Cross country - what a day! And ...welcome to week 3

Kia ora - week 2 over and done with =)
This week is ROAD SAFETY week - a competition will be going home with your child tomorrow - your child can do it and return it any time during the week and once I have them all in - I'll post them
GOOD LUCK!!
http://www.brake.org.nz/roadsafetyweek

To look forward to: This Thursday from 2pm Room 7 will be doing HOCKEY SKILLS with Sharon Gates. Sharon is a brilliant hockey coach and works for Hockey Wairarapa.
We are very lucky to be given this opportunity - your child/ren will remember this from last year (if they were at our school ;)
They don't need to bring anything as it's all supplied - JUST REMEMBER TO WEAR SHOES ON THAT DAY. The children have to wear shoes for hockey skills. 
This hockey programme runs for 4 weeks with a hockey festival at the end of the weeks.

Chinese - Mandarin lessons will continue from this Friday. The children are REALLY enjoying doing calligraphy with Zhangzhang - they write with a special brush and water on special paper ;)
We also have  a new song-ask you child if they can sing it to you ;) YOU ARE GOING TO LOVE IT!!!!!!!

What a day today was - Cross Country at Barton's farm. Enjoy the photos!

Mid-week week2

Our school garden - we are lucky enough to have had Mrs (Ruth) Evans - an awesome Nanny to some of our children at school volunteer to take small groups of children and work with them in the garden or potting shed.
4 children have been chosen to work with Ruth tomorrow (for about 20 minutes) - (we will change the children over the next few weeks).
I had a lot of children wanting to be the first in the gardening group so I had a group of children write a persuasive letter to me - telling me why I should choose them.
If you click on the link to the right of here....."The children's work" you can read some of the letters.
http://greytown7.blogspot.co.nz/p/the-childrens-work.html

If you click on this link this will take you to when KIDS CAN COOK KITCHEN was at our school last term. You can then watch the video of what the children did when Chris was working with them.

http://www.marketground.co.nz/greytownschool

Link straight to the video

http://www.marketground.co.nz/video.asp?v=8p8MbLWlcZM

Week 2, term 2...

Kia ora and welcome to week 2 in SUPER SHARP SEVEN.

CROSS country - this Wednesday (let's see how Mr Weather holds out), the school app will have an update on the morning telling us whether it is on or not. Postponement day is Friday.

On Wednesday remember to pack: A good hearty lunch, water bottle, some $ to spend at the fundraising food stall, sneakers, a change of footwear if want, plastic bag for muddy gear, warm jacket and a great SHARP attitude.
If you are coming (picnic with child/ren - bring something to sit on). 

Children can wear their HOUSE COLOUR t-shirt. If you're not sure of their house colour please ask me, most children know. 
Arawa = blue. Takitimu = red. Aotea = green. Tainui = yellow
Please - if your child hasn't returned their slip with how they are getting to and from cross country please send it to school on Tuesday.

Anzac Day - thank you to the children who turned up on Saturday to represent our school and community. The children who carried the crosses for the fallen soldiers did so with the utmost respect.
The photos in the slideshow show both our school ceremony on Friday and the Greytown ceremony on Saturday.You will see some of the photos have been taken in our school hall - we read the names of the WW1 soldiers that attended Greytown School. The children quickly recognised some of the surnames as Street names in Greytown. It was a wonderful talk and history being discussed.


This video is one I showed the children, about 2 young boys who grew up together and went to war together.
While the children were writing their letters home from their trenches - we watched and listened to this clip.
Jack and Tom is a short film created by the students of Miranda Public School and Port Hacking High School to commemorate the 100th ANZAC Day.

WRITING home from our trenches - the children wrote letters home (pretending they were writing from the 1st world war =( On Friday we then stained the letters to make them look old - 100 years old =)
While the children sat in their trenches we had background war sounds being played.
Thanks to Axel - who was awarded the Victory Cross for saving Miss Burt.

More photos:


I loved the comments after the children got up from their trench "oooh I have a sore..."

MARVELLOUS MATHS...we have now started our numeracy topic of addition and subtraction. We are relating a lot of this to real life problems. Throughout the day we have a little maths spot that comes out of that magic teaching/learning moment.

Time to sign off - to end this blog spot I must say: Amelia and I had a fabulous time visiting the Gallipoli exhibition and "The Great War exhibition" in Wellington- very timely. I would love to have had all of Room 7 with me - totally amazing. Here's a couple of my own snaps from "The Great War exhibition" ...

The children were a bit lucky on Thursday as Olivia's mum & dad brought in a yummy surprise for the children to celebrate Olivia's 9th birthday...

On that note...

Cross-country notice

Hi all and welcome to the middle of the first week =)

I did this activity today with Room 7 and I'm so pleased I did. I've found out information that is really going to help me with some of the children.

I love one of the I wishes....that my teacher knew how to do cartwheels!!!!!! 

I have written one back to the children - "I wish my class knew...."

A notice went home today about cross country next Wednesday - check the school bag ;)

ANZAC DAY this Saturday - thank you to the children who have returned their notice about representing a fallen soldier on Saturday.

I will be at the World War 1 memorial (Entrance to Greytown Park) at 10am. 

A quick snapshort of our FIRST DAY back - look at all these fantastic 50 night readers!!!!

