Congratulations St Joseph's

In very chilly weather conditions the children competed in Netball, Basketball, Table Tennis and Rugby against St Mary's in Mosgiel today. I was very impressed with the excellent spirit and determination that the children showed in all the games.
There were two fantastic Netball games played by a mixed team and our St Joseph's A team - there were some fantastic skills on display and it was great to chalk up two convincing wins.
In the basketball 2 teams from each school played each other in four games. The first game saw our St Joseph's 1 team go down narrowly after a slow start. In game 2 the St Joseph's 2 team had a good win over the St Mary's 2 team - great shooting and defense was on display. In the reverse matches both teams had great wins - our St Joseph's 1 team beat the St Mary's 2 team. In the final game - the closest of the day our 2nd team beat the St Mary's 1 team by one point - it was great to see the awesome spirit shown by the children.
In the table tennis our boys team and girls team played singles matches against the teams from St Mary's in a knock out tournament - Meghan and Thomas won through to the finals and took out the 2 sections for St Joseph's.
In the rugby our St Joseph's team played a spirited St Mary's team - there were some fantastic tackles and some busting runs. The St Joseph's team crossed the try line regularly and came out on top at the end of the time.
After all the healthy competition the children from St Joseph's were successful in retaining the shield - WELL DONE !!!!
A huge thank you to Mrs Souness for organising the exchange for St Joseph's, to the teachers, parents and pupils from St Mary's for being fantastic hosts and providing us with some very spirited contests and to all the parents who traveled to help coach and support us on the day.

Mosgiel Interchange

All of the children in Ruma Matai will be heading to Mosgiel on Thursday morning for our annual interchange with St Mary's. The children will be taking part in Netball, Rugby, Basketball and Table Tennis.
We leave school at 7:00 am sharp and the children need to be at school by 6:45 am. We ask that the children bring a good supply of snacks and drink to last them for the day - and due to the cold weather we have been experiencing a good supply of warm clothing will also be a must.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

Siobhan

Disaster Inquiry

The children presented their disaster inquiry projects over the past week. I have been very impressed with the quality of the children's work and their presentation. The children were asked to present their ideas orally and explain about the causes, effects and recovery of their chosen disaster.
We had a range of disasters from Floods to Earthquakes and Volcanoes to Tsunamis. The children chose to present their ideas in poster form or on powerpoint and some even created models to explain their ideas.
As part of the process I have provided the children with feedback on the areas of focus. I was very pleased at the time management skills of many of the children. The children also were able to present their ideas clearly and logically that was easy to follow for the reader. In most cases they were able to present some scientific information about the causes of their chosen disaster - however this is an area where the children could have gone deeper in their explanations.
In our next inquiry project we will be focusing on writing information in our own words, proofreading and editing our work before publishing. Another important area of focus is in presenting ideas and information orally with confidence, as the children become more knowledgeable about their topic and have the opportunity to practice these skills I know this will improve.
In Term 3 the children will be carrying out an individual inquiry about a topic of their choice and this will be an opportunity for the children to improve in these areas.

Jump Rope For Heart - Jump Off

On Tuesday last week we held our Jump Off as part of the Heart Foundations Jump Rope for Heart. The children were all put into groups with children from Year 5 to 8 and were able to take part in 8 different activities - Skipping to Music, Double Dutch, Long Ropes, Obstacle Course and others.
It was a great, if not a bit chilly, morning and the children were fabulous. It was fantastic to see the excellent skipping skills and the awesome attitudes of all of them.

Problem Solving Challenge

This term we have been focusing on teaching specific problem solving strategies for the children to use when solving a variety of problems.

We have learnt the following strategies so far:

• Making a Diagram - using pictures or "doodles" as you are thinking to help you develop your ideas is a good way to start when looking at a problem.

• Guess and Check - having a guess at a possible solution and then checking back to see if it fits the problem. It is important to modify answers if they aren't correct.

• Using a Table or Chart - setting out information in an orderly chart graph or table - the data will then hopefully suggest a pattern or solution.

• Creating an Organised List - similar yo using a table or chart but is often better when more information is present. It is useful to do this so that you are not carrying all different possibilities in your head.

• Looking for a Pattern - this relates to algebra and can often be the key to problem solving - if a pattern can be established then it is often easy to predict what comes next.

