Pyjamas in the Pool

A few photos to show the variety of activities covered on our last swimming day. Rather than an essay from me, ask your child to talk about what they learned at reach activity.

Thank you so much to the team at Moyneux Aquatic Centre.

Last Day of Swimming

Thursday is our last swimming day and we have been asked to bring some pyjamas to swim in. MAKE SURE THAT YOU WEAR TOGS UNDERNEATH!!
Summer PJ's are fine but please no onesies as these get too heavy in the water for the children to participate in the learning.

Swimming Photos

Look at what we have been up to over the last 4 weeks at the pool. Please make sure that you child has their togs for the last 2 sessions next week. Only 14 of us swimming today - a shame you have missed out Shiloh.

 Learning how to stretch out to do a star fish in the little pool before trying in the learners pool. Thank you, Claire for giving us the confidence to relax and with your help, have a go.

 A bit foggy this morning for our playtime at the park, but we all enjoyed the run around.

 More star fish training.

 Getting ready to push off and glide with Julz.

 Stretch those arms out straight and kick hard (with Claire).

I have noticed how far lots of people have come with thgeir confidence in the water. I missed photos of a group doggy paddling and bouncing off the bottom to get their heads above water in the deep water. Sofie and Liam A were just like fish!!

Week 4 Term 2

Thank you for your help getting the 'pink brigade' to school. on Friday. What great outfits! Congratulations Mac for winning the best dressed for Room 3 - what a great idea you and Mum had.
Tuesday & Thursday: Swimming - bus leaves at 11:15.
Wednesday: Mass at 9am - please join us.  Mr Hogue will be teaching Room 3 for the morning while I attend a First Aid Course.
Sunday 26th - School Mass please be seated with your class by 8:55am
Mountain biking orienteering event - meet at Industry Lane. Check the newsletter for more information or contact Mr Yeoman.

Dunstan High School Musical - The Sound of Music is staged this week.

Although the days are getting colder, there are still outside play options during Action Stations. Please bring a warm jacket, hat and perhaps gumboots so that play can still be enjoyed outdoors.

Bread Tags: 

Please save your bread tags and place them in this box in the foyer. 

I am excited with how we are all moving ahead with our reading and spelling skills - thank you so much for your support at home.

Enjoy these warmer afternoons while they last.

Dunstan High School Musical - The Sound of Music

Being very passionate about theatre and music, I am looking forward to seeing who of our ex-students is involved in this production. I know that Zeph Middendorf must be, as he gave a big wave as he was helping 'pack in' the back stage when we were leaving our NZEI meeting in the theatre.
Many children will have seen the movie and may know some of the songs.

Information from i-ticket.
To celebrate its sixtieth anniversary on the stage, Dunstan High School is proud to bring you the classic musical The Sound of Music.

Opening night - Wednesday 22nd - 7:30
Participation night** - Friday 24th - 7:00

**This year, we are doing something a little different. Our Friday evening show will start a little earlier at the time of 7:00pm and we are having a ‘participation night’. These evenings have been popularised with many other musicals and this is a chance for us to extend the fun for our true-blue Sound of Music fans. There will be opportunities to sing along to your favourite songs, help the actors with remembering their lines, prizes for our best dressed and many more fun things. 

Matinee - Saturday 25th - 2pm
Final Show - Saturday 25th - 7:30

You can book through https://www.iticket.co.nz/events/2019/may/the-sound-of-music

Mother's Day Cafe

Thank you all for joining us for a special afternoon tea today. Pikelets made, flowers arranged, scones cooked and tables set out and decorated - we were ready to welcome our special guests.
What excellent waiters and waitresses we had, taking orders and really looking after that special person that they were responsible for.

Some photos of our cafe today.

Autumn

Planning is well under way for our piece of writing. Check out how the children have brought environmental autumn items to decorate the board by the poem and planning sheet. Mrs Flannery has completed a piece of art work to display our writing with. What great 'wow' words we have that we can use to describe autumn using our 5 senses. When we feel the green pods they are really prickly, just like the outer shell of the chestnuts.

Week 3 Term 2

Happy Mother's day to all you amazing mothers. I hope that you have all had a special day with your families.

Tomorrow we welcome the ERO (Education Review Office) visitors to our school. The school and kapahaka group will welcome them at 11am in the hall. They will be with us until Wednesday.

Sports uniform: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week.

Monday: Mother's Day Cafe 2pm in Room 3. We hope you can all attend. Your child will serve you with a delicious afternoon tea. Please let me know if your child has no-one who can attend, so that I can buddy then up with a friend. Of course they are welcome to bring a neighbour or someone else who is special to them.

