A Welcoming Movie For You

A welcoming movie for you to watch.

To watch the movie just click on where it says A welcoming movie for you to watch. It will take you to another page to watch the movie.

Tiny Ted Goes to Wanganui

Tiny Ted got to go on a little holiday to the North Island. He asked nicely and even got to sit in the cockpit when the plane landed at Wellington airport.
On the way to where we were going we went through the little town of Bulls. Bulls has lots of signs with Bulls on them. Can you guess what these buildings were?
Tiny Ted spent some time in Marton. Marton was named after Captain Cook's birthplace in England. Captain Cook came to New Zealand in 1769. You can see Tiny Ted sitting on the statue of James Cook.We also went to Wanganui. On the way we stopped on the Whangaehu River Bridge. This is on the likely path of the lahar that is due to come off Mount Ruapehu when the side of the crater lake gives way. That will be interesting.
While he was in Wanganui we went to Putiki marae. Putiki is very beautiful.
We saw the old river steamer go up the Wanganui River.
The flight home was great as the North Island was covered with big fluffy clouds.
We flew into Wellington and got a great view of our capital city.We got a good view of Nelson as well. You can see the cut in the Boulder Bank well from up in the air. There was a yacht race on out in the bay and we wondered if Jackson was out in his boat?

'What a Day' Poem Podcast

Click here to get your own player.



Jessica, Brittany, Raven and Jordan made this podcast about the school year. We are looking forward to the new term starting on February 7th.

Tiny Ted Has A Swim

Today Tiny Ted went for his first swim in the sea in NZ. It is a good job the digital camera is semi-waterproof but I was very careful.
The water was quite chilly but great when you got used to it!

Tiny Ted goes to the Kite Festival

Today Miss K took me to have a look at the Nelson Kite Festival down at Neale Park. There were lots of really cool kites to look at. I liked this huge octopus. Its legs went everywhere.

Tiny Ted Travels to Totaranui

Today Tiny Ted got to go out on a launch to the Abel Tasman National Park at the very top of the South Island. The launch trip was very exciting with waves sweeping over the boat. He got wet!
On the way we visited Split Apple Rock. You can see why it is called that. You can only get to see it by boat as it is actually quite a way off shore.
We got off at Bark Bay and did a bit of sunbathing. I used some shells to keep me covered up from the sunshine. I didn't want to get sunburnt because this is my first Christmas in the sunshine. I am more used to the winter cold.The sun was so bright that I needed to wear my sunnies. Slip, slop, slap and wrap!
We played some games in the sand. It was so fun. I laughed and laughed. Being buried up to my neck kept the sun off! I even had a swim in the lovely clear, blue water.
The launch picked us up again and took us to Totaranui. Here is a photo Miss K took looking south along the beach. Look at the golden sands. Where are all the people?We called in to Waikoropupu Springs on the way home from Totaranui. Pupu Springs is a huge spring where the crystal clear water comes bubbling out from under the ground.
This photo shows you just how clear the water is! It is so deep and a brilliant colour. Pupu Springs are the largest in the Southern Hemisphere and the second most clear spring in the world.I saw a hobbit home on the way home. Did you know that the movie 'Lord of the Rings' was filmed all around Nelson.It was an excellent day out. I would like to do that again.

Tiny Ted Visits the Eels

Tiny Ted went over the bay to Kaiteriteri yesterday. The weather was not quite warm enough for swimming but it was OK. In the background you can see some kids on a biscuit. A biscuit is where someone tows a big rubber ring behind a speedboat a bit like a water-ski and kids sit in the ring and scream and yell as the boat pulls them around. It is lots of fun.On the way home we stopped off at Jester House to feed the eels. Miss K put me beside the water for a photo and an eel thought I was food and came right out of the water and made a grab at me! I was scared and told Miss K to get me out of there- quick! Click on the photo to get a bigger sized version.

