Room 4 News: July 2012

Olympic Cauldron

What was the meaning behind the design of the Olympic Cauldron?

What was different about the lighting of the cauldron to the way it is usually done?

Who normally lights the cauldron?

The London Olympic cauldron is an elaborate creation involving 204 moving pieces, each representing the coming together of the competing countries.

Petal-shaped heat elements made from hammered copper were created for each country and then carried into the stadium by children during the parade of countries.

Normally, one person significant to the host country does the honor. This time, with the unique design, seven youngsters held torches to light it simultaneously, something no one could have predicted.

Unlike other recent Olympic host cities, which traditionally have displayed the flame atop the main stadium, the London cauldron will remain inside the stadium in keeping with the 1948 London Olympic games.

From the time the torch was placed on the first petal, it took 45 seconds for each copper element to ignite, prompting the cauldron to rise from the ground, ultimately drawing each of the petals together at a height of about 28 feet.

What's you opinion about how this was done?

Morning Talks

Room 4 Hall of Fame

Here are some of the things people have done for our morning talks this week.

Kate brought a photo book about a trip she made to Auckland. She reported

the things she did while she was there.

Sarah brought her cello. She explained how it worked and played for us!!!

Gracie brought her little sister and some photos. She told us stories about her sister.

Angus made ginger beer. He explained how yeast puts the gas in the ginger beer. He brought cups to share the beer with us. Thank you Angus.

Jessica brought a favourite toy from her sixth birthday and some felted fabric that she had made. She explained how the fabric was made.

Ellie did this water colour of a bird.

She explained the steps she went through to create the picture. I think she's got real talent.

Tayler showed us a papyrus from Egypt that her dad bought on his travels. She explained how the papyrus was made.

Mr. Harrison brought this old police whistle. He told us a story about how it belonged to his granddad.

Cormac brought two 100 year old old books to show us. He explained how old they were. He got Mr. Harrison to read some of the first page to show us how strange the words were. It was english but very hard to understand.

Yea Rin had a special rock that she had picked up from a walk she did near the bottom of Mt Cook. I think she wants to climb it!

The Marathon

The marathon is a long distance running race that is usually the last event of the whole Olympics.

The marathon covers a distance of 26 miles or 42 kilometers. The name for this race comes from a place in Greece called Marathon and a story about a soldier who ran the marathon distance to bring news of a great battle victory. The soldier died shortly after he completed this great run.

The marathon race was never part of the Ancient Olympics.

Incredible RecordsIn 1908 the record for the marathon was

2:55:18.4 (hours, minutes, seconds, tenths of a second)

held byJohnny Hayes

Today the best time for a marathon is 2:03:38. This record is held by Patrick Makau from Kenya.

42 km = 42,000 meters
He is running at 5 meters per second
He would do our school cross country in 4:42
This year the fastest time in the school was done by Isaac Malthus 6:26