Auckland Table Tennis Zones. 150 students from different Schools competed this year, in the Auckland Primary School Table Tennis Zones at the Gillies Ave Stadium on Thursday 1st December. Victoria Avenue entered a full squad of 8 boys and 8 girls. All the children played between 9-15 games. It was a full on day for all.

The Boys Squad. 

Our boys` team was Jackson, Alex IJ, Thomas M, Taylor, Keanu, Fonga, Dean and Thomas D.

These games were fast, furious and highly skilled. Well done boys!

Taylor,Thomas M and Keanu went through to the quarter-finals.

Keanu went further and won a bronze medal and a third equal placing.

A BRONZE MEDAL FOR KEANU. 

                                   
                             The Girls Squad.    A GOLD MEDAL FOR JAMIE.

The girls' squad included  Kate, Elva, Olivia, Jamie, Lucy, Molly, Grace and Emma.

Elva, Molly and Jamie went through to the quarter-finals. Molly and Jamie had to verse

each other. Jamie won and moved on to the semis. There she succeeded again and was 

first place in the final, receiving the  gold medal.

Fantastic play Jamie!

Well done all our girls.

Inside the stadium. 150 competitors.

A wonderful win and  the Gold Medal for Jamie!!

                                       A hard fight, high skill level Table Tennis with the top boys and a bronze for Keanu.  
                                       

A big thank you to Mrs Nevill who gave her time and energy to supervise all day and help with scoring.

Molly and Jamie had to verse each other in the 1/4 finals.

All our children represented VAS with great sportsmanship and took ownership of  play and the organisation of the day running smoothly.

All Year 6 students participate in the WATERWISE course down at the Orakei Basin. The students are all instructed and given opportunities to try out kayaks, paddle boards, windsurfers and sailing boats.

                                                 Allan tries out the kayaks.

All students have Paul, a specialist in Maori, come into their classroom to develop their understanding of both the Maori language and culture in NZ. The children enjoy many parts of this programme, waiata ( song) being a favourite.

An Outside Sports Agency comes in to take the whole school for football skills. The Juniors, practice their soccer skills and play a mini game. PE and sports develop the ELL`s instructional language skills. Comprehension of the instructions given, is demonstrated instantly in the session.

An Instructional Language Activity. Year 2 ELLs made windmills.Here they test them out by catching the wind or creating a wind force by running.

 

An Instructional Language Activity. Year 3 ELLs make their wind wheels spin faster, using an alternate power source.

Animal Reports.Oral Language Skills. Every child researched an animal of their choice, with Mrs McCabe. They found information in books, on animal cards and online. They found pictures and fabulous photos on line. Some of the facts they discovered were amazing. Did you know a tiger can stay standing up when it is dead? These were presented in two ways. One was text and picture reports that were put on the walls of our room and the corridors of the senior school. The other way was through the medium of film. A lot of scaffolding with reading, listening and speaking was done before anything could be presented. These were done in Terms 2 and 3.

Oral Language opportunities galore! We made a city complete with an airport, zoo, water front, museum , bank, shops, and much more. Then we designed a home on the floor using string to cordon off the rooms and make hall ways. Fun ways to learn and recall many new verbs, the names of places in a city, and the rooms, furniture and utensils of a home. Wonderful sorting and categorising and talking about position (prepositions). A lot of planning and sharing of ideas and resources. What symbols we used to represent different things was full of wonderful reasoning and language. Our new sturdy doll`s house furniture and accompanying family was a wonderful new resource bought this year.

The main street has a bridge going over the sea linking the north and south shores.

A look back on the YEAR in no particular order.......

Term 3 saw a new ESOL learning area emerging in the Atrium. Lots of sunlight and working alongside Rainbow Reading.

                            Animal Reports      Objects in the Classroom.  Numbers and Colours

                     A Trip to the Garden Centre        Maps reading    The world and NZ.

                                 Animal puppets, names of parts of the body, classifying and grouping animals.
                                             Parts of speech.            Tenses.

                                             Spelling,             The MIGHTY TV

                                                                         Computers.

                                           Photos and a recount of the trip to the garden centre.

In July, VAS Students brought in a blanket, to help those who were cold,homeless or living rough.

Term 1 and 2, saw the ESOL room, used as a social hub for years 3-6, during Thursday lunchtimes, promoting creative play and board games.

The supermarket.

                                                             

                                                              Hand  puppets and drama.

                                                                           Dress Up

                                                                      Matchbox cars.

                                                   Giant Chess and  Giant Connect 4.