What a wonderul week!

Week 5 has been and gone in a blur of first aid courses for Mrs H and three way interviews with all the wonderful children of Room 7, and their parents and whanau.

We have been focusing on being happy and have begun a challenge of identifying 100 things that are good/happy about being in Room 7 and in Year 4 and 5. We have had so many good ideas from the children. Lets see if we can crack 30 by the end of next week room 7?

I was so proud of all the children who presented to their families during our goal setting/three way interview conferences. You were courteous, polite, focused and explained your goals to your families with confidence and enthusiasm.  It was great to see so many parents/whanau, especially during such a horrible night on Thursday with hail, rain and nearly snow! Please come and visit us in room 7 whenever you can, the children love sharing their learning with you.

We have started a new writing topic in room 7 this week. We are learning how to write descriptively in order to paint a picture in the minds of our readers. We begun this week with a scenic picture of a lake in the wilderness. We discussed in pairs what we saw and how we would feel if we were in the picture. The children then completed a quick 4 line poem based on the image. The results were amazing. I will be publishing some next week so watch this space.

Singing has become a regular part of our weekly time-table in room 7. We have learnt songs from One Republic, Frozen, Keane and Imagine Dragon and this week we went back into the past and sung one of my personal favourites by Louie Armstrong - What a wonderful world. 

Please enjoy the link below and have a super week! Keep smiling!

What a wonderful world!

Wow, where did week 4 go?

The term seems to be flying by and we have had another action packed week in Room 7. We have swum, reflected on goals, watched impressive hail storms and completed a maths challenge.

The swimming sports on Thursday was amazing! All the children gave 100% in their individual races and supported each other as well. We also participated in swim safety, wearing life-jackets, and had a go at synchronised swimming.

The starfish challenge!

The end of a stunning sequence of underwater moves!

We have also been preparing for our 3 way interviews next week and reflecting on the goals we set last term. We  have set new goals to share with our parents/whanau and have been practising what we will say with our buddies.

What a hail storm we experienced on Thursday afternoon! The class came to a stand still as the hail pelted Normandale School. The children were excited and all hoped it would snow.

We have been following the maths week survivor series in Room 7 this week. Each day we were faced with 10 maths questions (in the flavour of the amazing race) and then given a golden letter. The aim was to collect 5 golden letters by the end of the week and figure out what the word spelt. This has been an exciting way to do maths, and the children have enjoyed the challenge.

Please check out the website as it has lots of fun and exciting games for the children to play.
Maths week website

Have a great weekend everyone, keep smiling and I look forward to sharing some of the super work your children have been doing with you at interviews next week.

Swimming and Sandpits

Week 3 was a busy week in Room 7. We started our winter swimming programme with a lot of excitement. The children have been awesome at remembering their togs and towel each day, and have been great role models to the junior classes we are going to the pool with. Our swimming skills are improving a lot.

Keen to get in the water on the first day!

A bit of water polo training.

We enjoyed 'Peace Week' and learning how to make paper cranes, and then passing on our knowledge to the juniors in our Whanau groups on Friday. In Room 7 we discussed each day what peace meant to us and lots of the children had questions about war and what was happening in other countries. I set the children a challenge of getting 10 smiles, by smiling at 10 people who were not in Room 7. I don't think the bus driver (who was taking us to the pool for swimming) had seen so many smiling faces before, eager to add to their smile tally for the day.

Our wonderful new sandpit area and landrover, was officially opened this week as well. A HUGE thank you to all the wonderful parents and helpers who gave up so much of their own time to make such an awesome area, for our Normandale School kids to play on/in. We LOVE it!
Have a great week everyone and remember to keep smiling!

Penguins and positive thinking!

We have had another action-packed week in Room 7. Our focus this week is remembering to keep positive.

Writing this week has been based on factual reports. During our zoo visit last week we got a chance to hear about the penguins. Two of these birds had been rescued by the zoo, due to injury, and the children were fascinated to hear how we could help these little helpless animals.  We learnt from the zoo keepers that looking after our environment, picking up rubbish, keeping it out of the sea, using sustainable, recyclable materials can all help.

So back at school this week we watched a video about some more penguins and learnt even more information about them. Please check out the link below to watch more about penguins:

Penguin clip

Room 7 would love you to hear their wonderful writing so parents/whanau and caregivers please feel free to drop by our class sometime and come and read them.

Here are a couple of us sharing our penguin reports in assembly.

Have a great weekend everyone!