Below are some links you can use to find out more about the upcoming Commonwealth Games:
Fast Facts on the Commonwealth The Commonwealth for Kids Lots of Socks for World Down Syndrome Day TOMORROW 21st March 2018
Why Wear Odd Socks for World Down Syndrome Day? This is because all over the world people are going to be wearing non matching socks for ‘World Down Syndrome Day’. This is to show that people with Down syndrome are different but the same. 'None of us like feeling left out and people with Down syndrome are no exception so reach out and get to know the person not the condition.' An odd pair of socks may be a different pattern or colour but can still be work together quite happily if we change our attitude about having to wear matching socks. 'Wearing non matching socks is to remind us that the way we think is really important and makes a difference to whether people with Down syndrome feel included or not.' Wednesday 21st March is World Down Syndrome Awareness Day, we encourage you to wear odd socks and bring a gold coin donation to school. School councillors will collect the money from the home bases. The money will go to Canterbury Down Syndrome Association Today we had a great day! It was so exciting to see the children arrive in wonderful costumes - there was a definite buzz in the hub today! Our whole school met outside the library and we participated in a short ceremony to bless our library before we went to the new astroturf for a fun parade. Check out this clip for some highlights from the day. A reminder that we have the Library opening at school tomorrow.
Children are encouraged to wear a costume representing a book character to school. PAL children will require a change of clothes for their training in the afternoon. This is an outline of the programme, parents are welcome to stay for the morning. Blessing & Book Character Day (a huge thanks to Nikki for organising this) 9:00 Homebase/Hub - Time for enjoying the costumes, taking photographs, choosing 2 representatives from each class for the final (parents may want to stay with their children and join in the fun) 9:40 Gather on the green astroturf outside the library for the blessing by Mike 9:55 Line up behind your class lines on the blue astroturf. Each class to parade down the centre between the class numbers - starting at English Park end - teacher to lead 10:05 Finalists from each class to stand at front of each class line for judging. 1st, 2nd & 3rd awarded a book. (to be chosen by student from selection available) We spent some time talking about the different between being equal and being fair. We did a role play using BandAids - we had a group of 'injured' children who each had a graze somewhere on their body. We placed a bandaid on each person's knee, regardless of where their injury was. We used this as a way to show us being equal - we gave everyone the same thing. We then talked about if this was fair. We had a great discussion about the difference between being equal and being fair. We decided that being fair means giving everyone what THEY need to be successful. This led to further discussion about how we use our space. The children shared the things they love about our new space and being part of a collaborative learning team. Everyone had a chance to share their ideas. We were very excited to hear so many positive thoughts. We also discussed the things we can do to help improve things for the children - this list was rather short as the children are, generally, feeling very positive about their learning and the way our collaborative model is working. As teachers it was enlightening to discover which furniture was most popular and also the children's perspective about the use of break out spaces. This has led to us looking to purchase some more tall bar leaner tables and stools for our hub as these are clearly popular. We also worked with the children to develop a system that allows the breakout spaces to be used fairly - to be giving everyone what THEY need to be successful. We are trialling this new system and keeping breakout space doors open for now. We are loving the maturity the children showed during these discussions. It is important for us all to reflect on this new way of teaching and learning to ensure we are all making the most of the wonderful opportunities available. Lachlan, one of our Digi Leaders, went on to make this video of some of the things the children love about being in a collaborative environment. Tayla had her very first time competing at the NZ Pipe Band Championships at the Rotorua International Stadium on the weekend.
It was super exciting and Tayla and her team did very and were placed 6th in their grade. This week in writing we asked the children to write instructions about how to make a jam sandwich. The children were pretty confident they had done a great job of this. We talked about the need for precise language and that instructions need to be simple and easy to follow. Next we watched a clip called The Exact Instruction Challenge. We laughed a lot at the Dad in this clip who followed the instructions his children wrote - exactly. Then we had a turn at following a buddy's instructions - exactly! We had so much fun doing this! - There were some very funny moments. To finish our day Jodi and Sam used some of the instructions written by children and tested them out to see how exact they were - the results were entertaining. We are going to spend time writing instructions over the next few weeks then try this challenge again to see if we have developed some more precise and accurate language to help make our instructions easier to follow. These photos were taken by children. We were so proud of all the children who entered the swimming sports on Monday. We loved the supportive, competitive and encouraging attitudes that were displayed. We admire the children who challenged themselves to do their very best. Our Ōtākaro relay teams did an outstanding job with O1 Year 6 placing first O3 Year 6 placing second 02 Year 6 placing third O1 year 5 placing second O2/3 Year 5 placing third Good luck to those who will go on to represent St Albans School at the zone swimming sports. YUMMY COUPLANDS HOT CROSS BUNS!
