Notices for parents

Wednesday 11th December, 2013

Hi everyone, just a quick note with some reminders for the next few days.....

*Junior Picnic day tomorrow - kids need togs, towel, morning tea and a drink and they are allowed to wear mufti to school.  We will take part in a rotation of activities in the morning and then chill out in our class in the afternoon.  All parents are welcome.

*On Friday your children will recieve their Portfolio, Report, Letter of confirmation for teacher and class for 2014 and a note to let you know if they will be receiving a prize at Prize giving.  A lot of work has gone into placing the children and hopefully we have got it just right.  Just remember that every teacher has something new and exciting to offer your little one.

*On Monday the children will all visit their new classes and meet their teacher for 2014.  It is a great opportunity for them to get rid of any nervousness and feel totally relaxed during their lovely break.

*Tuesday night is our final school Mass.  It will be held at the Church from 5:30pm.  It is expected that all children will attend. They need to be on the field in their school uniform by 5:10pm.  On Wednesday school finishes at 12:30 following the Year 6 final farewell. 

*Finally, I have had a truly amazing year with your kids.  I cannot thank you enough for being such a great group of parents and I will honestly miss those little ratbags when they go.  Moving on is a natural part of growing up and the Year 1's are definitely ready to be Year 2's.  It is an exciting time for them and I know that with your support they are going to be great.  Thank you once again and Merry Christmas.
Annie




Monday 25th November 2013

Hi everyone, I hope you had a great weekend with family and friends..  We took our girls to the beach on Sunday, what a gorgeous day we had.  Sun, sand and surf. Now back to reality for a few short weeks.  Here are the notices to hand.....

Our trip has been confirmed for Tuesday the 10th November.  Thank you to the parents who have sent back their forms.  We have a lot of parent support and I am sure we will have a super day.  There are a few parents with concerns about the bus trip, who would like to provide transport for their own children.  I understand the issues around safety and seat belts etc so transport for those kids will need to be sorted with parents.  I don't want to take responsibility for kids traveling over in cars, that was the whole point of getting the bus, so we were all contained in one place.  So, if you would like your own child to be taken in the car, I will leave that up to you and we will organise to meet at the beach.  While in transit, the children you have in your car, will be your responsibility.  Other than that, the trip is all organised and at present Claudine and Tony are looking into options for lunch for the kids as well (lucky us).  More about that when the info comes to hand.

We are practicing our play and the children are getting super excited.  Just remember when inviting family members along, it is in our classroom and the room itself is not huge.  We cannot have the whole family come along or we simply will not fit in.

Today we put up our Christmas fireplace in the classroom.  On it are stares that have a christmas wish written on the back.  The wish is for something nice for the World and we put a lot of thought into them.  Our Christmas stockings and angels will also adorn our fireplace.  It has become a bit of a tradition in Room 13 to have the fireplace up.  This year is it's 8th year!  We have all promised to be very careful.

The reports are all complete (you can stop the bribes now) and it is a great feeling to have them all tucked away.  Many hours are spent giving particular thought to each child when writing the reports so I hope you enjoy them.  For the next couple of weeks, there is still a bit of finishing off, testing and assessment to get through.  Please keep up the great reading and writing at home, every bit pays off.  It was so great to see a whole group of kids from Room 13 outside today with their journals writing madly.  Yipee for super writers.  The Homework books are still in the bucket in my room but will be handed out tomorrow. (Wed).

Over the last couple of weeks of school we will be focusing on advent and christmas.  If you have any craft at home that could be used eg, tinsel, old xmas cards, cellophane for stained glass windows etc, please feel free to bring it in.  I will also need some help with a couple of craft activities so yell out if you have some spare time.

That is all for now, thank you for your ongoing support and friendly faces each day.  We are winding up now and it feels surreal to be thinking of the last days with your little people.  What a cool group they are.
Annie



Monday 18th November 2013
Welcome back to school after a beautiful weekend.  Hopefully you all got out and about with your families and enjoyed the gorgeous sunshine.  I had the most amazing weekend with a mystery helicopter flight to Havelock North.  We landed the helicopter on the grass outside the Craggy Range winery like movie stars then enjoyed a tasting in the sun followed by a delicious lunch.  What a day!
Now to business.......
This week we will be carrying on as much as possible with the normal routine.  It works best at this time of the year as it keeps the kids focussed, there is still lots of opportunity for learning  before the end of the year.
Dave has asked that we all push the sunhat issue.  The children must have a hat at school in this heat.  No hat means no play so please ensure your child comes to school with a hat.  The Meads family have kindly donated a sunscreen pump to room 13 so the children have access to sun screen during the day but they must also have their hat.
This week we will swim every day so togs and towel in a plastic bag please.  Can I please ask you to name everything your child brings to school.  Our little ones do not recognise their own gear once it is on the floor, including undies so named gear is essential.
 We are getting close to the end of the year and our Nativity play is going very well.  Please practice the lines at home so that the kids can say them without the need for their paper.  It is going to be a wonderful play.  Just remember December the 16th at 11:30am for the performance.
Today we will be writing letters to Santa and sending them in the post.  NZ post are very good at getting replys back before the end of the school year and the children love it.
Unfortunately the junior picnic date has been changed to our Mount Maunganui trip date so unless we want our kids to miss the picnic, the trip date needs to be changed.  Sooooo, we will look at Tuesday the 10th December.  I will confirm that by the end of today.
Keep working hard with that reading, the children are nearly there...
Annie

Monday 11th November 2013

OOps, a bit late with the notices this week.  Not much to report back but keep checking the quick reminders as any changes or notices to hand will be put there.
I completed all the maths, writing and reading testing last week.  Overall, I was really pleased with the results.  We had some huge jumps in reading, some up to 5 levels, the writing has improved immeasurably and the mathematics showed some excellent problem solving thinking occuring.  Thank you all for your ongoing support at home.  As you can see, it makes a difference to your child's learning and to the extension I am able to provide at school.  Even our little new entrants are humming along nicely and getting used to school life - well done Jesse, Max W and Olly.

This week things are back to normal with reading, writing and mathematics.  There will be a lot more choice in writing as we have covered all genres very well and are now revisiting the main points and allowing the children some freedom in their writing.  Punctuation (capital letters, full stops and commas) are still high on our priority list as is adding WOW words to make writing more interesting.  Keep encouraging the kids with their homework journals - its great to see them wanting to write.  In reading the children will be choosing their own reader for the day from a selection of books at, just below or just above their own reading level.  Some of them have moved up quite considerably from last term but if you are unsure or you think the books are too hard, just yell out and I will discuss it with you.  In maths we are working on consolidating those combinations that make 5 and 10, looking at doubles, problem solving and counting on and back.

In week 9 we have a trip to Mount Maunganui planned.  At this stage it is not confirmed but it will go something like this....
9am  Leave school on the school bus and travel to the Mount.
10am Walk around the Mount and play with buckets etc in the rock pools.
12pm Lunch
12:30 Swim and ice cream
1:15 - 1:30 Leave for home
I would love to see as many parents as possible join us on this trip as it is a celebration for the children to end their first year at school.  Because it is a water based trip, we must have a ratio of 1 adult to 3 children (excluding myself as we need a first aid person who can rove around and make sure if we do have any issues, I am free to deal with them.)  We will need a parent to take a car so that we have an alternative mode of transport incase of emergency and for this trip I am going to ask that no preschoolers accompany parents.  We want to get as much as we can out of this trip and I would like it to be all about the 22 kids from Room 14.  As soon as I have confirmed the trip and the bus, I will send a letter out to parents.  Thank you in anticipation of your support.

We are hard at work practising our Nativity Play.  All details have come home today in your child's homework book, as well as their lines.  We don't read the lines so children will need to learn them by heart.  Most only have one or two words (although Imogen has her work cut out for her) so I am sure it can be done.  The children are super excited about the play, all parents are welcome to attend and stay for a shared lunch.

