Four Weeks In.....

 And where did it go? We are almost done with Week 5 now too. It has been great to get back into working and to watch those new to Room 9 begin to grow.

Our focus this term is preparing for Camp - which, for us, is on the last week of school. Great timing, we will all need a holiday after camp! Camp meeting will be held next week and it would be great if all parents coming to camp (and all parents in general) could attend.

Room 9 have been working on Art with Alice - an amazing local artist who comes in each week and helps students prepare their boards for displays depicting our school values. Students will be working with resin to give their boards the finishing touches. Alice makes it look so easy - but for the non-arty people it is a challenge, and I'm proud of the efforts Room 9 are putting in.

We have been focusing on being respectful and telling the truth (the whole truth) in class as part of our PB4L lessons. Students have been working on owning their behaviours and not looking for excuses or blame, and also on telling the whole story - not leaving out those parts that they may have played in whatever scenario has occurred. 

We have also had the opportunity to visit the Safety Truck down at the Rec Centre. We walked down on what was the warmest day, and enjoyed visiting the truck, climbing in and out of the truck and checking for blindspots. This gave students an appreciation of just how hard it is for truck drivers to see them on their bikes or crossing the road.

Welcome to Room 9's 2021 Blog

 We are back!!! How quickly did those summer holidays go? It is good to be back at school, in what we all hope is a trouble free year. 2021 is shaping up to be quite the year! We have a lot of thing planned and this starts with our Goal Setting Interviews on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. If you haven't booked a time to see me, or these times do not suit, please let me know.

We have a great class this year, and it is really good to see some of the Year 8 boys stepping up and showing a good deal of responsibility, looking out for the Year 7 students, and helping out with the setting up and putting away the athletics equipment each afternoon. 

We go to camp in the last week of school (12th April - 16th April). Borland is always a favourite with both students and parent helpers. We will have a camp meeting in weeks to come.

This week we have done a writing sample, a spelling test and a quick revision of basic facts, multiplication and division. Some students need a little time to get out of "Holiday Mode" (actually, so does a teacher or two!) Next week we are lucky to be starting Art with Alice - she is amazing - and this will be a fantastic opportunity for the students to learn some great techniques.

Athletics is coming up in a couple of weeks and we have been out every afternoon practicing the events for this day. Please make sure your child has their sports uniform packet every day, and their hats - Term 1 and 4 are Hat Terms - in this heat they are essential items! 

If you have any queries, questions, want to have a look around the class, come and visit us - just make sure you scan in first and sign in at the office. We welcome parents visiting to see what we are doing! 

Enterprise 2020

 We did it!!! There was a time where it didn't seem like we would be able to complete our Enterprise project this year, but we managed it. Financial literacy is so important for our students, and this is a fantastic way to teach this. We covered formal letter writing (to the bank manager for a loan), budgeting, profit/loss, sourcing items needed, planning and time management skills, along with art (advertising), and speaking in front of others. 

We would really like to thank Alex Ryan's Grandmother, because without her help, we'd be a whole lot of cupcakes short and they sold like hot cakes!!! They were delicious, so Cupcake Kraze, you should be very pleased with yourselves. We also had some delicious choc chip cookies, some beautiful bath bombs, some survival bracelets, a ton of sherbet and some pompom pets, along with some very nice lip balm. We still have a few bath bombs and lip balm pottles left, so we will happily sell them to you on Monday!

The Enterprise Project is all about financial literacy, however, making a profit is also key. Students were keen to pay back their loan to the bank manager, and this was their priority. They then set about making as much profit as they could. This year we managed a combined profit of $420.00. Add this to our $660.00 from last year and that is more than $1000 that will be making it's way to charities in our local area. While it would be nice to hold a class party, or eat pizza, it is more important that we live by our School Values and show caring toward others. We are lucky that we have what we need, however, many do not, so a donation to others less fortunate is always a good thing. We also hope to purchase some fruit trees to plant on the school grounds so that the Year 7 and 8 students leave a living legacy, and others can enjoy the fruit when it grows.

The year is almost done....three more school days (but who is counting???) Our farewell assembly is on Monday, and sadly we will be saying farewell a member of our Senior Syndicate, Miss Tenci, as she is teaching in Dunedin next year. Our Senior Supper is on Monday evening at 6:30pm, all Year 8 students are expected to attend this, and present their speech. Our prize giving assembly is on Wednesday 16th December at 1:30pm. This is also the last day of School for what has been a rather odd 2020. 

2020 Senior Social

Wow!!! What a night! It is always one we, as a classroom Year 7 and 8 teacher, love to see. The students amaze us with their enthusiasm, their willingness to learn new (and some very old) dances, and to become the creators of their own dances. It is something we do every year, and every year I forget the dance moves! This year we had some incredibly willing and able Year 8 students who took the time to teach the Year 7 students their dances. 