Below are some links to websites that you may find useful to practice at home.
Maths Word Problems

Sport Results From the Weekend

Soccer - the children had bye

Netball
St Joseph's Gold beat OIS B - 28 - 6
St Joseph's Rebels lost to Glenpapa - 8 -15

Rugby
St Joseph's Year 7 & 8 drew 17 all with Maheno - sadly as it was a draw Maheno got to keep the North Otago Shield

Kayden, Chelsea, Sophia, Matt, Scott, and Tom were selected to trial for the North Otago rugby team. Best of luck!!

Basketball Results This Week

Angels beat Weston Wildcats
Magic lost to OIS Sparks 36 - 12
Saints had a bye
Pacers drew with OIS Bulls - 37 All

The Toffee Pop Challenge

In Ruma Matai it is very important that we can challenge ourselves both physically and mentally. This morning at feed and read after a very intense writing session we undertook the Toffee Pop Challenge. This involved placing a toffee pop biscuit on the forehead and using the facial muscles to move it to the mouth for chomping. Below are some photos of our efforts

Murray Gadd - Writing Inspiration

We have been continuing to focus on our quality writing and last week Mrs De Buyzer and I attended a course and writing lesson observation with Mr Murray Gadd. He demonstrated to us an exciting and interesting lesson based on "Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type" by Doreen Cronin. As a result of this lesson we have used this story in our motivation for writing persuasive arguments.
We began by discussing what we need to do when we persuade someone and the different techniques we can use to persuade them.
We then read this excellent story which looks at how the animals on Farmer Brown's farm get their demands met.
From this we have begun to write our own arguments from the perspective of a farm animal. The children have come up with their demands, the reasons for their demands and the consequences of their demands not being met.
I continue to be impressed by the depth of thinking and the quality of the writing in Ruma Matai. As the work is finished I will post it for you all to read.

Comments from National Young Leaders Day

From the National Young Leaders Day on Monday the following messages were highlighted by the children on our return to school.
"Stop, think then make your choices - Niamh"
"Practice makes permanent - Alannah"
"Your life is like a book, we are creating our own stories. - Meghan and Petaera"
"Make the right choices - Sophia"
"Be yourself - don't try to be something you are not - Chelsea"
"Set the bar high - Jino"
"Are these friends actually my friends - Scott"
"You can't change the past - but you can change the future - Skyla"
"Take every opportunity - Ashley"
"Putting all the right pieces of the puzzle together makes the perfect picture - Matthew"
"Go your own way - Rachel"
"Don't change yourself to be what others want - Savana and Skyla"
"It is all in your head - Meghan"
"Dream big - Chelsea"
"Don't let others make yours choices - Ellen"
"Never give up on your dream - Olivia"
"Everyone has a different style of personality - Ashley"
"Think about the positives - Matthew"
"Give 120% - Matt"
"Positive attitude is like positive altitude on a plane - negative attitude can lead to a crash - Scott"
"We all have some form of disability - Thomas"
"Once you have done something - don't think, if only ... - Ellen"
"Be a leader, not a follower even if it means standing alone - Ashley and Alice"
"To be a leader you need to create opportunities for others to lead - Sami"
"Don't be afraid to ask for help - Scott"
"Take responsible risks - Thomas"

Disaster Inquiry Outline

This morning we began our Disasters inquiry. We have spent a lot of time discussing the expectations for learning during this project. Below are two links to the project outline and the assessment rubric.

We have discussed the importance of keywords when we are researching and about keeping a record of what we do each day as well as the places where we find our information.
The development of our time management skills is also a major focus during the inquiry and we have talked about setting a time line or calendar for when different aspects of the task will be completed. As we cover other aspects I will add information to the blog.

Disaster Inquiry Outline

Disaster Assessment Rubric

Due Date - Friday 1st July

National Young Leaders Day - Dunedin

We had a fantastic and inspiring day listening to some key messages about being good and effective leaders at St Joseph's in 2011 and beyond.

Pat Buckley - A life skills educator talked to us about the importance of the choices we make, he told us that we always have a choice in any situation and that we need to take a moment to weigh up our options when faced with our difficult choices.
He also encouraged us to take ownership of our own life stories.

