Its Coming To A End!

2009 is nearly over and that means the year 8s are off to College! I'm going to miss Tomarata so much and I have learnt so much! Thank-you to all the teachers that have taught me soooo much over the years. Thank-you to all the people that have helped me to be who I am.

Have A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Every One !!

Phoebe ☺!

Design a School Project - This term we have had the challenge of designing a 'new' Secondary school. A scenario was provided and we were split into groups. Each group was required to complete four components - a 3D model, a booklet/prospectus, an oral presentation and a video commercial. The project encompassed many areas of the curriculum (English, Maths, Social Studies, ICT) and involved working co-operatively and problem solving.

Me and Leahs WIN!!

In the sunny fine weekend Me and Leah went up to Whangarei to compete in the Northlands Doubles and Singles competition. I came third in the singles!!But even better, Me and Leah came first in the Doubles!! We were so happy we won!!We both got awarded two big certificate and earned $25.00 each for just playing and winning tennis!! After all of that we went to Whangarei Aquatic Centre and had a nice long swim!!I had heaps of fun and hope we can keep competing in the Tennis Tournaments!!

By Kimberley!!

Armistice Day

We remember those who fought in World War I. Try to put yourself in their position. You are on a vast, muddy stretch of land. There are bunkers all around you. The sound of bombs exploding. All around you people dying. People shouting. The heavy sand bags weigh you down. Your hands are freezing cold but you still hold your gun tight because you know it is your life. The sound of aeroplane bullets ricocheting. Blood stains your jacket. Tanks come rolling in. So when you buy a poppy, the money goes towards helping those who survived that tragic war.

Charles

Camp Bentzon - Kawau Island

Great camp - students were awesome, really nice accommodation, parents helpers cool, fantastic and fun activities. Photos tell a better story...

"Hey I'm Rainbow"

Tomarata school has been working very hard on the production all term. The production is called "Hey I'm Rainbow". It is about people that litter and the litter that gets onto the beach and destroys everybody's plans. Last night turned out to be great with a full house that people where standing. So much effort has been put into this production especially with the costumes. A big thank you to all the people that help with it all.

Calf Club

On Friday the 16th of October Tomarata School has Calf Club. We are fundraising for our Room 1 and 6 school camp to Camp Bentzon on Kawau Island, which is happening on Monday the 19th of October. We are having stalls with all sorts of things and anyone is welcome! So come along if you want!

by Phoebe

The Disco

On Thursday 30th July we had a disco. There were loads of great songs and effects. The tickets were $5 each. There were many spot prizes. Loads of people came to the event. We really enjoyed it and wish we could go again every Thursday. It was cool because you could stay till 9pm (when it ended) because Friday was a Teacher Only Day! I would like to thank everyone who organised it and hope a lot of money was raised

Sean Cruickshank & Charles Shadick

Stardome trip thanks

Dear Parents,

Thank-you for coming to help us on the Stardome trip. We appreciate you giving up your time to come with us.

We all enjoyed the trip, even though the Stardome presentation hurt some peoples eyes. We also enjoyed our walk to the top of One Tree Hill.

Thank-you very much for coming. We hope you can come again on another trip!

Yours sincerely
Room6

Stardome

On Wednesday 3rd June Rooms 1,3 and 6 went to the Stardome in Auckland. Most of us went on the bus. The others went by car. When we got there we went into a room with a roof that is kind of like a semi circle, where you sit in these chairs, laying back and looking at the roof. The roof was just a big screen and a man talked us through the show. We could see the stars and it showed us all the planets and it was really interesting. After the show we went for a walk up to the top of One Tree Hill. It was a fun trip and we all enjoyed it!!

By Phoebe

DARE - make a choice

This term we are doing the DARE program on Drugs and Alcohol with Mr Watt. This week we are doing a sheet on why it is cool to be me. There are heaps of cool activites. There is also a box for questions and help. We are doing the DARE program all term and at the end we get to go on a trip.

DARE!

On Wednesday 28th April MR.Watt came in to room 6 and spoke to us about Dare its a program that teaches you about making choices.Mr watt will be visiting again next Thursday.We also did several Activities.

By Tiare

SWIMMING SPORTS

Super swimming sports was held at the Rodney College in their massive swimming pool. There were a few schools who participated in this challenge. Adults, students and teachers cheered on their respective schools as the students raced. There was a selection of food for sale, which Tomarata School was in charge of. Overall it was a fantastic day and I really enjoyed it.

