Can-drive

Can-drive!

For term four, Springston School has been focusing on challenging change and how we could help with other people trying to cope with challenging change. 

For Room 6 students,  Mrs Taylor helped us brainstorm lots of ways we could help people. My group was Philip, Hannah and me, Courtney. After hearing about the Samoan Tsunami we decided we would do everything we could to get Samoa what they needed. There were a whole bunch of teams from our class wanting to fundraise for Samoa, but luckily we had all the ideas for what we wanted to do. 

Our first idea was a can-drive. We figured that people would rather give cans than money.  Mrs Taylor thought this was a great idea and set us straight to work on it. We decided we wanted our can-drive to be a competition so we told everyone it would be from the 15th-19th of November and the class with the most cans at the end of the week would win their own personal mufti day!

At the end of the week we had an amazing result. We had a total of 203 cans and $26 so the result was unbelievable! Room 5 was the winner of the mufti day with a total of 55 cans.  Well done Springston School.  Samoa will be happy with our result.

By Courtney Jones!

Springston Civil Defence Exercise

On Tuesday 26 October, at six o’clock the Springston School Civil Defence exercise began. The purpose of this event was to show children and parents how the Civil Defence can help us in a disaster.

First, many people enjoyed a sausage from the sausage sizzle for their tea, then the ‘show and tell’ started. Everybody went to the classrooms where the adults had the pleasure of looking at the students' work and the students had the proud feeling of showing off their work.

Second, the fun started. We heard the signal for an earthquake (the bell ringing on and off), so we quickly got underneath a table and waited until the all-clear bell was rung. Next the students lead their parents to the cricket pitch. When there’s a disaster the students know where the safe meeting place for the school is.

After that, everyone was split into two groups. One group went to the black court at the back of the school for an earthquake demonstration, while the other group went to the library for a talk on what it would be like at an emergency centre after a disaster. I first went with my family to the black court where the Fire Brigade and Red Cross did a precise entrance into the building, after making sure the electricity and water were off. From the building they rescued several people (who earlier had fake blood applied to different parts of their body, so they looked hurt and injured).

Next, my family and I went to the library which was set up a little like an emergency centre. While we were there, Carol from the Red Cross explained to us about what would happen and where we’d go if there was any type of disaster around Springston. Then she told us what would go on in the emergency centre after the disaster.

Finally, families brought forward their Emergency Kits for checking by Carol. Names of families who participated were put into a lucky dip, to win some prizes.

After talking to several students I found out that people really enjoyed the night and learnt a lot. So our thanks go to the Civil Defence and Red Cross - you not only educated us, you also entertained us!

By Courtney
Year 6

Spanish Greetings Podcasts

Room 6 students have been hard at work learning how to use Garageband to create a podcast. They've been learning some of the features of a podcast too. Here they have created their first episodes, introducing you to some Spanish greetings.

Podcast by Brook (Year 7), Shania and Madison (Year 6):


Podcast by Emily, Hannah and Courtney (Year 6):

Jump Jam Competition

Jump Jam at Springston School is great, every Friday at ten o’clock the whole school will go out and do three or four songs.

Just recently Springston entered two Jump Jam teams to go to competitions. The competitions were being held in AUCKLAND but unfortunately neither of our teams got in but one team that got so close was the Year 7 & 8 team including Megan H, Georgia W, Ryan B, Phillip S, Libby H, Ffion D, Emma-Rose, Holly P and Lucy C.

Now it sounds crazy, but if that team had more of a natural smile then they would have gone to Auckland and that would have been great. But there was only going to be 10 teams accepted into the finals so we didn’t quite have enough fun, at least that’s what the judges said.

Also both Jump Jam teams would like to say a huge thank-you to Miss Singleton who introduced us to Jump Jam, coached our teams and organized us to go to the competitions. So thank-you Miss Singleton. You where great.

By Courtney J. and Libby B.

More Jacqueline Wilson!!!

Review done by Courtney J.
Age 10
From Springston School

My Sister Jodie
By Jacqueline Wilson

How easy was it to get stuck into this book?
Very easy. Unless you’ve read one of Jacqueline’s books you have no idea how great she is, she just has a magic yet life like theme to all her books. Anyway this book is great. Every word gives you thrills of what’s going to happen next and you can never predict what’s going to happen. Also when you read about Pearl, Jodie and Harley's adventures in and around the school, you feel like you're there with them getting into trouble and exploring new places. That’s why I love this book.

Who are the main characters?
The main characters are Pearl, Jodie and Harley. Pearl is a very kind girl and doesn’t adapt very well to change. Jodie, on the other hand, is confident and willing to do anything, also she’s a very good spooky story teller and manages to scare Pearl constantly. Harley thinks Pearl is great and they both like each other (or so it seems).

What’s the story-line?
The story-line is about a young girl called Pearl who, with her sister, mum and dad, move house and schools. As her parents adapt well to the school as the caretakers and Jodie makes friends with the teachers, Pearl finds it uncomfortable, until she meets Harley. Harley is a kind, sweet boy and Pearl thinks the world of him, but as the semester starts they end up getting in a bit of trouble with Jodie. Also this book has no happy ending, in fact it’s probably the saddest ending I’ve read about and I wish I could tell you it, but you’ll have to read the book yourself.

How it’s written!!!
This book is quite intense because of the thrills and anticipation it gives you, but it’s definitely something I would recommend to anyone older than 9 because it's more of an older book.