Alison Shanks - current Commonwealth Champion and former World Champion Individual Pursuit Cyclist spoke to us about the importance of preparation and perseverance in anything we take on. She really challenged us to dare to dream and I hope to see the children in Ruma Matai taking on this challenge.

Adam Hall - 2010 Paraolympic Slalom Gold Medalist was a true inspiration. He really showed us what his 120% commitment to achieving his goals has helped him to do. He also spoke about the importance of the resources that we may need to utilize in order to achieve anything we set our minds to.
"Prior Preparation Prevents Poor Performance"

Allison Mooney gave us a lot of food for thought when she spoke about the different personality traits that many leader possess: - based on the book The Treasure Tree
It was really interesting to decide our own personality types based on the characters - Otter, Beaver, Lion and Golden Retriever. This is an area I would like to see us investigate further.

I hope that the children all enjoyed the opportunity to develop their own ideas about leadership and were inspired by the great speakers we listened to.

National Young Leaders Day - Dunedin

Well early tomorrow morning we are off on our adventure to Dunedin for the National Young Leaders Day.

We will leave school at 7:30 sharp - and yes kids we will leave if you are late.

We have an exciting opportunity to learn about the experiences of some of the inspirational New Zealanders - Adam Hall and Alison Shanks.

The objectives for the day are to:

* INSPIRE students to make a positive contribution to their school.

* MOTIVATE students to be great leaders in their area of influence.

* EMPOWER students with practical skills of balancing study, school commitments and social life as well as managing the stress in these areas.

* PROMOTE the value of inspirational and positive role models as examples to others, by exposing students to a diverse range of leaders and their views on leadership.

* EDUCATE students about the need to grow in knowledge and practical skills in the areas of excellence and leadership.

* CONNECT students with other students from other schools and develop long-term support networks.

I know that the children will have an amazing day and will come back with some fantastic skills that they can put into practice as leaders at St Joseph's

Basketball Results This Week

Pacers beat OIS Great Whites - 68 - 36
Angels - Bye
Magic lost to Weston Wildcats - 39 - 61
Saints beat OIS Diamonds - 33 - 20

Netball House Competition

Our wonderful House Captains have organised a lunchtime netball tournament between our houses - Siena, Lima and of course Guzman. On Wednesday all of the teams played each other with Siena having two wins, Guzman one win and Lima two loses. A final will be held between Siena and Guzman on Thursday 2nd June.

Basketball Results This Week

Here are the results for the Ruma Matai basketball teams:

Pacers - Bye
Angels beat Magic - 54 to 13
Saints beat OIS Pearls - 82 to 9

Kees Meeuws Visits

This morning we were very fortunate to have former All Black and Highlander Kees Meeuws visit St Joseph's to promote The Chopper Challenge that we are involved in to raise money for the Westpac Rescue Helicopter. He spoke to us about the rescue helicopter and what it does, it was great to learn about this excellent cause.

He also spoke to us about his rugby career and gave us some insight into some of his favourite memories.

Thank you to Mrs Jackson for being so quick with our entry into the Chopper Challenge that allowed us to meet Kees, and also to Westpac for bringing him to our school.

Niamh F - Veritas Award Term 1 2011

Congratulations to Niamh F who was presented with the Veritas Award at the end of Term 1. This award was a gift from the Breen Family to the school in 2002. It was presented to the school in appreciation for the 8 years of experience, Sam and Robbie Breen had at St Joseph’s. They asked for this Award to be given for ‘positive contribution to school life because everyone needs to help each other in order to be a good team’.

The Award was made from an oak tree from Alan McLay’s place and the boys helped to make the Award in his workshop. They chose oak because ‘huge oak trees grow from tiny acorns, just like big adults growing from little children’.

The Yr 8 teacher chooses the recipient of the Award at the end of Term 1, 2 and 3 each year. Mrs Patterson said she chose Niamh because she has shown herself to be an exceptional Special Character Leader. She leads our school through her reverent actions and the lovely way she interacts with all the members of our school community. She is a shining example of how we can all ‘Reach for the Stars as Lifelong Learners in the Catholic Faith’.

National Young Leaders Day - Dunedin

On Monday 30^th May the children of Matai will be attending the Young Leaders Day at the Regent Theatre in Dunedin. The children will have the opportunity to listen to a number of speakers including Alison Shanks – World Champion Cyclist, Adam Hall - Paralympic Gold Medalist and Pat Buckley – A Life Skills Educator and Motivational Speaker. The speakers will be speaking about the leadership experiences they have had.

