Week 10 Term 2

Wow, where has this term gone?

I felt so proud of Room 3's participation in the Cultural Assembly last week. Great Kapahaka, mihimihi and thank you Varna (Philippino) and Olivia (Afrikaans) for sharing a language special to you. We are pleased that confidence is building in oral sharing in a language other than English.

Monday: Poetry eisteddfods will be heard in class. Mrs Dwyer and Mrs Beilby will then hear a smaller group of Room 4 Year 4's and our best eisteddfods, to choose those to represent year 3 & 4.
Tuesday: Skating - remember to take your drink bottle with you.
Wednesday: 9am School Mass led by Room 6. 
Whole School Jump Jam with Brett Fairweather - the man who started this programme. In the hall at 2:30. Please wear school sports uniform.
Thursday: Last skating day.
Eisteddfod assembly 1:30 in the hall. Those performing at this will know by Wednesday - published in the school newsletter & I'll post on the blog.

Invitation to Sacramental Programme:
In last week's newsletter there was a note about children taking part in the Sacramental programme. In the past this has been for Year 4 children, however Father Vaughan welcomes anyone who is 7 years or older. The sacraments move on from Baptism with Reconciliation, Confirmation and then First Holy Communion. The programme begins with a parent meeting on Thursday 5th July in the side chapel at the church. Please register your interest to the school office or for more information, contact Loretta Fonseca 4492477 or Father Vaughan 4489615. Please see the school newsletter for more details.

Reports and Interviews:
All reports are almost completed and will be posted home during this week. With the cancellation of National Standards by the present government, we have used the past national standards and the current New Zealand curriculum levels to give you an indication of where nationally your child is achieving.
In Years 1-3, the achievemnet is based on the anniversary of starting school, so some student's Below, At and Above may have been measured as to where they were as far back as March after 2 years (80 weeks) or 30 months (100 weeks) at school. Year 4's relate to mid year, Year 4.
Interviews are in Week 1 next term, Tuesday 24th July and Wednesday 25th July. Please go to www.schoolinterviews.co.nz and use the code dm3gr and follow the steps to book your interview. We hope that you will take this opportunity to talk to us.
Room 3 will be working on child-led interviews like Room 4-6, it would be good for year 3's to attend the interview. This will be a new initiative for Room 3.

Homework

• Spelling: long 'e' spelling patterns again this week. Please check that this is practised each day.
• Reading: enjoy a book each night. Lots of new books in browse boxes to read. Please have a check at home for books, as we need to have these back in the store room in preparation for term 3. I will be sending books home for the holidays with a few people.
• Being organised: use the notes in your diary to help you take responsibility for being organised for a week with lots of different activities.

Have a safe and happy holiday - be sure to take all your clothes home on Friday. Thank you to the parents who have clearly named clothing. This makes it much easier.

Please check the lost property displayed in the foyer.

Uniform Shoes

Just a reminder that various coloured runners are not school uniform shoes. 

No 

 Yes

No

This term we have often been in our sports uniform with our P.E. activities, but now we should be in full school uniform Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Mrs Eastwood has already had a note in the school newsletter. Please have Room 3 the best examples next week. We can do it!!

Poetry Eisteddfods

Yes, it's next Monday! I have heard a few exciting poems that poeple have been working on. Remember the marking criteria is on the blog and also in the poetry books that are home for the weekend. Check out what you need to do to really polish your presentation.

Remember the word is RECITE.

P is also for presentation! Let's do it!!

Have a great weekend

Measurement

At school this week we have taken measurements of ourselves using pieces of string, to store in our class time capsule.  Later in the year we will be opening our capsule to see how much we have grown.

We also measured different parts of our body. Get your child to use this to measure all the family members. It will be lots of fun learning.

My Measurement

At home this week please help your child take height measurements using string for the people who live in your home.  Label the strings with a piece of tape or paper with the person's name. The strings can come to school to be put into the capsule with your child's other measurements. At the end of the year we'll check to see who has grown the most in your family. 

Week 9 Term 2

Congratulations to Mackenzie who received the Sacrament of Baptism at the school mass. As Father Vaughan said, it was a very appropriate day, 24th June being the celebration for St John the Baptist - our church is named after him, and of course he was Jesus' cousin who baptised Jesus. It was a very special occasion, as many of us had never watched a baptism and of course do not remember our own except through the photographs that we have. Thank you to the parents who brought their children to this celebration with the parish family.

In last week's newsletter there was a note about children taking part in the sacramental programme. In the past this has been for Year 4 students, however Father Vaughan welcomes anyone who is 7 years of age or older. The sacraments in this programme move on from Baptism with Reconciliation, Confirmation and then First Holy Communion. Several children have asked me, when we have sat watching during the serving of the Eucharist, when they can take part. This year is the answer. This programme begins with a parent meeting on Thursday 5th July in the side chapel at the church. Please register your interest at the school office or for more information contact Loretta Fonseca 4492477 or Father Vaughan 4489615. Please see the school newsletter for more details.

