The week that was..

Our final week of rehearsals. We spent a lot of time in the hall working on transitions, getting props on and off stage, trying to get the children to face in the correct direction when speaking their lines etc. I think we are getting there. Come this time next week, it will all be over. I do hope you will all get the chance to come in and see it. If you intend to see it on Thursday evening, please note that tickets are selling quickly for this session.. go and see Carlene if you haven't bought yours yet. There are a lot more available seats for the Wednesday afternoon show.



What else..
The children also spent time working on their inquiry questions and started putting together their display boards for the Science expo. Once Production is over, we will only have a week to get this organised!

In Maths (yes, we did a little), we recapped some of the work we'd done on ordering fractions by working out the lowest common denominator - remember to always check to see if your children are retaining/understanding what we cover in class. We sadly, didn't have enough children or any real time to do any Strand work. I hope to do that this week. With ski champs, holidays and flu, we averaged 23 children out of 30 each day last week. It has made Production planning this year VERY stressful and I do have concerns that the performance may appear a tad shoddy this year because of this. Hopefully, we will have a full roll for the next couple of days, so that everyone knows what we are doing / what they are doing... we shall see :-)

IMPORTANT. Today is the last day of voting in the Vector competition. Please make sure you vote, so that Meadowbank wins! It's a close race.

www.vectorfutureofenergy.co.nz 


Other news..

Finn Rimmer was up from Christchurch and so came to see us on Thursday. He joined in with a game of scatterball and told the children all about life in Christchurch. Here's a video he made with his new classmates..

3 ferrets... 

Production rehearsals in full swing in the hall... awesome 'fun' trying to hear the children over the drilling and hammering of the builders..

Jordayne transformed into his future self..

The new entrants popped in on Friday to sell us daffodils..

And finally, Henry joined us in class all the way from Canada, courtesy of Augie's ipad..

Reminder:
Zones cross country is this Tuesday. If your child has made the team, please ensure they have a good sleep Monday night and do not skip breakfast on Tuesday morning.

The week that was...

Well in a nutshell... 3 Maths lessons, 1 winter field day, speech finals and the rest of the time was spent working on Production!

There is just one thing to note in terms of Maths. Just check that your children have a full understanding of decimals in terms of 10ths and 100ths.

For instance, ask them how many 10ths would be in the number 6.3. Then ask them to explain how they know that. If any of them say.. 'well, you just take the decimal point away', that is NOT showing a clear understanding. Then ask them how many 10ths are in the number 6.03.. that should really throw the proverbial cat amongst the decimal pigeons! As I say, we only had 3 Maths lessons. However, I thought a lack of real understanding was thrown up with this type of questioning.



They can use this to help with their explanations..



Moving swiftly on..

Ben and Taylor represented Room 26 in the speech finals. Sadly, neither of them made the podium. I asked one of the judges for some feedback and she said that she had trouble hearing them.. now I only mention this because of Production. I have whinged a fair bit over the year about how noisy Room 26 is. Ironically, just about all of them, once they get on stage, become VERY quiet. So when they are rehearsing their lines at home can you please get them to shout them at you and to enunciate every word.. remind them to always face the audience and emphasise that there really isn't much point learning lines if nobody can hear them! I thank you :-)



This week we have 5 days' worth of full year 6 hall practices. I am hoping we shall have some Production downtime when we shall be doing some Maths strand work.

NB. There is optional homework this week as too many children still do not know their lines. Please make this the priority.

Important: please ensure you get your tickets early as the Thursday night show will probably sell out.

BTW. apart from the lack of volume, the children are working really well on Production, they have thrown some excellent ideas into the mix and it could well be our BEST PRODUCTION EVER!

The week that was...

Well it dawned on me that we only have 2 weeks and then it's Production, so by Wednesday this week, I was starting to panic!

So on Monday and Tuesday we finished off speeches and then we started our rehearsals. The first run through of our 18 minute play took 1 hour and 20 minutes!!!! By Friday, it was down to 18 minutes and 20 seconds.. though this is without our big song and dance number.. so this weekend I will be shaving a few of the more boring lines off the script. For homework this week, I'd like the children to focus on learning their lines and on delivering them with a bit of oomph!

On Tuesday, the Talooma College Band from Tasmania visited our school and delivered an outstanding performance. I have a couple of snippets here. There was so much talent on display.

So as you can imagine, with speeches, the Talooma band and our Prod rehearsals, there was not a great deal of time for the usual learning. However, all of these other experiences are all aspects of learning that should be valued just as highly as Maths, Reading and Writing.

Going forward, over the next 2 weeks, we shall still be doing Maths every day and Writing at least 3 times a week. However, the rest of the time in class will be devoted to Production preparation.. rehearsals + prop design and creation.

This week, we finished our work on finding the lowest common denominator to order fractions and finished our work on speeches. The children voted for the 2 finalists.. however, the decision is still pending as Kate was off sick and she has yet to deliver her final version. Speech finals are on Thursday afternoon in the hall.

 The rehearsals begin...

Remember
Tuesday: Winter Sports Day: if your child is going, please ensure they have all the required kit with them.

The week that was..

It started out with a roar and a hiss as the school x-country took place down at College Rifles. We were lucky with the weather and were also lucky enough to witness some superb running performances. Here are some snaps...

 

In Maths, we looked at adding and subtracting fractions with different denominators. Ask your child to explain how this is done. Remember, if they practise at home they are more likely to remember it.

In Writing, we continued work on speeches. This is the final week on this. Once they are done and dusted, we will be able to move on with our Production rehearsals.

In Reading, as well as the usual comprehension work, the children also began researching Space in terms of working out what aspect of Space they would like to focus on for their inquiries.

The week ended on a sad note as we bade farewell to Henry. The lucky boy is off to Canada; his sense of humour, great smile and sporting brilliance will be missed. On the up side, we are back to a mere 30 children in Room 26 :-)

The goodbye song..

Swamped by admirers...

Henry's final brain break - he requested skipping relays...

Roll on week 4 :-) BTW. running club starts again tomorrow morning at 7.30am.

Vector Voting.. use this link.. Vector Competition

The week that was...

In Maths, we continued our work on addition and subtraction using algorithms. Next week, we shall be looking at adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators. NB. if you are looking at algorithms with your children at home, please use place value language.
eg.

  245
- 157

What I mean is, instead of saying 'borrow 1 from the column over here', say 'borrow a 10 from the 10s column, which leaves 3 tens, so now in the ones column we have 10+5 which equals 15; so 15 - 7 etc.

In Writing, we continued to plough on with speeches. Please help them at home this week - let them practise in front of you and ensure they have facts to back up what they are saying.

Production Help request :-) As we are doing a scene from 1915, please let me know if you have any props we can borrow.. eg. Union Jack flag, King George V portrait, a cane, blackboard, costumes etc.)



Cyber-safety and digital footprint: Anna Taylor took 3 sessions with the children on this and covered a lot. The internet can be a dangerous place, especially for the naive user. Please watch the following with your child and discuss:

And finally...

We ended the week with a quick game of octopus before Assembly...

Remember: x-country is on Monday. It is vital that the children have a decent breakfast, pack a rain jacket (just in case) and have food and water with them to take down to College Rifles. The Year 6s will start racing at around 10.40am. If you want to watch your future Olympian in action, please come on down by 10.30am.