Next Tuesday night (singing for Sue)

Next Tuesday at 7pm at the Cellar Door there is a function for Sue Roy who is retiring from Terrace Kindergarten. We have offered to perform a song. This will be Room 1,2 and 3 children who are available next Tuesday night. The children will need to be there at 6.45 and will be able to leave just after 7. The song we are singing is I wish.

Please let me know if your child is able to come.

Many thanks

Julie

What's happening Week 8

My apologies for not posting a "what's happening" last week.  We got off to a fantastic start with St Patrick's Day.  Thank you Reilly's for some wonderful books to read.  We worked on Leprechaun maps last week - check these out in our poetry books. We learned some basics about mapping skills and put these into practice.  Hope you can spot the treasure on the map, by looking at the key.  We also showed that we were pretty sharp at our Leprechaun Orienteering course which potted us all some gold on Monday afternoon.  Thank you to those people who popped a gold coin donation into the Caritas box as their mufti donation.

This week will be the  leprechaun traps - sorry I forgot that we were all in Dunedin at a course last Friday.  Bring on the bits & bobs for this making time on Friday.

A reminder that this Thursday is the "You, Me & Us" Parent Community Meeting at 7:30pm.  Hope to see you there as we listen to the parent body.  I attended an excellent session at "The Gathering" on Friday about establishing Restorative Justice practices in schools.  This will sit beautifully alongside what we have already planned.

Last week we worked through spelling lists in class, making sure that we all knew exactly what "LOOK, SAY, SOUND, COVER, WRITE" means.  We looked at identifying the hard bits in a word to put in the 'to learn' column. It is just so important that each night this is the process, and of course to check after the word is written that it is correct. Next week some people will bring home a list to tool and learn.

Eisteddfods: this is the week to work on learning your prayer (year 2) or preparing your reading (year 3).  Please see me if you need help as I will give you a prayer or reading.  These will be heard on Monday 7th April.

Wow, the term is flying past.  It is great to see so many of you pop in to the classroom for a chat or for your children to share their work with you.  Please remember that all poetry books need to come back on a Monday, and Homework books every day so that I can put stickers in there when children read their favourite page of their reading book to me before school.

Scripture Reading Eisteddfods

Scripture Reading Challenge 2014

This week, you need to work on preparing your eisteddfod.

 Year 3:

• Your scripture reading can be anything you like, eg. a parable, a psalm, a reading from the Gospels. You may choose your own or I will have some simple texts for people to choose from.

Year 2:

• choose a prayer that you know, to say.  It may be the Hail Mary, the Childrens' Suscipe or a simple one that is known.  I have some to choose from.  

• Introductory speech – Years 3/4: 15-20 seconds. This is a time to use the main ideas or theme of the 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 ...… ‘

• Timetable – Monday 7^th April Rooms 3 & 4 class Eisteddfods will be heard. One boy and one girl will be chosen to give their eisteddfods on the Thursday.

• Format for scripture reading on the day: Whole school Eisteddfods, Thursday 10th April in the church – students will start in the middle of the church in front of the altar using a microphone with their introductory speech, then they move to the lectern and 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".
• Years 1 & 2 students will say their prayer with the microphone in front of the altar.

• For students to remember

-       When reading from the lectern you do not have to look up at your audience all the time – don’t always look at one particular group.

-       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 must learn your introduction.

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

Leprechaun Catchers

An Irish themed week this week.  As a follow up to our weekly poem "I Want To Catch A Leprechaun", children will be designing a leprechaun catcher which they will make on Friday.  Please talk with your child this week about what bits and bobs they may need to bring from home for this. We will talk about using recycled stuff, like glad wrap rolls, weetbix boxes, lemonade bottles etc. I'm sure these creative kids will come up with fantastic ideas. I do have some stuff in my cupboard as I am the school hoarder, however with shifting classrooms again, I did reduce the amount of goodies for activities like these.  I am always happy for you to drop in this sort of stuff at any time as it is useful for design projects such as this.  Yes, there is space in my store room!!

St Patrick's Day

Monday 17th is St Patrick's Day - a day to kick up your heels!!

Remember that everyone can wear green mufti, and it would be awesome to have a coin or two (the Irish Leprechaun's always had gold ones) to put in the Caritas box.  This box is on the prayer table in the foyer.  Coins can be put in at any time during Lent as alms giving. Hope you can see it with all the cones!

What about a healthy green lunch in your lunch box for the day?  How many green foods are there?

If you have any Irish stories at home it would be awesome to have them to share.

See you Monday

Discovery Time - "Little Acts of Kindness" Pinecones Are Ready To Go

"A little act of kindness" pinecones are now ready to be delivered in the community.  Today we designed gift cards.  We used team work by doing the arty part in pairs with Room 3 helping their younger buddies, while some of our Year 3 students used the computer to design and write a message to put on each tag.  Our bags with their creative tags are ready and waiting by the prayer table in the foyer.  Pop in and see for yourself what awesome labels we have made.

Do you know anyone in the community who would be grateful to receive these?

Looking pretty pleased with our efforts.  Our great idea has been successful. We hope everyone just loves our cones and handcrafted labels.  Whose bag is the heaviest anyway?

