Composer, Chris Cree Brown, speaks to LC2 about his composition "Pilgrimage to Galipoli"

LC 2 were treated to a visit from guest speaker Chris Cree Brown, a Professor of Music at the University of Canterbury and composer of the soundscape entitled “Pilgrimage to Gallipoli”. Learning Community Two are currently completing s series of ANZAC webquest activities using laptops to research their work. Their learning was heightened by the informative talk that Professor Brown gave the students about his composition, a soundscape of recordings and other special effects that were recorded during two visits to Gallipoli in 1994 and 2001. Professor Brown played several excerpts from his recording, which included traditional Eastern European tunes sung by local Turkish nationals, the Last Post and modern Turkish ‘pop’ music.
Pictured: Professor Chris Cree Brown, his son George Brown, holding the CD entitled “Pilgrimage to Gallipoli” and other students fromLearning Community Two..

Raffles and competitions at our final assembly for Term One.

Today at assembly three prizes were awarded for raffles and competitions held at school.

Firstly, Hannah from LC4 awarded Sarah from LC8 the prize for guessing how many beads in the jar. There were 3886 - Sarah guessed 4000. Well done Sarah. Thanks for your efforts, Hannah!

The Luxurious raffle organised by Nadia was won by Mrs Pascoe, our piano teacher. Well done Mrs Pascoe!! Nadia raised over $500 - awesome effort Nadia!!

The Easter bunny raffle organised by Matthew in LC5 was won by William, also from LC5. Yum yum - don't eat it all at once William!! Great effort Matthew!!

Learning Community 2 designs their own Easter egg wrapper!!

LC2 has had an Easter egg wrapper competition. We had to design an Easter egg wrapper, using felts, crayons or collage. Today the class voted for their favourite design. It was very difficult to decide because so many of the children in our class had beautiful egg designs in their homework books. Ben's design was judged the most favourite, although it was a very closely fought decision. In the picture you can see our designs. We are a class of creative designers!! Have a lovely Easter holiday everyone, and we look forward to seeing you all next term!!

Yum, yum - making and eating pizzas in LC6!!

Learning Community 6 had a pizza-making and eating session in their classroom last Friday. The children made pizzas for a shared lunch to celebrate their inquiry learning. There was plenty of helping, sharing and co-operating - plus heaps of fun!! The pizzas were pretty srumptious too! A delicious end to the first term's inquiry unit!!

Toy Day

On Thursday 2nd of April 2009 we had West Melton School Toy Day. We were allowed to bring our favourite toys to school, except for electronic toys.
The cool thing was it was mufti day as well because it was Autism Awareness Day so we raised some money.
We got to take our favourite furry friends everywhere. There was a big variety, from teddies to toy cars. Our toys sat on our desks for most of the day except for when our toys were being naughty.
At the end of the day we took our toys home knowing that they have had a great day. We think that everyone had a good time; we know that we did!
Thank you for reading!
By Skye Crawford and Jessica Mulligan of Room 5!

Multicoloured mayhem day at WM School

Today is the 2nd of April - and it is World Autism Awareness Day! As part of the WM School Challenge Awards, Esther and Nicky from Learning Community One organised a school wide mufti day to raise money for Autism New Zealand Inc. Esther and Nicky both have a sibling with autism.

All the students at school were encouraged to dress in 3 or more colours and bring a gold coin donation. Esther and Nicky visited all the classrooms with their collection containers. They photocopied various information about autism and displayed informative signs thorughout the school grounds. After the money was collected they then counted the money during their break times and completed the necessary forms for sending the donation to Autism New Zealand (which included filling out a tax donation form!!). Esther and Nicky raised over $270 for Autism New Zealand - and West Melton School had another fun and successful mufti day!! Great effort girls - thank you very much!!

You don't see this at city schools!!

Wow!! Learning Community 2 were working in their classrom....when two tractions engines drove past their window!! You sure wouldn't see that in the city!! There was a lot of smoke and plenty of noise as the traction engines chugged past the school. The preschool across the road came to watch. What a sight!!