Beach Ed

We have had a wonderful day at New Brighton Beach today. How fortunate we are to be able to be at the beach in such a short time from school.
The weather is not what we would have chosen, but in the spirit of the St Albans Value of FUN, everyone made the most of the day. The Life Guards were excellent and ran an interactive, informative programme.
Thanks to the parent and grandparent helpers who came with us. It was very reassuring to have so many watching eyes in the water.
Good luck to the children who are trying to come up with a riddle for the day!
The children (or teachers and parents!) won't need much rocking tonight.

A Sweet Treat

Today Pam came with twenty two little brown houses that she had created at home. Each sat on a silver circle awaiting the creative talents of the Room 16 children.

Grinning with excitement

It looks like a Hansel and Gretel village

Nothing can stop us now

Great work Pam - thanks!

Excitement is in the air

Reaching for the lollies

Bright colours and Christmas themes

Ready, set ... pipe the icing glue!

Everyone is focused

Artistic ideas 

Delicious and delicate

Homes for gingerbread folk

Oh, they are hard to resist!

Uh oh, chimneys fall and blizzards strike!

Santa might find these chimneys a challenge

Excellent designs 

Stunning creations admired by all.

We cannot thank Pam enough for her hard work and preparation that enabled us to have such a special day!

Book Character Parade Day

What a wonderful event this was to finish up Book Week. I've never seen such a fine selection of creative costumes. I felt particularly privileged to be able to hold Tigger (Matiu) so he could be part of our class parade.

We had to leave just before the end of the parade to go to our first softball session. We all had a great time there and I don't think Ian (the coach) has ever worked with such a diversely dressed group!


After that the author Ben Brown came to our room to talk to many of the Middle school classes about being an author and his books. We learned that a knock to the head by a classic book is really got him started on the road to becoming an author.

The children (and teachers) listened with rapt attention and then asked very thoughtful and interesting questions. I have found an interview he did with some other children online.
I was very proud and impressed that the children's questions showed that they had listened so well to his ideas and experiences.

Why don't you get a Ben Brown book out of the library this long weekend?

Week Five is BOOK WEEK - Yippee

We have a fun week ahead celebrating books and reading.

Don't forget Thursday is Dress Up As Your Favourite Book Character Day so get your Thinking Caps on (as Dr Seuss would say).

I'm not saying who I'm going to be but I'm having a bit of fun working out how I'll be her (whoops that was a tiny clue).

Keep an eye on the Blog as we'll do regular updates of the Book Week activities.

See you soon

Ms Ashby :o)

Walking in the Air

This lovely song has a great You Tube video link.
I think we will sound beautiful singing this in the ChristChurch Cathedral on the 10th of December at 10am. Don't forget to tell your friends and family about this Celebration of Learning will you?

You can also find the version of this song when Aled Jones (the adult) sings a duet with himself as a boy soprano. This brings tears to my eyes every time I watch it. (Probably something to do with the age of my own boys!)

A Powhiri for Wairakei Students.

Today we hosted a powhiri for a group of children from Wairakei School. Isabel and Samantha did the karanga to call them towards the classroom.

As they replied and approached, Michael, Zachary and Flynn began the Haka Powhiri and we all joined in with this rousing welcome. Once they had come in and taken their seats Michael said his whaikorero. To support him we sang the school action song Anei Ra te Kura Hato Opani. Zachary was next with his whaikorero which we supported with the waiata Ehara i te mea.

It was now Wairakei's turn to respond with whaikorero and waiata.  Everybody joined in the line to hongi our guests and make them part of us for the rest of the gathering.

We were fortunate to have some of the Kapa Haka group perform some of their items.
We had all worked up an appetite by now so we went back to Room 16 for some kai. There was a wonderful range of food for all. As the rain and sleet had now ended, all the tamariki were able to go out into the playground for a quick play and look around before the Wairakei group went back to their school.
Room 16 feel very lucky that we have such a supportive buddy class in Room 11, nga mihi nui ki a koutou. We would also like to thank e Pa for helping us prepare for this experience.