It is getting close to the end of the year and the children are feeling tired and feeling the heat.  Keep up the great work at home and remember, it is in everyone's best interest (and for my sanity)  that we keep things going normally right up until the end of the term.  We can still get some lovely learning in before the children go off for their big summer break, so heads down.
Thanks everyone
Annie



Monday 4th November 2013

Hi everyone, welcome back Week 4.  We have another busy week ahead and here are a few notes to let you all know what is going on.....
*Testing - this week I will finish off the Reading testing and begin the Mathematics.  So far I am really pleased with everyone moving up at least a level since the end of Term 3.  Excellent.  Keep up the great work at home and remember, most of our kids will be assessed against National Standards in February next year, after a six week break from school, so it is super important to keep up the reading over the holiday break.
The Maths testing will be both Knowledge - counting, adding and subtracting, skip counting, knowing 10's, doubles and halves etc and Strategy - how they work out their problems eg counting from 1 everytime, counting on or splitting numbers and adding in parts.  Maths will start tomorrow.
*Reports are well under way and should be finished and handed on to the Team leader next week.  I love writing the reports, I hope you enjoy reading them too.
*Andrew Chinn is visiting from Australia tomorrow.  He writes many of the songs we sing at Mass and is absolutely awesome.  We are very excited about seeing him again.  All parents are invited to the Church on Tuesday night from 6:30 - 7:30.  He is great fun and the kids love him.
*Golden Time this week will be Crepes.  Claudine will be bringing the crepes and the kids will be putting ice cream and toppings on them.  YUM!
*Grandparents Mass is coming up at the end of Week 5.  Our class is heavily involved in this Mass so we would love to see as many of you as possible coming along.  It will begin at 9am and will continue with some entertainment and morning tea afterwards in the school hall.
*Thank you for your support with Homework activities.  I am really impressed.  Worksheets will be marked on Monday night and a new one in on Tuesday.

Have a great week,
Annie



Monday 28th October, 2013

Welcome back to another week of fun and learning in Room 13.  The children had a great day on Friday with Mrs Young.  Thank you to Shonelle and Kelley for organising the pizza making, it appears it was a hit!  I had a good day of learning myself.
This week I will be testing reading.  Your child may come home with a book they have not read so if you have any concerns, please read it to them or with them first and talk about the book to help them with meaning.  The children bring a book home every night but I have been finding a lot of books on the floor or in cubby holes.  If your child does not seem to be bringing new books home, please ask them to check their book bag before they leave school.  Also, Monday is the day for returning the books from the previous week.  The children will be in Year 2 soon, they need to be taking some responsibility for their own gear, Year Two teachers will expect this.  Please encourage them to carry their own bag, put their own book bag away and remember the things they need for the day.  Thank you.
Our first week of swimming went really well.  I do not change children into or out of togs at school.  They do this for themselves and they are very capable.  However, they can not tell their clothes (underwear included) apart from anyone elses so PLEASE, name everything!
Next week we will be testing Mathematics.  I have done some pretesting and the areas that stand out as problematic are:
*finding how many more we need to get to a number eg  7+__=10  Most will just write 7 or add 7 and 10.  It is counting on that we want.  eg I have 7 so I need to go 8,9,10  that is 3 fingers so the answer is 3.
*doubles and halves  eg 1+1=2, 2+2=4, 3+3=6 ......... and half of 8 or half of 14.  They only need to go to 20.
*the subtraction sign - many have difficulty identifying it and understanding what they have to do when they see 10-3=__.  It is simply counting back which they can all do.

If you get a chance, some practice would be great.  These things will be on the homework sheet this week.
Thank you for your positive reaction to homework sheets and writing journals.  It is great to see you are all keen to push your kids and along and that you want to do your bit.  If we all work together, it will happen.
This week your child will find out what their part is to be in the Christmas Nativity Play.  Most will have a speaking part, but some will not.  If they are speaking, they will bring their words home in their homework book.  I do expect them to know their words by heart and we will do plenty of practice at school but the extra at home really helps.
Molly's Mum and Dad have offered to support us in an end of Year Trip somewhere.  Claudine and I were thinking the beach for the day.  If we went to Mt Maunganui, we could divert to the swimming pools if the weather was bad.  With water, we would need a 1:3 ratio of parent to children so would need plenty of hands.  If preschoolers come, you are no longer considered a parent helper.  So, with that in mind, what are peoples thoughts and who would be keen to come along?  Let me know via email or at school.  The trip will probably need to be in week 8 or early week 9. Keeping in mind we will have our fun picnic day at school as well.
That is it for now, I am busy writing reports (bribes accepted) at present, seems really sad now to think they will all be leaving soon.  Hasn't the year gone fast?
Have a great week
Annie

Monday 21st Octboer, 2013

Well we hit the ground running this term with our new boys and a trip in the first two days.  Fairy Springs was great, thank you to Mr Hermano, Angela, Claud, Priyanka, Melissa, Kristina, Margo and particularly Gerard who warmed us all up in the rain with lovely hot drinks in the cafe.  Spoilt! (I think I will just have to keep you all next year).  Forgive me if I have left out anyone's name.

We are back into our lovely learning and it is busier than ever in Room 13 with 22 kids.  This is the last term for 2013 and it is really important that we prepare our big kids for Year Two next year.  You can help at home.....The really important stuff is Literacy and Numeracy so.......
Please make sure your child reads every day and that you read to them.  The children over Level 8 should not be pointing now but reading with their eyes.  Pleas ask them some questions about the story they have read to ensure they have understood the text and remember to help them out with the meaning of new words.  All the children need to be at Level 12 by the time they have been at school 1 year(Feb for most of our kiddies) so I will be pushing some of them through the levels over the next few weeks, I would like to have them all reading at level 12 by December 18th.  It is really pleasing to see that some of our children are already at  or above standard - keep up the great work.

Writing is much trickier but equally as important.  There are also levels for them to reach before Feb next year and some of our kids do need to practice more.  I will be sending home a book for each child to keep a weekly diary.  A page on what has happened in their lives would be great practice and things to focus on are: Capital letters and full stops, spelling patterns, underlining words and checking their spelling and finally wow words - adjectives that describe the nouns. Thank you for your support with this.  It is not essential to do it every day but some do need to speed up when getting their ideas down and only practice will help this.
Lastly Mathematics.  Just about every child in our class is at a different place with Maths -  The important things to note are: counting to 100 in 1's 2's, 5's 10's and back again, counting on from any number in 10's and 1's, saying the number before and after any number to 100, knowing instantly the facts to 5 and 10 and the 10+ _ answers (teens), recalling doubles and halves to 20, understanding Place Value - hundreds, tens and ones and recognising and continuing patterns.  I will put some maths on the Homework sheet each week, if you are unsure how to help at home, let me know and I will give you some ideas.  The final thing in Maths is the strategy stage, what strategy they use to solve maths problems.  We want our kids to be able to count on ie get a number in their head and count on the other number to solve the maths equation. eg 7+8=15 hold 7 in their head and count on 8 fingers - 8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15.  It is also great if children can use other information they know, eg 7+8=15    7+7=14+1=15  or 7+3=10+5=15  This is advanced counting and will be taught in Year 2 but some of our kids are ready for it.
This week on Friday, Shonelle will be coming in for Golden Time to do some Pizza making with the children.  If you have a special talent that you would like to share, please feel free to catch up with me and we will book you in for Golden Time.
This week we will begin learning our songs for the Christmas Nativity.  I will put a copy into each child's poem book so they can practice the words at home and we will be singing them during the day at school too.
I am not able to put my quick reminders up at the moment so here are some notices important for this week....
*Swimming - Every day this week.  Named towel and togs in a plastic bag please.
*Pizza Making for Golden Time Friday
*Uniforms - The children are allowed to wear the summer or the winter uniform but not both.  If in Summer dresses, no long shirts or pants are allowed underneath.  We take pride in our gorgeous uniform and want to teach the children to wear it with pride too.
*I will be out of the classroom on Friday at my final Incrdible Years Course.  A reliever will be in.
*News Reporter - each child will have a turn to be news reporter.  A card will come home explaining what they need to do when it is their turn.
*Homework  is pasted into books on Monday and will be marked the following Monday.  A diary will also be coming home to practice writing skills.
Thank you for a great start to the term.
Annie.


