Santa’s Super Successful Stocking Sale!

By Tayla, Chelsea and Amy.
On the 2nd of December 2010 St Thomas More Catholic School had a market day to raise money for St Paul’s Catholic School in Christchurch who has been dreadfully affected by the distractive earthquake .Our market stalls was in the tennis courts .Room 6 and Room 7 made different themed Christmas stockings. We were given three weeks to create and complete the successful stockings.

Next we gathered all of our materials for the next two weeks .We were talking about things like what supplies we will need and how wide the stocking will be. The next step is picking a theme the choses were music, animals, arsenal, stemmers, nature, art and of course Christmas. The final week was sewing week. On Monday was cutting day we had five to ten parent helpers helping with getting the right shape for sewing the material. The next day was for hand sewing and gluing on the cut pieces. Wednesday was quite the same but every one finished that day we all pilled them up in the music room. Overnight machine sewing parents sewed them together is soon as we got to school we all rushed into the where we had left them overnight. They were sewn together beautifully with not one single mistake.

In no time we were all lining up for a class stocking photo. Then we started setting up, by arranging tables so that they are in a row to start selling. Don’t forget to choose a reasonable price! Then we placed the stockings on the table and got ready to sell. It was a huge success and everything was sold. We told our teacher we had back up plan. They were bracelets we had been making in the last couple of months. The bracelets sold out in ten minutes so we decided to do requests at the stall there and then.
In total we raised $279 and that was just Room 6 and 7 of the Middle School. All together we raised a whopping 2,500 dollars.
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STM Kiwi Tag Champions Again!

Article by Oliver Rudduck and Max Mclver.

“Hi I’m Oli and I’m going to tell you about the Term 4 Waipuna Park Kiwi Tag Tournament. We played every Tuesday and in the team there was William, Andrew, Kiahi, Jamie, Libby, Alice, Katelin, Daniel, Adam, Nicholas, Taine and me Oliver. In the season there were six games and one rest day.
In the first game we played the Selwyn Ridge Rippers and won five tries to one. The boys who scored the tries were Kiahi who scored two and Andrew, Daniel and I scored one. After our game we watched the seniors play to learn a few tricks and skills from the pros. At the second game we won against Mangatapu 8-1. The people that scored were Kiahi with 4 tries, me with two tries, Andrew and Daniel got one try each. On the third game we played the Tauranga Tigers and again won 8-0, on the fourth game we versed Welcome Bay Titans and won 6-1 and in the semi-final we played a really tricky Otumoetai Eels team but we still won five tries to one.
Eventually we reached the final and found we were playing the Selwyn Ridge Rippers again. Unfortunately we were all asleep from a busy weekend on camp and it was very difficult for us to pass the ball around well. Luckily Daniel scored the first try of the match. Then they scored and caught us up sadly. Then suddenly in the second half I managed to side-step through the defence and score an amazing try and maybe the best in the game? We then managed to keep the Rippers out until the whistle blew. Phew! That was a very close game!
Thanks for reading my recount on Kiwi Tag and I hope it inspires you to watch and play the sport. Go St Thomas More!

Our Great Day Trip to Ngamawahine Camp.

Camp News from Katelin and Carlos.

On the Tuesday the 7th of December Room 6 and 7 went to Ngamawahine Camp for a day trip to visit the senior students who were there. We went on the school bus and it took about 50 minutes to get there.

By the time we got there it was morning tea. We were all starving! After that we had a chance to play games like, Last Man Standing on a great dirt mountain, Follow the Leader on the edge of the playground and Ball Tag around the High Ropes. After that Room 6 and 7 got into activity groups and we decided that our class (Room 7) was going to walk the Loop Track in the bush. We saw lots of trees like Rimu, Puriri, Lancewood and Silver Ferns and tree perchers. These are plants that live in branches of the big trees.

Half an hour later we went back to the camp and we did Low Ropes. It was quite challenging because you had to balance on the wires and it was pretty easy for people to fall off. After that we went to the lunch area and the Kapa Haka group performed for the parents and kids. Then we had to get back on the bus and go back to school. We had an awesome time and can’t wait to go back to camp next year and stay for the whole week!

