Term 4 Week 7
Principal's Message
Athletics
Throughout the year, students from Year 4 up have the opportunity to compete in Zone competitions in athletics, swimming and cross-country. Our school is part of the Central Zone of Wellington. Earlier on this term, some of our boys competed in the athletics competition and qualified for the Interzone competition which took place yesterday. Congratulations to Riley who came 4th in Year 7 vortex and Quinn who came 1st in Year 5 quoits. Quite an achievement for them both to be ranked in that position against what in effect is all the Year 5 and 7 boys in Welllington. Quinn will now progress to the Regional competition.
St Catherines' Community Project
Last Wednesday and Thursday we welcomed Bella, Jaseka, Tyla, Iliana and Mia, Year 11 students from St Catherine's College. All Year 11 girls were working in the community to support different projects and activities. On Wednesday, the five girls painted the base coat of a fence on the top field, emptied and then tidied the PE shed, stripped artwork from the hall walls and then spent the afternoon leading craft activities with Room 1. On Thursday, they spent time painting a mural on the fence. Unfortunately, the weather didn't play nicely and so the mural will need to be finished this week (luckily Bella has finished college for the year so will come in to do it). We are so grateful for their hard work and I know the children had fun getting to know them.
Lisa
Faith News
Wednesday Mass
Please come and join Room 4, along with members of the parish, for Mass this Wednesday morning at 9am,
in Room 3.
Parish Newsletter
This week’s Parish newsletter is available here
Mobile Dental Clinic Visit
The schools’ dental nurse will be onsite next week in their mobile van, from Thursday December 5 until the following Tuesday December 10, for the childrens annual dental check ups.
If further treatment is required your child will be given a notice to bring home. Please ask your children about their visit and check to see if they have brought any information home.
2025 Term Dates
Term 1 - Mon 3 Feb to Fri 11 April (Waitangi Day 6 Feb)
Term 2 - Mon 28 April to Fri 27 June (Kings birthday 2 June, Matariki June 20)
Term 3 - Mon 14 July to Fri 19 Sept
Term 4 - Mon 6 Oct to Wed 17 Dec (Labour Day Oct 27)
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 4: 27 November
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.
Room 1 Learning
A busy week in Room 1! In maths we had been exploring patterns and in particular patterns that repeat. We created our own pattern on a strip of card and then repeated it many times. We decided to turn these into belts and modelled wearing them.Don't we look cool!
Here we are reading some of the big books.
We are continuing our learning around New Zealand birds and have been looking at the different ways they build their nests and the materials they use. We went out into the school garden to see if we were as clever as birds and could build a nest for our piwakawaka birds we made a couple of weeks ago.
Room 2 Learning
Room 2 has been learning about narrative writing. We've explored the normal sequence of events in a plot: introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. We viewed the 'plot mountain' and used our current classroom story - Joy Cowley's "Chicken Feathers" as an example of how a 'plot mountain' works. We then drew our own story maps in preparation for our New Zealand native bird stories, which we will soon be writing. The class learned how to map out the setting, characters, and conflict for their stories. We also talked about how good authors often need to plan the ending of their stories before they write the beginning.
For fun, we did some artwork on how to draw a dog! We used reference pictures of different dog breeds to help us, but the class weren't allowed to trace! Have a look at our beautiful drawings.
Room 4 Learning
Plant Research
This term the Year 6 children researched plants. They found lots of facts about plants and also learnt about photosynthesis. Below is a selection of facts from our Year 6s about the plants they researched.
Blake - The Baobab Tree Appearance
Baobab trees are normally 5 to 20 metres tall. Their leaves are also 15-20cm wide. Baobab trees also have barrel-shaped trunks. The trunks are normally 5 metres wide. It is also pinkish grey or sometimes copper coloured. Baobabs trees are known as upside down trees because their branches look like roots.
Dara - The Fern Plant - lifecycle
A fern plant starts as a spore and it takes 2 to 6 weeks to germinate. Fern plants can live for up to 20 years. A fern starts as a sporangium which is a seed. Next it becomes a mature gametophyte which contains the sperm and an egg. After it goes through fertilisation it becomes a zygote. This grows into a new baby fern. Afterward, it becomes a mature sporophyte, a fully grown fern plant.
Inigo - The Pitcher Plant - Food chain
Pitcher plants are carnivorous eaters and eat spiders, flies and ants. The pitcher plant can also eat geckos and small rodents. They eat their prey by baiting the insect to land on top, using the nectar and digestive juices. Since the top is slippery the insect falls into the inside and is eaten by the plant. Some animals eat pitcher plants, like raccoons. They rip the pitcher plant and eat all the insects inside it.
Quest - The Venus Fly Trap - appearance
A Venus fly trap is green and looks vicious. It has a red mouth with a yellow tinge. It has skinny looking jaws. The venus fly trap looks like it has thin teeth. It looks very scary with its amazing powerful jaws. The venus fly trap looks like it is related to an alien from space.
Joan - The Dandelion - Cultural Beliefs
There are a lot of beliefs about dandelions. One thing that everyone believes is when you make a wish and blow a dandelion, which has puffballs, your wish will come true. Another belief is that if you can blow all the seeds in one breath they help you tell the time or predict the weather.
Joshua - The Cactus - appearance
The first step of a cactus’ life cycle is called germination. The next step is called maturity. The third step is called flowering & pollination. The fourth step is called fruiting. The fifth and final step is called seed dispersal. Desert animals like birds, coyotes, and tortoises eat cactus fruit and disperse seeds in their scat (poop).
Australian Fortnight
Thank you to Mrs Harper, her mum Sue and Natalie and Joshua for their Australian presentation to Room 2 and 4 last week. We got to see crystals that the family had found in caves and other places while they were living there.
Public Notices
Summer Holiday Computer Classes
Grand Training runs educational and fun computer classes over the holidays at our Wellington City location for ages 5 to 16.
- Minecraft from Introduction to Mods.
- Learn to Code; Scratch, Python or Java.
- Discovery Course in Computing - suitable for younger children
- Build Your own Computer
Up to 15% off during the December/January School Holidays
CAPITAL TROUT CENTRE
(Landfill Road, Owhiro Bay)
WHEN
Sunday 8th DECEMBER 2024
A fishing experience for children aged 2 to 11 years.
You must have a Capital Trout Center licence/registration
FREE licences/registration forms will be available from
23rd November 2024
At
Capital Fishing, 49 Ghuznee Street (off Cuba Mall)
Hutt Valley Hunting & Fishing, 8 Te Puni Street, Petone
Your donation is appreciated
This is manned by volunteers from the Wellington Flyfishers Club and is funded by your donations
For further information, contact Strato Cotsilinis 386 3740
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer fermentum sagittis felis eu ullamcorper. Integer lobortis et leo ac molestie. Nunc malesuada tellus eu est commodo semper. Sed tempus placerat dapibus. Curabitur rhoncus convallis nisi, non ultrices mi sodales quis. Aliquam consectetur lectus at rhoncus iaculis.
