A Bit of Fun at the end of the Assessment Day

Thank you Central Swim School team for fantastic lessons again this year. We have all learned lots of new things and have had to think carefully about what to do in lots of different water related situations.

A bit of fun at the end of today's lesson.

Rippa Permission Slips

Thank you to those people who have returned theirs by the due date, and thanks so much to the parents who have offered to coach or manage teams. Two year 3 & 4 teams have been entered in this competition.

We will be learning the skills on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 2:30 as our Physical Education. I'm very happy to have any 'experts' join us to help with the ball skills required with an oval ball. (which is what will be the focus for the first sessions).

Please check the bags for the information sheet - ask your children if they are wanting to play, so that members of teams can be confirmed.

Once I have the link to the rugby site, I will paste it on here for you to complete the registration of your player.

Exciting learning coming up as we all share our skills with those new to this game.

Central Otago Rippa Rugby Tournament

This notice will come home in hard copy tomorrow.

Central Otago Rippa Rugby Tournament

Molyneux Park

Thursday 21^st June (cancellation Friday 22^nd)

Years 3 & 4 Team Information

It is exciting for our passionate players that this tournament is later in the term this year, so it doesn’t clash with our Swim Skills programme. We can enter up to 2 teams in this 7 aside competition.

Room 3 will be learning the necessary skills for Rippa for Physical Education from next week. Many girls will have little experience in handling the oval ball at this stage, but looking at how fast everyone learned the basic skills to have a great netball tournament after 4 coaching sessions, Rippa skills will be picked up quickly too.

We are able to enter 2 teams in this competition. Rules of this tournament state that teams must play 3 girls on the field at all times.

We need coaches or managers for the teams, and the entries made, will depend on the availability of both players and parental assistance.

Please return the slip below or email Mrs Beilby by Thursday 31st May, so that we can determine our entries in this grade.

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Year 3 & 4 Rippa Tournament

My child _________________ wishes to attend the Rippa tournament.

I ____________________  am willing to coach a team.

I _____________________  am willing to manage a team.

Please return this slip by Thursday 31st May.

Multiplication Activities

The following are some fun hands-on ways to practise multiplication problems at home. 

Put a mathematical twist on an old favourite

Play rock, paper, scissors but with a twist...students will put up fingers instead of rock, paper, or scissors. The first partner to multiply the two sets of fingers together and call out the answer gets a point.

Roll ’em Vegas style

Each person rolls two dice and multiplies the two numbers together. The player with the correct answer wins a point.

Spelling Activity Ideas to help with Remembering

At the beginning of the term a list of words that we all need to be able to spell quickly was glued into each homework book. Mrs Laidlaw has tested each person on these in the back of the homework books or on a piece of paper (if the homework book was not at school). The ideas below may help your child remember these words:

• Spelling with colour: the brain loves colour - children can write the word out five times using five different colours. Just work on one word at a time. look    look   look  look  look
• Noughts and Crosses: play this game with your child each of you using a word rather than a "o" and "x"

Week 5 Term 2

Wow, half way through the term at the end of this week.

Thank you PTA - what a fantastic disco everyone enjoyed on Friday night! Lots of preparation goes into such an event which was such a fun way to end the week.

Mrs Roberts and I have begun the testing in preparation for report writing. A reminder that this year all students will receive a mid-year and an end of year report. Testing will still be done at their "weeks at school" anniversary, with these results being used to report progress to our Board of Trustees.

Swimming: Tuesday and Thursday are the last 2 sessions - remember to bring pjs for Tuesday's lesson, plus a plastic bag to put the wet pjs in. YES, you do wear togs underneath!!

Wednesday: I have Reading Recovery In-service after lunch, so Mrs Roberts will be teaching in the afternoon. It was lovely for Mrs Eastwood to share Discovery last Wednesday afternoon while I attended a funeral.

Lucky Book Club pamphlets are by the fish tank to collect.

