Baker's Delight - Last Day of Maths Week

Measurement is always used for cooking.  Today we baked chocolate afghans made with Weetbix.  We used fractions like one quarter, one half and a whole to measure the volume of flour, sugar and cocoa needed to make the afghans.  Colin's group didn't add enough flour to their butter and sugar, but it still tasted delicious.  Yummy, yummy!  The afghans were different sizes, but they were the same shape.  Most of the groups' mixtures turned out great, and so did the end product.  Below is the recipe:

CHOCOLATE AFGHANS
200 grams butter
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1 1/4 cups of plain flour
1/4 cup cocoa
4-5 Weetbix - but we used three

Preheat oven to 180degrees celcius.  Cream butter and sugar and stir.  Hand crush the Weetbix one by one into the butter and sugar mixture.  Mix together.  Make balls and put on to a lined oven tray.  Press down with a fork if desired.  Cook for approximately 12 minutes.  Leave to cool on oven tray for approximately 5-10 minutes, then remove & place on cooling rack.

Icing:
100g butter
1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 C icing sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
Tablespoon hot water
When biscuits have cooled, ice with chocolate icing.

 

Mathematicians' Morning - Day 4

Today we had four maths activity stations.  It was games galore!  One group played multiplication and division bingo.  Sonya, OJ, Latoya, Tiana and Latisha won the bingo in their groups.  We learnt about the memory operation on the calculator.  M+ means Memory Plus, which is putting a number into the calculator's brain and it remembers it.  Pretty cool huh?  Speed place value helped us identify the value of each place holder in decimal numbers.  Maths Week is almost coming to an end...what are we going to do tomorrow to celebrate?  Watch this space. . .

Hula Hoopers - Day 3

We had a competition between Rooms 2, 3, 4 and 5 to see who could hula hoop the longest.  Two representatives from each class took up the challenge.  On your marks, get set, HULA!  In the first group Folasa won by an impressive 46 seconds!  Unbelievable!  The second group was won by Tala from Room 5.  He lasted 30 seconds.  Not bad for a boy.  We even witnessed some interesting hula hoop moves, compliments of Daleah in Room 2.  Malo lava Daleah.  Stay tuned for the next episode of Dragon Ball Z...oops we mean, Maths Week Challenges.
Check out this link:  www.cpsmathsblog.blogspot.com

Mathematical Jumps - Day 2

Day Two of Maths Week 2011 - Room 4 estimated how many times we could skip in PAIRS without stopping.  Kelecia and Folasa joined ropes to jump 30 times.  Luarrell's guess-timation was SPOT ON!  Thanksgiving and Vine used one rope to jump together, and skipped five times.  Robert guess-timated the correct amount of skips.  Next up were Paulo and Colin.  Once again Robert was the winner!  Well done to Luarrell and Robert (x2)!  All this skipping is in preparation for Jump Rope For Heart in Week 5.  Watch this space...
Please visit our school maths blog which iswww.cpsmathsweek.blogspot.com
For Maths Week activities and games:  www.mathsweek.org.nz

Exciting Estimation Challenge - Day 1

Maths Week 2011 kicked off with an estimation game for the whole of Tupulaga.  We estimated how many times Sophie (Room 5) and Manila (Room 3), could skip without stopping. 
The results were:  Sophie = 66 jumps and Manila = 66 jumps.  A tie between the both of them!
Nigel guessed 86 jumps for Manila, and he was the closest.  Robetta guessed 56 jumps for Sophie.  She wasn't too far off.
It's going to be a fun and fantastic week of marvellous and magical maths!  Cheers!

Manila getting ready to skip

www.mathsweek.com

Wallabies Beaten by the Mighty Manu Samoa!!

Sunday 17 July - Manu Samoa vs Wallabies @ ANZ Stadium, Sydney.
The Manu upset the Wallabies 32-23.  What a great victory for our small island nation.

Go the Manu!
For full match report click on the link below:
http://www.theroar.com.au/2011/07/17/samoa-defeat-wallabies-in-shock-upset/

Australia's Matt Giteau, right, fails to handle the ball with pressure from Samoa's George Pisi during their rugby union test match in Sydney, Sunday, July 17, 2011. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Three Birthdays and a Farewell

What a busy day we had on Thursday 14 July!
We said "So long, farewell" to Mrs Dawson who is going across the road to Room 7.
Tupulaga had a shared lunch to say goodbye.
Robert celebrated his 11th birthday, and we helped him eat his birthday cake.
It was delicious! 
Robetta in Room 5 turned 13, and our very special mascot Nikilas celebrated his first birthday in the staffroom.  We would've loved to have tasted his birthday cake - oh well never mind. 
To Mrs Dawson - all the best for next term.
Robert, Robetta and Nickilas - hope you had a super duper day!!
We sure did.

Nickilas celebrates in his swimming pool.

PS:  The photo programme wouldn't allow us to rotate our photos so view with caution (don't over-twist your head to view). hehe

Opportunity of a Lifetime - Go The Manu!!

We can't wait until September 14th!  Why?  Because some of us in Room 4 are travelling down to Rotorua to watch a RWC pool game - Samoa vs Namibia.
Some thoughts:
Freedom:  "Namibia is in Africa."
June:  "We are going down to support our country Samoa."
Colin:  "Samoa is going to win against Namibia."
Vine:  "The Samoan rugby team is called the Manu Samoa."
Thank you to our wonderful principal for letting us have this opportunity to attend.
We're all ready to rumble, rock and roll!
We'll keep you posted - look out for the Room 4 supporters  - CHEEHOO!!!
www.rugbyworldcup.com

The Sound of Music

A cloudy cold Friday morning in July, and rooms 4 and 5 were preparing to go to the Sound of Music stage show.  The Murphy's bus was waiting for us to pile on board, and as we drove along Browns Road, we were all excited and chatting loudly. 
The Sound of Music is a musical stage play written by Rodgers & Hammerstein in the 1950s.  In 1965 it opened on the big screen starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer.  Anyway, enough about the facts...
Destination:  Aotea Centre in Auckland city.  Why?  Because we had watched the Sound of Music movie and thought it would be an awesome idea to go and watch the stage show live.  Arriving at our destination, we piled into two wobbly lines much to the teacher's delight.
Some of us sang "Do Re Mi" as we walked to the building.  Inside the lighting was dim, and ushers were rushing around trying to seat at least 200 students.  We got to sit on the far side of the stage in the front, the band was on our side.
Opening scene:  the nuns are singing and Frauline Maria sings "The hills are alive..."  Some of the scenes were different compared to the movie.  For example, Frauline Maria and the Reverend Mother sing "Favourite Things" inside the abbey.  In the movie, Frauline Maria sings it to the Von Trapp children during a storm.
When it was all over we were quite surprised at how different the stage version was to the movie version.  Never mind, our stomachs rumbled - typical Samoans, we were hungry!
A great day, and we ended up singing a mixture of Sound of Music songs and Samoan songs all the way home.  The bus driver's facial expressions never changed - maybe we were giving him a headache.  Oh well, he sure did appreciate our singing in the end.  Thank you to our teachers and our parents for looking after us.  The cost?  $7.50!  The Sound of Music - where everyone gets a bargain.

Quiz Winners!!

On Monday 11 July, Room 4 competed in the senior school quiz at senior assembly. 
Team Super Samoans - Kelecia, Robert and Edward.
We scored 50 points and we won our first round.
Congratulations to the terrific trio that represented us in assembly.
WOOHOO!!!!!