Ruma Kakapo’s list of things they did in the holidays

·         Saw the movie “Home’’.
·         Walked the Routeburn Track.
·         Went to the Leap.
·         Went to Moeraki to go fishing with Mum and Jace
·         Fed the ducks at the park.
·         Built a hut.
·         Went to Twizel.
·         Went to the poppy parade, then went to work at the Salvation Army.
·         Flew to France.
·         Went to Inflatable world.
·         Watched you tube and Gizzy Gazza.
·         Got my own TV.
·         Looked at the exciting exhibits in the Otago museum

Week 2 Term 1

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

It has been a wonderful start to the new year with “my” new Ruma Kakapo class.

 
Homework
This week we will start reading homework. Your child will bring home a reading book from their browsing box. If it’s a School Journal, they can choose a story or an article from it and read it.
After reading, they need to fill in their reading diary with the date, title of the book and a comment on the story.
There is also a daily homework sheet for maths this week. We are revising basic facts, so if you think the facts are too easy, it’s just because we are getting back into things.
 
Class Dojo
If you have signed up for this with last week’s newsletter, you should have received a report on Friday. It would be great if all parents could receive these reports by email. If you don’t have a computer, you can use our classroom computer to sign up. There is also an app that you can download onto your phone or ipad.
 
Meet the teachers
Your child will have notice to book a Meet the teacher-timeslot next week. Please sign and return to tomorrow, thanks.
 
Stationery
Thank you for getting the stationery to promptly. For those who haven’t got it yet, you can buy a box for $22 at the school office.
 
I look forward to meeting you next week. If you have any questions or concerns in the meantime, please see me or ring me at school.

 

Have a good week,
Annie Rehmann

Welcome to 2014!

Dear Parents and Caregivers,     

                                                                            

Welcome back to a new school year. I hope that you and your family have had a good holiday. The highlight of my holiday was a climb up to Mueller Hut near Mount Cook with my husband Ralph and my daughter June last week.

The mountains and glaciers were stunning, well worth the1800 steps up to the hut, and the knee-shattering climb (or shall I say, crawl) down.

It is always exciting to start Term 1 with a new class. I hope that your child is excited about coming back to school, even if it means getting up early again… 

Apart from welcoming the children who are coming to the senior school for the first time, I would also extend a warm welcome to Lauriann who joins us from Ireland, and Ava whom a lot of us already know through Kiwisport.

This year’s overarching focus is sustainability.  The learning area this term is health. Our inquiry will lead us to learn about how we can lead a sustainable lifestyle, ie food/nutrition, physical activity, relationships with others and physical safety.
We will be spending the first few weeks getting to know each other and creating a positive classroom learning environment.

Stationery

You can buy stationery packs at the office. If you still have items from last year (rulers, colouring pencils etc.) that you don’t need to purchase, you can tell Lenore or Kirsten at the office, and they can take them out of the box. 
Can you make sure all stationery is named please, including each coloured pencil. If your child still has a reading folder and/or spell-write booklet at home could they please bring it back as well. Thank you.

Swimming

From tomorrow on, we will be swimming every day at 10.30 am, weather permitting. Please make sure that your child has his/her togs every day, even if the weather does not look promising in the morning. If your child is unable to swim, could you please send a note along. Thank you. 

Class Dojo

Class Dojo is a web-based behaviour management system that I would like to trial in Ruma Kakapo this term. It looks appealing to children and sounds exciting to use. 

Attached you will find a note with a login to a website that allows you access to your child’s report. You can select to receive a daily report about your child’s behaviour. Children have their own login to change their avatar and look at their report. Please note that only you and I will be able to see your child’s report, nobody else. If you are unable to access the internet at home, you are most welcome to use our classroom computers. It would be great if you could send the attached slip back to school as soon as possible.

Thank you.

I would love to meet you (again) sometime in the next couple of weeks. Please feel free to pop in any time to introduce yourself. You are always welcome to come in and see your child ‘at work’.

Have a great first week,

Annie Rehmann

We are ready to start quadblogging!

Today is the official start of our quadblogging with the three schools that are in our Quad 92. You can find links to their blogs on the right side of this blog.
We have been practising how to write quality comments to someone's blog post. We started off by watching this wonderful video made by children from a school in California by clicking on this link: http://cherrytree.primaryblogger.co.uk/a-quality-comment/

Then we practised our blogging skills on each other's posts. You can read the comments we wrote to Margaret's and Jack's posts.
We came up with a learning intention and success criteria on how to write an effective comment. We wrote a shared comment to our friends in Ruma Kea. Now we are ready to comment on our quadblogging buddies.
The focus blog for this week is Mount Annan Christian College - Mrs Zantides' Class.
http://mrszantides.blogspot.com

Happy quadblogging everyone!

