Hoiho Reading Group

FOr the last week the Hoiho reading group have been hard at work reading about volcanoes and then creating a Keynote slide presentation of their findings. As they are finished I will add them to our blog for you to look at. This is their first attempt at this form of presentation and I am very proud of their efforts.

Crazy Hat Day

On Tuesday we had a "Crazy Hat Day". The purpose of this was to have some fun and also to acknowledge that some people in our wider community have not been as fortunate as us during the earthquake. Each child brought a can of food that will be donated to those in need. It was great to see the children get into the spirit of things.

Tennis Skills

Today at school Ryan and Fraser taught us some basic tennis skills like how to hold and swing our racket and how to control the ball in some drills that we practiced. We always enjoy these sessions.

Pizza, Pizza, Pizza!!!!

What a treat we had on Friday. Thanks to Mel organising the making session and getting all the ingredients together and to Peta for helping on the day, we got to make pizzas. A special thanks goes out to Sugar 'N Spice Bakery for supplying some of the ingredients.
Each of us got to make our own pizza and we tried to get creative with our ingredients. Once they were cooked we got to eat them and the general consensus was that they were "YUM!"

Hiwi the Kiwi

On Thursday we went to the Rangiora Baptist Hall to watch a show by The Minstrel about safe fishing/boating practice and sustainable fishing. It was both funny and informative and required a lot of audience participation. We learnt about what size a fish should be, how many we should catch and what safety gear we should take on a fishing trip. Thanks to the Ashley Banks Fishing Club for making this visit happen.

Fun Run Prizes

As part of the Fun Run 10 balls were available as prizes. For every $10 a child raised they got their name in the draw for one of the ten balls. Room 4 did well out of this - it was a random draw and today we got lucky!!! Five of the ten balls were won by us.

Ashley School Fun Run

Last Thursday the whole school took part in a fun run, that Mrs Tipping had organised, to raise money for technology within our school. We all donned our fluro safety vests (thanks PTA) and then completed our warm ups before we all took off on our walk/run. The year 2's went up to Dixon's Road and then back and the rest of us had to do the full loop. I must admit to thinking there may have been a few more children from my class walking - but alas I was left in the dust!! :) The children were so excited and so proud of themselves. I have photos of the warm up because I was there - and as for photos of our class on the way round - well I did see Jake and Dom briefly - but even then I had to ask them to stop so I could actually take the photo!!

Samson Comes to School!!

Last week we were treated to a visit from Abbey's new wee friend and much loved pet - Samson. He is a gorgeous 9 day old wild piglet who was one of many born at Abbey's house. Samson's mum needed some help to take care of him and so he has become a very loving family pet. We all thought he was just great and look forward to seeing him again on pet day to see just how big he is by then.

Printmaking

This term for art we are focussing on making prints. The first step to this is making the printing plate out of cardboard. This took us two sessions as it is very important to get the layers right so that there is some definition to the print. The children were amazing - they listened carefully and put into practice everything that they were taught. The real proof of this was when we started our crayon prints - they turned out great. They learnt to always use the crayon on its side and to always use long strokes of the crayon in the same direction.

Welcome Back

Hi everyone and welcome back to the last nine and a half weeks that make up the school year. That really doesn't seem like long enough for us to get all that we need to do done. We started the term by getting straight into maths (addition and subtraction), reading, athletics and making a printing block for our printmaking sessions.

This term for the first 4 weeks we have a first year student teacher in our room. Miss Gemma Stopforth is on her first teaching placement and I know you will all make her feel welcome.

Here are some photos of our athletics session on jumping.

Jessie and Jake with Badges

Peaks Of Achievement Badges

This term we have 5 children from our class receiving their Peaks Of Achievement badges. Congratulations, Hannah, Abby, Jessie and Jake for getting your silver badge which means you have met 20 of your goals. Also a huge congratulations to Madison for achieving 30 of her goals and getting her gold badge.

STAR test

Last week in class we had our STAR test. This is a standardised test throughout New Zealand that tests the children in reading. The test is given in March and now again in September (same format - different paper). This time around I have 6 children who scored either 43 out of 45 or 44 out of 45 which gave them a stanine score of 9. This is an amazing effort and I am very proud of them.

It is tough sitting tests and all the children tried their best. If you would like to see how your child got on then please call in and see me and I can show you.

Not pictured is Scott who also got a stanine 9.

Science Day

Science Day was a huge learning curve for the children. It was a chance to do some "hands on" experiments and to use equipment that they had not seen before. We learnt that not all experiments work first time - and sometimes they just don't work. Our silly putty would just not mix together - but it was lots of fun trying out different things and as Callum said "experimenting". Next door in Room 5 the children learnt about meths burners and tripods and they looked at how different substances burnt - they tested jelly crystals, salt, sugar and chocolate. It was very smelly - but lots of fun and some of it tasted great! The question we were trying to answer was "is the change in the substance reversible or non-reversible?"

We're Back!!!

Well- after the events of the last ten days or so it is great to be back at school and get back to a normal routine! Today we did discuss our feelings about the earthquake and what positive things we did during it to keep ourselves safe. We have also been drawing pictures of something we saw or know about the earthquake. As well as this we have had a discussion on what to do if there is another quake or aftershock during school time.

Apart from this we carried on as normal - we got back into maths, reading, spelling, poetry and writing. We also had our athletics skills session today and it was lovely to be out in the sun. The focus for this session was on hopping and balance as a lead up to learning the long jump when they are older.

My How Times Have Changed!!!

Check this out - here is Dom learning his times tables on the iPad that we now have at school. It is amazing and has the appeal of giving instant feed back. The children will all get a turn over the next few days to test out this new piece of technology that was kindly donated to our school. (Sorry that the image is sideways - I am still learning to drive technology myself!!)

Mum's Night Out!!!

Just a reminder about the fun night out that Kim Mathers has organised for all the Mum's in Room 4. Hope you can all make it on Friday night (3rd Sept) and that you have given your orders to Kim.

Thanks Kim for taking the time to organise this. What a great idea!!!!

Out Of School Achievements

Many of the children in the class compete in sports and activities outside the classroom. In the last week or two some of those children have received awards for their efforts. We have Millie ( badge pictured) receiving her Grade 1 badge in ballet, James (trophy pictured) gaining the player of the year award for Ashley Green Under 8, Jake receiving the Player of the year award for Saracens under 7 team, Caitlin receiving high honours in grade 1 jazz and Katelyn working at grade 3 in swimming lessons at Kaiapoi.

If any other children are competing or participating in other activities that I do not know about then please let me know, as we love to celebrate their many talents.

Peter and the Wolf

About a week ago we had some puppeteers form Australia present us the tale of "Peter and the Wolf." They had made all the puppets themselves. They presented using a Japanese technique where they are dressed completely in black so they could move around by being seen but not being too noticeable. Here are some photos.