On Monday the 6th of March, 38 very excited Year 6 students and their teachers headed out at 7:30am for Mt Carmel's first overnight camp to MERC!! The students had an amazing time being led by the talented staff of MERC. They did the Giants ladder, rock climbing, went on giant stand up paddleboards, raft building, outdoor survival and many other activities including a camp concert where they showed off their amazing talents! The students and teachers had a wonderful time at camp learning new skills, bonding and stretching themselves to try new things. Thank you to all the parents who helped out over the 2 days.

Please enjoy some students reflections on camp:

My favourite activity at camp was swimming out further into the ocean and paddleboarding because I love being out into the water and splashing, and just overall being outdoors. The easiest thing to do was to hangout with my friends, no matter what time or place it's just easy to hangout with friends. One of the hardest things to do personally was to build a raft, building a raft has difficulty with it because you have to knot the ropes and make the raft secure so that the raft doesn't break apart. A new skill I learnt was to paddle, paddling takes a lot of strength and power to do, once you paddle your arms get tired and weary. I saw beautiful sunsets, sunshine,sunrises, and waves. The combination with waves and the beautiful sky was fascinating and satisfying to watch. Hope you enjoyed my reflection on MERC 2023 Year 6 camp.

Jada

My favourite part about camp would be the rock climbing, it was really fun! I feel like I used my growth mindset by standing up in front of the class and performing by telling jokes because I normally find it very hard to speak in front of that many people. I learnt how to use a paddle while paddle boarding. The hardest thing I did was probably also getting up to tell jokes. I really enjoyed eating the baking, it was very yummy! It was very hard for me to sleep because I could hear very loud crickets and the crashing waves. I learnt how to survive in the water if anything happens. I learnt how long I can survive alone in the forest without water, food and shelter. After all, I had a great time at camp/MERC. I am so glad I went to MERC.

Zoe L

My most favorite moment at camp was doing the paddling it was so fun but my arms were very sore from paddling and my other favorite moment was building a hut but sadly we couldn't finished the other side of the hut and there was a enough room for 5 people to sit in and enough room for 2 people to sleep in.

The most challenging moment was the sleeping part when we were about to go to sleep.  My growth mindset was that I went far into the sea than I'm normally comfortable with and I climbed the giants ladder blindfolded.

Noeline

There are a LOT of activities at MERC but there are 4 main activities, the giants ladder, (which I didn’t do.) paddle boarding, rock climbing, and survival in water and on land. I conquered my first time in a school camp and also going into deep water.The easiest thing at camp was rock climbing.The most challenging thing for me was paddling the paddle board. I learned two types of knots, one was the reef knot, the other was the double 8 knot.My favourite thing on camp was playing with my friends. I love making sandcastles and being a fielder in cricket.

Kenjie

MERC was really fun because we had many rare activities that you wouldn't normally do as well a camp concert including comedy singing and more. I really enjoyed the giants ladder because it was a real challenge, because it was really big (hence the name.) We also went on a massive paddle board and jumped off, and invaded Toru ( there were four groups, Tahi, Rua, Toru, Wha) and we went under a capsized boat, because there was an air hole! We were taught how to tie a reef knot, a figure of eight knot and a figure of eight on a bite which is a figure of eight knot folded over.

Oliver

Look at us standing tall!

We created these colourful self-portraits during the week. It gave us the time to study our eyes, nose, mouth, and the rest of our faces. We experimented with the use of various media and techniques.

The process of creating self-portraits teaches students to think deeply about identities, values, interests and beliefs. Students gain a better sense of belonging with diversity within their class to give them the knowledge to make a valued contribution to society.

We asked Kiwi P and Kiwi G what activity they could do in the summer holidays if they were bored and had nothing to do - here's what they decided on.

The Blooming Piwakawaka Sunflower Competition maintains momentum.....

Since the beginning of Spring the children in the Piwakawaka class have been embarking on a wonderful Sunflower growing competition. Each child received sunflower seeds to plant and grow at home. Every week the children bring in their sunflower measurements, photos and graphs to share with the class and use for our Thursday Sunflower diary writing program. (see Photos below)

The children cannot stop talking about their sunflowers and they have really enjoyed learning new fun facts about them. Including learning about Heliotropism and how sunflowers have the ability to turn their heads toward the sun! With so much interest in the sunflowers we began exploring them further.

