Discovery Week 5

This week we were blessed with some sun, so we opened the doors of the sports shed and got out lots of gear. First we just played for 10 minutes then we became creative and designed new ways to use things. Following our designing and setting up we shared our ideas with each other & played the games. Consensus was that it was lots of FUN!!

I will upload more when they download - seems to have gone on strike! Wheel of death spinning!

Here we are planning with our buddies.

 No hoops left - let's use chalk!

Children said:

• we worked well together
• we listened to each others ideas
• everyone shared their rules clearly
• played lots of different games that used the same 'stuff' 
• we had lots of fun

And "Yes Mrs Laidlaw and Mr Yeoman, we have left the sports shed really tidy!"

Fundraising Meeting - Room 5 7pm Wednesday 31st

This meeting is for parents who are wishing to fundraise for upcoming camps. Money raised can be carried over to camps for early 2018 as well as for the camps this year. This meeting is an opportunity to generate ideas as well as to commit to taking part.  If you are unable to attend, please let me know if you are interested in fundraising and I will pass your names on.

Pyjamas for Swimming

The last day of swimming on Thursday requires all children to bring some pyjamas to wear over the top of their togs in the pool. Getting the feel of being in water with clothing on will be part of this last lesson.  It has been wonderful to watch how much more confident so many of the students are.  We still have the issue though of some children needing to self manage when in the pool, so that they keep their eyes above the water and their ears switched on to the instructor.  A quick reminder that this is very important - especially when we all want to take part in the fun activities for the last day.

Week 5 Term 2

Great to see those of you who were able to attend, at mass this morning. Special thank you to those people who then had to whizz to Cromwell for hockey - Sundays are busy days now, but what a beauty it was to be out in the sun.  Thank you for being our Prayer of the Faithful reader, Pippa.

Thank you to everyone who helped at the Working Bee on Saturday - the grounds look fantastic and all the bushes are trimmed back into shape with no risk of those sharp thorns in bare feet. The seats have been repainted and should be dry, ready for use on Monday.

This week we have the last water safety swimming skills. We have all learned lots of new things, many of which I hope we never have to put into practice for example, "what to do in a tsunami!"

Next Monday is Queen's Birthday Weekend - have a extra sleep in!. We all need to be wearing our winter uniforms after the end of this week.

Ms Bennett and I will be on CRT release on Wednesday morning and Mr Hogue will be teaching science in Room 3.

Homework

1. Reading: thank you to those people who have been using the Reading Log for wee messages - yes it is a good way to keep in touch. If you are reading your own chapter books, don't forget to jot down your reading.
2. Spelling: This week our focus is the long 'i' spelling pattern. Some people are noticing the long vowel spelling patterns in what they are reading - great to see the connections being made.  My BIG goal for this term is to see evidence of this learning transfer into the writing books, with sampling resulting in correct spelling.

We are all working on being great TEAM members in Room 3 as we put "Living In Harmony" into action.

This also is a great motto for all the sports teams that we are involved in - we do so much better if we all feel encouraged and valued.

Pink Shirt Day

WOW! Thank you everyone for the wonderful outfits.  Lots of smiles and a fun day.

 Whole school Jump Jam after the parade.

 The Pink Picnic.

 Fancy fan serviettes - table decoration

 The pink school at assembly

Week 4 Term 2

Gosh nearly half way through the term already.

Wonderful to have almost all the homework books and reading logs in each week - keep this up.
This week we are continuing to work on writing narratives which have an opening, introducing the characters and setting the scene, have a problem (or two), and an interesting ending. If you are reading to your child at home, make a point of talking about this structure and look at how the characters are introduced and the setting described.  We have done quite a bit of this before we started writing. It is exciting to see how everyone is stepping up to the challenge of this, while still being mindful of using the 'wow' words and a variety of sentence starts that we worked on last term.
Swimming: Tuesday and Thursday - what a lot of essential water safety skills we have learned over the last 3 weeks. Congratulations to Pippa who even managed to swim 18?? lengths of the main pool - that is just amazing. (let me know if I haven't got this correct) and Tara 10???
Wednesday will see Mrs Cooney joining Mrs Laidlaw to lead Discovery Time.  I will be at Reading Recovery training and Ms Bennett works in Room 5 each afternoon now. Jada is looking forward to having Granny as her teacher.
Friday is PINK SHIRT DAY watch the newsletter for information about this from our school Sticks'nStones Group.
School Mass - this Sunday 28th May. Please be seated with your class at 8:55am. Dress is school uniform. Please bring a plate to share for morning tea and an item for the community food bank.
Maori/Pasifika Hui: Wednesday 28th June - if your child is on our maori/pasifika roll, please pencil this date in on your calendar. Will start with kai at 5:30 with the hui to follow.

