PRESENTATIONS

All of the year 7 classes, including room one, are currently preparing a small presentation to share in assembly. We have brainstormed a cool story idea as a class and Brieana and Bebe put together a great script for us. All of the students have selected their area of interest. Our actors are busy learning their lines, props people are creating madly and our dancers are practicing their steps. Check out some of the pics from last week's learning rotations.
This week is a busy one, we have Bebe's step mum coming in to teach some dances, and David and Josh will be filming some of our segments on Tuesday and Thursday. Don't forget to bring any appropriate gear in actors!

AMAZING RACE: CHINA

So this week we were off to China. We were super impressed with Hamish's knowledge on the human rights in China. He told us that parents in China are only allowed one child each, unless they are super rich, they can have two, but have to pay lots in tax. The presentation standard was fantastic this week too. check out the 'great wall' in the pics above. Zack made his very own fortune cookies which was super impressive (they were yummy too.) I got a fortune cookie from the 'food' group and LOVED my fortune "You will live to a ripe old age, happy in the love and respect of many children." very appropriate given my awesome job! Have a wonderful weekend everyone
Mrs Q

MALAYSIA

This week's Amazing Race took us to Malaysia. Which was perfect timing because we had two Malaysian student teachers visiting in our class for the week; Nick and Liz. For our Amazing Race Road Block, Nick and Liz taught the class a basic Malaysian dance, all the groups had about 20 minutes to learn it and perform it in front of the class. Well done to Henri and Bebe who got top male and female dancers. Also the blue team who came first (20points) the Red team who came 2nd (10points) and the Green group came third (5 points.) Check out a video of the groups practicing and some pics. Well done room one you all did a great job.. Next week we are off to China, good luck!
Mrs Q

CONGRATULATIONS

Well done to Fiona and Brieana for their fine efforts in the speech finals at assembly today. You both did room 1 proud. Also well done to Charlotte for her assembly award today.

ROSS CREEK DAY OUT

What a gorgeous day to head out of the classroom and into our neighbouring wilderness of Ross Creek! We left school at 9am and split into 3 groups. The room 1 students were fabulous! All groups rotated around an orientation task, rap jumping activity and a challenge where they had to carry two kayaks all over the show. Phew! Have a look at some of these shots of room one in action! Oh by the way, one of our teams recorded the best time for the kayak challenge out of all of the year 7 classes so far! Their time was 57 mins 44 secs, nice one!
Great day with a super bunch of students and awesome parents too, thanks Bridget, Toni, Brent and Mrs Lowden
Mrs Q

SHAVING HEADS FOR CANTEEN

A group of girls from Room 13 organised a school bandana day to raise funds for canteen. A large percentage of room 1 bought bandanas to support this great cause and so did a lot of other Balmac students. So much so that we raised over $1600 as a school! Because we raised over $1000 a number of our teachers shaved their heads down to a number one! Nice one Mr Sloan, Mr Napier, Mr Clarke, Mr Waititi, Mr Friend, Mr Henderson and Mr Tarapi! Check out the pics!

AMAZING RACE WEEK TWO: USA

Last week the students of Room One explored the United States of America. They looked at the current events happening in the USA at the moment, the culture, tourist spots, animals, people and food best known in America.
This week we also had a road block on Monday afternoon. All of the groups had to make an American Brownie. I awarded 20 points for the best brownie and 20 points for the best group work. The Green team won best Brownie and the Red team won best team work. Well done folks. Check out our teams in action in the pictures above.
Mrs Q

BUSY WEEK AHEAD...

This week is a short week, and we have a few important things to achieve which will be our main focuses this week:
1. Speeches, which will be read on Thursday and Friday this week
2. Amazing Race; Due Friday
3. Remember to return your permission slip and $15 for our outdoor ed component of term 4 at Ross Creek on Monday Nov 1st.
Be organised and on to it Room one students!
Good luck
Mrs Q

AMAZING RACE WEEK ONE

The class have completed their first week of the Amazing Race. We have all learned a little more about this great country of ours. It was pretty close but this week's winning group is the Red group with 29.5 points. They were closely followed by the yellow group with 29 points. Great start Room One, Remember to bring your ingredients for our road block on Monday afternoon
Mrs Q

THE AMAZING RACE...