Monday 14th October 2013

WOW!  Term 4 and didn't those holidays fly by?  We celebrated our oldest daughter Courtney's 21st on Saturday and had an awesome weekend.  We also spent the holidays with hockey, at the beach and catching up with friends, I hope everyone else had an amazing holiday.
Now down to business....
We have a trip to Rainbow Springs planned tomorrow.  Thank you to those parents who have offered to help.  If anyone else is free, we need a 1:3 ratio because there is water about so let me know if you can come along.  We will travel by car so every child needs to bring a booster seat to school tomorrow.
Term 4 is extremely busy.  We will be preparing for our Nativity Play, there are trips, reports, testing, new kids to the class and the list goes on.  Please ensure you check the blog and check in with me if you are not sure.
This term our concept is Symbolism.  We will be looking at symbols, thinking about what they are, why we use them and how they are helpful.  Our big focus will be Christmas symbols and The Arts(drama and visual).  We will continue with Number as our main Mathematics focus and also look at geometry which goes well with symbolism.  In reading we will be running a buddy reading programme, an independent reading programme and our usual reading to, with and by.  More information on these will follow. In writing we are studying Narrative (story telling) and Recount writing.  We need to get our children ready for Year Two so there will be a homework sheet to complete each week which will have some maths, writing, reading and spelling.  In RE we will look first at Mary (Communion of Saints) and then at Advent and yes, can you believe it, Christmas!  In PE we will be swimming.  Each child needs to bring their togs and towel in a plastic bag on even weeks.  We will swim every day in weeks 2,4,6,8.  The children need to be able to change and dress themselves so some practice at home would be great.
We have three new children to Room 13 this term.  Welcome to Olly, Max and Jesse.  I know the lovely Room 13 kids are going to make them feel very welcome.  We will be pretty full up with 22 kids but it will be business as usual with lots of lovely learning experiences and fun along the way.
Have a great week...more notices will follow as they come to hand.
Annie







Monday 23 September, 2013

Wow that America's Cup is becoming a bit of a nail  biter.... the boys are having a bit of trouble clinching that one last race.  Perhaps some prayers from Room 13 will help.
The last week of term is usally a busy one, trying to get everything organised that we need done by the holidays.  There is a little bit of testing to complete but mostly we are up to date so hopefully we can have a bit of fun.  We have a trip to the movies planned for Thursday.  I am waiting for confirmation from the theatre so will let you know asap.  Parents are very welcome but only preschoolers who can sit through a movie please, we don't want to spoil it for the kids in the class.
As we wind up the term, I want to say a special thank you to a couple of amazing parents who have consistently supported me in the classroom, with trips, pasting, putting books away, etc etc etc.  Claudine, Lou and Heidi have just been so superb and you have all made my job so much easier.  A huge thank you to you three, hopefully I can keep you next year too.......
Please continue with the reading over the holidays and if you want some practice writing, get the children to write a holiday diary, including all the exciting things they are doing.  Maths basic facts need work and the children can practice on tutpup, topmarks and ict games.  Keep up that lovely learning and I will see you all bright and eager for learning in Term 4.
Annie




Monday 15th September 2013
Kia ora koutou, here we are in the second to last week of Term 3!  Last week we had a great trip to the Museum which the children loved.  Many thanks to Angela, Heidi, Tony (Papa) and our class doctor Lou.  Without you gorgeous parents and Grandparents trips like that would not be possible.  Its so great to have parent helpers who just get stuck in and support our lovely kids.  Thank you.
This week we will be working on our puppet show.  The children have all written their scripts and we will be making the puppets and practising in our puppet theatre.  They are very excited about this and presenting is  an important part of the NZ English Curriculum.  The stories have been written so well.
We currently have a student from John Paul on a Gateway course working with us.  Georgia Simmonds is an ex St Marys student and will be with us for 4 weeks.  It is great having an extra set of hands in the classroom on Tuesdays.
We are experiencing a few minor behaviour problems in Room 13.  It is probably down to being the end of term and feeling tired but we do need to nip it in the bud.  Please talk to your children often about the importance of the Golden Rules - hands to self, kindness, taking turns, being a good friend.  Reinforcing this at home will help me so much at school.
We are working on Problem solving in Mathematics this week and next week.  An example of this might be:
Jacob and Sarah had 2 chickens each.  Each chicken laid 2 eggs. How many eggs altogether?
They might use skip counting in 2's or 2+2 +2+2=8.  - number story
It is important for them to be able to tell you how they worked it out and even write the number story that goes with it.
We are focusing on doubles to 20, counting to 100, counting back from 50, skip counting in 2,5,10 and adding in groups of 10 eg 24,34,44,54.....
In writing we are looking at editing for the older children and sentence structure and recording ideas for the younger ones.  Thank you to those parents who have bought the early dictionaries.  They are already being used every day.  It would be great if every child could have one by the end of the term.  They are called My Words (red book) and can be purchased from Office Max.  Very helpful for writing.
In reading we read to, with and by every day.  That means I read to the children, we read together and they read to me.  Our guided reading programme focuses on their goals and the things they need to work on to improve their reading and for this they are grouped.  We share a big book every week and focus on retelling, predicting, punctuation, sentence structure and vocabulary.  And we read together, sharing stories we have written.   Reading is a huge part of every bit of school including, science, maths, technology, RE........  Keep up the lovely reading at home.
In RE we have moved on to the Church strand and this is concerned with Belonging.  The children love the RE programme and I'm sure would love to share their learning with you at home.

Next week is our last week of term.  I am trying to organise a fun trip for the Thursday.  I will get back to you asap once I have finalised the details.
Have a great week,
Annie


Monday 9th September, 2013

Hi everyone and welcome back to Week 7.  This week we look forward to a trip, making a puppet theatre, Jump Jam Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and a whole lot of lovely learning in between. 

We had a great week last week getting back to "normal" and settling back into our routine.  It was lovely to welcome Don and his family back from their overseas adventure and nice for me to be back in the drivers seat. 
Over the next three weeks we will be working really hard with writing and mathematics.  I am super pleased with how the reading is going for the class and wold like to focus on some gaps in written language and Number.  At home you can support your child's learning by encouraging them to practice writing in a fun context.  It is great if you can get them to write the shopping list, send an email to a friend or Grandparent, write a wee journal about their day and what they are looking forward to at school tomorrow.  The specific learning we are looking at is....
*Writing several sentences on one idea - expanding our thinking and including detail.
*Self correcting our writing - underlining word tries and finding the correct spelling.
*Including WOW words to make our writing more interesting to the reader -  adjectives.
*Rereading stories often to ensure the text makes sense and to see if there is anything that can be added to make the story better.

With regards to writing, I would like all the children in Room 13 to have a beginning dictionary.  These can be purchased from Office Max for about $5.  In the past we have had the red book called "My first words" but anything similar would be great as long as the basic words are written in and their is space to write frequently used content words as well.  It is really helpful when teaching children to correct and add interest words if they have their own dictionary to use as a resource.  It will come home with them at the end of the year and can be used next year in Year 2.

In Mathematics we are trying really hard to improve our basic facts up to 20.  This includes addition and subtraction facts as well as doubles, halves and counting in 10's.  It is important for the children to have a good knowledge of facts so they can use them for problem solving and as building blocks for moving through the maths stages. 
Tutpup is a website where children can practice their basic facts as well as ictgames and Topmarks. 

On Thursday there will be a reliever in the class as I am taking my oldest daughter to Hamilton for a minor surgery.  I will of course leave all the work for the reliever so the children will not be missing out on a day of learning.  I will be back on Friday for our trip to the Museum.  We will leave school at approximately 11am and will return by 2:30pm.  The Museum bus will pick us up from school and drop us back - a great service .  I'm sure we will have a super time.

