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.
..

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.