The Last Supper

We have talked a lot over the last few weeks about the events leading up to Jesus death on the cross. The children have taken it all very seriously and I think if you ask them about it, you will see they really have listened and understood some of the story's meaning.  I have been very proud of their work, particularly over the last week when it has been our main focus.  They have been respectful during Liturgy's and have listened intently on the mat during discussion times.
Today we re enacted the Last Supper and I have to say, DJ did a wonderful job as Jesus.  He was able to remember the words perfectly and even washed the feet of his guests.  The children looked lovely in their Jesus clothes and everyone had something to add to the occasion.

Jesus and his very special friends, the disciples share their last meal before his arrest and crucifixion.

Jesus breaks the bread and says "this is my body which will be broken for you"

There was no servant to wash the travellers feet.  Jesus said "You call me Master, but I am your servant."

Egg Decorating

Yesterday we all brought boiled eggs to school to do some Easter craft.  The children enjoyed very much getting their hands dirty and rolling the eggs in glitter. Some of them painstakingly painted their egss, taking much care to get it just right.  Look at the concentration here....

Little Picasso's at work and what a great job they did too.  Today we made bunny rabbit baskets to bring our eggs home.  Sadly some were slightly cracked when they rolled off the table (darn rolly eggs) but the kids were not perturbed.  A great time was had by all.

Palm Sunday Parade

On Friday last week we had a beautiful Palm Sunday Parade with our friend Flynn the donkey in a staring role. Callum Barker was chosen to play Jesus and he rode the donkey around the field while we all yelled "Hosanna".  The children looked gorgeous in their Jesus clothes and once again Room 13's behaviour was impeccable.  Thanks to the parents who sent Jesus clothes along, never fear if you forget, I have plenty.
Here are your lovely children.....

This week we will need our Jesus clothes on Thursday for a re enactment of the Last Supper.  On Wednesday, could all the children please bring a hard boiled egg?  Many thanks.
Annie

Week 9

Hi all,

This week is a busy one, leading up to Easter and a very special one in the Catholic Church.  On Sunday we celebrated the beginning of Holy Week, which preceeds the death and ressurection of Jesus, with Palm Sunday.  During the course of the upcoming week we will be discussing the things that occured during this week and the importance of Easter as a celebration of Jesus'  ressurection.

On Wednesday at 10am we will have a Liturgy at school.  On this day we will also re enact the Last Supper so the children will need to bring their Jesus clothes please.
 On Thursday we will take part in some Easter craft.

We welcome two new children this week.  They are Sophie and Jayda.  We hope that these two girls will feel very at home in Room 13 and enjoy their time with us.  I would like to congratulate the children on their splendid effort helping the new and younger children.  They have made me so proud over the last week.  I am sure Aarav and Ella have appreciated it.

On Wednesday we also welcome Luana from the Incredible Years Course I am currently taking part in.  Luana will be in Room 13 to observe me using Labeled Praise.  The idea of this is that I praise  the specific, positive behaviours and ignore the negative behaviours.  Hopefully this will encourage the children to seek praise by doing the right thing. 

Curriculum:
This week we will be looking at ordering random numbers in mathematics from biggest to smallest, writing stories focusing on going on to the next word or idea without needing a prompt from the teacher and continuing our guided reading programme as well as completing some running records ( testing)in reading.  A big part of our week will be focused on  Holy Week where we will investigate what happened to Jesus during the last week of his life, as well as some Easter fun later in the week.

The children are well and truly into their school routines now and last week following a Literacy Observation, we were congratulated on our awesome organisation in Room 13 and the lovely behaviour exhibited by the kids when working independently.  I, as usual, was very proud and once again I have to say, it is because we are the best class in the school.
 Please remember to help the children continue this by encouraging them to carry their own bag into school, put it in their cubby hole and by placing their book bag into the green bucket.  After the chairs are put down, the children are free to choose until the second bell goes.  Now that our numbers are up to 18, it is super important that the children can:
*put their shoes on by themselves
*open and close their bag and lunch box
*change themselves into their togs and back into their uniforms
*pack their school bag at the end of the day
My time is much better spent on teaching so some practice at home would be much appreciated.  Most of the children are absolutely super and are quite capable so well done parents!

Thank you once again for your ongoing support with everything, have a very happy and Holy Easter.
Annie

Athletics Day

On Friday we had a great time at our Atletics Sports.  There were some amazing sportspeople and all the children took part with enthusiasm.  I have to say, Room 13 took the prize for best behaviour and I was so proud of them all.  Congratulations to the winners and particularly Don who took away two firsts and one second place.  Superb effort Don.

KJ lining up for her sprints

And giving it a really good gowere our girls.

Also on the Podium were Kennedy and Saya,,, Go girls!

And this time DJ had a go as well.

What an awesome class of beautifully behaved children.  Lucky Mrs Russell!

