Week 7 Term 2

Great to have everyone at school today - the first time for a while.
We remember Casey, Mason and Amelia Knowles and their families in our prayers as they have all lost loved grandparents, great grandparents and great aunts recently. We took time to pray for these people on Friday.
We are asking people not to bring cartons of noodles for lunch that need hot water added, as having to carry these with boiling water from the staffroom is a hazard.  Noodles are fine in a plastic thermos from home where these are already cooked.
This week Mrs Waldron and I will be out of the classroom on Wednesday morning with Mrs Flannery taking our release. Mrs Waldron will be the afternoon teacher as I attend my Reading Recovery In-service retraining course.
On Friday the school will be attending a concert in the church presented by Monica Brown who has written many songs and mass settings for use in primary schools. This will be at 10am. Following a morning tea break where we will host Holy Family School from Wanaka, Rooms 3 & 4 will enjoy some activities with the year 3 & 4 students from Wanaka.
The final day of swimming was really exciting - awesome to watch the final assessments in both pools and then the excitement of the water safety swimming in pyjamas.  We have learned so much - just a shame that many bugs hit the class hard over this time.  Thanks so much to Sue and her team at the pool.

Please check those bedrooms for homework and poetry books. 
As a reading theme this week we are learning about Matariki. Head outside and look in the night sky for this constellation - an indication that the Maori New Year is here.

Homework

1. Reading - record in your log what you are reading.
2. Spelling - over the next 2 weeks our spelling focus is the long "i" spelling patterns. Children should be listening carefully for the sound in their words this week and thinking about the pattern "to learn" for each word. It is great to see many people seeing these patterns within words in texts that we are being read at reading time.  "Great learners make connections" and they are using this knowledge when encountering some unknown words.  Keep this up.
3. Maths - enjoy those great games that Mrs Waldron has sent home. 
4. Poetry eisteddfod - this week we do not have a new poem, but will be reworking many of our poems that we have had this year. We'll be practising reading these with lots of expression. I'm excited to see that some people already have their poems chosen and have them glued into their homework books.  Well done that you are well on the way with your eisteddfod preparation. Class poems are a great choice and I'm happy to copy any so that they are in the homework book.  I hear that some are now up to sorting out extra actions or even dressing up.

Have a great week.  Nice to have a few warmer days to get outside.