Quadblogging

As we are just learning how to write a quality comment on someone's blog post, I am excited that Ruma Kakapo has signed up for quadblogging with three other schools - two from the UK, and one from Australia.
Quadblogging is when four blogs take turns at reading each other blogs. Every week, a different blog is the focus blog, and the other three blogs are commenting. Read more about it here: http://quadblogging.net/
I have made contact with the other schools, and as soon as we have a rotation set up, we can start to read, write and comment.
In the meantime, can we hone our writing skills to show off our best writing?

Welcome to Term 2

Dear parents and caregivers,

I hope that you and your family have had a great break, and that your child is keen for a new term of learning.

I went to an education conference in Christchurch last week with my colleagues from school. It was an inspiring and exciting event and I am keen to try out some of the new things I’ve learned.

 

Homework
This week’s homework is reading a book from home and basic facts. Here is the Basic facts programme as a reminder:
Each child has a set list of Basic Facts to learn for the week. There are four sheets for the children to fill in, one for every day.

Day 1: Complete the facts and get them checked. Take as long as you like. Study the ones you got wrong. Why were they wrong?

Day 2: Practise the facts, trying to get all correct. Rewrite the wrong ones.
Day 3: Time yourself to complete all facts.
Day 4: Time yourself to see if you can complete them within 4 minutes.
 

Inquiry

This term we are learning about celebrations in New Zealand and around the world. This will involve talking to you about special celebrations in your family, and inviting people from different countries to talk about their celebrations.

Towards the end of the term, we will be planning a special celebration – how, when, where will be up to the children to work out.

 

Cross Country

Our school cross country event is in week 3. We will be practicing our run when/if the weather allows it. All children will set themselves a goal to work towards and see if they can improve in their own fitness.

 

Towards the end of the term, your child will receive a Portfolio and report. We will have parent interviews then as well.

Please don’t hesitate to come and see me if you have any questions or concerns at any time.

Have a great week,

Annie Rehmann

Duffy Assembly

 Maestro Wortschatz isn't looking too happy when Duffy claims back the words Wortschatz had stolen from him.

Luckily, Duffy managed to get his words back so he could read to his little brother.

Did you know that Wortschatz is a German word and means vocabulary?

Wort= word       
Schatz=treasure

Learning how to write a post

Choose a text to publish and write it out quickly with a basic font. At the end use, the spellcheck to check for mistakes.
Write your first name as your label.
Before you press publish, you need to show me (Mrs Rehmann).
When I have approved it, you can click on publish.

Week 4 Newsletter

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Thank you to those of you who could make it to the “Meet the Teacher” afternoon or evening last week. I will type up the few bits of information I told those who were present and will send it home sometime this week.

Swimming Sports
On Tuesday at 10.00 we will have our Senior Swimming Sports. You are welcome to come and watch your child as they take part in a variety of width or length races, depending on their swimming level.

Can the children please bring a spare t-shirt along to wear while they are waiting for their races? That way we won’t get a huge mix-up again with the big number of unnamed red tops.

There is a dress-up race at the end of the sports. If the children want to take part in that, they need a t-shirt and a hat which can get wet. It is also a good idea to pack two towels because they do get very wet.

Homework

The children are getting used to doing their homework every day. They need to write their words out three times every day, and complete a basic fact sheet which is in the back of their homework book. Reading diaries need to be filled in as well. It would be good to see the Year 5s write in their own comment.

Generallly, if homework is not done, they need to stay in at playtime. If your child can’t complete their homework, I would appreciate a note. Thank you.

Email

You are welcome to get in touch with me by email if you have any questions or concerns. I try to check them every morning. If your child is absent it is best to ring or text the office.

My email address is arehmann@centennial.school.nz

Have a great week,

Annie Rehmann

Week 3 Newsletter

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

It’s week 3, and we are well into it as you can see by the many extra-curricular activities that are coming up:

Kiwi Can
This is a weekly session with Dom and Richie which focusses on respect. This term’s theme is “Positive Relationships”. The sessions are run in the hall and will take place on Tuesdays. 

Swimming
On Thursday and Friday we are going to the town pool from 11-12 to practice for our Senior Swimming Sports which will be on Tuesday 19^th February.

Daily swimming in the school pool is going very well. There are no issues with children forgetting their togs at home this year. Well done!

Safe cycling

Keri Brown is going to take two sessions with the Senior classes. One will be a theory session tomorrow, and one will be a practical bike safety session. This coincides well with the “Go by bike” day on Wednesday.

Could children please bring a bike and a helmet to school on Wednesday. If they don’t have one, it would be great if they could borrow one from someone else.

