School Cross Country - 10 August

St Gerard’s School Cross Country

Wednesday 10^th August

12.00pm – Early Lunch

12.30pm – Leave School and walk together to the course

12.45pm – Walk the Course

Children will walk the course at approximately 12.45pm and races will begin immediately following this. The race order will be as follows.

1.00pm (approximately) Races Begin

Race order as follows (Distances may change if the course needs to altered due to weather conditions/mud):

Year 7  & 8 Boys (2 big laps and 2 short laps)

Year 7 & 8 Girls (2 big laps and 2 short laps)

Year 5 & 6 Boys (2 big laps)

Year 5 & 6 Girls (2 big laps)

Year 1 & 2 Boys (1 short lap)

Year 1 & 2 Girls (1 short lap)

Year 3 & 4 Boys (2 short laps)

Year 3 & 4 Girls (2 short laps)

Years 3 – 8 are eligible for the cups.  Years 5 – 8 are eligible for selection to represent St Gerards at the Central Otago Cross Country on Tuesday 23rd August.

2.30/2.45pm (approximately)

Last race finished, tidy up of area, return to school.

All children need to wear school sports uniform. Children who have a school tracksuit at home need to wear these over top of their sport uniform. They may wear this to school instead of their school uniform. If your child does not have a school tracksuit they may wear appropriate sports gear. Please bring a drink bottle, some extra snacks and lots of warm clothing on this day.

Children will walk back to school with their teachers at the conclusion of the races. If parents wish to take their children home directly from the cross country, please bring a note prior the event.

The track will be the same as last year as long as the conditions are good. The children will be starting and finishing on the Rail Trail just over the Railway Bridge where we started and finished last year. Please park in the car park to your left directly across the Railway Bridge. The school will be congregating and sitting just along from here.

If you are able to help with marshalling please let Mr Yeoman know ASAP.

Library tomorrow -weather permitting

Tomorrow (Friday) we will be walking to the Public Library for our first session this term, weather permitting...

At this point we have one grandparent to walk with us, if anyone else is available please let me know, as we require two extra adults.

Those children that have high vis vest must bring them please.  And if all children can have a jacket also.

Thanks Adele

Rooms 3 & 4 Camp

Dates: Wednesday 7th September - Friday 9th September

Wednesday:
Leave school 8:30am
Moana Pool & water slide
Set up bunks at Dunedin Holiday Park
Dunedin Art Gallery with John the specialist art teacher 3 - 5 pm
Dinner
Sand dunes/beach or indoor activities if adverse weather

Thursday:
Travel to Otakou marae on the Otago Peninsula - powhiri (welcome onto marae  10am)
Programme run on the marae, still to confirm exactly what but we have asked for weaving & maori arts
We are pleased that Doug who was our sponsor on the marae last time will take care of us again.  His bedtime stories were fantastic - think they put Markelle and I to sleep before some of the happy campers!

Friday:
Otago Museum 10am - "Sustainable New Zealand"
Lunch
Leave Dunedin 1pm
Home


The confirmed programme with full information will come home on Monday, prior to the Parent Consultation Meeting next Thursday 4th August - 7pm in Room 4.

Any questions, please don't hesitate to email me.

Week 1 Term 3

From the chatter today I gather that everyone has had a very enjoyable holiday, with birthdays, visits to grandparents, Mary Poppins, swimming and ice skating to name a few. My holiday was fairly busy as "Granny" with my daughter and her 3 boys home - the youngest being 6 month old twins - super to have them here, but great to get a night's sleep before school starts.

Although this term is only 9 weeks, it is packed full.

Some dates for your calendars:
Thursday 28th July - Blossom Festival Float Meeting 3pm in Room 2. We need plenty of support please. Let Julie know if you are interested in helping but can't attend.
Monday and Tuesday next week Ice Skating catch up days. Monday 10 -11am, Tuesday 9 - 10 am, the bus will leave from school at 8:55am, so we will need extra hands to get skates on quickly. Please note the change of time for Tuesday.
Wednesday 10th August: school cross country pm. We need parents, grandparents or friends of the school to assist as marshals along the course please.  Without this support we are unable to run this event in the environment beside the Rail Trail. Please let me know if you are available to assist.
Saturday 13th August: Parish Family Mass - meal at 5pm, mass at 6pm
Sunday 28th August: School Mass 9am
Wednesday 7th - Friday 9th September: Years 3 & 4 camp in Dunedin. Staying at Tahuna Park Chalet Wednesday night, then arriving 10am on Thursday for the marae experience at Otakou, down the Otago Peninsula. Our learning this term will be preparation for this visit, understanding marae protocol, preparing for and participating in a powhiri (welcome onto the marae), and being able to confidently introduce ourselves in te reo, by knowing our mihimihi.
Monday 12th September: School Photos
Friday 16th September: Rooms 3 & 4 assembly - camp sharing
Monday 19th September: Singing Eisteddfods

School Uniform:
As we will be focusing on getting fit "Going For Gold" as we train for the school cross country, sports uniforms are to be worn to school each day.  This means green track pants and runners.  Boys if you are choosing to wear the ordinary uniform, then you need to wear school shoes and bring runners to change in to.  The cross country is the perfect event to put into practice the term's school value of commitment.

