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.