Christmas in Room 3

Christmas has come early to Room 3. Mrs Simmons's Mum made us a beautiful quilt. We will display Christmas work around the quilt. We have written letters to Father Christmas and are eagerly awaiting his reply. You are welcome to look in your child's writing book to read a draft copy of their letter. Ashley's family have kindly loaned us a wonderful Christmas tree and have donated Christmas decorations to us - thanks very much!

Sugeong reads to us in Korean

Sujeong read a book to us in Koean. She is an awesome reader. Can you guess which book she read us?

Reading in Japanese

We were very lucky to have Masayo (Sakura's Mum) visit today and read us a story in Japanese. The children were quick to notice that she started to read the book from the back and that the writing went downwards. The children guessed that the story was The Three Little Pigs. Thanks Masayo for reading to us!

The Jewelled Gecko Enviro Award

Today Nicky Wagner MP visited our school. The children from Room 3 showed her our food scrap bin for the pigs and our year 1 garden. They also showed Nicky our class blog with photos of Wombat the kuni kuni pig. Nicky was also interested to read our earthquake stories. Children from the eco warriors showed her around our school and she was impressed with our school vege garden. We were all very happy when we were told this afternoon that we had won the Jewelled Gecko Enviro Award - $1000.00 towards our eco warriors group - yippee!

The Canterbury Show

The last of the book character photos

Still more photos...

More Book Character Photos

Book Week

We had a book character parade day. What did you dress up as? Ben Brown is a New Zealand author. We read some of his books. Ben came to our class and he read us some stories.

The Best Loved Teddy Bears

We have been reading books abut Teddy Bears and one book that we particularly enjoyed was called 'The Best Loved Bear'. Today the year 1 children had a teddy bear day. There was a range off teddy bears. Mrs Simmons Big Ted was the oldest bear. The children wrote wonderful stories about their teddy bears. We hope you enjoy the photos.

Term 4 news groups

This term we will have news groups. The children chose which day they would like to share their news with the class and they wrote their name on the chart.

Holiday writing - In the holidays I ...

...went to the playground. By Sujeong

...played with my toy camera and I like cameras. By Kahn

...went to the pool. They were cleaning it. By Oliver

...played in the swimming pool at QE2. I went to Clip'n'Climb. I went on the big slide. I watched Happy Feet, I like the song. William got a Buzz Lightyear toy and a Spongebob book and a card. By Ashley

...went to the park and I went to Jarkwyn's house and I played with his toys. By Te

...played a ball cannon game and I went on a bushwalk to the Kaituna Valley and we had fun. By Adam

...my Mum went to the West Coast. It was the boys at home. We watched tv and played touch rugby. I played soccer and basketball. By Lachlan

...went to the movies and I went to Cats and Dogs with my friends. What did you do in the holidays? By Leia

...went to QE2 and I went to the park and I had fun. I went to a movie. By Emma

...went to my Nan's house. By Jarkwyn

...saw Te at the DVD shop. Camreon went to my house. I wished for a swimming pool. By Marina

...a tree branch hurt me. By Steffen

...went to the park and I saw Elena. We played in the park. We went to the flying fox and I went on the flying fox. We took my cousin back home. By Krystal

...stayed at my Dad's house. By Elena

Welcome back - It's term 4!

It was wonderful to see all the smiling faces in class this morning. Children have had fun sharing and writing about their holidays. In printing this term the children will focus on writing their surnames correctly and the size of their letter formation. The reading and maths groups have changed this term also. Please remember that children need to wear their school hats this term. Please ask if you have any questions. Kind regards, Nicky

Wacky Hair Day

Today is the last day of term 3. We had a wacky hair day and mufti day to raise money for the Jump Jam Team who have made it to the national finals in Taupo. What great hair styles the children had. Have a wonderful holiday break with your children and I'll see you all on Monday 11 October.

Wild Self

Student of the Week - Phoenix

Phoenix...is a great leader and...

is a good writer

helps other people

is kind to people

plays with people in the playground

is a good reader

is at building with blocks

is good at maths, she can image in her head

is good at running

she is always helping others.

St Albans Commonwealth Games

Yahoo! Our team Northern Ireland got second place in the St Albans School Commonwealth Games - what a great effort by everybody!

