"If you know the art of breathing, you have the strength, wisdom and courage of ten tigers." ~ Chinese Adage

On Monday, Carmen (a school based mental health nurse) came to talk to each class about mental health. That means how to look after our thoughts and feelings - our well being. She teaches people skills so they don't get unwell. They use these skills to keep their minds healthy and well. 

We explored lots of different 'feeling' words: afraid, tired, angry, jealous, stressed, hurt, scared, uncomfortable, comfortable, happy, sad, anxious, frustrated, petrified, worried, excited, proud, disgusted and distressed...to name a few!

Carmen was here to teach us a skill that helps us with these three feelings: worried, angry and scared.

When we feel these things, our body goes into: Flight, Fight or Freeze. That means our muscles get tense, our breathing gets quick, we do things without thinking, our heart beats faster, our stomach cramps up and we get a bit of an adrenaline rush. 

Carmen taught us how to breathe properly. We took slow, quiet breaths. We took about 10 breaths. This relaxed our bodies. You have to breath in through the nose and out through the mouth. 

It's important to practise breathing like this when we are calm, so when we are not thinking clearly then it becomes automatic and we know how to do it. 

Rimu Class thought a good time to practise would be while reading a book, sitting in the car, watching TV, before going to sleep at night or waking up in the morning.

                                                                                                     By Ariana, Year 6. 

Superb, descriptive writing of our Rock Climbing adventure...By Nikita, Year 8!

When writing this recount, we were asked to focus on one thing: Starting our sentences in an interesting way, like using time connectives or more advanced openers that leads to more descriptive writing. 

How do you think I went?

William Pike Challenge; Rock Climbing Recount

At the age of 22, William Pike; a mountaineer climber, lost his leg on Mt Ruapehu due to a volcano erupting without warning. As a result he had trouble doing many things, and during that time he lost his confidence.

The William Pike Challenge is a program set up for year 7-9 kids that promotes love for the outdoors, and build qualities that will help them to succeed in whatever they may do.

To complete the William Pike Challenge you must do 20 hours of Community Service, 20 Hours of a chosen Hobby, and the minimum of 6 Outdoor Activities that your school organises, over the period of year.

Definitely a challenge!

My class has completed our 2nd outdoor activity, where we spent the whole Monday, the 20th of June, rock climbing at Cattlestop Crag, at the top of Mt Pleasant Rd in the Port Hills of Christchurch.

Arriving at the top of the hill, we were all exposed to the harsh cold wind, and very soon all of our jackets came out of our bags.  

After our instructors Josh and Steve introduced themselves, we made our way in a single file line down the very narrow, and difficult mountain path track, past the abseiling rock and to the spot where we would climb for the day.

Here we were sheltered from the wind, and Josh talked to us about some safety rules before we could start.

Soon we settled down, and after we got into our very uncomfortable harnesses, Steve chose 5 people to go all the way back to the abseiling rock (me… lol) to begin that activity.

The abseiling was definitely challenging for most people,  and really tested our courage and resilience to go all the way down.

These qualities are ones that you build whilst doing the William Pike Challenge, and will help us to face life with pride and ambition.

Anyway, abseiling is basically what you do when you come down from climbing up the rock, except this rock we didn’t climb up, but instead we were abseiling down over a vertical edge, not straight down like you would on the other ones.

I was the last to abseil, and the reality of going over a vertical edge which overlooks a massive slope down one of the Port hills in Christchurch, hit me when I realised that it was now my turn.

I definitely didn't want to show my concern! And the pressure was on because everyone was now at the bottom, but I managed to succeed and conquered the abseiling rock! At the end I was proud, another quality that was built up during that activity.

With much caution we made it back to the rock climbing walls where people were already going up.

It was great fun to watch and cheer them on, but it was more fun when it was your turn, and you had to scour the face of the rock to find hidden ledges and holes to use to pull yourself up with!