Keep up all that lovely reading, have a great week.
Annie




Monday 2nd September 2013

See ya Winter and hello Spring!  Yipee, Spring is here which means Summer is just around the corner.  Thank goodness.  It is so nice to see the weather warming up and the children getting outside with shoes and socks off to have a good play.  Here's to some lovely, warm spring days in the near future.
The last 4 weeks have been lovely, with Whaea Tania taking the helm and teaching the children of
Room 13.  She has left St Mary's now to resume study for the rest of the year and I am back in the hot seat so things will be back to normal and any of the "funny" behaviours we have been seeing for a couple of weeks will disappear.  It is normal for children to try their luck with a new teacher and of course all our teaching styles are different.  It will be very nice to find our groove again and get stuck into some super learning.
On Friday we had a lovely shared lunch.  Thank you to the parents who supplied us with delicious food and a particular thank you to Claud who always goes over and above the call of duty.  We are so lucky to have you Claudine and Tony.
Right, on to this weeks highlights.......
We will be looking at "Dream big and make it happen", our Concept idea for Term 3.  Room 13 will be thinking about what we want to be when we grow up and how we can make that happen for ourselves.  We will then go on to being inventors and creators and what kinds of skills are necessary to come up with something no one has ever thought about before.  We have been doing some problem solving in the classroom and it has been very interesting seeing how the children's brains work and how they come up with ways to solve problems.  In week 7 we will be traveling to the Museum for a fun trip and in Week 9 we will be having a surprise trip for awesome hard work in Term 3.
In Term 4 I always put on a Nativity Play for the Parents.  We spend a good part of the term preparing for this annual event so keep an eye out on the blog for dates to pencil in.  The play is a highlight of the year and has been enjoyed very much by all parents of past students.  My very first Nativity "Mary",  will complete Year 13 at JPC this year so it has become somewhat of a tradition for the kids in my class.  All parents and Grandparents are welcome to attend.
This week we will be cracking down on writing - getting the children to write more and use their independent skills.  We will be looking at recounts and particularly brainstorming and reworking writing to ensure it is always our best work.
In RE we will continue with Holiness and in Mathematics, focus on the areas I found to be tricky in recent testing.  The children have been divided into 4 groups for maths now and we will be working hard on the basics - ensuring the children have a good foundation before they head into Year 2.
The reading is going very well and we will continue this week with our programme.  Some of the older children will be working on independent activities in preparation for Year 2 and everyone will be taking part in puppet shows which will be performed to Room 18 in the next couple of weeks.  We are making a puppet theatre so if anyone has any gingham fabric hanging around at home, we would love it for our curtains.
The term is racing along and the children are getting tired.  The school is cracking down on attendance at present as well as lateness so just a quick reminder that the kids should all be at school at 8:30 in order to prepare themselves for the day and should only be having days off if they are legitimately unwell.  Even in Year 1 it is super important that they come to school everyday.  Our very busy days make it difficult to go back and relook at concepts already covered and assessments delivered, so they do miss out on valuable learning when away.
Once again, thank you for your support of Whaea Tania.  She said she has never come across a school quite like St Mary's and will always remember what a lovely environment it is, full of gorgeous children and generous families.  How nice to make such a positive impression on someone just beginning her teaching journey.
Have a great week
Annie



Monday 26th August, 2013
Hi everyone, welcome to Week 5!  My apologies for no weekly notice last week, I had a very sad and muddled week last week with the sudden death of my dear friend Louise's husband.   Back in business this week so here we go....
Week 5 is Whaea Tania's last week with us.  The next four days will be her final days of full control, we (especially me) will be so sad to see her go.  She has given the children some lovely learning experiences and built super special relationships with them all.  We would like to have a surprise shared lunch with Whaea on Friday so if everyone can send a plate along, that would be just great.
This week on Friday we will also be having a wacky hair and wacky socks day.  The young Vinnies are fundraising and prizes will be given to the most amazing hair do and the wackiest socks - great fun!
This week we will be focusing on Number in mathematics.  Each groups is at a different stage in maths, hopefully if you came along to the Maths evening you will have an understanding of what each stage entails.  The best thing to practice at home is some basic problem solving eg Max and Maiah had 2 eggs each for lunch, how many eggs altogether?  (kids can solve this by using doubles ....2+2=4)  and basic facts eg 2+____=5    5+___ =7.  The basic facts need to be instant up to 10.
In writing, the children are focusing on reworking their writing using recount.  This is all about going back over writing to see what can be improved upon.  eg spelling, adding interest words, filling in missed words and making sure the writing makes sense.
I have tested all the children's writing and am so impressed with how many kids have moved up the race track.  We even have a few who are already at National Standard after only 7 months at school!  Yipee to you all on your awesome effort with reading.
In oral language we are focusing on peer discussions and being able to ask open ended questions(those that begin with who, why, when, what, where and how) to find out more information.  We are using SOLO to self assess this process and your child's ahievement can be found on the beehive beside my teaching station.
The weather is improving now and there is lots to look forward to.  Here's hoping for a lovely fine week where we can all get outside.
Annie


Monday 12th August, 2013

Week 3 already and what a busy start we have had to the term!  The weather is improving and I can feel the first signs of Spring out there so Yipee, bring on the sun.
Thank you to everyone for your attendance at parent interviews last week.  It was great, not only catching up to discuss your gorgeous children but also having the chance to have a quick catch up with you.  Thank you to Simon and Margo for your patience on the Tuesday evening when I got a bit carried away and missed your interview.  (eek)  You will be pleased to know I stayed on time on Thursday.
This week Whaea Tania will continue her full control and I will be carrying out observations of her teaching.  It is a tricky business running the classroom all by yourself when you are just beginning, thank you all for your ongoing support of Whaea.  She is doing a fantastic job and the children are responding really well to her style.

Last Friday I had my final Incredible Years PD.  The course has been amazing and if any parents would like information about their parenting course to begin shortly, let me know and I will pass that on to you.

This week we will continue our focus on Procedural writing, where children sequence in order, the  of something they have taken part in.  Last week they made kebabs which were a hit!  In mathematics they will be looking at Probability - the liklihood of something happening and in reading they will continue with guided reading with Whaea, independent reading in the library and during our reading circuit and shared reading with the teacher and with you at home.  The reading is going so well and in week 4 I will be testing so we will see exactly what they can do.  The topic of Enterprise will continue all term and Whaea's focus is on problem solving and creating.
I will be testing the 6 year olds this week and also those children who scored stanine 3 or below in their New Entrant Testing.  I will follow up with all parents regarding the outcome of the testing.  I am so pleased with the progress happening in Room 13, so am sure the testing will show just how amazing they all are.

Whaea Tania and I hope you all have an amazing week.
Annie


Monday 5th August 2013
Hi everyone, we made it through the first week (it was a busy one) and now we are back into our groove.  I hope you enjoyed looking through the children's Portfolio's and have talked to  them about some of their learning.  I am sure you will be amazed at some of the progress they have made in their first 6 months at school.  Please bring the Portfolio with you to school and any questions you may have.
This week Whaea Tania will begin her full control on Wednesday.  It is really important as a beginning teacher that opportunity is given to experience the "real" classroom so Tania will be responsible for the day to day running of Room 13.  Of course I will be supporting her and meeting with her regularly to discuss what she is doing well and what she will focus on next.  I will also take some time to complete 6 month and 6 year testing as well as formal observations of Whaea Tania.  Thank you in advance for your support.

This week on Friday, Whaea Tania and I will be attending the last Incredible Years PD course.  I have got so much from this programme and what I have implemented in the classroom is working very well.  On Friday there will be a reliever in our class for the day. 

Mass will be at 9am on Friday to celebrate the Feast day of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop.  We would love to see as many of you as possible at Mass and two of our lovely girls (Ella and Sophie) will be taking up the gifts during Eucharist.

Parent Interviews will take place on Tuesday and Thursday after school.  It is expected that everyone will attend to discuss the Portfolio but again, if you cannot make either times, just let me know and we can organise an alternative.

