Week 5

The children have brought  their RE books home this week so the parents can read the information pages. We had already done some work in our RE books so they are glued in after the first few pages. Could you please read over the information in these and make sure the children bring their RE Books back to school this week so we can do some more work in them. 

Gala Day is on Thursday and runs from 4pm until 7pm.

No swimming this week

Library Wednesday

Kick It Wednesday

Last week we began to use 2 new sites for our learning. 

Skoolbo and Maths Whizz. 

Both of these sites are educational and we will be using them in class, at times.  Students are also able to go on them at home if you wish.

Mrs Rush and Mr Bach trialled Maths Whizz last year and it is an excellent site to support your child's learning in maths. 

  If you are wanting any extra maths homework then Maths Whizz provides excellent learning tailored at each child's level.  It is important that they do the assessment exercises - by themselves, because the programme specifically creates individualised programmes based on what the child can and can't do. 

This week the students did an assessment so that the programme could determine where they were at. Aaron, Harrison and Charlotte did very well in their assessments. Congratulations to these three Maths Whizzes.

 Gala Day is on Thursday and runs from 4pm until 7pm.

No swimming this week

Library Wednesday

Kick It Wednesday

Skoolbo

If you have an IPad or tablet you can download the app- make sure it is the Kiwi kids version. Then you can put in the school code to login  3045F and then choose your  class, name and password.


If you are on the computer I think you need to use your username that you got today and your password. If you have any problems we can sort them out tomorrow.

Have fun and see how well you can go.

Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday

Welcome to Week 4

We ate some Pancakes for Shrove Tuesday -thank you to all the people who sent in some yummy toppings. Thanks to Brooke for taking the photos and Mrs Stevenson for her help.

We made our Promises which we offered to God at our Promise Ceremony on Tuesday and then we went to Mass on Ash Wednesday and all received ashes on our heads. We went for a Lent walk around the school and started a collection of 40 things.


We have been logging into out Google Apps accounts everyday so that we can get better at this. We learnt how to make a table in Google Docs and how to change the font, the size of the font and colour of the tables.
We have started to use our Middle School Google Site for our learning. You are able to see what the students are learning on it -sometimes there will be more than this weeks work up on the site- we  do ask the students only to do the current or past weeks learning work - a good skill for them to learn or they may get confused as teacher sessions for learning occurs alongside the slides.
Have a look: https://sites.google.com/a/stmarysrotorua.school.nz/middle-school-2015

Thank you to all those people who have sent in Gala items, Imogen has done a great job in counting and recording the houses for me.

Excellent news - our class will be having a maths program this year called Maths Whizz. Last year Mr Bach and Mrs Rush's classes trialled it and it is a very excellent programme- the progress students made was excellent. Students are able to use this at home and at school; it is great for extra maths homework and reading at the same time. Hopefully it will all get sorted this week.

My new email address in lynleys@stmarysrotorua.school.nz if you would like to email me, although the old email address will be forwarded to my inbox still.

We have swimming this week so please remember your togs. The Kick It man did not come last week - so we may have our catch up lesson this week.

Shrove Tuesday

Since tomorrow is Shrove Tuesday we thought we would have some Pancakes. If the children are able to bring some toppings that would be great.

Promise Ceremony is at 1.30 in the Hall and the Liturgy for Ash Wednesday is in the Church at 9.00. You are welcome to attend both.

Week 3

It was great to meet some parents at the Meet the Teacher on Thursday, and to meet others over the last 2 weeks. Here is some of the information I shared on Thursday.
Please feel free to email me or pop in and see me if you have any questions or concerns. Unfortunately I was away sick for a couple of days this week, which has held us up in getting some of the students in Room14 logged in and sorted on their Google Apps Accounts.
Apologies, but we will get underway next week. Students will bring home their user names and passwords on Monday.

There is no swimming this week- though we do have Kick it on Wednesday - so it would be great if everyone can bring their PE Shorts and tops.

Could you please add your email addresses and phone numbers to the google form- it will make it much easier for me to have a class data base all in one place. I have reposted it under this post.

Parents Contact Details

Week 2

 We have had a great start to the year and it has been lovely getting to know the new students and welcome back some from last year.  Our condolences to Charlotte and her family on the loss of their great grandfather who lived in Wellington. We hope to see her in class soon.

We have begun some work on our Concept this term which is Communities. We have learnt a little bit about Waitangi Day and the Waitangi Treaty, and ANZAC Day and WWI. 
We have also been thinking about how we should treat digital devices in the classroom. We want to be Cybersmart. 
It is great to see the enthusiasm and students are very eager to get started on their Chromebooks or to work digitally. It always takes a wee bit of setting up at the start of the year- and we want to do things properly. If you have any questions please pop in and see me and I will try to answer them. 
Students have come up with a list of ways we can be careful with device in the classroom and are making some posters too show this. 
For example- 

"Always carry your Chromebook with 2 hands"

"Close the lid when you are not using it"

"Carry it with the lid closed"

"Carry the bag by the handle"

"Zip the bag up"

"Use the Chromebook on a table"

"Put it away in the correct place"

"Be gentle"

"Keep them dry"

We will be learning about being responsible with devices- handling and care - as well as online and digital citizenship.  

Our start of year Mass is Thursday 12 February at 2pm in St Mary's Church. It would be great if you could join us at this Mass. We particularly welcome parents and families of our new children.The Mass should be finished by 2.45pm.

After this we are holding a Meet the Teacher session. These will be group meetings and will take place in your child's classroom. This is a great opportunity for you to hear what is being planned for the year for your child's learning. We have staggered the times for these meetings to accommodate parents who have children in different rooms. The schedule is :

3.05pm - 3.30pm :
Rooms 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13
3.35pm - 4.00pm :
Rooms 14, 15, 16, 17
4.05pm - 4.30pm :
Rooms 1, 2, 3, 4

There will be a cup of tea / coffee available in the hall for parents who have to wait between meetings.    

All families are welcome to a Commissioning Mass for Catholic Schools on Tuesday 10 February at 6pm in St Mary's Church which will be led by Bishop-Elect Stephen Lowe. If you are coming to this we would like students to wear their school uniform.

Swimming

We are having Swimming every afternoon this week.  Please bring your togs and a towel. Cap and goggles are optional.