Our Library Trip - David Trubridge Art and Technology

This morning we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to attend a workshop at the library with the Museum Education Team. 

We looked at the artwork and sculptures David Trubridge has created for the library and had discussions about different Maori items and natural resources that have inspired lots of designs. 

Next we went upstairs and had the opportunity to create our own design that incorporated 3 different 3D shapes and was inspired by a Maori item of our choice. After planning different designs, we used an online tool to digitally bring our designs to life...they can even be printed through the 3D printer! 

We had lots of fun today and learnt a lot about purposeful, natural and inspired art as well as having a go at using technology to create designs. 

Thank you so much to our lovely parent helpers for coming along with us. We couldn't have attended today without you!

Speeches

Over the past week we have been working on writing our own speech based around the concept of 'I wonder'. This topic connects to our school value of 'Wonder' and also links to our Term concept of Exploration - diving into the unknown. Everyone in Room 12 crafted a speech about their own wonderings and confidently presented them to us today. I am incredibly proud of everyone for persevering to write their speech and then showing confidence and courage when presenting them to our class. Have a chat with your child to talk about how they went, and keep and eye out on their blogs where they will soon share their written speech and write a reflection on how they think they did.

Ka pai Tamariki of Room 12! You all did so well and we are all incredibly proud of each other!

Totora speech finals will be held on Monday morning at 9am; our top 2 speakers will participate in this....tomorrow we will find out who these 2 speakers will be!

Go4it!

This term we have been participating in 'Go4it!' hosted by Sport BOP. We have been practising our ball skills, which so far have included basketball and soccer. We do this every Thursday afternoon and have been having so much fun learning skills to help us in team sports. Check out some photos of us in action this afternoon!

Week 6

Week 6 already! It has been a busy term and time is flying by! I hope you have all had an enjoyable weekend and feel well rested.

This week Room 12 have quite a bit to do! We will be working on our Calendar Art in the afternoons and getting our speeches finished during Literacy this week. You can help your child at home with speeches by supporting them to clarify their ideas and also by giving them opportunities to practise speaking in front of others with confidence. Our speech writing should be finished by Tuesday afternoon (or Wednesday if running behind time), so your child will be able to bring their speech home to practise in the afternoon. They will be presenting their speeches on Thursday and then our top 2 speakers will go to the Senior School Finals next Monday morning. It is important that you support your child with confidence in presenting their speech; it is very common to be nervous about this but we are a supportive class and are all going to encourage each other.

On Friday we have our Art and Technology session at the Public Library. We will be leaving school at 9am to walk to the library and will be walking back to school around 11.30am. Please make sure your child has something for morning tea that is easy to carry, as we will take morning tea with us but will not be taking our school bags.

Looking forward to seeing lots of smiling faces tomorrow morning! It is going to be an action packed and fun filled week :)

God Bless,
Nicole Hunter

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Introducing “FrysDay” - Friday 31^st of August

Children will be able to buy a punnet of Chips for $3.

They will need to place their order in class on Wednesday 29^th August.

There will still be juicies for sale as well.

There will be NO sausage sizzle this day.

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St Mary’s School is taking part in the Colgate Community Garden Challenge.  This means as a school we need to start collecting oral waste products. There will be a box outside Room 6 where used products can be placed.  We can win a total of $4000 for our school grounds and gardens. Let’s start recycling and collecting for our School!

WEEK 6 TERM 3.

THURSDAY 30th AUGUST

8.45am School Singing

2.05pm Kapa Haka

3.00pm Pasifika Homework Club

FRIDAY 31st AUGUST

9.30-11.30am  Room 12 Public Library visit

11.00am Pasifika Practice

12 Noon Choir in the hall

2.05pm  Assembly.

WEEK 7 TERM 3.

TONGAN LANGUAGE WEEK

MONDAY 3rd September

9.00am Totara Speech Finals

WEDNESDAY 5th September.

Totara. Some chn working with Mural Artists

THURSDAY 6th September

Totara. Some chn working with Mural Artists

8.45am School Singing

10.00am Science Roadshow. Enrichment Class

2.05pm Kapa Haka

3.00pm Pasifika Homework Club

3.00pm Library open

FRIDAY 7th September

9.00am Nativity of Mary Mass

11.00am Pasifika Practice

12 Noon Choir in the hall

No Assembly

Updated Chromebook App Information

Kia ora whanau,

This is just an update on the apps and extensions that your Senior School child has installed on their St Mary’s Google suite account. We push these out to the students to use when learning.

Read and Write app

This app is used to get the text on a web page read aloud by the device. There is also a nice tool where the user can select some text and record themselves reading it - very handy for hearing our own learning.

Currently the Totara students have the full version for a free 30 day trial. After 30 days they will drop back to the free version which offers all the tools we need. Please do not pay for the full version if prompted after the 30 day free trial.

Draftback

This app records all of the edits on a Google doc and then plays it like a video. Very handy for checking if students have been re-reading and editing their learning.

Screencastify

This is a screen and audio recorder which creates a file in the user’s Google Drive.

