Maui's Dolphin Mural Completion!

After plenty of hard work and organisation our Mural is finally finished! Room 23 put the finishing touches to the mural by painting their names into the waves Vanessa had done. The completion took a while due to hold backs with the weather and receiving the sponsorship. It looks amazing and is an asset to the school and our community. We hope it gives awareness to the public so the can also help in the campaign to prevent the Mauis Dolphin Decline.

NZCT AIMS GAMES 2009

NZCT AIMS Games National Sporting Championship

After hard weeks of training and fundraising, Sunday 6Th September finally came and 80 Pukekohe Intermediate School Students hit the road for Tauranga. We gathered at the school car park, loaded up the vans then headed off to compete in the NZCT AIMS National Sporting Championship.
The students arrived in the Mount at about 3.30pm, where we then drove to our camp ground and had a team meeting. We were told our cabin numbers, then we went over rules and safety. After a snack, unpacking our gear and a quick play on the playground, we jumped into our vans and headed to Queen Elizabeth The Second Event Centre in Tauranga for the opening ceremony.
We sat through an hours worth of entertainment before the AIMS Games were officially opened.
Back in the van we went and after 5 times around the round-a-bout, and getting lost, we arrived back at Golden Grove. We ate our dinner the parent helpers had prepared for us, then it was off to get ready for bed. The next morning we were woken at 6.30. We prepared for the day ahead, then we travelled to Harbourside Netball Centre. We were extremely early so we got a spot in the pavilion, then walked to Blake Park to watch the soccer girls. After their win, we went back to the courts and started our warm up. Our first game was a loss to Whakatane, our score being 24-30. We had some lunch then we had our second game, one of our hardest.
We lost 36-19 to Northcross. After a long day we drove home back to the campground, showered, ate then we were off to the RSA for Dinner.
Monday wasn't a good start for us Netball Girls, but we went to bed early for a good sleep for the next day. We were told we didn't have to wake up at 6.30 but we were woken by Olivia knocking on our door at 6.10am.
There was no point going back to sleep, so we got up and got ready. We psyched ourselves up listening to our team song as we drove to the courts.We warmed up then jumped on court for our first game of the day. We came out with a win, 25-24 against Taupo, who in the end took out the competition for Netball. Our second game was a loss to Peachgrove 30-17. After our third devastating loss, we went out fighting against Tahatai Coast and won 40-21. We went to the movies that afternoon and watched The Proposal. We had dinner at the RSA then bedtime. Another early wake up. After being placed in the Bottom 16, we wanted to prove ourselves. That day we had two more wins against John Paul College 33-6, and Hastings 42-21. In the late afternoon we drove to the beach, half of the team walked up the Mount and the other half stayed on the beach. We arrived 15 minutes late to dinner, and rushed our food down. The next day we lost against Katikati 27-23, then won against Bethleham College 33-25. Winning our last game placed us in the C Grade Final on Friday. We came up against Havelock North and won 34-27. At 1pm we travelled to the closing ceremony. We sat through the presentations, and medal prize giving. Pukekohe Intermediate did extremely well. Boys Hockey are the NZCT AIMS Games Back to Back Hockey Champions Again. Trent Smith received gold in Boys Single Tennis, First in Boys Doubles with Jordan Syme and First Mixed Doubles with Kelly Drew. Kelly Drew got first in Girls Singles. Olivia Gillot received Gold and Silver, Byron Pointon Bronze and Sian De Arth Bronze, all in Gymsports. A big congratulations to all teams who participated! It was an amazing experience, and I'm sure the memories wont be forgotten any time soon.

Music Websites

As part of the Music Inquiry Unit in Term 3, Room 23 created and designed websites for our Authentic Challenge. We were given two website builder options, and had to trial each out and decide which one to use. The websites were based on a music artist we had created ourselves and their life as a musician or artist. We had to include: Biography, Track list, Discography, Back Track, Filmography, Lyrics to a song we had written, Photo Gallery, Blog, CD Release poster and concert dates. We were given just over a week to build the sites to a high standard. On our deadline we published the finished product, then as a class voted for the websites we thought deserved a place in the Netguide Schools Multimedia TVNZ 6 Challenge. Two thirds of our classes websites were sent through to the competition, and are now in the running to win a laptop. Heres a link to my site of Music Artist Dee Cee: http://www.danelle-a-cox.webs.com/

Multiple Intelligences

On the 14th of August 2009 room 23 students completed the Birmingham Grid for Learning Multiple Intelligences test. This test is to see what "Smart" you are. My strongest smarts are Linguistic Smart and People Smart. These intelligences will change overtime.

Google Doodle

During the first few weeks of term 3, our class have been in the process of designing Google doodles, representing New Zealand.

Google was holding a competition for kids in New Zealand to design a Google Doodle. Google doodle's are artistic drawings that are shown on the NZ Google Homepage.

Each student was given a blank Google design sheet and was expected to come up with creative ideas to include on their Google Doodle. This was a success. Many pupils had great ideas and all of the designs look awesome !

As a class we voted for a Google Doodle that stood out the most for us, and could be in the process to be one of the 8 Google doodles chosen from our class to send to Google.

100 finalists will be chosen from all over New Zealand, 25 from each age group and the prize will be a Google Certificate. 20 winners will be chosen out of all the age groups. The prizes: A copy of the Google design for their school, an invitation to the ceremony for the National winners; their Google Doodle displayed on the Google website for the public to vote, and a Doodle 4 Google goody bag. The national age group winner will be chosen by the public's vote, and there will be one design chosen from each age group. Prizes: Interactive white board for their school, and laptop for the winner.

Dennis Hwang, Google's Webmaster, will pick the National overall winner, out of the four chosen age group winners. This winner will recieve $10,000 worth of technology equipment for their school, and their design will be on the Google homepage for 24 hours

Cross Country

As the year 8 girls lined up on the start line, I felt a rush of nerves flow through my body. My heart was pumping as I anxiously awaited to hear that torturous gun. When Mr Scott finally shot the gun, there was a huge scramble to get to the start of the course. Everyone was pushing and shoving. When everyone found their feet, we were off. Grace zoomed to the front, leading the pack. Some people made the mistake of starting fast and dropping back due to exhaustion. Coming through into the finish line was such a relief. I was knackered. For me, cross country is quite a challenge.Although I did beat my last years placing, I felt if I had put 100% effort into it, I could have possibly done better. With all my training lading up to the day from Mr Short, I was extremely disappointed.
While the year 8 boys raced, we rested up on the grass bank at Bleidslode Park. After the results and certificates were handed out, we walked back to school.
Most students had full participation and tried their best. The best of luck to the Zone Cross Country Team.

Acheivments (to date)

Above is table, with my Acheivments to date in 2009 as a Year 8