El Gregoe the Magician

On Monday the Year Three classes went to a special magic show in the hall. We were celebrating the good learning and behaviour we have been doing this term. Soon we will post some writing about and photos of this great show. Our own Morgan was one of the stars of the show.
As well as some excellent tricks El Gregoe had some fine messages relating to the values to share with us.

Manaakitanga from the Wider St Albans Community

What a lovely treat all the children at St Albans got from the team at Brumby Bakers at Edgeware!

Thank you for your generosity!

Daffodil Day

St Albans School was an even brighter spot on the Christchurch map on Friday.
We raised over $700 to offer Hope to those whose lives are effected by cancer.

Good Guessing - That's What Estimation's All About

Hooray for our estimating, now we have a jar of 730 jellybeans to enjoy.

This how we made our Good Guess

1. We looked at the bottom of the glass jar and counted the number of jellybeans on the bottom layer.
2. We measured (using a bendy ruler) the height of the jar.
3. We measured the amount of space the bottom layer took up.
4. We worked out how many layers there were in the jar by dividing the height by the height of one layer.
5. We multiplied the number of jellybeans in the bottom layer by the number of layers we estimated there were.

We were only 14 out!

Special Visitors

Room Sixteen have been welcoming and celebrating the arrival of three korean student teachers to St Albans School.
Children and teachers from Rooms Three, Sixteen, Eleven and Twenty four gathered in Room Eleven to have a powhiri for the visitors.
Whaea Livi and two kotiro from Room 11 called to the visitors. All the children joined in with the Haka Powhiri as the visitors entered the room. Next e Pa spoke and then we all stood and sang the new school waiata, Anei Ra te Kura. It was the first time the new waiata has been used in a powhiri ever! The children and teachers felt proud but a bit nervous about sharing the new song. After e Pa finished off his speech, Mike Davy spoke for the visitors. Everyone was most impressed next when the korean students sang Pokarekare Ana in Korean. Everyone gave them a big pakipaki when they finished. Finally Mike finished off his speech and the two groups of people had a hongi.
Mrs Warren spoke to everyone and explained which classes the students would be going to. Sunhui went back to Room Sixteen where all the children introduced themselves and told her something about their lives.
Click here to see a movie of the powhiri.(Thanks to Team 23 Blog)

A Just Reward

At assembly on Tuesday, Room Sixteen was impatient because of the Heather Trophy.
Finally we got to the end of assembly when the Heather Trophy was going to be presented. Guess who it got presented to?...Room Sixteen!
When Ms Ashby said Room Sixteen had won, Room Sixteen cheered with excitement and threw their hands in the air.

Writing and photo by Jaeda

Skipping

I have resisted an alliterative title for this post, but please feel free to send any scintillating skipping suggestions this way!
The children approach skipping with such enthusiasm and excitement. Imagine begging someone to let you go out and do high intensity cardiovascular exercise every day!
The video below captures just a taste of the range of skills and talents evident in the class.

Orana Park Big Day Out

We had a wonderful experience at Orana Park yesterday. The children demonstrated perfectly why they deserved such an outing. Their behaviour was excellent and the Orana Park Educators commented about how knowledgeable and inquisitive the children were.
On returning to school we played Sleeping Lions and although I stopped the game after 3 or 4 minutes, I think the children would have managed to "be" sleeping lions until 3!We started to write an acrostic poem but had really all run out of puff before we finished it.
Samantha completed a poem at home last night

Our Big Day Out was at Orana Park!
Really fast flying fox.
Animals are cool in their own habitats.
Noisy gibbons.
Animals need your help.

We loved seeing the endangered animals.
I loved feeding the giraffes.
Lemurs don’t like water.
Darkness surrounded the kiwi habitat.
Louise taught us lots.
I will do my part to protect the animals.
Fish swam in the lake.
Endangered animals

Puddle of otters.
Amazing to see the lion cubs.
Rhinoceros horns are very heavy.
Kissing spider monkeys.

Thanks Samantha for this great work.