Ooh it feels quite sad to be posting my last weekly notice at St Mary's. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you again for being such a great class and a super group of parents. I would have preferred to have stayed on and seen the year out with these little darlings but it just didn't happen that way and I am sorry about that. I do believe I am leaving them in capable and caring hands with Mrs Kusabs and I know they will treat her with as much love and respect as they have me. It's not very often a teacher can say their class is the best in the school and really mean it, but Room 13 this year certainly has been. I really scored the jackpot this time round and have loved my time with your kids. They are unlike any class I have had and I truly am going to be sad to say goodbye to them. I know they will continue to make me proud this year and that they will all go on to make amazing progress during their very special time at St Mary's.
I have had many happy years at this beautiful school and even though it is time for me to go, I will remember it with fondness as my school, my girls school and a very special place that I got to spend some time for a while. Please look after yourselves and your gorgeous children and hopefully we can catch up in the future, I am sure you will see me around at St Mary's in my new role.
"May the road rise up to meet you, may the sun be always at your backs and until we meet again, may God hold you always in the palm of his hand."
Thank you and God Bless
Annie
Showing posts with label Weekly Notice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Weekly Notice. Show all posts
Sunday, 27 August 2017
Sunday, 20 August 2017
Weekly Notice
Week 5, Term 3, 2017
Hi everyone, and welcome back to Week 5. Hopefully everyone received the letter from Mr MacMillan regarding my new position. It has been a really hard decision for me to make, made even more difficult by the fact that your kids are just so wonderful. I will miss each and every one of them and while it will be super sad leaving them and my dear school, it is time for me to try something new. I have been at St Mary's for nearly 18 years and now that all my own children have moved on to JPC and beyond, it's my time to set myself some new goals and take on a new adventure. Thank you all for your amazing support this year and for all your kind words and gestures. St Mary's is certainly a very special place and you the community make it that way. I will definitely stay in touch with Room 13 and will hopefully be able to sneak in for a visit from time to time.
Ok, now on to Week 5........
*R.E - we will wrap up our unit on Jesus this week and begin looking at the Church. The kids have learned some really interesting facts about Jesus and what his life was like, talk to them about it, you might even learn something you didn't know before.
*Maths - This week in Maths we will be looking at Measurement and more specifically, Time. This unit complements our Concept Study on Cycles - regular repeated sequences. We will look at days, weeks, months, years, minutes and hours.
*ALim - our group is working so hard and making some great progress. Please check the homework books as I will be sending home the odd practice sheet to help reinforce some of the knowledge needed at Stage 4. This week we will continue to look at Place value - tens and ones as well as identifying numbers to 1000 and adding tens.
*Writing - this week we are going to do some writing around our rocket launch. We will write a recount and an explanation which will outline how you can launch a rocket at home.
*Reading - We have been working on Comprehension over the last few weeks. The children have been searching a piece of writing for facts and using their research to help them answer comprehension questions. I have to say, they are becoming excellent researchers! You can see some of their research assignments on the wall in our classroom. Keep up the great reading at home. This week we will also continue practising and performing plays.
*Go4it continues on Thursday at 1:30. We are having a great time with Tim and are practising some really important sports skills. We have also begun playing soccer in the afternoons which is great fun. Although your bully children did push me over last week and I hit the deck in spectacular style - all great fun!
*Sadly our little mate Oliver is leaving at the end of this week. His family have decided to go to Scotland, where his mum Nadia is from and spend some time living with family there. It is super exciting for Oli and I know he will take it all in his stride. To celebrate our friendship with him, we will have a shared lunch on Thursday. Please send a plate of food to share and feel free to join us at 1:15. We will also have a special presentation for Oli on this day.
Keep up the great work with those super kids and have a fantastic week,
Annie
Hi everyone, and welcome back to Week 5. Hopefully everyone received the letter from Mr MacMillan regarding my new position. It has been a really hard decision for me to make, made even more difficult by the fact that your kids are just so wonderful. I will miss each and every one of them and while it will be super sad leaving them and my dear school, it is time for me to try something new. I have been at St Mary's for nearly 18 years and now that all my own children have moved on to JPC and beyond, it's my time to set myself some new goals and take on a new adventure. Thank you all for your amazing support this year and for all your kind words and gestures. St Mary's is certainly a very special place and you the community make it that way. I will definitely stay in touch with Room 13 and will hopefully be able to sneak in for a visit from time to time.
Ok, now on to Week 5........
*R.E - we will wrap up our unit on Jesus this week and begin looking at the Church. The kids have learned some really interesting facts about Jesus and what his life was like, talk to them about it, you might even learn something you didn't know before.
*Maths - This week in Maths we will be looking at Measurement and more specifically, Time. This unit complements our Concept Study on Cycles - regular repeated sequences. We will look at days, weeks, months, years, minutes and hours.
*ALim - our group is working so hard and making some great progress. Please check the homework books as I will be sending home the odd practice sheet to help reinforce some of the knowledge needed at Stage 4. This week we will continue to look at Place value - tens and ones as well as identifying numbers to 1000 and adding tens.
*Writing - this week we are going to do some writing around our rocket launch. We will write a recount and an explanation which will outline how you can launch a rocket at home.
*Reading - We have been working on Comprehension over the last few weeks. The children have been searching a piece of writing for facts and using their research to help them answer comprehension questions. I have to say, they are becoming excellent researchers! You can see some of their research assignments on the wall in our classroom. Keep up the great reading at home. This week we will also continue practising and performing plays.
*Go4it continues on Thursday at 1:30. We are having a great time with Tim and are practising some really important sports skills. We have also begun playing soccer in the afternoons which is great fun. Although your bully children did push me over last week and I hit the deck in spectacular style - all great fun!
*Sadly our little mate Oliver is leaving at the end of this week. His family have decided to go to Scotland, where his mum Nadia is from and spend some time living with family there. It is super exciting for Oli and I know he will take it all in his stride. To celebrate our friendship with him, we will have a shared lunch on Thursday. Please send a plate of food to share and feel free to join us at 1:15. We will also have a special presentation for Oli on this day.
Keep up the great work with those super kids and have a fantastic week,
Annie
Sunday, 13 August 2017
Week 4, Term 3, 2017
Hi everyone, I hope you have all had a super weekend with your families. Lots of Winter sports drew to a close over the weekend which is exciting because it means Summer sport is just around the corner and so is warmer weather! Yipee.
This is what week 4 will look like in Room 13....
*Go4it - we will continue Go4it with Tim on Thursday afternoon. The kids are having a great time during these sessions and are practising some great skills. Please send shorts with the girls on this day.
*Assumption - we will have a Liturgy at 10am on Tuesday in the Hall to celebrate the Assumption of Mary. All are welcome.
*We will definitely be setting our rockets off this week. First we had Hiwi the Kiwi, then it rained all week...poor kids come to school every day thinking we are sending a rocket to Mars and I put them off. This week will most definitely be rocket week!
*Golden Time - this week we will be having a pj party for Golden Time. Please send pjs with your kids on Friday.
*Reading - We are rocketing along with reading in Room 13. Please remember that reading to your child every day is an absolute must. Firstly it shows the kids that reading is important to you and secondly it models good reading to them.
*Writing - seeing as we didn't set our rockets off last week, we didn't get the writing done either. This week we will be writing recounts about our rocket launch as well as explanations so that others can follow our instructions and set their own rockets off.
*Maths - Alim is going very well. I have added another student to our group so we have 5 alim kids now. We spend the first 15 minutes of the day on maths with this group and they are making great progress. This week in maths we will continue on addition and subtraction. Some of us are focusing on counting on and back to solve maths problems and the rest of us are splitting hundreds, tens and ones as well as counting on and back in tens to solve problems. Please, please, please, practice counting forward and back from any number within 100.