Uniform: This is the last week where school sports uniform may be worn on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the last week where you can choose whether you wear summer or winter uniform. After Queen's Birthday the uniform is the winter uniform. Please check the school website if you are unsure of what this consists of. All items are available at the PTA uniform shop outside our classroom door. Please be sure that all items are clearly named as we are in Growth Mindset in Room 3, and we can't all look after our clothing YET!

Homework

1. Reading: don't forget that Sunshine - On - Line counts too. Take a look as I have had an email to say that they are adding many new texts - quite a few of these are non-fiction Science based. Some people have a "Before school Reading Log" in the back of their homework books - these are people who I would like to have an extra opportunity to increase their reading mileage - just bring a book to me before school and I will make sure that I am available to listen.
2. Spelling: the weekly list to tool is in the homework book - everyone is competent at tooling and can show you how they are learning this skill - they are not learning how to spell these words by memory, but are practising tooling skills that they can use on unknown words when writing. Those people who have paid their $10 for the STEPs Programme will find that the words on their spelling sheet are in the programme that they are practising. Thank you Kate Nicholson for doing this.
3. Fridge Words: convict, voyage, prospecting - these didn't get written into diaries last week!
4. Maths: Read the information that Mrs Roberts has posted. Study Ladder also has activities as does Sunshine-on-line under the maths texts.

Next Monday is Queen's Birthday Weekend - have a wonderful break with family.

Swimming - Tuesday 29th

As we are nearing the end of the swim skills programme, we are being tested on a variety of skills. On Tuesday we all need to bring some pyjamas for the learning activity.

Pyjamas need to be long sleeved, but not tight fitting.

Please do not bring:

• onesies
• pyjamas made from polar fleece

               

Early notice so that you are not reading this in homework diaries on Monday night.

Missing Tracksuit Pants

Please check bags and at home for a Mackenzie's track suit pants. There were pants left at school last Friday, which were around the room - last seen Tuesday morning. (Not sure if these were Mackenzie's) Her pants are named. I didn't notice a name on the ones in the classroom, so perhaps someone has taken Mazkenzie's home in error.

Week 4 Term 2

What a busy week it was last week with something happening each day - less to remember this week. TOGS = Tuesday & Thursday.
What a wonderfully pink room we had on Thursday - thank you to everyone who helped the children find such a variety of pink things to wear. Congratulations Eden on winning the best dressed for Room 3. I didn't see all the wonderful baking, but many of you cooked such amazing pink cakes - thank you for supporting our Sticks'n'Stones group to make this day such a success.

We had a special lunch for Mrs Stratford on Friday and a wee birdie had told us that she had her birthday on Thursday, so some candles and a cake finished the lunch. Thank you for the lovely food that was made.

Wednesday 23rd Mass, with Rooms 2 & 7 assisting Father Vaughan. Please join us at 9am in the church.

PTA Disco - Friday in the hall - Check the times in the newsletter

Homework

Homework books at school each day in Reading Folders please.

It's great that we have nearly everyone's homework and poetry books located and brought back to school.

• Self Manage books. Homework books go home Monday to Thursday - poetry books home on Fridays and back to school on Mondays.
• Read every night - this can be sunshine on line, or a book that you are reading at home
• Spelling tool your list each night. This is in your homework book.
• Fridge Words: convict, voyage - these words have come from the shared story that we are reading "Shining Rivers" - thank you for bringing this for us to share, Aurelia.

Multiplication Lessons....Continuation

It has been really fun for me to watch the students start to gain confidence in their skills and start to challenge themselves in solving multiplication problems. 

Here is an example of one we have worked on:

How many toes in a group of 3 people?  The students worked out this problem using 2 different strategies that we learned this week:

• Skip Counting: 3 X 10 = 10, 20, 30

• Repeated Addition: 3 X 10 = 10 + 10 + 10 = 30

At home this week I would like your child to make up two more multiplication problems for us to solve in maths.  Have fun. 

Swimming Boat Safety

How exciting it was to see a boat for use in the lesson today. Just as well we have such supportive parents who brought our togs to school for us - many people had forgotten as they dressed and baked for "Pink Tee-shirt Day".  Tuesdays and Thursdays for the next 2 weeks.

