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