Week 9 - 31st March - 4th April

Hello & welcome to week 9 in Super SHARP seven,

ONE excited teacher - thank you to the 13 children who entered the Learning Support colouring competition. Because of this I went in a draw & won a night at the White Swan - deluxe package!
Pretty thrilling for me - & the children  have suggested I take Batman =)
Thanks to Koby's wonderful Movie World photos & the fantastic Batman pics! (hehe we had a bit of a laugh about Batman & that Batman could go for dinner with Miss Burt to the White Swan).

Koby showing us his Batman cape. Koby kept a great journal while he was away. I read it to the class on Friday, we enjoyed the photos. Lots of oohs & aahs at the adventures of the Dennes family. Miss Burt was a little envious of the photo shoot of Koby & Ceejay lying by the pool! How nice! Great to have you back Koby.
I must say R7 were so gorgeous on the afternoon Koby surprised us with his return...the children were very excited that he was back. One wee boy even made a sign welcoming Koby back.

DATE  FOR  THE  DIARY!
Greytown School Cross Country to be held (earlier than usual)....Tuesday 6th May at Barton's farm - more information will be given nearer the time. Bear in mind this date is the 1st week back for term 2. We will be doing training at school - but any you do at home would be brilliant! 

Library day is Thursday - we're having a high success rate of children remembering library day - sitting at around 96%. 

Headlice
It appears headlice are enjoying themselves in R7. I have sent a notice out previously & have also talked to the children. I'm quiet vigilant about when the children sit closely together on the mat, we've talked about making sure our heads don't touch. We had a good discussion about headlice & the children were quite knowledgeable. Brought up a good discussion on the lifecycle.
Could you please check your child's hair. This is a good remedy: (hopefully!!).

• Use a lice comb to manually remove lice and their eggs. Coating the hair in conditioner & then running a lice comb through. Use a tissue to wipe the comb on - you will then see any eggs/lice. 

Thank you for this - and I know they're a pain (having a daughter with lovely long hair). 

Zumba - each Friday we have a Zumba session in the hall. We attended Zumba 2 weeks ago & R7 appeared to really enjoy this (99%). I videoed the children & I watched it again yesterday - great fun! If you ever want to see this just ask me & I'll show you on the ipad. 

MOVING MARCH - did you ask your child what they knew about Moving March?

We had some great discussion about this - as you can see from the photos - some fab art work too. 

Moving March posters by R7 - they got hung outside to make a long mural for Enviroschools. The posters represented what the children saw, heard, smelt or felt when they walked, scootered, biked, ran, skateboarded or caught the bus to school. 

Moving March Maths - tally chart to go with discussion about how children in R7 got to school on a) Monday & then b) Thursday - great to see a difference on Thursday. 

Pair work - Moving March.

What a stunning busy working class. 

Tahirih & Grace's Moving March poster - gorgeous - look at all the things the girls saw & heard on their way to school.
Look at the hair - this is what they felt - the wind in their hair! Fabulous!!

 Narrative writing - we have started preparing for narrative writing. You may have heard your child talking about fun writing. (This was previously called personal writing). Well - this has taken off with a hiss & a roar. The idea behind this fun writing book - is just that to make writing FUN! This book will be used during our writing rotation BUT I have told the children it can be written in at other times eg: b4 school - during wet breaks etc... At the front of the book there is space for the children to write down any ideas (we did a big brainstorm of ALL THE TYPES of writing we could do) big list hanging from the ceiling in the classroom....EG: Revolting recipes, a letter to someone we love, a crazy poem, a comic strip, roll the dice to get the character/setting/theme, choose a letter & write down numerous things to go with that letter.
I also have set up a writing corner with lots & lots of things for the children to use to get them writing - from story starters to pictures to comic strips....
We did an awesome activity the other day (what I call a 'hotspot' - to get the children writing like a warm up). I explained they would have a time limit to complete a story starter...4mins - complete the starter..eg: I was walking in the deep dark woods, I came across a big haunted house, I opened the door and... "go - 4 minutes writing" - then we did 3 minutes (with a different story starter) then 2 minutes, 1 minute THEN 30 SECONDS!!! Wow we got some awesome writing - and laughs! Each time I modelled an idea (bit of drama involved to spice things up).

They then shared these a) as 1-1 with the class and b) in pairs.
Now this book is free writing and won't be picked up so much for spelling. They are encouraged to use their red dictionary - and self check. Their more formal writing book will be where the spelling is picked up/proof reading is done.