Homework

1. Reading: every night - don't forget to record your reading in your log. We are all working on precise comprehension of texts -  page 19 in the Reading Log books has some great ideas to help with this. Another excellent page to look at is the list of words on page 41, which are the most commonly encountered words in reading.
2. Spelling: we continue to learn the spelling patterns for the 'long e' sound. The sheet to practise on is glued into homework books. A few low scores in last week's testing and no practice done at home.  Step this up!
3. Mathe: check out Ms Bennett's post.
4. Eisteddfod - Poetry this term.

Fun with Number Patterns

This week we have had a lot of fun as we began our multiplication/division work.  Whole class teaching has allowed every child to be fully involved in every teaching session. We have identified the pattern of numbers as we counted in threes and this has helped us with our 3x table.  A Loopy game has proved to be very popular and we're getting faster and faster at it.  You Tube is a great source of times tables clips and the children are loving participating in these.  Although some children may have rote learned certain times tables, it is important that they know how to retrieve and use individual components and how to apply their knowledge to word problems etc.  Your support at home with Studyladder and the maths site I posted, along with You Tube is appreciated.  Thank you.

Any Creative Hands Out There?

Just wondering if there were a couple of mums who would like to display the artworks that we have been making - autumn leaves.  We did observational drawings and are beginning to get the dye on them. Looked a fabulous idea in a book BUT after having a play with one on Friday I see several hours of work to get these done looking good. Time is something that I don't have this term as I take on extra work with Trina away, and our kids deserve to have their art looking really amazing.

This is what each artwork needs to look like. You cut the sides off with the guillotine (which I discovered didn't cut quite straight - was probably me), then chop off the corners and place on black paper.

Liam's beautiful work that I had a try with - short of time so stapled which isn't so effective, so will need glued, and the bottom piece is wonky which really annoys me.

We have poetry to go with these and as I am a perfectionist I would struggle to see the art looking like this on the wall. Your children have made stunning jobs of these, so they need the best display.

Hoping I have somebodies who might help with this.  As we are taking our time, to make  our best effort, only 1/3 of the class have completely finished. So not urgent.

Discovery Week 3

This week Room 3 had Discovery alone as Room 7 were learning science with Mr Hogue.

We were the experts and decided on our activities - some of us teaching others new skills.  Thank you Mrs Ballantyne for the octopus, Regina for the gardening and Mrs Baxter for the seed sorting and gathering.

A selection of photos of us at work.

Multiplication and Division

Hi everyone, I hope every Motherly person has enjoyed a lovely day with family.  I loved hearing from my children and grandchildren, and Rick and I had a beautiful Mothers Day lunch at Paulina's in Clyde.
This week we begin to work on multiplication and division.  There are lots of great activities on Studyladder and I recommend making a habit of working on these.  Another really good website is http://www.helpingwithmath.com look for multiplication and division.  There are charts for the times tables and although multiplication is commutative i.e. it doesn't matter which way around you say it, the answer is the same 3x5 is the same as 5x3, I would prefer to use the charts that list 1x5=5 2x5=10 3x5=15 because that fits best with the idea of 1 lot of 5, 2 lots of 5, 3 lots of 5.  Children begin to understand multiplication through repeated addition, before they become aware that multiplication is binary, involving two numbers.  They may see it as 5+5+5 rather than 3x5.
Thanks, Rosalie.

Year 4 Sacramental Programme

A reminder that the first parent meeting to prepare for Reconciliation will be on Thursday
at 7pm .

Week 2 Term 2

Swimming groups were sorted quickly last week and the new emphasis programme began.  This year as well as teaching the basic swimming skills there is water safety teaching which is part of the programme. Please talk to your child about what they have learned each day.  As they are all in different groups the 'water safety' component may be a little different.
Bus costs can be sent to the office in a named envelope. $10 per child please.
Lunches on Thursdays. Please no lunch orders.  I will deliver sausages to the pool as I swap with Ms Bennett at 12:45. It is difficult to sort through all the pie warmers so no pie warmers please. We were very hungry on Thursday after our lesson, so maybe some extra food could be packed.

Uniform: No kilts Tuesday and Thursday girls. A reminder that sports uniform does not include wearing your favourite sweat shirt, which was the case for one or two people last week. Netball girls - you may wear your sports uniform on Wednesdays, too, with your netball shoes. A reminder that netball practice is at 1pm on Wednesday lunch times. We are encouraging the girls to eat quickly and I will make sure that they are not delayed in the classroom, will try to have them eating by 12:45. Thank you Mrs Donaldson and Mrs Breen for giving up your time to coach these girls - we had really excited people after the first practice last week. All girls have been given contact numbers for their coaches and need to remember their responsibility when BELONGING to a team. If you can't make practice or the game on a Saturday, please ring the coach as soon as you can. Are there a couple of people able to assist these wonderful coaches on a Saturday morning as team managers? Please contact Kate or Vanessa.

Science: Last term Mrs Flannery released teachers and taught Digital Technology in the classroom. This term we are lucky to have Mr Hogue back with us, and his passion is Science, especially hands on science learning. The first session will be Wednesday morning. This will be a perfect opportunity for us to practise our self management skills, so that we can all learn without interruptions.

