Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Week 9 Update

Kia Ora Whanau

I hope you all had a restful Easter break.

We have achieved 4 Top 50 finishes in the Country for Mathletics in a row!  An absolutely amazing achievement.  Thank you for encouraging your child.

We also received the Walk/Wheel trophy for the first time this week.  Thank you for dropping your child off a few 100 metres from school as this will continue to develop the importance of being physically active.

The Cross Country is less than 2 weeks away.  Year 6 Boys will race first at 1.15pm on Wednesday 13 April.  We have had two good training runs and we will run the full course as a practise run next week.

We have enjoyed our mixed ability maths groups on Thursdays.  We will continue that for the rest of the term.  If it continues to work well I may move to 2 days of mixed ability groups per week.

We are investigating how we learn and what is the best way we learn.  There is some really interesting stuff coming from the children.  Good round the dinner table discussion!

Our Inquiry for Term 2 is 'The Secret Lives of Living Things'.  This is going to be heaps of fun and I know there will be lots of learning taking place.

Have a great weekend
Nga mihi
Nigel

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Week 8 Update

Kia Ora Whanau

Amazing that Easter is upon us!  It feels like just yesterday that we were at Camp!  It has been a very busy week:-

Achievements:
1.  The highlight of the week was Assembly which the class ran extremely professionally.  The MC's were Anu, Natasha and Neha while we also did a short play.  The actors were Conner, Kanye, Sylvia, Hillary, Gracie, Fauzia, Sarah, Lily, Imogen and Charlotte.
2.  We ran the Cross Country Course for the first time.
3.  Most students are getting close to finishing their Pirate Stories
4.  We wrote some awesome limericks

'There was was a truck
Which was loaded with muck
It wanted to tip
But couldn't quite flip
and ended up with hard luck'
Gracie

'There once was a girl called Butterbuys
She was always catching flys
And she loved to eat butter
but she didn't like to flutter
and she cries buy butterflies'
Nancye

5.  Sadly we had our last swim of the season, however it has been a great summer for the pool.
6.  We made some very creative leaves with Mrs Knowles.  These leaves will compliment our painted leaves and will go up on our Tree-ty.
7.  Our music with Mrs Robson was a great experience.  Mrs Robson will definitely be back in Room 1 to provide some more music guidance in term 2.
8.  We achieved a hat-trick of Top 50 places in the Mathletics programme.  I'm very proud of the class for this collective achievement.

Next week:
1.  We will complete our pirate stories
2.  We will begin to lift the intensity of the training towards the School Cross Country.  The official race takes place on Wednesday 13 April.
3.  We will complete our painted leaves and take the pictures of the 'branches'.

Homework:
Please could you keep checking in with your child that they are doing their 40 minutes a week on Mathletics.  Children must also read at least 4 times a week.

Have a relaxing and enjoyable long Easter weekend with your family.  I look forward to seeing all the wonderful children of Room 1 again on Wednesday.

Kia kaha
Nigel

Thursday, March 17, 2016

No swimming on Tuesday

Kia Ora Whanau

The students will be doing an e-asttle reading test on Tuesday afternoon next week when we normally have swimming.  We will do some PE during the day but we will not swim.

Our final swimming session for the term will be Thursday 24 March.

Have a great weekend

Regards
Nigel


Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Week 7 Update

Kia ora Whanau

Happenings in Room 1
1. The maths groups are working well.  We are experimenting with 3 stations each maths lesson this week.  Next week we will have 2 stations each day.  I will then review and see what best suits our children.  Advantage of having 3 means I see all my groups every day.  The advantages of 2 are a) less transition time and b) when with the teacher the children will have more time which will allow more in-depth conversations.
2.  We did some great art today.  I have posted some pictures.  The leaves will form part of our Tree-ty.  The students will be the branches and the trunk of the tree will contain the 2 or 3 things which we as Room 1 will value most highly.
3.  Our pirate stories are really taking shape.  We will publish them next week.
4.  What would St Patricks Day be without a Limerick!  We have learnt about limericks, read a number of them and have had a go at writing some ourselves.
5.  The Swan reading group are rehearsing a play as their reading activity at the moment.
6.  Mathletics continues to be enjoyed.  We are currently in 33rd spot in the Country.  If we can hold onto a Top 50 place for week 7 then we will have achieved a hat-trick!  Mr Marsh is very proud of Room 1.
7.  Our ESOL programme is in full swing.  We are very grateful to the wonderful work our ESOL department do.

What's about to happen
1.  We are very excited about Mrs Robson coming into Room 1 on Monday 21 March.  We will break a little from our normal programme and have some focussed instruction on music.
2.  Next week is our final week for swimming.  After Easter we will do PE on a Tuesday afternoon from 2.15pm.  This will be a mix of skills and modified 'invasion' games.  On Friday afternoons we will get into our winter sport.  It's great to see a number of our children sign up for the Future Ferns programme.
3.  Once we are finished writing about pirates we will write about 'teams'.  This is linked to our Inquiry.
4.  I will post a couple of our limericks

I'm running the City to Surf on Sunday so I won't be taking part in Cross-Country practise on Monday...!

Nga mihi
Nigel


Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Week 6 Update

Kia Ora Whanau

Recent Highlights:
1.  We finished 42nd in the country in the Mathletics programme for Week 5
2.  We are currently in 20th position for this week
3.  Ngoc Le was our first student to receive a Gold Mathletics certificate
4.  Nicky Coles (Olmypic Ambassador) presented her inspirational story to us.  She spoke about resilience and being committed to achieve your goal.
5.  The Smile Couch was a fun initiative
6.  Kahoot's and Storybird were used in the class for the first time this year.  (Please ask your child to tell you about these online programmes)

Maths Groups
After two lessons this week I made a minor tweak to the Maths Groups.  We are now divided into 5 Maths Groups.  One group goes to Mr Barnes, one group goes to Marilyn Hore and I teach the other 3 groups.  Jo Le Gros is in the class from 9am - 9.25am each morning and she will provide teaching assistance.

Important dates:
1.  Thursday 24 March is our last day of swimming.  Thank you for sending your child to school with their togs each Tuesday and Thursday.
2.  School will be closed on Tuesday 29 March (as well as Good Friday and Easter Monday)

Class Focus
Maths - Place value
Writing - We are writing a pirate story
Reading - Reading groups are reading from the School Journals and are doing related reading activities
Inquiry - 'What makes a good team?'

Have a great weekend

Nga mihi
Nigel Marsh

Room 1 Teacher



Friday, March 4, 2016

Winding up Pudding Hill Camp


The students all wrote a thank you letter to Aaron, the organiser at the Camp, and also to the parents who gave them a lift to the Camp.  As a final summary of Camp the students did a PMI.  They also put forward solutions to the the items that they listed in the minus column.