SUPER SHARP 7  - Cameron & Archie S - SHARP winners for the last couple of weeks.

Thank you birthday girl Monet - for the BEST EVER chocolate cake Miss Burt has ever tasted. R7 really enjoyed this gluten/dairy free cake =)

Things like this MAKE MY DAY! Just precious. I was given a grass sword & some nun chucks...(I had to google nun chucks) hehe! 

Sweet sweet sweet - our lil baby blue Marco - graced R7 with his presence last week. Proud big sister Giselle & Mummy Nicole. Oscar got some wonderful photos on the Ipad - lovely to see the R7 faces looking at Marco.

This is how you do the big sister thing =) Giselle & Marco.

1 to end this blog post off - Who is hiding behind the masks??? And it's not Ted or Cuddles =)

Have a great week!!! and remember to 'pass the kindness'.......

Oh and p.s. R7 are hosting syndicate assembly on Tuesday - we will show the other classes our wonderful Cuddles slideshow & the idea behind Cuddles. We have our fantastic river connecting/individual art work to share. We will be singing the Happy song - link 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt4qZgghw20

Website for writing the children like

Hello - here is a writing site I showed the children today - they liked it...give it a go at home:
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/story-starters/index.html

And....this song for our syndicate assembly we are hosting on Tuesday =)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIgRTPglVaI&safe=active

Week 8. 24 - 28th March

 Kia ora & welcome to week 8 in Room 7.


I hope you have all have had a fantastic week - Room 7 had another busy bee one.
Thanks to all the children for wearing mufti on Thursday and raising over $500 for Lachie's little sister Lily who will be having her 2nd cochlear implant. I have some gorgeous photos of your cherubs wearing their mufti clothes:

A wig even! The new BIG SISTER Giselle shows us all how to wear a wig =) The children thought it was all quite hilarious!

Butter wouldn't melt! I love this photo we had been working in pairs discussing our interests.

Inquiry - READY, SET, Go.
As part of our inquiry unit we had some fantastic discussion on our interests - what they are - why it's important to have interests. We discussed that our interests make us "special, unique & join us with other people" - We had a question "Can we have the same interests?".
This led into us looking at our place in the world. We start with 'me' - our circle moves out into our family/extended family ----> our community (what is community?)--------->The world.

I have been impressed at the childrens' ability of talking in pairs (a good way to get information shared) and then to come back as a whole class & share those discussions & ideas.

25 nights reading: 

Woop-te-woo - big excitement!!

We have 10 children who have celebrated at home reaching 25 nights of reading in their reading log. Well done to Caitlin, Lachie, Cameron, Tahirih, Giselle, Monet, Sepp, Boston, Ruby M & Shkhan. 

When your child reaches the 25 nights at home - can you please put the sticker in and sign the part in the reading log - make a bit of a fuss (do the 25 nights dance!!)...then at school the children get a mention - their name on the STAR chart & a 'caught ya SHARP ticket'.

I was pretty proud of Room 7 - Caitlin was the 1st person to be mentioned for reaching 25 nights reading at our syndicate assembly. 

MOVING MARCH......This is being celebrated this week - what is moving March?? Ask your child & see if they can tell you =)

A big congratulations to Boston & Mitchell who are part of the walking club. Every Friday morning you will see these 2 boys outside the office stamping the cards of those children who walk, bus, scooter or bike to school. 

Interesting news: Each day we have 2 children share news - we do this on a roster system. This week we had Ruby M who had written a fab story - she shared this with the class and then had a turn on an ipad to use puppet pals (app) to turn her story into a short clip. Ruby, Caitlin, Tahirih & Claudia did this very well - sound effects included. If you have an ipad I would suggest you get this app - it's a great app for encouraging your child to invent their own storylines. 

And...I loved George's news this week (photos & all) one of their cows giving birth to a calf. The children were fascinated by the photos - thank you for those George's mum =)

Bailey & Mitchell the warriors - wow their Grandad visited them from Fiji and look what he brought them ...worth going through Customs for =)

Very exciting for Giselle - the NEW BIG SISTER - welcome to our world Giselle's little brother Marco =)
Thanks for sharing the photos of Marco. Just gorgeous!

Cuddles adventures with Miss Burt - Cuddles came home with me on Wednesday night - well we had fun. Shopping at Fresh Choice - & who did we see but Mrs Lyford. 

Cuddles got to meet my own special bunny rabbit - only 42 years old!!!!!