This week we will begin the PMP programme.  Perceptual Motor Programme gives the opportunity for the children to engage in activities which increase left brain/right brain thinking, balance and motor skills.  If you would like to see what we do during PMP sessions, please feel free to join us between 9am and 9:30 am Monday to Wednesday in the hall.

Once again, thank you for your ongoing support in the classroom.  I am lucky to have such great parent helpers and appreciate very much everything you do.  While Whaea Tania is on full control, we will leave parent help and resume again in Week 5 if that is ok.  I think it only fair that she be given the opportunity to find her feet without feeling any pressure.

Have a super week everyone,
Annie







Tuesday 30th Junly, 2013

Welcome back everyone after what I hope was a lovely break.  I had a great holiday, beginning with a quick trip to Melbourne to see Pink.  Awesome!  Then a quiet week at home, gardening and having some fun with my kids.  Finally we had a family celebration for my Mum who has finally retired from Rotorua Hospital where she has worked for nearfly 40 years.  Yay for Mum!   This term will be another fun filled, action packed 9 weeks of learning so brace yourselves.... here we go.

This term we have a student teacher helping us in Room 13.  It is a great opportunity to share some of our lovely St Mary's character and for me to share my knowledge with someone who is just beginning her teaching journey.  Her name is Whaea Tania and she has already made a great start, getting to know your children and building positive relationships with them.  Tania will be on full control in weeks 2,3 and 4 so she will be responsible for the day to day running of the classroom programme during this time.  I will be observing her and supporting her in this role.  Please make yourself known  to Tania and encourage her along the way.

OurConcept this term is Enterprise.  Tania will be doing a 3 week unit on this topic and has some great ideas.  Later in the term we will be looking at Dreaming big, discussing our dreams for the future and what we can do to make them happen.  We will all be looking forward to a dress up party day at the end.  Our concept is around technology - creating, problem solving, risk taking etc and we will incorporate Science, Social Studies, Art.
In writing we will look at Procedural writing and in Religious Education we are studying Prayer first, then Sacrament.  Mathematics will consist of Number - moving the children through the stages and Probability for Strand Maths.  We will continue with our reading programme and some lucky children will be taking part in the Early Words Programme to help consolidate words we need in reading and writing.  More about this will be included in their Homework books.
Next week we have Parent Interviews.  It is expected that all parents will meet their child's teacher to discuss progress so far and the information in the Portfolio and Mid Year Report.  If you cannot meet during the specified time,  please let me know and we will make other arrangements to catch up.

It is great to see the children back after their holidays, raring to go and excited about the new playground.  As usual, please email me or catch up before school if you have any questions or concerns.  We have a few new 6 year olds so testing will happen for them over the next week and then we will meet to discuss how clever they are and where we are going to next.

Here's to a great term of lovely learning...
Annie

Monday 8th July, 2013

The last week! (quiet little phew).
Thank you all for your amazing support over the last 9 weeks.  We have had an awesome term, your children have been fantastic and we have even learnt some stuff.  Yippee.  Iam really happy with the progress the children have made, some of them have exceeded expectations and are already at national standard for year 1. Wow!

This week we will be making koru necklaces with Molly's Mum, Claudine, making pizza with Imogen's Mum, Lou and Molly's Mum, Claudine and having a special McDonalds treat with whoever would like to come.  The details of our trip are....

We will leave school at 11am and walk to McDonalds Fenton Street.  I have booked the meeting room until 1pm when we will head back to school.  While there we will have some awards, eat our happy meal and then have a play on the play ground.  Many thanks to Linley Parry who has subsidized the happy meals and offered the children a free ice cream each.  The  trip will cost $5.  If this is a problem for any family, please let me know.

On Friday we are responsible for hosting the Assembly.  All parents are welcome to attend at 11am in the school hall.  Our focus will be Matariki.

In between all the fun, we will be wrapping up the term but keeping the reading, writing and maths going.  Please keep up the reading over the holidays, visit the library, use the websites I posted last week and above all have some fun with your gorgeous children.

I will be leaving school early on Friday so Mrs Kusabs will be in the class for the last hour and a half.    No doubt I will see you all during the week.

Have a great week,
Annie

Monday 1 July, 2013
Tena koutou katoa.

Wow July already, hasn't the term just flown by.  This week we are focusing on using Te Reo as much as possible for Maori Language week.  The Room 13 kids are already amazing speakers of Te Reo so we will continue practising during the next couple of weeks.

This week we will complete assessments for the Portfolios.  Most days the children will bring a book home that they have read with me but if on the off chance, I don't get to all the groups, just use your good judgment and if necessary, support them in their reading.  I am so impressed with the progress the children have made this term.  We have some amazing writers and readers, some already at National Standards for the year.  Yipee for them and for you.

Next week on Thursday, we are planning a fun trip to McDonalds to celebrate the end of the Term.  It is simply to congratulate the children on excellent behaviour and fantastic achievement.  The idea is that we will walk down to McDonalds on Fenton St, have some awards and a Happy Meal and then allow the children to have a play.  All parents are welcome to join us for this outing.  We will look at leaving school at 11:30am, after play and endeavour to be back at school at the end of lunch time.  I imagine the cost will be about $5 each child.  Further details will be on the blog and in Homework books asap.
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The Portfolio's will now come home with the children on the Friday of week 1 next term.  In week 2 we will be conducting parent interviews to discuss the work in the portfolio's and to decide together, the next steps in learning for your child.  Interviews are a great way of ensuring we are all on the same page and everyone understands what needs to be done in order to move the children forward.  It is also a great opportunity for me to show off how clever your children are.  It is expected that everyone will make an interview time.  If the days do not suit, please email me and we can organise to meet another time after school.

Keep up the great reading and spelling at home.  It makes a huge difference to the consolidation of new ideas if the children are practising what they have learnt at school. If you would like some ideas for mathematics practise at home, some helpful websites are:

Topmarks
www.topmarks.co.uk

ICT games
www.ictgames.com


We use both these websites regularly in class and both offer practice for literacy and numeracy.  If you would like a brief outline of the mathematics skills we are working on with your child, just let me know and I can pop it in the Homework book.
Another great website for basic facts practice is Tutpup.  You can register your child free and play the maths games online at any time.  The basic facts are a necessity for moving forward in mathematics and this is a fun site which is easy for children to use.

Have an awesome week.
Haere ra
Annie

Monday 24th June, 2013

Hi everyone, welcome back to another super exciting week in room 13.  This morning we have a great trip to the Hannahs Bay Sustainable Gardens.  We are very excited about the trip, but mostly the bus ride I think!  Today is Don's last day at school for two months.  He and his family are heading to Germany for the winter.  Boy are we going to miss you Don.  We are all looking forward to hearing all about your adventures mate, make sure you email us ok.
This week we will be finishing off some assessments to complete our Portfolios.  These records of your child's learning will come home in Week 10 and will show you what amazing progress they have made in the first two terms at school.  Please try to ensure the kids are at school every day unless sick of course.  It is so hard to go back and redo assessments once most of the class have done them.
Keep up the lovely reading everyone.  As you will see some of the children are really motoring along the race track now.  Impressive!
In mathematics we have been practising identifying the word for each number to 10.  The children brought a game home last week, a great way to help consolidate the learning.  Please help them by practising at home.
In RE we will continue our work on God the Creator.  The children are really enjoying the stories from the bible.  It is great to hear that parents are sharing these at home too.
In writing we will be writing recounts.  That is telling a story about something that has already happened.  It is a great chance for the children to do some personal writing and to work on some of the surface features of writing such as full stops, capital letters and spelling.
Once again, thank you to the parents who came to help on our trip today.  The ladies at the gardens were fantastic and the children had a ball playing in the leaves.  Photos will follow.
Annie

Monday 17th June, 2013

Hi everyone, welcome back to week 7.  Just a few notes  to begin the week.....
First, Don is sick with the chicken pox.  If your child has not had the pox, please just keep an extra eye on them. Usually they will experience a bit of a fever and perhaps just not be their usual dapper selves.  If they are sick, please keep them at home.  This week we will be making bread with Claudine, Molly's Mum as part of our Matariki celebrations.   We are also hoping to make Koru necklaces which the children will be able to bring home.  We have a trip planned for next Monday.  I will send a note home tonight with the children and have approached some parents to help on the day.  DJ's dad is home from his big ship for a while.  DJ is super excited and we are hoping that Darren might be able to come and talk to us about some of the things he saw and the photos he has been sending us.  Finally, tomorrow is KJ's 6th birthday.  Happy Birthday to you KJ.  Yipee.

