Sunday 29 October 2017

Week 3


Happy Halloween everyone! It was lovely to see so many of you having fun at the Halloween Disco on Friday night. Your costumes looked amazing!

On 7th November we are taking a trip. Our trip will take in two stops- the Honey Centre in Warkworth, and the Parry Kauri Museum and it's native forest walk. This trip supports our inquiry around sustainability. We will be learning about the importance of bees in maintaining the balance of our planet's ecosystems. We will take a walk thorough the native forest to appreciate the nature of NZ and try to identify some native trees to NZ. We will pop inside the museum to learn about how logging happened in the past. When we return to school we will compare it to the speed and methods used to clear forests around the world today. For this trip we will need 5 parent volunteers for our class if possible. Please let me know if you are available to come, and try to return the form as promptly as possible when it is sent out. If you have opted to pay as you go, payment can be made at the office. The final amount will be confirmed in the notice, but will be around $20. If you paid the activity fee at the start of the year, the cost is covered by the remaining amount in your account, so further payment should not be necessary at this stage.

Save the Date for the Year 1 Production- There will be two performances 6th Dec at 9:30am and 7th Dec at 2pm. We hope you can make one of the shows. Our theme is Christmas around the World.  M1 is partnering with B3 to bring you a taste of a Hawaiian Christmas- ALOHA!
Where possible we will try to provide costume items, but request that parents of boys dancers and ukelele players try to find a Hawaiian style shirt and combine it with a pair of summer shorts. Start asking friends or family now if you don't have one in your child's wardrobe.
Girls, please wear a plain bright coloured singlet top (no words on front if possible) and dark shorts/short for under their grass skirts. We will provide skirts and leis, but if you have a grass skirt or lei at home please send it/them in before we buy more to top up our collection).
A small number of children have asked to be palm trees- if that is your child they need brown/black pants and a long sleeve plain brown top (no writing if possible). At school we will add leaves to the top with safety pins- similar to the picture below. I will be in touch if your child's costume differs from the above listed items. If you know you will be absent for these dates, please let me know so we do not purchase items for your child. Thanks :)


Mufti Day Tuesday- no donation needed. Costumes can be worn if desired, but please no weapons!

Regulation school hats will be enforced from this week, so please ensure you child has the correct hat at school.

Whole School Assembly Friday
Hannah for Jo on Thursday

Have a great week!
Jo





Sunday 22 October 2017

Week 2

This week in M1 we are learning our songs and dances for the Year 1 Production later in the term. If you are creative and would like to help with costumes or props, please let me know. Your child can practise using the links below or on our Blendspace Page here:





We have been doing a lot of good thinking about Sustainability. Chloe gave us a wonderful introduction to Sustainability and got us thinking about things we can change in our lives to help the sustain the Earth's resources. Chloe has set our class a BIG goal of becoming single-use plastic free.  Hopefully your child has started talking to you about ways to cut down on packaging in their lunch boxes and the correct ways to dispose of plastic when you have it. We are going to be exploring this idea more in week 2. Our big questions are - What is worth saving? and What is my impact and how can I change my impact?

"Mo Mania" is growing in our classroom as we look deeper into the writing of Mo Willems and innovate on his book 'Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus.' We are going to be identifying the formula of the books and planning out the pages of our books this week. We have looked at generic persuasive statements (like 'I bet your Mum would let me'  and persuasive statements that are specific to the topic of the book ( My cousin Harry drives a bus everyday!). We have identified our own topics and come up with 5 of our own persuasive statements that are specific to our topics. The children had fun learning to draw the Pigeon in different positions to convey different emotions.


We are adding to our Passion Friday choices within our Vertical Learning Community this Term. The children will get to pick one of the following free choices to participate in from this week to week 6 . We will organise everything at school- no need for you to do anything :)
The choices are:
1. STEAM Activities - Science, technology, engineering, arts and maths activities involving creative problem solving
2. Chinese Culture and Basic Mandarin
3. Comic strip art
4. Minecraft & coding
5. Art- Visual interpretation
6. Recycled Art
7. Rippa / Tag Sport


Please remember to send your child with a regulation school hat. From Week 3 it is 'no hat- no play beyond shaded places'.




Sunday 15 October 2017

Tuning-in to Sustainability

Today we reflected on the beautiful things of our world. The children closed their eyes and thought about their favourite things in our world. Here is a video we made to share our ideas with you. Watch full screen.

Saturday 14 October 2017

Welcome Back to School!

Welcome back everyone. I hope you had a wonderful break and are returning to school well rested and excited to see your friends and teacher 😊.

Term 4 is always and exciting and busy term at school. Remember to keep checking the blog weekly to find out all the happenings for the week so as not to miss out on any of the fun. I post every Sunday night for the week ahead. Other calendar items can also be checked on the school website.

This term our focus is on Sustainability with our big question being- What's Worth Saving? There are lots of potential directions the children can take this in so stay tuned as we find out which are will interest the children most. Our very own resident eco-warrior Chloe has created a presentation for the children over the holidays to inspire them to action. I hope your family will support her initiative by taking up the Whanau Sustainability Challenge and making some small, but powerful changes to you can make in your home.

We hope to take a trip or possibly two this term depending on the direction our learning takes. More info will follow after the first week of school, once the children have had time to put their heads together and express their interest around this topic.

Here is an overview of our learning for the term: Click to enlarge

As the weather is improving and we anticipate being outside a lot more, please ensure your child has a hat (well named) and sunscreen available. 

This week in M1:
Thursday 19 Oct: The Great Shake Out Day- earthquake readiness drill & Hannah in for Jo 
Friday 20 Oct Full School Assembly and Jo out afternoon. More info re dismissal to come. 

NO SCHOOL MONDAY 23 OCT- Labour day