Skating: Tuesday and Thursday - helmets, gloves & warm jackets.

Tuesday: The Arts with Mrs Laidlaw from 11:40 till 3pm

Cultural Assembly - Thursday 28th Room 3 will perform waiata, with a couple of people sharing their mihimihi. I am waiting for the Cultural Leaders to confirm the individual items that people have offered. Varna, a poem in Philippino, Olivia, some africaans and some "special canadian information", Bella & Jack? Some things will depend on the time factor.

Eisteddfods: will be held next Monday. Very few people have their poem in their homework books. Please check the blog for the marking criteria. There is a cup to be competed for here. We should be 2 weeks into the practise now. We can present class poem 'with expression and enthusiasm', now is the time to do this with a poem of your own choice.

Spelling: this week we are learning about 'long e' spelling patterns.

Will it snow? Will it? or Won't it?

Year 3 & 4 Rippa Teams & Information

Year 3 & 4 Rippa Teams

St Gerards All Stars	St Gerards Super Stars
Coach: Ian Cooney	Coach: Hamish Stratford
Manager: Atiria Te Huia	Managers: Lauren Cuthbertson/Pete Breen/Emma Stratford
Tane O’Neill	Arn Cuthbertson
Findlay Love	Bella Breen
Johnny O’Neill-Cooney	Pippa Williams
Jada O’Neill-Cooney	Tara Mulholland
Eden Breen	Mackenzie Fahey
Bella Donaldson	Jedi Stewart
Milla O’’Kane	Charlie Tait
Louisa Marsden	Claire Stratford
Liam Broome	James Diver
Mark Allan	Olivia Delport

Please meet your coach & manager/s at Molyneux Park at 9am. Bring plenty to drink – dress is school sports uniform – warm jacket to wear over the top.

Mr Yeoman and Mrs Lyon are the teachers at this tournament.

This is 7 aside with a minimum of 3 girls on the field at all times.

Teams will need to supply their own gear – your coaches will have this.

A sausage sizzle and canteen will run through out the day.

The competition will start at 9:30 and run for the day. I hope to be finished by 2:30pm.

Play hard, play fair. Have a great day!

Just in case you think you are missing out on schoolwork – how many words in this note have the ‘long a’ spelling pattern?

Maths

Room 3 has been busy learning division. What is division? Division is when we take a larger group and split it into smaller equal groups. These students have managed to learn the concept of equal share. 

Home Practice

To consolidate the learning, the following activities will allow the students to practise division  and multiplication problems in a real-life scenario.

Increasing and decreasing: 

If you need to double a recipe, (or increase it by 3x, or 1 ½ x or 10x) you can ask your child to figure out how much of each thing is needed now. You can do the same if you need to halve a recipe or only mix up half of a packet of something. 

Solving Problems: 
How many eggs are in 3 dozen? How do you figure that out?
How much yogurt do you actually get in a 6 pack? How much is in the big container?
If you unrolled the whole roll of cling wrap about how far would it stretch?
If we spend $180 for a week’s groceries, about how much per day do we spend on food?
Look at the receipt; what part of our food bill is the most expensive?

Week 8 Term 2

A few happenings this week:
Tuesday: last day of Rippa Rugby at school. The 2 teams competing at the tournament on Thursday will spend time with their respective coaches, and those not competing will have a friendly game with me. Best to wear sports uniform for this. A big thank you to Ian Cooney who has come and shared his skills over the past 2 weeks.

Wednesday: 20th June the teachers will be leaving school at 1.15pm to attend their paid union meeting which starts at 1.30 pm.  Could you please make arrangements to pick your child(ren) up from school by 1.15pm. If you are unable to pick your children up, please advise us so that your children can be supervised until the end of the day. Mrs Eastwood and Mrs Gilbert will be the supervisors for the afternoon.

Thursday: 

• have a great day of competition Rippa teams. Mr Yeoman will give you further information about the day.  
• is the first day of skating. We leave school by bus at 9:45 and return at 11:15. Mrs Roberts will be very appreciative of extra pairs of hands to tighten boots. Please write your child's shoe size on their hand to help with skate sizing. Remember track pants, waterproof pants, hat, gloves, jacket, helmet and bring your own drink bottle.

Friday: Room 3 is leading assembly. We plan to give our first ukulele concert - the song "Hush Little Baby". We sing this well and we play the chords well, now we need to have both happening at the same time. Words for the song are in homework books to practise. For those people with a ukulele at home check out Baz's site.  http://ukesinthyme.simplesite.com 
It's all there with the chords written within the songs.

