TIME FOR GOLF

The Pukeko team are learning about playing golf this term. It is very exciting! We have shorter golf clubs, which are better for our size. We hit big plastic balls and little plastic balls first, before going on to smaller, harder balls.
In a couple of weeks, we are going down to Weedons Country Club, to play on a real golf course!
Here are some photos of LC2 having their first golf lesson:

Daniel lines up his club with the big ball

Maia gets ready to swing her club.

Lulu gets her stance right

All lined up and ready to go

PUKEKO PRESENTS ON 5 SEPTEMBER

We had a super PUKEKO Presents on Friday 5 September, led by LC1.
One of the highlights was a great rendition of Hey Soul Sister, sung by Thomas Parker, Aydan Scotland and Ben Beattie.
We also gave out Pukeko certificates to eight fabulous PUKEKO team members for their super achievements at school.

X Country

Thanks to our photographer Lucy who took some great action shots.  I love how you all had determination to finish the race (Self-Believers) as well as being supportive and encouraging of others (Team Player) as others crossed the finish line.

Leave a comment telling us what your favourite part was.
Remember to only use your first name :-)

Kids for Kids

Here is a few songs we sung at Kids for Kids at our school assembly this week.

For better video quality view on Youtube then change the settings (can be found bottom right of the video).

Our Butterfly Wonderings...

During technology interchange we have had many unanswered questions about butterflies. Here are some of our Wonderings...

LC9's Wonderings...

Stacey wonders... Where do butterflies go in Winter in Canterbury?

Hamish wonders ... How many different types (species) of butterflies are there in NZ?

Bradley wonders ... Do butterflies poop?

Mae wonders ... How many butterflies are there in a flight? (flight is a group of butterflies)

Trent wonders ... How butterflies got their colour?

Iroquois wonders ... Why do butterflies hibernate?

Emily wonders ... Where do butterflies go in winter?

Ben wonders ... How do butterflies fly?

Morgan wonders ... How fast do butterflies fly?

LC1's Wonderings...

Marshall wonders... How fast can butterflies fly?

Brooke wonders ... Why do butterflies hibernate?

Thomas wonders ... What is the largest butterfly in the world?

Charlie wonders ... Where do butterflies go in winter?

Elli wonders ... Do butterflies walk?

Max wonders ... How old can butterflies live to?

Molly wonders ... How many hours can butterflies fly for?

Celeb wonders ... How long do caterpillars stay in their chrysalis?

Oscar wonders ... How do caterpillars make their chrysalis?

Saskia wonders ... How high can butterflies fly?

Jimmy wonders ... How do butterflies die?

James wonders ... How many different species of butterflies are there in the world?

Ben wonders ... What is the most poisonous butterfly in the world?

Alexandra wonders ... How many colours can butterflies have on their wings?

Do you know any of the answers?  Leave a comment below. REMEMBER what makes a great blog comment.

Kids for Kids

A BIG congratulations to Lulu who performed at Kids for Kids 

Another BIG congratulations as well to Brooke, Saskia and James who got to kanikani at Kids for Kids!

Our kids did incredibly well with their performances and made us all proud! 

Mathletics Champ!

A HUGE congratulations to Stacey who got 100% in her Mathletics!! We are very proud of you. 

WOW! Look at all these children who recieved a GOLD mathletics certificates.  

How many Pukeko children can you spot? 

Plants that are magnets to butterflies

YouTube is a great tool if you want to find an answer to something. We are looking at gardens that attract butterflies. Joley found hundreds over wintering on one tree.

Decisions, decisions, decisions

Where are we to put our butterfly garden? Here are some spots we thought might be a good place

Disco

Thanks to all our parents who helped make our first disco of the year a big sucess. A whopping 182 Pukeko and Moas turned up and I was very impressed with the behaviour of all of our Pukeko team children. I even got to have a few dances with some of them. 

I have to get some of those flashing rings they would look great at Zumba! : )

Apologies for the grainy photos and if you have better quality ones please email them through to kerry@westmelton.school.nz

Cross Country

We had our run through of the 2014 cross country course today

Fingers crossed this fine weather holds up for Tuesday 13th of May. 