Meet the Teachers
On Wednesday, there will be two sessions available for you to come and hear about the Senior school and Ruma Kakapo. First session is at 3.15 pm, and the second one at 7.00 pm. I look forward to seeing you then.  

 

Homework
This week we are starting spelling homework. The children need to write out their spelling words three times into their homework. Let me know if the words are too hard. It will take a bit of time to get the level right for each child.

Data squares

We made predictions about our class data. Now we are going to check if they were correct.

Me-poster

Have a look at the wonderful children of Ruma Kakapo and find out more about them from their Me-posters.

Same or different?

Week 2

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

It has been a wonderful start to the new year with “my” new Ruma Kakapo class. Thank you for getting the stationery organised so quickly. I think this was a new record in speediness.

 

Swimming

With the wonderful weather we have had some great swimming sessions. The children have been excellent in bringing their togs to school. This week we will continue swimming instruction in groups which allows me to work on specific skills with each group.

 

Homework

Thank you for helping with filling in reading diaries. Every morning by before 8.55, the children put their reading diary into a box in the classroom. They get to move their name up on our class star chart if the diary is filled in and signed.

 This week we will start Basic Facts homework. This is a programme which Mrs Constable used very successfully last year.

 Each child has a set list of Basic Facts to learn for the week. There are four sheets for the children to fill in, one for every day.

Day 1: Complete the facts and get them checked. Take as long as you like. Study the ones you got wrong. Why were they wrong?

Day 2: Practise the facts, trying to get all correct. Rewrite the wrong ones.

Day 3: Time yourself to complete all facts.

Day 4: Time yourself to see if you can complete them within 4 minutes.

 

At this stage, the facts should rather be too easy than too hard as I want the children to experience success.

If you find that the facts are too hard, or your child is fretting over the time pressure, please let me know. The whole Basic Facts programme should be enjoyable with a rewarding feeling after the Friday test when, hopefully, all facts were completed in four minutes and the next level can be started on the following Monday.

The last thing I want is for your child (or you) to feel anxious and stressed about learning Basic Facts.

 

Have a good week,

Annie Rehmann

Welcome to 2013

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Welcome back to a new school year! I hope that you and your family have had a good holiday. I spent four weeks with my family in Switzerland, meeting my nephew for the first time and going skiing for a couple of days. It seems I missed all the wild weather and came back for some real kiwi summer weather!
It is always exciting to start Term 1 with a new class. I hope that your child is excited about coming back to school, even if it means getting up early again…
This year’s overarching focus (like we had citizenship last year) will be globalisation. It will be an interesting learning curve to see what we can learn about globalisation through this term’s curriculum area health.
We will be spending the first few weeks getting to know each other and creating a positive learning environment.

 Stationery

You can buy stationery packs at the office. If you still have items from last year (rulers, colouring pencils etc.) that you don’t need to purchase, you can tell Lenore at the office, and she can take them out of the box.
Can you make sure all stationery is named please, including each coloured pencil. If your child still has a reading folder and/or spell-write booklet at home could they please bring it back. Thank you.

Swimming

From tomorrow on, we will be swimming every day at 10.30 am, weather permitting. Please make sure that your child has his/her togs every day, even if the weather does not look promising in the morning. If your child is unable to swim could you please send a note along. Thank you.

Homework

For this week, Homework will be reading from the children’s browsing boxes. We will add spelling and basic facts to our homework over the next couple of weeks as I learn more about their spelling and Maths levels.

It would be nice to meet you sometime in the next couple of weeks. Please feel free to pop in any time to introduce yourself. You are always welcome to come in and see your child ‘at work’.

 

Have a great first week,

Annie Rehmann

iPad test blog

This is a test to see if I can blog straight from the iPad.

Reflection on our learning

Yesterday we talked about our learning so far. We've learnt that you don't have to live in New Zealand to be a citizen. It is easy to understand what it means to be a citizen by birth.

What we found tricky was the meaning of getting citizenship by grant. We've learnt that you can apply for citizenship if you were not born in NZ and your parents were not born here. You need to apply for citizenship, and then it might be granted to you.

Can you think of an easier explanation of what by grant means?

Swiss

I am a Swiss citizen because I was born in Switzerland. I am also a permanent resident of New Zealand, and I could apply for New Zealand citizenship.

Confident Kid

I feel confident when I am hiking in the mountains.

Ruma Kakapo 2012

We are well underway with Term 1 2012, and what a fantastic group of Year 4 and 5 children
this class is! We are very lucky to have new children who joined our school in our class, as well as some who are new to Ruma Kakapo and some who were with me last year.
This term we are learning how to be a good citizen in the classroom and at school. We have been finding out about each other's rights and responsibilities and how we can all help to make our class a happy and safe learning place.
Our friend Kakabro has been going home with a special child everyday, and he's been lucky to have met so many families and their pets so far.