Week 3 Term 2: 19th May - 23rd May

Kia ora to week 3 in Room 7.
What a gorgeous day on Friday - the children were able to get outside & Zumba away. Here are some photos showing Room 7 (mixed in with several other classrooms) doing Zumba on the turf with Miss P leading.

This Thursday we start our Hockey skills with Sharon Gates from Hockey Wairarapa. We have an hour session per week for 4 weeks. Something for the children to look forward to and experience a new sport.
We have started our Arts Rotation within the syndicate the children were able to choose 1. Garage Band (music making on the laptops) 2. Drama 3. Maori musical instrument making 4. Traditional Maori games 5. Dance Splash.
Ask your child what one they are doing...we are in the beginning stages so a lot to look forward to.

The soccer training has also started on Thursdays...a few children in Room 7 are involved in this and seemed to enjoy their first session last week.

Cross country training is in full swing. The children who are going to interschool head out each day for 15 minutes running with Mrs Jones & Miss J. The children who are not stay with me & we have children from the other classes come in, we are doing a mixture of carrying on with work or we do Just Dance.

Just a note on the Reading Logs - the children have the choice to be reading a book from their book box or a book from home. Some children prefer to read their novel from the library. Please make sure you or your child fills in their log book. We have a mixture of nights having been filled in from 31 nights to 76!! I had a chat to the children yesterday.
The log book is an incentive to read - the children get their sticker for 25, 50, 75 nights etc..Plus we make a bit of a fuss in class and they receive a certificate in syndicate assembly (This Tuesday).

Well done to Koby who was the first to reach 75 nights!!!

SHARP STUDENT!

Our super SHARP student for week 2 was Claudia. Wow Claudia is a fantastic helper within the class. She is always willing to help and is SO RESPONSIBLE! I like the way she shows Respect to the teacher and is always offering a helping hand!

Our SHARP student for week 3 will be chosen based on our SHARP lesson from last week which was 'returning SHARPly back to class after breaks'. Coming back to class and carrying on with work. 

98% of the class do this fantastically - so I might have to put 98% of the names into a hat and draw one out. The other 2% are still needing reminding that when the bell rings - it's back to class and heads down reading - we are getting there!!

SHARP focus for week 3 is:

W.A.L.T:

I can speak nicely/ politely to my peers while always respecting their differences.

It made me day on Wednesday when Shkhan's name got drawn out of the 'caught ya' box to sit in the caught ya chair the next day. Several children clapped & one boy stood up and moved over to Shkhan to pat him on the back. How awesome is that!

Homework this week - sometimes there is an added task at the bottom of the homework sheet - well done to the 6 children who did this last week (big pat on the back!)..this week there is going to be a task to make 2-3 PASS IT ON tickets. The children are doing this very well - pass on the kindness. We choose 2 children each day to draw out a ticket - read out what it is - then later on in the day or the next day they tell the class what it was they did!

I think that's all the news for this week - anything else I will email/blog you.

Have a fab week - Arohanui Rachel 

Term 2 - week 2 - May 12th-16th

Kia ora Room 7 whanau,
Just a quick blog update to say I'M BACK! Safe & sound - admittedly a tad tired. 
Wow what an adventure my 2 weeks in California was. As a team of 14 educators from NZ we visited a range of schools in San Diego, Los Angeles and San Fransisco. 
1 thing that stood out for me was that children are quite the same the world over - they may speak a different language - but all inspiring!

I tell you what, yesterday was a very special morning arriving back into Room 7 - the cuddles I got made my day/week!
Rose did an amazing job & the children seemed to enjoy the change (LOL) .... a change is always good!

The biggest compliment for a teacher sometimes is to hear how well behaved, set up and helpful the children are to a relieving teacher - Rose was very impressed with your children. She said they knew what they were doing, knew their routines & displayed SHARP behaviour. Yay. 

A few pics to end this off =)

Miss Burt & Ms Perry on Professional Development with Sophia the first =)

Awww - after all these years - I met him!! MICKEY MOUSE. Picture with Ms Perry Gtn School & Lynda & Luke from Hastings School

Fort making - Friday last day of term 1.

Hi de ho - fort making fun

Loved the conversations as they were creating their forts.

Thank you thank you Room 7 - the White Swan night with Amelia.

Claudia and her Great Grandad's VICTORY CROSS medal. Wow!

