Thursday 30 March 2017

Ice-cream Machines

Very busy morning this morning in Room 3.






Kapahaka Festival Sunday 9th April

Kapahaka Festival
Sunday 9th April 2017. 1:00-3:30pm.

Our group is looking and sounding absolutely fabulous. Well done everyone on a great start to the year. It’s a real team effort, and thank you to the Kapahaka leaders who have helped so much with the group and helping newcomers learn actions and words. We also need to thank Mrs Maria Williams who is about to sort the dresses.

On Sunday 9th please arrive at 12:35pm and look for Mrs Beilby and Mr Yeoman and our Kapa Haka leaders. Please bring school sunhat, a drink and a school PE shirt to put on over your costumes as sun protection.  We are performing 9th on the programme, after Maniototo school.

Dress:
-Girls in dresses provided, white knickers and hair tied in ½ pony tails so that hair is out, but off the face – please clip back any straggly pieces (Ms Tamati’s request).  No jewellery or brightly coloured hair ties. Mrs Williams would like to see the dresses ironed so that we all look really smart. We will be performing in bare feet.
-Boys black shorts with black tee-shirts.  Thomas, we will have your sash.

Girls dresses need to be returned to the big bin in Room 3 by Tuesday 11th April – please make sure that your name is still on the bag and that the safety pins for the straps are attached.

Please cut off and return the slip below to confirm your child’s attendance, or confirm asap via email




Thanks. Mrs Beilby and Mr Yeoman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------



My child/children _______________________ will attend the Central Otago Kapa Haka festival  on Sunday 9th April.

Monday 27 March 2017

Week 9 Term 1

Wow, where has the term gone?
Room 6 will be leading the Wednesday mass this week - please join the school in the church at 9am.
Most of us have completed our family kowhaiwhai art work and it is on the wall. We shared this work  at assembly on Friday, and some people explained the parts of their designs.
Today it was exciting to have a few people share their KWL research about their families.  We will take time each day this week to listen to each person's findings.  I learned today that lots of people in my room are related to each other as 2nd or 3rd cousins. "We Are Family" has a whole new meaning.
Next Monday we are moving on to looking at our Manuherikia River, and Room 6 are going to take us to see what they are doing with monitoring the health of our local river. This is part of our inquiry "Belonging" - we belong to the Alexanrda community and need to take care of community assets.  This river is a real asset to us as long as it is healthy. Please wear clothes suitable for fossicking along the river bank and also in the water. Clothing needs to be warm and a pair of gumboots needs to be worn.
To allow us to take part in this EOTC (Education Outside the Classroom) learning activity I need 3 or 4 parents available to come with us.  Please email me if you are able to help. We will leave the school after 10:30 - I will post the exact time once this is confirmed with Room 6 and some special helpers.
I will be at Reading  Recovery Training on Wednesday afternoon and Ms Bennett will be with the class.  On Thursday and Friday mornings Ms Bennett will be at a training course so Mrs Eastwood will be the teacher.  I know she will really enjoy the Morning Programme on Friday.
Friday sees us finally make our ice cream machines (after we have tested our spelling and tooled our new lists). Make sure that you bring what is on your list.  I have some 'junk' in the back cupboard, but not enough for a whole class.  I love making days!! These creations will come home on Friday afternoon.
Looking ahead: Friday 7th = Teacher's Only Day. teachers will also be working on Saturday 8th.
Sunday 9th = Uruuruwhenua Kapahaka Festival at Molyneux Park

Homework
  1. Reading: Wow many people have read more than 25 nights.  The more you read, the more you know and the better you write. We look carefully at how authors use language to make their writing come alive, and some people are using 'wow words' that we find in our reading to make our writing even more impressive. Don't forget that reading books with inspiring language to children, is of real benefit to young readers and writers.
  2. Spelling: keep working on listening to the order of the sounds in the words you are practising. Lots of people scored 5/5 or 8/8 last week.  Well done. Some people also work with Loretta on their tooling and spelling.  Please note that this is not instead of practising spelling at home, but to help then gain confidence and be independent at the task.
  3. Scripture Reading Eisteddfod: a hard copy of the blog information is in homework books.  Please complete the part at the bottom of the sheet so that I know you have chosen your reading.  If nothing is written there at the end of the week I will help people choose and send something home to be worked on.  Please ask if you need assistance.  Being prepared early is the key.    
Have a great week. We have really stepped up with our organisation and considerate work habits.  Way to go, Room 3.

Wednesday 22 March 2017

St Patrick's Day Celebration

What a great celebration we had in Rooms 3 & 4.  A few photos that record the outfits, the food and the orienteering "leprechaun treasure hunt".
Room 4 cooked up hot pots with food grown in the school garden, Mrs Ward's old garden over the road and my garden.  What fantastic corn Mrs Ward grew.  Thank you to everyone who provided such yummy green food for the day.

