And finally...

I hear the end of year freight train rumbling our way! 3.5 days to go. Unbelievable.

Last week was an exhausting, yet immensely satisfying week. I hope the children enjoyed it; there was a lot of stress (on our part) trying to get everything organised and ready.. As per usual, the children stepped up their game both on the night of graduation and for their final assembly. Awesome.

Apart from rehearsing, here are a few snaps of what we got up to. Sadly, my phone had no power on Friday arvo and so I have no snaps of the assembly. Hopefully, most of you saw it. Room 25's synchronised 'swimming' was hilarious.

The school saying goodbye to Mrs Elmore..

The Teachers continuing the goodbyes after school in mosquito gully..

Some of Room 26 helping to lead the Sports Assembly cricket dance!

A few of the girls on the night of the big dance..



Finishing off the mural.. do come in and see it if you haven't yet had the chance.. a lasting legacy to this year's Year 6.

Polly - our extraordinary artist overseeing the hand painting..

Reminders

Reports are coming home after school on Monday.

Prize Giving is on Tuesday morning - from 9.15 in the Hall.

School Ends at 1.30pm on Thursday.

And finally..

Thank you parents for all of your assistance and support throughout the year. Many of the things the children experience would simply not happen without your help. Hopefully, I shall get to see most of you on the final day for a final goodbye. For those that I don't get to see, I'd like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Have a wonderful break with your children; they really are a lovely bunch of kids! :-) 

The week that was...

Well, only 9 days of school left. Mixed emotions all round.. sadness that everyone is leaving, coupled with the excitement of new adventures to come..

So in class, as things were getting rather manic, I changed the desk setup so that everyone is once again facing towards the front. The hope being that the children can retain some level of focus during the excitement of the final days. We are keeping the writing going by focusing on completing 'The Dare' short stories.

In Maths, we focused on using algorithms for multiplication: 

eg. 23

x    21

I know a lot of you would have learned this 'strategy' when you were at school, so feel free to please assist your children with it. Next week, we'll apply this approach to decimals.

I think for the next couple of weeks the emphasis will be on using up excess energy through lots of PE, completing outstanding Maths and Writing work and keeping the Reading going with more fun activities such as Plays.

We had a fair few things going on last week. I took a few snaps and have included some blurb. See below...

On Monday, the non-native speakers of Mandarin took part in the Mandarin speech finals. For Room 26, we had Jessica..

Kate..

And Sophie..

None of them won, but they all sounded fabulous.. not that I understood a word :-(

On Tuesday, we had a financial literacy session with the lady from the ASB - making maths real :-). Ask your children about the wonders of putting their money in the bank and earning interest.. what kind of car would they save for?

On Tuesday afternoon the rain set in and so for P.E. Miss Von Detten organised a yoga session in the hall. 

On Thursday, Room 26 took on year 4's Room 27 at a game of 'Topperball'. A game that Mr Topp invented.. we won!

The House Captains up on the stage at Assembly - the winning house from all of the Spirit Days were awarded the Spirit Day House Cup. 

PS. I heard that Santa visited the school assembly and was awesome. Sadly, I missed his appearance as I had a prior engagement.

Looking forward to catching up with as many of you as possible at the Year 6 Graduation this week. Have a great week!

The week that was...

Well the week started in style - with Monday off! A day in lieu for the couple of hours we had to spend at school on the Saturday of the centenary celebration - Principal Ayson is a good man :-)

With Waterwise on Friday - that meant 3 days in the classroom!

On Tuesday, about 13 of the class were out at the cricket tournament. Meadowbank's Team A and Team B made the final; Team A ending up victorious.. 2 of the happy medal winners below:

For those lucky few that remained in class, we had a fun game of 'Sock' - the children invented the game - it's actually really good; ask them to explain it to you if you are curious..

We then did some 'hands-on' Maths out in the playground, The children had to prove the formula for calculating the circumference of a circle (ie. C='pi' x D). Firstly, they measured the diameter and then used the formula. Then they used a tape measure to measure the circumference and then compared that with the answer they had from using the formula. I thought this exercise would help them remember the formula + make the learning more fun.

