WEEK 9 -TERM 3

Wow – the last week has arrived!!!  

This week we will be doing a bit of a catchup and finishing off the bits and pieces we must make sure are completed before we send off our 9 super-duper, going to be missed, older classmembers to Room 15.  We went over to Room 15 again on Friday afternoon to checkout the classroom and talk about the upcoming changes they will need to think about – eg. where they will eat their lunch, which toilets to use etc.  Due to the fact that we are losing such cool kids, we’ve decided that we need to finish the term off with a bit of a party on the last day!  More information will follow in the week.

Our new SHARP person is Jordyn Haeta-Fenwick.  Jordyn is a wonderful helper and is always willing to do little jobs or run small errands.  She has a lovely smile and is a neat girl to have in the class.  With the new children coming in for school visits, Jordyn is a lovely person to buddy them up with.

We will also have a look at all the exercise books we are using at present and identify any new books that will be needed next term so that you can get the new ones in the holidays.  A note will come home.  Children who started school in 2012 will also be up for another $5 to go to the Teacher for stationary and incidentals.  This will really only apply to those children who are moving onto Rm15.

That is pretty much all that there is to say for our last week in Term 3.  I know that all children are ready for a holiday and  time to relax and recharge their batteries – I know we Teachers are!!!

Watch out for the notices that will be in book bags this week.  There will be no Homework books or Reading books coming home in this last week.

Have a good one.

Nikki and Kirsten

 

 

Room 4 Week 8 Term 3

Righteo….week 8 of a 9 week term…hopefully things will be a little less crazy for the remainder of the term!

Wow!  Congratulations to everyone in Room 4 for their contribution and effort with our syndicate production.  Both Nikki and I were SO VERY PROUD of our little people on stage.  They knew the actions and words to the songs, sung them so well and seemed to really enjoy being out on stage, under the lights in front of everyone doing it ‘for real!’  What an absolutely amazing effort and to celebrate our big achievement we had a nice, fairly cruisy day on Friday and topped it off with a movie and an ice-cream with Room 5.  A nice way to reward our little people for all the hard work they put in.  Thank you also for the positive comments we have received.  They are very much appreciated 🙂

So with things relatively back to some kind of normal we will be getting stuck into our literacy programme again this week after a two week respite from instructional group reading.  Also homework will be back on the cards as well but the WINK books may take a back seat as we will be focussing on high frequency words for each reading group during their instructional reading time.  Homework books will be handed out on Monday and will need to be back in by Friday.

In saying that things will be back to normal – Nikki and I have our syndicates planning day this Tuesday and we have Mandy Smyth in our room.  Mandy is an experienced teacher who is very familiar to Greytown School.  I know our children will make Mandy feel welcome and help her out in any way they can.

SHARP winner this week is Claudia.  Well done for being such a helpful member of our room  and for showing others the SHARP way to behave in Room 4 by trying hard consistently and by following our class rules.  Keep up the great work Claudia.

Our latest ’10-minute writing’ results are in the folders.  Man…our children are making some great progress with their knowledge of words.  Next time you get a chance, check our your childs progress.

Over the next (our last) 2 weeks of this term we will be having a few children on their school visits.  We know that our ‘senior’ members will show our visitors what it is like to be a ‘big school person’.

We have been hit pretty hard in Room 4 (and certainly throughout the school) with illness over the last 2 weeks so please if your child is not well, please keep them at home for as long as you can until they are well again.  We are constantly reminding members of our room to keep their fingers out of their noses, to use tissues and to wash hands so if the children are being bombarded (!) with the same messages at home and at school, then hopefully the messages may start to sink in 🙂

I know I’ve said it a couple of times before but this week a note will be coming home regarding setting up our classes individual emergency kits.  If we could get these in before the end of the term that would be great.

Think that’s about it for this week.  Have a good one.

Kirsten & Nikki 🙂

Room 4 Week 7 Term 3

Wow…what a wicked weekend of beauty weather!!!  

Production week is upon us so be prepared for a few more days of crazy chaos at school where our normal programme is pushed aside to make way for the all important production on Wednesday and Thursday this week.  It will be a crazy build up, it will be chaotic but we know it will be alright on the night and we hope you will be proud of what your children will be a part of.  Having said this – there will not be daily structured reading sessions probably until next week (week 8).  We will still send a reader home each night with your child but it will be one that they have already recently read and should be fairly easy for them so we ask that you focus on reading for fluency with your child (that is reading so it sounds like you’re talking, nice and fast……not…….stop……’starty’……reading.

So just a reminder and to confirm…

Monday – everyone to bring their NAMED costume (what they will be wearing underneath) to school in a named plastic bag.  This will then stay at school until the end of the evening show on Thursday.