Please support the senior camps this year and buy your hot cross buns through school- gather orders from friends and family! Traditional or Chocolate, $4 for a pack of 6. Order forms are coming home today and orders can be placed at the cafē or office. Please place your order by Monday March 26th for delivery at school, 3pm,Thursday 29th March- in time for Easter. All funds raised will go towards subsidising the senior camp costs this year. We had so much fun on our Big Day Out to Margaret Mahy Playground and the new mini golf. We enjoyed sharing some time together with friends across the senior school . We have been working on optical illusion art in our homebases this term. Each Home Base has a different art project underway. Check our out progress here. Our inquiry learning at the moment is based upon needs and wants - what do people need and what do they want to survive? We completed an activity where we thought of three needs and three wants. We drew these onto hexagons and used the solo approach to link our ideas. A group of children chose to complete this task on a great app called Popplet (there is a free and paid version of this app if anyone wants it for their own iPad, it is a fantastic learning tool!). These children linked their ideas using popplets. We were impressed with the great ideas the children have. We noticed that many children are clear about the needs of people but the line between a need and a want is quite blurry! We will continue investigating this concept and see how our thinking changes over the space of the term. Today was a very special today for our wonderful tamariki. Mrs Warren and Mr McKenzie held an assembly and announced our student leaders and presented them with badges. We were so proud of the children who were successful in these roles and equally as proud of the children who put themselves forward for a role - it takes courage to take risks and apply for these roles and even more courage to manage both disappointment and excitement in a humble and kind manner on days like today. We are proud of you all. Check out this youtube channel for some great yoga - an excellent alternative to fitness on a wet day. Due to bad weather our trip to Spencer Park will not go ahead today. Children are still able to wear mufti and we will have a sausage sizzle lunch back at school. We will look into the possibility of arranging another day at Spencer Park in the upcoming weeks.
Today we had an exciting hui with all of the Year 5 and 6 children along with Mrs Warren and Mr McKenzie. We talked about the special responsibilities we have as senior role models and ways we can help around our school. We also talked about swimming sports - those children who want to enter swimming sports stayed with Mr McKenzie and put their name down for the events they want to do. The came the exciting bit! Our new Heads of School were given their red tops. It was a very special day for Annabel, Aoife, Rory, Max and Evania. We are very proud of you all and look forward to seeing you in your wonderful new school uniform. We know you will be excellent leaders, role models and St Albans stars. St Albans School has been without a library for such a long time that many of the tamariki in our class had never visited a library at school until today! A few of our older children had memories of the old library from when they first started school. We have been creative and found ways to ensure there have always been library books for the children to read but today was an exciting day as we explored our brand new library for the first time. We were excited to find a quiet place to curl up with a great book. We loved that there are so many brand new books in our library and also some very cool furniture. It was a very quiet time with everyone enjoying this wonderful new space. We have been learning about the Census. We spent time working on the Census at School. This is a great way for us to experience the types of questions our family will complete as part of Census NZ 2018. We had lots of fun measuring arm spans, feet, weighing school bags and approximating times. We did so much maths and had great fun along the way. It was great doing maths in a fun, practical way. Our next step is to analyse some of the data and think about how we can use it. We are learning about the support we have and the support we can give in our community. Today we created Circles of Support to add to our inquiry learning. Please check your child for headlice as we are aware of an outbreak in our hub.
Thanks so much We had so much fun at AquaGym today. We were proud of the way the children organised themselves and loved seeing some fantastic swimming. This week we will be attending AquaGym every day.
Please ensure you bring your swimming gear every day and that your clothing is well named. Those children who have NOT returned permission must do so before we can take you to AquaGym. It will be so much fun. The senior school offers our wonderful tamariki many opportunities to be leaders.
Some of these roles are applied for by the children and then the successful children are selected by Mrs Warren and Mr McKenzie. We have already had four amazing Heads of School selected at the end of 2017. We congratulate Annabel Aoife Rory Max M On being successful in earning these roles. This week children are are keen to be part of the Student Council have the opportunity to present a speech to their Home Base. The Student Council representatives are determined by a student vote. At the end of the speeches each child will vote for the two children they would like to see represent their class on the Student Council. Speeches are to be presented to the Home Base on Thursday 15 February. There are no specific criteria, we just want the children to speak from their heart about why they believe they will be fantastic at this role. Children wanting to be Digi Ops & Communications Leaders or Eco Warrior Leaders need to write a letter of application and hand it to Mr McKenzie by Friday 23 February. There are many other opportunities for children to take on leadership roles within their day to day school life. Helping younger children in the playground, being a buddy to a new entrant child, role modelling St Albans School Values, showing initiative within our hub or school, leading a sports team (as captain or by demonstrating an excellent sporting attitude) are all excellent examples of leadership skills being demonstrated. While these roles are not rewarded with a badge they are certainly noticed and appreciated by our school community and make a difference in the lives of others. On Thursday we welcomed Ros back to St Albans School.
We are so happy to have her teaching in Ōtākaro most Thursdays this term while Renee is on release. Ros had an awesome lesson about optical illusions to share with us. There was an excited buzz in the air as the children were able to discover all sorts of interesting tricks our brain can play on us! Check out these optical illusions Each of our Home Bases is now going to create our own optical illusion. We discovered to do this we need to be very good at ruling lines that are straight and evenly spaced. We spent the last part of our lesson on Thursday practising ruling the lines we need for our class art. We discovered this was much harder than we expected! We all know that practising this skill will be very helpful before we try to create our art next week! |
2018 Term Dates
T1: 1 Feb - 13 April T2: 30 April - 6 July T3: 23 July - 28 Sept T4: 15 Oct - 18 Dec |
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