Ferrymead

On Friday 23 November Room 6 and 7 went to Ferrymead for the day.  At school we are studying life in our grandparents day - the 1950's and 1960's.  We did lots of cool activities we played with toys from that era and went to schoool like it would have been in the 50's and 60's -  Mrs Brown had a big strap and it make a huge noise when she wacked it on the desk!!  We also looked at TV/Radio and entertainment and made some delicious Lolly Cake in the 50's and 60's kitchen.  It was a huge day and we had so much fun and learnt a whole lot of things.  Of course Bumble came too.

Garden Collage

On Tuesday Susie from the Christchurch Art Gallery came to see us again.  This time we made a Garden Collage.  We looked at a number of artworks first for inspiration and to see how they created their collages.  Then using some templates and stencils that Susie had we set about making our own.  We had lots of fun and made some awesome collages.  Thanks to all the Mums and Grandmas who helped us out on the day we really needed your help with some of the fiddly cutting out.

Canterbury Country Cricket

Today 3 gentlemen from Canterbury Country Cricket arrived at school to take us for a skills session.  We had lots of fun practicing throwing and catching, the fundamental skills in cricket.  Check us out!

Poetry Finalists

On June 14 Room 7 sent 5 people to the Ashley School Poetry Finals.  The Year 1's were Hannah Leslie, Connor Page and the Year 2's were Keira Sewell, Niko Silcock and Alek Leonelli.  All of them showed confidence and excellence in their recitals and we are so proud of all of them.

Let it snow!!

What a week Monday - Queens Birthday, public Holiday.  Tuesday School Wednesday & Thursday Snow days and now it's Friday already.  We have had a blast today with a much reduced number of pupils due to some still being stuck at home in the snow.

New Class Member

In Room 7 we have a new class member - Bumble!  He had heard that Room 7 was the best class to be in so he wanted to come and see for himself.  He is going to be going home with the children every weekend and he has a diary that the children can fill in with all their adventures and pictures from their weekend with Bumble.

X-Country Photos

As promised a couple of photos!

Cross Country

Well today was the Ashley School Cross Country, the weather could have been a bit warmer for us but at least it didn't rain!!  All of the children very very excited to go up the road to the Marshall-Lees for the event.  Everyone gave it 100% and their attitudes and behaviour were top notch.  Well done!  Photos to come soon - watch this space.

Welcome to Term 2

Welcome back everybody we are looking towards another action packed term.  Our focus this term is going to be change, and there will be a science focus.  We will be exploring how things easily observable things in our environment change.  We are off to the Waimakiriri Library this term - more information to come soon re dates and times.
Its also Poetry Competition time again with the competition to be held in mid June so get looking for that gem of a poem your child can share with us all.
Rochelle Standen

Go Karts!!

The Year 6 children have spent this term making Go Karts for technology.  Today they held a Go Kart race to finish off their work.  Man they went really fast, afterwards all the children in Room 7 got to have a go in a Go Kart it was heaps of fun.

Many thanks to the Year 6 children, Miss Mutch and all the parents who turned out today it was heaps of fun.

Clay Faces

On Monday, Suzie from the Christchurch Art Gallery came out to see us in Room 7 here at Ashley School.  She is a trained art teacher.  She showed us the process we needed to go through to make our faces.  She showed us how to shape the head and how to make the eyes, nose lips and ears.  We then had to make our own hair any way we wanted.  They all turned out really cool.  Thanks Suzie!

Keeping Ourselves Safe

In Room 7 at the moment we are thinking about how we can keep ourselves safe.  We are working hard on remembering our name, address and phone numbers to help us if we get lost.

We have also been talking about feelings and have been practicing showing our feelings here are some photos of our happy and angry faces.  Can you tell the which one is which???

St John Visit

On Wednesday we had a visit from St John.  Rochelle the St John officer told us all about the difference between Ambulance, Fire, and Police officers and vehicles.  We also talked about what an Ambulance has in it and we practiced what to do if we needed to call an ambulance when our grown ups couldn't do it.  We had lots of fun learning with Rochelle and trying the oxygen out of the tank was cool!!

Counting on!!!

In Maths our focus is Number at present.  We are practicing the strategy of counting on from the biggest number which for adults we take for granted but for children it is actually a hard concept to learn and understand, it takes time and lots of practice to perfect it.  Once they have mastered this strategy then they can apply this knowledge to harder problems.

For Example:

7 + 4 =
With this problem we start with the 7 as it is the biggest number and count on four 7....8, 9, 19, 11


5 + 9 =
With this problem we have to start with the nine as it is the biggest number even though its not the first number.  5....6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14


The children have 10 basic facts to complete for home learning every night and they need to practice this strategy when completing them.

Good Luck and have fun learning.

Rochelle Standen

Creativity

In Room 7 we practice using our creativity every day, thinking about how we can solve a problem in many different ways.  Alek and Niko were very creative when they were challenged to make a rocket ship out of things on our maths shelf.   Awesome work boys!!!

Beach Ed

Room 7 had a fabulous day at the beach on Tuesday learning about how to be Sunsmart, what a lifeguard does and how to keep ourselves safe at the beach.  We also went into the water and were learning to be confident in the cold waves.  The Body Boards were a huge hit, some of us had never been in the sea before so it was a challenge to get in but we did it!  We had a great day many thanks to all the brave parents who went into the water and froze for us!!

Welcome to 2012

Welcome everyone to 2012.  Yet another exciting year to look forward to.  Hopefully this year can be a little more 'normal' than 2011 was.  We have heaps of learning and fun to have do this year.
Really looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow and getting to know more as every day goes by.

Mrs Standen