 Great to be learning with our Year 4 friends



 Look at all that beautiful green food - not a veggie to be seen in this pic! What perfect green tables Room 4.

 This corn is absolutely delicious - thank you Mrs Ward.
 Now, where are we on this map?  How many shamrocks have we found?
Righto - we have all 12 words. Now what is the leprechaun's message? Where do we find this pot of gold?

Week 8 Term 1

Coming up for breath after a very busy start to this week.  It has been fantastic to meet with parents and students to set goals for the first part of the year and to address any concerns. Thank you for the positive comments about how the blog keeps you informed - not so this week though! I wonder what time it will say this was written.
We had an amazing celebration last Friday - thank you for the wonderful food.  Check out the photos on a separate post.
Wednesday lunchtimes Mr Dyson is taking miniball skills on the school courts at 1pm.  This year we can include Year 4 people in the Year 4-6 grade. Year 4's - if you want to try this game, go and join the fun. The competition games are held each Friday night at the Molyneux Stadium starting at 3:30. The first competition night is Friday 19th May.
Fantastic sentences: I will continue to add a sentence from each child to the post started earlier today - keep checking this out.  It is exciting to see how we are all thinking about how we can use "wow words" to describe, and some people are becoming more independent at using the writing WALTs.
Assembly: 2:10 in the hall. Several classes will share in this with Room 5 as the organisers. We will share some of our art and writing - if we get 2 spots in the proceedings. Our Kowhaiwhai patterns to represent our families are looking stunning - too good for placemats I think.

Homework
  1. Reading: remember your log.  Lots of excited people reaching their 25 nights.
  2. Spelling: tool, listen and record your words each night. Test Friday.
  3. Inquiry: finding out about our families. Using a KWL to organise our questions and what we have found out. Thank you for helping with the writing.  This task may take several weeks - we will share as we each complete this
  4. Eisteddfod: the information about this is posted separately.  Remember to ask Ms Bennett or myself if you need help to choose your story/reading. Don't leave this till the last minute.
  5. Reading Eggs: the free sample will end this week. I know some people have enjoyed using this site.

Swimming Sports Photos

I have been clearing out some photos from the i-pads.  Thought we might save them on the blog.

Thank you parents for the amazing colourful costumes for the swimming sports.

Kiwi I am so sorry that there was not a close up photo of us! You all looked fabulous too!




How To Make Candyfloss

Yum, yum, Tamai and Mum
A great "How to" for Morning Programme.

Tuesday 21 March 2017

Fantastic Room 3 Sentences

WALT: Use interesting sentence starts,

Clicketty clack, tumble and tap went the leprechaun's stash of gold as he digs it up. Amelia

Clicketty clack went the hammer of the leprechaun as he made two little wooden, pointed, belled shoes. Lily

Tippetty tap, tippetty tap went the leprechaun going across the stony path. Savanah

Clicketty clack went the leprechaun's shoes on the stony path. Ted

Crash bang went the leprechaun as he tripped over a hard rock, he was bursting with tears. Splish splash went the leprechaun as he stepped into the gigantic puddles. Eden

Slippery slide went the leprechaun on the frosty path and clicketty clack went his shoes.  Tara

Jingle jangle, the leprechaun had a sandal and a candle. Charlotte K

Clicketty clack went the leprechaun with his rickety axe. Taine

Tip tip the leprechaun, going along the path. Trottle trottle getting his gold and no-one sees him. Bella  B

Slippery slide as the leprechaun slides on the icy grass. Jedi

Clicketty clack went the leprechaun with his rickety axe. Tippetty tap went the leprechaun across the stony path to get to the gold. Jada

Sniffle snuffle went the leprechaun in the bushes. Click clack went the leprechaun making his gold.  Jack

Slippery slip went the leprechaun as he slipped on the slimy, slithering snail's path. Charlotte O

Clicketty clack went the leprechaun walking down Leprechaun Town on the footpath.  Findlay

Tippetty tip went the leprechaun as he stumbled across the grassy track to get to the shining gold. Slippery slip went the leprechaun as he tumbled down, he slipped and landed in a prickly bush. Liam

The little leprechaun went klititty klat, klititty flat  along the metal road, then he sloshed through the bushes with his pointy red shoes with bells on. Pippa


Monday 20 March 2017

Scripture Reading Information

Scripture Reading Challenge 2017


  • Your scripture reading can be anything you like, eg. a parable, a psalm, a reading from the Gospels.