*R.E - we will continue our learning around Jesus this week with a Jesus feast to compare the foods Jesus ate with those we ate as well as looking at how Jesus can be a friend to us all.
Things are going very well in Room 13. I am very proud of the work that is being produced and the way in which the kids are supporting each other. Thank you once again for your continued support.
Have a great week
Annie
Sunday, 6 August 2017
Week 3, Term 3
Hi everyone, welcome back to Week 3! Ooh I had such a great night on Saturday at dancing with the stars. Its so great getting dressed up and sharing an evening with friends, I even go to see my daughter Lilly dance which was the icing on the cake. I hope you all had a super weekend too.
Here we go for Week 3.....
*Tomorrow we are making a rocket! It was our Golden Time Activity but because we only have half an hour, it wasn't long enough to research the rocket, put it together and launch it. Therefore we will do this Monday. The kids are super excited and we are going to make it a competition to see who's rocket launches the best.
*In the morning at 9am we have a visiting show in the hall, Hiwi the Kiwi. The show has a lovely environmental message and will go for around 3/4 of an hour.
*Next week on the 16th we have a visiting author coming to talk to and interact with the Year 2's. After her talk, she will take a group of writers to engage in a writers workshop. We are excited to have Jennifer with us, the author of some lovely Tales from the Farm stories. She will share her books The day dad blew up the Cow shed, The Eel hunt and a Very Greedy tale with us.
*Go4it - we have Go4it on Thursday after lunch. Thank you to all the parents who have been sending shorts with their girls, it certainly is much easier for them to jump around.
*Mass Friday at 9am - Mary MacKillop day. We also have some fun activities planned for Friday to celebrate this very special day and would like to invite you all to a shared lunch in Room 13. Please could everyone bring a plate of lovely healthy food to share on that day.
*Reading - it was great to see some of our kids receive prizes in the Holiday Reading Draw. Well done to Laine, Makenna and Chloe!
Keep up the great home reading and remember we are focusing on comprehension so do ask your kids a couple of questions requiring them to think about the story, after they have read.
*Maths - This week we are focusing on Addition and Subtraction. Many of the kids are separating tens and ones now which is super. Those children will be working on change unknown:
eg There were 37 kids on the school bus when it left St Mary's. The bus stopped once at JPC on the way. When it reached its final stop, there were 184 kids on board. How many kids got on at the JPC stop?
The kids need to understand that we have the final number (184) and that we need to get from 1378-184 by finding the missing number. Tricky business.
*Writing - Tomorrow we will be writing recounts about our rocket launch. We will then write an explanation so that others can launch their own rockets, as well as a fact sheet of "need to knows" for rocket launching.
*R.E - this week we will be working on getting to know Mary Mackillop, who she was, what she did and why she is important to us here at St Mary's.
Keep up that super parenting, and have a great week,
Annie
Here we go for Week 3.....
*Tomorrow we are making a rocket! It was our Golden Time Activity but because we only have half an hour, it wasn't long enough to research the rocket, put it together and launch it. Therefore we will do this Monday. The kids are super excited and we are going to make it a competition to see who's rocket launches the best.
*In the morning at 9am we have a visiting show in the hall, Hiwi the Kiwi. The show has a lovely environmental message and will go for around 3/4 of an hour.
*Next week on the 16th we have a visiting author coming to talk to and interact with the Year 2's. After her talk, she will take a group of writers to engage in a writers workshop. We are excited to have Jennifer with us, the author of some lovely Tales from the Farm stories. She will share her books The day dad blew up the Cow shed, The Eel hunt and a Very Greedy tale with us.
*Go4it - we have Go4it on Thursday after lunch. Thank you to all the parents who have been sending shorts with their girls, it certainly is much easier for them to jump around.
*Mass Friday at 9am - Mary MacKillop day. We also have some fun activities planned for Friday to celebrate this very special day and would like to invite you all to a shared lunch in Room 13. Please could everyone bring a plate of lovely healthy food to share on that day.
*Reading - it was great to see some of our kids receive prizes in the Holiday Reading Draw. Well done to Laine, Makenna and Chloe!
Keep up the great home reading and remember we are focusing on comprehension so do ask your kids a couple of questions requiring them to think about the story, after they have read.
*Maths - This week we are focusing on Addition and Subtraction. Many of the kids are separating tens and ones now which is super. Those children will be working on change unknown:
eg There were 37 kids on the school bus when it left St Mary's. The bus stopped once at JPC on the way. When it reached its final stop, there were 184 kids on board. How many kids got on at the JPC stop?
The kids need to understand that we have the final number (184) and that we need to get from 1378-184 by finding the missing number. Tricky business.
*Writing - Tomorrow we will be writing recounts about our rocket launch. We will then write an explanation so that others can launch their own rockets, as well as a fact sheet of "need to knows" for rocket launching.
*R.E - this week we will be working on getting to know Mary Mackillop, who she was, what she did and why she is important to us here at St Mary's.
Keep up that super parenting, and have a great week,
Annie
Sunday, 30 July 2017
Week 2, Term 3
Hi everyone. We had a great start to the new term last week with lots of laughs and some great learning. Thank you all for having your kids ready and raring to go on Monday, it was so good to see them all back after the holidays.
*Student Led Conferences - these will take place on Tuesday and you can book via the internet. Student Led Conferences are all about your child talking to you about their learning. There are some cues around the classroom that will help the kids, including some questions you might like to ask them to prompt them into talking about where they are and where they need to go to next. These are not parent interviews and while I will be there to support the children, it is not an individual parent interview. If you would like to meet with me at another time to discuss any concerns, please email me and I will certainly make a time.
*This week we will continue with Go4it on Thursday at 1:30. It was great fun on Thursday, we met Tim and he showed us some cool games and reminded us all of how important it is to have a good time. The idea of the Go4it program is to build the fundamental skills necessary for movement and physical education which in turn, keeps our kids active and healthy.
*We had a treasure hunt for Golden Time on Friday. Your kids are all so competitive - it was awesome. They love to challenge each other but they are also amazingly supportive of their friends which is heartwarming. This week we will be making a rocket to launch on the playground.
*Reading Logs are due back by Wednesday. If you have misplaced your child's log, please let me know and I can give them another one. I'd love us to have 100% return this time round.
*Raffle books are also due back this week. Thank you for your support of this raffle, the proceeds go directly to benefit your kids at school.
*Maths - this week we will continue with Geometry and focus on shape and position and rotation. We will be practising identifying shapes and moving them using 1/2 and 1/4 turns, flipping and sliding.
*ALiM - the children identified for the Acclerating Maths program will receive their letters this week.
*Writing - this week the children will continue to focus on Report writing. Our reading program will include finding facts in text and identifying the difference between fact and opinion.
The kids have settled beautifully back into school after the holidays. Thank you for your ongoing support.
Have a great week
Annie
*Student Led Conferences - these will take place on Tuesday and you can book via the internet. Student Led Conferences are all about your child talking to you about their learning. There are some cues around the classroom that will help the kids, including some questions you might like to ask them to prompt them into talking about where they are and where they need to go to next. These are not parent interviews and while I will be there to support the children, it is not an individual parent interview. If you would like to meet with me at another time to discuss any concerns, please email me and I will certainly make a time.
*This week we will continue with Go4it on Thursday at 1:30. It was great fun on Thursday, we met Tim and he showed us some cool games and reminded us all of how important it is to have a good time. The idea of the Go4it program is to build the fundamental skills necessary for movement and physical education which in turn, keeps our kids active and healthy.
*We had a treasure hunt for Golden Time on Friday. Your kids are all so competitive - it was awesome. They love to challenge each other but they are also amazingly supportive of their friends which is heartwarming. This week we will be making a rocket to launch on the playground.
