Final assembly - End of year certificate

Today was our final assembly. We watched a performance by the band, the kapa haka and farewelled the year 8 students. 

It was also a time to recognise students throughout the school with our end of year certificates. Students were awarded either a certificate for academic excellence across all curriculum areas, or for consistently striving to succeed and showing a positive attitude towards learning.

This year the recipients in Room 5 were Lucas Gamble and Jessica Broekhals, who were both awarded the Striving to Succeed award.

 Lucas comes into class everyday keen and ready to learn. He is always organised ,asks a lot of questions and offers to help where he can. He never says that anything is too hard and asks for help when he gets a bit stuck. As a teacher I love being able to see Lucas working through tricky tasks and giving everything his all. This is the reason I chose him to receive one of my Striving to Succeed awards.

Jessica is a constant ray of sunshine in Room 5. She starts everyday with a huge smile and a cheerful greeting that lights up anyones's day. She is keen to give anything and everything a go. In class she asks for help is she gets stuck and is an amazing helper to myself and her classmates. She takes risks with her learning and always gives everything 100% effort and this is why I have chosen her to receive my other Striving to Succeed award.

Yoga for kids

Week 9 of term 4 and things are all go at Stanley Avenue! We have had a new smiley face join us, today we welcomed Kalais to Room 5. Kalais has an older brother so is already a little familiar to Stanley Avenue.
With a lot of activities, events and lessons going on, Room 5 sometimes needs a bit of down time. We have started looking at yoga for kids. The students are really enjoying something different and the positions help them calm down, work on their co-ordination and improve gross motor skills. Here is the link to one we have been doing in class Yoga for Kids . Below are photos of Room 5 enjoying their yoga session, and our new class mate - Kalais.

Bible in Schools assembly

Today was the annual Bible in Schools assembly. Each class that takes part in this programme had a chance to showcase an item they had been working on. 

Room 5 talked about the meaning of Christmas. Each letter represented an aspect of Christmas.

Students will be taking their books home that they have worked on each week, these can now be kept at home.

We made a lovely big card for our Bible in Schools ladies and Mrs Samuel was going to take it and show it to everyone.

Junior School trip to Hamilton Gardens.

Here is a short video made up of all our photos taken at the Hamilton Gardens. It was a lovely day out, a big thank you to all of the parent helpers who came with us.

Room 11 writes to Room 5 about their garden

We were lucky enough to receive some mail from Room 11 asking us great questions about our garden. It was a little tricky for all of Room 5 to write replies so we thought we could video our replies and have Miss Williams write a letter to Room 11. Below are the lovely letters we received. Unfortunately our video replies were a bit big to upload to the blog.

The Lonely Pumpkin

Last week Room 5 had been listening to the story called "Pumpkin feels lonely".

It is about a pumpkin who is lonely in his garden because he can't do things that the other vegetables can. 

Room 5 were amazing artists and created some work based on the story. We have also planted some pumpkin and watermelon seeds together in little containers in Room 5 so that they will not be lonely when they grow . When these are big enough we will plant them in to the tyre garden near the feijoa trees , over by the school garden.

Here is a short slide show of the art created by Room 5, this is also the work we shared at assembly. 

Here is a link to the story if you would like to listen at home - The Lonely Pumpkin

Hamilton Gardens Junior Trip

Tomorrow is our big trip to the Hamilton Gardens. So that we can get away on time can students from Rooms 5,6,7,8 and 11 be at school by 8.30. We have asked that all students come with the following:

• Shoes on , as some surfaces can be very hard for little bare feet to walk on.
• Sunscreen on.
• Drink bottles - water only please.
• School hat.
• Plenty of food .

Please remember students will not be going to the shop, so we can not take money with us.

If there are any problems, please see your child's class teacher.

The weather looks to be great , so it will be an awesome day out.

Welcome Harrison!

Room 5 has a new smiley face! Last week we welcomed Harrison. Harrison has 2 lovely big sisters already at Stanley Avenue, and already has friends in Room 5 he remembers from Country Kids.

If you see Harrison around give him a high five and welcome him to Stanley Ave. 

Congratulations Lucas!!

