Friday, 26 June 2015

Week 11.....

3 SUPER SHARP students. Well done Emelia, Sam & Sadie 

We had a talk about the word "bored" as you can see below: The E represents EXTEND yourself - growth mindset. Use effort and if you can't do something - you can't do it YET. 
Homework auction $$$ - I have 12 presents ready for the top 12 students to choose from for their extra effort in their weekly homework.
No homework this week.

A heads up for learning conferences: 
Often I get asked for resources you can use at home for your child. If you look at the right of this page there is a home learning page that if you click on it - you will see there are lots of numeracy and literacy online sites. Plus a maths one that isn't online.
Here is the NZ maths family site: http://nzmaths.co.nz/families

A great last session of hockey on Wednesday - enjoy the photos.
I love seeing the children outside and all giving this a go. Sharon Gates did a great job - the children were all engaged.

EXCITING NEWS FOR ROOM 7.
Next term for the last 7 weeks we have a trainee teacher Chloe Peters joining us in Room 7.
Having a trainee teacher in the classroom is so exciting as they add 'new ideas' =)

Hi I am Chloe Peters the trainee teacher in Rm 7.
I am doing the one year primary teaching degree after completing my 3 year degree in Anthropology and Criminology. I love sports and at the moment I am playing gaelic football and surfing. I grew up in the country north of Auckland and have been living in Wellington for the past five years. I am really excited to be working with  Room 7 and in particular the Wearable arts.

Dates: 
School closes at 1.30pm Tuesday : The first student led conference starts at 1.45pm - so if you could pick your child up at 1.30pm that would be great. 

* Last day of term is Friday 3rd July - normal finishing time. Please let me know if your child isn't going to be at school that day - I know there are some children either not going to be there or finishing early on that day. Thanks to the parents who have let me know. 

* Room 7 are hosting syndicate assembly on Tuesday at 9.45am. Such a busy busy time with goal setting, wearable arts and hosting assembly. 
Feel free to come and join us on Tuesday. 

* Can you please give your child an old t-shirt to have in their bag for when we are making wearable arts. This they can wear over their school top. 

Enjoy the hockey photos: 

Sunday, 21 June 2015

Welcome to week 10 in SUPER SHARP 7

Week 9 in Room 7

Super SHARP students 

Xaivier for super duper reading and Bella for achievement =) Well done!

And look at Riley & Mr Mackay being SUPER SHARP! 

And look at these brilliant SUPER SHARP 7 - disaster presenters.
Well done Room 7 as I told you all - I was very impressed with your presentations. 









Miss Burt's a bit wonkey donkey - the certificate below - your child was given one like this and hopefully they took it home with their result (which is written on it).
And while we're on a SHARP roll - look at these SHARP readers...

125 nights filled out. 
I felt very proud in Syndicate assembly when Izzie was one of 2 children in the whole syndicate to remain standing for having read 125+ nights!






And Riley doing SHARP artwork with Roze. 











AND........Miss Burt is super impressed with the 2 photos below: Imogen, Evie, Sadie, Daisy, Bailey and Sam B for SHARP presentation. 'Presentation' was our WOW (word of the week/s).



I was busy in the library - and I gave the children a nice quiet time to silent read - here are some of the children doing just that!!



Happy birthday to my old student Claudia =) here she is with her lil bro Seb

 Mandarin lesson: Paper cutting

 Wow look at these designs...
Good on you Abby!!!
 Riley really enjoying a book with Xaivier....
Toby with a very super cool picture his Auntie drew =0 clever Auntie!!
 I love the children TEACHING each other....Sadie helping/teaching Dylan with his wearable arts project.

OUR Interschool cross country runners - well done to them all. What an awesome bunch of runners!! Seb, Jethro, Emelia, Abby, Maddy and Axel. Here they are sharing their run and results. 

We had a good discussion on what humble is. Maddy is a prime example of this - Maddy won her race but she didn't even mention that she had won. She said she had a great race and did well. The other children were like YOU WON! =)


The Black Box - discussion time. This is a hit in Room 7 - the children THINK, PAIR & SHARE. Using the clue/s I have given them they think what could be in the box and then discuss with a partner. 


Here I am reading one of our NEW wonderful maths picture books from our school library. Linda is great at sourcing new books and knowing what children they are suited for. Room 7 loved the 3 new maths picture books. 

This book is about shapes - it's also funny with a moose sneaking into the pages...



Black box - discussion time. 

 These are some words that came out of one of our black box dicussions last week 

Riley telling the class his news. Minecraft fants.


Remember: 
Matariki celebration at school this Friday 26th June: In the afternoon Room 7 will be working with our buddy class Room 10 to do some Matariki art and storytelling. 