  • Introduction: Years 3/4: 15-20 seconds. This is a time to use the main ideas or theme of their scripture reading to make up a small speech explaining what the reading means to them, without retelling the reading – ie. ‘What the story of the Last Supper tells/demonstrates/means to me is ...... ‘

  • The Reading:  for Year 3 & 4 should be 1 – 1.5 minutes long, it will just be some verses of the Scripture.

  • Format for scripture reading on the day: Students will start with their introduction, then  say “This is a reading from eg. Matthew Chapter3, Verses 1 -14 ...” then start the reading. At the end, if it is a gospel reading only say, “The Gospel of the Lord” otherwise they say “The Word of the Lord”.

  • Timetable: Monday  10th or Tuesday  11th April, class Eisteddfods will be heard,
-       Eisteddfod assembly will be on Thursday 13th April in the church, names will be in the school newsletter.

  • For students to remember:
-       When reading from the Bible you do not have to look up at your audience all the time
-       Use good expression when you read.
-       Do not read too fast.
-       Pause correctly.
-       You do not have to learn you reading off by heart but you should learn your introduction.

-       Make sure your words and voice are very clear, so that your audience understands.

Wednesday 15 March 2017

My Family - Individual Inquiry

Very exciting today to have our new TV set up and working. Such a fantastic tool for the classroom.

Today we learned about how to use a graphic organiser called a KWL sheet, that helps us to lay out what we Know, what we Want to find out and what we have Learned.

The class sheet that we worked on together is here below.  We brainstormed what we know, and some of us had time to have our questions recorded.



For homework,  (and this can take as long as it takes to find answers), each child will have a blank KWL sheet in their homework book.
In this they record what they know about their families already, and choose 2 or 3 questions to find out some more.  In our discussion today, we can see some people have already been talking to family members and have exciting information to share.  Interesting to see that links to the World Wars have been made by a couple of people - this information will make Anzac Day even more special for them. I do not expect the children to do all the writing on this sheet. If you would like to have an electronic copy of what will be in the homework book I am more than happy to send this to you.  I will send this home in homework books tomorrow as I guess some people will be making the most of the long weekend and will be hanging out with their wider family.  There is no expectation to do homework at the weekend!!!!!  Just would be a nuisance if you have the relatives to talk to at the weekend and I sent this home on Tuesday.


We are a very multicultural class as I see with the What I Know column on the class sheet. I will be excited to encourage each child with links to other cultures to share this at the Cultural Assembly this year.  I think this will be in term 3 when we come together to celebrate all the cultures in our school.

Looking forward to some exciting discoveries about our families.  I just received a special sheet about my grandfather that has been included in a book in Green Island, Dunedin. The exact information about his participation in WW1 is here.  It was not a subject that was okay to talk about at home when I was a child, so it is special to have the facts.  He died when he was 59 (had been wounded) and I was only 11 months old.

Year 3 & 4 Netball

Last week there was a notice in the school newsletter asking for names of those interested in playing netball this year. If your daughter wants to play please email me chrisbeilby@stgerards.school.nz so that we can begin to sort teams for the term 2 competition. Thank you Kate for offering to help with coaching of a team. Maria Tait has offered to manage a team, but ideally there will be more interest in assisting with netball as I envisage that we will field more than 1 team in the Year 3 & 4 grade.
Feels funny to be promoting netball when I am a hockey player/coach/manager through and through!!

Monday 13 March 2017

Week 7 Term 2

Thank you to those people who came and helped out at the triathlon. It was amazing to see the commitment on the faces of all our competitors as they tackled this challenge.  Congratulations everyone.
A great start to the week - we had all the poetry books at school!! Yippee!!
Today we welcomed Ms Tamati into our room. She added to our "Belonging" learning as she taught us about the Maori word for belonging turangawaewae. Ask your child about the parts in this word - tu (stand), waewae (feet). We also learned about how the Manuherikia River was named and have drawn about this in our Inquiry books. It's wonderful to have a local resource like Ms Tamati who can contribute to our learning.  As we move ahead in Inquiry we are finding out about our families. As we learn our mihimihi, Some people who have Maori descent may want to find out about their mountain, river and iwi.  Those of us who are of European or other ethnicity will use Kopuwai as our mountain and can choose between the Manuherikia or Clutha Rivers. Please take time to talk about your family members of past generations with your child. They will develop individual questions about what they want to find out over the next few days. With Anzac Day coming up during the holidays, it might be interesting to find any family links to this. Many families have interesting stories that have been passed down.
Newsletter this week will be on Thursday as Mrs Turnhout will be at a First Aid course with me on Wednesday. Ms Bennett will be teaching all morning.
Room 5 will be leading Wednesday Mass at 9:00am - please join the school for this celebration.
Goal Setting Interviews are Tuesday (3pm - 7pm) and Wednesday (2:30 - 5:30pm) next week. I would love to touch base with everyone.  I think 15 have booked so far.  If you haven't please go to www.schoolinterviews.co.nz - the login is fbrcx. If you are unable to do this please phone Mrs Turnhout in the office and she will do this for you.

