Creative Critters

Monday, 5 December 2011

Week 6 - 28 November 2010

We had a very successful Junior Athletics Day on Wednesday. Congratulations to the children who excelled at long jump, high jump, running and ball throwing. A big thank you to the parents and grandparents who came along in support. The children were very excited and enjoyed their day.

On Thursday the whole school enjoyed their beach day at Pilot Bay. The Junior Team decided to walk around the mount hoping to stop at Shelley Bay to collect shells for making sandcastles. But when we got there it was closed due to the Rena Oil Spill. By the time we got back to Pilot Bay the children were all ready for a swim. It was a great day and I'm sure all children had a very sound sleep that night.

Well only a few more weeks of school, teachers are all busy completing reports and getting ready for the big tidy up before school ends.  Thank you to all those people who have left comments on our blog, please keep it up.

Thursday, 17 November 2011

Week 4 - 14 November

The Juniors had a lot to celebrate this week. It started with Room 15 being phoned by the Western Bay of Plenty Mayor Ross Paterson. He wanted to congratulate them on their efforts for creating a brochure promoting the area as a great place to have fun. Room 15 met Mr Paterson at the Te Puke Library where he presented them with certificates, notebooks, pens, lanyards and a $50 voucher from Paper Plus. The MADE awards were also a big success for the entire school, among the winners Room 14 came 3rd in the Music movie section and Room 15 won the Story Telling movie section Yr 1- 3.  We are creating a large group of confident Junior e-learners and we can only imagine what they will be creating by the time they become the Un-Stoppables!!

We have added a gadget page to our blog for the children who visit, this week I have a jigsaw puzzle for fun.  

Let me know if you like the gadget.


Thursday, 10 November 2011

Week 3 - 7 November 2011

 This week the Juniors have started some kitchen chemistry in the classroom. Some classes have placed eggs in cups with different liquids to see the effects on the egg. Other experiments include making ice cream and jelly.

Room 11 and Room 12 now have Discovery Time each Friday. Discovery Time is where children are learning through hands on activities. During this time teachers are encouraging children to use the Curriculum Key Competencies: Thinking, Using language, symbols and texts, Managing Self, Relating to Others and Participating and Contributing.  Children are sharing, taking turns, speaking nicely to each other and being respectful to others and their equipment.

Junior Cross country is on Wednesday 30th November and children are all busy practicing. It is getting rather hot in the afternoon but children are enjoying the challenges. Please come and join us on the day, bring your family and cheer the children on.

Please leave a comment we would love to hear from you.

Tuesday, 1 November 2011

Week 2 - 31 October

We have started practicing for Junior Athletics this week. The activities are throwing balls, running, long jump and high jump. They will be competing in age level, e.g. 5 year old boys etc. This is always a fun day for the children and we will encourage parents and family to come and support their child on the day. 

The Junior Garden is looking great. The Enviro team have planted the plants and will spend the next few weeks managing the weeds!! The children can see the vegetables growing and are becoming very excited about tasting the produce, especially the strawberries!!

We will start our Maths Enrichment this week, selected children will be spending the next four weeks with Mrs Henson focusing on Problem Solving. 

We are fortunate to have two student teachers in the Juniors for the next few weeks. Miss Jones is with Miss Jones in Room 12 and Mrs MacKenzie is with Mrs Massey in Room 14. We hope they have fun.

Please leave a comment we would love to hear from you.

Tuesday, 25 October 2011

Term 4 - Week 1

Hello and welcome back, we hope the children had a good holiday and are ready for another term of learning.

We finished last term with a fantastic Rugby World Cup Day and I'm sure all of New Zealand will be extremely proud of the All Blacks for their win on Sunday. This term is only 8 weeks long but lots of exciting things will be happening including Junior Athletics, Book Festival Weeks, Beach Day at Pilot Bay, Xmas in the Park and Celebration Assemblies.

Just a reminder that our days are getting warmer, rub sun block on your children and remember they all need to wear school hats to protect themselves while outside.