Once we had our lifejackets on and had Jenna check that they were fitted correctly and tightly enough, we moved into 2 groups.

The first group worked on how to enter the water with a life jacket on from the side of the pool, how to propel themselves through the water, then finally had races propelling themselves in long groups - keeping everyone together.

The other group learned how to load a boat safely for the best buoyancy, then scuba dived off the boat (backwards).

Once in the water they organised themselves into a huddle - boy we have lots of chiefs!! By lying back the way they are, they are making a big bright sunflower for a plane to see easily.

Finally one at a time they experienced the "air pocket" under an upturned boat and learned how to get under and back out again.

Again this is important water safety learning. Please talk about this at home. This last part of the activity was quite scary for some, but with their growth mindset and a supportive instructor who was with them every step of the way everyone overcame their fears and completed the activity.

On Tuesday the groups will be swapped around so that all have an opportunity.

Swimming - lifejackets

We worked together today in the main pool. The lesson today started on the poolside as we learned about correct sizing and fitting of a life jacket. Interesting to observe the class and individual's attention to what they needed to look out for when choosing a jacket and fitting it. As a group we need to work own our listening skills.

Once we were fitted, we worked in 2 groups to learn how to make a huddle so that we all stay together and have no-one drift away from the group.

Finally we learned how to enter the water wearing a life jacket, then move to regroup into a huddle.

Please take the time to discuss today's learning with your child. We learn by talking.

Netball Tournament

Wednesday sees us put our skills into action.

Thank you Sharelle for arranging house teams and for the great skills sessions we have had.

Information about the day was in last week's newsletter. A reminder that children need to be collected from the Molyneux Netball Courts.
Morning tea break is at 10:30, with house meetings at 11:45 where house leaders will share the teams. Houses will have lunch together and walk to the courts with their house teachers.

Might be a good idea to have some warm gear in bags as we have suddenly struck those wonderful foggy, cold winter days.

Good luck everyone.

Growth Mindset

Room 3 have been working at building Growth Mindset.  The aim is to teach the children that basic abilities can be developed and improved which lead to creating a strong sense of resilience that they need to keep learning and accepting new challenges.

The video below is a great example to share with your children and talk about the qualities of a person with Growth Mindset.

Growth Mindset Video

This set of questions will help you to initiate a Growth Mindset discussion with your children. 

Multiplication Facts 

The next few weeks, Room 3 will be learning Multiplication and Division. Cementing knowledge in these areas is crucial for a number of reasons:

Multiplication forms the building block for other mathematical concepts:

Once children are confident in the use of their times tables they can begin to apply this knowledge to calculating a variety of sums. As an example, knowing that 2 x 2 = 4 will help children understand that 20 x 20 = 400, and 200 x 200 = 4000. In addition, children can check their calculations using the inverse so that they know that 20 ÷ 4 = 5 is correct because 5 x 4 = 20.

Division and multiplication skills can be applied to real life concepts:

As children handle money, share items between friends and cut food into portions they are beginning to build up their division and multiplication skills as part of their everyday life. Being introduced to these ideas at an early age will mean that as well as gaining confidence in the subject, they will be able to utilise these skills in the wider world.

Practicing multiplication facts doesn’t have to be a chore! There are lots of fun and practical ways to incorporate multiplication facts into your daily lives. Here are a few examples of how you can have fun practicing multiplication at home:

Real-World Opportunities: 

For students to value their learning, it is important for them to see and understand how the skills they are building can be used in daily. Here are a few examples of using multiplication facts in everyday life: 

• We’re buying 6 jars of spaghetti sauce. Each jar costs approximately $4. How much approximately will the 6 jars cost? 

• There are 12 eggs in a carton and we have 4 people in our family. How many cartons of eggs do we need to buy if each person wanted to eat 2 eggs for breakfast everyday this week? 

• There are 8 weeks until we leave for a trip! How can we calculate the number of days using multiplication?

Skip Counting in 2s, 5s, and 10s: 

For multiplications by 5, count by fives until you get the number of groups needed! 

Ex: 6 x 5 = Count: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30!