*Reading Logs are due back by Wednesday. If you have misplaced your child's log, please let me know and I can give them another one. I'd love us to have 100% return this time round.
*Raffle books are also due back this week. Thank you for your support of this raffle, the proceeds go directly to benefit your kids at school.
*Maths - this week we will continue with Geometry and focus on shape and position and rotation. We will be practising identifying shapes and moving them using 1/2 and 1/4 turns, flipping and sliding.
*ALiM - the children identified for the Acclerating Maths program will receive their letters this week.
*Writing - this week the children will continue to focus on Report writing. Our reading program will include finding facts in text and identifying the difference between fact and opinion.
The kids have settled beautifully back into school after the holidays. Thank you for your ongoing support.
Have a great week
Annie
Sunday, 23 July 2017
Week 1 Term 3
Hi everyone and welcome back to Term 3. I hope you have all had a chance to spend some quality time with your kids and that they are ready for another busy term of learning!
Here we go.....
*Go4it starts this week. We will spend half an hour with a sports specialist every Tuesday until October. Please send shorts for the girls.
*Healthy Eating competition - we are all going to take part in a competition to show what we know about healthy options for lunch boxes. Room 13 will be designing some cool healthy lunch boxes so watch this space.
*Concept: This term our Concept is cycles and we are going to be looking at the moon, sun, seasons etc. This is a fun topic and we have lots of great experiments and learning planned.
*Reading - hopefully you all did some reading over the holidays, I certainly did. Please make sure you fill in your child's reading log and send it back to school. I'd love a 100% return this time. If you have misplaced it, let me know and I can get you a new one.
*Writing - this term we are looking at Report writing. This is when the kids find out some factual information and record it in their own words. Reporting is great fun and lends itself to group investigations and researching which is one of Room 13's reading goals this term. Look out for some amazing report writing on our walls. We will also be writing Recounts, Poetry, Narratives and Letters this term.
*Maths - This term we will begin by looking at position and rotation. Following that we will focus on addition and subtraction then Multiplication and Division. All our maths is based on word problems and some will be sent home for homework this term so that you can see exactly where your child is working. The stages are on the wall in the maths area and they highlight what knowledge and strategy is needed for Stage 4 (after 2 years) and 5(after 3 years).
*ALim Maths - the school is starting a new project this term called ALim. It is a Maths acceleration program for children who need a little more input in maths. In Year 2 we will be running this program 4 days a week from 8:45-9:00am. There are 4 children involved from Room 13 and they will be the "Maths Club Kids". I will send a letter home this week to the parents of those kids involved. The rest of the class will be involved in Developmental Play while the Alim group is working with me. School still starts at 8:45 and the children need to be at school at 8:30 so they can organise themselves for the day.
*Student Led Conferences: In week 2 we have student led conferences booked. This week we will be finding out exactly where we are in our learning and using some clever language to explain what we need to do to move on to the next stage/level. The SLC's are a chance for your child to show off what they can do but also consolidate what they know and where they need to go next. I look forward to seeing you all at the SLC's.
*Portfolio's and Reports go home on Friday. Please take time over the weekend to look through the portfolio and write a comment on the last page about what you enjoyed, what impressed you and what you would like to see happen next for your child at school. The children will be using these on the night of SLC's so they need to come back after the weekend.
*Reports: Everyone will receive a report on Friday. It is important to note that in Years 1-3, reports are written every six months - the annual report is called "Anniversary" and will be given after 1 year, 2 years and 3 years. The progress report is called "Interim" and will be given after 6 months, 18 months, 30 months. We changed the format of our reports in Term 2 so those Term 1 reports will be on the old template. It is important to note that these are National Standards Reports and the data on them refers to either the anniversary or interim date, therefore some of the data may be somewhat outdated. Now that we have a solid system in place, the children should receive their reports at the time I wrote them. All Room 13 children will receive another report before the end of the year depending on when they started school. PHEW!
*Updates will appear on the Blog during the week so please check it every couple of days.
Have a great week
Annie
Here we go.....
*Go4it starts this week. We will spend half an hour with a sports specialist every Tuesday until October. Please send shorts for the girls.
*Healthy Eating competition - we are all going to take part in a competition to show what we know about healthy options for lunch boxes. Room 13 will be designing some cool healthy lunch boxes so watch this space.
*Concept: This term our Concept is cycles and we are going to be looking at the moon, sun, seasons etc. This is a fun topic and we have lots of great experiments and learning planned.
*Reading - hopefully you all did some reading over the holidays, I certainly did. Please make sure you fill in your child's reading log and send it back to school. I'd love a 100% return this time. If you have misplaced it, let me know and I can get you a new one.
*Writing - this term we are looking at Report writing. This is when the kids find out some factual information and record it in their own words. Reporting is great fun and lends itself to group investigations and researching which is one of Room 13's reading goals this term. Look out for some amazing report writing on our walls. We will also be writing Recounts, Poetry, Narratives and Letters this term.
*Maths - This term we will begin by looking at position and rotation. Following that we will focus on addition and subtraction then Multiplication and Division. All our maths is based on word problems and some will be sent home for homework this term so that you can see exactly where your child is working. The stages are on the wall in the maths area and they highlight what knowledge and strategy is needed for Stage 4 (after 2 years) and 5(after 3 years).
*ALim Maths - the school is starting a new project this term called ALim. It is a Maths acceleration program for children who need a little more input in maths. In Year 2 we will be running this program 4 days a week from 8:45-9:00am. There are 4 children involved from Room 13 and they will be the "Maths Club Kids". I will send a letter home this week to the parents of those kids involved. The rest of the class will be involved in Developmental Play while the Alim group is working with me. School still starts at 8:45 and the children need to be at school at 8:30 so they can organise themselves for the day.
*Student Led Conferences: In week 2 we have student led conferences booked. This week we will be finding out exactly where we are in our learning and using some clever language to explain what we need to do to move on to the next stage/level. The SLC's are a chance for your child to show off what they can do but also consolidate what they know and where they need to go next. I look forward to seeing you all at the SLC's.
*Portfolio's and Reports go home on Friday. Please take time over the weekend to look through the portfolio and write a comment on the last page about what you enjoyed, what impressed you and what you would like to see happen next for your child at school. The children will be using these on the night of SLC's so they need to come back after the weekend.
*Reports: Everyone will receive a report on Friday. It is important to note that in Years 1-3, reports are written every six months - the annual report is called "Anniversary" and will be given after 1 year, 2 years and 3 years. The progress report is called "Interim" and will be given after 6 months, 18 months, 30 months. We changed the format of our reports in Term 2 so those Term 1 reports will be on the old template. It is important to note that these are National Standards Reports and the data on them refers to either the anniversary or interim date, therefore some of the data may be somewhat outdated. Now that we have a solid system in place, the children should receive their reports at the time I wrote them. All Room 13 children will receive another report before the end of the year depending on when they started school. PHEW!
*Updates will appear on the Blog during the week so please check it every couple of days.
Have a great week
Annie
Sunday, 2 July 2017
Week 10 Notice
Can you believe it? Week 10! This term has gone by so fast and I have to say, Room 13 have proven over and over that we are the best class in the school. Here is a quick look back at term 2.....
What a great bunch of learners, sharers, helpers, supporters and fun seekers. We have had such a great term and we are all looking forward to Term 3 and Spring!
This week:
*finishing off assessments (recycling and handwriting) for Portfolios.
*Some final Maths assessments to make sure we know exactly where everyone is.
*Shared Lunch Friday to celebrate the end of the Term.
*Final Recycling Activity - any cardboard boxes, tubes, coils appreciated.
*Golden Time: Movie and Popcorn to precede our shared lunch.
Thank you all for a super term in Room 13. The kids are great and are working really well. Every time I have a reliever in, they comment what an amazing group they are because they know their routines, help each other and get their work done. It makes me feel very proud when I hear these comments.