We have our official Pukeko Team photographer extrodinaire, Lucy taking action snaps. Lucy will be more mobile with her cast coming off on Monday (it's a very cute cast might I add). 

Good luck Pukekos! 

Camp Movie

The Pukeko team got to see the Year 3's camp movie last week you can the camp movie here over on LC 10's class blog.

A big thank you to all that made our camp a stunning experience for our kids : )

Ronald McDonald

Year 3's Go Camping!

Our moments of camp caught through the lens...

A BIG thank you to all the parents that helped make our camp the best experience for our kids, no matter what role you had.  It takes a lot of planning, time and organising and having a great support from our community is very much appreciated : )

Jeanette Neal, Maree O'Boyle and Kerry Poulsen

SELF BELIEVERS!

Last Sunday children from all over Canterbury participated in the annual Weetbix Tryathlon at Jellie Park.

They could choose to do the three events by themselves or buddy up to complete the swim/bike and then complete the run.

Here are some of the highlights from our AMAZING SELF BELIEVERS...

Alice, liked doing the long bike ride

Lulu liked doing the Tryathlon  by herself and it was her first time

Molly liked doing everything because she did it all by herself

Aydan liked the bike ride because he was passing quite lot of people

Louis liked the swimming and the running and it was his first time!!

Thomas enjoyed the swimming because he does swimming lessons and he found the swim easy peasy

Sasakia enjoyed completing the tryathlon by herself and thought the bike ride was awesome because it a fun ride and passing people

Gray was super awesome because it was his first time and he did all of it and he is so proud of himself for completing it.

Maia liked the run because it was a long way and she was training with Hazel

Lulu was one number away from winning a bike

Our Tryathlon Triathletes on PhotoPeach Our Tryathlon Triathletes on PhotoPeach Will you be accepting the challenge next year?

We want to know how you are a Self Believer.  So tell us what challenges have you overcome or will be facing this year.  Leave a comment below BEFORE 28th March and a name will be drawn.

Teachers and parents are more than welcome to leave a comment, just remember to leave your name so you to can go into the draw!

It's frrrrrrreezing down there!

NLucy's parent's friends came to speak to LC9 and LC10 about their experiences from working down in Antarctica.  It takes 5-8 hours to travel from Chch to Antarctica or in a boat from South America it takes 4 days!

Antarctica has only 2 seasons it's either Summer time for 6 months of the year or Winter for the other 6 months of the year.  The temperature in Summer can reach 10oC however in Winter the temperature drops down to -40oC but windchill can bring the temperature to a chilling -60oC!! And we thought our swimming pool was cold!



Here are some facts LC 10 now know about Antarctica.

Now we know that there are no polar bears there because they will eat the penguins.
By Leila and Sophie

Antarctica is a very cold place it has no polar bears we do not know why . It can get to negative  60 that is really cold.  We have our own NZ base down there and Lucy's mum and dads friends go down there. 
By Liam and Jax 

Antarctica gets to 9 degrees and that is pretty cold
By Jennifer and James

There's polar bears in Antarctica 
From Hunter

It is very cold in winter
It is handy for skiing
From Thomas and Brody

Here are some of our questions for Carey and Dave

From Dallas
What is the hottest temperature?

When does it get up to negative sixty degrees?.
From sam

Activities for @ home

We have made the decision to put the Science and Maths Badges on hold this year, due to increasing lack of commitment by many participants, and will revisit these next year.  We have also considered the value of the sharing time and the ‘buy-in’ from all Pukeko students.  However, you can access interesting websites for your children on our team blog.

These links will be changed throughout the term and don't forget to bookmark them!

If you haven't found them, they are found on the right hand side of our Pukeko team blog called ICT in the Class.

What activities did you like the best?  I am hooked on Little Alchemy, leave a comment and tell Mrs Poulsen your score.

Swimming Safe

Each Friday the Pukeko team are learning water survival skills as part of our swimming programme.  Our first session was about life jackets and how the fit is crucial to keep you a float.  We tried on a range of sizes to see how what happens when they are too loose or to tight, it's got to be 'just right.'

First time in the deep end! Well done Self Believers

Best fitted life jackets let you have two hands free

The crowd goes crazy because ...

Drenched! Lucky it was a warm day