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!

Swimming Diaries: Day One!

Yes! Today was our first day of swimming this term. Most of us who were going swimming were very excited. We got changed at school, lined up and walked down to the bus which was waiting to take us to New Windsor School's swimming pool. It was a very quick trip and we were there, ready and eager for swimming before we knew it!

By the time our instructors had finished lessons with the previous class any nerves had disappeared and we were all eager to get into the water. We all got into the pool and the swimming instructors gave us a quick assessment and put us into three groups depending on how able and confident we were in the water. It was so much fun!

Then we got stuck into lessons straight away. We got to do lots of cool things in the water like using straight 'Superman' arms and kicking from the rail, being a starfish by floating on our backs, blowing bubbles in the water, and using 'noodles' and kickboards.

We'll be back in the pool tomorrow so please come and watch us swim whanau! Our lesson is at 11:30am at New Windsor School Pool. It's only half an hour long so come along and support us with our swimming lessons!

Congratulations Valentino and Ceazah-Blue!

Valentino and Ceazah-Blue both receive certificates for their writing this week. Both boys have been learning to be more independent with their writing. Valentino did a great story this week where he remembered finger spaces and really thought about what sounds he could hear words starting with to write in his story. Well done Valentino!

Likewise, Ceazah-Blue is having a go at using finger spaces, full stops and identifying sounds he hears in words and writing them down without having to check with the teacher. He's also writing words he finds on the sound/alphabet card in his stories. (If we can read a word, we can write a word - by finding it and copying it down!) Keep up the good work boys!

Hosanna! Jesus is our King!

This week is Holy Week and on Sunday it was Palm Sunday. Today during prayer time we read the story of Jesus entering Jerusalem. We learnt that the crowd was happy to see Jesus but the leaders were angry and jealous. We talked about how we are jealous sometimes and we thought about prayers we could say for Jesus to help us to not be jealous but to show peace and joy (two of our school values). At writing time we wrote stories to retell Jesus' ride to Jerusalem: 

'First Jesus told his friends to get himself a donkey', Ashleigh began.

'Next, Jesus ride with a donkey to Jerusalem', wrote Aden.

'Jesus had everybody staring', wrote Rosina. 

'The people are waving the palms', wrote Cyprus.

In the afternoon we made our own palms to welcome Jesus. We talked about how palms were special where Jesus was because they showed where water could be found in the desert. By waving palms and placing them down in front of Jesus the people were honouring him like a King.

The day allowed us to make lots of connections to work we did in the first week of term when we began our inquiry topic 'Identity' by talking about the identity and name of our school - 'Christ the King Catholic School'. We remembered how Christ is another name for Jesus and that he is our King. In the first week of term we made crowns to help us make this connection. 

"Jesus is our King!"

This afternoon your children all came home with a worksheet to share with you. Read it together, talk about the picture and the story of Jesus entering Jerusalem on the donkey. Maybe you have a Bible at home you can find the story in together. If you went to church on Palm Sunday remember together what happened.

Then, please finish the drawing of Jesus being welcomed and bring it back to school tomorrow. Thank you for supporting our learning at home!

Congratulations Cyprus and Rosina!

Congratulations to Cyprus and Rosina who received this week's Room Two excellence awards. Cyprus received his award for some great work in reading. He is doing lots of things that good readers do including thinking about the story and listening to his own reading. Listening to his own reading means Cyprus can notice when he makes a mistake and fix it himself (we call this 'self-monitoring') and it's fantastic to hear him doing it all by himself. Mahi pai Cyprus!

Rosina gets her award for growing confidence in writing. Rosina is building resilience in writing and has begun to have a go at writing words she wants in her stories all by herself. Well done Rosina - we are really impressed by how you are having a go all by yourself!

Our New Class Reps!

Today we voted for two class representatives. These representatives will meet regularly with Mrs Kopua and Mr Hadnett to talk about life at Christ the King Catholic School. They will be able to talk and listen to other reps and Mrs Kopua and Mr Hadnett about things going on in the school such as what we are doing well and what we can improve on.

Ten out of the twelve children in Room Two put themselves forward to be our class reps but we could only have two - so we had a vote.

Miss McKenna printed out pages with all the nominees photos on it and we got to circle the two we thought would be the best reps for our class. Trelia asked a great question which was "Can we vote for ourselves?" "Great question. Yes you can!" said Miss McKenna. So we all went away and secretly made our selection by circling the two photos of the students we wanted as our reps.

Miss McKenna and Miss C. were interested that some children voted for themselves - but some children voted for two other candidates.

In the end it was a close result but the girl with the most votes was Ashleigh and the boy with the most votes was Valentino. So they are our new class reps - congratulations Ashleigh and Valentino! 

Of course it is disappointing for some of us that we didn't get voted to be a class rep but we still showed lots of joy for Ashleigh and Valentino - we are happy for them and think they'll do a great job. Good luck you two!

Ashleigh and Valentino, our new class representatives!