Have a super holiday everyone
Annie
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| visiting kitty |
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| Assembly |
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| Autumn |
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| Autumn art |
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| Writing |
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| Buddy Reading |
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| God's Creations |
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| Buddy Reading |
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| Maths with Statistics |
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| Matariki - fishing |
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| Science |
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| Independent Reading |
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| Assembly |
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| Reduce, Reuse, Recycle |
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| Big Books |
This week:
*finishing off assessments (recycling and handwriting) for Portfolios.
*Some final Maths assessments to make sure we know exactly where everyone is.
*Shared Lunch Friday to celebrate the end of the Term.
*Final Recycling Activity - any cardboard boxes, tubes, coils appreciated.
*Golden Time: Movie and Popcorn to precede our shared lunch.
Thank you all for a super term in Room 13. The kids are great and are working really well. Every time I have a reliever in, they comment what an amazing group they are because they know their routines, help each other and get their work done. It makes me feel very proud when I hear these comments.
Have a super holiday everyone
Annie
Sunday, 25 June 2017
Week 9 Notice
Week 9....
*It is getting very close to the end of the term when Portfolio's and Reports will go home. Please ensure your child is at school every day unless they are legitimately unwell. We will be completing some assessments over the next two weeks and it is very difficult to go back and catch up when kids are away. Please if you still have your child's Portfolio at home, could you return it on Monday.
*This week is Maverick's last week with us. He will be moving to Auckland with his parents. I am sure everyone will join with me in wishing him and his family all the very best. We will miss you Mav.
*On Thursday afternoon we have a visiting musical group from Australia. The children will (hopefully) be enchanted by some lovely music from 1:30pm.
*This week our Activ Board projector stopped working so we could not watch the movie. Instead we played balloon pop in the hall which was awesome fun. The boys won the first round and the girls, (with some help from me) came back in the second round. I took some cool photos and will post them on the blog. This week we will be baking for Golden Time.
*This week is Matariki. We have a Liturgy planned for Tuesday at 10 am and there is a coloring competition for the kids. We will also be learning about Marariki in class this week. Also to celebrate Matariki, there will be a cultural dinner in the hall from 5:30pm on Wednesday 28th June. All families are invited to attend and bring a plate of food to share.
*All children in Room 13 will bring home their report on Friday 7th July. Some will be Anniversary Reports (after two years at school) and some will be Interim reports (after 18 months and 30 months at school). If you have any concerns about how your child is progressing, please email me so that we can meet to discuss this. I am very pleased with how the children are working at school and will discuss what they are currently able to do and what their next steps will be, in their reports.
Have a great week
Annie
*It is getting very close to the end of the term when Portfolio's and Reports will go home. Please ensure your child is at school every day unless they are legitimately unwell. We will be completing some assessments over the next two weeks and it is very difficult to go back and catch up when kids are away. Please if you still have your child's Portfolio at home, could you return it on Monday.
*This week is Maverick's last week with us. He will be moving to Auckland with his parents. I am sure everyone will join with me in wishing him and his family all the very best. We will miss you Mav.
*On Thursday afternoon we have a visiting musical group from Australia. The children will (hopefully) be enchanted by some lovely music from 1:30pm.
*This week our Activ Board projector stopped working so we could not watch the movie. Instead we played balloon pop in the hall which was awesome fun. The boys won the first round and the girls, (with some help from me) came back in the second round. I took some cool photos and will post them on the blog. This week we will be baking for Golden Time.
*This week is Matariki. We have a Liturgy planned for Tuesday at 10 am and there is a coloring competition for the kids. We will also be learning about Marariki in class this week. Also to celebrate Matariki, there will be a cultural dinner in the hall from 5:30pm on Wednesday 28th June. All families are invited to attend and bring a plate of food to share.
*All children in Room 13 will bring home their report on Friday 7th July. Some will be Anniversary Reports (after two years at school) and some will be Interim reports (after 18 months and 30 months at school). If you have any concerns about how your child is progressing, please email me so that we can meet to discuss this. I am very pleased with how the children are working at school and will discuss what they are currently able to do and what their next steps will be, in their reports.
Have a great week
Annie
Tuesday, 20 June 2017
Week 8 Notice
Hi everyone, here we go for week 8 - can you believe it?
*Mass at 9am
*Golden: Time: we will try for our movie and popcorn again.
*Maths: This week we will continue with addition and subtraction problems. We are trying to make our addition effective (getting the right answer) and efficient (quick and easy) so we are learning how to split the additive to do this.
eg if we have 45 + 7 =
We can make 45 a tidy number then add what is left.....
We know that 5+2 make 7 so we can add the 5 to 45 to make 50 (a tidy number) then add the 2 to make 52.
45+7=
45 + 5 = 50
50 + 2 = 52
We want the kids to be able to write the equation using these steps above.
The other kids are counting on so need to be able to hold 45 in their head, then count on 7
eg 45....46....47....48....49....50....51....52
Writing - this week we are writing explanations as well as some prayers about God's creations.
Reading - our reading is going very well. We are focusing on going back to the beginning of the sentence if the reading sounds weird or doesn't make sense, hearing errors and fixing them and comprehending what we are reading.
*Next week we will be doing some assessments for the Portfolio which will go home at the end of the term. Please have your child at school every day unless they are legitimately sick as it is really difficult to go back and get assessments done once the class has completed them.
Have a great week
Annie
*Mass at 9am
*Golden: Time: we will try for our movie and popcorn again.
*Maths: This week we will continue with addition and subtraction problems. We are trying to make our addition effective (getting the right answer) and efficient (quick and easy) so we are learning how to split the additive to do this.
eg if we have 45 + 7 =
We can make 45 a tidy number then add what is left.....
We know that 5+2 make 7 so we can add the 5 to 45 to make 50 (a tidy number) then add the 2 to make 52.
45+7=
45 + 5 = 50
50 + 2 = 52
We want the kids to be able to write the equation using these steps above.
The other kids are counting on so need to be able to hold 45 in their head, then count on 7
eg 45....46....47....48....49....50....51....52
Writing - this week we are writing explanations as well as some prayers about God's creations.
Reading - our reading is going very well. We are focusing on going back to the beginning of the sentence if the reading sounds weird or doesn't make sense, hearing errors and fixing them and comprehending what we are reading.
*Next week we will be doing some assessments for the Portfolio which will go home at the end of the term. Please have your child at school every day unless they are legitimately sick as it is really difficult to go back and get assessments done once the class has completed them.
Have a great week
Annie
Tuesday, 13 June 2017
Weekly Notice - Week 7
Hi everyone, sorry my notice is late this week, I was a bit preoccupied with J Rock this last weekend. Now that is all done and what a super day and night it was too, here we go for week 7.....
*Writing - this week we are writing Reports - factual stories to share information. We started to day with some research on Recycling and are hoping the end result will be some lovely, informative posters we can put up around the place about the need to recycle. We are focusing on capital letters, full stops, sticking to the facts and writing paragraphs.
*Mathematics - we will continue our unit on addition and subtraction this week with a focus for the Stage 4 and 5 kids on splitting numbers to help add and subtract.
For example:
If the number story was 23-6= we might ask the kids to split 6 into 3+3 then take 3 away from 23 to make 20 (tidy number) and then take a further 3 away to make 17.
I am trying to get them to see the equation and be able to use facts they already know to solve it. Obviously to do this they need to know their facts to 10 instantly. We are talking about being efficient (quick and easy) and effective (getting to the answer) mathematicians.
*Reading - we are going really well with reading. Keep up that lovely home reading and and remember to read to your child every day. If they read extra books, write them in their reading log too.
*Juicies and Sausages - just a reminder that juicies are now $1.50 so it is $3 for a sausage and a juicy rather than $2.50.
