We hope that you have pleasure in viewing this collection of articles that tell of the activities and happenings at Bluestone School.

Chromebooks used in years 3 to 8 enhance learning experiences.

On our last day of school for 2015 we had a surprise visitor!

Our senior students celebrated the end of their school year in style! We congratulate our students on a wonderful year at Bluestone.

If you need some baking done ask the Super Little Bakers in Room 15.

As part of our integrated unit on Anzac, we created clay poppies.  We glazed them and fired them in our kiln, and these are the results.

At the end of each year our students enjoy a day out at Caroline Bay. 

Team Photo: Back Row, Tracy Rees (coach), Nick Webb, Lucas Mullings, Joshua Rees, Lucas Wederell, Front Row, Jackson White, Connor Leach, Hayden Teixeira.

The big buddies produced a set of instructions for a Christmas craft for their little buddies to follow.

"Sport friendship is awesome — play hard, but play fair".

Sport is an important part of life at Bluestone School. We are very fortunate to have Julie Langford as our Sports Co-ordinator as she does a fantastic job of sorting sports teams, coaches and managers. Julie has summarised the year below.

The idea to hand over the class for students to teach each other is based on the work of a South American educational philosopher Paulo Freire, who empowered the poor by not only teaching to them to read words, but by doing so to also read the world… In short….. I teach you …. You teach me. We empower each other when we learn from each other.

What a wonderful year we have had together! We’ve had lots of fun with our learning, working together and trying new things. Here are some of our highlights from throughout the year: 

This term in Te Tahi we looked at painting and developing our cutting skills.

Rooms 1 and 2 created animal faces using paper plates and coloured paper. View our photos to see some of the finished creations.

Enjoy reading Room 20's poem about their fun filled year!

There are lots of opportunities to grow leaders in the High Flyers. Everyone is part of road patrol for North Street and Hurdley Street. Some students are trained as peer mediators, librarians and Stepping to Success kindy buddies.

The focus has been to write a short piece of writing that captures a moment in time. Students are encouraged to make strong word choices that impact on their writing. If you look at the picture at the bottom of this article you will see the inspiration for the writing.

We are proud to present the first batch of completed ink and watercolour birds by room 7.

Our Art Topic this term has been Clay. Room 2 children have been creating pots out of clay.

The children of Te Tahi have been reflecting on the things that made their first year at school a memorable one.

Reindeer took over Room One this week in the form of some lovely pastel drawings.

To round off the year Mrs Greenwood's Quick60 students have been busy learning to read instructions.

Room One have had another busy term creating some great artworks. 

Mrs Wilsher has been working with the children of Room 7  to make wonderful clay birds, In the pictures below you can see the birds in different stages of construction right through to the painted up final product. Don't the birds look just wonderful!

Today was our MKR finale!  After many weeks of planning and preparation, we finally got to showcase our cooking skills in our instant restaurants.

Room 5 explain why they liked their big buddies in Room 12 this year.

Room 16 video conference with a class from the North Shore of Auckland

Each year our Year 5-6 classes face off in a kapahaka competition. The competition is intense and this year saw teachers also involved in the performances, with Room 15 being awarded the Kapahaka Class Trophy.

Traditional tales with a twist! Characters take on new form, as budding authors reinvent old stories.

Year 7&8 students from Room 20 prepared and served up food of restaurant quality in their MKR Competition.

At lunchtime there are plenty of activities to keep students busy. From chess to class netball to games organised by our PALs (Playground Activity Leaders). In the warm weather our students were pictured making the most of their opportunities.

Inspired by the warmer weather 6 year old Lily has written a great summer poem for you to enjoy.

Ruby has written a great story about her experience of athletics day. 

Creative Creatures held their Athletic Sports in hot dry conditions with students showing plenty of skill and determination.

On Friday 20 November Team Explorer travelled by bus out to Orari Farmyard.

Two beautiful korowai have arrived for the Manawanui kapahaka group.

What if punctuation took a vacation from your writing? Who would save the day? How would your audience cope? 

In Te Tahi, our writing focus for Term 4 is on poetry. This means we have to think about being less literal and more about our senses and describing the world around us.

The High Flyers' teachers and students have spent the last week at Woodend Christian Camp.

Are you able to think proportionally with numbers on the go?

Room 2 children delighted the elderly folk at Strathallan with their songs.

