Week 8 Blog Post

 Kia Ora All,

We're looking down the barrel of week 8 already! Here's a heads up about what's on.

• Monday homework books and book bags to school please if you didn't send them along on Friday. Great job with all the home learning that's been going on. The observational drawings looked great and it really helps with your child's spelling to be working on the weekly spelling list a few times a week. 
• On Monday we're heading to the High School to see the Science Roadshow. I'm thoroughly looking forward to it as it's always a great experience. We'll be leaving by bus at 9.15 and returning by 11.00. 
• Camp meeting for attending parents at 3.30 in Room 2 on Thursday 1 March. Mark was kind enough to head out to Totaranui with me yesterday morning to scope out some activities. It's shaping up to be a great camp. 
• Camp permission forms back by Wednesday please. 
• Hopefully attending parents have checked their police vetting forms by now. If you haven't got a current one, please contact Jane asap.
• School triathlon is set for this Thursday. 
• Below are photos of some observational leaf drawings the kids did of native tree leaves from the school forest. I thought that the drawings were excellent.

Rock On,

Mr M

Welcome to Week 6 of Term 1

Kia Ora All,

Welcome to the first blog post of the year. I usually send out posts regularly, and will endeavour to do so from now on. This first one is better late than never. Thanks to all those who made it to the meet the teacher evening. I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion. If you couldn't make it, feel free to book some time after school one day to have a chat about the class programme and to go over any questions you may have. 

• Just a reminder to please return your camp forms by Monday the 8th of March if you would like to come on camp.
• Below are some photos of the students in action over the last few weeks. The pictures directly below are of our observational drawings. Our Inquiry theme this term is "Our Place". We'll be doing some activities over the next few weeks focussing on our natural environment. I briefly showed the students how to sight using a pencil to get a basic proportion for the leaf and how to sketch the outline first before filling in the details. Friday's lesson was just about contour drawing so this coming week I'm aiming to add in some shading techniques. All the students gave it a good shot and I thought they all did really successful drawings.
• The other photos show the class making porotiti (a traditional maori instrument). A porotiti is a spinning disc that makes a soothing humming sound. There are also photos of the students doing their portrait collages using a black and white photograph, white crayon and die. 
• Please remember homework books go home Monday and need to be handed back on Friday.
• Book bags daily please!
• Friday is library day. Many children have overdue books so please endeavour to hunt them out and send them along to school in your child's book bag if this applies to you.

Rock On,

Mr M