Awesome All Blacks Autographs!

On Labour weekend my family went to Auckland to stay at the Heritage Hotel for two nights.
When we arrived my mum saw a bus parked outside the hotel foyer. After we had got all of the bags out of the car, my mum went in to check-in. When she was walking in Richie McCaw was walking in too! It was very excited. Most of them were in their room. When we got into our room I kept asking my mum if I could go and get their autographs and she said “Yes you can.”

The next day we went shopping. We went to the big malls in Auckland. I really wanted to go to Whitcoulls to get an autograph book because I didn’t have one. We did a lot of shopping. Then we went back to the hotel. When we got back we went back up to our room to get changed to go out for dinner. We then went down stairs to the bar for a drink. When we got down there the All Blacks were there so I could get them to sign my autograph book. It was very cool. Heaps of people were amazed at all my autographs. I gave them all a photocopy in my class.

Then it was Sunday and Me and my mum went to the church just across the road. There were some awesome stain glass windows there. Then we arrived back at the hotel to get packed up and found that unfortunately the All Blacks had already left so I didn’t get to say goodbye. They were going to Hong Kong to play a match. I hope I get to see the All Blacks again somewhere. And I also hope I can go to one of their games.

Little Girl Stands Out in the Big Wide World.

By Alice Jeffries
Hi my name is Alice from room7 at St Thomas More School and I am a really good dancer. In the holidays I went to Te Awamutu competitions during the first weekend of the holidays.
In the competitions there were two sections ballet and jazz (ballet Saturday, jazz Sunday). These are the Trophies I won from them. The smallest is for my barefoot (Ballet section). The medium is for my modern and the large was for the Impromptu (Jazz section).
If you don’t know what an Impromptu is then I will tell you. An Impromptu is a dance that you make up to a piece of music that the judge has picked out for that group of dancers to perform to.
My barefoot song is walking in the air and my modern jazz song is world cup song from Spain. Barefoot dancers are very slow and my jazz is very fast, but some jazz’s are normal speed.

Skill and Speed Beat Size!

By William Martin.
On Friday the 6th of August the Year 3 and 4 Rippa Rugby team went to Paengaroa Park to play in the Bay Wide for our school Saint Thomas More.

Mr. Horan picked us up at school. Me, Andrew, Oliver, Daniel, Jamie, Taine and Kiahi went with him. When we got there we started setting the tent up swiftly with Mr. Webster and Mr. Horan. After we had finished setting up we trained by running around the field slowly passing the ball up and down. Then we practiced ripping the tags and yelling “Rip” loudly. It really works in a game.

First we played Papamoa School Andrew and I knew three people Stephan, George and Lee. They all play soccer for Papamoa Marlins. We started with the ball and then Kiahi passed the ball to Daniel then we got ripped six times then we had to hand the ball over. After a couple of rips, Stephan scored the first try by a strong run. Then Kiahi passed the ball to Daniel, he then side stepped brilliantly to score our first try for the tournament. About five minutes later somebody in Papamoa School scored a blinding try by running up the line. Then after about four rips Oliver scored a fantastic try for S.T.M School.

The STM Sports asked Daniel what it felt like when you won Bay Wide. Daniel said. “Fantastic because we won the very first time for our School in a tournament.” The Times also asked Daniel what was the most challenging part of the day for you. Daniel replied “Playing Papamoa,running and passing.”

In the Quarter Finals we competed against Otonga. We scored five wonderful trys and they scored 2 trys. We scored five great trys most of them were by running up the line. Later in the semi finals we competed against Malfroy and we won 5-3. Most of our tries were by running up the line. The try scorers were by Oliver, Daniel, Kiahi and Andrew.

Then we had a half an hour break (We didn’t train) we had heaps to eat and drink and we had a huge talk about the final against Fairhaven. Eventually we faced them in the final and we won 4-3. W e scored fabulous trys and we won BayWide for the first time ever for S.T.M.

I really enjoyed the Rippa Rugby Tournament because we came first. Maybe next time we can win against Papamoa. I felt really excited because we won BayWide.

