Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Our School Production


The WIZ




The bulk of this Term has seen a group of dedicated students from across the school come together to create our version of the musical ‘The Wiz’.  Five of those students come from our class.


 

Sam – A Mouse Policeman

It was really exciting.  It was one of the last major productions I will probably get to do as they don’t do so many at secondary school.  I wanted to give it my best even though I didn’t get a big part.  You get tired and bored waiting for your turn to go on stage.  We have played lots of cards! 

The costumes are pretty cool.  The Tin Man’s was amazing.  I don’t mind the make up but some had way too much on!


Zoe – Munchkin and Poppy (dancer)

It is a nice play to do when you have a major role.  It’s nice to have friends around and I have made new friends from the group I act with.  It’s good that you get a chance to have a go at any of the roles available – I get to sing, dance and act even though I had a broken leg during auditions.

I think some of the costumes are quite funny.  I like the Tornadoes costume because it is recyclable and it suits the dance as well.  I am not fussed on the make up because it is hard to get off.  Great to have it on stage but I am over taking it off.
 

Michaela – Tornado and Poppy Dancer

I have had a lot of fun doing the production.  I think the dances that Miss Dent put together were quite cool.  Most of the moves in the tornado dance were easy – I only struggled with a few.  The Poppy dance was hard at first when we were trying to dance to the example dance.  Now it is fun, easy and funny.

I think the costumes for the tornado dance are weird because they are made out of rubbish bags.  Mrs H thinks they look really cool on stage though.  My Poppy skirt is really long and I don’t like it so much.  I always end up making a mistake with the lipstick and getting the eye shadow and eyeliner off is hard.
 

Rachel – One of the Ra-Ra’s

I like that when we all worked together we can get it done.  If someone stuffs up no-one is mean about it.  I like the costumes that we have (I have 9 different outfits all with quick changes!)  If we miss our cues it puts the rest of the cast out.

It can be a pain to get changed because we have to be careful with the mikes.  Most of the costumes are shiny and sparkly.  A lot of thought and work has gone into the costumes.  One of the teachers has done some very long hours to get some pretty awesome costumes ready, for example, the crows.
 

Joel – Winkie

I like it that I get to stay up later than usual for our performances but I don’t like the temperature of “The Dungeon” that we wait for our turn in under the Opera House stage.  I have enjoyed the chance to make new friends while we have been rehearsing and I think my acting has improved.  I really enjoyed the production we did last year and wanted to have a go at WIS.

When we are in the Dungeon we have thin clothes that are shortened and ripped up (I am a slave of Evaline in the show) which is why we get so cold.  I like all of the costumes and cannot pick a favourite.  The funniest characters are Lion and Scarecrow.
 

Thursday, September 20, 2012

What have we been up to??

The past few weeks seem to have buzzed past us so quickly we don't know where they went!

A number of the students in our Digiclass are involved in rehersals for the school production of 'The Wiz' which will be performed for the public next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at the Waganui Opera House.

Others of us have been involved in Winter Sport finals and tournaments - some belonging to the huge number of teams that won their grades in a number of sports.

Our Reading has revolved around a great programme called AVAILLL.  This means we have time and activities related to watching movies with the subtitles up.  We read these and have times when Mrs H will stop the movie and we have to find a meaning, recall a subtitle or we read articles related to the main focus of the movie.  So far we have worked on Peter Pan with the movie 'Hook', watched and read about Emperor Penguins in 'March of the Penguins', watched and analysed 'Holes' with the current movie we are focussed on being 'Bridge to Terabithia'.

Our writing focus has been on Poetry.  We will share some of our awesome efforts with the various forms we have written in the next few days.

Holidays are now only just over a week away and after 10 weeks of this Term gone already we are all in need of the break.

Norm Hewitt - All Black, Dancing With The Stars champion and SPCA Spokesman

Norm Hewitt
One of the Family - 2012

On the 27th of June Norm Hewitt (an ex rugby player and competitor on dancing with the stars NZ) arrived at our school to talk to us about animal violence, his life, the SPCA and what they do.
Spot Prizes to be had

It was a very funny but sad experience. He told us that his childhood life was miserable and when he was sad his pets made him feel better. He also told us that family violence is not ok and that you can get arrested for it.
Family violence is NOT OK

 He taught us how to make a proper chip-butty sandwich. You cut the butter and slap it on your white bread. Be warned; never ever, ever spread the butter on because it takes too long. Then you put your hot chips on and the other piece of bread.
AWESOME!

When he was little his father told him that he was going on an adventure to get the fish ’n’ chips. He told him it would take 7 hours to get it because he had to grow the potatoes and catch the fish then cook it all but he actually bought the fish ‘n’ chips then went to the pub for 7 hours. That night his father would bring it home and his mother had to heat it up in the oven because it got cold while he was at the pub.
He also told us about the moment he knew he wanted to be an All Black instead of his previous dream – a cowboy.  He was watching an All Black test wearing his cowboy PJs.  The captain led the haka and at that moment he turned to his family saying he was going to be an All Black.  He never lost sight of that dream finally making it a reality. 



Demonstrating the haka with a rather infamous one from Norm's All Black days in the background

Wearing his cowboy PJs with his best cowboy guns

He is living a happy life now, working for the SPCA, teaching children about animal violence and that it is NOT ok.



A little Dancing with the Staff

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Techex - July 20. 2012


Techex

Room 8 and 9 at WIS went to TechEx on Friday the 20th July. It was at the Wanganui War Memorial Hall.

At Techex there were these small robots that are made in Japan. PuPeRo is the name of the Japan robot that is built to investigate human and robot relationships.

 
They introduced Spelladrome that is on Mathletics website. It is to help kids with their spelling.

There was firemen gear that you could touch and you could enter a competition to win one of their fire helmets.
 
There also were people there to explain the technology of this generation.

Our school also had a stand for our Robotics class. We had robots that students built in the WIS Robotics room. The robots were set on a course and they had sensors that would follow the lines in the course. 


 

The schools that were at TechEx were Aranui School, Te Kura Kaupapa Maori O Tupoho, Gonville School, Carlton School, Keith Street School, Wanganui East School, Wanganui Intermediate School, St George's School, Tawhero School, Durie Hill School and St Marcellin School.   

 

This Blog post was made by:

Rachel Graumans

Nadia Nevard.

Highlands Exchange - August 23, 2012


HIGHLANDS INTERMEDIATE SPORTS EXCHANGE


 
 
Highlands Intermediate is a school from New Plymouth who came down for the 56th sports exchange. We believe this is one of the longest sports exchange in New Zealand for Intermediate schools.

The trophy between Wanganui Intermediate and Highlands intermediate is held by Wanganui Intermediate at the moment.

This year the sports exchange was held at Wanganui Intermediate.

All the students from Wanganui went to the Hall for the ceremonial Powhiri (welcoming) and also the kapa haka group did our school’s haka. The bus arrived with all the Highlands representatives, after the welcoming we started the competition.

Some of the different sports we played were…

.Hockey
 
 

.Rugby
First XV Game
 

.Soccer
Girls Soccer
 

.Cup stacking
 

.Basketball

.Bowls
 

.Badminton and much more…
Netball
 
 
Chess
 
Debating
 
 
 

Our school had a really good result because we only lost two sports; those sports were Hockey and Basketball.

All the teams played really well especially the teams that won. It ended up that or school actually retained the trophy and I’m sure that we will do it again next year too.

 

By Blair and Ronan