Room 14 came up with a range of fun games and activities to entertain kids from the local ECE.

The kids created games to play, stories to tell, and waiata to sing for ECE children.

This day was postponed multiple times due to issues with the weather, but we eventually got a nice day and had some fun in the sun.

Room 13 at Bledisloe School started with a brainstorm about thing we could do in our community and each day we narrowed down our list by looking at the positives and negatives for each option and using a voting decision to decide. Ideas ranged form planting trees to cleaning rubbish and graffiti in our local area.

In the end the students really wanted to do something for the elderly at a local rest home. We were unable to provide afternoon tea as planned due to dietary requirements of the residents but we were allowed to take them flowers but they had to be flowers from their own gardens. We ended up with lots of beautiful blooms which were hugely appreciated by the residents. We walked down to the rest home and sang to the gathered residents. We sang a mix of waiata from our Kapa Haka group (just about the entire class are in this group) and Christmas carols. We were then taken by a resident through the maze of corridors where we sang as we walked. Eventually we returned to the lounge area where each child was given an ice block and were able to interact with the residents and answer any questions they had. Students were thanked for making their day and one of our students thanked them for allowing us to visit and brighten up their day.

There have been many conversations following this visit as many of the children don’t have people of that era in their families. Being part of the Student Volunteer Army has developed a level of empathy and understanding in the students.

Bledisloe School have undertaken two projects as part of the Student Volunteer Army. The class collectively chose to do the events and to raise money for charities.

The class decided to run a toy and book jumble sale to raise money for Ronald McDonald House NZ. It was hugely successful raising around $250!  The second project, which took part during week 2 of term 4, was a sports and games day for years 4-6 to raise money for Breast Cancer Foundation.