For those that are interested Miss K made this clever photo using Scrapblog- a free on-line website that lets you add borders, text, stickers and the like to your photos.

Scrapblog Website

Our Article is Published in England

This is the text of the article written by Stephen Manning, Times Educational Supplement, 5 January 2007

“An internet video-conferencing system is enabling schools across the world to link up. Stephen Manning investigates.

A seven-year-old girl sits expectantly in front of computer, excited at the prospect of meeting her e-pal for the first time. She is a pupil at Cefn Fforest, near Blackwood, Wales. Her new cyber friend is in New Zealand at Appleby School in Nelson, on the South Island.

At 7.15pm on a dark December evening 20 pupils from Cefn Fforest were gathering in their classroom just as the first New Zealand pupils arrived at school.

They were using Skype – free downloadable software which provides an advanced form of video-conferencing over the internet – for possibly the first Skypecast between primary pupils. Each class sat in a circle around a microphone and chatted about their own environments and experiences.

“What’s life like in a New Zealand school?” the Welsh children asked. “What sort of pets do you have?”

Paul Harrington, the technology co-ordinator at Cefn Fforest, says: “It was a clear connection – you could hear the birds in the background and we even heard their 9am bell go off.”

The session lasted an hour and the New Zealand pupils are going to “Skype” the Welsh class from a camping trip via a wirless laptop.

Skype was invented by Kazaa, the peer-to-peer file sharing service. It is owned by eBay and is one of a number of Voice Over Internet Protocol services. You can talk on it live or via instant messaging, see each other on video and share files.

Cefn Frorest Primary had been podcasting with other schools nationally and abroad, and Paul was introduced to the possibilities of Skype in the classroom by Allanah King, his New Zealand contact.

Skype is not yet being used widely in the classroom because of concerns about security and technical capacity. It requires a large bandwidth and there are difficulties in screening out unwanted users.

But Paul believes the technical concerns are surmountable. “We only accept calls from people we know, people on my contact list,” he says.

Meanwhile Joe Dale, head of languages at Nodehill Middle School, Newport, Isle of Wight, believes Skype would be ideal for language lessons, as a way of getting native
speakers into schools.

Another wonder of modern technology here as we get the text and photos of the article in the Times Educational Supplement before it goes on line in England. The actual article was published on Friday 5 January and it was scanned and emailed to us. Thank you to my cousin Lynda from Portsmouth who typed it up for me from the original so we could read it better.

It is wonderful that we are able to make such meangingful bonds between children on opposite side of the globe. It helps to make the world a nicer place.

We are making use of the technology to help make learning for our children rich, real and relevant.

Miss K

Tiny Ted stays out of the rain

If you live in Nelson you will know that it has been raining. Tiny Ted went out for a drive down by the waterfront but didn't like to get out of the car because it was too wet. A seagull came by to have a closer look though.

2007 School Web Site Update

We are still podcasting even though the holidays are on. We recorded some poems on the last day of school. Click on the link above or to the right to listen to some. If you are on dial up you can look and see how long they take to download before you do. Or subscribing in Itunes means that you can listen to them over and again when you are off line.

Also I have republished the whole school website to add a new page and make our blogs more obvious. You may well have to re-put the link into your bookmarks or favourites Appleby School Website

Hope you are enjoying the holidays.

Keep an eye on our Playground Blog as Elliott has been posting from home which is excellent.

Our playground blog

Well done Elliott.

Tiny Ted meets an emu!

Today we took Tiny Ted for a drive to the beach at Mapua for a look around. It was very nice looking out at high tide and watching the children make sandcastles.
On the way home we went down Research Road and came across a paddock of friendly emu. Tiny Ted was a bit scared of the emu and was worried that the huge bird might gobble him up. Miss K was a bit worried too when this one wanted a close up look eyeball to eyeball. The emu were hairy and furry and feathery all at the same time- what very strange birds they are with feet like a raptor- what kind of raptor would that be Harry?