Week 3 Term 1

Great to see some people at the Duathlon today & also photos of others at "Take A kid Fishing".  A stunning day for these family events. Super to meet so many parents at the Meet the Teacher night on Wednesday.  The information given out on the night will be put in reading bags for those who missed out.
School Mass - Sunday 19th: This is the opening mass and it is a time to welcome new families and announce the school leaders from Room 6. We Belong to the Parish and this is our 'it's good to be back get together' - please prioritise this as we celebrate the Eucharist together.
Well done to all those people who have begun the reading challenge for 2017. I check logs each Friday when all homework books are handed in.  I see that there is a place to record weekend reading - even though I have signed your page off, if you read at the weekend please record this to help you gain your 100 days of reading. Thank you to those parents who have already written such positive comments in these books. I do like each child to have a reading bag please.  This just keeps everything together and books safely away from leaking drink bottles.  As a school we have spent several thousand dollars on upgrading the junior readers, so we want to take responsibility for looking after them.
The Room 3 process on a Monday morning is to bring the reading bag in with the poetry book.  Find the new poem for the week and glue it in before school.  Then put the poetry book in the poetry box. Reading bags go in the red box ready to grab at reading time.
Brain Food: this is to be a piece of fruit or vegetable that is unprocessed please.  We live in a fruit bowl where fruit is generally freely available. We eat about 10:40, so I have been asking those with bars etc for brain food to wait until playtime to eat these.
St Gerards Permission Form: could you please make sure that these are all returned to the office.  I have been asked about BYOD in Room 3 and said 'no'.  I have discussed this with Mrs Flannery who is the teacher in charge of ICT and she agrees with this. We have 3 computers and 2 i-pads to use as well as the access to the COW (computers on wheels) that comes to the room when Mrs Flannery teaches ICT.
Kapahaka starts on Monday with Ms Tamati.  It's wonderful to see an enthusiastic bunch of year 3s joining up, as we lost such a great Year 8 bunch last year.  I remember them in the group as year 4's though!! If your child is in the group, the first big event will be performing at the Ururwhenua Kapahaka Festival at Molyneux Park on Sunday 9th April.
Spelling: This week we are tooling our spelling lists in our Reading/Spelling books in preparation for bringing spelling home as homework. Next week a practice list will come home. All children should be totally independent with their spelling. I will explain more about spelling next week.  It is not about learning the words by rote, but about perfecting the process of hearing and recording the sounds in order, then checking that it looks right. Anyone who wants to pop in and talk about how this works is welcome. I have completed the testing to level each child so after the practice sheet home, each child will bring home their "level' sheet.
Study Ladder: great to see some people have already accessed this site from home as well as from school.

Homework

1. Reading - every night please.  Browse boxes are well topped up now, and grouping readjusted. Just getting "Sunshine-on-line" sorted. User name & password will be in homework books this week.
2. Swimming - togs Tuesday and Thursday - thank you for the help at the pool - really appreciated.
3. Triathlon - coming up on 7th March - now is the time to get out on your bikes.

Looking forward to another busy week of learning.