“I find comfort in contemplating the sunflowers.” – Vincent van Gogh.

Vincent Van Gogh's sunflower canvases proved extremely exciting for the children and they wanted to research these in more depth.

The children had the most wonderful time replicating Van Gogh's famous sunflower paintings and adding their own personal flare to their creation.

"Our Sunflower journey has been a wonderful ongoing investigation and a fantastic opportunity to talk about sustainability and how we can grow things from seed over and over just by putting in a little extra time and hard work. I am so proud of my inspirational creative gardeners- Keep up the great work Piwakawakas, I am so proud of you all." Mrs Kingstone

The students in Ruru have created their own art pieces based on the Northern and Southern lights. Students have learned what causes the Northern and Southern lights to occur. They are also known as Auroras. As a class, we investigated, and found out that scientists discovered that the sun gives off a bit of electricity, especially when there's lots of eruptions of hot gasses from its surface. These gases released by the Sun contain electricity. When some of this material escapes from the sun, and makes its way all the way to earth, it hits the top layers of the Earth's air, zapping it. That causes those layers of air to glow. The auroras are usually seen in the North Pole and South Pole and appear in a range of colours, making it appealing to the eye. We all loved looking at pictures of the auroras and were inspired to create our own!

The students learned new techniques on how to blend chalk pastels together, using either a toothbrush or their fingers. We discussed why we'd have a black background and not a bright blue sky, to make it realistic for nightime. We added snow to the mountains as there is snow in both the North Pole and South Pole. For those who added trees in their art, we discussed why we should use black and not green, to create a shadow effect for nightime. Stars were added and are not so obvious to see, which was deliberate, due to the aurora glow! I am so impressed with how well these art pieces have turned out!

"Keep up the good work Ruru"!!  Miss Clapham

Students in Kakariki are putting together a visual display for our topic of Fairy Tales & Stories - our learning intention is to use stencils, collage, and découpage to create a mural display of colourful leaves, of our favourite story books and of handmade Fairy Tale Pages, adorned with students' writing and illustrations. After brainstorming, our first steps have been to create an array of magically colourful leaves - decorated and cut out - and to craft a vast supply of "parchment", made from ordinary printer-paper, weathered with creasing and stained with tea! Our left-over parchment can then also used for lessons throughout the term, to show off our work in Handwriting, Creative Writing, and Visual Art.

We have budding entomologists in the Weka classroom who thoroughly enjoyed discovering and exploring the world of Minibeasts.

They loved learning about different minibeasts and classifying organisms into living and non-living things.  They found the lifecycle of the frog and butterfly very interesting and were intrigued to learn about the different stages in each lifecycle.  They were fascinated to learn how minibeasts can be harmful and useful and enjoyed working in groups to find out which category different minibeasts went in to.  Learning about how and why minibeasts camouflage and adapt to their environment was insightful and they created beautiful camouflage critters to represent the term of camouflage.

They were given the opportunity to prepare and present speeches.  Their speech was on an exciting trip into the jungle, and they were sharing a new species of insect with the class that no one had ever seen before.  We ended off the minibeast topic with a beautiful bug ball.

"I was extremely proud of the effort, excitement and enthusiasm that went into these speeches.  They were outstanding and I loved learning all about their findings.  Well done Weka’s!  I think you are the coolest entomologists in town!"  Tamlyn Leal

With an emphasis on Māori language Week and to make a connection with traditional mythical legends. The Year 4 Takahe class has embraced Māori mythology and researched the Taniwha. Large supernatural beings that live in deep pools in rivers, dark caves, or in the sea, especially in places with dangerous currents or deceptive breakers.
The children have depicted their Taniwha creations, using a range of coloured pastels, that have been blended to create and enhance a captivating graphic of the dwelling monster.
Susan Pohlen. 

Tui Class are proud to present the geometric designs they have created with paint on canvases.  Their designs were inspired by tukutuku panels which are a type of ornamental weaving used to adorn the inside walls of wharenui.  After researching different tukutuku patterns, the students chose their favourite one to replicate using masking tape on a canvas board.  They then selected a base paint colour and created three different shades.  Vertical stripes were then painted on the canvas using the different shades, and then the masking tape carefully removed.