Week 5 Notices

Wow we are nearly halfway through the term already! Hope you have all had a lovely weekend and made the most of the beautiful sunshine yesterday! This week is Samoan language week; the theme this year is “Alofa atu nei. Alofa mai taeao – Kindness given. Kindness gained”.

We have a few reminders for this week...

Cross Country is on tomorrow! All details are the same, below is the information sheet if you need a reminder. Please contact me if you had said you could provide transport but not longer can. If you are helping with transport, please meet us in Room 12 at 12.20 so we can organise groups and be ready to leave at 12.30.

On Monday there will be a crane in the Church Carpark helping with the renovations by Room 16. This means part of the carpark will be closed. Please find somewhere else to park when arriving for cross country transport or picking your child up at the end of the day.

Also a reminder that Friday is a teacher only day...

Also a reminder that Homework Club starts this Thursday afternoon for Pasifika students.

THIS WEEK:

MONDAY 28TH MAY

SAMOAN LANGUAGE WEEK

Cross Country

3.20pm Team Mtgs Focus Area Maths or writing.

TUESDAY 29TH MAY

9-10 ICAS Science

WEDNESDAY 30TH MAY.

7.30am Arts in Motion Practice

Lunchtime Ping Pong Club

3.15-4.30pm Arts in Motion Practice

THURSDAY 31ST MAY

8.45am Student Council

2.05pm Kapa Haka

3.15pm Pasifika Homework Club

FRIDAY 1ST JUNE

TEACHER ONLY DAY.

NEXT WEEK

MONDAY (QUEENS BIRTHDAY)

FRIDAY 8TH JUNE

9.00am Sacred Heart Mass

3,2,1...BLAST OFF!

This afternoon we adapted recycled resources into our rockets that we designed yesterday after watching the space livestream. We only had 30minutes to create our rockets and had to decide which chemical reaction or pressure force we were going to use to launch our rocket. Our options were:
* Baking soda and vinegar
* Coke and mentos
* Water and an air pump

It was great to see children collaborating in their groups, using their scientific knowledge of forces and chemical reactions, and debugging with their group to solve problems and make improvements to their designs. Some of our launches went really high and others did not quite get lift off...but that is ok because it was all about the process. We can now use this experience to debug our designs further and think of things we could do differently next time.

Have a look at a video of Madeline's rocket nearly reaching the roof of the hall!

Here are some photos from our rocket launch!

Urgent! Cross Country Transport Needed

Cross Country is on Friday and we currently do not have enough helpers to transport our class to and from the forest. If you have not returned your form and you are able to help, please bring this back asap or send a note with your child to let me know. Having a couple more parents to help with transport would be greatly appreciated :)

Bikewise

We had our first session of bikewise today...we were so glad the sun stayed out so we could give it a go!

Before we began we learnt about bike safety. This included checking our helmets to make sure they are safe and fit our heads correctly. We then went through the 5 important things to check on our bike before riding it:
* Brakes
* Stem
* Wheels
* Seat
* Chain
...ask your child and see if they can remember how to check these 5 things!

We then got to practise biking in a straight line, braking correctly, and played a tricky game that meant we had to all stay in a small area and keep biking without putting our foot on the ground or crashing into anyone! It was tricky but we had heaps of fun!

Our next bikewise session is Thursday morning...it would be great if some people can bring their bikes again as this means we won't have to share bikes. Also bring your helmet if you can!

Week 4 Information

I hope you have all had a lovely weekend and thankfully the sun is back shining today - lets hope it stays around for the week as we have an action packed week ahead!

This week we do have quite a few notices...

We have signed up to OMGTech's Space Exploration Live Stream for tomorrow (Monday afternoon 1-3pm). This should give us the opportunity to learn about rockets, followed by having a go at adapting resources into our own rockets! We need some help with collecting resources...

If you have any of these resources, could you please send them to school with your child tomorrow morning. We will be designing rockets tomorrow afternoon and then making them on Tuesday. 

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Mrs Wallbank is holding a meet and greet evening for our Pasifika families. Have a look at the letter below for all of the details...

May, 2018

Talofa, Malo ni, Ni sa bula, Malo e lelei and welcome,

We would like to invite you to attend a meeting for our Pasifika families held in room 15 on Wednesday 23rd May, from 6-7pm.

We highly value our Pasifika community at St Mary’s School and would like to be able to share with you our current goals and successes for our Pasifika students.  This meeting will also be an opportunity to gain parent voice and feedback on how we can better meet the needs of our Pasifika students and families. Please indicate below if you are able to attend.

Homework Club – Starting on Thursday 24th May

We are also excited to launch our ‘Homework Club’ this term.  The Homework Club is specifically set up to offer extra learning time and support for our Pasifika students after school.

Every Thursday from 3.15pm-4.15pm students can meet in the library to complete any home reading or homework they would like support with.  Parents are also welcome to attend, to gain tips and ideas on how to support learning at home.

                                                  

Please fill in the slip below and return to either myself or your child’s teacher by Monday 21st May.

Thank you for your support,

Athlene Wallbank (Room 15)

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This week we are also having a Community Consultation of our School Values. See details below if you would like to participate in this consultation...

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Friday is CROSS COUNTRY! Students were sent home with a notice and permission slip a week or so ago...please return this ASAP and if you have not received one please let me know or go and see our lovely office ladies to get a form. See details below...

