Week 1 Term 3

From the chatter today I gather that everyone has had a very enjoyable holiday, with birthdays, visits to grandparents, Mary Poppins, swimming and ice skating to name a few. My holiday was fairly busy as "Granny" with my daughter and her 3 boys home - the youngest being 6 month old twins - super to have them here, but great to get a night's sleep before school starts.

Although this term is only 9 weeks, it is packed full.

Some dates for your calendars:
Thursday 28th July - Blossom Festival Float Meeting 3pm in Room 2. We need plenty of support please. Let Julie know if you are interested in helping but can't attend.
Monday and Tuesday next week Ice Skating catch up days. Monday 10 -11am, Tuesday 9 - 10 am, the bus will leave from school at 8:55am, so we will need extra hands to get skates on quickly. Please note the change of time for Tuesday.
Wednesday 10th August: school cross country pm. We need parents, grandparents or friends of the school to assist as marshals along the course please.  Without this support we are unable to run this event in the environment beside the Rail Trail. Please let me know if you are available to assist.
Saturday 13th August: Parish Family Mass - meal at 5pm, mass at 6pm
Sunday 28th August: School Mass 9am
Wednesday 7th - Friday 9th September: Years 3 & 4 camp in Dunedin. Staying at Tahuna Park Chalet Wednesday night, then arriving 10am on Thursday for the marae experience at Otakou, down the Otago Peninsula. Our learning this term will be preparation for this visit, understanding marae protocol, preparing for and participating in a powhiri (welcome onto the marae), and being able to confidently introduce ourselves in te reo, by knowing our mihimihi.
Monday 12th September: School Photos
Friday 16th September: Rooms 3 & 4 assembly - camp sharing
Monday 19th September: Singing Eisteddfods

School Uniform:
As we will be focusing on getting fit "Going For Gold" as we train for the school cross country, sports uniforms are to be worn to school each day.  This means green track pants and runners.  Boys if you are choosing to wear the ordinary uniform, then you need to wear school shoes and bring runners to change in to.  The cross country is the perfect event to put into practice the term's school value of commitment.

Homework

1. Reading: complete your reading log. Sunshine-on-line is there to use. This term we will be using the "Reading Box" from the Education Centre. The test to level children was completed today, and once we have all learned how to independently use this, we will use these texts as part of our reading programme  The exciting thing about this resource is that each card is of a different text type, so everyone is being exposed to a wide variety of genre to practise their reading skills on - something that is required as we move from 'learning to read' to 'reading to learn'. Feel free to pop in and have your child explain how this resource works. Instructional reading groups will still be part of the programme, but not on a daily basis for all groups. It was great to see that the class was excited to see this resource, as they remembered having a similar box last year.
2. Spelling: long 'o' - this was the list from the last week of term 2 - please use this again as we did not have time to test or complete the follow up class work with week 10 being so busy, and eisteddfods taking so long to hear.
3. Cross Country Training: make time to have at least one run during the week.  Meet a friend and run the school field. Remember that the hill by the playground is great to practise running up hill.
4. Maths: check out what Mrs Waldron has set on Study Ladder.  There are also maths texts in Sunshine-on-line

Whew - there really is lots of learning to happen this term. We need to support each other and practise commitment to do the best we can. 

Remember to email or pop in if you have any worries.