Cross Country 2011

Yesterday the kids showed huge determination to compete in the 2011 School Cross Country with the best effort possible. Every single Room 22 child ran their little hearts out and I was so proud of all you! We certainly had our fair share of winners on the podium. Congratulations to all of you for giving it your best and a huge Hi-5 to Jake, Corban, Gracie and Brigit on winning gold, silver or bronze medals.

Check out a movie of the days events ......

Year 6 Entertainment

Last week at our Yr 4 Assembly Mr Isherwood's class came to entertain us. After going through a few tough weeks after the earthquake, Room 27 wanted to cheer us up and make us laugh. They presented a very funny play found in a school Journal called 'And Action...' .

Sadly Miss Lythgoe's videoing skills were not up to standard on the day and there is only a short clip here but we do have a few photos. The best one is all the Yr 4's laughing which was the whole point of it.

Thanks so much Room 27 - we thought you were great!

Letters to our Room 5 Buddies

As part of our letter writing unit we wrote to our buddy class. Last week we got to be the St Albans Postie and delivered our letters to our buddies and helped them read them. We hope they write back to us.

Inquiring Minds

Last week we spent some time using the laptops to complete our Inquiries into NZ birds and insects as part of our topic this term. We have found out some fascinating things and hope to have these presented to the class when Miss Whiteside has finished her two weeks of teaching us.

Did you know....

The Kaka bird uses its tongue to sip nectar and honey dew

The adult Huhu bug only lives for 2 weeks

Weta's have been around since dinosaur days - they can survive in freezing cold water, boiling water and can even chew their way out of a cotton hankie!

The Saddleback bird gets it's name from the reddish brown feathers on its back that looks like a saddle.

The Weka ia a cheeky bird that steals things from campers. It also steals eggs from other bird's nests.

Training hard!

We are training hard everyday for the Cross Country this week. Each day last week we ran for longer and it was obvious to see the progress being made. We hope you can get along to English Park on Thursday to watch us race

We're getting back to normal

It is back to normal in Room 22 this week. We have welcomed Sophie, Maneo and Logan back to Christchurch and to St Albans School. All 3 of them enjoyed their time away at new schools. We were also pleased to have Shayan return after having been told that he wasn't! Sadly though we have lost Blais. Her family have relocated to Tauranga. All the kids who have had time in other schools around NZ have come back reporting how special it was and how they sometimes felt they were 'famous' as everyone was so interested in their stories about the quake. While Logan was at school in Wellington he was interviewed about the earthquake. If you go to the Muritai School blog page you can watch him www.muritaitv.blogspot.com

Miss Whiteside has settled in and is helping in the classroom and starting to take lessons. Next week she will begin her 12 days of full control which she is really looking forward to. She has some great things planned so we are all excited that she is here with us. Yesterday Miss Whiteside had her visiting lecturer observe her teaching art. The kids made some fabulous markings with a paintbrush - lots of experimenting was done with great results and we look forward to using these new painting skills soon.

In writing we have been learning all about 'letter writing.' Westmere School in Auckland sent us some great cards with poems and jokes in them to cheer is up after the earthquake. They also sent a CD with a recording of them singing to us. We needed to write back and thank them. We have also written to some Burnside High school students who helped clean up liquefaction from the cricket pitch and field.
We came up with a list of purposes for writing letters
- to say thanks
- to apologise
- to recount
- to inform
- to ask for help, donations, etc
With the help of a great website 'Writing is Fun' we have learnt the correct format for setting out our letters.

Yesterday we wrote to our buddy class, Room 5 and told then all about oursleves and our interests. We also asked them questions in the hope that they may write back to us.

We are also going to write to Gavin Bishop to thank him for the fabulous book he illustrated 'Quaky Cat'. Many of the children with younger brothers and sisters at school will know that Gavin and others involved with this book donated a copy to hundreds of Yr 0 and 1 students in Canterbury. We also have a copy in class and think it is a fabulous recount of what many of our pets went through in the September Earthquake.

Here is a song my daughter was shown while working with Mrs Wakefield in the Targeted Learning Room this week. It is great for all of us to recap the vowels, their sounds and spelling rules on a regular basis.

Our First 2 days back

Today the FUNKY MONKEY's visited our school. Joe, Neil and Chris were really funny. It was so much fun to get up and sing along with them. They did some crazy songs and had the most amazing bubbles. We liked being able to laugh and sing with them. We thought it was exciting that TV One News was there filming us. We really hope to see ourselves on TV tonight! Thanks so much for coming to visit Funky Monkeys!!

Our little class with the Funky Monkeys

Today is our second day back at school since the earthquake. It has been good being back at school but a bit strange too, as there are only 8 of our class here!

Sadly Duncan's family have decided to move away to Dunedin. I am hoping the rest of you will be returning to Christchurch soon. William had joined our class from St Andrews for a short time until his school returns to normal. It is great to have you here with us William.

We have spent our first two days having 'fun' - lots of drama, games and art. We've also done a fair amount of talking!! It's great to have things returning to normal and next week we will begin our more regular timetable and learning routines.

Have a great weekend everyone :-)

Here is some of the art activities we chose to do..........
Bunches of Flowers
Clown art by Brigit
Parrots
Isabella and Cody working on their FISH

Open Thursday

Hi everyone,

Yahoo! It's time to see you again. I am so pleased that school starts again tomorrow. It seems like ages since we were last sitting in Room 22 together.........

We will have plenty of time to chat about what you have been up to these last few weeks and you can tell me all about the new schools you attended.

I can't wait to read 'Mr Stink' to you again and see how the story finishes.

Bubbles and Fanta have been missing us I'm sure - they have only been fed twice since the earthquake! But...... they are fine :-)

It is our turn to have an art display in the foyer of the office so we will work on something special for that. Yesterday I ordered lots of new art supplies for the whole school so we will have nice new paper, pastels and paints to use.

If you have anything special to share from the last two weeks please bring them along and we will have time to share these with each other.

Enjoy your last day at home and I will see you all tomorrow,

Hugs and Hi-5's from

Miss Lythgoe