Week 8 Term 4

What a great time we had at camp last week and the weather held beautifully for us.  Thank you so much to everyone for your help - "many hands makes light work" was certainly the case over the last 2 days of week 7. There are a couple of photos on the room 1 & 2 blog.
Eisteddfod Song: most people have thought about what they will sing for the eisteddfod next week.  It's perfect to sing something that we have done as a class - I think there will be quite a few Maori songs - everyone seems to have really enjoyed these.  Yesterday they sang them to Father Vaughan Hook who was visiting the school while Father Pat was away fishing.  He brought his guitar along and we all enjoyed a great sing-song with him.  Father Vaughan couldn't believe the confidence and musicality in Room 3.  Eisteddfods will be marked on singing in tune, choosing a song that suits the child's voice, people being able to hear the words clearly and the song being suitable for the age group.  A nursery rhyme is fine. If  anything is known about the person who wrote the song, it would be interesting to introduce the song - this is not a requirement for the year 2 song. I will post what the year 3 & 4 requirement is in regards to this.
Musical Instruments: there are still some amazing inventions in Room 3, please arrange to collect these before the end of next week. Any that are still in the classroom after this time, I will presume are not to be taken home.
Popcorn Maker: I still have one popcorn maker & have asked as many people as possible if it is theirs.  I should have written down who I borrowed them from.  Sorry.
Library Books: it is time again to check under the bed or in your bookshelves for any school library books. We will be going to the library on Friday to change books - this will be the last time for the year, as I then need to get all books back for the stocktake.
Assembly: 2:10 on Friday - Room 4 will be leading this and they have lots of camp stuff to share.  Seems so long ago this camp, but this is the first opportunity they have had to share.  Thank you to the Year 3 parents who provided photos for Mrs Ward's i-movie.
Advent: is the RE theme.  We have been talking about Advent meaning "coming" and that we are waiting for Jesus coming at Christmas. We are colouring advent wreaths with 3 purple, 1 rose and 1 white candle, and have talked about what each of the candles means. We are displaying these in our window for everyone to enjoy as a reminder of what this season is about.
Plastic Lemonade Bottles: I would like to collect as many of these as I can - the green sprite ones are excellent.  We will use these as part of our Christmas crafts to make Christmas baskets and a toy - no waste at all. All you'll need to get is a ball.
Old Christmas paper or cards (recycled) would also be appreciated.  Having checked my "stuff" in my cupboard I see that I was more ruthless than I thought when throwing "could be useful" stuff out before I shifted classrooms.  You can usually find most things in Mrs Beilby's storeroom!!
Year 2 Camp Payments $10: Mrs Bennie would like to tidy up lots of ledgers this week - she would be grateful if all this money could be in to the office. If anyone has a problem please speak with me.
Friday 12th December 12:00: Room 3 will be leading mass, we would love you to join us.
Year 3 & 4 Cricket: practice on Thursday this week and the Saturday game is at St Gerards.
PTA Christmas Hamper: our Room 3 box of packet items is looking good - thank you everyone for supporting this. Could all cards please be back to the office by Friday, even if you have not sold all the numbers. At this time of year PTA members are busy like everyone else and having to ring round to get cards back can be just one more job. Thank you for attending to this.

Homework

1. Spelling: a mixture of words this week revising spelling patterns.
2. Reading: please record what you are reading in your reading log.  Many people this week are working on presenting reviews about a book on an i-pad app, so they do not have a new book each night. I do expect that they are reading a book of their choice.
3. Maths: we are working on knowing our doubles to 10, doubles to 20 and using this knowledge to solve word problems.  Eg: If there were 9 dogs in the kennels and a farmer brought 8 more to be looked after, how many dogs would there be at the kennels altogether?   Which doubles fact would you use to solve this. There are 2 options: 9+9=18 then take away 1, or 8+8=16 then add 1.