Week 1 done & dusted in Room 7

 Yay - go Room 7. Totara Syndicate have  a new initiative - for the tidiest cloak bay. Guess who won the trophy? Yes - Room 7. Go the lil champs!!!!

Alex holding the trophy!

The famous CAUGHT YA box. 

Kia ora - and wow what a week! Ended on a wild windy note! But the children were awesome!
A wonderful start from Alex - Alex Room 7 are just loving having you in our class. How neat to see that you have made some cool friends - and to see Room 7 being so helpful to you. From Michelle helping you make a sock puppet & pic collage for pet day to Mitchell exchanging phone numbers for you to have a play-date. So nice to see this happening!

You may have heard your child talk about a NZ author that they have chosen to do their author study on. We are doing this for our library activity this term...(it will also fit nicely into our reading times..)

Here is the website for the NZ author information help - fab site!http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/kids/childrensauthors/

Recording what NZ author the children have chosen to study. 

Some great authors.

Here is the website for the NZ author information help - fab site!
http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/kids/childrensauthors/

Michelle reading her entry in Cuddles diary. 

Our inquiry unit - Litter Free Lunches. Below are photos of the children using a timeline to place various materials (waste) on to show how long they material takes to break down.
Ask your child if they can tell you how many weeks or years it takes the various materials to break down. The children did a timeline on their own & we had a challenge to see who could get the most correct (out of 15 items).

A paper bag - how many years to break down?

A leather shoe - how long to break down?

An orange peel, plastic covered juice box - how long to break down?

In order from the less amount of time to break down - starting with a banana peel (so going right to left...)

The timeline continues (right to left...)

Timeline (right to left)

Timeline (right to left)

Timeline (right to left)....ending with a glass bottle!

Below are some photos of the children sharing their writing. A big thing I promote to the children about their writing is that,  at times they are writing for an audience - this gives the children a purpose for their writing.

Michell, Monet, Schalk & Bailey sharing their writing. 

Amy, Archie L, Isaac & Ruby M sharing their writing. 

Ruby L, Lachie, Oscar & Shkhan sharing their writing.

Mitchell, Sam, Boston, George & Claudia sharing their writing. 

Alex, Sepp, Tahirih & Bella sharing their writing. 

Grace, Giselle, Caitlin & Cameron sharing their writing. 

Archie S, Theo, Koby & Emma sharing their writing. 

BUSY writing bees...

Red dictionary in action!

Alex - welcome!

Pep talk with Kid President...

Tuesday - today we finished reading Christian the Lion - here is a clip to show you about him (get the tissues!!!)..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDZaWgf_bk0

Hello - this is a great one for the beginning of the term - friends!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCtVlNcmCgw

And....a big welcome to Alex who has joined our class. Alex is a year 4 student. Once again I was very proud of Room 7 today, the children made Alex very welcome.

A few reminders - with the days becoming warmer: Water, water, water - please give your child a bottle of water each day to bring to school.
Sunhat - the Greytown School sunhat.
I'm aware that some children are coming to the end of some of their exercise books - please don't buy them new books as we can use up some of their other exercise books.

Have a fab week!!!!
Rachel

Welcome to TERM 4....

A busy but exciting term ahead - several things to look forward to:
 1) Pet Day = Wednesday 22nd October (school finishes at 12.30pm) a fun morning to come along to. Lots of animals, plus art will be displayed in the hall. Come & visit me while I help out with the lambs, (hehe).
2) Labour Day - Monday 27th October.
3) School photos (30th October)
4) School Athletics Day = Tuesday, 11th November.

Our inquiry unit this term follows on from the end of term 3, "Litter free lunch"

Check out this awesome website - which shows you how to creat things from junk to TREASURE!!!
http://www.kidactivities.net/category/Crafts-Recycled-Materials.aspx

 For maths we will be looking at fractions - I like this use of lego:

The famous joke book. Below are 3 photos displaying the order forms for the joke book. Thank you to the people who bought a joke book. This has been a good exercise for 1) Shkhan & 2) the class. As you can see Shkhan wrote in some of the orders (good to learn how to fill in a form properly) & he had a lesson in maths counting up the money.

All up he made $32. The gorilla is now on order ;)

The business plan - put together by the class with my help.

Lastly I'd like to pay our respects to Koby and his family. Koby's dear Poppa "his hero" passed away on the Monday of the 2nd week. I am thinking of the family a lot and I know Super SHARP 7 will look after their classmate Koby on his return. AROHANUI.

I will see you all soon - bright & early on Monday ;) Rachel

A nice rainy Saturday holiday afternoon...

Hi all,
I would like to say a BIG thank you to those of you who sent in some comments for me to use in my own teacher inquiry.
Here are some snaps of the Keynote I presented. I shared the Keynote with the children - and they were wonderful in helping me overcome my nerves. (Bella was awesome, she was the one to suggest that I do my talk to the class so I could practice it before presenting to the staff). =) yay!

Reading Eggs - free trial...

Here's to some holiday reading....click on this link and give it a go!
http://readingeggs.co.nz/readsn/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=Spec-D-4-IV-6alt&utm_campaign=MR-FB-REGGS-NZ

Five tips to help your child's reading ability

Tell: children words and expressions but also make sure they are able to frequently try out new language.

Read: aloud and often to your children and give them time to think over what they have heard.

Ask: closed questions (with one-word answers) and open questions when reading with your children.

Encourage: them to retell their favourite stories from books.

Share: the joy of rhyming - laugh together, predict what might come next.

- Source: Duffy Books in Homes

Enjoy the holidays...

Reminder of this: 3 children from Room 7 have their art in it:

Add caption

Here we are Greytown School with our 3 Room 7 pieces =)

Love love this - thanks Archie S... I AM STRONGER...Will.I.Am & Sesame Street.
https://mail.google.com/mail/ca/u/0/#inbox/148ae64cba489e11?projector=1


A really good last week for term 3 in Room 7 - your children did a fab job with their sock puppets. Can't wait to have them displayed for PET DAY..they have named & written a little piece about their sock puppet.

Some adult reading over the holidays...re: What the children in Room 7 do
http://www.dailygood.org/story/863/5-ways-science-says-kindness-will-change-your-life-birju-pandya/
Here are some pics of our homework AUCTION $ prizes, sock puppet making & top diggity title pages for topic - great photography Ruby M.

Keep NZ Beautiful Week!

On Thursday 25th September Greytown School is
helping to keep NZ Beautiful.
Each syndicate has an area of Greytown where they
will pick up rubbish. All children will wear gloves
while they are doing the collection.
It would be wonderful if parents can help out also. If
you are available please contact your child’s teacher
to find out what time they will be doing their clean
up.