This week we will be finishing the Reading testing that I started last week.  I am really pleased with the  reading progress, you will see we are nearly all off the Magenta race track now.  Keep up the great work.  Your children might bring home books that are not at their level this week as they are choosing from the book box while testing is happening.  Support them by reading to them if the book is just too tricky.

We have been enjoying Statistics in Mathematics and the children are becoming quite clever with tally charts and picture graphs.  In Number, we have been focusing on learning some new games which we can play independently as well as practicing our skills at maths games on the computers.  We are great sharers and turn takers in Room 13.

In Writing this week we are going to be focusing on Recount Writing, a story about something they have seen, heard or experienced.   The children have amazed me with their Persuasive Writing and the Assessments last week were awesome.  Recount writing allows some freedom of choice and the children really enjoy this. 

In Religious Education we are looking at God and in particular the Creation Story at the beginning of the Old Testament in the Bible.  Please take the time to read this story to the children and discuss it.  We have painted a gorgeous mural of God's Creation, check it out in our classroom.

Thank you to Margo and Angela who have offered to help with writing on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  I am sure it will make a huge difference having an extra set of hands at writing time.

Hopefully the weather will improve and the children can get outside to play this week.  Have a great week,
Annie



Monday 10th June, 2013

Welcome back to Week 6.  What a miserable, wet Sunday we had, good excuse to light the fire and stay indoors I say.  This week we have some lovely learning planned for your gorgeous children, thank you for your support at home, keep up the great reading.  This week I have pasted an Essential spelling list into the homework books.  The words to focus on are hilighted and the children will be tested on Friday.
In mathematics we are working on skip counting in 2's  and doubles for the older kids, instantly recognising sets to 10  and identifying the numbers to 10 as well as making sets of those numbers for the younger kids.  If you would like a sheet which outlines the necessary knowledge for the stage that your child is at, just let me know and I can paste one into their books.  The maths evening is coming up and this will give you lots of ideas for helping with mathematics.

In writing we are preparing for our writing assessment on persuasive writing.  The children's writing is developing nicely now.  If you want to help at home, making lists, writing to family members and emailing will all help.  We are still focusing on writing the basic words (essential lists) correctly and listening for consonant sounds.  The older kids are trying hard to get the middle vowel sounds right.

In Religious Education we will continue our study on God.  In Physical Education our training schedule will continue with lots of kids getting their gold medal for 50 laps completed.  We are also doing some dance and aerobics in the classroom as the weather outside is not always good for running.

The reading is going really well and before long we will have everyone off Magenta.  You can continue to help by ensuring some reading is being done every night, whether that be you reading to them, you sharing a story with them or them reading independently.  Mileage is sooooo important in reading and that simply means read, read read!

Thank you once again for your support.  If you would like to get involved in the classroom, I would love some help during writing time which usually happens between 9:45 and 10:30.  If you can help, just yell out.

Annie


Tuesday 4th June,2013

What a super treat, having a lovely long weekend.  I hope you all had some special time with your families. This week on Tuesday we are having a visit from Charlotte Wilkinson.  She is a Mathematics specialist and is visiting us to help me improve my teaching of mathematics.  Charlotte has a wealth of knowledge and is always helpful with practical solutions to teaching problems.  She will be modelling a teaching session for me to observe.

The weeks are going by really quickly now and the children are noticing how busy things are and how much we need to cover in a day.  It is normal for them to feel tired at the end of the day so please do not make homework a stressful time.  If they are really tired, read their book to them or read one they choose from their home library.  Mathematics such as counting forward and back to 100, saying the number before and after numbers to 100, making sets and splitting them  to see that numbers can change, consolidating groups that make 5 and groups that make 10 and even counting on from any number by getting one number in our head and starting the counting from there, can be done in the car, at the dinner table, around the house, at sports fields and is usually a lot more effective than stressing everyone out with strict number sessions at home.  We want the children to love learning and to enjoy the success of finding out something new.  Please encourage this by trying to make your practice time fun.

This week we will start our Religious Education Strand on God.  The Holy Spirit is finished and the children have learned so much. 
We will continue with persuasive writing as practice for our big school wide Assessement in Week 7.  In writing we are wanting the kids to have a go recording sounds they can hear in a word.  If you are practising at home, it is not essential for them to get all the sounds.  Just ask them what they can hear and record those sounds then move on.  Rereading what they have written often will help them remember their story and stay on track.
In Mathematics we are working mostly on Number.  Each of the groups is at a very different stage but if you would like a print out of the things your child is working on, I can get that for you.  Also,there is a mathematics parents evening coming up on Wednesday 19th June and I encourage as many of you as possible to attend.  We are also continuing our work on Statistics, posing a mathematical question, recording data on a tally chart and making a picture graph.
In reading we will continue to read as much as possible in every curriculum area.  Please encouage your child to talk about the book and even answer some questions about what the story is telling them.  It is important the children get given enough time to work out a word they don't know.  Try to refrain from giving them the answer until they have tried sounding out the word, reading on to the full stop and going back for another go, rereading and of course checking out the picture.
We will be putting together our Recycle collages this week on Friday.  If you have clean recycling at home, please bring it along on Thursday and Friday. 

Thank you for your great efforts in having your child at school, in their correct uniform, on time and with enough sleep.  I am sure you can appreciate what it can be like in a classroom full of different personalities.  Everything runs so much more smoothly if the children get here on time with enough sleep and good food to get them through the day.

Many thanks
Annie
Monday 27th May, 2013

Well the weeks continue to pass us by very quickly and with all the extra happenings it can be difficult to maintain a good routine in the classroom.  The children in Room 13 are doing very well though and we are working hard to make sure the really important stuff like reading, writing, mathematics and RE is covered no matter what. 
This week I will be out of the classroom for the first block on Monday for classroom release and again on Thursday for my Oral Language Professional Development.  Of course the school is closed on Friday for another Teacher Only Day so the children do have a bit of a turbulent week.  They are all so capable thougha and these interruptions don't seem to phase them at all. They know the routines and what is expected and they can handle anything!

Keep up the great homework.  This week the older children have some spelling words to work on and the younger children have specific letters and words to learn to read.  It's great to do some extra work at home but please do not make it too long and tiresome.  Remember they have been at school all day.  Short sharp bursts at home are best.

Thank you for your ongoing support and have a great week.
Annie

Monday May 20th, 2013

Week 3 already and another very busy week of learning lies ahead of us.  This week on Thursday we will be having a Teacher Only Day with the teachers from JPC and St Michaels schools.  On this day the children will need to remain home with you while I do some learning which will help me in the delivery of the Religious Education Programme.  On Friday I will also be out of the classroom while I attend the Incredible Years Programme.  The children will be well looked after I am sure.

Today we have some specialists in writing observing us in our classroom.  We are looking at children who are having some difficulty getting started and moving forward in writing and Lynley is here to help me with ideas about how I can support them.  The professional development is a school wide initiative to increase achievement in the area of writing.  Lynley was most impressed with Room 13 when she visited last time - of course!