Well well well - look what I caught Cuddles doing - he sneaked into my little stash of Easter Eggs!! Oh what happens when one takes the class rabbit home! 

Ruby sharing  her 'The ugly giant' story book

Week 7 - term 1

Kia ora,
On Monday I won't be in class as I am attending an ipad course (using the ipad as an educational tool) . Mrs Clark will be in Room 7 on Monday, Rebecca is a lovely teacher whom the children have met before. Mrs Clark used to teach at Greytown School & is now a reliever.

Thank you for coming to your child's goal setting. I look forward to seeing the goals being reached.

We ended Friday with a quick Golden Time where the children played the chocolate game.
As you can see by the photos the children had FUN!

Sam rolled a 6 - quick cut that chocolate!!

Tahirih (in dress up) mmmm that's a 6 for you!

Ruby L's turn =)

Lachie looking fab - just before someone else rolled a 6

Much excitement!!!!!!

Library day - is THURSDAY - 98% of the children remembered to have their books last Thursday - yippee i o! They are just fab-ulous!!!!!
I forgot to mention the last 2 SHARP winners...Grace for having Pride in her work & Ruby L for showing Respect.
Ruby L chose the SHARP reward of 30 minutes free laptop/ipad time with a friend. And Grace has chosen NO HOMEWORK for a week =)
It's pretty hard to pick 1 SHARP student per week as I could have at least 29 =) I do award certificates throughout the week for a little show & tell of the childrens work. Lots of children have gone up in their basic facts - so that's just awesome! THANKS to the fantastic Jenni Lambert who comes in on Friday mornings & helps to test the children on their basic facts..I try to do a large lot of testing on Thursday - it depends how we're going. 

We started writing our next descriptions on the laptops - a lot of learning here...1. Typing on the laptops (word processing, font size, titles etc...) 2. Saving to the server or memory stick. Look at these busy bees: 

Cuddles our class rabbit has been having some EXCITING times at the children's houses = FANCY DANCY going up in a hot air balloon the other day when he stayed at Archie L's house!
And an email picture of Cuddles eating out of a fancy named bowl at the Parker Boys house - gee Cuddles you lead a more exciting life than me.
And then - staying at Sam's house - pirates & carrots & all:

Here's a couple of websites that the children have been using in class & enjoy:

Wacky Web is a fun writing tool - I use it with my own daughter (to write & read). 
Wacky Web Tales - for fun writing using parts of speech

Freerice - which has maths & English (good for vocab help)
http://freerice.com/#/basic-math-pre-algebra/16879

Have a great weekend - and I will see you on Tuesday.
Rachel 

WEEK 6 - room 7 - term 1!

Week 6 - no way! How fast is the time flying.

This week on Wednesday & Thursday are the childrens' goal setting interviews - 10 minutes per child.
We have spent the last day or so writing our goals - not an easy task for some children.
The focus was for your child to come up with something they wanted to get better at for writing, reading, maths and behaviour.
We had some fantastic discussion - talking about whether their goal would be achievable by mid-term.
Lots of rewording & rewriting.
Your child had to think about how they could achieve their goals. The question being "What will you do to get better at...."

Giselle, Caitlin & Ruby busy writing their goals =)

Claudia & Emma thinking .......working in pairs "Goal setting"

The boys - what better place to write our goals..but under the bench ;)

Koby & I think this is George - goal setting.

Bailey & Sam - heads down!

Discussing what they are going to write - Grace & Bella

Ruby L & Amy - busy bees!

Lachie & Isaac - what have you got for your goal?

Michelle very busy writing...

OUR TOY BOX came in handy for the wet playtimes we had last week.

The girls & the box of fantastic dolls we were given.

Tahirih & Ruby M SUPER SHARP 7 - during a wet playtime last week.

Giselle making a lovely card during a wet playtime

The boys playing draughts...Schalk & Isaac (or is it Cameron?)

YAY LOOK at all the children who went up steps on the basic facts ladder - wow!

Super sharp 7 children in the background - the meaning behind the river/pastel artworks the children have done.

 

 

I hope you have all had a happy & safe weekend.
Here's to a great week 6 - Miss Burt

Fun swimming meet cancelled

Due to the weather our fun swimming meet that was meant to be held tomorrow (Thursday) is cancelled.
A notice went home today with all the children.

Swimming postponed

Hi all - swimming fun meet is now on this THURSDAY - same time & same place!!!!!!!