Term 3, Week 8
Principal's Message
Time and again, I've met someone new, and when I tell them where I work they have a connection to the school - my mum went there, my aunty used to teach there. Just recently we found out that Emily, out guitar teacher, is a past pupil. This week Katrina found her name in the school roll book which thrilled Emily no end. On Thursday lunchtime Emily and the students treated us to a concert, playing The Lion Sleeps Tonight, Three Little Birds (Bob Marley), Smoke on the Water (Deep Purple) and Slice of Heaven (Dave Dobbin). They are doing so well. In the photos, check out Emily's hat which is her old St Bernard's school hat!
Lisa Small,
Principal
Te Reo Māori Words of the Week
tau waea (n) phone number Kei a koe te tau waea a Hana? Do you have Hana's phone number?
tīmata (v) to start, begin Toru, rua, tahi, tīmata! One, two, three, start!
toa (v) to win Ki te toa koe, māku te haute. If you win, it's my shout.
tuhi (v) to write E tuhi ana ahau i tētahi rārangi hoko kai. I'm writing a grocery list.
Social Justice Week
The annual Caritas Social Justice Week commenced yesterday, Sunday 3rd September and runs until 9th September. The theme this year is: "Peace begins with you". This morning at our Whole School Prayers, we listened to Pope Francis address a congregation of children talking about peace. Each day we will reflect on peace themed prayers and learn more about how we can contribute to a more peaceful world. On Wednesday we invite you to join us in celebrating our Social Justice Week Whole School Mass at 9am in the school hall. All are welcome. Peace is something that we build together.
On Thursday, students will be involved in a variety of lessons and activities from the Caritas website. We ask that the children come to school dressed in white like a dove or in peacful colours. In payment, rather than a gold coin, they are asked to bring in an item on non-perishable food which will be donated to the Home of Compassion Soup Kitchen. (e.g. tinned food, dried pasta, rice, cereals)
Faith News
Wednesday Mass
Please come and join us, along with members of our parish to celebrate Mass in the school hall at 9am this Wednesday 06 September.
Parish Newsletter
This week’s Parish newsletter is available here
School App
Please ensure you have signed up for our school app. it is a great way to let us know if your child is absent and is the way we organise Three-way Conference time slots.
School Admin
Lost Balls
A reminder that our neighbour will return any lost balls on a Friday. Please do not enter the property without permission, particularly now that they have a dog, or knock on their door during the day as one of the ladies works nights.
Absences
If your child is sick or unable to attend school for all or part of the day, please either send a notification via the school app (skool loop), email the school office on office@stbernards.school.nz or phone 3899377 by 9.00 a.m. so that your child's absence can be accounted for.
Children who are late need to report to the office in case they have been marked absent by the teacher who takes the roll first thing in the morning.
If an absence is planned for a special reason, a note or telephone call to the school in advance is appreciated. In cases of prolonged absence, e.g. a family trip, a written note is required.
Brooklyn Library Visits
This term we will resume our termly visits to Brooklyn Library. If your child wishes to borrow a book during the visit they need to bring their personal library card with them. We will return books on the next visit if they are brought back in time. Books not brought on the day of the visit will need to be returned by yourselves. If you would like to leave your child's card in the classroom between visits then teachers will find a safe place to keep them.
Room 1: 05 September
Room 2: 12 September
Room 1 Learning
Well our doggy day on Monday actually ended up lasting the whole week!!
The children were really engaged reading to the dog toys each day and worked their way through alot of dog stories.
In maths we have continued our learning around fractions, looking at half of a shape, and also half of a set of objects.
In art, we have been looking at the shape and texture of trees and attempting to use our pencils in different ways to show light, dark, texture and pattern.
Room 2 Learning
As part of our reading programme, on Tuesday Eva, Marco and Michaela read about how kūmara journeys from the ground to supermarket. The following day, Mrs Small brought some kūmera to school so Eva and Marco peeled, cleaned and cooked the vegetables in an air fryer before sharing them with the whole school. Yummy! Whilst the Year 5 students spent the middle block in Room 4 on Wednesday, the Year 3 & Year 4 students entertained the Room 1 students with our rendition of Sāsā, inspired by an article we read in a Junior Journal.
We had so many birthdays this week: Daniel, Marco and Hawaiki all turned 8 years old. For writing, we are learning to write descriptively. I asked the students to write two sentences about birthdays. Here are some of the students' work:
Two days ago it was my birthday and I had delicious chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing. (Marco)
My cake was so delicious with mouth watering vanilla icing, beautiful cherries, gorgeous strawberries and green seedy kiwifruit. It was the best birthday cake ever! (Joan)
On my birthday I excitedly tore open my presents, discarded wrapping paper lay useless on the carpet. Then I rushed to the dining table to eat my creamy, iced, cat-themed cake. (Cosima)
Mrs Harper's ESL group wrote:
My amazing birthday was hosted at Entertainment in Lower Hutt by my parents. My excited family and joyful friends zoomed around the dark, cold laser force stadium. (Te Kahuirere)
On his wonderful birthday, footballer Sammy carefully kicked his clean, new ball. During the hot afternoon his caring family and friends munched eagerly on the chewy, delicious hot dogs. (Sammy)
In Pūtaiao/Science we continue learning about simple machines. This week's focus was on the wheel and axle. Archeological evidence shows that the first wheel and axle existed in Mesopotamia during the Bronze Age around 3500 B.C. We watched a short video which explained how this simple machine was likely used in the building of the great pyramids. Afterward we made our own wheel and axle models.
Room 4 Learning
Room 4 has been busy working on their Wonder Project windmill designs with the help of Dave Harper. Apart from designing and trialling windmill blade designs, the children have also been working on electricity reading and writing activities. For one activity, they had to write about how their school day would look like without electricity. Here are some of their thoughts:
Imagine that there was no power in your school. How would your day be different?
Alna:
We would have to do our work with paper, we can’t write documents, and instead of learning activities on websites, we have to play math games on the mat. We won’t have Minecraft and we will play outside more. It will be cold because there is no heater, and we will have to have more time to get to know nature better.
Clara:
If the lights were not working and it was a cloudy day we wouldn’t be able to see anything. We cannot control the weather so there would be nothing we could do. Most of our work is on the computer so if there was no electricity we couldn't do our work. We could always do word maps or other activities on paper but what if we ran out of the activity on paper, copies cannot be printed out because we couldn’t use the computers. The television wouldn’t be working so if we wanted to do an art activity we would not have the example on the TV. With no electricity, the heater wouldn’t work, so if the heater wasn’t working we would have to bring about 5 layers of clothes. If you lived in Wellington you would know that it can get VERY cold and windy.
Sam:
First of all, we could not do printed paper activities because the printer would not work. If the computers were charged and we made some documents accessible offline, we could do computer work until the computers ran out of charge. It would be dark in our classroom on a rainy day and cold on a cold day.
Vincent:
We would have to do work on paper or in our books. The classroom would be dark and cold. We would not be able to access digital documents.
Logan:
We would have to write everything down by hand, use a battery operated torch for light and bring portable heaters.
Public Notices
Wellington Harrier Children's Athletic Club
Our season open day is Saturday 14th October, at Newtown Park. We have a new start time of 9am this season and a new Hurdles, High Jump coach!
At our club days athletes practice all events, Including long jump, hurdles, high jump, sprints, middle distance and throws. Our children's club day caters for all abilities. New members are welcome!
You can register through http://www.whac.org.nz
For more information please contact: Julie Richards, juliemaerdy@yahoo.co.uk, 0212959026