Swimming Learning

Last week we all took part in learning lots of different skills to keep us safe in the water. The skills which are taught in a warm water safe pool environment are all discussed with the students. No goggles are often asked for which is a bit uncomfortable for some, but as the instructors say "would you have your goggles on if you fell off a boat on a fishing trip?" Please take time to talk to your child about what their lesson has been about.
The 2 groups working in the therapeutic pool have spent lots of time learning to float on their backs. This keeps their faces out of the water, so they are able to shout for help and they can breathe. Both groups have experienced falling face first into deep water, where they can not touch the bottom, rolling on to their backs, calling for help and sculling to keep themselves afloat.

The group working in the main pool had a very interesting challenge, also floating on their backs and sculling feet first through 'plastic' seaweed. This felt really unusual as they couldn't see exactly where the seaweed was. After experiencing this for the first time, they had to undertake the same activity with blacked out goggles on. Interesting to watch how difficult this was, and listen to the conversations between the instructor and the children. Water accidents don't  happen in well lit, warm pools!, but they are a great place to practise what to do.

Please make time to talk to you child about their learning as they are being taught skills to set them up with knowledge of what to do in unexpected situations. 

Week 3 Term 2

Boy are we rocketing through the term or what! Sports uniforms again this week.

Monday: Caritas  Challenge "Rice Day".

•  Everyone brought a hard copy notice home about this last week, so just a reminder here. Hopefully everyone has found someone to sponsor them as we raise funds for the great work that Caritas does. We all need to bring a plastic bowl and spoon to eat our rice lunch. Children may bring their own morning tea. Thank you to those people who have offered the use of a rice cooker. 
• Netball - we have our final netball session at 11:45.

Tuesday: 

• Swimming 1pm

Wednesday: 

• Interhouse Netball Tournament pm at the netball courts - check the newsletter for further information.  

  

Thursday:

• Swimming 1pm
• Pink Shirt Day: Get out all that pink garb and wear it!! Please bring a gold coin. The day will be run by our Sticks and Stones Group, the funds raised will go the Mental Health and Sticks n Stones. Prize for best dressed. Get baking for the baking competition - prizes: pinkest, best tasting, best presentation.

Friday:

• Shared lunch at 12:30 to say thank you to Mrs Stratford - it was so good to see her back relieving last week. Please bring a small plate of something healthy to share.

Self Managing Challenge:

Those of us who have brought our homework books back to school on Friday will have a spelling sheet to complete. In our Spelling Alive programme we are learning skills that will help us to spell lots of words that we don't have in our fast bank of words we can spell. The purpose of the home sheet is to practise saying, listening and recording sounds in order. A strategy we can use flexibly once we have secured this. Homework books need to be at school each day in our reading folders please. This is part of the class programme.

Please check at home for homework, diaries and poetry books. Several children are excusing themselves by saying "Mum didn't put it in my bag!". This is the year to step back and support your child to have what they need in their bags each day. Even the presenter at our holiday course couldn't emphasise this skill enough.

Looking forward to another very busy week.

Gold Fever

What a great adventure we had today.  The first group heading away on the wagon pulled by Max.

Thank you to the parents who came and enjoyed this wonderful learning experience with us. 

At the river we learned the techniques of gold panning with Terry. Some great excitement as some of us thought we had found nuggets.  There were some tiny specks that we could see glinting in our pans, that didn't move when the water was swished over them. The sign that it really was gold.

Thank you Aurelia for bringing us a wonderful book for shared story that tells of the adventures of those gold miners who came to our area. We'll start reading this on Monday.

Pink Shirt Day

     Pink Shirt Day

    

On Thursday 17th of May The Sticks n Stones Ambassadors here at St Gerard’s
Primary will be having a Pink Shirt Day, this coincides with NZ Bully Free Week.
Pink Shirt Day is to show our support and stand up to bullying .
It would be awesome if you could dress up in pink to show your support.
There will be Best Dressed prizes for each class and an Overall Winner.
If you would like you can bring a gold coin donation.
The money will be donated to the Mental Health Foundation and Sticks n Stones
to help run programmes here at school.