Thursday: I'll be on my CRT planning day so Mrs Warren will be in Room 7 - Mrs Warren has been doing a bit of relief teacher at our school recently. She will be following my daily programme. For the parents of MINECRAFT children.
Have a look at this blog - good ideas and information. 

Friday, 12 June 2015

The week that was in Room 7 - week 8

Kia ora - welcome to week 9 in room 7.

SHARP - Room 7 had Mr Bleakly teach on Monday & Wednesday of last week and huge compliment to all of the children - he said they're a great class - and I must be doing something right (haha).
He really enjoyed his time in Room 7. It's so awesome to hear a reliever say that.
So hats' off to SUPER SHARP SEVEN!

Super SHARP students in room 7 - Fergus with his Principal's sticker from Mr Mackay for fantastic reading!
 Abigail with her SHARP morning tea - Abigail was the SHARP winner  for week 8. 
Abigail always goes out of her way to help the other children in our class and she is also one of the first children to make sure other children have a friend. 


Next week: Wednesday 17th June - Interschool cross country - good luck to the team going from Room 7. They have been doing some good training =)
Postponement date is Friday 19th June.

Wearable Arts help - week 10 Tues, Wed, Thurs - if you can help on any of these days - I would love your help in class. The children are in the mix of designing their wearable art - along with the materials they will need.
We have quite a few materials at school - but if you & your child have been discussing at home - anything else you have to add to your child's art will be appreciated.
You might like to talk to your child - and ask what they would like (extra) for their design. Maybe some shiny bling ;)
IF NEED BE - we can do some extra work on the Friday of week 10.

Disaster presentations: All the children, in pairs presented their choice of disaster to talk to the class about eg: Volcano, Tsunami, Earthquake, Floods etc...
I was impressed with 1) the way they presented their disaster work and 2) how most of the children worked so well together. 
The children presented using either keynote (like a powerpoint), puppet pals (more oral speaking), PicCollage - pictures & written information and bookcreator with pictures and written information. The children had to explain what the disaster was and how to be prepared for such a disaster. Most children had a good amount of information and a good use of pictures. 

SHAPES...The children started doing 'Real life shape' posters with Mr Bleakly - they had to draw each shape (using a ruler where need be) and name some of the shape attributes.

Here is Imogen with a die - all on her own accord she found the dice (die) and is counting the number of faces that a cube has. 














Milly & Daisy - head down - designing their real life shapes - and writing down some attributes.  


The above photo is of an iPad app: Geoboard - it's great for all sorts to do with maths. You can create shapes. Measurement - area/perimeter. And it's FREE!

And here's a good link to online basic facts practice:

AWWW look who came to visit. Thames the famous police dog. Thames is here with his handler Constable Mike Wakefield. Thames & Constable Wakefield visited our school assembly on Wednesday morning (a big surprise for the children). 

DISASTER PRESENTATIONS...Phoebe & Daisy are presenting their PicCollage to the class - well done girls!

Wow - how lucky are we? On Thursday some boys in Room 7 were saying how they're really enjoying the Zac Power books - well today - SURPRISE - Anna (one of our teacher aides) kindly gave Room 7 TEN - ZAC POWER BOOKS. Here are Dylan, Xaivier & Connor reading some of the books. And the wonderful PicCollages they made to say THANK YOU ANNA!!

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MADDY - 8 YEARS OLD! Wow we all grow up fast =)
 Maddy kindly sharing some lollypops. 
 Riley is really interested in hunting - Fiona one of our teacher aides had a great idea. She brought in a couple of animal skins, a rabbit and a possum. Here is Riley having a look and a feel of the skins.
Thank you Fiona for a fab idea and conversation with Riley.

A good experience - POSTING LETTERS. ROOM 7 wrote letters/newspaper report/picCollages/postcards to Abby's Uncle & Aunty in England. Matt & Amy kindly visited us when they were in Greytown earlier on in the year. The children enjoyed what they had to say about England  and Room 7 asked some good questions. Amy & Matt sent Room 7 a postcard - so we decided to write back to them =)
We also sent a good amount of thank you letters to JR Orchards for the juicy apples they gave to the Greytown Lions who then gave the apples to all the children at our school.
Room 7 also wrote some very well written letters to the Greytown Lions to say thank you! 


Some good reading,
Practical information about education for parents and carers
 http://parents.education.govt.nz/primary-school/learning-and-development-at-home/

Have a fantastic week all.....


Sunday, 7 June 2015

Week 8 in SUPER SHARP SEVEN = 8th June - 12th June

Welcome to week 8 =)

Our SHARP students for week 7 - Imogen & Bailey well done.!!


 Fergus leading the class in our school karakia. Each morning the child who is sitting on the 'caught ya' chair leads the class in the karakia. 