Discovery: Despite the weather turning pretty wintery last week (theme = Autumn, weather = winter), we enjoyed our first Wednesday afternoon Discovery session with Room 7. It would be fantastic if we could have some parents assist with this.  The commitment does not have to be for the term, we would be happy to have a roster. If we have parent support we will be able to offer a wider range of activities.  This week it would be fabulous to have another pair of hands as we need to tie ribbon - a skill that will be a challenge for some.

Religious Education: Our class will be leading Monday morning prayer in the church in Week 5, 29th May, and leading the Wednesday Parish Mass Week 6, 7th June (after Queens Birthday weekend). Pop these dates on your calendar as we would love you to join us at these celebrations.

This week I will not be in the classroom on Wednesday or Thursday mornings.

Homework

Reading: Be sure that you take a book home every night from your browse box. If you are enjoying reading a chapter book of your own or from the town library, don't forget to record this reading in your log. I hope it was just a 'getting back into school week' last week, as there was not much reading recorded in logs.  I do keep track of this each week.  As you have 'sunshine on line' paid for by the PTA, using books from here is great to put in your reading log. It's a bit like riding a bike - the more you practise the better you get, so if there is no practice it is quite a challenge to get improvement. Please make this a priority each night this term.

Spelling: We continue to work on the 'long a spelling pattern'. Last week we learned what the spelling patterns were, then on Friday we learned how to use our knowledge of the different spelling patterns to sample words, then as good readers look carefully at the words we have written and find the one that looks right. This is the skill that I am expecting to see transferred into writing books this term, as well as using our sound lines to record the sounds of a word in order, when we are trying to write words that are not words that we know and can write. We will be practising this as part of the classroom programme. Establishing this skill is my Spelling Goal for term 2. If this sounds confusing I am happy to talk to you about this - it's definitely easier to show how this works. I have edited this paragraph several times to make it as clear as possible to understand. There is spelling to be done every night. 

Swimming: Organise togs each Tuesday & Thursday (and take them home again each day). There are still some at school since last Thursday.

Have a great week - keep working on those skills you need to be great learners. Listening to teaching and instructions, and self managing our actions. The listening one is especially for some people in the swimming lessons. Staying above the water to listen is very important!

Autumn Writing

This week we have been writing using our 5 senses.  We were lucky to get out to experience Autumn and the  wonderful leaves when it was lovely on Tuesday.  Here are some photos of looking and listening before we got to and played.  Clearly not in any particular order.

 Total concentration as we took notes of what we saw and heard.  We all enjoyed being out in God's wonderful creation. What a celebration Autumn is.

Discovery - Rooms 3 & 7

Today was the first afternoon of Discovery with the theme "Autumn". A few pictures of the environmental art that we did - under the verandahs as the rain came just as we had collected our treasures. Following this the children chose to either do leaf rubbings or God's eyes for the last part of the session.  Lots of fun. As it was a choice there was even one person who chose to continue to write about Autumn.

Just a few of the amazing creations and designs. I love the "fire" that the boys made, a follow on from the "fire leaves" that they found yesterday.  Writing photos will be posted separately. Great learning fun in the Autumn.

Studyladder

Studyladder has some good activities to develop understanding of Location and Transformation. Today we read the story "Going on a Bear Hunt" and then we plotted the long grass, oozy mud etc onto a grid.  The children will finish tomorrow by drawing pathways to get to the bear cave.  They will describe the path taken using the points of the compass.  They worked well on this activity.  Some of the children are still not entirely sure about left and right, so we've been making a bit of a game of this.  We also have a marching chant that hopefully helps with this.  At home, just check that your child is confident and consistent in this knowledge, thanks.  As I've told them, to follow directions you need to know which is which!

Understanding Long 'a'

This term we are looking at the spelling patterns for long vowels. Over the next 2 weeks our vowel is 'a'.  Depending on the level your child is on they will look at words like play, make (we say 'a' split 'e'), famous, eight, rain.  This spelling pattern will be written in the 'to learn' column of the spelling sheet. Be sure that each night when practising their spelling, they say and listen to the sounds and record only 1 sound line for the long 'a' that can be heard.

This is how the spelling tooling looks.

ai	ay	a-e “a split e”	a	eigh
r  ai n	p l ay	m a ke	f a m ou s	eigh t

Keep checking that each letter is written correctly, back to front 'a's are incorrect in a word. Lots of us have "getting our letters correct" as a goal for this term. To achieve this we need to look and check on ourselves.

Uniform On Swimming Days

I omitted to add that on Tuesdays and Thursdays school sports uniforms may be worn. No kilts at the pool please - they are hard to manage and look worse for wear after being tucked up in a bag. School sports uniform consists of: green track pants with sports tee-shirt and school jersey,  white shirt and school jersey (girls) or grey shirt and school jersey (boys)..