Our wreath bearers, Koby, Mitchell & Bailey

Thanks for turning up Room 7 people =)

 

 

Last post for Term 1

Appropriate title with Anzac day coming up - on that note - ALL GREYTOWN School children are invited to attend the Anzac day ceremony at the Memorial Baths (Kuratawhiti St, Greytown) Town pools at 10am ANZAC DAY - 25th April. They can then walk in the procession down Kuratawhiti St and onto the main street ending outside the Workingmen's club. You can walk with your child if you want. It's a really lovely thing to do. MRS LYFORD is the teacher in charge - but I should also be there.
I will be choosing two R7 children to present our wreath we have made.
Children are to wear school uniform.
We have been talking a lot about Anzac Day - we have had some great discussion - I have shown the children quite a few clips, played the last post & Maori battalion song.

Cross country notices to be in please - Cross country is on the 1st Tuesday back - week 1. Rose will be teaching in R7 - I am meeting up with her this afternoon to tell her EVERYTHING. =)

RIGHT- I- oh - here are a few photos to end the term - may you all have a SAFE & Happy Easter with your family & friends. Safe travels for those of you travelling.
AROHANUI - Rachel

Our community wall - displaying  the childrens' interests & their Mihi

I am so impressed with the presentation of the Mihi drawings. 

Our community starts off with 'me' family, extended family, moves out to the wider community, then the world.

HAPPY EASTER ALL!

HOLIDAY FUN! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJm47uS6G8w&safe=active 

JUST DANCE - Go room 7

Book table - for auction

We have made it - Auction prizes!!!!

Week 11. April 14th - April 17th

Hoppity - hop - gearing up ready for all the chocolate we'll be eating this time next week!
Happy Easter to you all!

This week we are looking at Anzac Day and why we celebrate this - if you have anything to share with your child please do.

I know my daughter Amelia was fascinated last year to find out her Great Poppa was in the war and that he had been awarded some medals. Amelia really wanted to see the medals & I had no idea where or who would have them. Well - after a year of hunting WE HAVE FOUND OUT where the medals are and this week Amelia gets to see my Poppa's war medals for the first time. I love history and the fact that you can talk to your child about your own family's history.
God Bless and RIP John Douglas Gates Saxton (Jack).

Anzac day site of interest for the children: http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Kids/Holidays/ANZACDay/

I have just found this awesome website - it might be something your child has a go at doing over the holidays:
http://www.brainways.co.nz/anzac6/activity/miact12/level12.htm

Archie with his picture of Cuddles & his friends playing in Walt's drawers.

We had a great week 10 - lots going on again! And we welcomed a new lil man into our world. Congratulations Archie S on becoming a big brother to Walt. Well done to Mary-anne & Russ, proud parents of two gorgeous lil boys. Archie was so sweet and made Walt a cute little card.
Here's Archie showing a pic of Cuddles getting up to mischief in Walt's drawers:

My dad gave me some lovely feijoas and passionfruit...Schalk had never tried passion fruit - here he is trying it - and the outcome? "Oooh that is very sour"

Now & then I have a fruit bowl on my desk - if you ever have excess fruit that you think the children might like - please do send the fruit into class. The fruit bowl doesn't stay full for long - really good to see the children eating fruit.

Claudia's Grandad was on puppy-sitting duty - so he brought (ooh Miss Burt's forgotten his/her name)...the children will remind me tomorrow.

 Auction dollars - Homework rewards.
We are having our first auction this week - I will organise a list of things up for auction so the children can view in advance. We had some good maths from the auction $ results for the term. these photos show what we did:


I put the results into a tally chart & had questions for the children to answer. (The children then had to analyse the information) - some found this quite tricky. Big thing was : Read the graph!
We had some great discussion - the children worked in pairs. We had varying answers to why one person got $700 and another person got $1550.

 SHARP STUDENT - week 10. Congratulations to Amy & Lachie - for having PRIDE in their appearance. (We discussed this included their workspace as well!

 CONGRATULATIONS Caitlin - one of the winners of the library photo competition. Caitlin took a photo & wrote about it. She won a $10 Lucky Book voucher.

 Caitlin needed a helping hand (thank you Grace for being that hand)....3 awards. 1. 1st person to reach 50 nights reading. 2. Friendship award. 3. A Miss Burt award for......

 Sausage lunch & lemon drink - Thanks to Mr Preston & R12 for their hard work in this successful fundraiser: Room 7 enjoying their sausages & drinks

A HAPPY & SAFE EASTER TO EVERYONE!

Guess who???

Enjoy the holidays - This time in 2 weeks now I'll be in the sky flying to California. I'm really looking forward to going into the schools over there & talking the children. I should also know of some good apps for the children to use on the ipads. One that was suggested to us for maths is Monkey Maths (thanks to Kate Hooper for asking). Take care & I'll see you when I get back.