I made it my goal without realizing, to reach the top of all the faces that I started to climb; I managed to accomplish that goal, and successfully touched all the metal brackets where the top of the rope was attached to.

At the end of the day I felt satisfied, tired, and also extremely sore! All in all I am glad that I was able to learn and experience more of the qualities like courage, resilience, and pride during this William Pike Challenge Outdoor Activity!

William Pike Outdoor Challenge #2!

Yesterday's focus was on Resilience and Pride. 

How did you show these values rock climbing at Cattlestop Crag yesterday? 

What challenges did you overcome? 

How will this transfer to your everyday lives?

Rimu 40 Hour Famine sleepover in our classroom - $1200 approx raised!

Jesse & Violet are due back from the States! Ian & Bree are due back from Bali! Rimu Class are so excited!!

Rimu Students at National Young Leader's Day!

Isaac has written this fantastic recount of the day - he came to school buzzing about it and promptly sat down to write...enjoy!

On Tuesday Paige, Jack, Emily, Katie, Tim, Gus and I went to N.Y.L.D (National Young Leaders Day). It was at Horncastle arena. It was all about inspiring speakers. There were five speakers and the first one was my favourite because he was so funny. 

His name was Billy Graham. I think he was all about being different and still being better than everyone else. He said "Listening is key" and "Hard work works". 

The next speaker was James Beck. I think he was all about keeping a good attitude and staying a good person. He was talking lots about character and how your character is going. His quotes were "You don't get to choose what happens to you but you do get to choose your ATTITUDE". 

The next speaker was Brylee mills - she was amazing. She was 6 years old when she was going camping and she said she was five minutes away and she could not wait. Suddenly the van hit some gravel spun off track and tipped. The van fell on her. Her arm was badly injured and local farmers and people going by saw the accident and lifted the van to get her out. Her arm was amputated. She was in hospital and all she said to her parents were " Will I still get a job one day?". She is a dancer with one arm. She said,"Dancing is symmetrical I'm not". Also she said "Life's not meant to be lived alone". 

The next speaker was Emily Muli. She was a singer and she was good. She was talking about the 40 hour famine https://www.worldvision.org.nz/40-hour-famine. She went 40 hours without eating. Her quote was "Stand up for things you believe in". The next speaker was Marina Alefosio. She was a poet. Her poems were so good and inspiring. She asked us to say this "I am courageous audacious vivacious. I am a leader, a believer, a dreamer. I am I will I can". I think that is so cool. 

The next speaker was Johnny. He was a musician and taught music in buses and classes. He had to save money to get all of this and work extremely hard. With enough hard work he managed to pull off being a music teacher. He said it went from just him in the staff to over 35 people. That is cool. His quotes were "Learn how to work hard.". "Everyone has the potential".. "Don't compare yourself to others".. "Save your money". 

At the end of the day James Baxter who is the singer songwriter of the band Avalanche City. There most popular song It either Love Love Love or Inside out. I have never heard a professional singer sing live, It was an amazing atmosphere. Everybody joined in on the singing and waved their phone lights in the crowd, it looked so cool. The NYLD was so cool - I really want to go again next year.

By Isaac

Vamos a aprender espānol! (Let's learn Spanish!)

This year Bella and I have taken up the challenge to learn a widely spoken language; Spanish. I have learned most of the basic greetings and some general words and phrases through the online correspondence school called Te Kura. 

This program has 8 modules and each have 8 lessons and one workbook with exercises to accompany it. 

The course takes a lot of practice and time to learn a language, so sometimes our patience gets tested but we enjoy it all the same.

It is really fun share a few words that we had recently learned with each other because no one knows what we are saying! 

A student teacher in the Junior class called Miss Woods speaks fluent Spanish because she lived in Argentina for a few years, so she gives up her time at break to help us with some sounds and to understand more about the culture of people who come from countries that speak Spanish. 

Here is a video of Miss Woods, Bella and I practicing some greetings: 

I certainly recommend learning a language and to give it a go, you will definitely enjoy it! 
              By Nikita