Bigfield Blackbirds

The eggs a few weeks ago



The birds last week

A couple of weeks ago, we discovered some small, blue eggs, at the back of the big field. Quite regularly, we noticed a blackbird (mother) flying over to the nest every so often. So, in order to find out what was so interesting, we stedily climbed up the tree, making sure not to disturb whatever was up there, and took some pictures. Slowly, over three weeks, we found that the eggs had hatched. The second photo is of the birds when they have hatched.
Did you know that a blackbird grows up in only 3 weeks?

Reporter: Jasmine

Exciting Music

The Westburn orchestra has recieved an exciting piece of new music written by the famous John Emeleus written especially for our orchestra. He is the granfather of Rebecca P in our orchestra. This song is called 'Parade', and it has a FANTASTIC ending, with a christmas song that everyone knows. You will hear the orchestra perform this piece in the final prize-giving assembly in the last week of the term. So come along and support the Westburn School orchestra.

Reporter: Justine

Maths Extension

Today, as a part of the year 7 maths extension, we looked at Pascal's Triangle. This was not actually invented by Pascal. The Chinese invented it but Pascal worked on it so it was named after him. He was French.

This is the triangle.

1

1 1

1 2 1

1 3 31

1 4 6 4 1

1 5 10 10 5 1

1 6 15 20 15 6 1

(It keeps on going.)

We also realised that the first line is 11 to the power of 0, the second line is 11 to the power of 1 and ... it keeps on going. With two digit numbers you add it together. Take line 6 for example.

1

5

10

10

5

1

You add it together like this. So 11 to the power of 5 is 161051.

Reporter: Justine

Christchurch Schools Music Festival! Hooray!

On the 27th of October (last Friday) Westburn School's Senior Choir performed with around 20 other schools at the CBS Arena. There were 3 nights in total, and they were all a great success! We performed some very well known songs, like Climb Every Mountain, Funiculi Funicula and A Te Tarakihi. Some students from Westburn participated in the special groups such as the orchestra, choir, recorder ensemble and concert band. Big thanks to Mrs Pritchard and Mrs Wilford for teaching our choirs so well.

Reporter: Rebecca & Selena

Maths Extension

Today we learnt how to calculate the volume of prisms, pyramids and spheres and what makes a shape a prism or pyramid.
The rule for calculating the volume of a prism is the cross section's area times the height.
The rule for calculating the volume of a pyramid it the bass's area times the height divided by 3.
The rule for calculating the volume of a sphere is 4/3 times Pi times radius cubed.
For the area of a circle times Pi and the radius squared.
For the area of a rectangle just times the sides together.
For the area of a trapezium add the bottom and top edge together and times it by the height then divide it by two.

We then calculated the volume of some common things in all sorts of shapes.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, nearly the whole school performed in the Junior Production, The Jumblees! The first falf was a show about kids who are couch potatoes, and the second half was a variety of performances from Kapa Haka to Orchestra.  There were OUTSTANDING soloists and they did a fantabulous job! The children were all quite tired after performing for TWO nights, luckily the holidays are coming! Well done everyone, even the audience!

Reporter Selena, Rachel

support your team day/ banndanna day

On the 7 of september (last day of term 3) almost everone came in black and whiteand a few people came in some other colours to support their team for the rugby world cup. a lot of people also came all dressed up in bandanas. It is amazing seeing everone supporting the cancer society. this year the cancer society has also put out some cool wristbands that turn blue when you are exposed to uv rays.I seriously recomend suppporting the cancer society as they are in it for a good cause.

Rachel's Scholarship

Today at assembly Mr Holstein came to give out a Peerswick scholarship to Rachel W, a Year 8. The scholarship is for two new Year 9 entrances, a boy and a girl. Rachel has been rewarded 1,000 dollars to spend at her leisure and will be going to Riccarton High.

Reporter: Helena

Icas

Kaelan and Max

Art Extension News

The Art Extension group have started to work with crayoning. In the last lesson, the whole group went out to the wildscape to study and draw bushes and trees.

Unfortunately, with the tight schedule that the Year 7s and 8s have, Art Extension may have to be moved to a more suitable time for students.

Reporter: Helena

iPADS IN THE LIBRARY!

The school has purchased 2 new iPads to use in the library.They have Q-Book, which is for reading in a variety of languages including Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Te reo Maori, French and many more. Some of the books on there now are well known favourites such as Hairy Maclary& Wonky Donkey. If you have a personal favourite you can ask Mrs Junovich to download it for you. These are avaliable in the library at morning tea and lunch. These are brand new so when you use them please make sure you treat them with care, as they are very expensive!

Reporter: Selena & Rachel & Rebecca

Maths Extension

ON THE STAIRCASE
How many different ways are there to walk up 10 stairs if you can walk up 1 or 2 stairs at a time?

Hint: Use the Fibonacci Sequence.

We Protest !!!

