Mr Carter

Room 11 has been a buzz with excitement as Mr Carter our college tecaher is back in teaching for 4 weeks. He has planned a fantastic unit on flight which we started this week. We have been been experimenting looking at gravity and weight. It has been lots of fun. The value of the term is Consideration and we have been focusing on manners. We have made some bunting with manners that we should always use at home and school. Gabi, Hannah and Zoe have also written a poem on manners which they turned into a verse for our manners song. They are performing at assembly today.

Where has the term gone???

I can't believe that the term is over tomorrow. It has been a very successful term in Rooom 11 with many children getting through to the school speech finals, and North Zone Cross Country. Hannah even won the Otago Year 5 Cross Country race. What a champion. Everyone took part in the school sports a few weeks back and many children have made it through to the North Zone Sports in relay teams. This is happening in Week 3 next term so we will look forwrad to that. Mr Carter has been doing some fantastic work and teaching everyone how to research and we can't wait until he comes back in Week 2 next term. Have a safe and restful holiday as next term will be full on and lots of fun. Happy holidays :)

So busy

It seems like a long time since we have updated the blog but that is because we have been so busy. We have had 2 snow days and a pyjama day. Last week we wrote our speeches which we will present over the next few weeks. There are some very interesting topics so this week we will be working on our delivery of them. We have also started taking self directed learning a step further in our room. We have variable learning spaces and you can sit where you like as long as you are on task. We are also able to choose when we do activities in the morning literacy hour. We have to tick them off on a list when we have completed them to a high standard. Come in and see our class in action between 9 and 11.

Cross Country Winners

Everyone ran really well on Tuesday in spite of the rain and cold conditions. A big congratulations goes to our winners.
Year 3 Girls Charlotte 1st, Annelise 2nd
Year 3 Boys Ben 3rd
Year 4 Girls Hannah 1st, Zoe 4th
Year 4 Boys Josh 4th

I was proud of all the children who ran and ran and ran.Your training paid off.

Writing Competition winners

Congratulations to Gabi and Josh for being the Room 11 writing competition winners. Their stories were outstanding.

No cross country today

We were all really disappointed that the cross country was postponed today. It will be held on Monday or the first fine day after that. So we have our fingers crossed for Monday. Mrs Jolly has just come back from Seoul and she bought us all a fan or it could be a book mark. We loved the angry birds one but we were not so keen on the hello kitty. Next week we are off to the Art Gallery to work with John on Kiwiana art so we are really looking forward to that. We will upload some pictures after our trip.

Interviews

Thank you to all the parents and children that came along to interviews this week.It was a pleasure to be able to share the childrens work and achievements. I am sure that the Learning Snapshots gave you alot of information about your childs progress over the past 6 months. The door is always open at anytime if you would like to see the classroom in action.Have a great weekend.

Puketeraki Marae Experience

Wow! Yesterday at Puketeraki Marae was amazing. The children arrived at the Marae and were called on by the Tangata Whenua and Mrs Yeoman replied for us. The girls and women were at the front whilst the boys and men followed behind. When we got to Meeting House everyone had to take their shoes off. This time the boys and Men sat at the front and the girls and women were behind. There was lots of talking and then Mr Galloway replied as he is the chief of our school. Ben then gave a koha which was a tree. Everyone then had to do a hongi with the Tangata Whenua. There were lots of nervous people but after we had done it everyone seemed more relaxed. We then went to the wharekai and waited for the Karakia. It was then time to eat. After we had shared kai we were split into 4 groups. Each group went to a different station. We got to learn how to use the poi, make flax flowers, learn about and play traditional instruments and to use long rakau. It was so interesting and we all learnt so much. I can't wait to go on our next Marae visit.

Our Masterchef cooking class

Today we have been lucky enough to have one of our pupils take a cooking class. She taught us how to make Chocolate Muffins. They were delicious and they looked so fancy after we piped the icing on to them.

The S.P.C.A. photos

Our Kindness Project

Yesterday we visited the S.P.C.A. We were delivering all the cans of pet food that we had collected around the school. Did you know that without the donations of food and money from kind people the S.P.C.A. could not survive? We had a tour and then went and spent time patting the cats. There were so many to adopt. It was our job to get them used to human touch. We all did a great job. Here are some photos of us showing kindness to the cats and the S.P.C.A.