Tuesday & Thursday: Swimming. Last week the groups covered safety aspects like what to do if you are in the pool and there is an earthquake, doggy paddling in deep water and all enjoy the swimming under the water activities. Remember that this is not a learn to swim programme, but learn to survive. All safety aspects about the pool are well covered, so that they should all know what to do if there was an emergency situation while they were at the pool. Thank you for making sure that your child has their togs on these days.

Wednesday: Inter House Netball Tournament. Time to practise those netball skills that we have learned with Ashlee.

1. Students will come to school in their house colours. Warm clothing needed please plus lunch and water. No pie warmers.
2. Leave school at 12.15 to walk to courts and eat lunch there. Parents welcome to walk with us 
3. Students need to be picked up from courts - not at the church carpark.
4. Bus people can bought back to school if needed.        
5. Sharelle and Ashlee will talk to students at 1pm .
6. First game is 1.10. they are 5 mins long. No half time. 

Friday: Pink Shirt Day 

"Kōrero mai, Kōrero atu, Mauri tū, Mauri ora - Speak up, Stand together, Stop bullying!

Dress up in all your pink gear and bring a gold coin donation. Room 1 leaders will run this day - watch the newsletter for further information.

Religious Education: We are learning about The Holy Spirit and how it makes changes in our lives. Please check the homework books for the family information.

Spelling: This week some of the spelling group will bring their spelling home to complete. They are independent at this activity, but it is important that each word is tooled with sound lines - we are learning how to use our alphabet knowledge to spell words (a strategy we can use on hard words - listening to the sounds and recording in order). Copying the words across the sheet or learning to spell the words from memory is not the purpose of this task. Please come and see me if this does not make sense.

Looking forward to another full on week of learning with your children.

Mother's Day Café

In case your invitation was not found in the reading folder.

You are invited to our Mother’s Day Café
on Monday afternoon at 2.00 in Room 3.

We are going to serve you a yummy
afternoon tea to say a big thank you
for everything you do for us.

If you can’t come, I can bring a grandma,
aunty or friend.

Week 2 Term 2

A busy week again this week.
Junior Kapahaka: Monday 11:40 (Years 1&2) with Ms Tamati
Netball: Monday and Wednesday.
Swimming: Tuesday and Thursday

As the mornings have been colder and our netball session is at 9:15 it is a good idea to have a jacket.

During Action Stations many children enjoy playing outside - to minimise the amount of leaves and dirt coming into the classrooms it would be a good idea for children to bring gumboots to school for wearing in outdoor play - a warm jacket and a hat would be useful too.
On Wednesday morning after interval, I will be spending some time at Alexandra Primary School looking at their play based learning programme that they started this year in the junior school. This is my Classroom Release time and Mrs Flannery will be in Room 3. I will also be using release time for testing everyone prior to report writing.

Reading: Thank you for listening to your child's reading each night. It is by reading and rereading that we build our sight words as we meet them in texts. Ask your child to identify the words from their lists. eg: Can you find 'went'?  What about on this page?  etc Then see if they can also find the word on their word chart. We are working on being 'flexible' in our word recognition. Likewise you could ask them to find words they are working on in the texts that you are reading to them or in a newspaper etc.  Check out where you can find LOOK on the footpaths around the town.

Sunshine On Line www.sunshineonline.co.nz The school has registered again for this site. Log-in and passwords will be glued into homewok books by Tuesday. Many of the sunshine readers are on here. Children can have these texts read to them - great to help them with fluency and listening to how punctuation is used to create meaning.

ABC: wow we are getting so smart with our letters - keep working on how to write each letter correctly - this will help us to become very efficient writers.

Spelling: some people in the "Spelling Group" will bring home a spelling list in their homework books from week 3. I am very particular about how this is set out, as we are learning the skill of how to articulate a word and record the sounds in order, we are not learning to know how to spell the words without saying and listening. The words we are practising on are easy at this stage. Check the back of homework books for the spelling tests done so far.

Seesaw: still one or two families have not set this app up. If you have lost the information, I am happy to reprint another.

Hoping this warmer weather keeps going as it is quite plaesant to be enjoying the outdoors still.

School Sports Uniform

Just like summer or winter uniform, the sports uniform needs to be correct please.
School sports tee-shirt, green track pants and either school jersey, polar fleece or tracksuit top if your child has one.  If you don't have these items please wear either the full summer or winter uniform and bring appropriate shoes for netball.
We want to look smart in our uniforms.
Uniform items are available from the PTA uniform shop. Please check the newsletter or facebook for the opening hours or a number to call.