Newsletter Term 4

Hi all,

Welcome back to another busy term with athletics, possibly swimming and our Junior School Christmas Show all trying to fit into 10 weeks with the usual reading, writing, mathematics and topic. 

This term we have a real push with getting our letters the right shape and size.

We are also concentrating on writing at least 3 sentences in our recounts and we will be looking at instructional writing. This writing is about how to make or complete a task, i.e. making a sandwich, making toast, recipes.

Maths we are looking at learning how to read a clock to the hour and half hour. We will look at analogue and digital clocks.  Numbers see us focusing on adding and subtracting numbers to/from 10. Consolidating our knowledge of numbers to 20 and looking towards counting in 2s, 5s and 10s.

Reading will be about consolidating sight words, understanding ending such as 'ing, ed, er, s and es'. The children will be asked to talk about what happened in their book and what might happen, as well as answering questions about the characters and the main ideas in their books.

Topic/Art this term continues our theme of protecting our earth with reinventing, recycling, reusing and reducing. We have already discussed how to protect our earth with our main idea being to compost our foods and looking after our plants and animals. This term we are looking at reusing and reinventing objects.

We are going to try and use a 600ml coke bottle or similar and make four different types of flowers from that bottle. We are also going to try and make an aeroplane from another 600ml bottle. So if you have any spare bottles around please store them for our art project.

Dates to remember:

22 October         Labour Day (school closed)

26 October         Hi 5 Fruit, Fitness and Fun Day

8 November      Junior School Athletics Day @ 1.15pm  p/p 9 November @ 1.15pm

16 November    Show Day (school closed)

13 December    Junior School Christmas Show

19 December    Last Day of School (school closes at 12 noon)

The Bokashi Bucket

Last week we had Lesley Ottey from the Waimakariri District Council come in and talk about how we could use our food scraps in the garden. We learned about the Bokashi Bucket. We learned how to look after the Bokashi and how to use the the food scrap inside the Bokashi when the bucket was full. This talk by Lesley was to kick off our inquiry about Rethinking, Reducing, Reusing our rubbish to help protect the earth.

Lesley shows us the Bokashi Bucket

This is what we put in the bucket to keep the smells away.

We need to remember to push all the scraps down to take out all the air between the food scraps.

Maths

The children have been learning about halves and quarters. We have been using some items from our lunch boxes to work out what half and quarter looks like in food items. The key point to note are that half is two pieces from a whole and quarters are four pieces from a whole, each piece must be equal. You can transfer this information to your home by asking your children to help cook, help clean using the terms half and quarters in your conversations. 

Patiki Production

Studio 8 had the opportunity to view the Year 3/4 School Production. This production was based around looking after the earth and the animals and plants on the earth. Why not ask your child about what they liked about the production and what message they got from it. Here are some of the wonderful pictures from "The Final Frontier".

The Court Theatre - Antarctic Adventure

Last week we had the opportunity for the Court Theatre to visit our school with a court production called "Antarctic Adventures". The story revolved around scientists studying penguins in Antarctic. They are wondering where all the penguins have gone.  One of the scientist disrupts the natural balance when she feeds a baby penguin and this leads to their adventure together. Why not ask your child what they might have learned from the production. The message of the production was about how humans affect the environment and how we all can play a part in helping our environment.  Here are some pictures from the production. You might like to talk to your children about them.

Meet the Penguin Family

Meet the Scientists

Scientist meets Penguin

What is the Orca looking for?

Oh, no our scientist is stuck!

Who is this character? What has he got?

Look out! A pirate

Go Baby Penguin

Daddy!

Meet the Penguin Family

Our Song

How clever were our children. They did a fantastic job singing our song to the whole school. Jack and Rebecca did a fabulous job as our presenters.

Studio 8 and Studio 23 practising our song

Welcome to Term 3

Welcome back everyone,


This term promises to be as busy as last term. Over the next four weeks we are focusing on The Olympics. Our class will be learning about the different symbols in the Olympics and the values of the Olympic Games. We will also look at Ethiopia as this is the country that Studio 8 has chosen to represent at our Olympic Games Day (30th July).  From Week 5 we should be looking at Recycling. We will have a visit from Lesley Ottey, she is from the Waimakariri Council and she will be looking at composting and reducing our rubbish footprint. Lesley is also involved in our community garden.

Colgate Toothpaste Box Competition

Well the results are in and our school ...

WON!!!! It's official Kaiapoi Borough collected the most Colgate Toothpaste Boxes (6307) than any other school in the country.  This means we win $12 000 of sports equipment for our school.

But now I hear you say what about the individual class competition.. We came 3rd in the individual class competition which was a fantastic effort. So fantastic that Mr George decided on a special prize for the Most Consistent Class and WE WON!!!

For our prize we get to choose a movie and I will provide the nibbles.

A big thank you to everyone who bought, borrowed and (not stole) but acquired Colgate boxes for our competition. Your support has been fabulous and now everyone will get to enjoy our efforts.

Thank you once again

Jo Fairbrother and the children of Studio 8

Harold

Some parts of our body help us

Studio 8 were so excited today. We went to visit Harold the Giraffe. Today we were learning how we are V.I.Ps (Very Important People). Harold had a very special book that had only one page. On that page was a very important person. I wonder if you can guess who was in that book.  Harold asked us to think about parts of our bodies that help us to be very important.  Why not ask your child what parts of the body Harold talked about.

Harold talks about Very Important People

Harold's Special V.I.P book

COLGATE TOOTHPASTE BOXES

Hi all,


We are currently collecting Colgate Boxes for Studio 21 to help in a competition they have entered. Now Studio 21 has set a challenge for us.  The Studio who has collected the most COLGATE boxes in the school will get to have a movie and popcorn afternoon. So if you have any family, friends, friends of friends, preschools, kindergartens etc who can help Studio 8 win this challenge and get the most COLGATE boxes, we would be very appreciative.


Thanks
Jo Fairbrother

Ladybug biscuits and Jump Jam

Yesterday our buddy class came to visit. We told them we were learning about insects and minibeasts. We told them some facts about ladybirds and then we made ladybird biscuits.

Studio 23 then lead us in Jump Jam. We were moving and grooving to music.

Ready, steady, throw

1, 2, 3 throw

You hit the mark. Great!

Push the bean bag past your head

                                             










                                              The children have been learning to throw the bean bag at the X. They needed to remember to be a strong boy/girl, point at the X and then push the bean bag past their face. The children are trying to gather information about how to throw an object and also how strong to throw the object so they will eventually catch it on the way back.

What a great throw!

Strong man, point and throw

Strong girl, point and throw

You hit the X, fantastic throw

X marks the spot. Great throw

Great aim

Awesome throw

Aim at the X and throw

Push past your face and throw.

Great throwing

Ready, point throw

Constable Karen came and talked to us about keeping ourselves safe from bullies.

Welcome to our new blog

We are looking forward to sharing our learning with you.