Hamilton’s Aberdeen School making friends in Whangaparaoa

Three students from Aberdeen School in Hamilton have the challenge licked and are the envy of their room 25 classmates.

The class was responding to a question from their buddy classroom at Stanmore Bay School in Whangaparaoa Peninsula: who could reach their own elbows with their tongue?

“They spent the whole day trying to lick their elbows and by the end of it, surprisingly three of them could,” teacher Houng Vu said jokingly.

Vu recently got her students from room 25 involved in the Get NZ Writing programme and “they absolutely loved it”.

The Get NZ Writing programme is a Warehouse Stationery initiative, and have partnered with School Kit to run a pen-pal like programme in both English and Te Reo Māori, connecting classrooms from around the country.

Vu and her students got involved with the programme’s activities, such as sending postcards with questions and facts about their school and community to their buddy classroom from Stanmore Bay.

Another activity the pupils of room 25 did was cut out words from magazines and construct phrases that resonated with them, such as “Say yes to the Chocolate”, and “Don’t cage yourself, live like a champion”.

Vu said the programme has benefited her students by making them excited to read and write, while gaining a better understanding of how other kids live.

“I think it’s opened their eyes to the possibility of communicating with people outside of being online these days, and the excitement of getting the package from the other school was pretty awesome.”

She also said she would be keen to get future students involved in the programme for years to come.

“I’ll definitely sign up again because the programme is tailored perfectly in knowing what would be awesome for classrooms.”