Term 3 Week 3
Principal's Message
This year we have tried to move our Language of the Week focus to a Culture of the Fortnight. The children have been doing some research in their classes. We are lucky to have such a diverse community and want to learn more about each other and it would be wonderful to have parent support in this. As I asked earlier in the year, please consider sharing some of your experiences with the children during your fortnight. You may want to teach us a dance, read us a story, help a group make some traditional foods or share your journey to New Zealand. Below are the dates for the rest of the term. They are also on the school calendar up to the end of the year.
31st July to 11th August - Korea 14th-25th August - Indonesia
28th August to 8th September - Malaysia 11th to 22nd September - Maori
Lisa Small,
Principal
Te Reo Māori Words of the Week
kurī (n) dog Kia tūpato ki te kuri. Be wary of the dog.
koroua (n) grandfather Ko Charlie taku koroua. Charlie is my grandfather.
kiritata (n) neighbour Kātahi anō ka tūtaki ki ngā kiritata. I only just met the neighbours.
Kau (n) cow Me ara moata te kaipāmu ki te whakatētē i ana kau. The farmer needs to rise early to milk his cows.
Faith News
Wednesday Mass
Please come and join Room 4, along with members of our parish to celebrate Mass in Room 3 at 9am this Wednesday 02 August.
Parish Newsletter
This week’s Parish newsletter is available here
YCC Fundraiser
In June we took part in a Caritas fundraiser called YCC. As part of that day we took a photo in the shape of the letter C. St Francis de Sales and St Anne's joined us and now Caritas are using our photographs in their marketing.
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.
School Photo Orders
You should have recently received an email (please also check your spam/junk box) directly from photolife, with your child/rens ‘shoot key’ code, and instructions on how to view and order your child’s school photos on line.
All orders placed before Midnight on Sunday 13th August will be delivered free to school. (Orders placed after this date will be delivered to your home address, and will incur a postage fee.)
Please see Katrina in the office or email office@stbernards.school.nz if you did not receive an email, and I can source your child’s key code for you.
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: 15 August 05 September
Room 2: 22 August 12 September
Room 4: 08 August 29 August
Room 1 Learning
We had so much fun on Friday for our 100 Days of School celebrations. The best part was working with our Year 6 buddies on the ten lots of ten activites we had to do - sit ups, frog jumps, high fives and writing names to name a few.
Coach Scott came for our weekly basketball session. We learnt how to pivot, jump stop and fake pass. We were again reminded how lucky we are to have a hall to use on cold winter days.
Room 2 Learning
We are very pleased with the results of our Matariki posters. Some students are still finishing off their posters, however, we encourage you to pop into Room 2 see our Matariki display of those completed to date.
On Friday it was the 100th day of school for 2023. Room 2 spent the day ticking off tasks from a choice board of 100-themed activities. The choice board covered P.E., literacy, mathematics, art, perseverance, creativity and at times team building.
Over the past fortnight we have been learning some Cantonese for our language of the fortnight. As part of our learning we discovered that the Great Wall of China is over 13 times the length of Aotearoa New Zealand. It took over 2,000 years to build. We had the challenge of building a domino chain across our classroom to experience what it would be like to collaboratively build a long structure. It was very CHALLENGING.
Room 4 Learning
Last Tuesday Room 4 started their second Wonder Project - The Power Challenge. This project is all about generating electricity. In groups, the children will build a wind turbine and use it to create electricity to light a series of buildings on an electronic circuit board. For our first session we learnt about potential and kinetic energy, and how you transform from one form of power to another. We are very lucky to have Dave Harper (Natalie's father) working with us as our Wonder Ambassador. Dave gave a presentation about his role as an electrical engineer working for Transpower. Next, we unpacked the Wonder kit and looked at all the equipment the children are going to use to build their wind turbine. Dave also explained energy transformation and potential and kinetic energy. The children worked in small groups to create a paper circuit. This involved using a battery, LED light and copper tape to create the circuit trail. The circuit had a starting point, a point for the LED light to be attached and an end point where the battery was placed. The switch for the circuit was created by folding the paper over at the corner to touch the battery. Most of the circuits made the LED light work and there were some adjustments made if the LED did not work the first time. The session was completed with Dave demonstrating how an electric current can be created using a Jacob's Ladder. It was a fantastic introduction and we are really looking forward to the next session!