There will also be a baking competition - we would like this to be student prepared
(as much as possible). The three different categories will be for the pinkest, best
tasting and best presentation.

Maths.....Place Value

This week we will be using Place Value Blocks learning object. This enables us to represent numbers up to 999 using place value material. Ask your child to read numbers up to 999, for example letter box numbers, 3 digit licence plates, numbers in the newspaper.

You may want to use the idea below to reinforce place value knowledge with your child. 

You will need a piece of paper, a dice, jellybeans or even pebbles for counting. It is a fun activity to get the children to recognise how many ones and tens there are in numbers. 

Once they have mastered this, try 3 digit numbers. Have fun!  

Week 2 Term 2

School Sports Uniforms again all week this week.

Swimming lessons last week saw us sorted into groups and our learning begun. It is exciting watching from the side as many people practise managing themselves so that everyone gets the most out of each lesson. A couple of people have had to be asked to sit on the side so that the instructor can show the group what they need to do. Keep working on listening - I know it is hard for some when being in a new learning environment is exciting. You'll have another opportunity to practise this on Friday.

Netball: Monday & Wednesday at 10:45. Please note that the inter-house tournament will be at held next Wednesday - next Monday will be the catch up lesson.

School Mass: Wednesday ay 9am, led by Room 4

On Wednesday the junior school teachers will be travelling to Dunedin to view "Play is the Way' operating in classrooms. Mrs Annan will be teaching in Room 3.

The note that will go home in reading folders on Monday.

Rooms 3 & 4 Gold Panning and Heavy Wagon Rides

Friday 11th May

    

7 May 2018

As an exciting hands on experience to kick start Room 3 and 4’s inquiry “Gold Fever” we have been offered this programme through the Otago Goldfields Heritage Trust. We are awaiting confirmation of the exact time for this from the organisers, but will need the assistance of parents please. You will be notified of the time as soon as we have this. As supervision will need to be of the school participants, this is not a trip where we could include pre-schoolers.

Students need to wear school sports uniform and bring gumboots.

Thank you to Mrs Vanessa Breen, Mrs Lanham and Mrs Cuthbertson who have offered assistance with this 
trip. Parents will be given small groups to supervise, as they ride on the wagon and mine for the illusive gold 
near the river.

Please email your child’s teacher if you are able to help.

Looking forward to this exciting experience.

Sunshine On Line - hoping that everyone has had the opportunity to enjoy a read on this site.

STEPs Programme - for $10 you can sign your child up for this programme. Please be sure to have your money at the office by Wednesday. Mrs Nicholson took an informative session for the parents of those registered in the first term, and I understand this will be repeated for any parents new to this programme. Children would have the opportunity to work on this learning site as part of the Literacy time and can also use this at home to increase reading and writing skills.

What a great start we have had to the term. Keep up the enthusiasm for learning.

Fun Friday - end of Week 1

Today Room 3 girls worked in the hall to learn about Girls Self Defence. Check the homework book on Monday for their rap, and ask them about what they have learned from the visiting instructors.

Meanwhile the boys had a day doing different learning in the classroom, starting with a maths challenge that they will finish next week with Mrs Roberts and ending with a STEM Challenge with Mrs Beilby.  What a fun way to end the week, with lots of oral language, problem solving and working together.

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths - so lots of learning areas covered with a really hands on activity.

The problem set was to design a shelter for a family that would withstand rain. Unlike most of our making at Discovery, they only had $10 to spend on their design and could purchase the materials from the teacher. Then the fun began. Lots of different creations, and I think that every one of them kept the family dry inside!

Purchases made - the building begins.

After lunch we took our shelters outside to see whether they were 'fit for purpose'.  Rain was dripped/trickled onto the shelters. Then we checked whether our families were dry.

Some of the designers with their wet shelters, all of which were fit for purpose in light 'rain'. We saw that some needed to be sturdier so that they didn't collapse once they got wet on the outside.

Check our homework books next week to see how we self evaluated our shelters against the criteria.

3 boys homework books not at school today, please make sure that they are here Monday.