Term 2

We have started Term 2 with lots of exciting things in room 14. Our Cultural celebration is taking place next week on Thursday 19 May. Awa syndicate is focussing on the ways different cultures celebrate Birthdays. In room 14 we have been busy making invitations. other classes are working on games, songs and activities to do with the ways different cultures recognise and celebrate birthdays.

Writing:

As part of our regular focus on writing we are celebrating Deklan's top quality writing this week. Deklan's story about thunder and lightning was recognised by Mrs Gulbransen as being top quality work. His story is below

"When there is thunder and lightning I go to my mums room and get in her bed! I pull the covers up. Once I got scared and after a little while I looked out the window and then boom boom went the lightning. It was dark outside and in my room. I went downstairs to get a torch and when I had the torch I went back up the stairs and got back in my bed and turned the torch on. Then my dad came in and told me it's ok and then he got in bed with me and then he told me a story. A spooky story. I wasn't scared anymore. The end. "

Maths : 

We are focussing on geometry and skip counting in 2's 5's and 10's. To support at home it would be great if you could count with your child in 2's, 5's and 10's to support the learning the they are doing at school. With geometry get them to identify geometric shapes they come across in everyday life. Get them to describe the shape telling you about it.

Farewell Orien

On the last day of term we had the sad task of farewelling Orien. The students each made a card for Orien and we had a shared morning tea to say goodbye.

To say goodbye to the class Orien gave us a book about Dinosaurs which he then read to the class. Orien we wish you all the best with your new school.

Winding up the term

Wow hard to believe we are almost at the end of the term.
Two weeks ago we had the Life Education Bus and the students learnt about feelings and managing emotions. We had some amazing discussions in class about feelings and being open to experiencing all emotions.
Below are some of the creations the students made following our unit.

Wow Writing:

This week was school photos. The staff dressed up as either librarians or caretakers to honour our caretaker and librarian who are both retiring. I wore my caretakers outfit back to class and the students had to write about what I was wearing and think about why I was dressed the way I was.  Here is some of the great writing produced.

Deklan: Mr Sawyer is wearing overalls and earmuffs and he was wearing them at morning tea. Then he came back from the office with them on and now I am going to tell you a simile about what Mr Sawyer is wearing. His overalls are orange like an orange and blue like the sky.

Lachlan: It all started when we walked int he class. Mr Sawyer was wearing overalls! He wore earmuffs too. I think he was wearing the earmuffs because he was digging some more dirt from the hole and because it makes scraping noises.

Liam Hall: Today Mr Sawyer came back to class wearing overalls. My teacher was a wee bit funny, The overalls had blue and orange. I like him because he has funny earmuffs on. The t-shirt is orange and the pants are blue. He might be wearing overalls because he might be building a motel.

Chris: Hello my name is Chris. After morning tea time Mr Sawyer dressed up as a worker. Those are called overalls. the colour of the overalls is orange like a tiger, the pants colour is blue like our classrooms jelly bean table's chair. I think Mr Sawyer looks dapper, Mr Sawyer has ear muffs on too. the colour of the ear muffs is orange like a sun flower petal. Mr Sawyer was dapper and fancy. The end.

Reading in room 14 and Milo

Reading:

As part of our daily reading programme students are encouraged to look at different aspects of reading including their reading voice. This means they need to be able to read fluently, use expression and read the punctuation. One of the most popular activities is performing plays to class mates. Here is one of the reading groups performing a play about a Dragon

Introducing Milo

Milo is our class puppet. He often makes an appearance at writing time, sharing his own writing. Sometimes the students will help Milo when he struggles with aspects of writing they too are working on. Milo also loves being read to 

Oral Language

Our class oral language programme is continuing. Here is Harry presenting a video of his time in the UK and Takoda presenting on Horses

Swimming, Oral language and Parachutes

Swimming

As the long summer has continued we have really been enjoying our daily swimming. The lessons from the students from Nayland College have seen considerable improvements in both the confidence and the ability of the students in the water.

Oral Language

This term I have encouraged each student to prepare a presentation to the class on something about themselves. It could be about the students family, a pet, a skill...

Here are photos showing fantastic presentations from Phoebe and Diego. 

Our focus with the presentations is on the presenter having good eye contact with the audience, a clear speaking voice and interesting content. For the audience we are focussing on good listening skills and questioning.

Parachutes

One of the reading groups last week read an instructional text on how to make a parachute. Given the high level of interest in the topic we decided as a group to share the text with the class. Today we read through the instructions and then proceeded to make the parachutes. The students will, be bringing these home to share with you the process involved in making them. Here we are making and flying our parachutes.

Week 3

It was great to meet a number of parents last Thursday at our meet the teacher evening. For those parents unable to make it please feel free to pop into class before or after school any day. I would welcome the opportunity to speak with you regarding your child's learning.

This week we are excited to start our swimming programme with Nayland College. We will be at the Nayland Pool 2x a week and in our own school pool on the other day. With a ration of at least 1 senior PE student to each child in or class we expect great progress with swimming over the next few weeks.

We have also started our "No child left inside" programme with Nicole. This programme will offer fundamental sports skills . This week we are looking at throwing.

Here are a few photos showing the students in the pool, practicing their throwing and Jack sharing cupcakes on his birthday.

Welcome to room 14 2016

A big welcome to students and parents in room 14 and their extended families.
this Blog will continue to operate as a way in which you can keep in touch with learning taking place in the classroom, receive notices and see what we have been up to.

Here are some photos from day 1. Today the students were getting to know each other. We met our buddy class (Room 4 in the senior school) and went swimming.