Hands Around the World

We are part of the collaborative global project Hands Around the World. The idea is that we all send in a decorated hand template showing some of the highlights of living in Nelson or NZ. These hands are then given to lots of different schools around the world. In return we will get lots of hands sent to us from all over the planet. What a simple yet fun project to link children and schools globally! These are some of the hands that we finished today ready for posting.

Our world is in the hands of the children. It is the children who will nurture our planet and make it a better place.

Miss K

Georgie Travelled The South Island

In the holiday I went travelling the South Island and we went to Queenstown, Wanaka and Kaikoura. This picture is taken on the way to Queenstown. My cousin and aunty are in it.
This is me on the climbing wall. We had lots of fun my cousin did not want try.
This is me at Shantytown I am in the stock. We had lots of fun.

By Georgie

Our podcast update

I thought you may be interested in the latest statistics on our podcast viewing and listening. This screen grab was taken from the podcasts statistics breakdown. I think the surge in downloads last week may have been because their school just got back from a two week vacation.
This surge has now put us third in the K-12 section worldwide of the popular podcasting host Podomatic. K-12 means Kindergarten to Year 12. Not a bad effort don't you think!

Miss K

Fern Arrives in America

Fern has arrived in Horace Mann Elementary School in New York, America. They took some pictures of him. He was helping some students with their projects. Below he is helping students with their sewing. Here is Fern helping a student with their reading. Fern is having lots of fun.
Here is a picture of Fern on their class unit flag looking for New Zealand. Fern will help the children learn more about New Zealand. We can learn more about America from the children living there.

ANZAC Day

This flower is the ANZAC Day flower. It is called a poppy. On ANZAC Day, there is a parade called the Dawn Parade. They have music, poems and gun shots. It is very sad
and dim at first, but it gets happier at the end.
This statue is of some of the people that went to war and did not come home again.
People place poppies on the statue.
Miss K, Tegen, Braden, Elliott, Shania and Tyler went to the Dawn Parade this year and they have made a podcast.

By Jordan and Amberley

Mrs S takes Midnight's friend to Florida

Mrs S from Binghamton Elementary School in New York took Midnight's mate, Dusk, on holiday with her to Florida's Disneyworld. Midnight didn't get to go to as he was looking after the classroom back in Binghamton. Click on Mrs S's link to see the whole post and more photos of Disneyland.
Mrs S said that Fern arrived safely today and she will introduce her to her class today. Her children are writing letters for us well. We will be able to ask Mrs S's class about New York. Her children are experts!

Tiny Ted Goes Line Dancing in America

"Hello New Zealand and Wales,

I’m so sorry it’s taken me so long to tell you about my adventures with Tiny Ted! Tiny Ted and I had two amazing adventures while he was here in Williamsburg, Virginia. First Tiny Ted helped me give a tour of The College of William and Mary and then we went line dancing!

Tiny Ted helped give a fabulous tour of the College! I even think he helped convince some students to attend! He walked around the entire campus with me two times! Tiny Ted also shared his adventures with the guests of the College and told them about his friends in New Zealand and Wales. They were all very excited to hear about you all and were very honored to meet Tiny Ted. They couldn’t believe he had made it all the way to the States!

Tiny Ted was the best tour guide that day. He stood up in front of over 500 people and introduced himself as a tour guide for the College of William and Mary! He didn’t seem scared to talk in front of all those people and they all clapped for him when he was done. Here is a picture of Tiny Ted with two other tour guides. The stuffed doll was part of another assignment for the student on the left.

After a long day of giving tours Tiny Ted and I rested for a couple of hours, ate dinner, and went line dancing! Since Tiny Ted was in the southern part of the United States I felt it was only necessary that he attend a real country western line dancing club. He was a little timid at first, but after a couple of dances Tiny Ted was doing the two-step like a pro!

A cowboy spotted Tiny Ted and they began talking about his adventures around the world. Tiny Ted told the cowboy about his friends in Wales and his friends in New Zealand. Then the cowboy talked to Tiny Ted about line dancing and wearing cowboy boots and hats. The cowboy explained to Tiny Ted that line dancing was a tradition in the southern part of the United States, specifically in Texas. Here’s a picture of Tiny Ted and his cowboy friend.

Unfortunately those are all the adventures I was able to take with Tiny Ted. Thank you so much for letting me spend time with him! I can’t wait to hear about his future journeys around the world!

Thanks very much to Katie A for posting these photos and telling us all about Tiny Ted's adventures in Virginia, USA.

Frances' South Island Holiday

When Mum, Dad and I went on a holiday around the South Island we saw lots of things like we went to Puzzle World, glaciers and we saw keas and rivers.

This is me gold panning with my family. I found little specks of gold.

This is Mum and I at Wanaka Lake. We were going to do the paddle boats but we didn't have enough time.

This is me at Puzzle World. I am so strong!!! I can hold up a building. The clock worked too. It was great.

This is one of kea at the glacier. A kea is a beautiful New Zealand parrot. They are very friendly.

This is one of the glaciers we saw. They were awesome, cold and huge.

Here I am by the glaciers. I am having a big rest because of all the walking.

