Tuesday 23 October 2018

Week 2 Term 4

This is the week where we share all that hard work that has gone into Aladdin. Thank you all so much for helping your child to collect what is needed for their costume and to Mrs Roberts for working so hard getting the Room 3 part of the performance polished. Remember to get your tickets at the school office. The PTA have subsidised the cost of these - thank you.
Some of the words for the songs are a bit shaky, so copies of these have come home for some home learning in the next couple of days.

Spelling:
Oops - a large number of people forgot to get their homework books out at home last week, and this showed in the test of 'er' spelling patterns words. Have another check of these this week. Remember the 'Growth Mindset' thinking around mistakes - they are an important part of learning, but you need to use these as another opportunity to learn. Remember that we are learning to listen to the sounds across a word, and as well as the clean sounds, (1 letter = 1 sound) that we can hear, we need to know about different spelling patterns that use more than 1 letter to make them, and can also have different patterns to make that same sound. Those people who have paid for STEPs need to be on this programme and make as much use of it as possible to secure spelling and word knowledge.

Production Week = early nights Tuesday and Wednesday and save your energy for great performances.
Please be at the theatre at 9am on Wednesday and Thursday. Bus students will be taken to the theatre - please wait in the office area as this will either be by walking or by car. Students will also be returned to school in time for buses. Kelly Club will collect students from the theatre at 3pm on these days.
Sunhats are now a compulsory part of the school uniform. Make sure that there is a named one in your school bag.

Sacramental Programme:
A special week for those who have taken part in the Sacramental Programme, with Confirmation and First Holy Communion being celebrated with Bishop Michael on Sunday at 9am. Please make an effort to attend this mass to support our classmates as they take this next step in their faith journey.

Well done to those people who completed the follow-up home activity about earthquake preparation. These need to be taken to Mrs Turnhout in the office.

Thank you O'Neill-Te Huia family for sharing some home prayers which are on our prayer table.

No homework this week - just energy and enthusiasm for a fantastic production.

Wednesday 17 October 2018

Sunshine On Line

Lucky us - 3 new computers that we have just got set up for our learning. While playing round with these I checked out the new books (which are being added all the time) to Sunshine On Line. Many of these are N/F, which many of us prefer to read. Some interesting titles are there about insects and butterflies - a perfect opportunity for home as well as school reading. As we looked last term at fiction (made up stories) and non-fiction (facts), this is perfect for us to check the titles and N/F indication when looking through.

The PTA have generously paid for us to have free access to this learning space, so please make use of it. The login and password were glued into homework diaries at the beginning of the year. Please email me chrisbeilby@stgerards.school.nz if you can't find this.

The books can either be read by the child on the screen, or by clicking on the speaker button they are read to the child with the text being highlighted.

Go for it!!

Tuesday 16 October 2018

Week 1 Term 4

Hoping that everyone had an enjoyable holiday - I had the most amazing one - very lucky to see so many different things, along with attending my nephew's wedding in a small town in Germany -Freudenstadt, at the edge of the Black Forest.

Super to see everyone in summer uniform - check out what are uniform shoes please, as there are some 'runners' which are not part of our summer uniform.

A few people have homework, poetry books and home diaries somewhere at home. Please have a look around. Our goal of self management becomes so much more difficult if things are going home oin scraps of paper. Would love to have 27 homework books in the tray on Friday.

For the next 2 weeks our focus is on our production Aladdin Trouble. Tickets for this are now on sale at the school office - 6pm Thursday 25th and Friday 26th. Our first theatre practice will be this Friday 19th and we ask that students are picked up from the Alexandra Memorial Theatre in Skird St. Bus students will be brought back to school in time for their bus. Wednesday 24th and Thursday 25th we will also be at the theatre until 2:55. Thank you to those people who have costumes sorted for this. Please contact Mrs Roberts if you have any problems - what each group needs has been published on the blog.

Children have brought home an information sheet about "Shake out", with home activities to talk about as a family. Please check the reading folders for this.

School Athletics will be held on Thursday 8th November. We will start practising for these in week 3. Sports uniforms can be worn this week.

T-ball starts next Tuesday straight after Labour Day holiday. Those who put their names forward to join teams have information in their bags about this.

Eisteddfods will be heard on Monday 26th November - week 7. This term, students will be delivering a speech. In preparation for this our writing programme will cover how to write a speech, and we are doing a mini inquiry about insects/minibeasts and along with reading and research will write a short speech about our chosen minibeast. This can be the speech for the eisteddfod, but if your child has a different passion that they want to base their speech on, they are welcome to prepare this at home with you, or add to the speech written at school. If you have any 'insect' books at home we would love to share them.

Spelling:
This week we continue to focus on the 'er' spelling patterns. There will be a spelling test on Friday morning before we head to the theatre.

Fridge Words: thorax, abdomen, antennae. Let's get some descriptive sentences using these on Friday.

Reading:
Remember to read every night. Research shows that being 'read to' is so important for the development of reading skills. Share a book of interest.

Religious Education:
This week we have been looking at Traditional Prayers and there is a family discussion sheet in the homework books.

Looking forward to a busy, eventful term.