New Website

This blog has now moved to our school website address (www.omokoroa.school.nz). Our school has just had a face lift on their old website and we have moved onto a new Wordpress site. Please go and have a look. Our website was created for us by Tek Connect.

Year 4 Cross-country

Last week the year 4's from our class ran in a cross-country race at Whakamarama School. They had to run 2.2 km up and down some big hills. They all did a fantastic job. I would like to congratulate Phoebe for making it through to the North Cluster cross-country this week. Well done Team 10. We will continue our training for the rest of the term so that the year 3's are ready for their race in week 9.

Dear Parents/Caregivers

Welcome back to another very busy term. I hope you all had an enjoyable holiday and a well deserved rest. All the children made a excellent start to the year and I am looking forward to a fun and exciting term 2. I would like to welcome Lily Parton, Daniel Reyland and Monique Addison and their families to our class and I look forward to getting to know you all.

Below are some things you might find helpful about our class:

Term 2 Virtue: The virtue we will be working on for the beginning of this term is Kindness; the children will be discussing and learning about this virtue in class. It would be appreciated if you could reinforce what we are teaching at home.

Homework: The children all did a fantastic job with their homework last term. I enjoyed seeing the creative ideas the children came up with when completing their word study activity and the enthusiasm and great results they got on Mathletics. Homework this term will consist of:

Reading—The children need to read for 10-15 minutes each night and fill in their reading diary.

Spelling—Learn their 10 spelling words at home each night ready for their spelling and dictation test on Friday.

Word Study Activity—Complete one word study activity each week and hand it in by Friday (if you have had a busy week Monday is fine).

Mathletics-Try and complete set task each week (1000 points needed to gain a certificate). The children will also be able to use this during class time and before school.

Spellodrome: The children have been extremely engaged and motivated when using Mathletics. It has been great to see the excellent learning taking place. We have been offered a free two week trial of Spellodrome, which is similar to Mathletics but is an interactive spelling programme. I would like to see if it is a worthwhile tool that could be used in the future. The trial will start in week 2 and I will talk to the children about how to use it. They will be able to log in using their Mathletics username and password. At the end of our free trial I will send home a questionnaire to gauge your interest in this programme.

Tissues/Slippers: As the weather gets colder the children are encouraged to bring a pair of slippers to wear in class. This will also keep their feet warm and our carpets clean. To encourage healthy hygiene in the class it would great if each child could bring a large box of tissues for the class to use. Thanks.

Parent Help Roster: Thank you to all those wonderful parents who helped in class and on camp last term. I would like to start a new timetable by week 2. If you are able to assist could you please fill out the form attached (or email your preferred day/time) and send it back to school by Wednesday 7 May.

Online Portfolios: This term the children will also be starting their own blog. This will be a place for them to display and reflect on their own learning. This will be done in class and I will check all posts before they are published. More information will come home about this soon.

TERM 2

Hi there and welcome back to term 2. I hope you had an enjoyable holiday and a well deserved rest. I am looking forward to all the exciting things that we will be getting up to this term. Here's a little sneaky peek of our term ahead: (Can you guess what we might get up to?)

Summer Green to Autumn Brown

The children performed this item during the whole school assembly last week. I think they did a fantastic job. Well done!

We did it again!

Congratulations Jack for making it to the leader board twice. He made it onto the leader board as the 8th top student in New Zealand. I am so proud of you.

Camp (A Dad's View)

Day two started at 6am. I was in charge of toast during breakfast and everyone said it was the best toast ever. Honey and jam on toast is now classed as a food sensation. It's the future.

Martha Mine and the coach tour was really interesting. I never realised Waihi has so many features in the streets depicting the gold industry. Even the mobility scooters in the bike shop had been modified so the horn could be used by the index finger, in case the users thumb was missing.

After lunch at Gilmour Park we headed back to camp to prepare for the evenings concert.

The Crazy Gang did really well. Watch out NZ Idol.

Day 3 of camp (children's view)

It rained today so we couldn't go to Bowentown. We decided to clean up and go to the hall and sing some songs. hen the parents drove there cars one by one to pick up the kids and took us to Sapphire Springs, but the water was a bit cold. Finally we went on a nature walk before going back to school and then dad and I went home. WHAT A GREAT CAMP! By Nicholas

In the morning we had breakfast. After breakfast we had a big clean-up. It was raining so we did not go to Bowentown, we played some games and sang some songs instead. Then we went to Sapphire Springs. I liked diving into the pool and going on the long slide. It was so much fun. We went home after that, I was very tired and enjoyed camp. By Georgia

Day 3 - It was the last day of camp and I was so excited to see our mums and dads. In the middle of the day it started to pour down with rain so we went in the hall and sun songs and danced. Then our caretakers came and got us and we went to the swimming pools and has a magnificant time. I loved camp! By Eden

We made it to the top 100 students!

Congratulations to Joost who has made it to the Top 100 students list in New Zealand for Mathletics.  He has actually made it to number 15.  What a fantastic effort.

