Are the Room 7 students eating their lunch?

Some people think that the Intermediate age students are skipping their lunch so that they can play. Parents, we need your feeback. Please vote on our poll or leave a comment to indicate whether your son or daughter is eating their lunch or whether they are bringing it home uneaten.

Kia ora Parents and Caregivers
Last week was a very busy week. Added to the usual classroom programme were Assembly preparations, basketball practises and the Wetlands programme but we made it and had a lot of fun along the way.

After all the preparations, making the call on Friday morning and cancelling the outdoor assembly was a hard one. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your view point!) the weather was the opposite to what was predicted on the weather forecast at 8 am Friday. Never mind. Can’t win them all. The students preparations were not in vain as they put on the Assembly for the Senior Syndicate in the staffroom.

Thanks for your support with the electronic communications. It worked well last week and we only had to photocopy 6 copies of the news and home tasks. A big thank you to Matt, Sarah and Judy for adding your views to the debate about the difference between a job and a career. Hope you all enjoyed the sweet treat : )
It is not too late to add your views. How about taking time to comment after you have read this.

Everyone loves MOTEC on Fridays. Students develop an understanding of:
1. the use and operation of technologies 2. technological principles and systems; 3. the nature of technological practice; 4. strategies for the communication, promotion, and evaluation of technological ideas and outcomes.




Home tasks

Kidsline Posters
Create a poster to enter into the 2009 Kidsline poster competition. Remember to think of an analogy or metaphor for the help line then think of a short catchy slogan to go with the image. practise your design ideas on a ordinary piece of paper first. When you feel you have a winning design, draw it onto the competition page.

Maths Mate
Term 2 Sheet 3 or cycle 11
Due for marking and discussing on Thursday.

Persuasive writing
Making a decision
Last week most people had only 2 or 3 points for their junk food decision making sheet.
This week I want you to see if you can meet the challenge of finding more. To do this you will need to do some research on junk food. What facts and figures can you find in books or the Internet?





Wetlands

Today's Friday and we are excited because it is our first visit to the Mapua Wetlands Project. Here we come to have some fun in the sunny sun! This session is going to be our safety and orientation session. We are going to be learning about the Wetlands and helping to develop and conserve the environment every second Friday afternoon for the next two terms. We have our gumboots, jackets and scarves ready to go. Check out our photos next time you visit our blog.

Another great weekend in paradise. What a fabulous place to live.
Mad Hair day was a huge success. The students had a lot of fun giving my hair a bit of a makeover!


In this day and age of electronic communication it is kind of ironic that we still print mountains of paper. At school our photocopy budget has been blown and we are now using Term 3’s supplies! To help alleviate this problem I am now going to put all news and home work tasks on our class blog. there will be a hard copy on display in the class, one in the folder at the Office and any parents who do not have ready access to a computer will also be given a hard copy.
Could you please email me or ring me if you have any problems with this arrangement.

The students are really interested in the Careers unit. We had a discussion around what is a career and what is a job and would like input from you on the class blog. Could you type a comment stating what you think is the difference (if any) between a job and a career.

Student tasks for this week:
Careers
Personal qualities - complete PP3 of your careers book.
Spanish Alphabeto
Create the section allocated to you for our Spanish alphabet frieze. You may use the computer or do it by hand.
Maths Mate
Term 2 Sheet 2 or cycle 10
Due for marking and discussing on Thursday.

Persuasive writing Making a decision
During our persuasive writing unit you will need to learn to make decisions. You will use black hat and yellow hat thinking to make a decision about fast foods. Complete the worksheet by coming up with as many ideas for and against as you can - aim for 10 per side!

Careers

This term we are looking at careers!! It is going to be quite cool working somewhere for a day.
So far we have looked at some of the worst jobs! Imagine doing this for a living.



We are starting to look at what skills and personality traits you need for different jobs. We are also trying to define and work out what the difference between a career and a job is and we are wondering if you could help us by leaving a comment telling us what you think the difference is.

Kia ora
I had a relaxing time catching up with family members down in Balclutha and had stopovers at Wanaka, Fox and Greymouth on the way home. It was great to have glorious autumnal weather (and colours) for most of the trip but of course it rained as we drove through the Haast. I don’t think I have ever managed to drive through there when the sun is shining. It didn’t matter though as the rivers and waterfalls were magnificent. I hope you all had a great time with your families over the two week break. As always I am looking forward to hearing the news from the children over the next day or two.

This week we will be starting off our new topics.
Reading comprehension strategy: Questioning
Writing : Persuasive texts
Maths: Geometry - angles
Topic: Careers
Cognitive Organiser: PMI
Thinking strategies: Blooms taxonomy
Term 2 goals (please discuss with your child and give guidance for the goal sheet)
Reminders that students need to :
* have a water bottle every day
* show and discuss their homework diaries, newsletter and work task with you every week
* get your signature on a Thursday night so I know you are kept informed of weekly happenings
* get you to tick the box to show you received the school newsletter either by email or paper copy.

Regards
Teressa

Home Tasks
Topic
Careers
Show your booklet to your parents and complete the Passenger Portrait and What makes me, ‘me’ activities on PP1 & 2
Due Friday
Literacy
Reading - Questioning
Find a book, website or dictionary definition of plants. Bring either the book, a printed or photocopied page of the information or if you can’t do any of these bring the book and we will photocopy the relevant information.
Bring any info as soon as you find it so we can make comparisons between the different sources.
Maths Mate
Complete your 8th Maths Mate cycle or first term 2 sheet
Due for marking Thursday

Term Goals
Read your Term 1 goal sheet and identify the goals you still need to work on. Discuss these with your parents as well as the new goals you need to set for yourself.
Due Friday

Camp Totaranui

Can you imagine going to Camp Totaranui and having the best week ever with a buddy of your choice? Well keep dreaming buddy, it is possible.
And here is the proof.



We had parents who gave the best hugs (not to mention anyone - Sandy - wink, wink, nudge, nudge). We loved the whole week, from the boat trip where we got to see seals to the time we got back and got welcome home hugs from our parents.

Challenges were fun and interesting. We faced our fears and conquered them on the Separation Point walk or the 15m rock face we abseiled down.
Fire drill at 7 am in the morning and the banging of pots and pans were horrific but were a great way to get us up because the rest of the days were full of action.

The swimming was fun and a great thing to do after a long walk and had well been deserved but then took its turn to burden us with a cold in the weekend well at least some of us were unlucky to get the bug.