Tuesday – dress rehearsal at Kuranui College.

–       We will leave school by bus around 12 noon and be back in time for 3pm. COLLECT YOUR CHILD FROM SCHOOL.

Wednesday – dress rehearsal for the school at Kuranui College

–       We will leave school by bus around 12 noon and be back in time for 3pm. COLLECT YOUR CHILD FROM SCHOOL.

Thursday – matinee at 1.15.

–       We will leave school by bus around 12 noon and be back in time for 3pm.   YOU CAN TAKE YOUR CHILD HOME FROM KURANUI IF YOU ARE THERE AND AS LONG AS YOU INFORM either Nikki or myself.

Thursday – evening show 7pm.  Please have your child fed, watered (and toileted) at the hall at 6.30pm.  TAKE YOUR CHILD HOME AFTER THE SHOW!

Friday – your child can come to school late if they need a sleep in/slower start to the morning.  But please make sure they are at school by 10.40am.

Hope all of this makes sense – if not please see us to discuss.

Last week your child bought home an EOTC (Education Outside the Classroom) note.  It is very important that you complete this form and return to school as soon as possible.

We had a LOT of children in Room 4 who were away sick last week 😦  This nasty flu bug is not nice for anyone involved so please remind your child how important it is to wash their hands, keep fingers out of noses and to blow their nose properly if they need to – if they don’t know how to blow their nose yet, please help to teach them how to do this.

That’s about it for this week.

Have a good one.

Kirsten & Nikki 🙂

Room 4 Week 6 Term 3

Winter is giving us a wee reminder that it hasn’t quite finished with us yet which is a shame as I’m sure we have all been enjoying the balmy weather.  Hope you managed to stay warm during Saturday sport and the remainder of the weekend.

Letters went out on Thursday to the parents of those children who will be ‘graduating’ from Room 4 at the end of the term.  It’s kind of a bitter-sweet feeling as although it will be sad to see these fantastic youngsters move on – it is a necessary step that has to be taken as our numbers are just getting too big.  One of the positive aspects of this move is that we have at least 10 Room 4 people moving to Room 15 together so it’s nice that they’ll be moving with their friends.

We are about to start a new mini-inquiry unit with Harold the giraffe visiting this week with the Life Education Mobile Classroom so if we thought last week was crazy with the production practices….this week is going to be even crazier!!!  Our programme with the Life Ed classroom will be looking at healthy eating and making good food choices for breakfast, lunch and dinners.  It is a fantastic resource that visits our school bi-annually and the children always love seeing Harold and listening to the messages he has to say.

We were really lucky to have Inspector Register from the Police visit us on Tuesday last week.  Was great that Inspector Register took time out from his very busy day to speak to all rooms in our syndicate about how the police need to be SHARP at all times and how they can help in emergencies.  The police car and siren was a real hit too.  We were also due to have the Fire Department on Thursday but the wet day put a stop to that.  We are still looking at getting our students to have their own emergency kits so will get that note out to you next week…hopefully!

The production will be the major focus of our week this week with it taking up a large part of the daily programme – every day.  There probably won’t be a lot of group – instructional reading going on but we will still be able to do some class big book reading during the week where we will look for concepts about print, blends, letter sounds etc.  Maths will still happen first thing in the morning and the homework this week will focus on maths and literacy as usual.  WINK words will also be updated.

Our SHARP winner this week is Lily.  We are really happy with the way Lily is thinking about being a SHARP Room 4 Greytown school girl by trying really hard to settle in to her work and showing respect to others.  Well done Lily – keep up the great progress.

No letters of the week from now until the start of next term where we will start again at letters Aa & Bb.  A huge thank you to those children (and parents!) who took the time and effort to get the letter challenges done each week.   

Nikki was able to use our C.R.T day last week to take running records for reading on nearly every child in our room.  Wow…there have been some BIG changes so once our production is over we will look at setting up new reading groups.  For now though things will stay as they are … just while production takes center-stage! 

So to another busy week – our production is coming together quite nicely.  This week it’s all about stage and costume set up so things are hotting up and starting to get serious!!      We put a lot of effort into the show and our kids always do us proud on the night. That is one of the reasons we do it – the see the enjoyment that the kids get out of it and the smiles on the faces of the parents.  Remember to make sure you and your family can come to either the matinee on Thursday 12^th September at 1.30pm, or the evening show also Thursday 12^th, at 7pm.  Both shows will be at Kuranui College, entry by gold coin donation.  A note will go out this week to confirm costumes, times etc.

Have a great week.

Kirsten & Nikki 🙂