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!!!!!!!

Week 5 - Term 1

Kia ora to week 5 in Room 7 - wow the time is flying!!! "Welcome to Autumn."

We have had another very busy week - with the children completing some fantastic artwork - all will be revealed this week ;) The theme behind the artwork is "being connected" which relates well to our topic "Ready Set Go".
The artwork connects us all through a river - yet each picture displays the individual child's personality (interests, things they love & things they relate to  in their own world).

The children have started doing descriptive writing about our class rabbit Cuddles - some beautiful photos. The children were writing about Cuddles as you can see in these photos.

Our birthday wall - and 4 facts about each child. "Who am I?"

The family tree of Room 7

Our homework incentive - auction dollars. Each week the dollars get added here. The children are learning to add their dollars up.

Our class treaty.

Sam - with the nest & eggs the 'chainsaw man, Mr Vuleta' found

Syndicate singing with Ms Stewart - a lovely hot day so we sat outside under the trees.

Our 1st THREE SHARP winners - For Respect & Pride
L-R: Schalk, Bailey & Michelle

Cuddles the bunny had fun at the Parker house - he nibbled carrots & Bailey brought the left overs to show us. 

Ruby Leigh's Mum Angie, reading the class a story in Russian - such laughter!

I love this photo - look at the joy !

Cuddles the subject of our descriptive writing.
Ruby holding Cuddles.

Monet holding Cuddles - Cuddles interrupted Monet while she was busy writing.

Awwww Tamira, Cuddles is loving your big cuddle =)

Shkhan giving Cuddles a lovely cuddle. Having a break while writing his descriptive writing about Cuddles.

This week the children will be working on their individual goals for the first half of the year.
Setting goals can be quite tricky for the children - we talk about what they want to get better at. That's the easy part. They then have to be able to talk about how they are going to achieve their goal.
We will discuss the goals at the 3 way (child, teacher & parent) goal setting meetings that are coming up in week 6.

Last week I introduced a new little 'feel good' reward scheme for the children. We are working on friendships - what is a friend, how we be a good friend and how to maintain being a friend etc...
You will see on the small whiteboard centre a FRIENDSHIP box.
The children are to write down the name of a child who has done something to show 'being a good friend' (& they write what that child did to be a good friend) - at the end of the day we have a draw and the person who's nomination is drawn out get a FRIENDSHIP certificate.
I present the certificate & tell the class what is was that that child did to receive the nomination.
So far we have had some lovely nominations & winners.

I am encouraging the children to help each other out & that even though we are all different we are all ONE group working together in Room 7.

Another little FUN thing I have introduced is; Sam brought in a gorgeous little teddy bear which was to be an auction item. The teddy is so cute & so loved I thought we have to do something else with this lil cutie - SO...each morning lil teddy is hidden somewhere in the classroom & the children come in (& if they remember they have to find him) a bit like "Where's Wally?"

Where's Mr Ted? He's joined our Room 7 family.

Important dates:

This Tuesday - March 4th - OUR FUN swimming meet with Room 6 - SCHOOL POOL - 10.45am onwards. . . picnic 1st lunch - south field. (Winter sports sign up is on at the same time...so our children can sign up - then head out to the picnic).
Our postmonement day is Thursday. . let's have some sunshine.