A busy week

We have had an interesting week in Room 11. On Monday we made our green screen movie featuring all the children. We wrote 3 slogans that we all agreed were just about us. Come along next Thursday night to the iThink night and see us on a big screen. On Tuesday we had Mrs Yeoman teaching us as Mrs Jolly was busy with running records. We did lots of singing and learnt about the Marae. This was so interesting and we will be off to visit the Karitane Marae later this term. We are also starting to learn our mihi. These will come home next week so hopefully our parents can help us learn it. On Wednesday we watched an amazing show that is travelling from Christchurch. It was called The Great Rugby Robber. We laughed and cheered with the characters. It was really fun. In the afternoon we continued our recorder lessons with Mrs Sherlock. We are learning some simple songs and we look forward to this every week. Today is Thursday and we have lots to do writing, maths, reading and we are starting to write an action plan for our learning commitment goals. We look forward to seeing you all next Thursday night at the iThink night.

Weaving

We are learning to weave in Room 11 this week. Here we are in action.

Term 2

We have got off to a busy start in Room 11. The most exciting news is that we have beautiful, brand new, blue carpet. It looks amazing and we really appreciate getting it. We can now sit on the mat more comfortably and it looks fantastic. Thank you to Mr GalLoway and the B.O.T. We love it :) We have been learning how to write instructions. We started off making a sandwich as a class and then writing up the instructions together. We then had a go at writing instructions with a partner. The instructions are very clear and easy to follow so that even an alien from out of space could do it. Come and have a read as we have got them displayed on our writing net. We have also been studying the value of the term Kindness in more depth. We know how to what kindness looks like, sounds like and feels like. We have been learning how to use the Thinkers Keys and have applied these to kindness. They are about to be hanging in our windows to remind us about kindness. If you haven't been in for a while come and see our carpet, read our instructions and have a look at our thinkers keys.

Our trip to the Gardens

Today we went on a visit to the Botanical Gardens to help them out. Our school has become friends of the gardens and each class will visit once a year to help out. We were welcomed enthusiastically and set to work. The Australian Gum Tree in the Mediterranean Gardens drop gum nuts everywhere. The gum nuts have lots of seeds in them and are make a mess everywhere. They are dangerous on the paths as people can slip on them. In the garden beds the gum nuts break down and spread their seeds everywhere and stop other plants from growing. It was our job to fill buckets with the gum nuts. We collected lots of buckets and had lots of fun doing it. Everyone did a great job. After we filled the buckets we took them to the aviary. Tom looks after the birds and said that they love gum nuts. He only feeds them a few and freezes the rest as they can make themselves sick if they eat too many. We watched him feeding them and then we had to race back to school. It was such a fun afternoon and we would like to go again.

Homework Optional Extras and Christchurch

What a morning in Room 11. We had a visit from 2 flamingos for our optional extra. I think that they were a bit bigger than the normal kind but they shared lots of information with us. Well done Hannah and Zoe. Ben also shared lots of interesting information about how important it is to choose the right sized fish when we are out fishing. We are all junior fishery officers now. The optional extras have been amazing. Well done Room 11. Next week we won't have any formal homework as everyone will need to prepare for our cultural lunch on Friday.
Today we sent off a box of goodies to our friends at Elmwood Normal School. We packed up pencils, stickers, jokes, brain teasers, lovely cards, lollipops and glow toys. We hope this will make them smile and cheer them up.

End of term newsletter

What a term it has been in Room Eleven. We have had so much fun and learned alot about ourselves and the other children in our class.
We know what is our best smart/intelligence and have had some really fun sessions working in different classes working on our best smart.
We have been having drama lessons with Mrs Sturge on a Wednesday afternoon. It has been really enjoyable learning some new drama games and strategies.We will be learning the recorder next term during the cultural swap time.
Today our 2 college teachers Miss Cvitanovich and Mr Beaman began a 2 week posting and they will be teaching the children about healthy eating and taking reading and writing sessions. We have really appreciated all their support and help this term. We wish them every success next term as they head to a new class.
It was wonderful to see everyone at the recent interviews. I really enjoyed catching up and setting some goals. Some children are working hard on these already.

Whats coming up?

Thursday 14 April
Botanical Gardens
On Thursday we will be visiting the Botanical Gardens to assist with the tasks in the garden. Everyone will need to wear suitable footwear and warm clothes. We will need 1 extra adult to walk with us and help with groups of children. If you are keen to help please let me know asap.