We have a short week with the TOD but we are still working hard to reach our targets.  We have seen some lovely reading over the last couple of weeks which is exciting.  We will continue with our guided reading programme as well as library, shared reading, individual reading and a buddy reading programme with a senior class.  Our goals this week are to look at beginning, middle and end sounds of new words in order to figure them out.  We also have a huge focus on comprehension - understanding what we are reading and answering questions on our text.
In Mathematics we will be working on Number - writing addition and subtraction number stories, looking at half and quarter as well as numeral id and ordering numbers for the newest kids.  Our Strand topic is Statistics and we are looking at gathering data, using a tally chart to record what we find and presenting our data in a picture graph.
In writing we are looking at Recount Writing including using some descriptive language.  Today after a lovely Autumn walk, we will be writing a story to explain what we did and what we saw.  Check these out on our wall.
In Religious Education we will continue to focus on the Holy Spirit and how it can impact our lives.  We will discuss how we show others that the Holy Spirit is in our Hearts.
Our Concept this term is Sustainability and specifically looking at Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.  The children have gained lots of knowledge in this area and can tell you lots about recycling etc.  We will continue this topic, looking at what can be recycled with some collage on Wednesday.  Children are invited to bring some clean recyclable materials to school that can be turned into some gorgeous art.  We are focusing on reusing.

Just a quick reminder about arriving at school on time.  The staff are quite concerned about how many children are arriving late to school.  It can be disruptive to the other children as well as unsettling to the person arriving late.  School starts at 8:45 at St Mary's.  It is best if the children are here by 8:30 so that they can help organise the class for learning as well as spend some important social time with their peers.  It means they are ready for learning when the bell rings at 8:45.  Thankyou for your great efforts in getting your child to school, well prepared and on time.
Have a great week,
Annie

Monday 13th May, 2013

Hi parents and welcome back to Week 2.  A lot of us had busy weekends with the beginning of Winter sport (I sure did) and the children are excited about telling me all about it.  Team sports are so good for our little ones.
This week in Room 13 and at St Mary's proves to be another busy one.  Tomorrow we have a trip to the Recycling Centre to kick off our Sustainability Concept.  Thank you to Chanelle, Angela, Claudine and Kristina who will be accompanying us on the trip.  We will look at what rubbish can be recycled, how it is recycled and why we bother going to all this trouble.  We will walk to the Recycling Centre at 9am and will be back at 11am.  Later in the term, Room 13 have a trip to MacDonalds planned to investigate their recycling habits and to have a bit of fun as well.  All parents are invited to attend this trip.
After todays assessment, we will leave persuasive writing for a bit and focus on Recount Writing.  We will be having an Autumn walk to discuss what we can see in Autumn and hopefully we will get some great writing as a result.  In PE we will continue to train for the Cross Country Race and in Mathematics our focus for the week will be number and on Friday Statistics - looking at developing a question for research, finding some information and recording it using a tally chart.  Speaking of Tally Charts, check out our Cross Country training chart at the top of the stairs.  Awesome!  In RE we will continue to investigate the Holy Spirit and it's meaning at Pentecost which will be supported on Friday with our Pentecost Mass at 9am in the Church.  All families are welcome and our very own Aarav will be reading a prayer of the faithful.  We hope to see you all there.
We are off to a flying start this term with some amazing reading, writing and mathematics.  We are also focussing on oral language and in our news groups, trying hard to listen and recall some of the information we have heard.  There is a lot going on so if you need to catch up with me, either see me before school or email me annie@stmarys.rotorua.school.nz
Lots of children (not just in Room 13) have been arriving at school very late.  It is really important that the children have the opportunity to settle before school begins, to do their duties and to have some social time with their friends.  I understand how busy mornings can be, but please try to get the children here by 8:30.
Many thanks
Annie



Monday 6th May 2013

Welcome back to Term Two everyone.  The children look gorgeous in their winter uniforms, thank you all for making such a huge effort to have them dressed correctly.  Very smart.  It was lovely to see the children and hear all about what happened over the break.  They were all energetic and ready to get going this morning which was fantastic.  (I have two size 7 skivvys which Charlie has grown out of if anyone is short.)

This Term is usually a pretty wet and miserable one so please ensure the kids have a jacket/coat in their bags.  It's nice to send them out into the weather both at lunch time and after school, suitably attired for the nippy day.  Also everything needs to be named.  The children cannot tell their gear apart from anyone elses and it makes it so much easier to ensure lost property gets back to its owner if it is named clearly.  Shoes and socks must be on when the children leave the classroom, thanks to those parents who did me a favour and purchased velcro shoes - they are an awesome invention for a new entrant teacher.  Please continue to encourage your children to remember their own book bag in the morning and to pack their bag themselves.  Most of them are excellent and very independent, there are just a few who really find pack up time difficult.  Those darn book bags are hard to get into back packs!  Practice at home will surely help.

Our concept this term is Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and specifically looking at how we can conserve, preserve and maintain God' environment.  We will have a trip fairly early on to the recycling centre and in our class will be looking at ways we can reuse so that the world does not get filled up with rubbish.  It's great if you are a recycling family, talking about what you do and why at home will help the children understand the importance of caring for our gorgeous world.
In Religious Education we will be focusing on The Holy Spirit, with the Pentecost Mass next Friday the 17th May at 9am.  The children have already started discussing the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, what the disciples were doing, what the Holy Spirit was like and why Jesus felt it was important to send this help to his friends after his death.  Talk to them about what they know, you might be surprised just how much they understand.  Such a bright bunch of clever learners in Room 13.  Following the Holy Spirit we will focus on God.
In Mathematics the children will continue with Number, focusing on consolidating knowledge such as counting forward and back, writing number stories, identifying numerals to 100, instantly recognising patterns, groupings to 5 and with 5, understanding teen numbers, doubles and halves and skip counting in 2's.  Our groups are at varying stages in mathematics and will be working on different things during the term.  If you would like some ideas on what particular stage your child is at and how you can help, just email me and I will respond asap.  Our Strand this term is Statistics.  The children will be learning how to write investigative questions, gather and record data and show their findings on a graph.  It is a fun strand and goes well with our concept of recycling.
In Writing our main focus is Persuasive writing - trying to make others see and understand a point of view through written language.  Some of our kids are very early writers so the main focus for them will still be getting words down on the paper - looking at beginning sounds, basic words, making a sentence and going on independently to the next idea.  Others are well and truly writing and will be able to really sink their teeth into writing persuasive arguments.  While we will assess persuasive writing we will also engage in other genre during the course of the term.
In reading we will continue our guided reading as well as a weekly shared big book, weekly poem and a new buddy reading programme with a senior class.  Keep up the great reading at home.  It was great to see all the holiday reading that went on, well done everyone.  We will begin a spelling programme for the children who already know the letters and sounds as well as beginning to look closely at blends which are two or more letters joined together to make a new sound.  It was super to see most of the kids competent with their letters and sounds by the end of Term 1.  (That was our goal)
In PE we will be training for the Cross Country Race.  At  the top of the stairs is a tally chart showing how many laps the children have run.  There are prizes up for grabs at various stages of their training.  We started today with a great effort and I know we are going to have some serious contenders on race day.  The Cross Country will be held on the 27th June at 11am.  It's great to get the children out in the fresh air, particularly when they are often stuck inside due to bad weather.
I have all the reading eggs passwords available now and will paste them into their homework books tomorrow.  This is a great programme that you can access at home.  It will help with their literacy and is most enjoyable.  The school pays for the programme so please take advantage of it.

