Who got the most values vouchers in our class in Term Two?

Congratulations to Valentino and Ayla who got the most values vouchers in Room Two (we used to be in Room Two) last term!

The values we have at Christ the King Catholic School come from God. They are...

...respect, love, service, justice, peace and joy.

This term our focus will be on justice. We will be looking at what justice is and how we can play fairly. Part of our study will involve looking at the Olympic games and how fairness is shown in sport.

Help your child at home by noticing the Olympics in the news (papers, television and radio) and talking to your children about what you see and hear!

'Reading and writing float on a sea of talk'. 

- James Britton, educationalist

The Holy Spirit Is Like The Wind

In Room Two we have been learning about the Holy Spirit. God, the Holy Spirit, is like the wind because we cannot see it but we can feel it. We went outside for a 'Wind Walk' and we felt the cold wind on our cheeks. That's how we knew it was there - because we could feel it. We could see it working too.

We saw the wind working when it made leaves and branches sway. We saw the wind working when it blew our friends' hair around their faces. Today we made paper planes and we saw the wind working when it blew our paper planes around!

The wind was strong, not weak. It helped some of our planes to fly and it blew some of them right back at us! We talked about how the Holy Spirit is strong too. At Pentecost it made the disciples joyful and brave, and it can help us, too.

The children in Room Two are bringing home their paper planes today. Have fun flying them at home (when the storm passes) and talk about how the Holy Spirit of God blows like the wind. We cannot see it, but we know it is there!

Room 2 at Kiwi Sport

Today we had our first of seven sessions of Kiwi Sport, Turbo Touch with our coach Trevor.

The children participated in some fun drills which are designed to build their skills in the game of Turbo Touch.  Turbo Touch is a relatively new game that combines Netball, Rugby, Rugby League, Hockey, Soccer, Basketball and Touch.  It is a fast-paced game in which the ball can be passed in any direction rather than in traditional touch where it cannot be passed forwards.  

Jumping over 'crocodiles'

Jumping over 'crocodiles'

Jumping over 'crocodiles'

Zig-zag running.

Zig-zag running.

Zig-zag running.

Circle running.

Circle running.

Circle running with the ball!

Circle running with the ball!

Playing Follow The Leader

We are looking forward to our next Kiwi Sport session already!!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the special mums of our Room Two children. The children spent time this week thinking about why their mums are special to them and then they wrote and decorated cards for their mothers because...

...we love our mums to pieces! We hope you liked the cards and special messages we wrote to put in them. Here are some photos of us making the cards:

...and a special message from us:

Enjoy the rest of your day mums!

Pretty-in-pink

Two special visitors came to Room Two with their mums this morning. Helina and Aubrey joined us for the morning so we could introduce ourselves and get to know each other before they start school in the next few weeks. Some of you might know them already because Helina is Betty's younger sister and Aubrey is Ronnie's younger sister!

Two of our older girls offered to be Helina and Aubrey's buddies for the morning. Ayla paired up with Helina and Ashleigh buddied up with Aubrey. They had lots of fun together at all our reading stations including...

...drawing and writing on the small whiteboards...

...playing learning games on the iPads...

...and doing magic writing!

We are so looking forward to when Helina and Aubrey turn five and officially start school. Thanks for joining us today girls. Enjoy your presents from Duffy Books in Homes - your pink book bags look great; see you soon!

NB: If you have a child turning five soon and you'd like to come for a pre-visit before they start at Christ the King, just give our office a call on (09) 626-7123 to arrange a time that suits you.

Congratulations Ayla and Rosina!

A belated congratulations to Ayla and Rosina who received awards at the end of last term. Ayla got her certificate for bringing joy and enthusiasm to all our learning. It is so great to see Ayla's positive attitude to school. She is always smiling and has so much energy for her own learning - and to give to others! Thank you Ayla.

Rosina received her award for managing herself by always being prepared for learning. One of the Key Competencies of the New Zealand Curriculum is 'Managing Self' and Rosina does a good job of this. She always makes sure she has what she needs for school by getting ready the night before and she was always especially well-prepared for swimming. Well done Rosina - you have been a good example for the other children!

If We Had Lived In Jesus' Time

This term in Room Two we have been learning about Jesus. We have talked about how some of the things in his life would have been similar to ours - and how others would have been different. When we learnt that Jesus didn't have electricity we were amazed that Jesus wouldn't have had a TV or a microwave or anything like that.

We have talked about food that Jesus might have eaten. We know he wouldn't have had lollies and fizzy drinks like we can have for treats. We also talked about how he didn't have a freezer so he couldn't have had ice-cream either.

Today, Miss McKenna brought in some food that would have been similar, or the same, as what Jesus could have eaten. When Miss McKenna uncovered the food we turned to our neighbour and told them what we could see.

