Swimming Day 4

A fantastic day at the pool today!

On Tuesday it took over 12 minutes to get dressed after swimming.  Guess what our time was today.....wait for it......9.38 minutes!  Woot!  Woot!  We were so proud of ourselves!

Swimming Day 4 on PhotoPeach

Remember that it is mufti day tomorrow - please make sure your child is wearing easy clothes to take on and off.  Instead of a gold coin donation - bring a grocery item.

Swimming - Day 2!

Another fantastic day at the swimming pool on Tuesday.

Swimming Day 2 on PhotoPeach

Just a reminder to parents that children only need the clothes they are wearing (i.e. their school uniform) and their togs and towel.  Some children seemed to have spare tops, shorts, singlets etc in their swimming bags.  This just confuses the children.  Please keep things simple for your child.

As you know Room 12 is having a BOOK LAUNCH on Wednesday 11th December.  We are making a movie about Pirate Polly.  Here are some stories about Pirate Polly.

Penny's story was "Pirate Pat got a big hole and Pirate pat was crying and sighing!  And Pirate Polly
plugged the ship!

Xavier's story was "She went tap on the drum."
Xavier is getting absolutely brilliant at finding letter sounds on his ABC card...he even found the
word 'the' all by himself!

As you know this Friday is a MUFTI day.  There is no theme - just normal mufti clothes.  Please take swimming into consideration when your child is getting dressed for Mufti day - make sure they are easy clothes to take on and off please.  The weather is supposed to be lovely on Friday - why not come to school dressed in summer beach clothes?!?!

Remember to bring a grocery item (instead of a gold coin donation).  

Here are some good examples of what you can donate.
No perishables please (fruit etc).

Swimming!

Wow!  What an amazing first day of swimming!

I was very proud of everyone in Room 12 because:
1.  They sat on the bus nice and quietly.
2.  They quietly walked past the main desk at Jellie Park.
3.  They all changed/dressed themselves FAST!
4.  They all did their best in the pool.

I was a VERY PROUD teacher!  A huge thank you to parents who put so much effort into making sure their child could dress themselves etc.  This is really appreciated.

Here are the fabulous Room 12 having their first school lesson!

Our first swimming lesson! on PhotoPeach

After we swimming we wrote stories about going swimming.  Here is Maddox's story:

I saw people swimming in the big pool.
Maddox is getting very good at finding the letters and words he needs on his word card.
Ka pai!

This afternoon we have been creating our characters for a movie we are making.  We are making a movie of one of our big books "Pirate Polly" for our book launch.  What do you think of our characters?

Room 12 worked in pairs to make these characters.

Welcome to Kian

A big welcome to Kian who turned 5 today!

Kian (pronounced Kee-in).

Wairakei School has some new musical instruments and Room 12 were the first students to use them yesterday!  Lucky us!
New Instruments on PhotoPeach

What a fabulous day today for our Book Character Mufti Day.....can you recognise these book characters?  I'm so sorry Toby!  I'm not sure how I missed your photo, oh no!  Our lovely Toby dressed up as a character from the Cars movie/book....in a fancy Cars shirt all the way from America from his Aunty Stella.

Book Character Day on PhotoPeach

Here are three examples of writing from today's writing time!

Ruby T wrote "I am Pocahontas.  I wear a brown dress and a blue ribbon and a jersey".
Yes today it was cold, so Pocahontas was in fact wearing a jersey.  he he
Ruby also had another sentence over the page saying "She lives in India".

Ava-Lea wrote "I am a bee.  I am from Bumble.  I am in a beehive".

Makylah wrote "I am a princess".  I thought this was pretty good for a girl who
has only been at school for 2 weeks!  Don't you?

We have another MUFTI day next Friday....just a normal clothes one (as we're swimming too...please no fairy wings etc).  This time, instead of a gold coin, Otakaro children need to bring a grocery item e.g. can of tomatoes, box of cereal, bag of rice, jar of coffee etc.  All of this gets compiled into a grocery raffle hamper - I love winning grocery hampers!  No one has sold me a ticket yet.

Room 12's Book Launch!

We have been busy making books and we want to launch them!

So we are inviting our families along one night for tea to launch our absolutely brilliant books.

See you there!

Otakaro Cross Country

Wow!  What an absolutely brilliant Cross Country we had this afternoon!  I was so impressed with how everyone tried their best.  Ka pai!

It was awesome to see so many parents and family there too....we may have to add a parent race next year!

A huge thank you to our senior students who played a very important role in encouraging the younger children to run.  You were absolutely brilliant!

Ready Set Go - 5 year old girls

Ready Set Go - 5 year old boys

Ava-Lea came 4th!

Run run run Naai!

Xavier got a Perseverance Award!

Donte claiming his 2nd place certificate - woot!  woot!

Ready Set Go - 6 year old girls

Ready Set Go - 6 year old boys

Upcoming events...

Next week Otakaro (Room 11 and Cool Dots are hosting assembly.  As we are learning about the interactions between a book and it's reader we thought we would have a book character mufti day!  Woot!  Woot!

During week 7 and 8 we are also participating in the Swim-Safe programme.  Room 12 will be swimming between 10-10.30am.  You are most welcome to come along and watch - please do not help your child get changed however, as this has a roll on effect where other children will expect to be dressed also.  I firmly believe all 5 and 6 year olds should be able to get dressed independently.

Lunch time!

It was a beautiful day on Friday and I was enjoying watching Room 12 playing together...I I thought I would take some photos.  Obviously, the favourite activities of the day was climbing trees, making things in the library and the playground.

Friday Lunchtime on PhotoPeach

Just a reminder that Wairakei School is going swimming soon!  Can your child dress themselves?  If not, now is the time to start practising.  Make it fun...have a race, use a timer, use lots of praise.

Next week (Friday November 22) we are having a Book Character Mufti Day.  Kids can come to school dressed as their favourite book character - gold coin donation.

Tahlia and Toby working out how to balance the scales.

Kapa Haka at Pitcairn Crescent Kindy

Last Friday Room 12 and their buddy classroom, Room 5, walked to Pitcairn Kindergarten to perform some Kapa Haka items.  What fun we had!

A huge thank you to Miranda Gray, Jaime Young and Angelita Schwalger for walking with us - your help is very much appreciated.  Didn't the kids do well with the long walk?

At Pitcairn Kindy we performed some items, then the little kiddies from kindergarten also performed some items - brilliant!

We were kindly invited to stay for afternoon tea and a little play in their playground.

We should do it again!  Maddox and Ruby K loved visiting their old kindergarten and seeing their teachers again.


Pitcairn Kindy visit on PhotoPeach