Sunday: School Mass 9am. Very special as we are welcoming 6 students through the sacrament of Baptism. Please be seated by 8:55, and wear full winter uniform. See you there.

Homework:

• Reading
• Spelling
• Fridge Words: suffocating, swag, punt, tarpaulin
• Eisteddfod poem - keep practising.
• Self managing - having gear at school for Rippa and skating - we are learning to be independent

Have a great week - the sun shone again today - pleased to see it!

Monkeying Around

Here are a few of the monkey descriptions that we wrote as a response to Jill Eggleton's poem "Monkey Party".

WALTs:

·      Work with a buddy to describe a monkey

·      Write at least 3 sentences

·      Have a different start to each sentence

·      Use WOW words to make a clear picture for the reader

·      Use a conjunction to add detail to our sentences

Monkeys are so mischievous when they see bananas. When people eat bananas monkeys steal them and they eat them.

By Mark-Allan

Monkeys are cheeky and silly when they see a whole pile of bananas. Monkeys can be so stupid because they screech so loud they have to block their ears. Monkeys are so chubby and funny, they swing upside down and squeal. Monkeys are cute, but sometimes annoying when they screech and steal bananas.  Monkeys are so playful, they do banana juggling to show off to their friends. 

By Eden

Monkeys screech in trees because they want to tell other monkeys that there is a party going on. Monkeys jump from tree to tree when they want to get somewhere fast. Bananas are gold, that’s what monkeys think. Cheeky, funny, that’s what you are when you jump around the place. See the monkeys go crazy when you give out black, freckled bananas.

By Olivia

Monkeys screech in trees because they get angry when little monkeys get bananas before them. They are so stupid when they show off by snatching bananas off bigger monkeys and stuffing them in their mouths. Some monkeys are very cheeky because they screech so loudly that they have to put their fingers in their ears.

By Charlie

Monkeys screech in trees when they find big, fat, juicy bananas. Monkeys look funny when they are so ‘koo koo’ and crazy. Monkeys love swinging from tree to tree. Monkeys love bananas and like to make mischief.

By Milla

Monkeys jump from tree to tree and screech when they see bananas. They screech very loud because they are hungry for bananas.

By Johnny

Monkeys screech in trees to find big, fat, juicy bananas. Monkeys jump from tree to tree and sometimes they fall. Monkeys are like a kitten getting distracted with a ball of wool. When they’re awake, they are so noisy, but when they’re asleep they are so peaceful and quiet.

By Varna

Monkeys are very cheeky and very silly and funny. When they see a whole bunch of bananas they steal them and stuff them in their big, hungry mouths. Monkeys scream loud when they need to talk to another monkey.

By Jedi  

Monkeys screech in trees when they have bananas in their mouths and they rob the banana shop. Monkeys are ninjas because they jump from tree to tree, to roof top to roof top and when you see monkeys in town you know they are up to no good. Monkeys are cheeky and they can frustrate you. They make annoying noises too.

By Findlay

Monkeys screech in trees when they eat bananas. Monkeys screech in trees when they are excited. Monkeys are cute and silly.

By Liam

Monkeys are so freaky sometimes because their faces look like butts. When monkeys see bananas they go and get them in such a rush like they missed the bus. It is crazy! Monkeys are so stupid when they make so much noise that they block their ears so other people can hear them instead.

By Bella

Monkeys screech in trees because they get angry when little monkeys are getting bananas before them. They swing down from the trees and get the bananas first. Banana lover monkeys hide bananas so the other monkeys don’t get them.

By Tane

Monkeys screech in trees because they are kookoo crazy. When monkeys jump from tree to tree the find bananas. In the jungle monkeys have parties every day when they have fun together. 

By Arn

Monkeys are banana lovers and they can eat 100 bananas in a day when they look at a box of bananas. Monkeys screech in trees because little boys like to pull their tails because they are noisy. When they run into a shop and get bananas they knock bins of apples over and steal the bananas for free. 

By Taine

Monkeys are banana robbers. Monkeys shoot banana guns. Monkeys laugh and laugh when someone slips over.

By Michaela

Monkeys screech in trees because they love to, and when they see a bunch of bananas they go nuts and very psycho because they love them. So watch out if you have a banana and you are near a monkey because they will chase you.

So  ‘run people!’

By James

Monkeys go from tree to tree when they see golden bananas. Monkeys are quite annoying and stupid too. Monkeys are dumb and pretty crazy. Monkey Liz got annoyed because she forgot her golden bananas.

By Claire

A monkey is noisy if she sees a banana. Monkeys like jiggling and swinging. Monkeys are silly when they see a banana. Monkeys like playing in the trees because it is funny. When a monkey sees a banana, then the monkey is gonna run faster and eat all the bananas. After monkeys eat all the bananas, monkeys are chubby.

By Jasmine

Wonderful illustrations are almost completed and a few more descriptions still to come.