We weren't sure of the names of the food so Miss McKenna told us what everything was. There were dates, grapes, olives, cheese, bread, honey, hummus and figs. The bread was a bit different to bread Jesus would have had because Miss McKenna had brought along rewana bread (which is a type of Maori bread made from potatoes). Miss McKenna explained this to us. 

We picked one thing we wanted to try first and put our hand up when we had decided. Most of us wanted to have rewana bread with honey and some of us wanted some grapes. They were yummy! We enjoyed eating them and then tried some other things.

Miss McKenna asked if anyone was going to be brave enough to try the figs and dates. So about half of us did. We didn't really like the figs but some of us, like Deevon below, enjoyed the dates.

Have you tried a new food lately? It can be fun to try new things! 

Congratulations to...all of us!

Last week at our morning assembly Mrs Ashe stepped forward to award her certificates and gave one to...Room Two! Can you see Ashleigh holding it? She went up with Miss McKenna to accept the award. Mrs Ashe was impressed by our class blog and gave us the certificate for sharing our learning. She even gave us a special treat too (Tevita is holding them in the picture below) - yum. Thanks Mrs Ashe!

We hope you are enjoying reading about our learning in our blog. Please do leave us comments and Miss McKenna will read them with us. Have a great day!

Swimming Diaries: Day Two

Last Friday was our second day of swimming - and it was just as fun as the first! As we had been sorted into groups last week, we hopped straight into the pool with our instructors after Room Four got out.

 

Some of us slid in from the side. Ceazah-Blue's group is learning to use the ladder on the side of the pool. This is a new experience for some of us and we need to remember to go down the ladder backwards like Ceazah-Blue is here. Well done for getting into the pool safely Ceazah-Blue.

In our groups we did some of the same activities as we did on Thursday and we did some new activities too. We practiced floating on our fronts...

...and on our backs,

We got to play with colourful balls and blow bubbles to make them move across the water.

 We swam with the noodles and kick-boards again.

We used kick-boards to help us learn to float.

But best of all - we went for rides on the foam mats to help us learn to kick better; what fun!

 

I hope everyone's remembered their togs for swimming today! I know they can be hard to dry each night ready for swimming the next day. Remind your child to hang them up as soon as they get home so they dry in time - and if they're a little damp in the morning that's okay; we're going to get wet again anyway!

Bluey the Budgie

Yesterday Mrs Stoddard told us she had brought something beginning with 'b' to show us. We thought of a few things beginning with 'b' but thought it was probably a bird because Miss McKenna had told us we were going to be learning about birds for the rest of the term.

We were correct! Mrs Stoddard had brought her father's budgie 'Bluey' to visit our class. It was so exciting! Mrs Stoddard told us a little about Bluey and gave us some time to look at him. We asked lots of questions about what was in his cage.

"What's this?" asked Trelia, pointing to a piece of hard chalk on the side of the cage. Mrs Stoddard told us what it was and that it was there for Bluey to rub his beak against to keep it sharp. "What's that thing beside the bird?" asked Ashleigh. "A mirror so he can look at himself", said Mrs Stoddard.

Mrs Stoddard told us that Bluey is different to us. When we look in the mirror we know what we see is just our reflection and not another person, but Bluey thinks it's another bird! This means that he won't get lonely and that's why the mirror is in his cage.

Valentino asked "What's that colourful thing?". Mrs Stoddard said it's a toy so that Bluey doesn't get bored. Wow! He has toys just like us! "What's that?" asked Aden pointing to a container of seeds. Mrs Stoddard said it's food for him to eat. "What's that?" Joseph asked pointing to a long piece of a plant hanging from the top of his cage. "More seeds for him to eat", said Mrs Stoddard. "What's that one?" asked Rosina, pointing to something colourful. "Another toy", said Mrs Stoddard.

We were so excited about Bluey's visit and enjoyed spending time looking at him so much. After Mrs Stoddard left Bluey stayed the night in our class and we drew pictures of him. We talked about what we could see before we drew him. We saw feathers, a long tail, a beak, eyelashes and wings. We noticed that he was blue and white, and had little bits of black on him. We concentrated hard and drew him.

Thank you Mrs Stoddard for bringing Bluey in to visit!

Congratulations Aden and Ayla!

A big congratulations to brother and sister Aden and Ayla who have both been working hard in Room Two and each received a certificate this week.

Aden's certificate is for always putting in a good effort at writing time by settling to work fast and trying his best. Aden has been learning to make sure he always puts a capital letter at the beginning of sentences, and punctuation (such as a full stop or exclamation mark) at the end of sentences. Aden has been concentrating hard on this and editing his work if he forgot to include capital letters or other punctuation when he was drafting.

Ayla was so excited to receive her certificate. It is for participating well at mat-time by sharing ideas and listening to others. Ayla always has an interesting contribution to make to discussions but she also listens well to the ideas of others which is just as important.

Mahi pai Aden and Ayla - keep up the great work!