MEN@WORK

Our project team for 2011 is in full swing. These boys are all hands kids who love to build things or pull things apart. So we are giving them opportunity at school by using their talents and learning at the same time. The boys this year have identified several tasks around school that they may be able to tackle.

The first job they are taking on is to try and make logs out of recycled paper. We have been spending a lot of money on recycling paper and thought that we could do better. The boys have decided to shred all of the paper and then soak it in water. This will break the paper down and then they are going to design some sort of press to squish the paper into cylindrical logs.

Other tasks identified by the boys as projects for 2011 are:

• Build a community notice board at the front of school


• Construct a green house and shade house for our enviro gardens.


• Raise the rain water tank to allow the enviro team to have presure for watering the garden


• Make covers for the gardens to stop the birds eating the berries


• Putting in a divider in room four for the teacher aides

The boys are also designing their own Blog for you to keep up with their efforts. I will have the link available with the other class blogs when this is completed.

Red and Black

The children held a Red and Black day of Friday to raise money for the people of Christchurch. Students and teachers all dressed in red and/or black for the day as these are Canterbury colours. Our thoughts are with the people of Christchurch and wish them a speedy recovery in both body and mind. The children had a gold coin donation and they also made coconut ice (red and black), fudge and waffles to sell. In all the children raised $377.30 for the day. Well done guys great community spirit and helping our fellow countrymen. We never know when we may need a helping hand!

Week 4

This week we have had a lot going on. Wednesday saw our parents coming in to talk to the teachers about the children's progress towards their goals, where to next and how they can help at home.These sessions are a very important part in the child's schooling. Parental support plays a major role in how the child performs at school and their attitude to learning.

We also had the inter-school athletics on Thursday at Kaponga. A huge thank you to the Kaponga Athletic Club for organising the day. There were six schools competing on the day and the competition was fierce. Our children did extremely well and all gave 100% effort which is all we can ask.

Keep an eye on what's happening below to keep up to date on what is going on at school.

Councillors 2011

Congratulations to our 5 new councillors for 2011. They ran a very clean and hard fought campaign.

Well done:

Hamish

Ella

Caitlin

Bailey

Krissie

Your work has only just begun!!!

Week 3

The Information Saturation stage of our topic study is going well. The children are learning all about their bodies and how they work. I was informed by some children that they had 38 'heart beeps' per minute. Some have been looking into the body using online sites that allow you to peel away the layers to reveal what is beneath. We have one more week of info saturation then the children will be looking into their own inquiries into our bodies.

The swimming pool was finally able to be opened this week. Wooohooo. We have been upgrading the pool over the holidays and ran into a few problems. However we are swimming now, so children will need their togs every day. Swimming is part of our curriculum just like reading, writing and maths. This means that if the child is too sick to swim they are too sick to come to school.

We had a great Friday night with many families coming for a swim, shared BBQ and a meet and greet with the teachers. A great time was had by all and I even got in for a swim so the pool can't be that cold!!!

2011

Welcome back to school for 2011. We are in the process of updating our digital image and have started with all classes actively using their blog sites each week to inform you about what they are doing. Our web site is getting a much needed shakeup. We will use our web page as a portal to all of our other cloud based digital portfolios. Once it is completed you will be able to access all of our policies and procedures, our curriculum documents, newsletters and parent information about our school. It will be our one stop digital face. Hopefully this will be up and running by the end of term 1 2011. Keep checking the site to see our latest update.