There is nothing like seeing parents join in! We had so many parents this year that it was a little squishy on the dance floor, but that just added to the fun. Students looked amazing! I have never seen so many boys come along so dressed up and I love seeing them in a dress shirt and tie! Girls looked gorgeous, with their hair done and a touch of make up on and dressed so well! This saw all teachers oohing and ahhhing over their outfits! 

Many parents took a lot of photos and if you would like to share any, please feel free to email a copy to us and we can add them to the blog! For now, we will just add a photo of our Year 7 and Year 8 students at the end of the night, before we tucked into some of the best baking I have seen in a very long time! 

A huge thank you to all parents for going to such a big effort to get your children ready, for joining in with a big smile, and also for the supper. We really appreciate it!

The end is near.....

 Wow....4th Term has started and we are half way through the first week! It is great to see everyone looking a bit less stressed and a lot more relaxed as we head into the home straight for 2020.

This term is H*U*G*E! We have some important dates to remember:

Calendar Art due back as soon as possible please

Senior Social - 17th November

Beach Ed Day - 19th November

School Fair - 4th December

Swimming 7-11 December

Senior Supper (Year 8) - 14th December

Prize Giving (Years 5-8) 16th December

In between all of this there is Whanau Sports Day, Cricket Day, a visiting Magician and I am sure I have forgotten something....hold on tight, we are in for a great finale for 2020.

This term we are focusing on Senior Social Dancing - it is a daily practice of the timeless classics such as the Gay Gordon, The Waltz, Gypsy Tap and lots of other toe-tapping, heel stomping dances like Copperhead Road. The Social is a night of great fun and enjoyment, and one not to be missed. All parents join in, so dust off your dancing shoes and get yourselves ready! All students are expected to be there on the night.

Calendar Art orders have gone home and I hope to see these back as quickly as possible so we can finalise the orders. I will include a few snap shots of the awesome art produced by Room 9 this year! The students really put a lot of effort into their artwork and I am sure it will look great on your wall, as a diary or notebook, or even a mousepad!

Dancing practice is going well. I must admit, every year I seem to forget what each dance is, and rely on those Year 8 students who did them last year. You would think that after all the years of doing each dance, it would be ingrained, but no! We are seeing a lot of students catch on really quickly and this is making the job so much easier. They will look amazing on the night.

Term Three is half done!

 Wow...time is flying, even with these Level 2 restrictions we seem to be super busy. We had a great trip to the Otago Museum in Week 5, and the Planetarium Experience was fantastic. We also were able to complete the Museum treasure hunt, which was a great conversation starter about our history and the history of other countries in the Pacific area. We were lucky to have a great bunch of parents come along with us, which always makes the day!

Room 9 have been using their Design Technology skills this term, and the Maths Games have been designed, constructed, modified and tested. I am most impressed with the thoughtful feedback (both positive and things to work on) given by students to their peers. Improvements included adding more features to a game, adding more colour or even more squares so the game lasted longer. These games are going to be gifted to younger students to help with their maths skills. The testing has been a great time in the classroom, and it has made student realise just how specific they need to be with their instructions, as that is really all the players have to go by! 

We will soon begin social dance practice - and hope to hold the social in Term 4. It is always a highlight of our year and it is great to see so many Year 8 student willing to help the Year 7 students learn the dances! Stay tuned for more on this event as we get closer to the day.

Here We Go Again!!!

 New Zealand has done so well to avoid Community Transmission of the Covid-19 virus, however, today we are heading back to Level 2. This means we will be making sure we sanitise, sanitise, sanitise. Students are washing hands upon entering our class, sanitising on the way out, and hopefully this will keep us as safe as we have been - and maybe even help eliminate the nasty gastro bug that seems to be doing the rounds!

We have had a great couple of weeks - students had their day at the Science Fair and 6 students were awarded prizes, some students multiple prizes! I am super, super proud of our budding scientists. It is a passion of mine, and we really enjoy anything "science" related!

Next Thursday we are heading off to the Museum in Dunedin for.....you guessed it.....SCIENCE!! We are heading to the Planetarium to be mesmerized by Space! A notice will go home with students today so please look out for that one. We will need parent helpers, so if you want to be amazed by the Cosmos...come and help out.

Our students have begun the Education Perfect "Stealth" challenge today - it is a cross-curricular competition where they can show their knowledge and skills across the curriculum. We will spend a little bit of time each day working on this. Students get choices, and we know how much they love that, so this should be a fun activity! We are focusing on reading for meaning this Term, so we have been looking at this through the lense of New Zealand history - and really enjoying learning about our country from its beginnings. 

We are also focusing on writing, as this seems to be an area students really struggle with. Not so much the quality of the writing, but getting students to WANT to write - we have a few tips and tricks up our sleeves, so stay tuned.

For now...enjoy a few happy snaps of Room 9 students....(Sadly Willow was unable to go due to illness, but her board went!)