Term 4, Week 9

And here it is … Not quite “Merry Christmas”, but the last full week of term, and what a week it is to be! 

After last’s week’s many rehearsals and costuming mayhem (and on-again-off-again picnic fun!), this week our focus will be on perfecting and presenting our junior/middle syndicate production, “What a Load of Rubbish”. If you would like to watch us sing, dance and put our very best stage manners on display, there are two shows to choose from – one at 1.30pm on Wednesday afternoon (12 December) and the second at 11am on Friday morning (14 December). You may take photos and videos of your children, but note that some families do not wish for their children to appear online (so please don’t post group shots/footage to the net). Also, in order for everyone to have the best view of the antics on stage, this will be a cushion theatre, so please bring a comfy cushion (the hall floor boards are not soft!). A small number of bench seats will be available for audience members who may require them (e.g. grandparents :)).

We will also be enjoying a number of Christmas craft activities this week, and are hoping to interest one or two parent helpers in doing some more tasty Christmas treat making with us on Friday morning, 9 – 10am.  If you are able to help out at this time, please let Miss Driver know – no baking skills required (beyond using a microwave to melt chocolate…), just festive good will and a clean pair of hands :)

Learning Journals, National Standards reports (for some) and class placement information will be sent home this Friday, together with all school exercise books past and present (the back-catalogue of your children’s learning!) – do take the time to read through these together in order to celebrate this year’s learning achievments :)

As a Christmas treat, there will be no formal homework tasks this week. Children will be bringing home a reader of their own choice each night, however there will be no more spelling words or facts to learn this year thanks to Santa’s elves who tell me that all of the Room 3 children are apparently too busy being “good” to have time for homework…

Finally, a HUGE “thank you” to you all. You have given your full support to your children and to your children’s learning this year. You are your children’s most important role models and educators, and all of you have been there 100% - you deserve the holidays as fully as your hard working children do, and I wish you all the most wonderful Christmas and New Year to come :)

Term 4, Week 8

Wow we have barely had time to stop for breath this last week as we raced through kapa haka, the senior production (aMAZing!), Bible in Schools with Mrs White (thanks Mrs White for the Bible story books) then Christmas crafts and baking with Mrs Jessop. We learnt the last of our egg, hatching, caterpillar, cocoon and butterfly dance moves, and learned some Christmas poems together. We also wrote some digital Christmas cards using dltkcards online.

This week we really step up our performance focus with more kapa haka, dance rehearsals, costume production and syndicate singing. Only a week and a half to go till our first public performance! We’re really hoping for a good turn out to watch us bop, roll, creep, crawl, flutter and flap in our plastic masterpieces :) We’re also going to continue our Christmas focus writing letters to Santa, adding to our poem collection and  making a few more cards.

We’re also SUPER excited about our school picnic at Rabbit Island on Friday (weather permitting). We would love to have as many parents along as possible (pre-schoolers welcome if supervised at all times) so keep the day free on your calendar :)  We (children and teachers) will be travelling out by bus, leaving school at 9.30am, and will meet parents and families there in the Harakeke area (the main shade area). Please make absolutely sure that you have your lunch, a drink bottle, hat, sunscreen, warm fleece and practical shoes for the day :)

Term 4, Week 7

First of all, congratulations everyone for the awesome effort at athletics on Monday – it was great to see such speedy sprinters, high and long jumpers, and strong, powerful throwing skills! We also really enjoyed our visit from Rufus and his friends (I wonder which children in Room 3 might be authors and musicians themselves one day?), and we worked hard at our problem solving for maths. We wrote a LOT of letters – goodbye letters for our friends Ashleigh and Tom, and thank you letters for our awesome classroom helpers.

This week we’ve got kapa haka to look forward to on Monday, the senior production to watch on Tuesday, then Christmas crafts for our last day with Mrs Jessop on Wednesday – a busy week! We’ll keep working on our dance moves for our production and assemble our first costume. With less than a month to go till Christmas, we’re also looking forward to learning some Christmas poems and songs and to writing some digital cards using dltkcards online.

Only three and a half weeks to go so make sure you’re getting a good long sleep each night and having a big breakfast before school every morning to keep your energy up for these last few weeks - they’re going to be action packed! 

Term 4, Week 6

Here we are, into the second half of our last term already! We’re all ready for athletics after a bit of solid practise last week, and our heads are full of swishy swoshy, squelchy, crunchy, splishing, splashing words which add awesome impact to our writing. We can pick apart big numbers now (up to 100) and explain how many tens and ones each number is made up of, and we’ve started to think about caterpillar and butterfly actions and dance moves for our class item for the show!

Of course the biggest news this week is our athletics day on Monday (sprints before lunch, eventing after), and we’ll be running, jumping and throwing with the best of them! We’ve also got a special visitor on Tuesday as Rufus comes to speak to us about reading and writing. We’re going to be doing a lot of maths problem solving this week, and looking a little at shapes and geometry as we read our big book The New Webs. We’re loving our weaving with Mrs Jessop, and look forward to bringing home all our crafty art work!

Eggcatchrysaflies

In Room 3 we have started exploring with dance and drama to pull together some ideas for our routine for the Little Mix song, Wings, which we will be performing as part of the Junior/Middle syndicate production.

As CHANGE has been a big topic focus throughout Birchwood school this year, we're going to make sure that our dance demonstrates the ways in which one thing can be changed to another - we'll show you a plastic-fantastic-trash-to-treasure-egg-to-butterfly transformation that will blow you away :)

Here we are experimenting with moves and poses for the egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and butterfly stages of a butterfly's life cycle ... Aren't we gorgeous :)?

Term 4, Week 5

Goodness me but we have been busy this last week in Room 3! We have finished off our capacity unit and really enjoyed our Three Bears theme (did you make some yummy porridge at home?) J We have been keeping fit and active, and stretching our voices too as we practised our waiata with Matua Tom. Mrs Jessop showed us some awesome new fibre and weaving activities on Wednesday (some tricky tasks – we really had to focus!), and we’ve begun our collection of non-recyclable plastic waste (gladwraps, packets, wrappers, shopping bags) to create our amazing costumes for our end of year show. We were lucky to have a session of NZSL with Cathy on Thursday, and we’re also building up our vocabulary in te reo maori, learning new words from our “first words” book.

Looking ahead, we’ve got another kapa haka session on Monday, some more jumping to practise, and some serious work to do on our class item for the production, rehearsing and learning new dance moves. In reading and writing we’ll be focussing on onomatopoeia (o-no-mat-o-pay-ah J) – descriptive words that sound like the idea they represent (e.g. swish, squelch, splash, crunch, howl etc) as we take ourselves on an imaginary bear hunt! In maths we’ll be learning about place value, and working out the number of tens and ones in a number – can you explain what is the difference between 78 and 87? Which is a bigger number? Why? Mrs Jessop will be back on Wednesday (don’t forget your library books!) and we’ll be learning some more clever crafts.

We are still receiving frequent reports of headlice in Room 3. Please check and fine-comb your hair every night as a precaution. We need everyone on board to eradicate the problem :)