What a night, what a result! The Hall was sizzling with energy at Bluestone School on Thursday night when our annual Wearable Arts Competition got underway.

We feel very proud when ex-Bluestone students excel and we congratulate these students on their success

On Tuesday and Wednesday of week 3, the students of Room 16 organised and ran a sausage sizzle to raise funds towards a Lifepod.

Senior students showed plenty of determination and skill at our senior athletics competition with 7 records being broken.

South Canterbury Sports has modelled this on the inter-town Top Town Competition televised during 1976. They are a charitable trust who create opportunities for participation, development and sporting success in our communities. 

Bluestone won the Year 5-6 section and were second by just one point in the Year 7-8 section. A huge thank you to Gillian Ross for preparing and encouraging our teams so well.

We always feel very proud when we hear of the ongoing success of our former students!

Last year the Top Team Challenge came to our senior students (Years 5-8). This year we were lucky enough to be able to offer it to our Year 3/4s.

On Wednesday the 21st of October, the students of the High Flyers' pod took part in the Top Team challenges.

We have just received word that we are the top performing Primary or Intermediate School in New Zealand when it comes to making savings in energy use!

Team Explorer have been busy creating hats by either reusing or recycling materials.

Tayla and Te Koha wrote: Yesterday at school the Creative Creatures started their strawbale gardening because gardening is part of our topic in Term 4.

A huge congratulations to Sophie Bennett who has been awarded first place in the Year 6-8 section of the Ode to Librarians poetry writing competition! This competition is run by the School for Young Writers and is a New Zealand wide competition!

Manawanui is our performance group that entertains our students and performs at many venues including the Flava Festival.

Room 6 students have been learning to write Acrostic Poems.  Acrostic poems go down and across and can have any number of words on each line.  Enjoy reading the poems by three of our students.

Students turned up to school today in mufti to show their support for the AllBlacks as they start their RWC campaign.

Bluestone was fortunate to have a wonderful group of enthusiastic Polytech students who took our Year 5-6 students through a number of team building activities.

Bluestone and Waimataitai Schools played against each other in a range of sports with Bluestone retaining the inter-school trophy.

A fun night for all those who attended.  Special thanks to the Home & School for their support and for organising DJ Lowrey (an ex-student of Bluestone School) with great music and lighting.  Mr Poulter organised some challenging games with yummy chocolate prizes.  Students arrived with their dancing shoes and some great moves.

On Friday afternoon Te Tahi had their junior disco and what a fantastic time it was.

On Friday 18 September we will have a mufti day to allow students to wear black to school to show their support for the All Blacks.

The students from Room 7 who went to the disco had a great time. 

Room 20's been busy with Science Fair, Speeches and a lot of other stuff as well! The following detail is written by Sophie Bennet and Jorja Goodger.

Margaret came to share her stories with Creative Creatures at the end of Writers Week. 

Samuel Blades presented the top speech in the Bluestone Competition with Kate Sorenson as runner up.  Samuel will go onto compete in the South Canterbury Lions Speech Competition to be held on Thursday 11 September at Mountainview High School.

Samuel created an entertaining speech arguing that naps should be allowed in workplaces and even in schools!What do you think?

Congratulations to Briana on winning the Year 5-6 speech competition at Bluestone School, then going on to win the Lions Speech competition for Year 5-6 children throughout our region.

We read the book 'Tell Me A Dragon' by Jackie Morris together as a class with Mrs Wilsher.

Since 1996 Environment Canterbury have awarded prizes to Canterbury Schools whose students have exhibited outstanding projects. Entries are judged through the School Science and Technology Fairs in Christchurch and Timaru.

Eight of our Year 7 and 8 students faced a big challenge in the rain!

Our Year 7-8 students have completed some wonderful Science and Technology Projects and these will be on display for you to view on Friday 4 September from 10am - 3pm.

The staff want to acknowledge the great contribution made by parents in supporting Writers' Week at Bluestone School.

Thanks to the support of Aoraki Polytech Outdoor Pursuit members, Bluestone students have been meeting new challenges.

Tracy Rees captured these images at our student parade. Special thanks for all the parents who supported our parade by creating so many wonderful costumes.

We have had an exciting week so far during Writers' Week. Have a look at our photos to see what we have been up to this week.

We have been experimenting with hat designing. In Room 7 we are looking at different types and shapes of hats.