Last week we completed our collage artwork to enter into the A&P Show. Hopefully some of you were able to go and view our awesome work at the show on the weekend.

Today we found out that Lucas Gamble from Room 5 had won third prize in the collage section.

Here is Lucas with his artwork. Congratulations Lucas!

Ready, set -GROW

In Room 5 we are doing a lot of growing at the moment! We have our little garden pots that have mostly sprouted and will soon be planted in the big school garden and now our beans have sprouted!

We are having a bean race! Room 5 wants to know which beans will grow faster - the ones that we look after in class, or the ones that we have planted straight into the school garden. So far the class beans are winning the race by 2 centimetres! We have 2 sprouts in the garden and the tallest one is 2cm, our class bean as you can see in the picture is 4 centimetres!

We have asked that each child please bring a clean, clear plastic bottle to house their plant when we plant it into the school garden. If you have a spare one at home could this please come in too. We are hoping that the bottle provides shelter from the wind and creatures that like baby plants .

Little Gardeners #2

As you know, Room 5 has been busy getting their hands dirty! We were lucky enough to get a set of little garden seedling kits, as well as some awesome extras donated to us.

We have been busy getting our seedlings growing, weeding the school garden and adding mulch /fertiliser to help our plants grow when we plant them out.

As a bonus we also had Kathy from Zero Waste come and see us. She helped us set up the school worm farm! Eventually the busy Tiger worms will create some awesome liquid and solid fertiliser that we can put into our garden.

Here is a short clip our what we have been up to.

For more info follow #littlegardennz or go to www.littlegarden.co.nz

Celebrating our writers!

This week I have changed how Room 5 takes on their daily writing challenge. We are now working in a rotation style where students are work on writing related ,independent activities. While students have these activities to complete , I work with a small group of writers. 

It has been great to see all students really giving their writing a go , and overcoming their challenges. Great work Room 5 !!

Confirmed cases of chicken pox.

In Rooms 5 & 7 we have each had a confirmed case of chicken pox. Symptoms of chicken can include :

• a fever
• a headache
• a runny nose
• a cough
• loss of appetite
• feeling tired

Chicken pox is contagious , so please keep an eye out for the possible symptoms listed above, and the spots that come after these symptoms.

For more information of chicken pox , click on this link Chicken Pox information . 

If you have any questions or concerns ,please contact your local medical practitioner.

Little Gardeners!

Room 5 & 6 have been busy prepping the school garden ready for planting! Yesterday we planted all of our little garden pots and are eagerly awaiting the sprouts. We are also learning about worms, so that we can get our worms farms up and running , they will eventually create some lovely worm castings to mix through our garden!

Don't forget you can also nominate Stanley Avenue to win a garden prize!

WIN a big garden for your school with Mother Earth

One lucky school is going to win all the equipment they need to turn their New World Little Garden into a big garden. The prize is worth $5,000 includes plants, gardening equipment, soil and vegetable beds. 

Your school’s garden will be installed by the Mother Earth Task Force, a special team of hard-working and enthusiastic builders and gardeners. They will arrive at your school and do all the hard work to get your garden up and running.

Any school in New Zealand can be nominated for this prize. Plus, everyone who enters the competition by nominating their school will be in with a chance to win one of 10 goody baskets from Mother Earth worth $100 each. 

How to enter

1. Purchase any Mother Earth product from New World between 12 September and 14 October.
2. Photograph the store receipt.
3. Email your photo of the receipt along with the name of the school and town and your contact details tolittlegarden@motherearth.co.nz

Terms and conditions

Hats ,Hats ,HATS !

Today we were lucky enough to see the sun ,so I thought it was a good time to remind students and parents that term 4 means compulsory hat wearing.

All students are required to wear a school issue ,wide brim hat - available for purchase from the front office.

This week we are being a bit lenient on hat wearing, giving students and their families a chance to purchase hats if they don't already have one. Next week , if students do not have a hat they will be required to stay in the shade during break times.

Hats will be left at school in book boxes.

If you have any problems or questions about hats please come and see me.

Thankyou Kathy!!

