Christchurch Earthquake Mufti Day

This is the photo taken by Mrs Tagomoa-Kaa of the pupils at our school dressed in the red and black colours of Canterbury.


We dressed in mufti today to raise money for the people of Christchurch. We went over to the hall to say prayers and have a minutes silence to reflect on what had happened in Christchurch. Thank you for giving so generously.

A prayer for the people of Christchurch

Mrs Stupples shared a prayer with the other teachers this morning before school and Miss Swney read it to us during our own class prayers.

A Prayer for the Victims of the Christchurch Earthquake

We mourn the death and destruction in Christchurch,
O Lord,
And we pray for those who died in this recent disaster.
May their souls rest in peace.
May their families be comforted.

We pray for the living survivors.
Be with them, Lord, in this traumatic time.
May they experience Your healing,
In their spirits as well as their bodies.

We pray for the communities affected.
May they come together in solidarity,
To rebuild and to affirm new life,
Amid the fallen stones.
Amen

A new roof and a new verandah

We had to move to the library yesterday to finish our self portraits because the builders were putting a new roof on our classroom.



We are also getting a new verandah.

Jasmine had a question...."Why are we getting a new verandah if Mr Forde wants to save money? We will have to have the lights on all day because it is so dark now."

Laura said, "We will now be able to see our Interactive Whiteboard."

Fire across the school fence

On Wednesday near where the hedge used to be they had a fire. It was over the fence. I wondered why the dirt was not on fire. Now I know it has a special gas in it. I felt the heat of the fire. It was warm on my hands. I could smell the smoke and I could see the watery spot of the fire. That means it is a very, very hot spot of the fire. I saw ashes flying around the place.
Jasmine

The fire was massive because the digger was putting more wood on the fire. The fire looked like a volcano. The smoke was black and the flames went high. I think it was cool.
Neve



The fire was big. It was not like lava because lava has a different type of gas than lava. Lava comes out of a volcano. Fire is light sometimes. Lava burns through the ground.
Zane F

I didn’t like the smoke of the fire. The other fire did not have any flames so we watched the fire that did have flames. I liked watching the fire because I like fires. The smoke looked like big grey clouds. When the black ash came down it looked like black bits of snow but snow can’t be black.
Phoebe


The fire was orange. The smoke was giant when the digger put the wood on the fire. The smoke smelled like burnt toast. I heard crackling noises. I felt hot bits of stuff on my arm.
Hunter C

The bonfire looked like a volcano because of the flames. The digger was pushing the trees and the flames changed to black. The flames got bigger. The forklift helped the digger.
Aiden H

Room 3 looked at the fire. The fire was orange and the smoke was dark grey. The digger pushed the sticks into the fire. The fire was on the dirt.
Tyler



The fire was really big when they put more sticks on it. It got bigger and bigger and BIGGER! The fire smelled yuck. The digger scooped the sticks up. I felt warm.
Lucy

I saw the ashes flying into the sky like rain. I saw grey fog in the sky. The fire was hot and I was hot. The whole school went outside and watched the fire. The flames were big and they kept me warm. I had a jersey on and I was really warm. I was roasting hot.
Mackenzie

Caterpillars

Mackenzie found some caterpillars at home in her garden so she brought them to school to share with us.



The caterpillars were black and furry.


They tickled as they wriggled about on our hands.

Room 3 Class Routines

This is a copy of the newsletter that was sent home in Week 2 before the 'Meet the Teacher' evening.


Dear Parents/Caregivers

Welcome to 2011. Your child has made a wonderful start and I am looking forward to working with you and them this year. This year I am encouraging the children to be more independent in their routines. I hope that the information on this handout will provide you with an insight so that you can encourage them whenever possible.
A reminder that school starts at 8.55am, but the children need to be at here 8.45am, at the latest so they can organise their belongings and be ready to start school when the bell goes. Thank you for having your child’s equipment and stationery organised to start the term with.

TERM ONE
This term we will be concentrating on establishing classroom routines, literacy and numeracy, and setting our personal goals. In addition to these, we have swimming and the Keeping Ourselves Safe programme.

Reading – Instructional lessons are Monday through to Thursday. Some children may read with another teacher in another class. Each day the children will bring reading home. The text that your child brings home may be the book they have read that day in an instructional reading session, or a book of their own choosing from their browsing basket. Generally it is desired that the book be reasonably easy in order to encourage “smooth reading” but your child may need assistance with new vocabulary. Smooth reading is when the reading is fluent, sounds like normal talking and has some expression. Your child will bring home a poem on Friday that you can read together. It is important that your child works on their reading skills as this develops self-confidence and ensures success in many curriculum areas. They will bring a yellow reading log home each night. Please sign this to provide me with an indication that reading is being done at home. This book may be used as a form of communication between home and school if you wish.

Religious Education – The children have an exercise book that will have sheets glued into it. It may come home from time to time. Please could these be returned to school each day, even if the activity has not been completed.

Maths – Please practise counting forwards and backwards in 1’s and 2’s up to 20. As your child becomes more confident and accurate, then extend this counting to include 5’s and 10’s up to 100; basic facts to include all the addition and subtraction sums for 5, 10 and 20.

Spelling – Children in Room 3 are given spelling words to learn from the SMART words programme. A new list is given to the children on Monday and tested on Friday. Because the words are in family groups the learning of these words may be easier once your child has learnt the rule. A guide to the teaching of spelling will be glued into the back of your child’s spelling notebook.

Library - Information regarding library times will be sent home when our new library is set up.

Drink bottles – The children are encouraged to have a plastic bottle of water in the classroom to drink from during the course of the day.

Clothing - All clothing must be named.

Shoelaces - It is great that some children in Room 3 are able to tie their own shoelaces. This is a valuable life skill that gives the children independence and self-confidence. It would benefit your child if someone at home could spend time assisting them to develop this skill.

Uniform – The children must leave at the end of the day in their uniforms, including shoes. During the day, girls may remove their tunics if they have shorts underneath but must put them back on at the end of the day. Please ensure that girls come to school with their hair tied back off their faces.

Sport – Please ensure that your child wears their sports uniform to and from school each Thursday and Friday as s/he will be involved in PE/Sports activities.

Absences/appointments – Please inform school (note, email or phone call) if your child is absent or has an appointment that requires them to leave school early. This will ensure that I have them ready for you to collect.

Classroom Blog – We have a class blog in Room 3. It will be used as a diary of things that we are doing at school and can be accessed through a web address.
It will include:
• Photographs of the children participating in classroom/school activities
• Examples of children’s writing and other work
• Things that we are learning
Only children’s first names will be used on the blog and no names will be attached to a photograph. You will be able to write/post comments to the children. Every comment that is posted onto our blog will be checked, before they are uploaded. Please let me know if you do not want your child’s photo or work to be put onto the blog.
Our blog address is: http://room3shsinv.blogspot.com/

Communication Tree – This year I would like to start an email tree to ensure that communication between school and home is strong. I will email you with any relevant messages relating to your child and class activities. Copies of notices/messages will also be sent home in your child’s home folder as required. I am free to discuss any matter before or after school but from 8.40am I would like to be in the classroom for the children so please ensure that you phone or email me for an appointment.


Thank you

Welcome to the Room 3 class of 2011

It is a new school year and we have a 'new' Room 3 class. We are excited to be back so we can play with our friends and learn new things.

One of the first things that we have done this year is we painted one of our hands so that it can go on our classroom door.



This is to let other people know who is in our class.

We look forward to keeping you up-to-date with the comings and goings of our class activities. Enjoy!