Students arrived at school today to be greeted by teachers in medieval costume, a town cryer and a cave that had strange bellowing noises coming from within!

Bluestone students joined Jackie Clarke to perform a wonderful range of great NZ songs

Tuesday the 18th of August saw 90% of our Think Tank students haul themselves out of their cosy beds to launch themselves into the challenge of the alpine  environments of Tekapo Springs and Roundhill Ski Field....... and what a day we had.

Room 7 created these lovely self portraits earlier in the year.

Over the last few weeks you will have noticed some very strange voices coming from our classroom...... from vampire cries to shrieking coaches, and a gang of boys arguing over sandwiches!!!!

Bluestone's kapahaka group met with success at the Flava Festival, held in the Theatre Royal.

Our families and friends got a lovely surprise when they received their postcard in the mail. 

Science Fair... Speeches... Maths Week... Skiing... Skating and The Great NZ Road Trip!!!!  It's a busy term for Room 20 students but that doesn't stop these students from producing some top quality work!

Snakes and ladders, board games, bingo, card games, puzzles these are just a few of the activities Te Tahi enjoyed learning during maths week.

Have you ever thought about how maths is part of everyday life and that there are lots of ways we can practise this important part of our learning?

Today Jo Hamilton from the Timaru District's Animal Control Unit brought her dog Stevie to school to teach our Creative Creatures' classes about staying dog safe.

Wonderful Winter Words  - Poems that make us feel and see Winter

This term is shaping up to be a busy one with lots of exciting events happening for Room 19 students.

During Week 4 the Creative Creatures are using board games, some old ones like Ludo and Snakes and Ladders, and some new ones like Frozen (using addition and subtraction) and Digi facts X 2 (using skip counting in 2's to 20).

Jo Hamilton from Timaru District Council brought her dog Stevie to visit us and talk about how to be safe around dogs.

Each year, schools across the South Canterbury region send their best artworks for public display in a stunning gallery setting.

Room 15 are preparing speeches for the South Canterbury Speech Competition. It will be held on 3rd September at Mountainview High School.

Hopefully, the students will get an appreciation of the hard work you do as parents and caregivers.

Many of our students demonstrate excellence in sport and some go on to represent South Canterbury and even New Zealand. We are proud of the accomplishments of our students.

Each week Year 7&8 students attend the Timaru Technology Education Centre. Now you can view what they are doing online!

On Friday the 31st of July Room 16 made eggs fly in THE GREAT EGG DROP!

Bluestone has several hockey teams playing in the local competition. Coach of the Bluestone Phantoms, Adrian Gray, has written this article to introduce his team.

Room 2 and Room 5 have been learning to Problem Solve during our Discovery Sessions.  

Rooms 1 and 6 had a great introduction to Space during Discovery time last week.

During Term 3 Creative Creatures are learning more about painting and during the first week Room 5 started by creating a big painting of colourful circles.

Room 17 students have been creating wonderful fish prints using cardboard blocks.

The Concert is on August 20th at the Southern Trust Evens Centre, 70 Morgans Road Timaru

Jo Hamilton, TDC Animal Control Officer, will visit each class in Term Explorer during Week 4.

Keeping Ourselves Safe is a personal safety programme designed to give students the skills to cope in a range of situations.

To celebrate Matariki Room 10 made a Kahu Huruhuru (Feathered cloak). The children were learning to make connections with known cultures.

Maori kites and culture are closely intertwined and have a highly symbolic connection to Matariki. There is a growing interest in learning how to make kites using the traditional methods.

We have changed the Year 7 and 8 skiing trip to include skating as an option. Our hope is this will encourage a wider group of students to experience a different outdoor activity.

During Term 2 a group of year 7 & 8 students have been developing their photographic skills. Our field trip gave them the opportunity to put some of these into practice.

A team of Year 5 to 8  students have been putting a lot of time and energy into practising their roles for the Vaudeville concert.

Imagine wearing your PJ's to school! That is what Te Tahi students did on Friday 19 June

Adding glitter to paint creates some interesting art work. Year 3 & 4 students have been studying the works of NZ artist, Reuben Patterson.

Some students in Years 1 & 2 worked with Siobhan Wilsher to draw still life.

Welcome to Art Attack, Bluestone's tribute to great student art!

Our junior students have been having swimming lessons at C-Bay and are quickly gaining in confidence.