Room 5 worked with Mrs Overend to create an amazing card to say thank you to Kathy. Kathy has created an amazing moa for our performance today at 2.10. Students in Room 5 all drew a moa to put in Kathys card and then they sung some songs.

2016 Aroha Cruise In Creative Artwork Competition

Room 5 have been very busy this week! We have completed our calendar art, started work on our entries for the A & P show and completed our entries for the Aroha Cruise In Creative Artwork Competition- WHEW!

The Cruise In is on the 1st of October for more details click on this link Aroha Cruise In

Little Garden Tractor colouring competition

Room 5 have all received a picture to enter the Little Garden colouring competition. We have been working on these when we have a spare moment. The prize is a cool pedal tractor.

I will send these home when completed. 

To enter the competition, please see the link below Little Garden colouring competition and please read the Terms and Conditions.

Good Luck!!

Room 5 shows off their artwork

On Friday Room 5 had a chance to show off their cool cat art work . We created this after reading Slinky Malinky Catflaps. 

First the children practised drawing the number 8. We then drew ears and tails on to our cats. To finish off the cats the students decorated them with pastels. 

The amazing Kathy helped us to design the amazing background that we stuck our cats to. If you have a close look you can see each student 'peeking' over the fence in the artwork, next to their cat.

We will have this on display in Room 5 very shortly.

Well done to the Room 5 students who sat up in front of the whole school during the first part of assembly and to those brave students who told the school how we made this amazing piece!

Missing Jersey

Hello lovely caregivers and parents, could you all please check your childs' uniform jerseys as we have a student who is missing one. The jersey is named on the tag. If you find this at home, please drop it in to Room 5. 

With the warmer days coming up it is also a good time to check that you have all of your childs uniform items named.

If you are missing any pieces of clothing or property, the lost property basket is located in the uniform room.

Letter Superstars!!

These fabulous four are our letter superstars for the week! Victoria,Tennessa,Marcus and Dane all now know 26 lowercase and 26 uppercase letters!! 

To celebrate they all received a special teacher's award and were allowed to choose a prize from the prize box. 

Special mention also goes to Lucas who learnt 9 new letters in just over a week! 

Learning to listen and think

A couple of weeks ago I (Miss Williams) went on a course to learn more about oral language. One of the things that I learnt , was how much children learn from listening to stories. They not only learn about the art of story telling, the impact of different tones and voices etc, but also to listen. 

When Room 5 come in from lunch we lie down to listen to a story . I introduce a story, without showing the pictures, because I want to see what they come up with while they are listening, it also creates great conversations. When the story is finished we talk about what we saw in our head, characters we heard about, how the characters were feeling and what we thought they might look like - are they big,small, angry etc. The conversations after the story are just as important as listening to it as it gets students to recall what they heard and make suggestions based on the information given, and use the language in the story to create a character in their head.

The other day Mr Spicer came to visit Room 5 and took this photo of us all. Thanks Mr Spicer!

Kapa Haka Showcase

This Thursday Stanley Ave will be hosting the annual Te Aroha Kapa Haka Showcase. A range of Kapa Haka groups from around Te Aroha will be coming together to perform , including our Kapa Haka group. The event is being held in the rec centre from 1.00 - 2.30. 

The junior syndicate was lucky enough to go and watch our group practise their routine today. Here are a couple of photos of their practise.

Room 5 visit the Life Education van

This week Room 5 was lucky enough to have 2 visits to the Life Education van. We got to discuss and learn about how we are all unique and what makes us special. We were also lucky enough to meet Harold! Though we did have to wake him up from his sleep . He also told us a funny joke, maybe you could ask the Room 5 students if they remember it and get them to share it with you.

Have a great weekend!

Room 5!

Check out all of the smiley faces in Room 5!! We have 15 happy students in Room 5, do you know all of their names? If you don't maybe you could introduce yourself and find out their name and something they like to do?

Smiley , happy new members of Room 5!!

Room 5 would like to introduce you to our newest members!  In the last couple of weeks we have welcomed - Holly, Isabella and Ruby. They have settled in so quickly , it's like they have been at school for ages. If you see them around school, make sure you give them a big ,friendly Stanley Avenue welcome :)