The objectives for the day are to:

* INSPIRE students to make a positive contribution to their school.

* MOTIVATE students to be great leaders in their area of influence.

* EMPOWER students with practical skills of balancing study, school commitments and social life as well as managing the stress in these areas.

* PROMOTE the value of inspirational and positive role models as examples to others, by exposing students to a diverse range of leaders and their views on leadership.

* EDUCATE students about the need to grow in knowledge and practical skills in the areas of excellence and leadership.

* CONNECT students with other students from other schools and develop long-term support networks.

Mrs De Buyzer and I will be traveling with the children and we will be traveling on a bus. The cost for the day would be $56 per student, however we have decided that this day will have worthwhile benefits for all our Year 8 students so the school has decided to cover most of these costs so that all the Year 8 students can attend. We are asking for a $10 contribution from each family to help us cover these costs. If you require any financial assistance with this please contact Mrs Patterson as soon as possible.

We will be leaving from school at 7:30 am and will be able to pick up any bus children who live south of Oamaru on the way. Please indicate on the permission slip below if this applies to you. The children will need to be at school by 7:20 am. We will return to school at approximately 4:30 pm.

The permission slip should have arrived home today - please return it by next Wednesday.

Technology at OIS - Day Four

Well Tech for Term 2 is now over and I am so impressed with the amazing work that the children have created. They have worked creatively to create their bags and I am very jealous of some of their skills. Mrs Jackson has also nabbed some of the art to create a display so look out for that.

Well done Ruma Matai - you are all stars, however I am excited that you will be back at school because I have missed you all. :-)

Technology at OIS - Day Three

Well I let the children loose with the camera today and what follows are the awesome snaps that they took of the Art and Fabric processes that they are all involved in. Enjoy!

Technology at OIS - Day Two

Well today the children arrived back at school, some displaying fantastic finished products from their past two days of toil.

The children in Fabric technology have completed their bags. And the children in Art have these amazing self portraits.

Problem Solving in Ruma Matai

This term one of our focuses in Maths is on developing a range of problem strategies to use when we are solving problems.

At this stage we have focused on using diagrams to help us - that is strategy one. The second strategy is to guess and check answers. Mrs P has given us a range of problems to practice using these strategies and this Friday we will take part in the second set of the Otago Problem Challenge. This is where we have 30 minutes to solve 5 word problems.

If you would like to know about the problem solving strategies or the Otago Problem Challenge then see Mrs P.

Technology at OIS - Day One

The children of Ruma Matai have begun their exciting week of Technology today. I visited them just before lunch and they were all busily preparing to make their bags in Fabric Technology or their prints in Art. It all looked very exciting and I can't wait to see the finished products tomorrow. I am including a small number of photos.

Weekend Sports Results

On Saturday the local Rugby and Soccer competitions got underway.

The St Joseph's Year 7 & 8 rugby team had a close win over Maheno 46 - 43
The Wasps Soccer had a loss to Meadowbank.

Great to hear all the awesome comments about the way our St Joseph's teams represent themselves on the sports field.

Can't wait for the Netball to get underway this coming weekend. Keep on reaching for the stars!

Leadership Camp 2011

These are some of the photos from our Leadership Camp in Term 1.

Meet Mrs P.

Kia ora I am Siobhan Patterson and I am truly privileged to be the teacher of Ruma Matai, our wonderful year 8 class at St Joseph's.

I am a South Canterbury native (yes that does mean I am a Canterbury supporter, GO CRUSADERS!!!) After High School I studied a variety of things at Lincoln University, including Finance, Marketing, Science and Agriculture. I then moved to Dunedin to study for two years at the College of Education.

My first class was a wonderful group of Year 8 students at Tweedsmuir Junior High in Invercargill and I can still remember the excitement of that first class. Since then I have taught in Timaru, Waimate and finally St Joseph's in Oamaru.

I have a wide variety of interests, especially music, reading, and most sports - although generally as a spectator. I enjoy mountain biking and running - I am hoping to run a half marathon in October this year. I have spent many years involved in Netball as a player, coach and in recent times a supporter since rupturing my achilles tendon.

