This recreation is of the layout of the German POW camp Stalag Luft III. During the second world war, many allied forces were captured and put into these prison camps. This particular prison camp is relevant to the current reading work I’m doing. The story is called “Johnny Pohe and the Great Escape”. In the story, Johnny is one of the first Maori pilots. During the war, he is shot down and captured by German forces. Normally, Johnny would have been put in your average German POW camp, where he would have been subjugated to horrible things. Fortunately, Johnny was an officer and was put into Stalag Luft III, an internment camp for officer airmen. The treatment was better than what a regular soldier would experience –  of course the treatment was still terrible but it was a considerable step up. Nonetheless, Johnny and many others wanted to escape. By digging three tunnel systems, some of the men were able to escape. Tunnels Dick and Tom were found by guards, but Harry remained undetected. On the night of the escape, many things went wrong.  People were found by guards, the tunnel entrance was frozen shut and part of the tunnel even collapsed. The few men who made it out, Johnny included, met a terrible fate. They were captured and shot by German soldiers. These men risked their lives in war, they are brave and serve as an inspiration for others.

Another day in class were I feel like being a student again! The wonderful smell of toast and eggs cooking!! There was not a scrap left on any plate…success in itself!

Our last day of EPro 8 was spent creating the ultimate playground. We had the usual swings, slides, flying fox and merry-go-rounds which were ALL fully functional.

Another year and another opportunity to hone in on our engineering skills. It’s a wonderful experience problem solving through science and engineering. Students had to build a dump truck to scale… 1:5 following explicit instructions. The final task was to build a lever that would lift the bed so it fulfilled the ‘DUMP’ criteria!!

This week we learnt how to use a protractor to measure angles. After taping the tables with masking tape, angles were measured, marked and checked for accuracy. Extra for experts…any triangles that were formed within the taped areas, the interior angles were measured making sure they added up to 180.

This wonderfully illustrated story, written by Julio and Nino, is in response to our work on Pennies for Hitler. In pairs students were asked to ‘fill in the gaps’ of a story told by Georg to the younger boys in his cabin, on their way to Australia. Students used the ‘skeleton’ of the story and developed their own version of events.

Waka Ama Wednesday!! That’s how Saint Patrick’s Yr 7 & 8’s rolled this week at the Manukau Outrigger Canoe Club.  We all learnt paddling skills on-land before heading out on to the water. Fair to say we all had a wonderful and can’t wait to test our skills out again in May!

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Our class, Room 8 is reading Pennies for Hitler by Jackie French. One of the activities we did was that we had to choose a critical moment from the book and sculpt it using clay.

My group chose a scene of a dog being euthanised because the owners had to save their rations for themselves.

My group’s rationale for this scene is that we have to sometimes let go of the people or things we love to take care of ourselves first.

It was a critical moment in the story because Georg wanted a dog but they saw that there were some consequences of owning it. For example, with food rationed it is hard to have food and water for both animals and people.

The delicious smell of baked bread is emanating throughout the classroom making stomachs growl!

Good work Year 8’s… you have made me feel hungry!

Students experienced working with yeast, kneading, waiting patiently for the bread to rise and then baking it to finish off the chemical process, while creating a delicious morsel to eat!

Congratulations to Jamie for her wonderful journey over summer traversing the Summer Learning Journey! Not only did she complete all the tasks to a high standard but she also wrote supportive comments on other tamariki’s Blogs!

Well done Jamie… we hope you enjoy all the wonderful prizes you received for all your effort!