The apps just sit on the toolbar of your child’s Google Chrome browser. If they are not installing because your child is not the admin on the Chromebook then whoever is the admin will need to allow these apps. This may be different depending on the device and set permissions.

In Totara we only use the free version of these apps so there is no added cost. Please check that these are the only apps and extensions your child has installed,  often the cause of problems on student chromebooks are extensions and apps interfering with the operating system.

Week 5

Wow...we are nearly halfway through the term already! I hope you have all enjoyed the beautiful sunshine today and have had some quality family time over the weekend.

The most exciting part about this week is that we are lucky enough to be going to see the Rotorua Girls and Boys High Musical of 'Footloose' on Friday. Thank you to those parents who offered transport for our initial trip arrangements, but due to rescheduling library trip we will no longer need transport. The details for Friday are as follows:
* 9.15am walking to Rotorua Boys High School
* 10am Show begins
* 12-12.30pm Estimated Show Finishing Time & begin walking back to school
* 1-1.15pm appx arrival back at St. Mary's in time to have some lunch and then attend Assembly.
I am after 2 parent helpers for our trip this week to walk to and from Boys High with us and attend the show. Please email me at nicoleh@stmarysrotorua.school.nz or send a note with your child if you are available to come (we will need you at school by 9.15 and we should be back by 1.15).



I also have a few reminders and notices in regards to homework and school expectations:
* A spelling worksheet will come home on a Monday and if completed and returned on Friday then your child gets 10mins free time before morning tea.
* Spelling words are sent home in your child's spelling notebook each week (may differ from the words on the spelling worksheet) - can you please make sure your child brings this notebook to school everyday (as we practise in class) and support them with practising at home. We test ourselves and get new words every Tuesday afternoon.
* In RE and as part of exploration we are studying a Saint & artist of our choice. Your child needs to create a presentation with key information about the Saint and then create a piece of artwork inspired by their artist that also reflects a quote or feature about their Saint. This needs to be completed by the end of the week, so they may require support and extra time on the project at home.
* We are beginning to write our own speeches this week based on the topic 'I wonder...'. Every child needs to write a speech and will be saying it to our class next Thursday. These will be written at school, but it would be great if you could support them at home with ideas and discussions about being confident speaking in front of others.
* School Uniform - a reminder that all hair needs to be tied up with black red or blue hair ties. Shoes must be worn to and from school and children should have a jersey as polar fleeces are not allowed to be worn inside.

WEEK 5 TERM 3.

MONDAY 20th AUGUST

9.00-10.30am Totara Team Explorations

THURSDAY 23rd AUGUST

8.45am School Singing

2.05pm Kapa Haka

3.00pm Pasifika Homework Club

3.00pm Library open

FRIDAY 24th AUGUST

9.30-12.30pm  RBHS Show. ‘Footloose’ Walking to RBHS Totara Team

2.05pm  Assembly. Sylvia

WEEK 6 TERM 3.

THURSDAY 30th AUGUST

8.45am School Singing

2.05pm Kapa Haka

3.00pm Pasifika Homework Club

3.00pm Library open

FRIDAY 31st AUGUST

9.30-11.30am  Room 12 Public Library visit

11.00am Pasifika Practice

12 Noon Choir in the hall

2.05pm  Assembly. Jill

Change of Plan (Regarding Class Trip Friday 24th August)

Due to logistics with time schedules for our class trip, I have managed to move our Art and Technology Session at the Library to now be on Friday 31st August (the following week) from 9.30-11.30am instead. So, our final arrangements for these trips are...

Friday 24th August (Next Week) - RBHS Footloose Show
* 9.15 - Walk to RBHS from school.
* 10 - Show begins
* 12.30 - Show should have finished and we will walk back to school.
* Estimated time of returning to school - 1.15pm.

Friday 31st August (Week 6) - Art and Technology Session at the Public Library
* 8.45 - Walk to Rotorua Public Library
* 9.30 - Session begins
* 11.30 - Session ends - Walk back to School.
* Estimated time of returning to school - 12.15pm.

Thank you to those parents who kindly offered their help with transport for next Friday, however with these changes we will no longer be needing your help. At this stage I do not think we need any parent helpers for the Footloose trip, but I would appreciate 1 or 2 parent helpers for our library session on 31st August. Can you please send a note with your child or send me an email (nicoleh@stmarysrotorua.school.nz) if you would like to attend our library session with us and walk to and from the library as well.

Thank you for understanding these changes and for your support with our class trips :)

Exploring Orienteering Skills By Making Our Own Scavenger Hunts!

Last week we explored and learnt about orienteering skills. We worked in groups of four to create our own Scavenger Hunt that included riddles, compass based directions and a puzzle that needed to be put together at the end.

This afternoon we swapped with another team and completed their Scavenger Hunt. We each had a different role within the team and had to collaborate and problem-solve to find all of the clues. It was challenging at times and we learnt that sometimes things do not always go to plan. But through persevering we were all able to successful complete another teams scavenger hunt and have lots of fun at the same time!

Have a look at the clues and puzzles we made!