High Viz Vests

I have a pile of these in the lost property box in our corridor.  The children do not remember their numbers so I have sourced the information. Could you please check that your child has the correct numbered jacket and swap amongst yourselves?  This list will help us all.

Joshua        32
Nicolas       68
Sully           60
Tadhg         74
Zaria           79
Kimberley   36
Jacqui          40
Ana             77
Rhianna      65
Cait             27
Gabrielle     67
Annajhay    66
Thomas M  70
Lucas          35
Olivia          69

If everyone has their jacket at school we are able to have one of the walking pair wearing a jacket which helps keep us safe when we walk about town.
Some children may also have their own jacket, I know that Parents Centre gave jackets to members a couple of years back.  Please name these if this is what your child is wearing.

Discovery Time 13th March

The theme which fits with both Lent and the Social Sciences studies is "little acts of kindness".  Last week we brainstormed what we could do.  Once again the children came up with a wide variety of ideas - check the whiteboard in Room 2.  This week we will make a start on the list of things, by heading to the pines over the Railway Bridge with plastic bags and collect cones.  These will be delivered at a later time to needy members of the community.  If there is anyone who would like to join us please meet us in Room 2 at 1:30pm.  Please be sure that your child has their high viz jacket at school.  As we have all these issued out now, it is important that everyone has them at school as we do not have a set to use for excursions such as this.
We will focus Discovery Time around this theme for the next few weeks, as many of the ideas were about making things to sell or visiting Ranui or Castlewood to let our lights shine in the community.

What's happening Week Six?

Congratulations to everyone for a wonderful assembly on Friday.  It was wonderful to see so many of you join us.

Congratulations too, to Helen and Shane Ryan who welcomed Tommy Kevin to their family on Saturday - Shane, the amazing cricket coach was even out with his team first thing in the morning.  Wow, we have some awesome cricketers in the making.  Thanks to all the parents who come along to support their efforts and support Shane.

There were some exceptional performances at the triathlon - congratulations Ella, trainer wheels off the night before and riding like a real pro. It was fantastic to see how independent everyone was - the training paid off. Good job, Room 3 - very proud of you all.

This week is the "testing week" for years 3 to 8 with PAT tests.  Year 3 sit a listening comprehension test which they completed in Room 4 and I have scored these today.  This test gives us information about how well we comprehend oral information.  Year 4 have 4 tests to sit, so to give test conditions in Room 4, we have had all of year 2 and 3 for literacy.  The theme is Fairy Tales and we have read, viewed, written and performed fairy tales. Books to read at home have come from browse boxes this week.

I have also had a release day to begin the testing process for report writing. For those people who have turned 6 since January, the six year nets have been completed and I am happy to share the actual test papers for those people who would like to see. This gives excellent information about where to next for reading and writing. I have also completed the maths assessment and am now working on the running records for everyone due a report.
We welcomed our Mrs Donaldson to release me and she has made a fantastic Lent Tree with the children.

Next Friday the staff are attending a course in Dunedin.  The school will be open and children will be attending the 12:00 Mass with relievers, but if you are intending to include the Friday in the long weekend, could you please let the office or myself know so that we can arrange sufficient relievers.  This would be appreciated by Friday if possible.

Walk and Wheel Week

A great start today with lots of people biking.  We need to record how each person comes to school for a week.  Our results for today were so much better than when we took a snapshot last Wednesday.  This Wednesday is the day that really counts for inter school prizes, so let's all try to either walk, bike or scooter to school on that day.
We can do it!!

What's Happening Week Five?

Great to see so many on their bikes today.  We practised running, biking and the run/bike transition in a patch of brighter weather, so that everyone should know what to do on Thursday. We will be training again tomorrow weather permitting.

Discovery Time: The theme this week is "little acts of kindness" - this sits well with the beginning of Lent and also with our value of compassion for this term.  What ideas does your child have? - we did talk briefly at reflection time last Thursday. We will plan the activities tomorrow, but as the Triathlon is on Thursday, the Discovery Time will be next Thursday.  Thank you Sue Bridges for your help with the "all things water" last week.

Ash Wednesday:  We will be attending mass at 9:15 in the church.  Please come and help us celebrate the beginning of this special season in the church calendar.

Thursday 6th: A visitor from CARITAS will be speaking to us in the morning and we will head for the triathlon at 12:10 by bus. School sports gear should be worn - no uniforms today. Please be sure to have your child's bike at the Molyneux Aquatic Centre by 12:20.  Hi viz jackets should be worn on the run and bike leg of this event. We have one parent who has indicated that they are available to marshal - we do need more if we are going to be able to run this event.  Make sure that your child has warm clothing to put on after they are changed from their swim. Parents are able to take their children home directly from the event - please let me know before you leave.

Friday 7th Our Assembly: We are the host class at 2:10 in the hall. We are putting together a mime of a Gospel story and will share some singing and work that we have done.  It would be great to see you there.
Mr Milford will be working with us on bus safety on Friday morning.

I hope that those of you who want to be notified of any posts, have added your email addresses to the gadget at the top of this blog page.  Looks very easy now that it's there. I would be interested to hear whether it is working, as I decided to use the blog to notify everyone about Shane's cricket information, as well as by hard copy note.