 Seb has reached 25 nights and a bit over now - yay Seb!!

 Jethro leading the school Karakia - (caught ya chair student).

 Toby had a big 8th birthday in the holidays.

 And....our 1st SHARP student for Term 2 - achievement in auction dollars. Olivia got the highest amount of dollars....$1500!!

INteractive trench video - children seemed to like this..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z8sssbk#z8444wx

Welcome back - term 2 - off we go

Kia ora....

TERM 2 - 11 WEEKS...WOOHOO!!

CROSS COUNTRY - lock the date in - Wednesday 29th April.
Hope your child has been doing lots of running around during the holidays ;) I have! ;)

We are so lucky to be able to use the Barton's farm land....look at the view!

For our new families this is a lovely day for the children, bring a picnic and sit alongside your child while they await their run and relax afterwards ;)

ANZAC DAY.

Please see previous blog (below) 

We will be doing a lot of discussion on Anzac Day this week. 

I have some good clips I will show the children so will share some on here. 

Please remember that Monday 27th April - there is no school as it's Anzac day observed.

(1st time in NZ)

WEARABLE ARTS...

I hope you've all got your creative hats on ;)

The children will start their sketches of what they'd like to do for our 'circus theme'

I still need help with some "fabulous circus music"........

By the end of the term we will have made our wearable arts - and this will lead into a syndicate show next term. 

Wish us well ;) 

PLEASE PLEASE we need all your old junk - ANYTHING! 

Material - wool - string - old socks - stockings - hats - shells - milk bottle lids (clean) - plastic - netting - anything......

PE - In weeks 4, 5 and 6 we will be doing hockey skills with Sharon from Hockey Wairarapa. 

The school participated in this last year and the students loved it. 

Chinese lessons - Zhang Zhang  will continue to teach Mandarin on Fridays. 

This term will also see the children presenting speeches and presenting keynotes based on their Inquiry topic. Phew-wee a lot to do....but so exciting!!

You will see on the wall in Room 7 the outline of all subject areas, this shows what we will be covering this term. 

Here's to a great term!

See you all on Monday - Love Miss Burt =)

A cool little activity you too can do at home:

Choose a number -now follow the steps below .... 

Start with an easy number then try a tricky one.

A good read...

holiday reading...

Love and approval are different. Loving your kids unconditionally is one thing, but that love doesn’t need to translate into constant, unconditional, 24/7 approval and praise of everything they do. You can love someone while redirecting their behavior or being disappointed by their actions. The two aren’t mutually exclusive.

Modal Trigger

A recent study found that reading fiction helps people improve their empathy.Photo: Shutterstock.com

Read to them. A recent study found that reading fiction helps people improve their empathy, because it encourages them to place themselves in others’ lives and understand their actions. In that way, reading is like traveling — with your mind.

Run errands with them. Not all of life can be fascinating, interesting and wonderful, and no lesson reinforces that better than bringing your kids along on some errands. While the recent parenting emphasis on “quality time” is fine, boredom is its own powerful life lesson. So is the message that you have to spend a portion of each day doing things that are necessary, though not magical, and that not every activity revolves around 

Say no. A recent school of thought seems to treat “no” as a kind of ultimate buzzkill, a tamping down on childish creativity and artistic self-expression. This is nuts. It’s fine to tell your children no, especially when they’re trying to set something on fire. In fact, a lot of life is being told no and then trying to come up with alternative plans. They might as well learn this young, so it doesn’t come as a shock five minutes into their first job.

Last week of term 1

Kia ora Room 7 whānau,

Reminder: Anzac Day 25th April - (1st week back).
We need 44 children from our school (wearing uniform) to represent some of the fallen soldiers from Greytown during the World War 1, they will present a cross at the Anzac Day ceremony in Greytown.
Thank you to the children who have returned their forms to myself or Mrs Lyford.
First week back we will be looking more into Anzac Day and what it means.

HOLIDAYS - children PLEASE keep reading - visit the library.

Have a look at our wall of happiness...things that make us happy!

Room 7 held Syndicate assembly on Tuesday - the children spoke well.

We are learning to project our voices so that we are loud and clear. 

KIND & CARING students.

Written by Milly: Me, Angus and our brothers and sisters made a shop for Mrs R. We made signs and we stuck one on our mail box and we walked round the street with the other signs. We sold flowers, twigs and a fishing trip in our creek. We made $3.50! We had lots of fun. 

Pilaf making & fun with Cuddles: 

Written by Milly: In the weekend I made pilaf for dinner. Mum helped me and Cuddles watched. 

OPEN DAY - really nice to see Ella's grandparents visit us on open day (Wednesday). 

It was neat to have them look at the children's 'Treasure Fever' work.

 GARAGE SALE FOR Vanuatu - well done to Room 11 for hosting their garage sale. They raised over $200 for the children in Vanuatu. What a great idea and a success!!!!

 Room 7 with their goodies they bought at the garage sale.

 HAPPY EASTER ALL - may it be a happy & safe one. 

Look at Ella's gorgeous handwritten card and Easter Bunny. 

Thank you to the children for my special Easter treats (chocolate!!!) and lovely writing pad. 

Some great writing too from Sam BG and Abby. 

Take care.

Arohanui, Rachel