Week 8

Hi everyone .
 Room 9 has had a great week, with everyone working hard on their Reading with some amazing movements UP!
Your child may have come home with a new key ring because of this. Their new coloured Rockets pasted in their homework books will show the new work they will be covering...clarifying just where they are at, skill wise.
This movement is also evident in their writing, so check out any new stories on their storyboards.
Bookweek Dress up day was a hoot with everyone dressing up including the teachers, Room 9 were amazing and wrote some great stories from the experience.

The Cat in the Hat with his Grandma!

I have finally installed everyone on to Studyladder too,which can be used at home for maintenance work over the holidays and weekends. There are some selected activities already in both Maths and Reading, which your child can work independently on.
While they do have a password allocated which I have sent home with them tonight .I have made the site easy to access through a widget/gadget on the side of our class Blog page. They merely need to click on this and then find their own name. I have pointed out if they go into someone elses "Name" that person will get their points. Hopefully this will keep them focussed on finding their own name.
So look out for their slip in their book bags.....No poem this week so they can have a go instead.
Have a great weekend! Nadine

Week 7 and smiling!

Well week 7 has come and gone, short but very productive. The class have new stories up on their story boards and you can really see their independence and pride developing with their writing.. Despite the cooler temperatures we are cosy in the room with the heaters now fixed . A huge thanks to Mr Eddy. With the cooler weather can you help me please by ensuring your childs clothes are named (or I can if you don't mind) it does help return them or solve disputes of ownership.

We have a wonderful Buddy class next door in room 10. We meet every Friday morning to share our work and stories and you would be amazed how motivated the class become, knowing they are going to share with their buddy.Everyone has worked hard this week and completed new stories for their Story Boards.The confidence and pride in their stories has really grown, so don't forget to check then out when next in.
I'm attaching some photos of the Buddies. They really help the children especially those with no older siblings and of course room 10 remember just how far they have come in their learning journey.

Ella reading with gavin 

Room 10 love the Big Books

Jasroop and Elliot love reading together.

Claudia and Bella 

Georgia and Phaedra

Noah and Jack

Joshua with Charlize and Jessica

It really is magical watching them share stories and time together. The bond goes on into the House Sport days and play times..

Cross country

Yesterday  in the afternoon we had our school Cross Country event. Despite the biting cold all the juniors really gave their best efforts and thrilled all the parents who came to watch. 

Room 9 really excelled winning 7 of the placements so all our hard work paid off. 

In fact everyone ran and really gave it their best effort. Made me so proud of them all. 

No doubt there were some very tired children last night. 

What a great class and look at all those placement certificates!

Te Puia

Room 9 had a wonderful trip to Te Puia this week. We had lots of fun and found out lots about the special area in Te Puia. 
We all stroked the huge Pounamu in the entrance way that is protected by the 12 guardians. they were really tall. the stone looked like a frog.

While we were there Whaea Carly and Matua Ho showed us all the special pools they cook in. Here is Cameron , Noah, and Justin eating their hard boiled egg. It took 7 minutes to cook! and tasted yum!

We also visited the weaving and carving schools. In the weaving schools. Whaea Annie was so impressed with room 9 s knowledge about flax she gifted us a beautiful kite .

But there was much more to see. We were so quiet in the kiwi house we even saw the kiwis preening their feathers. The exciting part though was seeing the big geyser going up. Jai, Hemish, Amber and her mum got wet from the steam. It was so steamy .....

The valley had lots of fumeroles and it smelt like rotten eggs in places. It must have been exciting for the maori people when they first went to live there. We played in some houses (whares) that they used to live in.

There was a waka there too .

We couldn't have gone without our parents so a big thankyou to all those mums and dads that came along.

We had such a great time there and saw so many things not found anywhere else in the world!

For more Awesome photos click here.

Adventures from the weekend.

Week 3

Welcome back to week 3. We have had some amazing sharing from the children this morning.
Hemish and his family welcome a new baby boy (name not disclosed yet) not sure if it was the same day as the new Princess. 
Jasroop also had some amazing news sharing  how his father has gone to Nepal as a volunteer to help with the devastation there. I'm sure it would be an amazing but very challenging  experience.  Our strongest and best thoughts are with him for a safe return.

Kaylee took Mintie home this week and made an amazing video with her dad for us (even gave her a bath!)  So hopefully everyone else made the most of the glorious weekend and enjoys this small clip!

Museum Trip

Week 2 
We  have had an awesome start to the term with the children settling in well and already showing progress in their reading . Well done to all those children who now have a new Keyring ! 
The week started with Mrs Weir in the room as I was testing.
You will have received last Friday your childs' folder with work in it covered so far in the year. Thankyou for those who have already returned these. We do now need them back as work will be added continually during the year.
Hopefully you have also managed to book for the 3 way interviews. See me if you are struggling to get on the site.

Today was a special day with our Museum trip, which was a great morning. The children enjoyed the visit and got many ideas from it to help with our unit on Maori games and Toys. They even met Bernards mum (Mrs Liley) who gave us our Bernie Bear!
 A huge thankyou also to all the parents who gave up their precious time and came . It really helps, to do the "extras" with your  eyes and hands to help.
So attached are some of the photos from the day...enjoy (But do check them out in class too)

On the way on the bus

Meeting Mrs Liley at the Museum

 Maori Games and Toys

Spinning Tops

Pois 

Jai on the stilts

All listening with our listening ears!

Looking around the museum

Views of Rotorua from the top of the roof.

    

Move to Room 9.!

Week 1 Term 2:
Well we are still having connection issues however I am putting these latest photos up. We have all come back happy and healthy. Everyone has worked hard and maintained our writing and reading levels (yee ha!) We also welcome Julia and her family to Otonga School. She has come from Tauranga and we hope she has a wonderful time with us. 
Autumn has finally begun to change our beautiful trees to a lovely golden colour, especially the cherry trees lining Jackson Park. 
We are now in room 9 and enjoying the new room. Our timetable will remain the same and we still sit for lunch and share activities with the rest of the year 1 team so it's business as usual.
We do have another new class member "Bernard" an adorable bear gifted to room 9 by Mr Liley as a class warming present. He is a little fragile so we will take extra care of him. However he has proved a great hit and very useful as a cuddler in the morning for the class. Georgia in particular loves him!

He really is adorable and I'm told he "smiles" when they sit on him and give him a cuddle!

Remember our class trip next Thursday to the museum. Thankyou for those people who have offered help so far. We will need at least another 2 adults to meet our ratio commitments for the trip so please let me know if you can help from 9.00am -10.30 am next Thursday morning. 

Also please don't forget to book your 3 way interview time. Just let me know if you have any troubles booking.

Until then 

Nadine McLaughlin.

Well Term 2 on the horizon and Yes we are well prepared for our move to room 9. Our last job is to link up the page to room 9 on the school website. 
In our last week we have had 2 girls join us,  Amber and Georgia. So a huge welcome to our class. 

Here is Amber on her birthday sharing her special day.with the class and a "happy Birthday" song.

Week 1