Room Four Term Four FINAL Week

Hi Everyone,

It’s the last few days of school for 2015.

Thank you to those of you who came to our Christmas Sing-along on Friday. What a neat surprise having a visit from Santa too!

Reports, stationery lists and magnets went home on Friday. Only children who have been at school for 20 or 40 weeks got reports. Everyone should have a stationery list and the oldest child in the family gets a fridge magnet with next years dates on.

Tomorrow we are off to Greytown Park. We will head down around 11 and have our lunch and a play there and then head back to school in time for the bell. You are more than welcome to take your child home from the park if you wish.

Tuesday we are going to have a shared lunch/party. Please bring a plate. I would still send in a small lunch with the children (as sometimes we end up with countless bags of chippies… which wouldn’t be a balanced lunch!) Also everything will be coming home with them on Tuesday.

Wednesday- Final Assembly at Kuranui at 12. This finishes around 1 and all children MUST be collected from Kuranui. Please make sure also that on this day children DO NOT bring in any lunch boxes or drink bottles or sunhats or school bags. They only need to bring their morning tea in a named plastic bag, no containers or ANYTHING apart from themselves. The less that can be accidentally left behind the better!

And finally from me a most massive of THANK YOU’s to all of you for your kindness and support throughout the year. I feel blessed to have had such a lovely class of children to teach. It has been really rewarding to see the progress that they have made both academically and socially. You have been an amazing bunch of parents to work with and I really appreciate how friendly and supportive you all are/have been, so thank you so much! It has been a real pleasure to work at such a wonderful school with an amazingly supportive management team, friendly down to earth colleagues and a warm and helpful community and I will have many fond memories of my time at Greytown School.

I wish both you and your children all the very best for the future 🙂

Ali

Christmas Party!

Hi Everyone,

We will do a shared class lunch/party on Tuesday 15th.

Please can you provide a small plate of food (preferably healthy items like strawberries, other fruit, carrot sticks etc).

Thanks,

Ali

Room Four Term Four Week Nine

Hi Everyone,

I hope that you enjoyed your weekend.

It’s our last full week at school!

Please make sure that your child has returned all of their reading and library books as both the teachers and Mrs Kirkland do a stocktake of these.

This Friday reports will come home for children who have been at school for 40 weeks. In the reports will also be a stationery list and a magnet with next years school dates on it. If your child is not due a report they will still receive a stationery list and a magnet so expect an envelope in their bag on Friday.

SHARP award: this week the winner was Liam. He has been super SHARP all week. Way to go Liam! 🙂

Dates:

Friday the 11th of December at 2:15 we are having a Christmas sing-along in the hall. Please join us 🙂

Monday the 14th of December we are having a picnic at Greytown Park. We (Kowhai Syndicate) will all walk down around 11am and return for the end of the school day. Children will be free to go home with parents from the park though if you would like to take them then.

Wednesday the 16th of December- last day of school! We have our final school assembly at 12 at Kuranui. Children are to be picked up from there. On this day children are asked to bring nothing to school apart from morning tea (of which nothing will need to be taken home- e.g no containers or cutlery).

See you tomorrow,

Ali 🙂

 

Room Four Term Four Week Eight

Hi Everyone,

Wow! It feels pretty crazy that it is almost the end of the school year. It feels like only a few months back that we were having our first day and swimming every afternoon.

This will be the last week for Reading groups. All books will need to be returned by Friday as in week 9 staff do an inventory in the book room.

We had Scott Tulloch visit on Tuesday. It was a great opportunity for the children to hear a ‘real life’ author and illustrator speak. Room Four LOVED his reading of ‘I Am Not a Worm’ on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owprVQdjwBY

Thursday we had a sports afternoon organised by the Black Cap Students. It was a challenge for them to lead a large group of mixed ages but they did a great job.

A huge WELL DONE to Haami who was our SHARP award winner on Friday. Haami is settling in well to school and getting to grips with our routines. He has had a super SHARP week so I am very proud of him!

