Winter Sports and Jump Rope for Heart

Winter Sports and Jump Rope for Heart from Mr Skiperoo on Vimeo.
Another Sports packed week at HSS saw the climax of our winter sports program, finals of South Island Skiing and 'Jump Rope for Heart' on Friday! A thoroughly exhausting week, but as ever, Hampden Street students stepped up to the plate, packed a positive attitude, poured themselves a cup of ambition and let the games commence!

The winter sports program has involved a dedicated focus to one specific sport for 8 weeks, with the culmination competing against regional teams in this chosen sport. Children were encouraged to choose a sport that they didn't naturally already play, or one that they felt required some element of development. The seniors were given the option of Table Tennis, Volleyball, Netball, Hockey, Basketball, Rugby or Football.

It was great to see so many children opting for a totally alien sport to their natural choice. Many children opting to leave their comfort zones, take risks and challenge their character. Seven weeks of skill sessions and game related play meant the HSS students were ready for the inter schools competition against Nelson's finest.

HSS did not disappoint. A fantastic display, in competitive challenge, sportsmanship and overall attitude to one another made all the teachers proud. A big thankyou to all those parent volunteers that made this all possible, and the HSS kids for another exemplary display amongst the wider community.

'Jump Rope for Heart' was set up by the Heart Foundation to encourage kiwi kids into physical activity that is fun, rewarding and physically demanding. A gold coin donation is suggested, but any contribution is valued by such a worthwhile charity.

Mr Marston is renowned for being the most inept skipper amongst the HSS staff. Despite strengths in other areas of physical activity, timing and rhythm are not at the forefront of his abilities. Therefore Room 4 have been trying for weeks to teach and develop is skills form complete beginner to satisfactory, and thankfully they've succeeded!

A real credit to Room 4 with all their efforts to skipping and the winter sports program. We've really worked together to encourage one another and seek alternative methods if one route becomes too challenging. But overall, we've worked together to climb obstacles in our way, not given up, and succeeded with a big cheesy grin to show at the end. Well done Room 4!!

Preparations for the masked parade

Ongoing preparations for our Wild Wild West themed mask parade. The children of room 4 have been asked to 'think outside the box' in their creations, and initial ideas haven't disappointed! We've got cowboys/ cowgirls, sheriffs, Cacti, Can-can girls, wanted posters, gold diggers, even a pantomime horse! Let's just see how progress continues!

The chances of that?

Its been non-stop probability Vs Chance Vs likelihood in Room 4 this week...

In a heated game of 'Deal or No Deal', Jonny was offered $90,000, but opted to take the risk and settle for a measly $15,000! Was it just bad luck or the probability just against him. Later discussion and calculation realised the chance of succeeding was against him, but yet he took the gamble!

Shantelle defeated odds of 1/64, to beat 5 contestants in a row... Twice... At line bob-tag. Either a master professional or some kind of sorcery at work!

We calculated the odds of Guess Who? And who really is the best person to choose to make your opposition take the most amount of guesses!

We investigated how much chance is there in rolling two dice and calculating the cumulative score. The answers surprised us all, but after serious discussion, the probability made complete sense.

We are currently designing our own mathematical problem-solving events, and set to present to one another. Time will tell whether we can confidently explain the likelihood of each outcome?!

Table Tennis Champ visits HSS

In accordance with China week in Nelson, HSS were lucky enough to welcome a championship table Tennis pro named Mr Zeng Sang. In an outstanding performance, the middle and Senior syndicate were glued to his demonstration of a ping-pong master-class. His opponent, John Armstrong (headteacher at Henley school) put up an equally impressive display alongside eventual opponents Carla (Room 5) and Mr Mackenzie. A fabulous atmosphere and great opportunity to witness an athlete at the top of their game.

Senior Disco!

Senior Syndicate Disco from Mr Skiperoo on Vimeo.
Last night the Children of the Senior Syndicate pulled off their best dance moves in the annual Senior Syndicate Disco! The theme was the letter 'W' and the costumes failed to disappoint... From Wheelbarrows, to washings baskets, Waterfalls to William Wallace and numerous Willy Wonkers to famous Woody from Toy Story. An evening of some 'shape-splitting' music with all the children wiping their feet on the rhythm Rug. Well done to all those involved; the children and their dance moves, the teachers and their organisation and natural dance moves!

Maths week continues...

Challenge # 3 - If every child at HSS stood side by side with fingertips touching, estimate how far the human chain would reach?

Challenge # 2 - Using the value per letter on a scrabble game - Which member of your class has the highest, and which has the lowest?

Challenge #1- Estimate how many balloons it would take to fill the school van?
To introduce a fun packed maths week, several challenges have been set to the children of HSS. Each day, a new task requiring problem solving and using a range of strategies will be set. Each day the teachers are also rotating classrooms and introducing fresh maths activities to a different syndicate.

Today's task required the children of HSS to estimate how many balloons will fit in the new school van? We used our understanding of shape, area and volume to calculate a total of 896.... We then decided to take off 200 for the space taken up by chairs etc. Unbelievably, our initial guess wouldn't have been far off!

Congratulations to Room 16, that got the closest estimate to the correct amount of 897!!

The teachers of HSS were completely worn out after spending most of their Monday staff meeting inflating balloons!