Pet Day

Get out the dog shampoo - Pet Day is next Friday 8th November.  Full information will be in next week's newsletter.

Next week you will "Design A Pet" and draw a cartoon character of it.  Think about why people have pets and what abilities and uses your pet will have, then get sketching.  As a group you are amazingly creative, so what you come up with may well be mind boggling.

"Designer Pets" will be on display at the Pet Show.

All Souls Day Liturgy

On Monday 4th the whole school will be taking part in a liturgy at the cemetery to recognise All Souls Day (which is 2nd November).
Please bring a jacket in case it is cooler and some flowers to place on the graves.  Many people will be able to find graves of family members or people they knew.  It would be great to have some parents walk to and from the cemetery with us.  We will be leaving the school after lunch at 1:15.

Fair Sunday 3rd November

Thank you so much to Dale, Kath, Maria and Lisa who have been in the classroom over the last couple of weeks helping with our wheat bags and Christmas decorations. Our efforts are absolutely amazing.

Setting up our stall will take place from 8:30 on Sunday, so that we are all done before mass at 9am.  We will be sharing a trestle with Room 3, but we will operate as 2 separate stalls.  Many people have indicated that they will help with the selling.  We'll sort a roster on Sunday so that everyone can do some selling & also head off round the stalls and activities.

Kapahaka Group: please meet me and your leaders outside Room 4 by 10:20.  You need to be lined up ready to walk onto the stage by 10:25.  Songs are Haere Mai, E Toru Nga Mea and the National Anthem with the haka. A great practice with Ms Tamati today - you have really stepped up into the leadership role.  Thank you.

Once again great efforts with posters, crafts and stepping up to provide entertainment - thanks Keila & Celia for organising this for Mrs Eastwood this week and to everyone who is willing to give a performance a go.

Summer Uniforms & Sunhats

This week everyone must wear their summer uniforms, this includes hats. If you do not have a hat from Wednesday you must find something to do under the verandah outside the library.
Mrs Bennie has hats for sale at the office.

Tuesday Softball/Teeball

Enjoy Teachers Only Day.

Please remember that softball/teeball is starting.

Valmai's and Michelle's teams need to meet their coaches at 3pm at the netball courts - remember to ring them if you are unable to play.

Maria's teams will have been told where to meet.

School teeshirts/black shorts are the uniform.

Have a great day.

Week 2 Term 4

What a fantastic afternoon's entertainment at the Lauren Ross Fundraising Concert yesterday.  Congratulations to those people in the school choir who entertained at this event - you were amazing - very proud of you.
A reminder that this weekend is Labour Weekend and that there is Teacher's Only Day on Tuesday 29th.
Softball/Teeball: the starting date for the competition is now not tomorrow, but next Tuesday 29th.  If you are available to play for your team could you please let Mrs Maria Williams know.  Unfortunate that the starting date has been postponed to our Teachers Only Day.
Thursday Night Touch: Thank you to the parents who have indicated their willingness to assist with this - I'm sure that where a parent is unavailable that between you, team responsibilities will be covered. A team note went home today, please check that you have seen it.  Be sure that you meet your team manager at Pioneer Park this Thursday at 5:20pm.  Team uniform is the school sports uniform - tee shirt and black shorts.  Play hard, play fair - encourage each other to improve skills.
Thank you to those people who have returned their PTA Raffle cards by the due date. Please get these into the office as soon as possible as the PTA members are working flat out at present, and chasing up raffle cards is just that one extra task.
Recycled Outfits: I know of only 1 entry from our class.  It is not too late to get with a mate or a mum/dad and do something crafty.
School Athletic Sports: starts 9:30am Thursday 31st October. I have 4 offers of help to assist at this, a few more would be most appreciated.

Wow Night

We hope to see as many of you as possible tomorrow night (Tuesday) at 6:30pm.  Bring your fish n chips or your choice of food. 

We decided up the hill that it would be great for everyone to get to share the wonderful learning that we all did at Coronet Peak.  Some people had the opportunity to share the time with us on the mountain so now is the time for you all to see and hear about our EOTC.

There will be a variety of learning shared and some wonderfully skilled "techy" students are now working on putting as much work as possible onto one powerpoint, so that work can be viewed on the whiteboard.

The students also want to present to you their findings from the statistical investigations they did as to whether this trial camp should be one confirmed onto the school two year EOTC cycle.  I'm sure that you all probably can predict what the outcome of this was.

Looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible - siblings are welcome.

Dates For The Calendar

15 October – PTA meeting 7:30 in staffroom – all welcome

16^th October – St Gerards Day – liturgy in the hall

18^th October – Maths Buddy Information Evening 7:30 Room 2

20^th October, Sunday – Choir performing at fundraising concert 2:30 Dunstan High School

22^nd October – Tuesday Camp Wow Night – bring your Fish n Chips 6:30

28^th Labour Day

29^th Teachers Only Day

30^th School Photos - family photos 8am

31^st School Athletics – starts 9:30am – helpers please.