Elgregoe the magician

On Monday 20 September Elgregoe visited our team. Elgregoe and Sue did a wonderful magic show for us. There were birds and a very naughty puppet called Monty.

The Canterbury Earthquake

Wombat

Here are the photos of the cute kuni kuni pig that visited our class yesterday. Wombat belongs to a pig farmer in Burnham. She will leave buckets at school and we will put our fruit break scraps in the bucket. The farmer will collect the buckets during the week and Wombat and his family will eat the scraps.

Welcome back

Welcome back to school everybody. It was great to see you all at school yesterday and today. We have had some earthquake drills and we have had to stop, drop and hold today. The children were wonderful and knew exactly what to do. If your circumstances have changed since the earthquake can you please let me know as it is important that we have up to date emergency contact numbers. We had a very interesting visitor to our class today - I'll put some photos of 'Wombat' on the blog tomorrow. Our Big Day Out trip to QE2 next week has been cancelled. I will keep you updated on any other happenings we plan as a result of the cancellation. Kind regards, Nicky Simmons

Hi there

Today we had a staff meeting at school and we are all looking forward to seeing you on Monday morning. I have taken Sophie the frog home for the weekend to feed her up on flies. Maybe you could catch her some and bring them to school on Monday morning. Isabel and Maddie helped me catch 2 flies outside in the garden in the sun this afternoon. On Monday morning we will have an earthquake practise so we all know what to do at school if there are any aftershocks. I am looking forward to seeing you in our new classroom. Can you remember who you will be sitting beside? What games would you like to play on Monday? Let's sing our favourite songs! Have a good weekend. Love from Mrs Simmons

Monday 13 September - school re opens

School will re open on Monday 13 September. I have been to school again today and there were two toys that had fallen on the floor from the after shocks - I have put them back on top of the whiteboard. I will be at school on Friday morning at 9am to help with the clean up. If any parents are able to come and help it would be appreciated - please bring a shovel, broom or other cleaning equipment that you have. Enjoy the rest of your week with your lovely children. Kind regards, Nicky Simmons

School to open on Thursday

Good morning. I hope you are all okay after the after shocks last night. Isabel, Maddie, Lucy (the cat) and myself ended up sleeping under the kitchen table and Chris was close by on the couch. Ginnie and the BoT have made the decision to keep school closed on Wednesday and to re open on Thursday as long as the water and sewerage is okay and also due to after shock concerns from last night. I will update this blog if the situation changes. I hope you all get a chance to enjoy the sunshine today and that you have a good rest tonight. See you on Thursday. Mrs Simmons

No school for 2 days

Dear Room 3 children and families. St Albans School will be closed for Monday and Tuesday this week. I have been to school and there is no major damage to our new classroom. The chairs were on the floor and a vase was broken. Some games were tipped out and there were some cupboards open. My desk looked tidier than it ever was in the old classroom! Our computer was on the floor. I have put it back up and it still works - yahoo. Sophie our frog is fine and I have fed her and filled up her swimming pool with fresh bottled water as the last thing we want is our Sophie with a sore tummy. Garfield is fine and he can't wait to go home with you all. Maybe you could write Garfield a letter and tell him what you did when the earthquake happened. Please check the school web site for re-opening details and I will update this blog when I have more information. Take care, Love from Mrs Simmons

The Big Shake

I hope you are all safe and well after the earthquake on Saturday morning - not a great way to start the weekend. Please listen to radio / tv reports for information on when school will reopen. We were lucky not to sustain too much damage at our house, however I know quite a few school families who have suffered a lot of damage to their houses. It is a huge relief that there have not been any major injuries to members of our school community. Take care and I look forward to seeing you all in our new classroom when school reopens. Love from Nicky (Mrs Simmons)

More laptop kids

Today we learned about photo booth. I have never heard so much laughter in my class! The children particularly loved the roller coaster and the mirror and twisted images - ask them to explain this to you.

It's Daffodil Day

Today the whole school dressed in yellow and children brought a gold coin along to donate to the Cancer society. What a great sight it was to see everybody doing Jump Jam together. Elena was chosen as the best dressed for our class - well done!

Writing our names in Russian

This week the children practised writing their names in Russian.