*Golden Time this week will be a movie and popcorn.
*We have photos this Friday. Please ensure your child is in their correct winter uniform and that you have your photo order in by Thursday at 12.30.
I will check hair etc before we are photographed so send a brush if you are worried your darling might need a touch up.
*Our lovely Oli is going to be leaving us at the end of the term for an exciting adventure in Scotland with his family. While we are truly excited for them all, we will most certainly miss Oli and I will be particularly sad to see my special "cat" family go. Who will go home with the Russell strays now? Sooo, we are going to have a party for Oli and give him a super duper Room 13 send off. I will send more details out asap.
Nicola looked after our class yesterday while I was out at J Rock and she said and I quote, "wow, what an awesome class". I said, "um of course, we are the best class in the school!" Thank you for encouraging your kids to be well mannered, to work hard and to treat new people to our class with respect. It makes me very proud when I hear they have had a great day with a reliever.
Have a great week,
Annie
*Writing - this week we are writing Reports - factual stories to share information. We started to day with some research on Recycling and are hoping the end result will be some lovely, informative posters we can put up around the place about the need to recycle. We are focusing on capital letters, full stops, sticking to the facts and writing paragraphs.
*Mathematics - we will continue our unit on addition and subtraction this week with a focus for the Stage 4 and 5 kids on splitting numbers to help add and subtract.
For example:
If the number story was 23-6= we might ask the kids to split 6 into 3+3 then take 3 away from 23 to make 20 (tidy number) and then take a further 3 away to make 17.
I am trying to get them to see the equation and be able to use facts they already know to solve it. Obviously to do this they need to know their facts to 10 instantly. We are talking about being efficient (quick and easy) and effective (getting to the answer) mathematicians.
*Reading - we are going really well with reading. Keep up that lovely home reading and and remember to read to your child every day. If they read extra books, write them in their reading log too.
*Juicies and Sausages - just a reminder that juicies are now $1.50 so it is $3 for a sausage and a juicy rather than $2.50.
*Golden Time this week will be a movie and popcorn.
*We have photos this Friday. Please ensure your child is in their correct winter uniform and that you have your photo order in by Thursday at 12.30.
I will check hair etc before we are photographed so send a brush if you are worried your darling might need a touch up.
*Our lovely Oli is going to be leaving us at the end of the term for an exciting adventure in Scotland with his family. While we are truly excited for them all, we will most certainly miss Oli and I will be particularly sad to see my special "cat" family go. Who will go home with the Russell strays now? Sooo, we are going to have a party for Oli and give him a super duper Room 13 send off. I will send more details out asap.
Nicola looked after our class yesterday while I was out at J Rock and she said and I quote, "wow, what an awesome class". I said, "um of course, we are the best class in the school!" Thank you for encouraging your kids to be well mannered, to work hard and to treat new people to our class with respect. It makes me very proud when I hear they have had a great day with a reliever.
Have a great week,
Annie
Monday, 5 June 2017
Weekly Notice
Hi everyone, welcome back to another week of great learning in Room 13. I hope you all had a lovely long weekend and everyone is refreshed! Here we go for Week 6.....
*We had such a great time last week with our Autumn theme, which was not planned but sometimes you just have to go with what nature presents to you. The kids did some amazing art, which can be seen in the hall foyer, wrote some gorgeous poems and carried out some very clever statistical maths investigations. We had a lot of fun playing with leaves too.
*Maths - this week we will be looking at addition and subtraction through problem solving. It is expected after 2 years at school, that the kids will be able to hold a number and count on and back to solve addition and subtraction problems.
For example
There are 23 kids in Room 13. On Thursday, 6 kids were away. How many kids were in Room 13 on Thursday?
The children might say...
23 - 6 = hold 23 in their head and count back 22, 21, 20, 19, 18, 17
or if they have that consolidated they might.....
23 - 3 = 20 and 20 - 3 = 17 this is the beginning of breaking numbers and is the first step towards working towards "after 3 years at school".
Now that some of our kids are working towards 3 years at school, the expectation is that they will be able to use other strategies such as separating tens and ones and adding in tens.
For example:
There are two paddocks on Mrs Russells farm. In one paddock she has 34 calves and in the other 23. How many calves does Mrs Russell have altogether?
If the children are working towards 3 years at school they might say....
34 + 10 +10 + 3 = 57 They break the 23 into 10 + 10 + 3
or they might say....
30 + 20 = 50 and 4 + 3 =7 so 50 + 7 = 57
Some of our mathematicians are already working at Stage 5 "after 3 years at school" and are able to work into the thousands. We need to have a really good understanding of numbers to 1000 and place value to be able to do this.
*Writing - we are assessing writing this week. We will be looking at explanation writing which we have made a good start on. The assessment task will be in the kids portfolio at the end of the term.
If you have not sent back your child's portfolio back to school, please do so that I can put this terms assessment tasks into it."
*R.E - we are continuing our strand study on God. We are looking at the creation story and deciding what God created and what man has made.
*Reading - wow, some of our readers have reached Silver which is awesome! While testing over the last few weeks I identified these areas of need...
-reading punctuation - if the children do not read commas and full stops their phrasing is off and the story does not make sense. Please ensure they are pausing at a comma and completely stopping at a full stop.
- comprehension - lots of our kids can read anything they pick up now which is marvelous. We do need to make sure they understand what they have read and that they are taking something from the story. It is helpful if you ask them a couple of little questions after they read such as...
why did ___________ do that in the story?
where did they go in the story?
why do you think that happened?
What made ____________ say/think that?
If you take a bit of time to check in, you will see the bits they have not understood and then perhaps they could have another go at those parts the next night. The reason for only giving them two books a week is so they can reread stories and get a really good understanding of them.
-rereading - I encourage the kids to reread the sentence if they get stuck or if it just doesn't sound right to them. Rereading helps them with fluency and comprehension so just give them a little reminder before they start reading.
Golden Time: this week we will attempt again to complete our recycled art. Please send anything shiny to school this week - nuts, bolts, old jewellery, cutlery - anything shiny at all.
Thank you for your ongoing support of our class and your kids learning. We are having such a great time in Room 13, they are an amazing bunch of kids and it is super cool spending my days with them.
Have a great week
Annie
*We had such a great time last week with our Autumn theme, which was not planned but sometimes you just have to go with what nature presents to you. The kids did some amazing art, which can be seen in the hall foyer, wrote some gorgeous poems and carried out some very clever statistical maths investigations. We had a lot of fun playing with leaves too.
*Maths - this week we will be looking at addition and subtraction through problem solving. It is expected after 2 years at school, that the kids will be able to hold a number and count on and back to solve addition and subtraction problems.
For example
There are 23 kids in Room 13. On Thursday, 6 kids were away. How many kids were in Room 13 on Thursday?
The children might say...
23 - 6 = hold 23 in their head and count back 22, 21, 20, 19, 18, 17
or if they have that consolidated they might.....
23 - 3 = 20 and 20 - 3 = 17 this is the beginning of breaking numbers and is the first step towards working towards "after 3 years at school".
Now that some of our kids are working towards 3 years at school, the expectation is that they will be able to use other strategies such as separating tens and ones and adding in tens.
For example:
There are two paddocks on Mrs Russells farm. In one paddock she has 34 calves and in the other 23. How many calves does Mrs Russell have altogether?
If the children are working towards 3 years at school they might say....
34 + 10 +10 + 3 = 57 They break the 23 into 10 + 10 + 3
or they might say....
30 + 20 = 50 and 4 + 3 =7 so 50 + 7 = 57
Some of our mathematicians are already working at Stage 5 "after 3 years at school" and are able to work into the thousands. We need to have a really good understanding of numbers to 1000 and place value to be able to do this.
*Writing - we are assessing writing this week. We will be looking at explanation writing which we have made a good start on. The assessment task will be in the kids portfolio at the end of the term.