3^rd November – School Fair

4^th November – All Souls Liturgy 2pm

6^th November – Central Otago Athletics – Molyneux Park

13^th November – The Big Picture – film about dyslexia

19^th November – Maori Community Consultation Meeting

21^st /22^nd November – LIFE Education – Harold “Friends”

27^th November – Touch Tournament – hosted at St Gerards, coaches/managers required

2 December – Singing Eisteddfod - class presentations

5 December Eisteddfod assembly

12 December 6pm Final Mass

16 December – Final assembly, prize giving and picnic lunch

17 December – whole school water day

Term Four Week One

Welcome back everyone to what looks like a very full term.

Congratulations to all of you who ran in the Round the Clock Race - fantastic effort.  Special congratulations to those of you in the team placing second to a team of 11 year 8 students from The Terrace.  Next year should be all yours!

Sunhats: a reminder that sunhats are a required uniform item this term. No hat = no play outside, under the verandahs only.

Choir: At the end of last term Mrs Russell gave out notices regarding 2 opportunities for performance.  Please be sure that you have these returned to her or to one of the choir leaders before Thursday. The first performance is planned for this Sunday 20th at Dunstan High School - a concert to raise funds for a student who has been selected for the National Youth Choir. Looking at the list of performers this will be a very entertaining afternoon. 2:30 - 4:30pm.  All welcome.

Kapahaka: Ms Tamati has asked all of you to make a poi, and practise catching it so that we can add this plus a haka to our latest waiata.  If you have younger brothers or sisters, or know of a younger group member it would be fantastic if you could make an extra one and help them practise too. Ms Tamati said there is a good clip on you-tube with clear instructions.  Our next session with Ms Tamati is not until 11th November, so four weeks to practise  and look pretty efficient.

Maths Buddy: information evening for parents this Thursday 7:30 in Room 2.  Craig McBride from Maths Buddy will give an overview of the programme and explain how this site can give parents regular reports about progress. There will also be an opportunity for parents to use the programme and see how its lessons and practice activities are structured.  Several people in room 4 have been registered all year and have regularly used the activities to improve their knowledge and skills.  We are hoping to get parent feedback as to whether this programme would be worthwhile for all students in the school. 

The “Dyslexia” film  - The Big Picture will be screened on Wednesday 13^th November at school. This is well worth looking at – please let others know.

School Photos: will be taken on Wednesday 30th October.  Family photos from 8am.  We have been lucky enough to have Ray Dustow to do these again this year - he was last year's photographer.  We are hoping that he will also take sports team photos. 

Thursday Night Touch: permission slips went home today and need to be returned to me by Thursday. Please work hard to get someone to referee & manage a team.  Unfortunately Rhian Ward works on a Thursday, so he is unavailable this term.  We have enough names for 2 teams - a great opportunity to get some ball handling in before the Catholic Schools Tournament later this term.

Athletic Sports: will be held on Thursday 31st October. starting at 9:30am.  We have enough people to lead events but do need assistants.  I would be most appreciative of having names of people willing to help. Athletic skills will be practised each afternoon for the next two weeks.  Please have your school t-shirt and black shorts to change into, so that you can make the most of these sessions.

Friday Crafts Help: for the next three Fridays Room 4 will be working on items to sell at the fair. Thank you for the pieces of material, Selena and for the offer of sewing machines, Kath.  It would be great to have more fabric offcuts and some hands-on help for the sewing (machine & hand). Does anyone have cotton thread?  I'll pop in to Spotlight to purchase extras that we will need. This Friday we'll make a start at 1:30.

Wheatbags & felt Christmas decorations.

Homework

•    Read and record reading in log

•    Spelling - take care to tool and check against the typed word each night

•    Tables practice sheet - monthly table test on Friday.  Lots of people are now regularly in the 90's - keep this up.  There is also great tables practice on Maths Buddy

Probability - Maths Buddy - our free trial ends on Friday 25th.  Well done to those people who have made the most of using this site.

Support our Fair - Recycled fashion & Wearable Arts

Choose from the following themes:

• Popstar Outfit
• Ideal School Uniform
• Flag
• Hat

Age Group Categories:

• Under 10 - no help
• Under 17 - no help
• child with adult help

Rules:

• 100% of the garment must be from a recycled source - this could be from old clothes/sheets/blankets OR be really creative and use a common household item and turn it into a wearable art.  NOTE: you can use new cotton or thread.
• Provide a list of the materials you made your item from.
• You can work alone, in a team, or an adult can help you.
• You can make more than 1 thing.
• You must register by 18th October, (the first Friday in term 4), by completing the registration form that you took home.  I have spare copies.
• Details of the parade and judging times on Sunday 3 November will be given once registrations are in.

HAVE A GO - YOU ARE A VERY CREATIVE CLASS.