Fluffy Visitor to Room 17

Stella brought in her baby rabbit to show the children.  She talked about how she looks after it and the food he eats.  The children all had a chance to hold him.   His name was Dusty.

Welcome Back 

Hard to believe we are in the second week of Term 4 - it is a busy term so please check the school calendar for dates.   These will also be in the newsletter - this comes out on a Wednesday and can also  be found on-line if you lose your hard copy,

Speeches

The children have all chosen their topic to write their speech about.  In week 4, the class will choose three or four of their peers to present their speeches to the school and community in Week 5.

Run, Jump, Throw

Sports Waikato are providing sessions on the skills needed for athletics.  Last week, the children practised the skills needed for high jump and sprinting.  We have another session next week.

Week 7

Hard to believe we are in Week 7 and the beginning of Spring - only four weeks left of Term 3.

Math - this week the children are looking at money as part of our measurement unit.    We will be looking at what coins we use to buy objects up to $2 and the change they would receive back.   

Maori Traditional Games  - Sports Waikato have been teaching the children how to play these games. So far we have played Poi Toa using large poi and Tapawai.

Hockey

Room 17 had fun learning some of the basic skills of hockey through the Kiwi Hockey programme.

We learnt how to control the ball and to do a figure 8 around and through our legs with the ball.

We finished off the session with a fun hockey game.

Soccer/Football

On Friday three teams from Matangi School visited our school to play soccer,  It was a great day!

Room 17 was well represented in the teams and enjoyed demonstrating their soccer skills.

We are hoping to have more sporting competitions.

.

I am really looking forward to the Girl Guide Bring a Friend evening.

       Maori Language Week - Te Wiki O Te Reo Maori

We spent time exploring and developing our knowledge of Te Reo and Maori culture.

We presented this waiata we learnt to Assembly....

We also practised rakau stick games with a partner.

                                                St John

Before the session with the St John's instructor, Room 17 brainstormed what they knew about St John.

The instructor showed us a picture with many dangerous situations - a child running onto the road, someone falling off a bike, a child playing by an unfenced swimming pool,   He then talked to us about what we should do if we find someone who is hurt.

We learnt how to put a patient in a recovery position and then we pratised this on a partner.

The instructor then showed up how to plug a wound and stop the bleeding.

 

 Next we were shown how to do CPR on a model.

 This was a really great learning experience for the children

They came away with many new life skills.

St John also presented them with a certificate.

Term 3 Welcome Back

I hope you all had a restful break - it is great to see all the children back and enthusiastic about their learning.  
We have a busy term plan so please read the newsletter and the School Calendar to find out dates and times.

Personal Blogs

This week the children all set up their own blogs.  They are very excited about working on these - they will be able to add their own work and pictures to their blogs and share this with you.

Descriptive Writing   

Our writing focus for the next few weeks is Descriptive Writing. 
The purpose of descriptive writing is to describe a person, place or thing in such a way that a picture is formed in the reader's mind. Capturing an event through descriptive writing involves paying close attention to the details by using all of your five senses.   Writing more descriptively will improve writing by making it more interesting and engaging to read.

This week we wrote about our School - first we brainstormed all the different buildings and playing areas our school has and then we moved on to our descriptive writing.  For the first two weeks of this term we are developing and strengthening our knowledge and understanding

Math - Number/Algebra

For the first two weeks of this term we are developing and strengthening our knowledge and understanding of Number/Algebra.

We have been learning to..
... describe, continue and make patterns in numbers and shapes

... explain and write a rule

Improving our Fitness
 Every day we are training for our cross country event in Week 5.  On Friday Sports Energize timed all the children over 550 m.  This will be repeated later in the term so children can see how they have improved.

Cooking Pikelets 
The children are really enjoying cooking pikelets each Friday with Mrs McNally.  The rest of the class then enjoys eating them for morning tea.

PJ Day

We celebrated the shortest day by wearing our pyjamas to school.  We brought sleeping bags and pillows and our favourite soft toys.  Some of the children brought along their electronic devices.

The children had fun making huts

So comfortable....

This is so much fun!

Go away I am reading!

 ...

We also had a shared morning tea - Mrs McNally made some delicious pikelets with the children to add to our yummy spread.  We had fruit kebabs, chocolate cake, rice bubble slice, doughnuts, carrots, oranges and 

An important part of the day was our fund raising - gold coin, soft toy or new pair of pjs - these were taken up to the Children's Ward at Waikato Hospital.  The children also made cards to show their appreciation of the amazing job the doctors and nurses do.

                                  Tough Guy/Tough Gal Challenge

Last Friday, four of our classmates - Lucas R, Jake, Lewcius and Stella -  participated in the Tough Guy/Gal Challenge.  It was held at the Christian Camp at Ngarauawahia.  They came back to school with many tales about their race and would love to do it again.  It was really challenging but they all had fun.  Here are some of their comments...

  

 Lucas R: "I liked jumping into the swamp it was squishy and my shoes nearly fell off."

Jake: "I enjoyed the barbed wire crawl because it was challenging"

Lewcius: "I liked the waterfall that I had to run past."

Stella:"I enjoyed the mountain with the mud on it. I slipped over heaps and that made it fun."

Here are some photographs

Celebrating Success in Room 17

Last Saturday, Lucas, a hockey player for the Silverdale Comets,
was awarded player of the day.
He was the goalie and he worked hard to keep a Hukanui team
from scoring goals.
He said "I am very proud of myself and my team for winning."  
Here is a picture of Lucas with his Player of the Day trophy.

Dan Carter Visited Our School

As the Ambassador for Healthries, Dan Carter presented our school with a $10,000 cheque for sports equipment.   After the presentation he spent time with the classes talking about his life as an All Black and answering questions.  A highlight for our class was having a photograph taken with him.

Here are the TV 1 and TV 3 links.

     http://www.3news.co.nz/sport/reality-sets-in-for-dan-carter-2015051218#axzz3Zxa6RqOL

   http://tvnz.co.nz/rugby-news/dan-carter-happy-improvement-but-says-he-s-facing-plenty-

Some Room 17 Comments about his visit:

I thought it was the best day ever !

Today was really awesome because Dan Carter came to our school!

It was really neat that our school won $10,000 of sports equipment. 

Dan Carter was very nice and friendly.

We found out he is a famous rugby player.

He is very friendly and confident.

He taught me netball tag.

I was really fascinated by the answers to his questions.

We got to be on TV.

It was cool that our class got a photo with Dan Carter.

We got posters with Dan Carter’s signature on them.

Road Art Show

We had two opportunities to visit this amazing exhibition of art by New Zealand artists.

The first visit involved looking at the art and trying to find answers to a number of questions.  

The children enjoyed working together on this challenge.

On our second visit we sketched a number of artworks that we liked....

The children did some very detailed sketches.

One of the sketching tips was ...

to look at the artwork (not your paper) when sketching.

Road Safety Week

This week we talked about what it means to be safe on the road.  We all use roads  -  walking, running, cycling, passengers in car or catching the bus.   
From our discussion we decided it was important to act responsibly when we used the roads.

Check out the Road Safety Week Site for more information                      www.brake.org.nz, www.roadsafetyweek.org.nz.

Here are some of the amazing road safety posters Room 17 children created on publisher.

Come in and have a look at them as well - there are still a few more to be printed.