If you have not sent back your child's portfolio back to school, please do so that I can put this terms assessment tasks into it."
*R.E - we are continuing our strand study on God. We are looking at the creation story and deciding what God created and what man has made.
*Reading - wow, some of our readers have reached Silver which is awesome! While testing over the last few weeks I identified these areas of need...
-reading punctuation - if the children do not read commas and full stops their phrasing is off and the story does not make sense. Please ensure they are pausing at a comma and completely stopping at a full stop.
- comprehension - lots of our kids can read anything they pick up now which is marvelous. We do need to make sure they understand what they have read and that they are taking something from the story. It is helpful if you ask them a couple of little questions after they read such as...
why did ___________ do that in the story?
where did they go in the story?
why do you think that happened?
What made ____________ say/think that?
If you take a bit of time to check in, you will see the bits they have not understood and then perhaps they could have another go at those parts the next night. The reason for only giving them two books a week is so they can reread stories and get a really good understanding of them.
-rereading - I encourage the kids to reread the sentence if they get stuck or if it just doesn't sound right to them. Rereading helps them with fluency and comprehension so just give them a little reminder before they start reading.
Golden Time: this week we will attempt again to complete our recycled art. Please send anything shiny to school this week - nuts, bolts, old jewellery, cutlery - anything shiny at all.
Thank you for your ongoing support of our class and your kids learning. We are having such a great time in Room 13, they are an amazing bunch of kids and it is super cool spending my days with them.
Have a great week
Annie
Sunday, 28 May 2017
Weekly Notice
Week 5 Term 2, 2017
*We are holding an information evening on: ‘What it means to attend a Catholic School’.
This is for anyone to attend who would like to know more about the unique aspects we cover at St Mary’s and the promotion of Catholic values as a Catholic School. We will look into the RE content taught, Sexuality programme taught, expectations and community spirit as well. WHEN: 5.30 - 6.30pm, Wednesday 31st May 2017, WHERE: St Mary’s School, Rooms 14. WHO: New families, those interested in continuing in the Catholic education system via JPC,.re we go for Week 5....
*We do have Head lice in Room 13. Please check your child's hair and treat if necessary. There are also a lot of nasty cold and flu bugs going around. If your child is unwell, please keep them at home. School is not a great place to be when you feel miserable and of course the bugs are then shared out with everyone....including ME!
*Writing - this week we are looking at explanation and focusing on compound sentences - these are sentences that have and or because or but joining two ideas that are linked. We will also be talking a lot about rereading sentences after we write them to ensure they sound right and have the correct punctuation.
*Maths - We will be spending the week on Statistics this week. The children will be deciding on a Mathematical investigation and will be gathering and recording data, and then presenting their findings.
*RE: we are currently working on the God strand. We are discussing how God created the world and how we are responsible, as God's family, for preserving the gifts he has given us. This fits in nicely with our Reduce, Reuse, Recycle study.
*Reading - I am really pleased with the reading assessments. Some kids have moved up a level and that is always pleasing. As a result of this testing I have found the following:
-the kids need to really focus on the meaning of the story which is comprehension. Many of them could read the higher levels very well but could not answer the questions at the end. It's a great idea to have a talk to your child after reading to ensure they have understood what they have read.
-some of the fluency and phrasing was low. Fluency can be gained from rereading texts often and phrasing can be improved by ensuring the kids read the punctuation carefully. Thank you for your support with home reading.
*Spelling - we will have a spelling test in Week 9. The test will be on the words the kids have been bringing home to practice.
*Cross Country - our race is coming up and we are practising as often as we can (weather dependent). I will let you know the details as soon as I know.
Golden Time - this week we will be making recycled art. Please could we have anything metallic you might have at home.....nuts, bolts, wire,old cutlery, necklaces, beads.
Have a great week
Annie
Wednesday, 24 May 2017
Weekly Notices
Hi everyone, sorry this is so late, I was sick on Sunday and Monday but here is the outline for the rest of the week....
*No sausage sizzle this Friday!!!!!
If our kids want to bring $2, I will get them hot chips and sauce for lunch instead.
*Cross Country is for Year 3-6 only! Our Cross Country will be later in the term.
*Mass on Friday at 9am - Pentecost. All families are welcome to attend.
*Writing - we are writing retells this week about the Pentecost story.
*Reading - I am finishing off the Running Records, our kids are doing so well. Keep up that lovely home reading and please ensure you are reading to your children as much as possible. We are great role models and we can show our kids what good reading sounds like.
http://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/read-aloud-to-children/
*Maths - this week we are finishing our unit on skip counting. There is lots of maths that goes with skip counting eg doubles, halves, evens, odds, 10's groupings etc. Some practice while in the car or the bath or at bed time would be super. We are using it to solve problems like:
Makenna had 5 friends to her party. Each friend had their hair in 2 ponytails. How many pony tails were there altogether.
2,4,6,8,10
The kids sometimes need to draw a picture or use some materials to help them keep their counting ordered. Some will simply know that 5 groups of 2 or 5x2=10. That's great too.
*Golden Time: We will definitely do our recycled pencil holders this Friday. There will be no assembly so we will have plenty of time. Please send in any old buttons, fabric, beads, feathers etc so we can make them amazing!
Have a great week.
Annie
*No sausage sizzle this Friday!!!!!
If our kids want to bring $2, I will get them hot chips and sauce for lunch instead.
*Cross Country is for Year 3-6 only! Our Cross Country will be later in the term.
*Mass on Friday at 9am - Pentecost. All families are welcome to attend.
*Writing - we are writing retells this week about the Pentecost story.
*Reading - I am finishing off the Running Records, our kids are doing so well. Keep up that lovely home reading and please ensure you are reading to your children as much as possible. We are great role models and we can show our kids what good reading sounds like.
http://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/read-aloud-to-children/
*Maths - this week we are finishing our unit on skip counting. There is lots of maths that goes with skip counting eg doubles, halves, evens, odds, 10's groupings etc. Some practice while in the car or the bath or at bed time would be super. We are using it to solve problems like:
Makenna had 5 friends to her party. Each friend had their hair in 2 ponytails. How many pony tails were there altogether.
2,4,6,8,10
The kids sometimes need to draw a picture or use some materials to help them keep their counting ordered. Some will simply know that 5 groups of 2 or 5x2=10. That's great too.
*Golden Time: We will definitely do our recycled pencil holders this Friday. There will be no assembly so we will have plenty of time. Please send in any old buttons, fabric, beads, feathers etc so we can make them amazing!
Have a great week.
Annie
Sunday, 14 May 2017
Week 3, Term 2, 2017
Hi everyone, welcome back to another fantastic week of learning in Room 13.
*The Movies: we will walk to the movies on Friday at around 9:45. If you are able to accompany us, that would be super. Please email me to let me know your availability.
*Maths: This week we will be working on skip counting to solve maths problems. We skip count in 2's, 5's and 10's and this helps us solve problems like.....
The three bears lived in a warm cosy cave. Every day the bears ate 2 pots of honey each. How many pots of honey do the bears eat each day?
*The Movies: we will walk to the movies on Friday at around 9:45. If you are able to accompany us, that would be super. Please email me to let me know your availability.
*Maths: This week we will be working on skip counting to solve maths problems. We skip count in 2's, 5's and 10's and this helps us solve problems like.....
The three bears lived in a warm cosy cave. Every day the bears ate 2 pots of honey each. How many pots of honey do the bears eat each day?
2 2 2
We can either use repeated addition 2 +2+ 2= 6
or skip counting 2,4,6
*Writing: This week is Science week. We will be carrying out some science experiments and writing them up.
