Thanks SKIDS For Our Cool Prizes!

This week Trelia and Deevon were two of the lucky five students who had their names pulled out of the Values Voucher box for prizes - well done you two!

Trelia and Deevon got to go to Mrs Kopua at morning tea to get their prizes...and they came back with these cool volleyballs; woah - what a great prize! Thanks SKIDS for donating them.

Has your child received a Values Voucher lately? Ask them what they got it for and have a chat at home about the values we hold special at Christ the King Catholic School - respect, love, service, justice, peace and joy. And maybe they'll be one of the lucky winners to get their names pulled out of the box next!

Room Six Students Showing The Key Competencies

Congratulations to Trelia and Joseph who receive certificates this week for participating and contributing well in class discussions. Trelia and Joseph have made a great start to Term Three by being diligent during class discussions. Both Trelia and Joseph always pay attention during class talks and add meaningfully to our learning by contributing thoughtful ideas and interesting questions.

Some of the questions Trelia and Joseph have been wondering about include: Did the Olympic flame come to New Zealand? (Trelia) and What was Mary MacKillop's mum and dad's names? (Joseph)

We've been reading 'Six Little Stories about Mary MacKillop; For her youngest friends'. When we read one of the stories we found out that Mary MacKillop's mum was called Flora and and her dad was called Alexander. We still haven't found out if the Olympic flame came to New Zealand on its way to Brazil. Do you know? If you do, maybe you could comment below and tell us!

Kia pai tou tatou Matariki!

Did you know it's the Maori New Year? Matariki is the Maori New Year and it is celebrated each year when the group of stars called Matariki reappears in the sky.

Towards the end of the term we learnt about Matariki by reading some picture books about it. We learnt that Matariki is a good time for being with family, eating yummy foods together and remembering people in our family who have passed away. It is also a good time for planting some different kinds of plants.

Elena and Trelia planting their seedlings and watering them.

In Room Two we each got to plant a seedling. Miss McKenna had bought some potting mix and some different flower seedlings for us to transplant into our own containers to take home. We put on gloves to protect us from the soil and then Miss C. helped us put our plants into our pots. There were three types of flowers to choose from - primula (pink), viola (yellow, white and purple) and antirrhinum (red, yellow, peach and pink).

Our class with our plants. "Happy Matariki!"

On the last day of term we took our plants home. Please help us to water them and take care of them so that we can help them get bigger and stronger and watch them flower. What will the flowers look like?! You could take a photo and email it to Miss McKenna to show her when yours flowers. I wonder how long it will take?

These are some of the picture books we read which helped us learn  about

Matariki. You can find more at your public library!

Some Of The Royal Family Visit CTK!

Last week we had some special visitors come and visit our school. Iliyas (Room One) and Vincent's (Room Six) eldest sister, Azaria, came with her dance group to perform for all of us.

Azaria's dance group is really good and they are going to perform at the World Hip Hop Dance Championships later this year. We watched them dance and then they invited some children and teachers to come up and have a go!

At the end of their performance we took a photo with all the dancers and their coach. We used our hands to create crowns like they do. When we went back to our classroom we were talking so much about the dancing. We were so excited after seeing the performance and decided to write about our experience to tell you all about it.

Here are our stories:  

This morning we went to the hall to watch the people dancing. I saw Itu and I saw Isi when we got out of the hall when the people were dancing. By Aden

Today Azaria's Royal Family came to Christ the King Catholic School. I like the girl who was wiggling fast. By Ashleigh

Today we had a surprise. The man did a flip. By Valentino

I like the dancing. By Elena

The girl is dancing because they practise. By Aubrey

The girl is dancing faster. By Helina

Today we saw people dancing in the hall. It was cool. By Deevon

I like the dancing. by Ken

Today at school we went to watch a dance group and there were cool dance moves. By Rosina

I like my mum and my baby. My mum take a picture. By Ceazah-Blue

Azaria was dancing with her friends. By Tevita

Ashleigh and Ken worked hard on their stories and remembered their learning goals. Ashleigh spent time making sure her story made sense and used interesting punctuation in it (capital letters, full stops...and an apostrophe!). Ken carefully worked on his story - finding words on the word card and putting finger spaces between words. Well done Ashleigh and Ken!

As the best writing of the day, Miss McKenna chose Ashleigh and Ken to share their work with Mrs Kopua. They read their stories to Mrs Kopua and she wanted to give them a Principal's Award but didn't have any stickers left - so she gave them seven stars for Matariki instead. Cool!

Thank you to the parents who stayed to watch the show. I bet you enjoyed it just as much as we did?!

And The Principal's Award Goes To...

Congratulations to Rosina and Trelia who received Principal's Awards yesterday for their great stories about everyday heroes in their lives.

Keep up the good work girls!

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!

Congratulations Rosina, Valentino, Aden and Trelia!

A belated congratulations to Rosina, Valentino, Aden and Trelia who all received certificates during the first two weeks of school this term. Valentino received his for good effort in reading. Like we all do, Valentino sometimes makes mistakes when he reads aloud. Lately he has been doing a good job of fixing those mistakes by checking what he has read 'looks right'. Well done Valentino!

Rosina got her certificate for being curious and asking good questions about what we are learning. Keep up the good questioning Rosina!

Aden received his certificate for improving the way he manages himself in the classroom. Aden is doing this in lots of ways - such as asking for help when he needs it. Good thinking Aden! Aden is also doing a good job of managing his responsibilities (such as putting out our lunchbox box each morning). Thank you Aden!

Trelia's certificate is for increasing participation in the classroom. Well done Trelia - you are joining in more confidently. Keep it up!

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!

Who got the most Values Vouchers in Room Two last term?

Values Vouchers are awarded at Christ the King Catholic School to children who are displaying our school values which are...

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

Aden got the most Values Vouchers out of the boys in Room Two and Trelia got the most Values Vouchers out of the girls.

How many vouchers did Aden get altogether? Nine! Trelia got eight. Well done Aden and Trelia! Who will get the most Values Vouchers this term?

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! 

Swimming Diaries: Days 6 and 7

Today is our last day of swimming. Most of the children have greatly enjoyed their time in the water and we were really lucky, with our small class, to have such great instructor:child ratios.

This meant that we got lots of opportunities to practise our developing skills each day.

We practised our starfish/floating on our backs. (We do this while our group counts to ten!)

We practised kicking on our backs: 

We practised blowing bubbles as we play with the colourful balls:

Swimming has been so much fun!

Did you know Auckland Council has a 'Kids Go Free' policy whereby all children 16 years old and under get free entry into Auckland Council pools all the time? Make the most of this and take your children swimming this holidays - it will help them continue to grow their confidence and develop their skills if you play with them in the water - the more, the better!

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!