What a busy bee week last week. The children did well with testing week. I must thank Roze & Fiona our super teacher aides. Riley was away so they were able to help in Room 7 with all the other children - what a blessing they are. Riley is back this week - I'm looking forward to hearing how his holiday went!
See what I mean - here is Roze helping in maths time - pointing out a star shape. SUPER STAR Roze =)

W.O.W - Our "WORD OF THE WEEK" is 'presentation' - I have talked to the children about when they present their work - they do their best best best! We talk about having PRIDE in what we and how they present. 
I have been impressed with the 'disaster presentations' so far - the use of technology whether it be keynotes on the laptops or using the iPad apps: puppet pals, picCollage or book creator, certainly help the children to make a good presentation. 
Any work your child does at home I ask you to please look at what they do - have a read, get your child to talk to you about what they have done and ask them: Is this your best?

Upcoming dates:
Tomorrow (Monday) I am on my CRT day, I will be at school finishing doing my reading testing. Mr Bleakly is in Room 7 - the children are going to love Mr Bleakly, he relieves quite a bit in our syndicate. He brings his guitar and awesome storytelling. Patrick will be following my daily plan.
Wednesday - I have a professional development course with Ms Perry on iPad use in the classroom. This is a timely course for me, as I need refreshing & updating of my skills.

Sunday 21st June: Matariki Garden Working Bee. Our lovely Matariki Garden (planted 10 years ago) has flourished and consequently is now in need of a good trim and prune. The newly formed FrOGS parent group is planning a working bee on Sunday 21st June starting at 9.30am. We would like to invite as many parents, grandparents and students as possible to come along and help to weed, trim and prune, and to also set a pathway through the garden. Our school Enviro Group together with Enviro School’s facilitator Esther Dijkstra, will be on hand to guide the working bee. Morning tea will be provided. BYO gardening tools. RSVP to Ms Leigh Perry: by June 16th lperry@greytownschool.com

Wearable Arts making - DON'T worry this is still coming up. The children are busy designing - and looking at what materials they will need. Thank you to the people who have offered to help - I'll let you know - nearer the time =)

Matariki - 26 June
Matariki celebration (Maori New Year). For those families that would like to attend - 7am we meet by Room 5 and proceed to the Matariki Garden (south field). This is a special event for our year 8 students. 


Students-led conferences - 30 June and 1 July
These will be an opportunity for your child to share with you their reflections on how they are progressing towards achieving the goals they set at the beginning of the year.  The online booking schedule will be coming out shortly. 

3rd July - last day of term 3

Progress reports - beginning of Term 3
Mid-year reports identifying how your child is progressing towards meeting the national standard at the end of the year will be sent home at the beginning of next term.  

Thank you for my birthday goodies - I loved the cards the children made - they certainly know me. They had drawn pictures of things I love!



Some birthday fun for Miss Burt's young 21st ++++ birthday =)
Prodigy - maths online activities.
Great to see some home learning going on - I see 3 parents have linked their child to this - yay!
At this stage we're not using Prodigy so much in class - but if your child can access it at home then that's awesome.
My Amelia is loving the site for her math's learning. I just asked Amelia what's so good about it - and she said "IT'S FUN!" - that's good to hear =)
I am sending your child's log in and password home again this week.







These things can help me at home 

– Key Competencies


ü  Help me learn that time and effort pays off. For example, when I say This is too hard, say, That’s great because now you have an opportunity to learn something new.
ü  If I make a mistake, celebrate it as an opportunity to learn. Help me to understand that making mistakes will help me learn.
ü  If I feel like giving up on a task, encourage me to stick at it a little longer and/or to try another way to do it.
ü  When I say That’s good enough, encourage me to ask if it is really my best work.
ü  Encourage me to apply the ‘can do’ attitude I have in rugby to my writing goals.
ü  Talk to me about the ways other people might see issues. Help me see things from a range of different perspectives.
ü  Give me increasing responsibility for a task that will help at home, e.g. I could feed the cat, empty the rubbish on Saturdays or help prepare dinner on Sundays.
ü  Help me to manage my television viewing time by giving me television tickets. Each week I could be given an agreed number of tickets that can each be used for 30 minutes of TV time. A variation is that any tickets remaining at the end of the week could be cashed in for 25 or 50 cents each.
ü  Help me see my problems are temporary, by saying they are glitches, snags or hard spots and talking with me about things I can do to get through them.
ü  Help me to role-play so I can see other people’s views as clearly as possible.
ü  Help me to take more responsibility for my school things. For example, have me choose a place to put a cardboard box, perhaps near the door of my room. Every afternoon, I will put my school things in the box. When my home reading is done, it will go in the box, too. In the morning I will check the box before I leave for school. 

ü  Help me to understand and experience the consequences of my choices.