week 9 Term 1 2022

  Big News - We are Swimming this week!

Poor Mrs D has been unwell and we have had Mrs Hunter teaching in Room 12 which meant that Mrs Trask came to teach Room 14 on Wednesday. This week, there will be more shuffling of teachers and some routine changes again. The kids have been so cool, calm and collected about everything - what a wonderful bunch of people you are to work with.

Congratulations to Addison, Louis, Lilly-Maye and Kyree who won our Values Awards last week. They have shown Excellence through hard work and perseverance during the whole term. Excellence isn’t about being the best, it's about doing our best. Excellence is having another go when we’ve gone wrong, being honest about our mistakes and learning from them.  We’ll be on the lookout for more people showing Excellence at school this week.

C.(Courage) R.(Respect) E.(Excellence)W.(Wonder)

Wonder is the focus for this week, who is asking questions and showing curiosity.

Mr. Macmillan Covid Update

As you have heard last week there have been changes within the Red Settings of the COVID Framework. We can now have 200 people indoors which means that we can have Team Assemblies/Liturgies in the hall or over in the Church. We will need to be masked when these occur in indoor settings.

We no longer need to have people scanning as they arrive at our school or ask for passports but they will still need to sanitise and wear a mask.

This Weeks Learning

Literacy: Report writing - we are going to have a real focus on sentence structure and the introduction of paragraphs. We'll finish our Marshmellow stories first though so don't panic.

Numeracy: We are continuing to build our knowledge of place value. We will also look at how we can collect, sort, display and analyse information (statistics). We are stepping it up a little every week. This week we are going to continue to use money for Place Value learning.

Religious Education: WALT - My Whānau, Jesus’ Whānau.  To whom do I belong?

Remember:  Recognise I am part of my family which is special and loved by God. Understand: That all people are part of God’s family and that through Baptism we can become part of God’s Church. (talk at home about when you were baptized, look at photos, when did it happen, how old were you, who was there, how did you celebrate )

Swimming This Week - spare togs will be given if you don't have a letter as to why you aren't swimming.

Mon: Library

Tues:

Wed:

Thurs: 

Fri: Roller skating at lunchtime

Week 8 Term 1 2022

 It’s great to see the engagement spikes on educa and blogs when our posts go up. Thanks for the comments, too - the kids get a real kick out of knowing that people are checking out our work.

Congratulations to Ian and Arianne who won our Values Awards last week. Ian and Arianne have both shown Excellence through hard work and perseverance during the whole term. Excellence isn’t about being the best, it's about doing our best. Excellence is having another go when we’ve gone wrong, being honest about our mistakes and learning from them.  We’ll be on the lookout for more people showing Excellence at school this week.

C.(Courage) R.(Respect) E.(Excellence)W.(???)

Hmmmm, I wonder what we might be looking for next week?

Mini Covid Update

We have air purifiers on the way BUT they’re not here yet so we need to keep our doors and windows open for air flow (MoE guidelines).  I’ve been looking at the weather out there and I strongly recommend bringing a school jersey this week. Please, make sure that they are well named. 

This Weeks Learning

Literacy: Narrative writing - we are going to have a real focus on sentence structure. We will be searching for, and using, connecting words like ‘so’ ‘because’ ‘also’ ‘so that’... and make sure that our sentences start in different ways (we’re going to attempt to banish ‘and then’ as a starter - wish us luck).

Numeracy: We are continuing to build our knowledge of place value. We will also look at how we can collect, sort, display and analyse information (statistics). We are stepping it up a little every week. This week we are going to use money for Place Value learning.

Religious Education: WALHT recognise how we are feeling and how to deal with these emotions. We are going to look at some bible stories and figure out what zone Jesus was in and how he managed his emotions. Sometimes things are unfair and we are going to learn ways to behave and act to show compassion and courage - even when we don’t want to. We will also learn a bit about the Annunciation - if you know the first half of the Hail Mary, you already know how the story goes.

No Swimming This Week

Mon: Library

Tues:

Wed:

Thurs: 

Fri: Annunciation of the Lord Liturgy

Roller skating at lunchtime

Place Value Playground

We have been working on Place Value in maths. Today we went out into the playground for a Place Value hunt. We were in 4 teams. We had to search for our 10 team cards that had a picture of place value equipment. We had to remember what the number in the picture was and run back to our team board to write it down.  We were running around the school chanting our numbers so that we could remember them - we were so focussed on remembering our numbers that we ran straight past Mrs T without even smiling! It was hard and sweaty work but it was great fun. We like learning Place Value in the playground.

Well done to Lilly-Maye, Ian, Kyree and Mia who were the evil masterminds behind the hiding places. Mrs T hasn't managed to get all of the cards back yet!?!

 

Week 7 Term 1 2022

 Thanks everyone for supporting our Young Vinnies on Friday. We raised about $522 to donate to Unicef. The kids are quite aware of what is going on in the news at the moment. Sometimes this can lead to lots of questions or they can feel a bit overwhelmed, confused or helpless.  If your kid is asking tricky questions or showing an interest in issues that seem too big for an 8yr old,  here is a link to a simple article that talks about how we can talk to kids about Ukraine. Many of the messages also apply to how to talk to kids about covid and other issues. 