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On Tuesday and Thursday this week Room 12 are participating in BIKEWISE. There are some bikes provided, however there are not enough for everyone. If it is easy for you, it would be great for some of our children to bring their own bike and gear on these days so we can make sure everyone can participate easily. I understand this might be difficult, but if your child is able to bring their bike then that would be hugely appreciated :)

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WHAT'S ON THIS WEEK:

ALL WEEK. Seniors Bike Safety (Room 12, Tuesday and Thursday)

TUESDAY 22ND MAY

Lunchtime Gymnastics

WEDNESDAY 23RD MAY.

7.30am Arts in Motion Practice

8.45am School Singing

Lunchtime Ping Pong Club

3.15-4.30pm Arts in Motion Practice

7.00pm Pasifika Parent mtg

7.00pm Vex Robotic evening

THURSDAY 24TH MAY

Lunchtime Gymnastics

2.05pm Kapa Haka

2.30pm Parent mtg

3.15pm Pasifika Homework Club

3.30pm Parent mtg

FRIDAY 25TH MAY

9.00AM Mass. Pentecost

1.00PM School Cross Country

FOLLOWING WEEK:

SAMOAN LANGUAGE WEEK

MONDAY 28TH MAY

Cross Country back up day.

9-10am ICAS Science Staffroom

WEDNESDAY 30TH MAY.

7.30am Arts in Motion Practice

8.45am School Singing

Lunchtime Ping Pong Club

3.15-4.30pm Arts in Motion Practice

THURSDAY 31ST MAY

2.05pm Kapa Haka

3.15pm Pasifika Homework Club

FRIDAY 1ST JUNE

TEACHER ONLY DAY.

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Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow for an incredibly fun and action packed week!

Wacky Hair Day

Everyone did an amazing job at supporting wacky hair day today. It was so cool to see everyone participating and being creative with their hair! Our Young Vinnies turned it into a competition and Maiah and Leah from our class won best senior dual hair do! Can you guess what their theme was?

Sport Adaptation

Today we presented our ideas for how we could adapt everyday sports into something new and exciting. Everyone collaborated well in their groups and created some very creative presentations to persuade us that their new version will be better than the original! After every group had presented, we voted for which group had the most persuasive presentation and then gave their adapted sport a go!

The winner was.....LANDPOLO! Which was an adapted version of waterpolo created by Imogen, Mya, Maiah and Lola. Here are some photos of us giving it a go!

Jelly!

We added our final layer of jelly today, let it set and then finally got to see our end creation! They looked so cool and just like colourful rainbows. More importantly, they tasted delicious!

The Start of Our Rainbow Jelly Investigation

Today we began a mathematical investigation; to create rainbow jelly! To do this, we needed to measure the volumes of different cups, choose one, and then figure out how many mL's we need to have for each layer of jelly. This meant we had to use our measurement skills, knowledge of volume and use division or addition strategies to make sure the total volume from our layers is equal to the total volume the cup can hold. Once we had made a plan, we measured and poured the first layer into our cups (red). Once this had set we then measured and poured the second layer (orange). Here are some photos from today...

An example of our planning

 

Helping each other to figure out the measurements

 

 

First layer has set!

 

Keep an eye out for more photos on Friday to see our final jelly creations! We wonder whether they will end up looking like our plans....

Welcome to Week 3

I hope you all had a lovely weekend and that our wonderful Mother's had a very special day today.
Thank you to everyone for attending student led conferences last week; it was great for our children to
celebrate their learning and it was also a great opportunity for me to officially meet you all.

There are just a few of notices for this week...

Our Lost Property Box is already overflowing, so we have been given a challenge - for every student
to have all of their uniform items clearly named by tomorrow. We will be checking for this, and the
classes with EVERYONE'S items clearly named will go in the draw to win extra Golden Time with
Mr MacMillan...so please name your skivy, tunics, shorts, jerseys and polar fleeces!

This week on Friday our Young Vinnies are fundraising to support people affected by the Ngongotaha
flooding by having a Wacky Hair Day. It would be great to see everyone supporting this cause.

Last Term our children were asked to complete a belonging poster that shows who they are. We don't quite have everyone's in yet and it would be really neat if everyone completed one so we can display them in our room for the year. It is a nice touch having posters displayed that show who each of us are...it doesn't need to be anything fancy, just a nice poster with photos and key words to describe who you are, your family, friends and interests etc. 

We will also be getting back into spelling, so can you please remind your child to bring their spelling notebook in tomorrow so we can get this back up and running. They will have new words once a fortnight to learn and this will be their main homework alongside Math Whizz and Reading. Thank you for your support with this. 

Looking forward to a great week! 

WHAT'S ON THIS WEEK:

WEDNESDAY 16th MAY

7.30 am Art in Motion (J Rock) Practice

8.45 am School Singing

3.15pm-4.30pm Art in Motion (J-Rock) Practice

THURSDAY 17th MAY

9.00-11.59am EPro8 Rotorua Intermediate

2.05 pm Kapa Haka

FRIDAY 18th  MAY

Whacky Hair Day. Young Vinnie’s Fundraiser

11.00 am Pasifika Practice

2.05pm Assembly

COMING UP NEXT WEEK (WEEK 4):

All Week: Seniors Bike Safety

Friday 9am: Pentecost Mass

Friday 1pm: Cross Country

Classroom Design Presentations

Here are some photos from our presentations for our Classroom Design Challenge. Mrs Hunter was very impressed with how we used effective language to persuade her that we need certain furniture and how creatively we put our presentations together...some made iMovies, some did interview videos, some did slideshows and one group even created a rap and a 3D model! Well done to everyone for collaborating in groups, problem-solving and thinking creatively! We are excited to see what furniture we will be allowed to get and to implement our ideas once all of our furniture arrives.