Week 5 - GALA Week

GALA  GALA  GALA  GALA  GALA  GALA

Rain, Hail or Shine - Thursday 4-7pm

Golden Time - This week we are going to have the sprinkler (unless it is pouring with rain). On Friday please remember to bring your togs, towel & a plastic bag for golden time.

House Teams - Click on the tab above to see who is in what house.

Maths - Click on the tab above for the games that have been introduced this week in class. These will become part of our maths rotations over the coming weeks. Feel free to play them at home too.

Reading Logs - Well done to Adyn, Abbie, Dominic, Connor, Jade & Chloe who have completed their first reading log. I wonder who will be next?

Holiday Reading Log Draw - Congratulations to Lexi & Olivia. Their names were pulled out of a huge box that had 126 entries. 

Uniform reminders - No nail polish please. There are several girls in our class who are wearing nail polish to school. Please make sure it is removed. Leggings under dresses - the girls are more than welcome to wear leggings (or shorts) under their dresses but they must not hang below the line of their dress.

Running Record Results - these are almost done. It has proven to be harder than I thought to put the results and ways you can help at home into parent speak and not teacher speak. 

Milk Container Folding Competition - Room 3 held a folding competition at assembly on Friday. There were separate senior, middle & junior races to see who could fold their container the fastest. Well done to Marisia who was a joint winner in the junior competition.

Published Work - If you haven't already, come on in and check out the published work now up in our class. I am super proud of how well the children have done.

GALA  GALA  GALA  GALA  GALA  GALA

Rain, Hail or Shine - Thursday 4-7pm

Week 4 - additions

Email address - the school emails have changed. Don't panic however it is a minor change. The address is essentially the same with one dot removed. My new address is micheller@stmarysrotorua.school.nz

Reading Logs - Congratulations to Aleena, Daya and Luke who have completed their first reading log. I wonder who will be next?

Golden Time - Last week we had balloons for golden time. Here are a couple of photos from the afternoon.

Week 4 - Term 1

Swimming - We are swimming every day this week. Please bring your togs, towel & a plastic bag each day to school. 

Singing Practice - Wednesday 8:45 in the hall. 

Library - Thursday. Remember to bring your book back from last week so you can get a new one.

Reading Testing - has now been completed. Our new groups will start this week. In your child's homework/poem book this week, I will put in information regarding their current level in relation to National Standards. 

Week 3 - Term 1

Promise Ceremony - Tuesday 1:30pm in the hall.  Children will write a Lenten promise this week (to take to the Promise Ceremony) for something they are going to give up or help with during Lent. The promises will be burned and become the ashes for our Ash Wednesday liturgy the following day. You are all welcome to attend this ceremony.

Ash Wednesday Liturgy - Wednesday 9am in the church. Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. Lent is the season of preparation for Easter. The ashes from the promise ceremony yesterday, will be used today and will be placed on our foreheads to remind us to turn away from sin and back to God. All friends and family are welcome to attend our liturgy.

Leg It - We have our last session on Monday afternoon this week.

Singing Practice - Wednesday 8:45 in the hall. 

Library - Thursday. Please remember to bring your book back from last week so you can get a new one.

Spelling Tests - A copy of these will come home in your child's homework/poem book this week. I have also done a sheet for spelling & sight words to learn. This will also be in the same book. There are one or two children who still need to be tested as they were away when we did our testing. 

Reading - Testing is being completed this week so that next week I can give your children an accurate level to work on. Once the testing is complete, I will put a note into your child's homework/poem book to let you know their current level and whether they are at/above/below the standard for time at school. If we need to discuss things further I will make a short appointment with you.

An Amazing Friday the 13th!

What a cool day you've had today Room 12!

We started off with Leg It - thanks Mrs Keaney and Room 7 for letting us join you again today. You were awesome fun to be with. We played Captains & Pirates Tag by running, crawling & skipping.

We played poisonous animals and the team with the least amount of animals in their "house" was the winner! This involved lots of throwing to get the poisonous animals out of our house and into the other teams house.

 

And we practiced our lily pad jumping - being careful to avoid the hungry crocodiles waiting in the river.