There are a few things to look forward to:

-Friday the 11th of December we will be having Kowhai’s Christmas Songs in the hall at 2:15, all welcome.

-Monday the 14th of December Kowhai are having their Syndicate picnic at Greytown Park. We will walk down about 11am and return in time for school to finish. Children will be able to go home early/from the park with parents rather than return to school.

–Wednesday 16^th December is our last day of school. The final school assembly will be at Kuranui College at 12noon, this usually lasts about an hour. Everyone welcome. School finishes about midday and all children are to be collected from Kuranui. This will also be my last day at Greytown School. I have taken a big leap and will be heading into the business world. I am involved in a running coaching company called Squadrun (http://squadrun.co.nz/) which is based around low cost training programs for people who are wanting to run marathons or ultra-marathons. We are linked to Tarawera Ultra-marathon and Ultra Trail Australia. Because of this we will be heading over to the Blue Mountains early next year to support our runners in the build up to Ultra Trail Australia. It is all very exciting and a big change but one that I am looking forward to (although I will miss all of you very much). I really appreciate the friendliness and support that the staff, parents and children have shown me during my time teaching at Greytown. It really is a great school and community and I will have very fond memories of my time spent here.

See you all tomorrow,

Ali 🙂

Room Four Term Four Week Seven

Hi Everyone,

Tonight’s Parent meeting about the learning hub is cancelled. If there is going to be another one then you will be advised.

Tuesday, we have a visit from the author Scott Tulloch to talk about writing.

Reading- this week we are doing Reading Assessments so there will be no group reading this week, we will however be sending home books that the children have seen before. Week 8 will be our last week for Reading Groups, no books will come home after this.

Thursday we are hoping whole school sports will go ahead. Fingers crossed for nice weather! We are also having a mufti day on Thursday for World Vision.

A big warm Room Four welcome to Zoe who is starting school today! 🙂

Friday will be an open morning in Rooms 4 and 5 for all children who are having their first day at school in 2016. We are not assigning children to classes due to the new set up, instead we decided to have two open mornings where children and parents can move between both rooms. Once we are sure on numbers we will assign children to a teacher who will then become their home teacher for the year. At Greytown School classes are never revealed until 2 days before school starts back anyway. Senior Management are also finalising teachers for the hub.

Congratulations to Lucinda who was our SHARP winner last week. Lucinda is always super SHARP. Well done Lucinda!

It looks like we might be in store for a warm week, please remember hats and drink bottles.

Ali 🙂

 

Room Four Term Four Week Six

Hi Everyone,

First of all a big congratulations to our SHARP winners for last week Jamie- for recognising numbers to 1000! And Eleanor for big improvements to her Quickwrite- she is now up to 55 words! 🙂

We have whole School Assembly on Wednesday at 9:40 in the hall, all welcome.

Did you see the note that came home about next years class arrangements? The New Entrant/ Year One rooms will be turning into a ‘learning hub’. There is a meeting about this on Monday the 23rd of November at 7pm in the staffroom. Please come along to find out more.

On Friday the 11th of December we have Christmas songs in the school hall.

Monday the 14^th of December we are having our Syndicate picnic at Greytown Park. We will be leaving school at 11am and walking down.  A note will come home closer to the time.

Wednesday the 16^th of December is our last day of school. School finishes at 12.30pm and pick up will be from Kuranui College after end of year assembly.

Library is back to Tuesday afternoons now.

We will be starting an Art rotation and children will be visiting the other Kowhai classes for the next few weeks.

Please have a chat to your child about behaviour and being SHARP. This time of year the tiredness kicks in and things start to ‘slide’ a bit. I would really appreciate parents reminding their children about being SHARP so that our last few weeks of term are positive and fun!

Have a great day,

Ali 🙂

Room Four Term Four Week Five

Hi Everyone,

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend and made the most of the sunshine!

Library, we will be back to Tuesday afternoons until our next rotation starts. Please send your child in with their library book tomorrow.

We have Harold from Life Education visiting on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon this week. Room Four will be learning about healthy eating and about making healthy food choices.