By Frances

Introducing Mini-Dylan

I am starting to think of school again next week and thought you might like an update on our swan plants and an introduction to Mini-Dylan. Mini-Dylan has been given to us Mr H and the class of 3H of Cefn Fforest School in Wales. They understand how we might be missing Tiny Ted and he knows that Fern has left to go to Binghamton School in New York and Midnight hasn't arrived yet so thought that Mini-Dylan might just do the trick.

Dylan is a Welsh name and dragons are the national symbol of Wales. You will see the red dragon on the Welsh flag. Dylan will be able to come home and have his photo taken sometimes as well.I have been looking after the swan plants and misting them with my new mister every day and now there are over 30 new plants. If they all survive that will be enough for everyone to have one each and some left over for school. Mini-Dylan is keeping a watchful eye!
Miss K

The Sharps in Spain

I thought you might like some update photos of our friends in Valencia, Spain. Here are the Sharp family as they go about exploring the countryside around the city. It looks really high up!They got to pose by the America's Cup itself. We hope that when the racing is over we can bring the cup back to New Zealand again! I watched the Opening Ceremony on TV but it was really late at night. It was awesome with a Maori waka and haka.
Here is our team New Zealand yacht heading out for the first day of racing. Helen Clark, our Prime Minister, was on board but there was not enough wind for a race.
Miss K

Tiny Ted Goes to Yorktown, Virginia

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach - the lady who took Tiny Ted to America has passed him on to Mr Michaels, a teacher-in-training in her class at the College of William and Mary. Mr Michaels has been commenting on Elliott's and Oscar's blogs so it is great to see a connection there! Mr Michaels is the tall one!
Tiny Ted got to go on a field trip with Chris and his fourth grade class from Magruder Elementary School to Yorktown, Virginia. Virginia is on the east (right) coast of America. Yorktown is where Lord Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington in the American Revolutionary War.
We will learn more about that next term but in the meantime here are some photos of Tiny Ted's big day out. Notice the spelling of the word 'centre'- Americans spell it like that!

Yorktown is a part of what is known as the Historic Triangle, which consists of Williamsburg , Jamestown, and Yorktown. Magruder Elementary is located in Williamsburg.
In this photo Ashley and Tiny Ted look in the generals' tent looking at important war documents. Tiny Ted is learning lots about America! Here he is with Jasmine, in a Revolutionary soldier's outfit, with Tiny Ted and her Mom (Mum in New Zealand speak).
To raise money for the cost of the French & Indian War, King George III heavily taxed the colonists. One of the most important taxes was the Stamp Act, which required almost all paper products to be taxed. Playing cards were doubly taxed since gambling was illegal. The King assumed that the colonists were gambling anyway, so he made the tax on playing cards double to raise more money. Here, Keyera and Tiny Ted play with a reproduction of a set of playing cards that have been stamped.
James and Tiny Ted sit next to Patrick Henry's famous quote, "Give me liberty or give me death." on the time line.
Anthony and Tiny Ted show the rest of the class one of the typical chores that children would do on a colonial farm. This looks like the laundry! (Sorry I got your name wrong before Anthony- I called you Jeremy by mistake!)
What a great time Tiny Ted is having. He is helping us learn more about America as well. I am sure Chris is looking after him well and they are having a great time.

Miss K and Mr Michaels

5000 Hit Party

On the last of school for Term One we had a 5000 hit party at lunchtime. 5000 hits means that since we started counting the number of times this web page has been looked at there has been over 5000 people looking at it. That is incredible really. Look at our map as well- you can see our viewers come from all over the world. Thank you to all our viewers, bloggers and all the people who comment.
As well as Easter eggs we had lots of healthy food! Fern thought it was lovely.

Fern's trip to the Maitai Dam

We all went to the dam. It was exciting. Fern had a great time as well. We also went to the centre of New Zealand. Fern had lots of photos taken of him with other people. The hike took 20 minutes.
Now here we are at the top of the centre of New Zealand.
This is a picture of the caretaker showing us what he does for a living. He is measuring the water pressure and flow.
This is of me and Frances at the centre of NZ. You can see all of Nelson in the background.

By Miriam and Tyler

America's Cup Challenge Podcast

Allanah's Appleby Showcase- We have just completed our final podcast before we break for the Easter holidays.

Valencia- here we come!

Fern Meets Brittany's Horse

This is my horse called Mrs Well. She had fun and so did Fern but while I was taking the photo Fern fell off so I had to put him on the fence for the photo.Here she is again. She is cute. I love her because she is fun.
By Brittany

Fern at the Fern Lodge

On Tuesday we went to the Fern Lodge. This is Fern and I at the Fern Lodge. It was very fun. Fern liked the lodge. Here is me standing outside the pub. We didn't go in.
By Susa and Fern

Fern played cricket

Fern played cricket on Saturday morning for Appleby.
Fern's team lost only by a few runs.By Braden

Fern went to the Market

We have a market in Nelson that is on every Saturday morning where people can bring what they have made to sell to people. Fern is looking for something to buy. He is going to buy eggs first. He needs five dollars to buy a jumbo tray.
He might want to buy the paua. Paua is a kind of shell. It is very beautiful. This paua is made into a Maori design.
He could have these greenstones for earings or pendants. Greenstone is found in the rivers of the South Island of New Zealand.
By Braden