Friday 17 May 2013

Chinese Performers

Today we watched a performance of some Chinese martial art students and their teachers.
The youngest student was 15 years old and she was amazing. She used a great big long stick which made a loud bang on the floor. She also did a fan martial art dance.

We loved the musicians who played beautifully and really fast. We liked the bamboo flute played by Mr Wong. Some of the students acted as the animal characters from Kung Fu Panda and we had to guess which animal they were.

There were also Tai Chi and Kung Fu performances. It was very interesting that the master who could lift his body off the ground and swing a long chain underneath is one of the few people in the world who can do that.

By Room 4

Thursday 16 May 2013

Memory Boxes & Magazines

Room 4 students need to have a shoe box or other lidded box of similiar size ready for week 3.

If anyone has any magazines that you have finished with, we would appreciate some for classroom activities.

Thanks.

Joanne

The New Building Opening

Today the school had a ceremony for the opening of the new building. There were two dances. One of them was a Tibetan Chinese Dance and one was a Building Dance. We liked the costumes of the Chinese dancers and thought the dance was beautiful. Ella R's sister was in the building dance and we thought the hip hop dancer was very cool. We liked that there were lots of different costumes.

The mayor of Auckland, Len Brown was here and some of us got to shake his hand or give him a high five!

Three girls got to help cut the ribbon to officially open the new building.

Mr Cain ("the school boss", said Lukas) gave a speech.

By Room 4 children







Thursday 9 May 2013

Term 2 welcome

Dear Parents and Carers of room 4 students, I am thrilled to start working here and have enjoyed starting to get to know your children. Thank you to the parents that have had a chance to come and say hi. Room 4 have already settled in very well to the start of a new term with a new teacher and a few changes to the routine. My hope is that you will hear from your children that they are doing a lot of peer discussions and getting excited about reading and maths. They may bring a book in from home to read during silent reading time if they wish. This term we are continuing the Treasuring topic and will be working on creating our Memory Boxes.

At this early stage of the term I am introducing new activities to the class to support their learning for literacy and numeracy. I am also spending time hearing them read, talking to the about their writing and finding out their talents, interests and setting goals.

Homework: Reading books will be going home every day plus a poem every Friday. Next week (week 2) we will be starting a new spelling programme.

Our term class goals are: To learn all of our addition and subtraction basic facts (instant recall) up to 20. To attempt tricky words in writing by breaking the words into chunks. To learn the important words for writing (lists will be going home for homework to learn).

Reminders: *** I apologise - I had put the wrong date originally for Wheels day! Monday 13th May – wheels day for Years 1-2. Bring a bike or scooter and leave resting against the classroom on the deck area.

My email is joannew@parnell.school.nz if there is anything you need to let me know or would like to ask.

If you have any of these items you no longer need (that are still in great condition) and would be happy to donate them to Room 4, we would be very grateful: • Large cushions or bean bag for our reading corner • Low children’s stools for a quiet work table

Kind regards, Joanne Whitney