Welcome to Room 26: The 1st week back that was..

A difficult first couple of days for both myself and the children in terms of getting our heads back into school work mode... the hardest thing about teaching and being taught (I suppose) is the roller coaster nature of it.. i.e. full on busy, busy, busy and then total relaxation and then full on again... I'm sure you all feel VERY sorry for us.. I can picture you all tearing up at the thought of how tough life is for everyone in education.. :-)

This week we had 3 days in which we looked at aspects of life in the 1920s, 1950s and 1970s, as part of our build up to the centenary celebrations.. though we ran out of time to look at anything much from the 70s... do me a favour and ask your child if they can tell you when the Auckland Harbour Bridge was first opened, how much money was raised in tolls on the first day and how many men built it.

We were also lucky enough to hear a talk from John Maclean - Cooper's Uncle... see below.

In Writing, we continued some intensive work on explanation writing and in Maths, we focused on fractions to percentages and then on decimal subtraction revision.

I think this is a very useful clip, that explains the link between equivalent fractions and percentages:

I was horrified by the number of children who seem to have forgotten how to subtract decimals. See if your child can do this one with you:

11.8 - 8.79

We will continue revising the above next week.

This week is going to be another mixed bag as we have the Serpell children arriving and so have lots of events planned to make their visit to Meadowbank an exciting one. Fear not though, I shall still be shoe horning a spots of Maths, Writing and Reading revision in there somewhere.

Here are a few snaps taken with my brand new Samsung Galaxy S5.. :-)

Here's Augie telling us all about her exotic holiday in Vietnam..

Here are the children practising their 'javelin' technique as part of our athletics build up.

Here are the children during a running relays brain break with a twist.. your child can explain..

Here are the children having a go at 50s rock'n'roll dancing.

Here are the guitar group leaders teaching a te reo song to the guitarists who are going to Melbourne, so that they can perform it for the Australians.

Here is John Maclean giving his presentation on always trying your best and never giving up.

Here is probably one of the most inspirational moments I have ever witnessed.. John getting up out of his wheelchair to deliver the rest of his speech.

Here's John fielding questions from Room 26. Nathan Mansfield asked him if he had met his wife before or after he was injured; an excellent, unexpected question indeed! We were fortunate to have the extra time with John and it all happened because Cooper is in our class and John is Cooper's Uncle!

Here are the troops on centenary rehearsal day being addressed by Mr Ayson..