In Reading, the children rehearsed and then performed plays in the classroom:

On Wednesday, we had a few children missing as they were out at Zones Athletics. We had a relatively normal day in class. In Maths, we continued practising with protractors, measuring angles. In Writing, the children continued work on 'The Dare' and in Reading, the children had the opportunity to finish off any work that was not yet complete.

On Thursday, we (finally) had a full class. I had my appraisal in the morning and so Anna Taylor stood in. Anna taught the children how to enhance their google presentations by adding videos and sound. 

In Writing, 'The Dare' work continued. In Grammar, we looked at contractions and apostrophes of ownership for the umpteenth time. The children, on the whole, get contractions. However, struggle with ownership apostrophes, especially with plurals...

eg. The horses' tails.

The horses are in the field. (trick sentence!)

In the second sentence, some children still cannot understand that as a verb follows the noun there is no concept of ownership in that sentence. Yet, they still throw in an apostrophe on the off-chance they may be correct. Perhaps, you could have a go at explaining at home :-)

As an aside... also, remind them ALOT is NOT a single word, but 2 words: A LOT. I thank you.

Here we have our cricketers, and then Athletes telling us what happened on their days out:

Thursday evening was the Cultural Picnic. A great success, despite the fact it felt like we were having it on the surface of the sun! Many thanks to those of you who came and offered your support. Check out the 'arty' snap... is there no beginning to my talent ;-)

We ended the week on a high, with perfect conditions for Waterwise. Hurrah.

And finally, here's the art the children worked on last week - we had quite the glitter fest going on on Wednesday when they finished it off!

Reminders:
All Library books have to back to the library this week for stocktaking purposes. Please ensure your child remembers to bring in their book(s).

Tomorrow in the hall we have the non-native speaker Mandarin Speech finalists giving their speeches. This starts at 1.30pm. If you have a child giving a speech, then please do come along if you can.

The week that was..

Well, I have just read the homework books of about 20 children and I am in awe of the quality of the writing. The improvement over the course of the year has been outstanding and I would like to thank the children who have taken ownership of their learning and worked so hard on improving their work. Well done to you and well done to your parents for keeping you on track.

Week 6 began with a wet day at Rainbow's End for the Road Patrollers and Librarians. Despite the fact that it was the wettest day we'd had for weeks, the children still had a blast. Many thanks to all of you parent helpers who valiantly looked after your groups in the incessant rain! I was designated official bag man and enjoyed the quality, peaceful time with the bags, where I remained relatively dry :-)

On Tuesday, we only has 8 children in the class as the rest were out working at the junior Athletics Day. Sadly, the year 6 role models did not all behave as such and we heard a fair amount of negative feedback about their behaviour at the event.. a real shame :-(

On a happier note, throughout the week, the children from year 6 took turns working on the mural that will adorn the back wall of the courts outside the library. In effect, the children will be leaving behind a lasting reminder of their time in Year 6.

Parent helper - steady on.. leave some painting for the children!

In Maths this week, the children learned how to use a protractor to measure angles and created the classic 4 types of triangle: right angled, equilateral, scalene and isosceles... see if you child can explain the attributes of these..

We also looked at 'pi' (3.14 etc..) and how to use it to calculate the circumference and the area of a circle. Again, chat about this with your child to see how much has sunk in.. we have only just started but it would be worth googling this with your child if you'd like to further your discussion.

In Writing, the children started planning work on a lengthy narrative called 'The Dare'.. the idea behind this is that the children will end up with a mini novella style story that they will then publish and place in our class library for other children to enjoy.

We had no time for any formal reading lessons this week, however, the children continued their inquiry research and all put together slides for a google slides presentation as part of our inquiry work. The final presentations were quite impressive. NZ intermediate and high schools are embracing google docs and so all google doc type skills the children learn at primary will stand them in good stead  for their future education.

Unfortunately, it was too windy for Waterwise on Friday and so we had an art day. I shall display the fruits of the children's labour next week.

Reminder: we have the Cultural Picnic on Thursday evening. I look forward to catching up with as many as possible of you there.