Supportive Nine Year Old Amelia

By Ella Phayer and Alice Jeffries

A student in Room 7 called Amelia has been very supportive to the Tauranga Renal Unit, so she had the opportunity to be in the Bay of Plenty Times.
A fundraising effort to make life more comfortable for dialysis patients has found a little champion in bighearted Amelia Riordan.
Despite having never been able to save more than $10 in her life, the selfless 9-year-old has managed to raise just over $500 towards new TVs, DVD players and headsets for patients at the Tauranga renal unit. With 28 patients on its books, the hospital-based unit is operating at full capacity, providing dialysis for patients three times a week for four to six hours at a time.

NEWS FLASH

Sophie Sandford 3rd at WBOP Cross Country!

Sophie has been training three mornings a week with Mrs Linda Oxenham and two senior school runners Louis Grindrod and Isobel Straffon. They have been running around the Mount at the beginning of school. It certainly paid off! This is a photo out of the Newspaper. Well done Sophie. An awesome effort.

The Rippa Rugby World Cup Competition

Article by reporter Libby Nolan
On the 4th of June 2010 the Year three and four rugby players went to the Rippa Rugby World Cup Competition. There were ten players that went. They were Kiahi, William, Andrew, Jamie, Sophie, Alice, Nicolas, Daniel, Adam and Oliver. There were sixty six schools that entered in to the Rippa Rugby Competition in all of the Bay of Plenty area. The games started at 9.00am and they finished at 2.00pm. The team got given a shirt from organizers to wear and they chose our team to be Italy. At the end of nine games Italy won a second place medal. At the final presentation they heard that the team got into the Bay Wide Championship. They were all really excited.
So now The St Thomas More team will go to the Bay Wide Championship. The rules are a little different because you must have thirteen people in your group and you must have three girls in your team. Here are some comments from the Italian team.
Sophie Sandford said “It was a very complicated game. I had fun. She scored ten tries during the whole thing. I was very happy when we came second over all out of the sixty six schools.”
Kiahi said “Most of the teams we versed cheated. He scored twenty six tries in the whole thing. St Mary’s and Pillions Point were probably the hardest teams. We were under feated except for the last match.’’
William told me “In the final was our hardest game when we versed Fairhaven. There were a lot of teams that cheated. The tournament was really fun. ’’
Alice said “We competed at Blake Park. We played six games plus three games because we got in to the quarter finals plus the semi finals. I was really excited when we got in to the finals.’’
Jamie told me “He scored two tries but I was the first one to score a try. The hardest team was Pillions Point. The easiest team was Samoa. We are in the top four. ’’
Andrew said “He scored three tries the hardest team was St Mary’s. The easiest team was Samoa. It was really fun. I am really proud of what we did. Maybe next time we would win. ’’
Oliver said “He scored seven tries. I think the hardest team was Pillions Point. The easiest team was Samoa. It was a fun day.’’
Daniel said “He scored twenty two tries. The hardest team was Pillions Point. The easiest team was Samoa. It was a fun day. I think we need to do some practice on putting the ball down.”
Adam said “The hardest team was Pillions Point. The easiest team was Samoa. It was a fun day. My favorite thing was beating Samoa because they were supposed to be the hardest team.’’
Nicolas said “The hardest team was Pillions Point. The easiest team was Russia. It was really fun. I would do it all again.

The Fancy Dress Day by Libby Nolan

On the 16th of June our whole school had to dress up for the Book Fair. We had to dress up as a book character or a blizzard which means we had to dress up into something wintery. Everyone looked so awesome. At different times our classes went to the Book Fair in the music room. There were some really interesting books and some really cool books. Some people wanted heaps of them. We all got a wish list to write our books we had wished for. Everyone was so excited. In our class there was a Mad Hatter, Where’s Wally, Harry Potter, Dragons, Unicorns, Willy Wonka, Tin Tin, Dorothy and some All White players. There were heaps of other different characters. We all did Jump Jam in our costumes. Some of their parents were there watching us. Some of us got really hot in our costumes. Mr Webster had dressed up in his snow gear and he must have been really hot. Mrs Dustin was Scooby Doo, Mrs Milne was a Musketeer, Catherine was Cat in the Hat and Mr Mills was Mr Twit. Catherine and Debbie had set up the book fair. They did a really good job.