Friday = St Patrick's Day

Rooms 3 & 4 will be having a green shared lunch.  Please bring a small plate of food to share. To make the day a real celebration we'll wear green (not necessarily school uniform). Find out one fact about St Patrick to share with the class.

Homework

  1. Reading; keep working on those reading logs - lots of people are up to the 25 nights stickers - 'way to go'.  The more you read, the better you get and the better you write."
  2. Spelling: fantastic to see so many tooling and listening to the sounds in the list each night, the scoring full marks in the Friday test.  This week some people have begun the Level 3 list.
  3. St Patrick's Day: 1 fact, green food, green fun clothes.
  4. Scripture Reading Eisteddfod - super to hear that some people have chosen the story that they like and are thinking about what this story means to them.
  5. Morning Programme: Ms Bennett is very excited about the wonderful topics people are choosing. I feel sad that I miss these wonderful presentations.
Looking forward to a great week of learning with the Room 3 bunch.

Saturday 11 March 2017

Morning Programme


We have now finished Round One of the morning programme.  The children have well and truly risen to the challenge of presenting to the class and teacher.  They have been well prepared with supporting information, pictures, books, or props and this has added to the impact of their talks.  The WALTs for oral language have been aimed for and met.  These are:
We Are Learning To:

  • Organise our thoughts and sequence information
  • Speak clearly and with the appropriate volume
  • Express our opinions
  • Support our ideas with some details or reasons
  • Listen carefully and thoughtfully
  • Ask questions to gain more information
  • Answer questions fully
  • Identify and recall information
  • Show respect to others
The role of the audience is just as important as that of the presenter. We are learning to be active listeners so that we ask pertinent questions. The children are buoyed by the fact that they get lots of questions which shows them that the children found their talk interesting and they want to know more.
Over the last four weeks we have been treated to a feast of information! We have learned so much more about Amelia, Lily and our two Charlottes, as they told us about themselves, their families, their likes, favourite things and so on. Such interesting people!
Zack and Bella D. have some recommended reading for us. Minecraft for Beginners Handbook, and 100 Facts about Planet Earth. Zack rated Minecraft 4 and a half out of 5, and Bella a straight 100 out of 100 for Planet Earth. These are Must Reads!!
We now know how to swim courtesy of Bella B. Tamai and her mum showed us how to make candy floss and we tried some. Yum! Liam has explained the intricacies of fishing, and Eden has tempted us (me) with the recipe and instructions for an easy chocolate tart.
Quinn has convinced us to visit Oamaru where his grandparents live. Jack can recommend Te Papa in Windy Welly and Findlay loves Queenstown, especially MacDonalds and the airport! Jada thinks Timaru has a lot to offer with Caroline Bay a must visit! The special features of these places have been extolled so well that we are in no doubt that we must visit when we can.
A lot has been going on in NZ lately! Tara told us all about the whales stranded up North and Savannah shared the story of the giraffe that was being moved from Auckland all the way to New South Wales! Sam kept us up to date with the fires that ravaged the Port Hills in Christchurch, and Pippa took to the television news reading role, with the latest in Alexandra's weather, the St Gerard's triathlon and the Omakau cavalcade.
Aurelia told us about a special and famous person, Rachel Carson whom she described as a famous writer, scientist and environmentalist who changed the way people thought about our environment. Taine is interested in the famous racing car driver, Peter Dickson and Ted told us about Queen Elizabeth who lives at Buckingham Palace in London. He visited there when he was younger.
Parents, you can be very proud of your children. They have done a great job and now we can't wait for Round Two! This coming Friday we're hearing from Amelia, Jay-T, Bella B. Quinn, Tara and Aurelia. Please check their homework book or the earlier post on this blog for their new topic. Thanks!

Monday 6 March 2017

Triathlon Training

A huge thank you to parents who brought bikes to school today so that we could learn how to manage the transitions for the big race tomorrow.

I couldn't believe that  some wanted to have more than one go - a fit little bunch!!












Year 3 & 4    (approx 1:30pm)
Start – On the grass by squash courts.
Run – Once around block through park, along Centennial Ave, along pool entrance road.
Transition with Mrs Beilby
Bike – Twice down to the netball courts and back along the road.
Transition – on the grass beside the back entrance into the pool.
Swim – 2 lengths  (big pool) 4 lengths  (small pool)
Everyone in Room 3 will swim in the small pool except for Pippa who may choose.

Remember to bring something warm to put on after your swim - polar fleece.