Week 4

Hi everyone, 
I hope you enjoyed watching the game this morning.  What a great team, that's a little bit of history right there for all of us.

Bronson starts tomorrow, let's all do our best to welcome him into the Room 6 whanau.

Here are a couple of pictures from the most popular event at China day, the children were practising their Kung Fu moves all day long.

A big thanks to Jack, our Mandarin Language Assistant and Anne Cato for organising the day.

Last week in Room 6, we worked in our Thinking Groups to discover what we know already about Symbolism, each group presented their thinking to the class.  We have decided to focus on the Symbolism used in maths and  we will be looking at flags.  The children worked collaboratively and all were eager to share their ideas. 

We have a mucky week coming up with a school Liturgy and Grandparents Day on Friday, it is really important to keep up the reading and writing at home.

Please check the Classroom Notices page to make sure you are up to date with what is happening in the school.  

Blackout Day

Remember to wear ALL BLACK tomorrow in support of the big fullas and bring a can for the Young Vinnie.  The cans go to the St.Vincent de Paul food bank.
For Golden Time, we will be heading outside for some fun games.

Week 3

I hope you have all had a lovely long weekend and that you are ready for school tomorrow.

A big congratulations to Oli for winning the Principals Award on Friday.  Well done.

Room 6 has been working hard this term.  We will begin working on writing Narratives in our story writing, looking at fairy tales and local myths and legends to help.  Our reading is fantastic, lots of children have been moving up the rocket, keep up the great work that you are doing at home.

We will be looking closely at maths for the next couple of weeks, we will be working on subtraction in class, the children really enjoy maths. 

 Maths at home is as simple as counting, counting things.  

http://nzmaths.co.nz/ is a great place to look for ideas.  Click on the jigsaw puzzle piece labelled Families for more information.

No swimming this week sadly.  

Children must wear their sunhats from now on, no hat, no play.  The hats can remain in their cubbies at school if you like, please make sure they are clearly named.

Week 2

Swimming has begun with a hiss and a roar.  A big thanks to Meredith for taking these pictures today. Your children are very enthusiastic about swimming which is great:)
We have been working on our safe entry...

Our forward float, blowing bubbles and using a flutter-board to help us float on our backs.

The children are enjoying their swimming immensely, so please remember to pack those swimming togs every day in the even weeks.  We are so lucky to have a school pool, so let's make sure we use it!

In maths we are beginning to look at subtraction and counting back, the children are working with materials and learning that guessing is not acceptable in maths.  
We are learning that the number sentences are telling us to get something and then do something to find the answer. 

We are looking at Symbolism for our Concept this term and this ties in perfectly with the symbols used in maths. There is a language to be learned in maths + can be verbalized as plus, add, get more, and, addition...imagine how confusing that can be for children.  

If you get the chance to do some simple maths problems at home, make an effort to use the language associated with the problem.  If you need some ideas or want clarification, please come and see me.

Our goals for maths this term are...

• counting back from 20
• recognizing numbers up to 100
• memorizing our bonds with 5 e.g, 0+5. 1+4, 2+3, 3+2, 4+1, 5+0
• Doubles up to 10...1+1, 2+2, 3+3 and so on
• Skip counting in 2's up to 20
• solving simple problems by counting on or back

Check out www.nzmaths.co.nz  for ideas.

In Week 4, there will be a brand new 5 year called Bronson joining our class.  We will be making a huge effort to welcome him into the Room 6 whanau.

Meet Bob....

Hi everyone, we had a great first week back at school.  
This is Bob...
We had fun making bread dough on Friday for Golden Time, we turned Bob into a yummy cheese pizza.  We talked about the way the yeast was eating the sugar and how the burps that the yeast made helped Bob to grow.  It was delicious.  A big thanks to Cooper for helping me carry it over to the kitchen and for all the great bakers in Room 6 who gave Bob a good massage.

We are reading lots of books by Margaret Mahy, last week we read about Norvin the Great White Man Eating Shark, we also worked on writing simple sentences about Norvin that made sense.  Our sentences had to begin with a capital letter, have finger spaces in between the words and have a full stop at the end. This week we are going to read about the Lion in the Meadow.

It is great to see the children engaged and excited about their learning, keep a look out for their cool art and stories in class this week.

REMEMBER SUNHATS!!!! 

Swimming starts on Monday, please make sure you back your togs and a towel.

See you all tomorrow.

Mrs. H

The Great Shake Out

St.Mary's took part in the great Shake Out at 9.15am this morning.  We all got the chance to practice what to do in the event of an earthquake.  Students learned to Drop, Cover and Hold!!

A couple of reminders....

• Swimming begins next week, so children will need their togs every day, it is compulsory.  If your child is not swimming please provide a note.
• Sunhats are compulsory and must be worn during play times, please make sure you provide one for your child and that their name is clearly visible.

For Golden Time on Friday, we will be making pizza from scratch.  The reliever who was in the class on Monday and Tuesday was very impressed with Room 6's manners and how well behaved they were, well done Room 6.

In class we are going to hit the writing this term, so any extra writing you can do at home would be appreciated.

Week 1 Term 4

Hi everyone.
I hope you are all getting ready for school on Monday and that you have all had a lovely holiday.
I am in Australia at the moment and won't be back at school until Wednesday.
Swimming starts this term. Room 6 will swim eveyday on even weeks from 2.00pm until 2.30pm. Children will need togs and a towel. I will remind you all again towards the end of the week.

I  hope everyone has completed their reading logs and they are ready to hand in. The reliever will collect them so get them in ASAP.

Summer uniforms must be wore by Labour weekend, you are welcome to start Term 4 in a summer uniform.

I look forward to seeing everyone when I get back:)