Sunday 17 September 2017

Stanley Olympics

During Week 6 a wonderful group of 49 Year 6, 7 and 8's participated in Stanley Olympics. While the Stanley Avenue Winter Olympics Team was away at Totara Springs competing in a wide variety of sporting events, the remaining students stayed back at school and participated in a range of fun events.

The week started off on Monday morning with an Amazing Race around Te Aroha. The weather was not looking promising and there was a lot of running around on Monday morning to organise a back-up plan, but when 9am rolled around the skies were fairly clear and we decided to go ahead. Everyone had a great time running around town, completing tasks, taking photos and trying to decipher clues. A huge thank you to the parents who gave up their time to lead groups, the businesses for letting us into their stores and giving us a range of activities to complete. It was a lot of fun and extremely tiring (we think each group walked between 9-13km over a 3 hour period).




 Over the next 3 days we completed a range of different T.V inspired activities - Hottest Home Baker, Masterchef, Survivor, Whose Line Is It Anyway, American Ninja Warrior, Minute to Win It, and Family Feud. Each activity was a lot of fun, and proved crucial to work together as a group, be creative and inventive. Each group successfully completed all the activities and it was amazing to see all the cooking efforts come together. The judges had a wonderful time tasting them all to determine a winner of each section. 




Thursday afternoon wrapped up our Stanley Olympics Competition with a Wall Ball Tournament, Skits Showcase and Prize Giving. After all the points had been tallied it was the Super Unicorns who came out the victorious winners, only 1 point ahead of the Spinner Winners.

Our fantastic week came to a finale with an amazing week away in Tauranga going to Rocktopia and a short walk around the Karangahake Gorge. Everyone had a blast tackling different rock climbing walls, giving the Leap of Faith a go, and braving the Vertical Slide. Unfortunately the rain came in over lunch and we were unable to walk around the Mount, instead changing the plans for a quick picnic (to finish off the Hottest Home Baker Slices) and a quick walk in the Gorge, on the way back over to school.

 


 

A huge thank you to all parents/caregivers who provided transport, guidance and support throughout our week. We also want to thank Mrs Moleni, Miss Malone, Lynn, and Kat for all their efforts and support throughout the week, we couldn't of done it without you. However our biggest thanks must go to Mrs Horan - we honestly wouldn't of had this week without you and we cannot thank you enough for your efforts.

We have had a great week and cannot wait for next years Stanley Olympics. Keep a look out in the coming weeks for a video from the Winter Olympics Team.

Speeches

This term all Room 3 students have been working hard to write and present fantastic speeches. Everyone successfully presented their speech, with a wide range of topics being selected. Topics ranged from Pukeko's to How To Get Fit, Rugby, Cricket, Money, Space and even the Tarantula Hawk.

It was hard to select only 4 speeches to go forward to the School Speech finals, but in the end Jacob, Charlie, Rico and Charli were selected to represent Room 3. All four worked extremely hard to perfect their speeches and did an amazing job of presenting to a large audience. It was great to see their confidence presenting in front of others, and to see their improvement from when they presented to the class till the speech finals. It really showed how much they have taken on board advice and worked hard to perfect their speech and performances. A huge congratulations to all four of them for having the courage to represent themselves and our classroom so well.

We had great success with Rico winning the Year 6 group and Jacob placing third in the Year 7 division. A fantastic achievement for both boys. Unfortunately Rico is away next week and is unable to present his winning speech at the Rotary Speech Finals, instead the two runners up (Jessica and Anna from Room 4) will represent Stanley Avenue School as the Year 6 speakers and we wish them all the very best.

Here is Rico's winning speech. Note that this is his classroom presentation, as we did not record speeches at the School Finals.