This term Room One are participating in the Amazing Race. They will be making their way around the world via technology and other resources, learning about different foods, cultures, current events, animals and people from a range of countries. Check back here every week to see where they have been and what they have learned. We have started this week with our very own New Zealand.
All of the students are in teams. The captains have been chosen based on their proven ability with ASPIRE projects and Science fair. Check out our planes to see who is in which team. The team captains are in the cockpit.

CONGRATULATIONS BOYS CADILACS RUGBY TEAM

Zack, Jimmy, Hayden, Te Ariki and Josh L were all in the Cadilacs team that played Kavanagh in the year 7 boys rugby final last week. They won by a close margin 38-35. Great work boys.

OTAGO CROSS COUNTRY, AND RED CROSS SAUSAGE SIZZLE

The sun finally decided to shine last Friday. Which was lucky because our school was hosting the Otago Cross Country. We had Jaren and Henri representing room one and they both did really well, placing 16th and 17th respectively. These two boys had also been busy during the week organising a BBQ for the Red Cross Christchurch Earthquake appeal. They managed to get some free bread and cheap sausages and ended up raising almost $400 dollars. Great job boys!

more rock climbing pics

LONG BEACH

What a fabulous day and a fabulous bunch of students! You all did yourselves and your parents proud. I had a great day with you guys and gals out there today. Here are a few pics. I'm having trouble uploading to photobucket at the moment, so hopefully will have more up soon. Nice one Room 1!

ROCK CLIMBING

Morning everyone. What a gorgeous morning. We are all good to go, but don't be fooled, it will still be pretty cold out there so wrap up warm and bring lots of layers. Don't for get your lunch, drink, torch and spade and shovel if you have one. See you at school, be there about 8.30am
Mrs Q

DISSECTING RATS

Today we dissected rats. Why? To learn more about the internal organs and general make up of our bodies, because they are very similar to a rats. We saw large intestines, small intestines, heart, lungs, bladder, kidneys, lungs, spleen, and more. All of the students showed lots of interest. We had Jonno (a teacher aide from room 14) helping us, he has studied anatomy at University and his father is a vet, so he had some good knowledge to share with us. I dissected one too! It was very interesting, I hope all students learned a little more about the body today. Check out the pics,

Make a comment: tell me what was most interesting about dissecting rats today. What did you learn?

Mrs Q

CONGRATULATIONS AND GOOD LUCK

Balmac has been in the news a bit lately, and some of the students who featured are from the fabulous room one! Well done to Jaren and Henri who were both part of the winning yr 7 matheletics team in the Dunedin competition. Also well done to Henri, Brieana, Hannah and Fiona for their awards at the Otago Technology and Science fair. On top of this Te Ariki found out over the weekend that he has made it into the NZ u14 basketball team. He will be going to Australia to compete with his team the koru's on 11th January next year! Hopefully there is more good news to come... Jaren and Jimmy are off to Christchurch to compete in an intermediate schools competition. They will be playing football for a mixed yr 7 & 8 school team and are being coached by Mr Martin. Good luck boys!

CROSS COUNTRY

Well done to all of the fantastic room one students who completed the school cross country on Friday. Everyone tried really hard. We also had a few students who made it into the Otago Cross Country Squad. Well done to Henri who came 3rd and Jaren who came 4th in the yr 7 boys. Also Zack Matthews who came 13th and Josh Malcolm who came 14th will be reserves for the Otago Cross Country. Looks like there is a bit more training for those boys! Good luck guys!

Football skills

Keep checking back here. Soon we hope to have some pics and simple instructions on how to correctly kick a football. The video clip below is our 2nd session. Lets see how much we can improve
Mrs Q

Room One Football Skills