Amazing Award Winners

Ka pai to all of the amazing students who received awards at the end of term assembly. 

Cein and Anneke received the St Francis of Assisi award.
They won this award for showing the four core values of Faith, Hope, Love and Joy. For caring for our school environment and God's creation, living our Vision, showing respect, having good manners and being prayerful. 

Also awesome work to Matthias, Thomas, Lisa, Alessandra, Bethany and Sofia for receiving the 100% attendance award, which means they came to school every day in term one. 

Fun learning websites for home

Kia ora lovely Whānau!

Thank you so much for all of the wonderful reading you do at home with your children every night.
It is wonderful to see each child's love for reading grow as they become more confident in their reading and find enjoyment in reading new and exciting books.
Research has shown that the best way children learn to read is by practicing reading. This might be reading alone, reading to a friend or listening to reading.

Here are some extra fun reading and math websites if you would like some ideas for extra educational activities at home.

Reading
Epic!
oxford owl
Study ladder\ - This website has both Literacy and Math activities and if you are noticing your child is finding the activities too easy or hard please email me and I can give them different activities
Literacy online  -For this website look for the colour level that your child is on, click on to it and there are reading books for reading to your child.
Storyline  - This website has lots of stories being read aloud by famous actors and is a fun way of listening to reading.

Math 
Prodigy -  It's a fun game that kids enjoy playing. The equations are not set out the way we usually set them out in New Zealand but it is still a fun way for kids to practice their math.
Top marks There are a lot of different math games, however some of them are a bit easy so just check they are playing games at the right level

Buzzing about bees!

This week we were lucky enough to have the wonderful beekeeper Lavinia come and visit our school. 

We have been learning all about bees and the amazing way they work together to make honey. This term is all about Whanaungatanga and bees are an amazing example of how communities work together for a common purpose, just like we do in society. 

Lavinia told us all about what she does in a day and showed us all of the tools she uses in her job. We got to try on the bee suits that bee keepers wear to protect them from getting stung and smelt the sticky hive. It smelt just like yummy, sweet honey. Who would have thought?

She showed us videos and photos of what she does throughout the day and of the bees hard at work. Did you know it takes 22,700 bees to fill one jar of honey? A bee only carries 20-40 grams of nectar per trip trip so to make just one pound (450g) of honey a bee has to make 12,000-24,000 trips to a nectar source. Talk about hard work! 

We found out that the bee suits don't always work and sometimes the beekeepers don't wear their suits so they often get stung. In fact Lavinia has been stung over a hundred times. She got stung 4 times just on Friday!
Beekeeper Lavinia brought in lots of bees for us to look at and we could see and hear them buzzing around. They are such complex creatures and are always working hard so it was awesome to see them in action eating their candy (they love sweet things). 

We then asked Lavinia LOTS of questions that we had. All about how bees make their honey, how they live together and what it is like being a bee keeper.
It was such a special day and we were so lucky to learn about bees from such an experienced person. 

Remember bees are so important for the environment and they really don't want to sting you, so show them lot's of love by not using pesticides, planting lots of yummy flowers  and giving them a safe distance so they don't think you want to hurt them. 

Bees are such a fascinating part of the world and a perfect example of how complex and amazing God's creation is.

He is Risen!

We have been talking a lot about Easter over the past few weeks and during holy week we learnt about Jesus' sacrifice and his journey to the cross. 

This week we have been focusing on the most important part of the Easter story, Jesus rising again just as he said he would. We talked about how important this is for us as it means he really was and is the Son of God as he had promised. 

Together we read through the road to Emmaus and talked about the order of event leading up to his death and the important events that happened after.

We then got in to groups and had to decide on our own, what we wanted to act out. It was tricky, but it was great to see that everybody remembered the words Jesus spoke at the last supper and his last words on the cross. 

It was a fun lesson but it also made us really think about God's plan, Jesus' actions and the hope we have because he died for us. 

Room 8's Class Treaty

At the beginning of the year we wrote a treaty together as a class. 
We talked about what a treaty means, and how we could use this agreement to help us as a class. 

We had our treaty blessed at the commissioning mass and revisited it over the last couple of weeks to make sure we are carrying out our agreement every day. 

These are the guidelines we agreed on and hope to try and uphold each value every day. 

Room 8’s’Class Treaty

˜To not be afraid to make mistakes, instead learn from them so that we can grow as learners and people.

˜ Make new friends and make sure that everyone feels included and loved.

˜ Live each day by our school values Joy, Love, Hope and Faith.

˜ Keep safe and have fun, find enjoyment in our learning.

˜ Love ourselves, love each other, and love God.

˜ Help each other and be kind to everyone.

˜ Challenge ourselves every day and never ever give up even when work is hard.

˜ Show respect to others and school property

Here are the photos of us signing the treaty to say that we agree and promise to follow the guidelines stated on our treaty.