Week 2 Term 3

Yippee - 3am this finally works for me!
Lots of bits and pieces to share this week.

• Interviews are Tuesday and Wednesday - please go to www.schoolinterviews.co.nz and book your time - the code is DJFU9.
• Book Fair: this week in the school library. We were lucky enough to browse the selection of books today during our library time. Mrs Rendall and Room 6 librarians have made a fantastic job of displaying the books, please pop in and have a look.  Something that appealed to me were the Geronimoe Stilton books (a favourite with many in our class) available in pocket size at $5 - great value for travelling or  Christmas presents. Everyone filled out wish lists, and has a flyer with opening times.  This closes 3:15 Friday.  A great selection of books. Let your neighbours know & grandparents who may be interested.  We get a % of the sales to spend on books for our library.
• Cross Country: Great to see people giving the training for this their best shot. After listening to suggestions, this year the cross country for years 5 - 8 will have  competitive and non-competitive races, the same as for swimming and the triathlon.  Information will be in next week's newsletter.  The school Cross country is Friday 16th August. As our focus this term is hugely PE, I am excited to see that people are self managing and putting effort into preparing themselves for this event, then keeping a record of their preparation in training logs both at school and as part of the homework.
• Hockey: Mrs Flannery is coaching hockey throughout the school on behalf of the hockey association.  Our 4 sessions will start on Friday, then Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday next week.  The staff had a session with her as part of the staff meeting - some really fun activities to develop your hockey skills.
• Maths: we are learning about angles, perpendicular and parallel lines. This week we will be learning to measure angles with a protractor.  I will have a class set of these from Paper Plus, if anyone wants to buy their own so that they can practise with them at times other than at the maths lesson, they are available from me at 70cents each.  Paper Plus have done us a good deal.  Personal ones can be kept for use next year.
• Angela Sidon has a spot for someone to help with the BBQ outside The Warehouse on Saturday 17th August - please contact her if you are able to assist.
• Friday Mass: Rooms 3 & 4 will be participating in the mass at 12 this Friday.  We would love it if you are able to join us for this.  Father is very keen for us to share some of our Liturgical Dance as part of the Mass - he had a sneak preview of children's work on Friday as he walked past.  This was part of our unit on Imaginative Prayer.  Father will be visiting our class on Wednesday.
• Ski Week: preparation for this is well under way.  I met with Barb Lambeth from Clyde at the weekend, have spoken to Mary Naylor about a "Food Group".  At this stage she, Robyn Miller (who will be in charge of the kitchen for the Year 5 group) and myself will meet so that I can share Clyde's menu - not so different from what we did for our Rail Trail Camp last year. I will then hand the task of the food over. Thank you to other people who have indicated their availability to join this group.  You will be contacted after this initial meeting.
• Thursday = Dress Up Day: choose an occupation and come dressed accordingly.  The parade will be at 11am.
• Book Week Parents: Thank you Mrs Ballantyne for coming today and sharing what a courier driver has to read.  We look forward to welcoming Mr Martin tomorrow.  Still more spots if anyone is willing - would be great to see a variety of texts that people use every day in their jobs.

Homework

1. Reading Logs
2. Maths sheet - revising right angles, tables sheet.  Most people are looking pretty smart on their tables compared with February scores - keep this up - a little each week. Maths Buddy has excellent examples to practise the new learning on.  I have used many of their lessons on the whiteboard  as they are well set out and have excellent visual information to explain the new concepts.  I expect that everyone can name and describe angles using mathematical language.
3. Spelling - although most people have moved up a level I am going to use the last lists in their earlier levels as there are still challenges for everyone.  If a word is not known, I expect that a dictionary will be used, then the word will be used in a sentence to show understanding.  Please write this sentence into your homework book.
4. Ski Fitness: we talked today about the different muscle groups that get a good work out when we ski - quite different from those that we use for cross country, netball or rugby. We also talked about how important it is to complete the exercises exactly as they are designed so that we exercise the correct muscles carefully, doing a few sets of them to start with, then building up. Each person has taken home a set of Ski Fitness exercises which were written by physiotherapists from Otago University. Exercise logs have been drawn up in homework books and once again this is part of being prepared for an upcoming event.  I know from past experience that some people have extremely tired muscles after only 1 day - we have 3 so let's make an effort to work on the muscles used for skiing.  Yep even arm exercises - exhausting pushing yourself up each time you fall over in the initial stages of learning.