Reporter Rachel

Market Day

MARKET DAY! MARKET DAY! MARKET DAY! MARKET DAY
WHEN: 30TH SEPTEMBER 3:00-6:00
WHERE: WESTBURN SCHOOL
WHAT: THE SENIOR CHILDREN ARE PREPARING THINGS TO SELL. THE MARKET IS TO CONCLUDE OUR 'OPEN FOR BUSINESS' TOPIC OF TERM 3. PRODUCTS INCLUDE FOOD, DRINKS, GAMES, CRAFTS.

COME ALONG! BRING SOME MONEY!

Endangered Words!!

Here are some endangered words that could become extinct!! Learn them before they disappear forever!

Make Your Own Word Search

ICAS Spelling and Science Results

The results of the spelling and science competitions of ICAS have been announced at the full school assembly this morning.

ICAS Science:

Distinction
Year 5 - Andrew
Year 6 - Han Young, Jem, Gabe
Year 7 - Julia, Jasmine, Chloe
Year 8 - Selena

Credit
Year 4 - Isaac
Year 5 - Wasiq, Felix
Year 6 - Edward, Ryan, Yang Kun, Eleanor
Year 7 - Julia, Kaelan, Isobel
Year 8 - Rebecca, Lucky, Jonathan, George, Eloise

ICAS Spelling

High Distinction
Year 8 - Lucky

Distinction
Year 4 - Maya, Madaleine
Year 5 - Felix
Year 6 - Michael, Eleanor
Year 7 - Helena, Lauryn
Year 8 - Rebecca

Credit
Year 4 - Isaac, Abby, Jacob
Year 5 - Shiyul, Andrew, Rose
Year 6 - Ruby, Hanna
Year 7 - Justine, Isobel, Kaelan
Year 8 - Rachel, Emily, Lauren, Max

Congratulations!

Reporter: Helena

Senior SMP Auditions

On the 25th of August, 21 students auditioned for Senior SMP, and 14 have been accepted.

Well done to all of those people who are getting accepted, you will be informed later on in the year. You'll have great fun next year :)

Cantamath Displays 2011

Well done to all the people whose entries went through to the Cantamaths judging. Congratulations to the entries which either won Excellence or Highly commended.
Special congratulations to Connor who received an Outstanding for his written work 'Tennis and Maths'.

Cantamath 2011!

On Wednesday, the year 7 & 8 Cantamath teams went to CBS Arena to compete against 100+ schools all over Canterbury. Cantamath is a problem solving competition with 20 questions. All teams have 30 minutes to finish. Both teams did exceptionaly well and Ms Lennon lost $20 over a bet against Merrin. Haha. The Year 7s came 6th. Anyways, the people in the team were:
Year 7s: Justine , Edward , Gabriel & Han-young
Year 8s: Rachel, Selena,Rebecca & Matthew
We all had great fun!



Whats your favourite colour?

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Maths Extension

Today, in maths extension, we learnt about about particians. Particians work like this.

The particians of 4 1+1+1+1
1+1+2
2+2
1+3
4

There are 5 particians for the number 4. Particians are the ways that numbers can add to a certain number. You can use as many numbers as you want but you can only add.

Now find out how many particians 9 has.

Maths Extension

Reporter: Justine

What animal is this?

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

Can you guess what animal this is? Here is a clue: it starts with 'a', ends with 'l' and has 7 letters.

Comment your guess, remember to include your name and your house. If you guess right you will receive five house points.

Rachel and Selena

Little Puzzle

Here is a little puzzle. Can you solve it?

CDC?

Post your first name and your house and if you answer correctly you will recieve a houspoint.

Reporter: Selena

Poll!

How many times do you visit the library per week

• I pretty much live there!






• Three to four times






• One to two times






• Barely ever






• We have a library?

View Results
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Maths Extension

This is the year 6 maths extension group.

ICAS Poll

Which ICAS Competition do you like most?

• Writing



• Spelling



• Computer Studies



• Science



• English



• Maths

View Results
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Reporter: Rebecca

Media Team Wordle

Junior Singing

Every week the juniors get together with Mrs Pritchard and have a singing session.

They get together and learn new songs. Here they are singing the song 'milkshake'

They look like their having lots of fun!!!

Reporter: Jasmine

New Programme!!

The Orchestra and Senior Choir have just finished Northwest Music Festival and now we have a new programme! The orchestra are preparing to play with the Burnside High School Orchestra in the Showcase 3 concert held in October. They are going to play the well-known Romeo & Juliet by Serge Prokofiev.
The Senior Choir have have started practising for the Christchurch Schools' Festival held later in the year. Some of the songs we are singing are Dansi-na Kuim-ba & The Frim Fram Sauce & Transports of Delight- words by Magaret Mahy.
We are very excited and are working very hard!

Reporter: Selena

Maths Extension

Today, it was the year 6's turn to learn about Pythagorus's Theorem.