If you have any further questions, just catch me before school or you can email me at : annie@stmarys.rotorua.school.nz
I am looking forward to another fun term of learning with your cool kids. 
Annie

Thursday 18th April Hi everyone, just a few quick notes.... The children are bringing home free choice readers which may not be at their level. It is fine to help them, read to them, have a big sister or brother read and just have a go. We are having a big finishing off week this week so our regular reading programmed has been aborted! School finshes at the normal time on Friday. I know you just cant wait to spend the next two weeks with your little treasures but we don't have early closing. Please continue reading over the holidays with your children. Visit the library, look at some online book sites and read to them so that their lovely progress continues until we begin again next term. The children do need to be in their winter uniforms next term. Please try to get velcro shoes as opposed to laces. Boy are they time consuming with 5 year olds and I would much rather spend my time teaching them to read and write than doing up shoes! Thank you all. Annie I Week 12

Wow, we are nearly there! It is hard to believe that such a long term is nearly over. I hope you have some lovely family time planned during the break.. My two older girls are home from Uni and the two younger ones will be going to Whakamaru Christian camp while I am on Jury Duty next week, should be interesting. This week we will be winding up Units on Jesus, our Maori Unit on Greetings including the Mihi and our Measurment Unit in mathematics. It is also the end of the Communities Concept Unit. While lots of things come to an end, it is a time for assessments and reflections so our regular learning programme will be interupted somewhat. The children well and truly understand expectations in the classroom now so changes to our timetable do not throw them at all. They are an awesome group of super learners. We will also wind up our Unit on Retell which has focused on Jack and the Beanstalk. The children have loved studying this classic story and their collaborative retells are coming along beautifully. Today is our last session in the library so the children will not be bringing a new book home. Please ensure they bring back any library books they may have at home so that Mrs O'Leary can do her stock take. It is an exciting time coming up to the holidays and the children tend to get a bit over excited at times. We will attempt to keep things running as smoothly as possible till the last day and then on Friday we will have a fun day to celebrate the end of a hard term of excellent learning. Thank you all for your super support during the term. I am enjoying very much teaching your children, each one of them brings something very special to Room 13 and together they make an awesome team. Have a great break. Annie

Week 11

Another week gone and only two to go until the holidays.  It's amazing how fast the time goes when you are busy!  Today we welcome Molly back from her big holiday in the South Island.  We have missed you Molly, thank you for your gorgeous post cards, it looked like you were having a super duper time.
This week is a lovely normal week where our classroom programme can continue without any interruptions.  With Easter and all the festivities over, we can get on with some great learning.

I am still testing in Mathematics so the children will continue with worksheets for Number Knowledge consolidation and some independent maths games.  We are introducing new games all the time and it is great to have lovely leaders who can show the other children how they go.

In Literacy I am continuing to test the reading levels as well as alphabet and word knowledge.  Before the holidays I will update the basic word lists and let you know if there are any letters your child needs to focus on.  We will be focusing on Narrative and writing some well known fairy tales.  The children always enjoy this.

In Religious Education we will finish our unit on Jesus and I will be carrying out the end of topic assessment.  The children have shown some great knowledge around Jesus, his life and making comparisons with the way things were for him and how we experience life.

Swimming is finished for the term now so during PE sessions we will be learning how to play some team games such as T ball.  We will continue with fundamental skills such as skipping, throwing, hopping and running in Fitness.

I would like to catch up with all the parents of the first group of brand New Entrants to discuss the 5 year old testing.  If I have not met with you yet,  please catch up with me so we can organise a time to meet.  It usually takes around half an hour and I am available Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday lunch times as well as Tuesday, Thursday and Friday after school.  It is a great opportunity to show off what your child can do  and to discuss how together we can keep them moving forward.
Have a great week,
Annie


Week 10

Welcome back to school after a wonderful long weekend.  This week is a very short one but we will cover as much as we can. 

We will swim each day this week at 2pm.  It is our last week of swimming for the term so we want to make the most of it.  I realise it is a bit chilly when we get out of the pool but we race back to the warm classroom and the children are getting really good at quickly dressing themselves.

We have a Resurrection Liturgy at 10am this morning.  The children and I have talked a lot about the events over Easter and this is the finale.  We have discussed the importance of the Resurrection and how it is what makes Easter a happy time.  We will no longer use the Purple cloth at prayer time because the sad time is now over.  Over the next two and a half weeks we will be finishing the Jesus strand and completing our Assessments on this topic.

In Mathematics I will be testing this week.  The children will be working on independent Maths activities and games to consolidate their work on Number so far.  We have been counting backwards and ordering random numbers from smallest to biggest and vice versa.  Please continue practising this with your child as well as combinations of numbers that add up to 5 and 10.

In writing we are focusing on rereading our story often so that we know what comes next.  I am encouraging the children to go on to their next sound and/or idea without the need for a prompt from the teacher.  This is tricky for some children as they enjoy the support of the teacher, however it is important they can work independently as I am not able to work with every child each day now that we have 18 children.

In reading we will be continuing with testing as well as our guided reading programme and reading rotation.  The children are working wonderfully well during reading time, I am very proud of them and the way they support the new children.  Mary MacKillop would be so pleased to see the Catholic character in Room 13.

On Thursday the Board of Trustees will be conducting walk throughs of the classes to see what is happening at school.  I know they are going to be so impressed when they see what our amazing class can do.

On Friday I will be out all day at the Incredible Years course.  I know the children will be well looked after and that they will in turn look after the reliever.  Hopefully Mrs Deakin will grace us with her presence, the children always have a wonderful day with her.  The Incredible Years is a great programme which is giving me lots of lovely ideas about how to positively modify unwanted behaviour in the classroom.  I think it has made a difference already.

Thank you again for your ongoing support.  Please remember the importance of getting your kids to school at 8:30 so that they can prepare themselves for the day ahead.  Now that there are 18 children the routines are even more important.  It's great to see the children doing things for themselves - keep up the good work.
Annie

Week 7  Wow, we are really getting through the weeks, with some lovely learning happening in Room 13 and some super progress being made.  We are starting to see the consolidation of some of our learning both in reading and writing and this is always pleasing.  Please continue to work hard on those letter names and sounds, as well as the basic words.  This week on Monday I was unwell, no reflection on your gorgeous children, I promise!  Mrs Deakin spent the day with them and as usual, her comments were all positive which is always nice.  This week we have our second session with Bernie and Harold in the Life Education Caravan, this is always a treat and on Thursday the children will bring their work book home to show you.  We also have Mass on Friday at 9am to celebrate St Josephs day.  This is a special feast day for St Marys as it was the Sisters of St Joseph who founded us.  We always celebrate the day with Sister Carina who is a Josephite Sister.  Following that the Junior school will have our Athletics sports here at school. You are welcome to join us at 11am for this fun filled activity.    Finally, on Friday we will celebrate a week of hard work and learning with Wheels for Golden Time.  The children can bring bikes, trikes, scooters, skateboards etc for half and hour of "wheelie" good fun.  The bikes etc can be stored around the back of the school, please bring them to the class and I will show you where to put them.  Friday is a super busy day and also sees the first of our kids turn 6.  Don will be celbrating his birthday and we are going to all do our best to give him a beautiful day.  Happy Birthday Don!
Once again, thank you for your ongoing support.  You are a super bunch of parents.
Annie



Week 6 Hi everyone and welcome back to another busy week at St Mary's. We had a great week last week with the Gala, our Jesus feast and an exciting Tug o War on Friday afternoon. This week we have lots of lovely learning planned and here are some reminders to help you know exactly what's going on....... This week we will focus on Learning Intentions and Success Criteria. WALHT will be all over the place and means we are learning how to.... It is essential for the children to know what they are learning and why so we will be using this in all curriculum areas. The success criteria are simply how we will know whether we have been successful. At the moment the children and I are talking about how we can check that we have been successful in our learning. They are picking it up well and it helps them to focus on their goals during work time. In printing we are learning how to make all our letters the same size, in story writing we are learning how to hear the sound, find the sound and write the sound and in mathematics we are learning how to make 5 and count backwards. We are still learning about Jesus and how we can compare our lives to his but also how he is like a big brother to us and is always with us in our hearts, reminding us of the right thing to do. We will swim every day this week at 2:05pm and we are also looking forward to Friday when we will have our first session in the Life Education Van with Harold the Giraffe and Bernie(Mr Volschenks lovely wife). I will be out of the classroom on Friday attending my Incredible Years Course so Mrs Deakin will be in with the children. She loves Room 13 and I am sure they will have an excellent day. On Tuesday evening we have our Parent/Teacher Religious Education evening in the Hall from 6-7:30. All parents are encouraged to attend. We also have the middle and senior school out on Friday at their swimming sports at the Aquatic Centre and next week on Friday we look forward to Mass to celebrate St Josephs day. Finally next Friday the 15th, the Junior school will have their athletics sports here at school on the field from 11am. We look forward to seeing you all there. Thank you for your ongoing support and for the positive comments I am receiving in the class. Have a great week, Annie