Congratulations to  Aidan and Zique who won our CREW awards last week. Both of these students show Respect through their kind actions and words. They are helpful to others and treat others with gentleness and caring. Thanks, Zique and Aidan. 

This Weeks Learning

Literacy: Procedural writing - continued. We are looking at how instructions/ procedures are written and the kinds of words used to give instructions. At home you could use a recipe to cook together, check the instructions for your favourite game or write the rules for a game that you make up together.

Numeracy: We are continuing to build our knowledge of place value. We will also look at how we can collect, sort, display and analyse information (statistics).

Religious Education: This week we celebrate the feast day of Saint Joseph. Joseph is a very special Saint to us at Saint Marys as our school was founded by the Sisters of Saint Joseph. We are learning how Joseph responded to God's plan and showed grace. It’s also Saint Patrick's feast day this week - we have a lot of people with Irish heritage in our team. It’s going to be a week of celebrations.

Swimming again this week

Mon: Library

Tues:

Wed:

Thurs: Roller skating at lunchtime

              Saint Patricks Day - feel free to wear a splash of green

Fri: Saint Joseph’s day liturgy (in teams) - a day early but we don’t want to miss out.

Fundraising for our First Aiders

Fundraising for First Aid

 

Learning is delicious

 

Procedural Writing

This week we had to write instructions for 'How to make a piece of toast". Mrs T told us that we would have to be very, very clear about our instructions. They needed to be in order, too.  We fell into a couple of traps that made Mrs T laugh. Some of us said to get the toast out of the bag - but it's bread when it's in the bag not toast!  The other trap we fell into was saying 'Put butter on your toast' - oh dear! 

Hmmm. 'Put butter on your toast'. Is this what you mean?

We were patient with each other, fixed our writing mistakes as we went and helped out when we could see that someone needed a hand (getting toast out of the toaster was a bit scary for some kids). We were very sensible about sanitising and we even did our own dishes with hot, soapy water - what a team.  

Who knew that learning could be delicious?

Week 6 Term 1 2022

We have had a lovely start to this year and have been really proud of the way that our Year 4 CREW is coming together as a supportive team. We have been focussing on our CREW values and are working hard to show these everyday. This year we have decided to award special certificates to children who have really exemplified our CREW values during the week.  In the first couple of weeks our focus was on courage. Tristen, Kennedy, Ariana and Grace were awarded our courage awards in a special team awards assembly a couple of weeks ago. Last week James A and Carwyn received respect awards. We are on the lookout for two more people who model respect for this week's awards. We are looking especially for people who use kind and encouraging words. 

This Weeks Learning

Literacy: Procedural writing. We are looking at how instructions/procedures are written and the kinds of words used to give instructions. At home you could use a recipe to cook together, check the instructions for your favourite game or write the rules for a game that you make up together.

Numeracy: We are continuing to build our knowledge of place value. We will also look at how we can collect, sort, display and analyse information (statistics).

Religious Education: WALHT make good decisions and identify times that we can choose to be Holy and good. This is a nice little tie to our work around our CREW values, too.

Swimming again this week

Mon: Library

Tues:

Wed:

Thurs: Roller skating at lunchtime

Fri: Young Vinnies mufti day

For Your Information

Swimming Sports

Unfortunately, swimming sports have had to be postponed. A big thanks to everyone who filled in the info form and those who volunteered their help. We’ll be in touch when a postponement date has been organised.

Young Vinnies 

On Friday, students can wear the colours of the Ukraine flag (blue and yellow) or their national flower, the sunflower, to show our support for the people of Ukraine.  Gold coin donation please. 

Covid Update

Thanks everyone for being so supportive and patient with us. PLEASE, let us know if you get a positive result in your home - we have guidelines that we must follow AND we'd like to be able to check in and make sure that you're ok.

****Extension to COVID-19 hardship assistance for whānau****

The Government has extended the increased income limits for hardship assistance until Thursday 30 June. This means more casual or part-time workers, or people who aren’t already getting financial support, will continue to be eligible for help with their immediate or emergency costs. This is especially important for those who need direct help as part of the COVID-19 welfare response.

People new to MSD can check these links to see the new income limits:

Special Needs Grant – includes Essential costs like food, bedding, health travel costs, driver licence; Emergency costs like dental and medical treatments.

Recoverable Assistance Payment

Advance Payment of Benefit then click on our Check what you might get guide.

Swimming!

 Swimming finally started today.  We had a great time.  We had to kick on our tummy then roll onto our backs. We kicked on our tummy and then rolled onto our sides. We swam in lots of different ways. Henk thinks that we are even better than the Year 5/6 classes!  We can't wait until tomorrow.  

Thank you to Iquita, Lilly-Maye and Oscar for their photographic work.