Charlie and Glen from the Vodafone Warriors visited our school - what an awesome treat that was! 

Then it was off to the pool for swimming. We had free choice fun today.

After lunch it was Golden Time - no one lost any Golden Time in Room 12!! We made magic pictures with white crayon and dye.

And for the very short times that we were actually in class we did a maths worksheet and gave our chairs a jolly good scrub - they were rather dirty!

And last but certainly not least, we all got a copy of our shared book to bring home. We all enjoyed this book - make sure you read the back page again with Joy Cowley and her very own Greedy Cat.

Phew! What a busy day. We will sleep well tonight.

Leg It with Adam

What a cool way to start our year! Each afternoon this week we have been playing some fun games with Adam. We've played rob the nest, chain tag, seaweed tag and we've used our muscle man arms to throw really far!

Week 2 - Term 1

What a beautiful three day weekend it has been. I hope you have all enjoyed the extra day with your families.

Swimming - We are swimming every day this week. Please bring your togs, a towel & a plastic bag (or swimming bag) to school each day. If your child is not swimming for medical reasons, please provide a note or pop in & tell me. 

Leg It - We are participating in the Go For It sports programme. Leg It is a part of this. Every day this week (& on Monday next week) we will have a 45 minute session with the Leg It instructor where the children will learn basic skills to help with their movement & balance skills. The sessions are fun and the children really enjoy themselves.

Diocese Commissioning Mass - Tuesday 6pm, St. Mary's Catholic Church. This is for Catholic Schools and will be said by Bishop-Elect Stephen Lowe. You are all welcome to attend. St. Mary's children attending need to come dressed in school uniform.

Opening School Mass - Thursday 2pm, St. Mary's Catholic Church. All friends and family are welcome to attend our opening school Mass. All children at St. Mary's will return to their classrooms after Mass before being dismissed for the day.

Meet the Teacher - Thursday 3:05-3:30pm - Room 12. This is an opportunity for you to come and meet me and see what is going to be happening in our class over the coming year, what my expectations are and how you can help you child at home with their learning. The session is only 25 minutes long to give families that have older siblings in the middle & senior school a chance to meet the teachers there. 

Singing Practice - Wednesday 8:45am. Each week on Wednesday, we start our day with a whole school singing practice. Please ensure your child is at school on time. The class will be locked while we are at singing practice.

Newsletters - Each week the school newsletter is emailed out to parents. Please ensure the school office has your correct email address so you can keep up to date with what is happening in our school and community.

Golden Time - Each week on a Friday, the children who have lost no Golden Time during the week get 30 minutes to do a fun activity. This is usually chosen by the children, sometimes by the teacher, through a vote. If there is anything for you to bring for Golden Time, I will let you know on the blog. The children who have lost Golden Time have to sit out the minutes they have lost (in blocks of 5 minutes) and then they are allowed to join in the activity. If your child loses 15 minutes or more, they are required to see someone in Senior Management to do their time and you will also be informed.

HATS - Please ensure in Term 1 & Term 4 your child has a hat at school every day and that it is CLEARLY NAMED.

DRINKS - Please ensure your child comes to school each day with a drink of WATER in their bags. 

Week 1 - Term 1

Welcome back to school! I've had an amazing first day with your beautiful children!

Reading - Over the next 2-3 weeks your children will be bringing home books that may be just right, a bit easy or a bit tricky. During this time I will be doing reading testing with each child to ascertain their correct level. Please bear with me and help your child by sharing their reading with them each night.

Holiday Reading Logs - Thank you to those who have returned their reading logs already. You can continue to bring these in all week. Each entry goes into a school wide draw for some great prizes.

Class Reading Logs - These will be glued into your child's homework/poems book. Please fill the log in each night you read. There are certificates and/or prizes when your child completes each log. The homework/poems book will come home later this week.

Waitangi Day - Friday 6th February = No School

Upcoming events in Week 2

Swimming - Every day next week. Our swimming weeks are all the even weeks this term. 

Opening School Mass - Thursday 12th February 2pm in the church

Meet the Teacher - Thursday 12th February 3:05-3:30 in Room 12. Look forward to seeing you there.