Apparently Nits are doing the rounds again.. please check your children’s hair and treat them accordingly if needed.

A big well done to all of Room Four for the enthusiasm they showed at Athletics Day. It was a really enjoyable day and we got so lucky with the  weather!

See you all tomorrow,

Ali 🙂

Room Four, Week Two, Term Four.

Hi Everyone,

We have Pet Day on Tuesday. For many of you this will be your first experience of a Greytown School pet day.

Tuesday is Pet Day, in the event of bad weather then we will hold it on the next fine day. *If your child is bringing a dog, calf or lamb, they may stay with them if they have brought them to school before 9am. These pets can also arrive later, so long as they are at school by 9.30am. If your child is bringing another type of pet (bird, fish etc) they bring it and/or other pet day items before 9 and put them in the specified area – the grounds will be set up and labeled. Then your child comes to class until 9:45. You can collect your child at this time and then spend the morning viewing the animals and the art displayed in the hall. All students go home after the pet parade which is usually at mid-day.

For any parents that are unable to come to Pet Day, please let me know if you are not coming, your child stays with me during the morning. We wander around and look at all of the pets, showing and judging. They then go home at mid-day.

Way to go Tommy who was our SHARP award winner this week, we are into our Athletics rotation and Tommy is giving his best during this time 🙂

Dog Safety, we had a visit on Friday morning from Brodie who taught the children many different dog safety tips. See if your child can explain what to do if they see a dog by itself or what to do if they want to pat a dog.

Shake it Out day, Room Four learned to Drop, Cover and Hold in the event of an earthquake. We practiced this and the children were all very safe and sensible during this time. It could be good to practice what to do in the event of an earthquake in your home.

See you all tomorrow,

Ali 🙂

Room Four Term Four Week One

Wow it’s the last term! The year really has flown! I hope that you all had a fun filled holidays.

This term we have Pet Day (Tuesday, week two) Pet Day is a half day for students. We also have Athletics Day and Labour Day as well so the term is really going to fly!

The syndicate newsletter is coming home today, please check bookbags!

Last term we sent a note home about a change in our Literacy programme for this term.  As class numbers grow it becomes more difficult to differentiate and Leigh, Nikki and I had been discussing the ways we could best cater to all of our children’s learning. We decided that cross grouping could be a way to deliver the best possible programme to everyone. Please see me if you have any questions or concerns.

Term Four is a ‘hat optional’ term because of the high winds usually get. Please send hats in though every day and we can decide whether it is too windy or not. Also please send children in with full drink bottles.

Thursday we have Earthquake Safety Day ‘Shake it out’ and will be doing a drill at 9:15. It is a nationwide event so will be happening at lots of schools and workplaces across the country, feel free to join in and chat to your children about Earthquake safety.

Friday we have Dog Safety people in, our class will be joining Rooms 3 and 5 between 9 and 10 for this.

I think that’s everything!

Enjoy the sunny afternoon 🙂

Ali

Room Four Term Three Week Ten

Hi Everyone,

What a grey weekend! I hope you still managed to enjoy it, even if the weather wasn’t so wonderful.

Is your child missing any clothing from production? If so please look in Room Five. Leigh Perry has a red box full of (un-named) clothes that were left behind on the night of the production. Please take the time to check it out at some stage this week.

On Tuesday it is our Syndicate Planning Day so I will be out of class (but at school). Verity will be in Room Four in my place.

Wednesday morning we are off to Greytown Kindy for our termly visit. The children really love this time and it helps with transition.

10 minute Quickwrite, the scores this week were mostly lower than prior weeks. I am guessing that this is because the children are out of routine. Please practice this with your child in the holidays 🙂

On Thursday we are having Clean Up Greytown Day, so we will be out tidying our school grounds during the morning and in the afternoon the senior children are running house sports during the last two afternoon sessions.

School Assembly on Wednesday at 9:40, and Syndicate Assembly is on Friday at 11:30, all welcome.

Have a wonderful, restful holidays.

Ali 🙂