Day 2 of Camp (children's view)

On day two we drove to the museum and we waited for Mr Broadhurst to bring the bus so we could go to the Martha Mine. What I liked the most was the dump trucks and the great big hole in Waihi. I was only a quarter of a wheel, Mrs Bateman took a photo of us all. After that we went on the heritage trail. What I liked about the heritage trail was counting all the art pictures. By Liam

Day Two: We woke up and had breakfast. We set off to the museum but we were not going thre we were just waiting for the bus. Finally the bus was here, Mr Broadhurst got the best bus he could find. Then we went to the Martha Mine in the bus. We saw a man and he took us to the mine. When we got there is was huge! There were heaps of trucks. By Freddie

In the morning we went to have breakfast in the dining room. After that we got ready to go to the museum. At last we were ready. I got chosen to go to the Martha Mine first. When we got there we walked up to the lookout so we could look out to the giant hole. There were lots of trucks with rocks in them. We drove up to see where the rocks were made into gold. The man showed us gold and the balls that crushed the rocks into sand. Then we drove back down to swap over. We went to the museum. First we went into see a movie. After that we went in to see how they chopped off thier thumbs in the old days at the mine. By Maiya

Day 1 of Camp (children's view)

We arrived at Karangahake Gorge. We had a fantastic and yummy lunch. Then we set off to start our adventure. We went over a swing bridge and Eden got very scared. We went a long way and went over lots of bridges. Next we went in long dark tunnel. In the middle I felt happy and scared. By Grace

We went to Karangahake Gorge today. We went over lots of swing bridges. When we got inside the tunnel it was dark and we had to use our torches. After that we went on a train ride. By Alec

Day one we set off to go to Karangahake Gorge. We went across some swing bridges. Olivia was scared. The tunnel was dark. Then we got to the train. It went so slow. We finally got to camp. That night we played spot light. By Gemma

Waihi Camp

What an amazing site to see more than 80 parents turn out for our camp concert. We would like to thank all the parents who came and helped make our camp so successful. Stay tuned for photos and some snapshots of our camp.

Congratulations

I would like to congratulate the children with their fantastic effort with Mathletics. Their hard work has paid off and they have managed to win our class a free subscription to Mathletics for the rest of this year. Here is the address or click on one of the links. http://www.mathletics.co.nz/

What is Mathletics?
Mathletics is New Zealand’s number 1 mathematics online tool inspiring more than 50,000 students to better results.
The arithmetic game your child played on World Maths Day is one of the integral parts of Mathletics. It also includes curriculum activities for all topics from Years 1 to 13.
Mathletics provides many benefits for teachers and students, from immediate visual support on all activities, to automated marking.

The children will be able to use Mathletics as part of their home learning and class work. They will be able to log in using their existing username and password.

Maths day results

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Congratulations to Eden for the highest cumulative score for gaining the most points in World Maths day. I was really proud of the children's effort and enthusiasm over world maths day. We got to 5637 points on the day of the competition. All students who participated managed to improve their scores considerably. Alexandra was the most improved mathlete in the class with an improvement of 850%. Macreay held the highest score in the class of 46 points.

World Maths Day

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

I thought this might be quite fun for all the children to try. I have registered our class names and the children will bring home a username and password they can use at home. Hope you all have some maths fun.

Class photos

While this isn't everyone it's a start

Room 10 Statistics

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Animal School

Some food for thought about education in the past, present and future.

Our Class Statistics

This week in maths we will be collecting all sorts of information about the people in our class. We will be working in groups to collect, sort and display our information. Mrs van Dijk is going to teach us how to make a bar graph and we will put this information onto our blog so that you will be able to get to know us a bit better. What kind of information do you think we should collect about our class? We have already found out how many brothers and sisters people have in Room 10. If you have any ideas please leave us a comment. Stay tuned to see how we go with our Statistical investigations.

Room 10 Photo 2008

Week 2

This week coming we will be setting up some more routines. I will start listening to the children read and set goals with them for their next learning steps. I look forward to getting to know the children better.

Term 1 2008

Dear Parents/Caregivers
Welcome to Room 10. I hope you all had an enjoyable and relaxing holiday. There are 27 children in Room 10 and we are a Year 3 and 4 class. I would like to welcome Ezra Cashmore, Dylan Clark and their families to our class and I look forward to getting to know you all. Please come and see me if you have any questions or concerns.

Below are some things you might find helpful about our class:

Term 1 Virtue: The virtue we are working on this term is Manners; the children will be discussing and learning about this virtue in class. It would be appreciated if you could reinforce what we are teaching at home.

Meet the Teacher Evening: This will be held on Wednesday 13 February with two sessions at 6.00 and 6.30 pm. This is an opportunity to meet me and to find out about Room 10.

Sun Hats: The school sunhats are to be worn during break times. Sun block can also be applied. Children are also encouraged to have a water bottle at school each day.

Swimming: We will be swimming everyday while the weather is fine. If your child is not swimming a note is required.

Homework: This will begin in a couple of weeks. A home reader will come home every night except Friday when they will bring home their poem and songs book to read. Also every week your child will have 10 spelling words to learn at home and will be tested on these words at school on Friday. They will have a spelling activity to be completed each week in their homework book. Later in the term they will also have some Basic Facts practice. Please put some time aside to hear your child read and to help them with their other homework.

Before School: Please encourage your child to return readers/homework etc. to the correct place in the room before the bell goes at 8.55 am.

Parent Help Roster: I would like to start this in a couple of weeks. If you are able to assist could you please fill out the form attached and send it back to school as soon as possible.

Stationery: Stationery packs are available from the office. Could you please have all items clearly labeled and brought to school as soon as possible.

Room 10 Blog: This year we will be starting a class blog which will allow us to share what we have been learning and doing in class. This will help provide more communication between home and school. The web address for our class blog is: number1learners.blogspot.com.

Email: If wish to receive class newsletters or communication via email please fill in the form attached.

Thanks Natalie van Dijk