Palm Sunday Parade

I forgot one huge detail in my letter for the week.  On Friday at 10am we will have our annual Palm Sunday Parade at school. All children are invited to dress up in their Jesus clothes and a very special visitor, a real donkey will visit.  We all parade around the school following the donkey with our palms singing Hosannah.  Its really fun and parents are invited to attend.
Annie

Info for Week 8

Hi everyone, another week is behind us and here is a quick update on what we can expect in the coming week.  Thank you to Don's Mum and Dad for the declicious cake on Friday, we enjoyed very much sharing Don's special day with you.

Week 8
This week we have the Reading Evening on Wednesday night from 5:15-6pm.  If you are interested in ways you can help your child with their reading progress, as well as a goodie bag with lots of ideas, come along.

For Golden Time this week we are hoping to have a movie and popcorn afternoon.  The children and I will have a vote during the week to decide which movie to watch and I will provide the popcorn.  We are trying hard to remember the Golden Rules and to treat others in our class with  RESPECT.  Hopefully we can all enjoy Golden Time this week without anyone losing minutes.

Today we have two new children starting in Room 13.  Their names are Ella and Araav.  We would like to welcome them to our Classroom Family and hope that their time at St Mary's is happy.  I know the lovely kids from Room 13 are going to make them feel welcome.

This week we will continue our focus on the alphabet sounds and their names as well as learning the basic words by sight.  We are finding lots of fun ways to practice these in the classroom, maybe if you find any new ways at home, you could share them with us.  The children love a bit of competition so we are going to set up a Word Mountain and see who can climb it first.

Testing will contiune this week and will be completed.  I will need to meet with all parents of New Entrants to discuss this testing.  A note will come home today. 

In RE we will continue to discuss Jesus and his life here on Earth.  Next week we will look at the Liturgical Year focusing on Easter.  There will be some Easter Craft and Treats, it is an exciting time for the children and important to remember that Jesus is the reason......

We have finsished with the Life Education Van now.  We enjoyed very much spending time with Bernie and Harold and I have some gorgeous photos of the children which will be on the wall very soon.

In Mathematics we will continue to work on Number from Monday-Thursday and then focus on the Strand Measurement on Fridays.  We are currently focusing on counting on and back from any given number to 20 with the New Entrants and from any given number to 100 for the older kids.  Keep practising counting forward and back, identifying the number before and after any number to 20, putting numbers in order from smallest to biggest and vice versa and instantly identifying facts to 5 (1+4=5, 2+3=5 etc )  The children are getting really quick with some of this now, its great to see.

During the week we had two children receive Super Kids awards.  They were DJ for always being a kind and caring friend and Molly for making great connections in her learning.  Well done to these two children.

Please continue to make comments on our Blog, it is always so nice to hear back from you all.
Have a great week, Annie

WE WIN!!!!!!!

Congratulations to the children and parents from Room 13.  We were the overall winners of the Gala points and as a result will be shouted Pizza by the Gala committee next Friday the 22nd.  We were so excited when our class was called out, we all jumped up in the air and cheered.

We would like to thank our lovely (competitive) parents for all their support with our goal to win the Gala points and to invite you all for lunch on Friday the 22nd at 12:30.  Please RSVP to let us know if you can make it.  We look forward to seeing you there and sharing our success with you.

From the Room 13 kids 

Visiting the Church

Today we visited the Church. We are trying to write a Recount about something we have seen, heard or experienced and because we are talking about Jesus, we thought a trip to our lovely Church might inspire some nice writing.

We saw some lovely things in the Church..... Jesus Sacred Heart, a Statue of Mary holding Baby Jesus, the Altar where Father Mark says Mass, the Stations of the Cross and lots more.  We used lovely inside voices, remembered our walking feet and listened carefully when Mrs Russell was talking.

We were able to write a story about something we saw and it will be in our Portfolio for you to read and enjoy.

Basic Words

Hi all, each child has a list of basic words for their reading level in their poem book. Once they know these sight words (to read not spell), they will be able to move up the reading race track. Lots of practice is awesome. Thank you Annie

D.J's Dad

We are so lucky in Room 13 to have a Dad in the Navy who is communicating with us via email. He has sent us some cool pictures of his ship and will continue to document his travels for the children in our class. We had some great discussion this morning after looking at the photos and DJ is a great source of knowledge, explaining what is going on in the pictures. Thank you to Darren for keeping us posted. And yes, we have figured out (finally) how to open the attachments! Yipee! Soon I will figure out how to put some photos on our blog!!!!

Gala

Max's Jesus clothes

Hi everyone, the other day when we had our Jesus feast, Max misplaced part of his costume. It is named and we think perhaps someone took it home accidentally.Please can everyone check, it was a light coloured, rectangular shaped piece of lovely fabric and his sister Matilda would like it back. Thanks Annie

Caterpillars

Today Imogen brought some little green caterpillars to school.  We decided to find out some more about them so we used the internet and learned about the Life Cycle of a White Butterfly.  We used crayon and dye to illustrate our life cycle and talked together about what happens and in what order.  We are super clever scientists and we even learned the word Metamorphesis!!  Wow.