Gardening Competition

Mrs Small is one of our Room 3 teachers and also our school enviro specialist. She is looking for students to take part in the 2013 gardening competition. In this competition students have to plant a homemade garden in their backyard, and take responsibility for caring for the plants in their garden. There was a very pleasing result from last years participants and we can't wait to see what students do this year. Here are some pictures from last year to give you some ideas and to get you motivated!

Strike Percussion.

On Tuesday 9th July, Mangorei School was very lucky to have three men from the Strike Percussion  come and perform some amazing acts with all kinds of interesting and fun instruments.  We even had some kids get up and play a Cook Islands drum.  As well as that two teachers, Mrs Orrell and Ms Wastney (who is sadly leaving today) got up and had to play some drums.  It was really cool watching them. At the end they played the Cup Song with full Fresh Up cans and then they used methylated spirits to do a fire act. The performance was really cool and we really enjoyed it.

By Dania and Alexandra

Book Fair

 From 11am-3pm on Sunday the 16th of June, Mangorei School held a book fair. This book fair went very well, with lots of people attending. All the school councillors did their jobs very well. The PTA played a very big part in this too. There was a big variety of books and lots and lots of them got sold and it was fun. The spare books will either go to Mrs Sims for Pets Day or to a massive book stall at the TSB Stadium or the Hospice. The school made lots of money overall!


By Josh and Alexandra

Science Club

Recently Mr Carr has started a Science club and already there has been a project for them to complete. The students in this club have been busy at home creating 3D models of things to do with oil and gas. Some made oil rigs, some made gas stations and there was even a nodding donkey. The children had two weeks to complete their project. All the kids had so much fun making these at home. This went very well and Mr Carr is very happy with the outcome. These are some photos of the projects.

Catriona, Lila and Connor

Eli

Omnia

By Tom and Josh

Enviro Group Business

The Enviro group has been incredibly busy this term. Recently they weeded the Ngahere Reserve next to the school, with the help of Room 1 and 5 students. They cleaned up all the Wandering Jew and a few vines. It was great to see the Year 8s helping the younger ones from Room 1.

Before

During

After

But wait ....there's more! This week the group have been back in the reserve planting new seedlings to extend the planted area.

Some of the group have also been involved in harvesting the vegetables in the school garden Radishes and silver beet have grown really well and some families have been lucky enough to have taste tested these.

  

Thanks must go to Mrs Small and the parents and grandparents who help out with this great programme.

Tangiwai poems...

Room 6 has been learning about Calamities and Catastrophes so Mrs W decided that we would do poems on the infamous Tangiwai disaster.  She expected this to be 15-30 lines (long and snappy).
It combined social studies, IT, theme and writing all in one big project.
We had to put in a picture, add a border and make up an interesting title. It was hard work!
The title was tricky to decide on because it had to not give away too much about the poem. The lines had to be informative yet entertaining. In the end it was a fun project and they turned out great.

Blog by Alex and Dania

Dear Peter Jackson

After Mrs Wichman had read Room 6 a book called 'The Halfmen of O", the kids thought that it would be a great idea to make this into a movie. We wondered who would do a great job of this, then thought of Peter Jackson because of all the fantasy movies he has created, like The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. We thought that he would do a great job of making a movie based on Halfmen of O so we sent him letters asking if would make this spectacular book into a movie. All the kids were extremely excited about this project. 

We have not yet heard from him but are sure that we will. Here is a sample of a couple of the letters.   

Dear Mr Jackson,

Hello, our names are Adriana and Ella, we are from New Plymouth and we are writing from Mangorei School. We would like to tell you about a book that could possibly be made into a movie, it is called The Halfmen of O. We think it should be made into a movie because it is a great story, the characters are detailed and interesting, the plot is enjoyable and the scenes have a lot of detail. Our class has recently finished reading this book and we all agreed it would make a great movie.

The story is about two cousins, Susan and Nick, who travel down a mine shaft into a land called O. This story is mainly about Good versus Evil, a good half and a bad half, and a birthmark. It is set in New Zealand for a small part; being written by a talented New Zealand author, Maurice Gee. 

The Halfmen of O contains a wide variety of characters, some rough and tough (Jimmy Jaspers), some scary and threatening (Otis Claw and Odo Cling), some kind (the Woodlanders called Brand and Breeze) and some you cannot even see (the Stone Folk). The main characters of this story are two children, Susan Ferris and Nicholas Quinn, who have to save O and the human world from being conquered by evil. This story also contains many other characters, such as Marna, a healer and Freeman Wells, a teacher, (he plays an important role in this story). We think that if you were a director of this movie you could cast brilliant actors for these characters.

In this story there are many complex scenes, including an island in the middle of the sea, a home in the mountains, rolling meadows and pastures and even a land where everything is black and white! You have succeeded in giving the Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings great sceneries in New Zealand, and you will do just as well with The Halfmen of O.

Your past movies have gained many awards and we know that if you make this amazing story, The Half men of O, into a movie it will be no different. You are a fantastic movie director and if you make this story into a movie we will definitely come and watch. 

Yours sincerely

Ella and Adriana

Dear Mr Jackson

We are students of Mangorei School and we have just finished reading The Halfmen Of O which is an award winning book in New Zealand.  As a class we believe that it would be a great movie and a heap of people would watch it as it is so popular. We think you could make a lot of money from this movie because you are great at the fantasy types of movies and you are really good at getting a book and turning it into an eye popping sensation of a film. 

The Halfmen Of O is a book about girl who gets sucked into another world called O which is ruled by the evil Otis Claw.  There are two other books in the series The Priests Of Ferris and the Motherstone but we think the first of the series is the best.  The reason we thought you’d be the one for us to question about making a movie on this amazing book is because of your fantastic directing skills that were shown in your other movies The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit.  We think these are amazing movies and that The Halfmen Of O would become one as good if not even better than some of your latest films. 

The characters homes are very unique and could be done really well in a movie.  Some live in huts at the top of Shady Home high in the trees, some in an underworld of tunnels never to go near the light due to their fright of the open world, some high in the mountains perched on top of cliffs with no windows but a hole in the wall so they can effortlessly jump out and fly, even some who live in the depths of the ocean and survive on seaweed and fish (they never dare to swim up river due to the poisonous smog that is starting to destroy their underwater home). Nick and Susan are the main characters and they find themselves in an unknown world where they get told that there lays a massive task for them to perform.

Thank you for your time, we hope you consider this as an idea and get back to us. 

Yours sincerely

Fletcher Moles, Max Priests and Matthew Cragg


Blog by Tom and Josh