Goldfields Mining Centre Visit

Room 5 at the Goldfields Mining Centre

Here we are at the Goldfields Mining Centre in the Kawarau Gorge on Wednesday 30th May.We were there to learn about gold and pan some gold because we are studying gold with Mrs Hill during topic. We are sitting on the steps by the Chinese huts. We are all VERY cold. Dave the tour guide showed us around the village. We saw a stamper battery and a sluice gun working. Man, it was loud! We also saw a cradle. The huts were very small, so were the beds!

2 very large gold nuggets

Wow! Look at these big pieces of gold. They were very heavy. the small one is from Central Otago and the bigger one is from Australia. We all got to hold the nuggets and found out that gold is different colours in different countries and different areas. It was cool to touch the gold!

Molly, Willow, Esse and Vivian outside an old hut

We are on a tour of the Goldfields Mining Centre. We are standing outside the Chinese hut near the stamper battery. Inside the hut there is a pan, stretcher bed and a fireplace. It was carefully made out of stone and the floor was made out of wood. Even though it was awesome it is just a reconstruction because the real Chinese huts wouldn't have had any wood as there wasn't much wood available.

Luke, Matiu, Ben, Troy, and Clyde closely watching the gold panning demonstration.

Dave showed us how to gold pan. After he had finished his demonstration he found a little speck of gold and gave it to Reed. Now that we knew how to gold pan, he let us have a turn. We had to put gravel in the pan, dip it in the water and shake it lots and lots! If you found gold you put it in a tube with water and got to keep it. Lots of Room 5 found gold. Our hands were freezing at the end!

Annalee, Clyde, Reed and rest of Room 5 look for gold in the bottom of the pan.

Dave the tour guide taught us how to gold pan. Dave was cheeky! There were long troughs full of freezing cold water. First we got a pan and shoveled gravel into it. We put lead pellets on the gravel because lead is only slightly lighter than gold so if we still had the pellets in the pan when we were finished we had done it right! Then we put the pans in the freezing cold water and swirled it around. We took the big rocks out. It took a lot of hard work but most of the class found gold. We had a great time gold panning.

Annabell and Tea in front of a gold display at Alexandra Museum

When we left the Goldfields Mining Centre we went to the Alexandra museum. Annabelle and Tea are standing in front of a display which had 28 different types of gold that was all found in the Central Otago area.We had a little treasure hunt where we had to find the answers to some gold mining questions. Shani was our guide at the museum and she told us a lot of interesting facts about gold and dredges. She gave us all a sticker. We left the museum to go home after a long but fun day.

Room 5 looking at paintings created to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the discovery of gold in  Central Otago

We went to the Alexandra Art Gallery which is part of the Museum. Mrs Hill read us a poem about a Scottish miner finding gold while we looked at the paintings that matched the poem. The paintings were done for the 100th anniversary of finding gold in Central Otago and are on display again because we are now celebrating the 150th anniversary of the discovery of gold.we were all very tired when we got to the Gallery but it was worth it because we had a spectacular day.

A big thank you to all the parents who helped to make this such a memorable day for room 5!

Rippa Rugby Tournament

Year 3 Rippa Rugby team

Year 4 Rippa Rugby team

Brrr! It is freezing up here! On Monday most of Room 5 went to Alexandra to play in a Rippa Rugby Tournament. It was a really cold start to the day but got warmer as we played. We had a year 3 and a year 4 team entered in the competition. We all did really well, but the year 4 team came runners up in the section and are now going onto the Central Otago finals in Cromwell next month. The year 4 team played 7 games and the year 3's played 5, so we were all really tired that night. We had a really great day and learnt lots of new skills. Many thanks to all our coaches for teaching us and to the parents who came and supported us.

Kids for Kids Concert

Roxburgh Area School Kids for Kids choir.

Suzanne Prentice with the choir.

Wow! What a day! Early on Thursday morning a group of Room 5 students left Roxburgh to go to Gore to sing as part of the mass choir in  the Kids for Kids concert with Suzanne Prentice. We had a practice in the morning with Suzanne Prentice and the rest of the choir which was made up of children from schools around Gore. After that we went to St Mary's School to have our lunch, have a play in their playground and then we watched a movie. We had lollipops! Thank you Mrs Wilson! Our next stop was a visit to the museum, art gallery and the library. The library was awesome! Then it was time for tea. Many of us went to McDonalds. It was yummy! Finally the time had arrived for the concert. We were feeling nervous and excited! We got out on stage, the curtain went up and there were lots of people looking at us! We could see lots of parents out in the audience. It was so amazing to be singing with Suzanne Prentice in front of so many people. It was so funny when Suzanne Prentice came out dressed up as a school boy to sing "Hello Mother, Hello Father". When we were singing "Putting on the Ritz" a giant cat called Theodore came out on stage. He was so hilarious! The conductor was really cool, he had big, boofy hair. Shanae and Kaela were chosen to sing solos, we are so proud of them. We all had a fabulous day. We were all pretty tired but it was worth it!

Room 5 Sports results

Room 5 have played 3 different kinds of sports over the weekend, rugby, netball and hockey.
The Under 9's rugby team played Matakanui in Omakau and won their game 12 tries to nil. Players of the day were Troy and Reed. Well done!
The Netball Racers (Year 4) won their first game against the Alexandra Weka 6-0 and lost their second game against Terrace Navy 1-3.Player of the day was Ella from Millers Flat.
The Netball Monkeys (Year 3) won against Cromwell and lost to Alexandra. Player of the day was Willow. Well done Willow!
Neleah was playing hockey in Alexandra on Saturday and won 3-2 against Terrace.
What a great weekend of sport for Room 5!

Autumn Poem Photos

Here are some photos of our autumn poems. They look amazing! Come in and have a read!

Our Autumn Poems

This week we went on an autumn  leaf walk. We found heaps of different leaves. We painted the back of the leaves and pushed them down hard on a piece of paper.  They made a print and they looked awesome.  We wrote autumn poems and pasted them on the prints.  They are now on the wall in our classroom.  They look very cool and the poems are amazing - come and read them!! 

Pirate Ships!

In Room 4 maths, we made pirate ships! We are learning about millimetres, centimetres, metres and kilometres. We had to draw the pirate ships to a plan we were given, with all the right measurements. Our teacher was called Captain Blood!!! We did all our measurements in metres, and it was fun!

Jessamy, Sarah and Myah in their pirate ship.

Cinquain poems

We are starting to do poetry for writing this term, which is going to be a lot of fun!

These are our amazing cinquain poems. Cinquain is french for five-line poems.

Here is one:

Autumn

Colourful tumbling

Falling floating playing

We love autumn leaves

Fall