It was wonderful to see all the children enjoying the annual book fair. Each of our classes spent time checking out all the books that are on display and with the books all being set up in Totara room for the first time this year the junior classes were able to sit down and enjoy listening to one of the many books on offer before going off to write their wish lists. Even our teachers have found some new books at the book fair which I'm sure the students will get to enjoy as well.
Our book character dress up day is always fun and the children always blow us away with their enthusiasm and creativity. The catwalk was lively as always with tamariki strutting their stuff and showing off their costumes. We had the Lorax, Pikachu, Katniss Everdeen, Cinderella, the Chipmunks, several Harry Potters and so many others that I can't possibly list them all.
Sixteen students from our senior school got to attend the annual Bluelight PCT Challenge. The day was much bigger and busier than the students and their teacher had imagined it would be. With schools from all across Taranaki competing with teams of four to see who would have fastest time to go through the PCT or police competency test course. The children had to run, show their agility by balancing, lift heavy objects as a team and climb over fences of varying heights using both their physical strength and their teamwork to help everyone get over even the highest fences that stood well above all the children's heads. This is the first time in recent years that Pembroke has attended this event and it's safe to say that it will not be the last time as it was widely enjoyed by the children who gave it a go.
Our two junior classes have had groups working away on perfecting their performance of a short play to preform at Junior play day at Midhurst hall. The whole class got involved with making props and helping the performers to prepare by watching them rehearse and giving encouragement. Rata class preformed a tale of a very distracted family and two cheeky cat burglars while Tawa preformed a play called Clever Cat's.
Our Enviro leaders attended another Enviroschools day, this time at Midhurst school. It was great to see our five Pembroke students joining in and learning alongside the Midhurst students for the day. We got to learn about Kōkako, imagine what a classroom would look like if we were learning outside, play a giant game of hoses and ladders to learn about how we can conserve water, learn how to identify some rakau and have a go at identifying which pests have been hanging out in the bush.
The senior school had an afternoon showing off their best dance moves and getting to know their peers at Avon and Eltham Schools at the EPA dance off. They headed along to Avon school where they were separated into mixed groups with students from the two other schools. After a bit of time working on learning a dance to go with a pre selected song they then took turns preforming their dances to each other. What a fun way to grow our tamariki's confidence and build relationships around the community at the same time.