The year 7 and 8s got a riddle made by Mr Ellwood.
The riddle was....
"How old are your three sons?"
"The product of their age is 72 and the add to your sons age,"
"That is still not enough information,"
"My oldest son plays soccer,"
"Now I get it!"

All of us found it very difficult but in the end a few of us got the answer.
If you know the answer please comment!
Reporter: Justine

Cantamaths Competitions

The infamous Cantamaths competition is coming up near the end of the year. We are in training mode at the moment There are 2 teams (one year 8 team and one year 7 team) that compete from every school who hope to be the first schools to finish, and get 100 points. The top 3 schooszls each recieve a medal. You can also enter posters or models, and if you recieve an exellence you get a badge!

Reporter: Rebecca

Maths Extension

Today the year 7 maths extension group learnt about Pythagoras' Theorem. The theorem works with right-angled triangles and side a2+side b2=side c2.
Reporter: Justine

Northwest Music Festival

The Orchestra and Senior Choir have been very busy rehearsing for the Northwest Music Festival that was held on Wednesday at Burnside High School in the Aurora Center. There were other schools like Cobham Intermediate, Avonhead School, Christ the King's School, St Josephs and of course Burnside High school. We were very proud that 2 of our senior Westburn Students (Kate & Jonathan) were the announcers for the evening and they did a fantastic job! The Westburn Orchestra, Cobham Orchestra, and the Burnside Junior String Orchestra all peformed. The Westburn Orchestra performed 2 pieces; the well known theme from William Tell Overture, and Pomp and Circumstance by Edward Elgar. Cobham orchestra also performed a well known piece- the theme from Harry Potter (Hedwigs Theme), as well as the Russian Sailors' Dance. The Junior string orchestra from Burnside performed 2 classical pieces, and one of the pieces was conducted by Evie Hay (an ex Westburn Student!!!). Mrs Pritchard of course was accompanying us on the piano and we had Mrs Wilford conducting the massed choir. We were also fortunate to have 4 Burnside High School Band Members on Bass, Drums, and other guitars.

Kaelan Eketone and Michael Cai accompanied the Westburn Senior chior on their own item: Top Of The World, and Clouds with drums and guitar. They were amazing too. We all had a fantastic time!

Reporter: Selena & Rebecca

Ballroom dancing

This year the year 7's and 8's are learning Ballroom dancing. We are having half hour sessions on Tuesday mornings. We are learning 3 dances which are the Foxtrot, Samba and Chacha. They are all lots of fun and improve our dancing skills.

Reporter- Ellie

Art Extension 2011

This year at Westburn School a new extension class has started - Art Extension. Students have applied to be in Art Extension by entering one of their best pieces of artwork. The students who have been chosen to be in the class go to the Common Room (a.k.a Room 1) to draw different objects (for example, a steering wheel, a chess piece or a violin) and learn different styles of art. Finished artworks are put on walls and some have been on displays at the school expo.

Reporter: Helena

Tug of war House Assembly

Today the year 5 to 8's competed in an exciting house assembly where they played Tug of War with a huge piece of rope. All the year 5's from each house competed against one another, then the year 6's competed and so on. Teachers versed different sports teams including the senior Hockey Team, Senior Basketball and Senior Soccer Team. Brothers and sisters went head to head by themselves and Mrs Newlands and Julia versed Mrs Boyd and Kate. We all had a lot of fun despite our rope burned hands and our ringing ears from all the screaming and encouraging.

Reporter: Ellie and Lauren

Reporter-Rachel W

Maths Extension

Maths extension commenced at the start of the year. There are three groups, year 6, 7 and 8. We are taught by Mr Bill Ellwood, who has retired from being the head of department of maths at Burnside High School. Recently, the year 8 students have been learning about quadratic equations and the year 7 students have been studying about prime number theories and also the great mathematicians that discovered those theories. Today the year 7s also learnt about happy numbers. This is how you know if a number is a happy number....
You square each digit in a number and add them together. If in the end the numbers add up to be 1, it is a happy number.

Reporter: Justine

ICAS Competitions

Thie year's ICAS competitions are fast approaching, with 2 competitions already underway. In the next few weeks, we have Writing and Spelling, and then lastly we have the mathematics exam. We are very anxious for our results!

Reporter: Rebecca

Expo's mini CONCERTS!

On Wednesday night, the Senior Choir, Orchestra and S.M.P performed at the Expo. They did a fantastic job and all the songs sounded superb. Thanks to Mrs Wilford and Mrs Prithard for all the hard work they put in and the Friday practises for Senior Choir certainly paid off! The songs have been videoed and are will be posted later on, so look out for them!

Reporter: Rachel

Media Team 2011 is here!

Media Team for 2011 is finally here!

June 13 Earthquake

We would like to thank all our families for your calm response to today's aftershocks.
As of 4pm today (Monday 13 June) we expect that school will be open. Please check our school website for updates.

We hope that all our families and friends are safe and well.