Other books by the same author that I know!!!
Candyfloss
Double Act
Clean Break
Lola Rose
Secrets
And many more


My Rating!!!
I’m giving this book a 4/5 because it’s a great book. It gives you thrills all round and there’s nothing else much to say but that it’s a great book.

Student Council

Courtney and Sion (Year 6), from the Media Team, introduce us to the team of students who make up Springston School's Student Council. Find out about the projects the Council has been working on this year.

They'd love to hear back from other student councils and share ideas - please post them a comment. Perhaps they could Skype with you?

3:26 minutes, 3.9 MB, .mp4 file

Young Leaders' Day!

Young Leaders' Day!
On this trip I learned heaps, the inspiration just kept on coming. Here are some of the words that I found really inspiring:

·Your goals can’t get any bigger but you can get better (Rob Harley)
·Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all (Justin Jones)

But those are just ones that really inspired me and I thank those people greatly. What really surprised me was that we were shown a lot of video clips about people who had things go wrong in their lives, but they used that to make themselves stronger in the future. So obviously the Young Leaders Conference was very inspirational and I felt very privileged to go.

Courtney's Book Review

Review done by Courtney J.
Age 10 from Springston School.


Candy Floss
By Jacqueline Wilson

How easy was it to get stuck into this book?
It’s very easy to get stuck into all of Jacqueline Wilson’s books because she has such a thought for her readers and tries to base her book ideas on problems that her readers might have in their life. Also this book has a great personality which might sound odd, but what I mean is that I think this book isn’t like all her other ones (because there’s like millions) it’s one in particular that I would most certainly recommend to someone.

Who are the main characters?
Well first off, there’s Floss who’s a kind, friendly girl and then there’s her dad and he’s a tubby, happy person, but will he find his true love, or will he be left heartbroken?

What’s the story-line?
The story-line is about a young girl whose parents split but as her mum goes on a work trip to Australia with her new boyfriend Floss is determined to stay with her dad who takes her to every fun fair that passes through her town. But as her dad meets a wonder woman he is set to follow her and have a great time. But then, as Floss’ dad goes broke and loses his house, will wonder woman save him?

How it’s written!!
This book is written both in a formal and informal style because it is something that happens to people, but it’s also quite funny and jokey.

Other books by the same author that I know about!!

Jacky Daydream
My Sister Jodie
Love Lessons
Best Friends
Double Act

My Rating!!
I give this book a 4/5 because it’s the best Jacqueline Wilson book I’ve ever read, but that’s just me so why don’t you read it yourself because it’s a great book?
☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

Courtney's Comic strip

Click on this comic strip to make it larger.

The Lorax

Review done by Courtney J.
Age 10 from Springston School

The Lorax
By Dr Seuss

How easy was it to get stuck into this book?
Well all of Dr Seuss' books are wonderful because they're funny. They've got great rhymes and they are just great books that everyone enjoys. So it's very easy to get stuck into the magic and wave of fun.

Who are the main characters?
The main character is the Once-ler, who pulled down a beautiful lively forest to make a quick buck by knitting jerseys for all around and about. But of course the Lorax wants it to stop as he sees what is to come...

What's the story-line?
The story follows a little boy talking to the Once-ler, hearing what he has to say about the forest being taken down, as the little boy was not around at this time. But the Once-ler was and he's not very happy about it either.

How it's written?
It's not written very formally. It's written with quite a jokey, rhyme theme which means it's easy to read and a great book for young kids.

Other books written by the same author.
The Cat in the Hat,
Green Eggs and Ham,
Hop on Pop,
Fox in Socks,
Oh the Places You'll Go,
ABC and The Sneetches.

My rating!
I gave it a 4/5 because it's a great book.

Jack and the beanstalk

Well, I last saw Jack taking the cow to the market because, you see, we were broke at the time. Then, when he got back, he had a bunch of BEANS!!! in his hand. So I said, "That won't do!", told him off and sent him to bed with no dinner. I also told him to throw the beans out the window.

The next morning I went into Jack's room to see if he was awake yet, but when I went in Jack wasn't there. All I could see was an empty bed and a humongous leaf hanging in through the window.

To my amazement, when I rushed outside it was a giant BEANSTALK!!! I looked up it. It reached right up to the sky and about halfway up I saw Jack climbing up it. I yelled out to him, "Jack you come down this instant!"

There was no reply, so I went inside to finish my cup of tea. When Jack finally came down he was carrying something most extraordinary, a goose.

When he got back inside he said he was going to make it a hutch in the cow's old shed. Now I must say Jack did look after that goose, he went to check on it every morning. But you see, after a while every morning next to the goose, was a golden egg. So we became rich and were never hungry again.

Hampster's Name!!

T Shirt Words

PEACE
Violence is not the answer!!!

This is my idea of a T-shirt + the picture on top.

I chose these words because their meaning is that the whole world should be at peace and that violence and anger should be banned. This also means a lot to me because war is dangerous.

By Courtney

Favourite Lyrics - American Pie

By Don Mclean

I can't remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride,
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died.


This is a lovely piece of writing. Don Mclean is an inspirational artist and whatever he writes is from the heart.

Don McLean wrote this song in dedication to the great musical artists Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper who died in a plane crash. To Don McLean, that was the day the music died!

To me this is a great song because it comes from the heart and it shows that you shouldn't let anything get you down. You can always write a poem or song to record your feelings.

By Courtney (Year 6)