I will add a new post each week and please feel free to leave a message, we would love to read your comments.

Wednesday, 28 September 2011

Week 8

Tattybogle ....what can we say....as teachers we were so proud of our children, they made us very proud. A big thank you to Lynette Colton for her expertise in preparing the children for the big stage. They all looked like they had a lot of fun and they're still singing the songs in class a week later. Thank you to those parents and grandparents who came along to watch their children, they loved looking for your faces in the audience.

We have our Rugby World Cup day this week where the school will be competing against each other in different countries. Sport Bay of Plenty will have stations around the field with different activities. All good fun. And with the actual Rugby World Cup still progressing we say "Go the All Blacks".


 

Tuesday, 20 September 2011

Week 7

The Creative Critters have been very busy this week. Our Tattybogle show is progressing well and we look forward to performing in front of the school,  early child hood centres, grandparents, parents and friends. For some children it is their first experience of standing on stage in front of a large audience and they becoming more confident after each practice.
We visited Room 4's art gallery in Commerce Lane last week. The art was spectacular and we were very impressed how the seniors gave the juniors a tour of their gallery. Thank you Room 4, you should be very proud of your achievements.
Please leave a message we look forward to posting a reply.

Tattybogle -

There’s a scarecrow in the meadow
Tattybogle is his name
He is made out of sticks and straw
In all weather he will stay there
but he’s happy just the same
He will never complain

Tattybogle, Tattybogle
tries to scare crows every day
They all love him so much they say
“Tattybogle, Tattybogle
we are always gonna stay.
You can’t scare us away!”

Tuesday, 6 September 2011

Week 5

The Creative Critters are getting ready for the Tatty Bogle Production. We are learning the songs and those with speaking parts are spending time with Mrs Colton most days. Teachers are sourcing costumes and backdrops ready for the show on the 20th and 21st September, we can't wait.

We had a very interesting visit from Ross Kinnaird this week, a very popular book illustrator. He excited the children by drawing funny pictures of animals and teachers. They really liked the picture of Mrs Hartley "laying an egg" and Mr Larsen "wearing a skirt"!!

Our Syndicate Assembly will be on Friday 9th September in the Hall. Three students from each class will recite a poem. This is working towards increasing children's self confidence which is our school value for Term 3. 

Please leave a comment on our blog, we would love to hear from you.


Tuesday, 30 August 2011

Week 4

The Creative Critters have had an interesting week.  We viewed a beehive at school and Mrs Murray explained what the bees do inside and outside of the beehive. Mr Barrow dressed up in a bee makers suit. Room 11 and Room 12 walked to Carter House to visit the elderly in the Dementia Unit. Children were very confident by telling the patients their name and age. They were lucky to view a little green digger in operation on their walk back to school. Mrs Massey class has been busy making a video, we can't wait to see the finished result. Finally, we are all practicing for our Tatty Bogle show, children are doing so well singing the songs. The show is on 20th and 21st September, you will here about the show times shortly.

Tuesday, 16 August 2011

Te Puke Trip

On Friday the 12th August the Creative Critters visited local attractions around Te Puke. These included Maketu Beach, Kiwi 360, Spring Loaded and O'Hara Estate. At Maketu beach we drove around Maketu and stopped at the Te Arawa monument. At Kiwi 360 children were given a ride in the kiwifruit buggy, they played on the playground and walked through the shop showing different souviners. We all had lunch at Spring Loaded and then took a ride around the orchard. Our farm truck showed us a four wheel drive track the Mud Bugs use, the Kaituna river where the jet boats go up and we stopped to feed the cow and donkey. Our last treat was feeding the 65 year old eels. Just up the road at the O'Hara estate a Robin Hood lookalike (aka Mr O'Hara) talked to the children about archery and showed different bow and arrows. We also saw the horses Briar uses for her horse trekking tours on the same property. After an exciting day of adventure we arrived back at school just before 3pm. Our children had a great exposure to what Te Puke has to offer and we give a big thankyou to all supporting attractions.