We will be writing about Autumn next week. We will be going on an Autumn walk to inspire our descriptive stories then we will do some art work and display both our writing and pictures in the hall foyer. We will also write some fun stories like "what do teachers do after school closes?" and "what if I met an elephant on the way to school?" We are currently working on planning stories and using labels to help us in our story writing.
*Recycling: Please could we collect egg containers this week in our recycling containers. We will use them for sorting and practising our skip counting.
*Golden Time: This week we will be making our recycled pencil containers. Our Mothers day cards were quite labour intensive so we didn't get to them last Friday. Please send along a recycled tin can if you haven't already.
*Sadly Mrs Halls Mum died during the weekend. We will all be thinking about her in our prayers this week and hoping that her mum is safely with God in Heaven.
*Now that the weather is getting colder, the kids will be needing warm jackets to and from school. The school polar fleece is a great option because they are allowed to wear them at play time and lunch time. They can be found in the Warehouse now and wash and dry very easily.
*Our class are working beautifully together at the moment. Thank you for your continued encouragement of the kids and their learning. Keep up that great home reading and spelling and don't hesitate to give me a yell if you have any questions.
Have a great week
Annie
Friday, 12 May 2017
Movies
Hi everyone, we are all go for the movies next Friday. We have two choices: Boss Baby G rated or A Dogs purpose PG. A few of the kids have seen Boss Baby so the latter would be better but I need to ascertain whether any parent is opposed to their child seeing a PG movie without them present.
I will also need 3 parent helpers to walk with us, supervise at the movie and walk back to school.
If you are opposed to the movie please email me this weekend. If you can help on the day, please also email me this weekend.
annie.c.r@hotmail.com
We have enough money to pay for the movies and have a little treat. Yay!
Thank you for your patience and support.
Annie
I will also need 3 parent helpers to walk with us, supervise at the movie and walk back to school.
If you are opposed to the movie please email me this weekend. If you can help on the day, please also email me this weekend.
annie.c.r@hotmail.com
We have enough money to pay for the movies and have a little treat. Yay!
Thank you for your patience and support.
Annie
Sunday, 7 May 2017
Weekly Notices Week 2, Term 2
Hi everyone, what a super start to Term 2, thank you for having your children in their Winter Uniforms, ready for learning, we have had a super week.
*Assembly: We were in charge of Assembly last week and with only a week to prepare, it was all go! I am sure those parents in attendance would agree, our kids did an amazing job. Well done to the speakers, you spoke clearly and slowly and you remembered to stop and wait at the appropriate times. Congratulations also to those children sitting on the benches. You sat still and were quiet, you all made me very proud.
A special congratulations goes to Epiphany who won the highly coveted Principals Shield - what a super star!
*Golden Time this week will be recyCled can pencil holders. Please send in a can with your child along with any beads, buttons, bottle tops, colored glossy paper and pipe cleaners. We will also be collecting nuts, bolts, wire and anything that might be robot like.
*We are set to go on our trip in Week 3. Unfortunately, Rainbow Springs will not do a concession for us so the cost is $22 per child. I think this is just too much and am not prepared to ask parents for any more money. Therefore, we are going to go back to our original options and vote on a new trip venue. I will send a note home on Monday to let you know when, where, what time and how many parent helpers we need. Thank you once again for your support with the Art Auction, it was such a success and the kids were extremely proud of their art. If you haven't collected your child's art, please do so this week, it is in our classroom. We are now planning the next piece of amazing art to decorate the walls downstairs.
*Maths - last week we looked at halves and doubles. We are going to continue with this topic in Week 2 as well as investigating 1/4's and 1/3's. We will practice applying our knowledge of doubles and halves to problem solving as well.
*Reading - please keep up the home reading and can we have all the reading logs returned this week? I would love Room 13 to be the first class to have all their reading logs in. Congratulations again to Epiphany, the first of our kids to return her reading log.
*Writing - we began learning how to label our picture plan to help with story writing last week. The kids did an amazing job and wrote some great Anzac Stories which will feature in their Portfolio. We will continue practising our labels planning strategy this week when we write our School community stories.
*RE: this week we are looking at Prayer. The Prayer bag will come home accompanied by our brand new "family prayer book" Please take the time to pray with your child and together put together a simple prayer for our book. The idea is that we use the book as a resource during prayer time at school.
*P.E: This term we will focus on training for the Cross Country Race. The kids will practice the track and each day tally up how many laps they run. The person who runs the farthest will receive a "nice prize".
Remember if there are any questions or concerns, please email me and I will get back to you asap.
Have a great week
Annie
*Assembly: We were in charge of Assembly last week and with only a week to prepare, it was all go! I am sure those parents in attendance would agree, our kids did an amazing job. Well done to the speakers, you spoke clearly and slowly and you remembered to stop and wait at the appropriate times. Congratulations also to those children sitting on the benches. You sat still and were quiet, you all made me very proud.
A special congratulations goes to Epiphany who won the highly coveted Principals Shield - what a super star!
*Golden Time this week will be recyCled can pencil holders. Please send in a can with your child along with any beads, buttons, bottle tops, colored glossy paper and pipe cleaners. We will also be collecting nuts, bolts, wire and anything that might be robot like.
*We are set to go on our trip in Week 3. Unfortunately, Rainbow Springs will not do a concession for us so the cost is $22 per child. I think this is just too much and am not prepared to ask parents for any more money. Therefore, we are going to go back to our original options and vote on a new trip venue. I will send a note home on Monday to let you know when, where, what time and how many parent helpers we need. Thank you once again for your support with the Art Auction, it was such a success and the kids were extremely proud of their art. If you haven't collected your child's art, please do so this week, it is in our classroom. We are now planning the next piece of amazing art to decorate the walls downstairs.
*Maths - last week we looked at halves and doubles. We are going to continue with this topic in Week 2 as well as investigating 1/4's and 1/3's. We will practice applying our knowledge of doubles and halves to problem solving as well.
*Reading - please keep up the home reading and can we have all the reading logs returned this week? I would love Room 13 to be the first class to have all their reading logs in. Congratulations again to Epiphany, the first of our kids to return her reading log.
*Writing - we began learning how to label our picture plan to help with story writing last week. The kids did an amazing job and wrote some great Anzac Stories which will feature in their Portfolio. We will continue practising our labels planning strategy this week when we write our School community stories.
*RE: this week we are looking at Prayer. The Prayer bag will come home accompanied by our brand new "family prayer book" Please take the time to pray with your child and together put together a simple prayer for our book. The idea is that we use the book as a resource during prayer time at school.
*P.E: This term we will focus on training for the Cross Country Race. The kids will practice the track and each day tally up how many laps they run. The person who runs the farthest will receive a "nice prize".
Remember if there are any questions or concerns, please email me and I will get back to you asap.
Have a great week
Annie
Sunday, 30 April 2017
Term 2, Week 1, 2017
Hi everyone and welcome back to school. I hope you all had a great holiday with your children and took advantage of some of the great weather we have had.
Here we go for week 1....
*Portfolio's: all portfolio's went home on the last day but because we finished early, I didn't get the parent comment forms in. I will send them home tomorrow and hope you will take a few minutes to give your child some feedback and feed forward and praise them on all their hard work.
*Liturgies: There is an ANAZAC Liturgy tomorrow at 10am in the hall and one on Tuesday at the same time for the Resurection. All families are welcome to join us.
*Assembly: Room 13 is responsible for Assembly this week. If you can come along it would be great for your kids to see you there. Assembly begins at 2:05pm on Friday.
*Trip: We will be going on our trip to Rainbow Springs in Week 3. If you would like to come along, we will need parent transport and supporters while at the park. A note will go home this week for you to fill in if you can help. If you didn't get a chance to send the money in for the Art Auction, please do so this week. Many thanks for your support with the auction, it was a great learning experience for the children and they really feel like they have worked to earn the money for their trip.
