Book Week at St Francis Xavier School

This week for Book Week we have special people coming to our school. They were coming to read to us. We have met some people from Parliament some authors some school principals and Anton's grandma!

Hon Peter Dunne snuggled into his chair and read "The house at Pooh Corner", to us. He brought the same book he used to read when he was a little boy. He got us to do the "tiddly pom" bit.
Queen Betty (Anton's grandma) put lots of expression into her reading. It looked like she thought it was really interesting. She has lots of books at home and she told us we were really good readers!
Hon Phil Goff read the Little Yellow Digger and the Whale. It sounded like he was picturing it in his mind and he was trying to get us to picture it in our minds too. He looked pretty nervous but he concentrated really hard on the words.
Hon Annette King had a wicked sense of humour. She used funny books and interesting voices.
Mr Aitken wore a tie with Winnie the Pooh on it.
Hon Winnie Laban said that her favourite author was AA Milne and when she was a little girl her friends used to call her Winnie the Pooh!
Mr Lucas had a scratchy voice but he read us a book about bats in the library. It was kind of spooky.

We have lots more books to read so we'll update you later in the week.
Bye for now...
Room 7

Outdoor Education Week in the Middle Syndicate

The Year 3 and 4 children have been mixed together into new groups this week to do lots of Outdoor Education activities.

On Monday we learned how to read a compass and map so we could do orienteering. A boy on youtube showed us how it's done. We learned about north, south, east and west directions. You have to line your map up with North on the compass, then you can start finding things. We've been doing lots of mapping activities are are getting pretty good at this. Today we learned to use a piece of string to measure a path on a map, then use the scale on the map to convert our measurement into kilometres.

We have also been learning about painting. First we looked at some paintings by Impressionist painters. They did lots of their paintings outdoors. We had to experiment with making different brush strokes, using brushes, ice block sticks and our fingertips. Then we tried doing painting in this style. Our art works are really exciting. We'll be able to display them in our own school art exhibition.

It's been raining lots and our trip to the Cambourne walkway on Wednesday was postponed due to stormy weather. We are hoping that the weather will be fine tomorrow so we can talk a walk around Pahatanui inlet - there are lots of interesting things to paint there. Next week we will be visiting an exhibition of Impressionist paintings at Te Papa. We can compare our art works with theirs!

This afternoon we've been putting up tents. The people at the sides had to hold the edges really tightly so the wind didn't blow the tent away. It took a while to work pout where to put the poles but in the end we got the tent up. We went inside to see what it would feel like.

There's lots to do outdoors and our Outdoor Education week has been lots of fun.

Outdoor Education Week.

Did you know that Week 1 of Term 2 will be Outdoor Education for The Year 3 and 4 children at St Francis Xavier School.

We will be doing lots of activities outside so this would be a really good time to wear our Sports Uniform. Don't forget that if you have a sports uniform you are allowed to wear it to school every day that week. If you don't have a sports uniform, just wear your school uniform.

Have a great Easter break ....and remember to take care of your family!

OUR KAKAHU

Room 7 are making a kakahu. A kakahu is a cloak that has feathers from a bird.

First we had to design a kakahu and then we made the cloak . We also had to cut 218 feathers. It was alot of hard work to do. After we had made 218 feathers we put feathers on the cloak .

Then we had to learn how to make a plait out of wool. We had to practice before we did the plait that we were going to use. We got brown paper to stick on to the cloak. We did a type of pattern for the border and then we coloured the pattern that we had made. Then we stapled the plait to the brown paper and the kakahu was on.

We have put our kakahu on the wall. You can see them if you come and visit our classroom. We all have differnt types of patterns and colours. One kakahu is pink, black, red, purple and blue . Another kakahu is pink, purple, green, black and white.

Making our kakahu was a lot of hard work but we think they look great!

DO ONLY ANGELS PLAY HARPS?





Carolyn Mills from NZSO came to school today. She brought her harp and played for us. A harp is a musical instrument that has lots of strings. You can play it by plucking, running your fingers up and down the strings, using the pedals, running a key across the strings or tapping the side of the instrument.

Carolyn played a tango from Argentina, a jig from Ireland and a flamenco from Spain. Then Carolyn helped the children compose pieces of music which she played for them.

Here's what the Room 7 children thought about the show.
"It was awesome that she could make noise just by pressing the pedals".
"It was interesting that she could play it with the harp key".
"She could play it off by heart".
"She could make lots of different noises with just one string"."We could see by the look of her fingers that she did lots of practice".
"It was really exciting that was the first time I had seen anybody play a harp"
"Her music was soothing".
"I liked hearing Carolyn play the music I had made".

Hi Room 7

We're almost at the end of the first term. Here are just a few things for you to think about this week:

Tuesday:
Carolyn Mills, the harpist from NZSO (that's New Zealand's Symphony Orchestra) will be visiting school to play for us at 1pm. This is pretty special as you probably haven't seen a harp up close before. See what you can find out about harps before we meet her... you will be able to ask questions so get thinking! We will have an early lunchtime on Tuesday.
Oh and check whether Mum or Dad ....or any other members of your family would like to come to see Carolyn play. They will be most welcome.

Goal sheets:
I was most impressed by the confident way you shared your learning goals with your families this week.
The goal sheets have been sent home for you to complete with your families. For those people who have an e-mail address there may be a little delay as some of your messages got stuck in my outbox and I'll need to send them again, once the blockage is cleared.
Meanwhile you can write on the hard copy we put in homework books. remember to bring these back to school before Thursday please!

Art
Our Cloaks are coming together nicely. We will be using PVA glue to stick the "feathers" in place so make sure you have your Art shirt with you..... as we don't want to get the glue on uniforms.

PE Uniform:
Those of you who have a PE uniform can bring it to school on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays as you wil be able to change before doing Physical Education.

Easter Liturgy:
We will be finishing our preparations this week - make sure you invite your famly to school on Thursday afternoon.

God bless
Mrs B

St Francis Xavier School
Main Rd
Tawa.
30 March 2009


Dear Parents and Caregivers

Our syndicate is going to Monet and the Impressionists, an art exhibition currently on show at te Papa, on 4 May (rooms 4 & 7) and 6 May (Rooms 5 & 6). This visit is to support the children’s learning in our current visual arts unit of study. Our visit will be guided by the Te Papa educators.

We will travel to and from Te Papa by bus, leaving school at 9.15am and returning to school by 1pm. We would appreciate your help with this trip.

As we will be at Te Papa from 10am to 12.45 pm, the children will need lunch, a drink and a warm jacket. The children will wear school uniform. As usual, they will not be purchasing food, drinks or souvenirs.

If you can help by coming on our trip, please complete the slip below and return this to your child’s teacher as soon as possible. We are looking forward to a fun, day and hope you can join us!

God bless



_______________________________________________________________________
I can come to Te Papa on (please tick the appropriate box)
□ Monday 4 May (Rooms 4 & 7)

□ Wednesday 6 May (Rooms 5&6)

My child’s name___________________ Room _______________

My name________________________ Phone __________________