By Kimberley

200 metre Swim Challenge

On Monday the 16th of March, Rooms 1,3 and 6 went to Tomarata Lakes to swim 200 metres. All the Year 8 girls completed the swim and some of the Year 8 boys completed it to. It was a great experience although it was a tad choppy, but overall it was great. Also thankyou to all those parants for helping make it possible!

By Phoebe S and Morgan G!!

Agrikids

On Saturday the 21st of March we went to Rodney College to compete in the Agrikids competion. Our team was called the Tomarata Sharemilkers. In the main event we came in first place out of the 9 teams that competed. Sadly two teams were not able to go through to the final they were the Dragsters and the Three Farmers. In the race we came 5th, and ended up 1st overall.

By Logan William and Daniel

Seaweek

Every year New-Zealanders celebrate Seaweek to make Kiwi's aware of pollution and damage we are doing to the sea's around us. Rooms 1, 3 and 6 went to Whangateau Harbour to learn about the effects that are happening in our region and what we can do about it. Some of the problems are over fishing, sewage, the banks falling away and many more. Seaweek is good and so next time you're fishing only take what you need.


By Madison

New Mimio in Room 6

A mimio is a wireless device which sticks to the white board and the projector projects the images onto the whiteboard. The mimio interactive pen is like a white board marker and it doesn't show up on the white board but shows up on the projection. So in summary the Mimio basically turns the whiteboard into a giant computer screen where icons and writing can be changed, moved and resized. We are all learning about it - including Mr M!

Swimming Sports

On 11th March 2009 the Year 4-8 students went to Rodney College to compete in the rural primary schools swimming sports day. There were 4 other schools Mangawhai, Tapora, Pakiri and Tauhoa. There were 5 main events - 2 lengths of Freestyle, 1 length freestyle, 1 length backstoke, 1 length breaststroke and the medley which is 1 length each of Backstroke, Breaststroke and Freestyle! Tomarata Schoool did very well in these races and got plenty of placings. Well done Tomarata!

Whangateau harbour

Several weeks ago the seneior classes went to the Whangateau Harbour to learn about
marine life. We first went to the Matakana Art Gallery where Dr Rodger Grace gave us a speech about the harbour. Then we went off to the harbour for a 1 hour walk. It was great because we got to learn about marine life and the estuary.

By Tiare

2009

2009 has been great so far this term. The Topic is saving the earth or being environmentally friendly. The other day we where reading a book called 'How to save the planet in 101 ways' and it said that we might have only 8 years before it is too late to save the earth. SCARY!! That's why we should try to save the earth more like making worm farms and edible gardens just like at Tomarata School. That's why we shouldn't litter. We also learnt about the Pacific Ocean rubbish dump being bigger than some states in the USA. This island is an island made out of nothing but rubbish!!!

Ref Course

On Wednesday the 25th and Thursday the 26th of February, Logan, William and Breeanna did a 10 hour Soccer referee course. Logan got the top score for the kids. Everybody passed the course but ROSA got to keep the flags,whistle,cards and wallet because they payed the $150 for us to do it.

By William and Logan

STUDENT VOICE!!!

Here in Room 6 we are learning about student voice. on Wednesday we had elections for who our year 8 girl and boy representatives would be. It was a close race but in the end it was Breeanna and Ryan and our year 7 girl and boy were our experinced students Joanna and Daniel. The cool thing is that they speak for us so we have a say in how some things at school work!!

By Tiare and Madison

MY VICTORY

My victory happened on Wednesday the 4th of March with my friend Leah! We headed up to a tennis tournament called the Whangarei Doubles. We had four games with the first pair to get thirty one points. We won three games out of four. We didnt get into the Finals but played for the Plate and luckily enough we won! We were so delighted. We headed home after that but stopped for a great challenging game of tenpin bowling. Leah and I had a great day and it was a awesome experience for me!
By Kimberley

Start Of This Year

We have had a great start to this year with the pool in full use. Now it has started to get a bit cold. Our school has been learning about LEADERSHIP and how to be a good leader.
Next week we have technology (manual). The year 8's are doing wood with the year7's on metal. Hope the rest of this year is as good as this!!

By Phoebe S!!