*Reading: I would love to see all Reading Logs returned this week please. We will continue with Guided Reading, Buddy Reading, Independent and shared reading this term. Every child will bring at least 2 books home a week. It is important for their understanding of the story and for fluency that they reread their stories often. Please encourage them to read every day.
*Writing: this term will continue writing every day, focusing on recount, explanation and imaginative writing. We will also be focusing on spelling patterns and blended sounds such as ai, ou, ar etc.
*Mathematics: This term we will be spending a good amount of time working on building maths knowledge and how we can use it to problem solve. Week 1 will be around Halves and doubles.
*R.E: We will be focusing on the Resurection and Personal Prayer for the first part of this term. We will then look at God and Jesus. The Prayer book will come home with every child and inside will be a reflective journal where each family can write a prayer. It is a lovely resource to have in the classroom and the children are very proud of their families prayers. It does not have to be long and can be thank you , I am sorry or an asking prayer. Thank you for your support with this.
*Concept: Our concept this term is Sustainabiity: conserve, preserve, maintain. We will be setting up a recycling station in our classroom and looking at ways we can help our countries clean, green image. If you have any clean recycling: buttons, small cardboard boxes, tubing, plastic containers, etc, please send them to school over the next two weeks so that we can design our recyclable art pieces. Ooh nuts and bolts would be great too.
*We have another busy term ahead of us, thank you for your ongoing support which makes my job so much easier.
Have a great week
Annie
Here we go for week 1....
*Portfolio's: all portfolio's went home on the last day but because we finished early, I didn't get the parent comment forms in. I will send them home tomorrow and hope you will take a few minutes to give your child some feedback and feed forward and praise them on all their hard work.
*Liturgies: There is an ANAZAC Liturgy tomorrow at 10am in the hall and one on Tuesday at the same time for the Resurection. All families are welcome to join us.
*Assembly: Room 13 is responsible for Assembly this week. If you can come along it would be great for your kids to see you there. Assembly begins at 2:05pm on Friday.
*Trip: We will be going on our trip to Rainbow Springs in Week 3. If you would like to come along, we will need parent transport and supporters while at the park. A note will go home this week for you to fill in if you can help. If you didn't get a chance to send the money in for the Art Auction, please do so this week. Many thanks for your support with the auction, it was a great learning experience for the children and they really feel like they have worked to earn the money for their trip.
*Reading: I would love to see all Reading Logs returned this week please. We will continue with Guided Reading, Buddy Reading, Independent and shared reading this term. Every child will bring at least 2 books home a week. It is important for their understanding of the story and for fluency that they reread their stories often. Please encourage them to read every day.
*Writing: this term will continue writing every day, focusing on recount, explanation and imaginative writing. We will also be focusing on spelling patterns and blended sounds such as ai, ou, ar etc.
*Mathematics: This term we will be spending a good amount of time working on building maths knowledge and how we can use it to problem solve. Week 1 will be around Halves and doubles.
*R.E: We will be focusing on the Resurection and Personal Prayer for the first part of this term. We will then look at God and Jesus. The Prayer book will come home with every child and inside will be a reflective journal where each family can write a prayer. It is a lovely resource to have in the classroom and the children are very proud of their families prayers. It does not have to be long and can be thank you , I am sorry or an asking prayer. Thank you for your support with this.
*Concept: Our concept this term is Sustainabiity: conserve, preserve, maintain. We will be setting up a recycling station in our classroom and looking at ways we can help our countries clean, green image. If you have any clean recycling: buttons, small cardboard boxes, tubing, plastic containers, etc, please send them to school over the next two weeks so that we can design our recyclable art pieces. Ooh nuts and bolts would be great too.
*We have another busy term ahead of us, thank you for your ongoing support which makes my job so much easier.
Have a great week
Annie
Sunday, 9 April 2017
Week 10
Holy Week - Week 10
*Holy Week is the most important time in the Catholic Calendar. It is a time for reflecting on the last days of Jesus life and the important happenings of the week.
We will be re enacting the Washing of the Feet and the Last Supper so will need the children to leave their Jesus clothes at school. I will send them home Thursday. Please talk to your children about these events and see what they have picked up at school in their lessons.
*Art Auction - thank you for your great response to our Art Auction. If you have not yet bid on your child's work but would like to, you still have Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We will check out the winners of the Auction and get your prize to you on Thursday. Winners will be notified on the blog on Wednesday afternoon. Can all money be in by Thursday please?
We have decided to have the trip in the second week of Term 2. This week is particularly busy with Church events and because we are visiting Rainbow Springs, I wanted to do some preparation work with the kids prior to our visit. We will have a Pizza lunch on Thursday to end our term and will have the trip to look forward to after the holidays.
*School finishes on Thursday at 3pm. There will be no school on Good Friday.
*Interviews - you can go online and book an interview. The code can be found in the latest newsletter. Remember these are 3 way goal setting interviews and the idea is that the children are present for these. We are working on goal setting at school so the children will have some ideas of their own to share with you. If you cannot make the interview times, please let me know and I will make another time to see you.
*Reading - if you would like some readers for the holiday period, please let me know and I will organise these for you. Remember that reading to your child is also very important. It allows them to hear what good reading sounds like. Please keep this up during the break.
*Writing - I will be sending home the free writing books over the holidays. It would be great if the children could write a holiday journal - something each day - in their journal. They need to remember to start with the date, use a capital letter for each new idea and finish with a full stop.
*Maths - the maths sheets will come home with the knowledge your child needs to work on in order to move to the next stage. All children are expected to be working at Stage 4 by the end of two years at school (not at the end of Year 2 but at their anniversary). Please take some time to practice some of this maths during the school holidays.
*Thank you all for your input this term and for a great start to the year. The Room 13 kids are well and truly on target for a great year of learning and I look forward to some great stuff in Term 2.
Have a Holy week.
Annie
*Holy Week is the most important time in the Catholic Calendar. It is a time for reflecting on the last days of Jesus life and the important happenings of the week.
We will be re enacting the Washing of the Feet and the Last Supper so will need the children to leave their Jesus clothes at school. I will send them home Thursday. Please talk to your children about these events and see what they have picked up at school in their lessons.
*Art Auction - thank you for your great response to our Art Auction. If you have not yet bid on your child's work but would like to, you still have Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We will check out the winners of the Auction and get your prize to you on Thursday. Winners will be notified on the blog on Wednesday afternoon. Can all money be in by Thursday please?
We have decided to have the trip in the second week of Term 2. This week is particularly busy with Church events and because we are visiting Rainbow Springs, I wanted to do some preparation work with the kids prior to our visit. We will have a Pizza lunch on Thursday to end our term and will have the trip to look forward to after the holidays.
*School finishes on Thursday at 3pm. There will be no school on Good Friday.
*Interviews - you can go online and book an interview. The code can be found in the latest newsletter. Remember these are 3 way goal setting interviews and the idea is that the children are present for these. We are working on goal setting at school so the children will have some ideas of their own to share with you. If you cannot make the interview times, please let me know and I will make another time to see you.
*Reading - if you would like some readers for the holiday period, please let me know and I will organise these for you. Remember that reading to your child is also very important. It allows them to hear what good reading sounds like. Please keep this up during the break.
*Writing - I will be sending home the free writing books over the holidays. It would be great if the children could write a holiday journal - something each day - in their journal. They need to remember to start with the date, use a capital letter for each new idea and finish with a full stop.
*Maths - the maths sheets will come home with the knowledge your child needs to work on in order to move to the next stage. All children are expected to be working at Stage 4 by the end of two years at school (not at the end of Year 2 but at their anniversary). Please take some time to practice some of this maths during the school holidays.
*Thank you all for your input this term and for a great start to the year. The Room 13 kids are well and truly on target for a great year of learning and I look forward to some great stuff in Term 2.
Have a Holy week.
Annie
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