Friday 15 April
Cultural Lunch
On Friday we will be having a shared lunch. It would be wonderful if all children could bring some food from their culture. We have quite a few children with different dietary requirements so it would be appreciated if you could just write the ingredients in your food. If your child does have specific requirements please send along some food for your child. I understand that this comes at the end of a busy term but please support us and come and join the fun. We have children from at least 11 different cultures and over the next 2 weeks all children will be creating a poster about themselves. I would really appreciate if you could send along a family tree for them to add and maybe how you chose their name and what it means. We will starting our presentations at 12.00 if you are free. Everyone is very welcome.

Carmel Jolly

Jordans new kitten Dash

Jordan bought along his new kitten today Dash. He got him on Saturday. Dash is sooooooooooooo gorgeous.

Alien Blood and Sound Activities

Today some college teachers came and worked with the children in the hall. They made some Alien blood and others learned about sound. Here are some photos of the children in action.

College Teachers visiting

Today we took part in a demonstration lesson for some college teachers from the University. We were learning about where our food comes from. We found out that a lot of the food that we eat is imported to New Zealand. We decided that we are so lucky that we can try and experience lots of different foods not like our great grandparents who ate mainly meat and vegetables from the land. We found food from at least 10 different countries that had come Mrs Jollys pantry. How many different countries does the food in your pantry come from?

Sign Language Smarts

We have been going to different classes in the afternoon depending on what our smart is. In Room 11 we have been designing obstacle courses, learning about the brain, creating dances and learning sign language. This is a video that was created by 3 of the children who were body smart. I think that they have done a fantastic job.

Reading Rocks

Today we watched a fantastic show called READING ROCKS. Adrian was entertaining, talented and most of all had a wonderful message. Reading takes time and practice to make it perfect. When you can read you can learn about anything and everything so turn off the T.V and read and let your imagination run wild. READING ROCKS!

Collage Portraits and Learning Commitment Interviews

We have had such a busy day working on our collage portraits. First we painted our skin colour on a big sheet of paper and then ripped it into the shape of our head. We painted a fancy background on another piece of paper and then put our head on it. We then had to rip out the shape of our eyes and lips. On Thursday we are going to put our hair on. We will post some photos when we have finished. Just a reminder we have learning commitment interviews next week and we need to have 2 goals in place for the next 6 months. See you all next week. If you can't make it just email me so that we can set up another time.

Our Assembly Item

Today we performed our assembly item for the whole school. It was wonderful to see everyone speaking clearly into the microphone and sharing their strength. The singing was fantastic. Well done Room 11 you made me very proud today. Here are some of the powerpoint photos that we sung along to. The photos were taken by Harry of our favourite places in the school. Some of the photos make me laugh.

Our 5 special things

Meet the Teacher, Swimming

Come along and hear about what is happening in Room 11 tomorrow night at 7.15. I will be discussing the class programme, expectations and looking at our class booklet. It is also a great chance to meet some other parents with children in this class.

Just a reminder that swimming starts tomorrow. We will be leaving school at 11.00 and returning at 12.30. Thank you to all the parents who have volunteered to walk down with us. We couldn't do it without you.

We have been applying to become a member of Room 11 and have completed a brief CV. This includes what our strengths and our personal qualities are. These are interesting to read particularly when we have added the referee statements from parents. Thank you for taking the time to do this. come in and read our CVs which we are displaying on the wall.

Happy Wednesday :)

Welcome back to Week 2. Today we were looking at our strengths and what our smart is : people, music, picture, body, self, nature, word and number. Most people had 1 or 2 smarts but some people had more than 2 smarts. They have multipotentiality. We had lots of fun saying this word. We will be looking at how we can use this information to benefit our learning. This week we will also be working on the value of the term which is RESPONSIBILITY and setting up a display about the ways that we can show it.
Homework has begun this week and everyone should know what to do. Any questions come and see me or email me. Just a reminder that on Thursday night at 7.15 the staff are running a WELCOME BACK TO SCHOOL DISCO to raise money for our Relay for Life team. The cost is $3.00 and there will be lots of glow toys, chips and chocolate to buy as well. Parents are invited to the staffroom for supper and a chance to meet some other parents in our school. Have a great week.

Day 1

We have had an awesome first day. The children had a busy day today getting to know each other. We will be focussing on creating a supportive and fun class environment for everyone over the next few weeks. You should have received a class newsletter and a consent form today. The consent form needs to come back to school as soon as possible. The children also need to bring along 5 things, over the next 2 days, that tell us something about them. We will video them and hopefully be able to share some on our blog.

Welcome

Welcome to Room 11. I am really looking forward to the school year beginning. I have so many fun activities planned. I hope that everyone has had a fun and relaxing holiday. I can't wait to get to know you all as we start 2011 as a new class.