tea!
This term we have learnt how to plan and manage our time and resources. We have learnt how to delegate roles and responsibilities and work within a team. We have worked on our communication skills and had the opportunity to be creative when we wrote and performed our own songs. We have learnt how good it feels to serve others and the impact our everyday choices can have on others.
Each day we reflected on how it felt to give, and while we know the purpose of giving is not to receive it was still lovely to get lots of emails, cards and treats to thank us for the joy we spread during Angel Week.
Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to the amazing, dedicated, beautiful staff who make BMPS such a great place. We appreciate everything you do to help us be the best we can be.
