Bringing library time into the classroom

Mrs Stedman and Mrs Meehan are very busy with the annual library stocktake at the moment. To help them out we spent our library time in the classroom this week. We spent some time silent reading before playing some games that really made us think - Chess, Scrabble, Up Words and Mastermind. Amber even did some knitting. What a cool afternoon.

Creative Amy!

Amy has spent many afternoons stitching at After School Care. What a stunning elephant cushion you have made for yourself. Well done Amy!

Posies for the Maungatua Spring Flower Show

On Friday morning we arrived at school with arms and buckets full of flowers. We then made up beautiful posies to enter into the spring flower show. It was such a lovely spring day as you can tell from our class photo.

Transformation Art - Maths

We learned all about rotation, translation and reflection in Geometry. We made these wonderful artworks by making a stencil and transforming it in nine ways.

Rugby World Cup Dress Up Day

The  Rugby World Cup 2011 kicks off today. At Outram School we recognised this by coming to school dressed up as our favourite country or player. Congratulations Emily, Trey and Zak for winning best dressed in Room 3. Ka pai Trey for winning best dressed in the Senior Syndicate also. Good luck All Blacks!

Baking with Emily

Every Friday, Emily chooses two friends from Room 3 to do some cooking or baking with. Tyler and Amber were the lucky children chosen to help this week. They made an Easy Microwave Chocolate Cake and made a face on it with icing sugar. The best part was licking the bowl and then eating a piece with a massive scoop of ice cream. The recipe can be found below, as can some photos of the process and finished product. The amazing thing was that this cake only took two minutes to cook in the microwave!

Easy Microwave Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 pinch salt

Directions

1. Spray a medium microwave-safe bowl with non-stick spray and set aside. In a mixing bowl, combine the butter, sugar, egg, vanilla extract, and milk; blend together. Combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt; blend into the mixture until smooth. Pour into greased bowl.
2. Cover and cook in the microwave on high for 2 to 2 1/2 minutes, or until cake springs back when touched. Since all microwaves cook differently, adjust the cooking time to accommodate your machine. To serve, let the cake cool five minutes, then cover the bowl with a plate and turn both bowl and plate upside down so the cake falls onto the plate. 

Reference: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/easy-microwave-chocolate-cake/detail.aspx

Taieri College Sevens Tournament - 3 August 2011

Taieri College Sevens Tournament

“First game down, two more to go,” Caleb reminds us cheerily as we successfully drag ourselves off the pitch and towards the packed lunch spot. We had narrowly lost our first game at the Taieri Sevens Tournament and the idea of getting into the finals was not looking good. The idea of blaming the plastic sticks was much nicer than facing the truth, but no one was ready to do that quite yet.

“Samantha, over here, pass!” The ball came shooting towards me and I dribbled it up to the goal. So far, so good, I thought until the ball got taken off me. Silverstream were tough opponents.

The next hour slowly crept by. We had won to Silverstream 2-0. This next game would reveal if we had gotten through to the finals. It seemed that the butterflies that had been peacefully resting in my stomach had woken up, invited all their friends and were now thrashing around making me more nervous with every breath. Finally, it was time. We walked onto the pitch clutching our weak sticks and hoping with every inch of our might that we, Outram, were going to win.

By Louise Mitchell (Room 3)

Taieri College Sevens Tournament

Today wasn’t just a Wednesday, it was more of a sports day. All students that enjoyed sports were taken on a bus to Taieri College to compete against other schools in an exciting tournament. This was our chance. Our chance to show that Outram was best.

So there we were, holding our sticks, mouth guards tucked in our mouths, ready to beat the other team. We walked confidently onto the rough blue turf. As East Taieri rushed onto the field, I felt a few butterflies zooming in my tummy. East Taieri… Outram’s toughest enemy.

The sound of the whistle blew in my ears. Off we went, watching the pure white ball zig-zag in between us. The ball seemed to come towards us as if it were remote controlled. I reached out my stick. I missed. “GOAL!” We all sighed.

We had lost our first game. Time for the next match - Silverstream. I had a great feeling about this. Before you could say “Hockey!” the ball was already across the line. We all smiled with relief. Yes, we had won our second game. Before we knew it, we had won two of three games!

By Emma Deuchrass (Room 3)