The best thing for me is the opportunity I have to work with the amazing children at St Joseph's School, they are truly inspirational. They challenge me everyday to strive to be the best teacher I can possibly be and to live out our school vision of Reaching for the Stars. :-)

Meet Mrs De Buyzer

Hi. My name is Nicki De Buyzer and I am a part time teacher here at St Joseph's School, Oamaru.

I grew up in Nelson in a large and some would say noisy family. After finishing High School I attended Christchurch Teachers Training College. Three years later I was let loose on my first delightful class. I often wonder where they are now. Two more years of teaching in Christchurch and marriage followed, before Oamaru beckoned.

Here began my long association with the St Joseph's community. I spent four years teaching in the senior area before leaving to raise my own family, daughter Jana and twin sons Samuel and Isaac. The children all attended St Joseph's and when the boys were still in the Junior school I came back to teach part-time - and obviously I thoroughly enjoy it because here I still am!

My personal interests outside of school are reading, sport and exercise. My current passion is rowing, my family would tell you it is an addiction, and I spend quite some time down at our Oamaru Harbour trying to perfect what is a very technical challenge. I also love Netball and while I played and coached for many years I am now simply an avid armchair viewer of any game on TV.

Finally I love our family holidays which are enjoyed mainly either in beautiful Queenstown or sunny Nelson and while I have been lucky enough to have experienced a couple of trips to Europe I look forward to more travel when the boys fly the coup.

Writers Workshop

Some of the wonderful writers in Ruma Matai have begun a new blog. We will be using it to showcase rich writing from across the school. At this stage there are some fantastic stories and poems from our Year 8's. Take some time to have a look.

Writer's Workshop

Technology Next Week

Next week is Technology at OIS. Please ensure that the following
requirements are met:

Please be fully equipped with pencil cases that have pens, pencils, rulers etc
each day for Technology.

All students wanting lunch orders need to bring these preorganised in an
envelope, with their name, group and order.  They don't need the exact
change -Liz in the canteen gives change.

If it is wet the children will be supervised in a classroom at lunchtime.
If the weather looks less than favourable then it would be great if students
could bring suitable games - cards etc

Sports Results This Week

Last night was the first night of Basketball for our class teams. They all played a grading game and after next week they will be put into grades for the competition.

The results are as follows:

Pacers beat OIS Bulls 32 - 29
Angels beat Weston Wildcats 38 - 21
Magic lost to OIS Pearls 34 -42
Saints beat OIS Sapphires 65 - 6

Keep up the great work.

Meet Ruma Matai

Meet the 37 children (although 2 are missing from this photo) and 2 teachers who are an important part of the Ruma Matai family. Each week we will endeavour to allow you to learn more about us.

Writing in Ruma Matai

This term we are continuing our focus on rich writing.
We have been using the book "How to Live Forever" by Colin Thompson as the motivation for our writing.
After reading the book we are currently writing an argument about whether we would use the Book of Immortality.
It has generated some very interesting discussion and I will post some of our finished stories.

Websites for Natural Disasters

The websites below have some excellent information about a wide variety of disasters.

Disaster Webquest

Kids Konnect Disasters Page

Natural Disasters

Forces of Nature

The Disaster Area

Natural Disasters Homework Help

The Truth About Our Changing Earth

This term our inquiry focus is on our planet. For the first few weeks we will be looking at disasters.
We began by discussing what a disaster actually was and then categorising different types of event. This raised some very interesting discussion about what things were disasters, after many views being aired we decided that a disaster needed to be something major that would cause a lot of devastation and loss of life.

The children are now working on finding out about different types of disasters - both natural and man made. They will be using their information to set their own questions and area of study when they embark on their individual inquiries in the next couple of weeks.

I will add some links to some of the awesome websites we have discovered as they come to hand.

Siobhan

Well We are Now in the Blogosphere!!!

In Ruma Matai we endeavour to keep everyone informed about all the exciting things that we are doing. This term it is my challenge to develop our use of ICT. As I continue to strive to learn myself I have decided that a class blog would be the first step in my journey.

The plan is to use our blog to keep the parents and friends of our class informed about all our happenings and to also share cool and interesting things we find.

Keep visiting us to see what we are posting about.

Siobhan