Homework

1. Reading: complete your reading log. Sunshine-on-line is there to use. This term we will be using the "Reading Box" from the Education Centre. The test to level children was completed today, and once we have all learned how to independently use this, we will use these texts as part of our reading programme  The exciting thing about this resource is that each card is of a different text type, so everyone is being exposed to a wide variety of genre to practise their reading skills on - something that is required as we move from 'learning to read' to 'reading to learn'. Feel free to pop in and have your child explain how this resource works. Instructional reading groups will still be part of the programme, but not on a daily basis for all groups. It was great to see that the class was excited to see this resource, as they remembered having a similar box last year.
2. Spelling: long 'o' - this was the list from the last week of term 2 - please use this again as we did not have time to test or complete the follow up class work with week 10 being so busy, and eisteddfods taking so long to hear.
3. Cross Country Training: make time to have at least one run during the week.  Meet a friend and run the school field. Remember that the hill by the playground is great to practise running up hill.
4. Maths: check out what Mrs Waldron has set on Study Ladder.  There are also maths texts in Sunshine-on-line

Whew - there really is lots of learning to happen this term. We need to support each other and practise commitment to do the best we can. 

Remember to email or pop in if you have any worries.

Term 3 Library Dates & MP Timetable

Wow, can't believe it is Term 3 already!

The children brought home a note today with this terms Morning Programme timetable and the dates for our Public Library visits. In case it hasn't made it home, here it is:

25th July 2016

Hi All

Welcome back to term 3.  I hope everybody has had an enjoyable break and is ready to start the second half of the year.

We will have our first Public Library visit this Friday the 29^th of July and they will be fortnightly there after (12^th August, 26^th August and 23^rd September), weather etc permitting.  We will not be going in week 7 as we will be in Dunedin for camp.  If you are available any of these dates to walk down with us, please let me know or send me an email: adelewaldron@stgerards.school.nz

Our Morning Programme will operate on the even weeks.  The timetable is below, each child will only be once this term as it is only a 9 week term.

Morning Programme Timetable  - Term 3

Date	5th August	19th August	2nd September	Date	16th September
Topic	Group 2	Group 3	Group 4	Topic	Group 1
Our Place	Dusty	Amelia F	Amelia K	Current Events	Greer
Current Events	Payton	Lily M	Charlotte O	Famous Person	Casey
Famous Person	Alia	Archie	Jack O	About Me	Otis
About Me	Quinn	David	Hayvin	Book Review	Adam
Book Review	Jelena	Lars	Mason	How to…	Charlotte K
How to…	Jack S		Sophie	Our Place

Friday Mufti Mania

Mufti Mania is a mufti day which is run in all catholic schools in New Zealand on the last day of term 2.  Children are asked for a gold coin donation which goes to Caritas which in turn sends all the funds raised to a catholic school in need.  This year the funds are going to St John Bosco Nila Primary School in the Solomon Islands.
This school is from the Shortlands in the Western Province of Gizo.  Is this anywhere near where your family comes from, Charlotte?

Remember House colours for Rippa and a donation for the Solomon Islands school.
Seeing some great skills at the house practices today.

Sports Uniform For Wednesday

Girls please wear sports uniform tomorrow as there will be Rippa again.  Boys make sure that you have runners for this - a bit difficult for some today in snow boots and gumboots!

Eisteddfod Assembly Performers

What a wide variety of poems Mrs Ward and I have heard over the last 2 days. So many people were deserving of a place at the eisteddfod assembly - great preparation and super choices for the Room 3 & 4 audience.  Humour was a common theme.  Well done everyone and thank you so much for the help at home to polish these and help put some actions in to add to the performance.  A few people still need to work on really learning the poem off by heart - something to consider for next year.  Assessment sheets are in homework books.

Performers for Year 3 & 4: Grace Brydges, Tadhg Reilly, Lars Shea, Alia Ryan, Archie Reid and Jelena Morrell.

Keep working on having eye contact with your audience, speaking slowly and clearly, and giving your introduction.  Good Luck!!

Next term's eisteddfod is "Singing".  Note the change from past years as we will be working on the production next term.

Okay so just some photos...

 

Skating July 5th

A lovely day on the ice today, with the confidence and the skills growing.

Thanks heaps to those parents that have helped with getting boots on and off.  No easy feat!

Poetry Eisteddfod Marking

Year 3 & 4 Poetry Eisteddfod

WALTs:

·      Present a poem to an audience

·      Use a clear voice

·      Listen attentively to the presentations

·      Talk about the presentations and help choose our assembly presenters

Marks	What I could do ….
Introduction  5	Say the name of your poem Say the name of the poet Say why you chose the poem
Presentation 10	Say your poem with expression Use the full stops, commas, speech marks and other punctuation Make eye contact with the audience Keep your head up Try not to rush Look like you are enjoying sharing your favourite poem
Preparation    5	Know your poem off by heart Speak slowly Choose a poem that the Room 3 audience will like
Voice              5	Use a loud voice so that we can all hear Keep your head up so that your voice projects Speak slowly Use expression