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Wednesday 8th December

Room 7’s off to the beach on Wednesday (fingers crossed)!!

The school choir and Kapa haka are off to perform at the Pier and at Kate Shepherd next Wednesday, so Aroha and I thought that a spot of sand art and hut building could be the order of the day for those children from Norman’s and our classes who are not involved.

So the plan (subject to the weather gods, of course), is that we’ll head off at morning tea time (10.45am), and walk down to the beach, opposite Thomson Park.

Once there, we’ll split into groups and create sand art, sand castles, and sand dune huts, amongst other things. We’ll do beach flags and maybe sack races too. Lunch will take place on the beach, and we’ll make our way back to school at 2pm.

I need four (4) parent helpers who are prepared to assist with the ‘slip, slop, slap’ side of things, and don’t mind using their lifeguard skills to make sure all are safe and well. The beach is considered a ‘high risk’ area, and we won’t be swimming.

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Please advise the following:

Is your child (__________________) able to attend? YES / NO
Child’s name here

Are you (______________________) able to assist? YES / NO
Parent’s name here

That’s all for now – please let me know asap.
Kind regards
Grant & Aroha

 Monday 22nd November - Friday 26th November

An amazingly busy month since my last 'notice' on this page.

You should be well and truly informed by now of our success in participating in the Guinness World Record attempt for Leapfrog at the Canterbury A&P Show earlier in the month. The children were SOOO excited to receive their medals and to be informed that their record would be published in the 2012 edition - quite a feat in itself when you consider that less than 1% of records are published each year.

The sand-saucers and vegetable animals were a huge hit too. Judging was undertaken by John and prizes awarded to Ethan & Elliot for their vegetable creations (racing car & porcupine respectively), and Amelia & Stella for their sand saucer creations. Well done everyone!

With three weeks of gymnastics still ahead of us at QEII, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank those wonderful walkers who accompany us on our regular Tuesday afternoon stroll - it wouldn't work without you.

A great working bee in the classroom from the mums' of Dimitri, Maddison, and Brooke has meant that books and magazines received so far for our School Fair stall have been sorted into groups and boxes. We still need lots more donations, so put the word out near and far.

Dicussions, negotiations, bargaining and all round head scratching is taking place at the moment while we sort out class placements for 2011. The lists will be embargoed until the 10th, but I'm always happy to accept food and coffee bribes in the interim.

On a final note, there have been a few tears around school this week as end-of-year weariness sets in. This won't be helped by the pressures (obvious or otherwise) since the earthquake, and the general increase in anxiety our little ones tend to experience at this time. Try to keep to routines, reassure and maintain those communication channels across the household. We know that Santa still manages to get through, but sometimes our children feel overwhelmed... and if nothing else works, send them off to their Grandparents!!

Kind regards
Grant


Monday 11th October – Friday 15th October

Welcome back to everyone for the BEST Term of the year.

What with Labour Weekend, Show Weekend, Skoolstar, Freeville Fair, School Picnic Day and many other activities planned for the following 10 weeks, I’m sure that Santa will be knocking on the chimney in only a matter of days!!

Here’s a wee list of things to keep an eye on for the remainder of the year.

Creative Calendars – your child’s calendar is on display at the front of the class. Please make a note on the class list (BEFORE THE END OF THIS WEEK) if you wish to order a copy or copies so we know which ones to send off to the Printer. More info to follow…
Sunhats – yes, our lovely blue Frisbees are again compulsory attire for those children wishing to venture outdoors this Term. Please ensure your child has their name in their hat.

Homework – I am still expecting children to complete Reading Logs each week, even though I am not always writing this into the homework sheets. It’s a combined responsibility for your child to expect to be able to read, and to be able to be read to (in my humble opinion!).
Spelling words are expected to be learned in groups of five each week.

Canterbury A&P Show – would you like to accompany us to this year’s Show? I would like to take the class to the Show on Thursday the 11th of November, and will obviously need some adult support/supervision/transport assistance. Having spoken with my ‘contacts’, we have been invited to participate in the Show’s Guinness World Record attempt to have the largest number of children playing leapfrog at one time. As an incentive, they have offered us discounted admission of $2 per child (normally $8) and adults assisting are free ($25 gate price).

Let me know if you are able to attend and/or provide transport please.

Classroom addition – we welcome the De Thierry family to Freeville School, with Ethan joining our Y4 group. They have moved down from the winterless north (silly them!), and I’m sure you’ll say g’day to his mum Tracylee when you see her around the class.

Topic / Enquiry - Our continuation is with ‘Expressing Ourselves’, which is supported by the Skoolstars performance; our class project of keeping our school clean; and the A&P Show. Look out for our sand-saucer competition at the beginning of November!

Class blog – keep up with our work on http://room7freevilleschool.blogspot.com/


 If you need to catch up or are not sure of any particular happening, feel free to get in touch. Preferably by email in the first instance grant@freeville.school.nz , or before or after class.


Kind regards, Grant Carr