Welcome to Room 3!

Welcome back to school.  I am very pleased to be back teaching at Burnham School full time this year. It is such a wonderful place to be!   I've had a good break over the holidays and I'm ready to guide the children in Room 3 on a wonderful learning journey this year.

I enjoyed meeting so many of the children who are new to Burnham School this year at our open day on Friday.  These children and their families will be warmly welcomed to our school at our Mihi Whakatau on Monday morning at 9.40am.  I hope that they quickly settle in and make new friends at Burnham School.  I will do all that I can to make sure that this happens.

Over the next couple of weeks we will be getting to know each other and settling into new routines for our classroom.  In the mean time, here is some helpful information to get us started.

Helpful Information:

*  Homework
Home readers will come home each night from Monday - Thursday.  Children will keep their books for the week in their reading folder until the following Monday.  This means that if you don't manage to read one of the books during the week, you can do so over the weekend.  On a Monday I will collect in the previous week's books to go into their browsing box.

As the term progresses we will have spelling words come home.  I will talk about these at the Meet the Teacher night.

*  Before School Routines
To begin each day, the children need to hang up their bags in our cloakbay and get out their reading folder (to go into their desk), their brainfood (a piece of fruit, vegetable or other suitable heathly snack) and their drink bottle (water only), if they wish to have it in the classroom.  The brainfood and drink bottle can be kept on the blue trolley beside the door.

*  Sunhats
Sunhats are compulsory in terms 1 and 4.  Your child requires a named sunhat each day for outdoor activities and during break times.  Children without sunhats are required to play under the shade sails.

*  3 o'clock Box
We have a box in our room for children's clothing/belongings that they take off during the day.  If your child is missing an item of clothing, this will be the first place that they should consider looking for it.  I will encourage children to check the box each day when packing their bags to find their belongings themselves.  If your child's clothing is named they have a much better chance of finding it!

*  Stationery
There is no need to name pencils, whiteboard pens, coloured pencils or gluesticks.  I will be collecting these on the first day and putting them out for children to use as they are needed throughout the year.

*  Star of the Day
You will notice in the classroom, a ladder across the bottom of the whiteboard.  This is used to help choose the "Star of the Day" who gets to sit in our special chair and be the teacher's special helper/class leader for the following day.  Each time a child is "caught" being good, they get to move up their star on the ladder.  Whoever is highest on the ladder at the end of the day is the "Star of the Day" the following day.

*  Swimming
Swimming begins next week.  Please ensure that your child has their named belongings in a sturdy bag (and that all the clothing they are wearing is also named).  Could you please ensure that your child has had sunscreen applied before school.  We do require parent help for swimming so please let me know if you are available.

Week 2:   1pm on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Week 3:   1-2 pm Monday - Friday.
Week 4:  Tuesday 1pm  Junior Water Display (postponement day Thursday).

*  Parent help
If you would like to assist in the classroom during the year, please let me know.  I'm am more than happy to have an extra adult in the room to help!   If you have any special interests or talents that you would like to share with the class, we would love to have you do so.

I look forward to working with your child.  If you have any concerns, please see me.  A quick chat can often solve problems or clear up misunderstandings.  If you can't get in to school, then send me a quick email and I'll get back to you as quickly as I can (rachel@burnham.school.nz).

Warm regards
Rachel McLeary

Lincoln Envirotown 2011 Writing Competition

Write an illustrated story on an environmental/sustainability issue

• What do you think is the main environmental issue facing us in Canterbury? You might need to ask some grown-ups
• What do you think we should do to solve it – what are the possible solutions? What do you think is the best solution?
• Write a story to tell us how your solution would work. The story could include how you or other young people might carry out your ideas to make a difference, and what difficulties they might have to overcome.

Illustrate your story, perhaps with a picture showing what is happening now and what it will be like in the future when your ideas have been carried out. Or you could show what the people in your story will be doing.

For Parents and Teachers: Please help by encouraging discussion of the issues and possible solutions. It is likely that the children will need to gather some information before they write their story.

We will judge the entries for (age appropriate) creativity, knowledge writing ability, illustrations.
Please illustrate your story and use A4 sized paper only. The deadline will be Friday 22nd July.

There will be prizes for each age group: 6 and under, 7-10, 11-14, 15-18
We hope to make the best stories into a book to be available locally, as we did with the previous Lincoln stories. The National Library has asked for a copy of our other books – so your story might be there too!
Please attach an entry form to your entry (see Miss Sheppard). You can enter more than 1 story.

Homework 14th March

Term 3

Welcome back, I hope everybody had a fantastic holiday! Here are a few reminders for the beginning of term 3.

If you are coming up to Porters on Friday 23rd July please make sure payment is made to the office asap. If we are not able to make the trip due to bad weather on the day then a full refund will be given to parents. Children who are unable to come on the trip will be spending the day in Room 6

HOMEWORK - TOPIC

This term our Inquiry topic is about Treasures – an object, place or person who is highly prized or greatly treasured. Your homework task is to create a poster that has a picture or photograph of each of the types of treasures – object, place & person that your family all agree are treasures. Each of your treasures must include a description about what it is, where it came from and why you and your family consider it to be a treasure. You will have two weeks to complete this homework and it will be due in at school Monday 2nd August. See Miss Sheppard for a piece of white A3 paper.

Zone Rugby & Netball

Our next Lincoln Zone competition is in Week 4. Year 5 students be practicing for this Wednesday and Friday 2-3. Boys will need a change of clothes and shoes, along with a mouth guard (no mouth guard no play). Girls will need a change of sports shoes A big thank you to Mr McIntyre and Mr Cantwell who will be coaching the rugby.

Cultural Festival

Year 5's will be practicing Kapa Haka Monday and Thursday afternoons 2-3pm. Girls please make sure you poi are always at school for these practices. The Fesitival takes place in Week 7 at the Christchurch Town Hall.

Homework Week 6

Homework Friday 21st May

Due Friday 28th May

RESEARCH PROJECT

NAME OF DISASTER: _________­­­­­___________________

(volcano, earthquake, tsunami, hurricane, flood)

1. In what region(s) of the world does this disaster occur?

2. Describe the damage that may be created

3. Can this disaster be predicted? If so, how?

4. What is the cause of this disaster?

5. Describe a recent occurrence of this type of disaster

6. Explain what damage occurred and how this affected the people living in the area.

Search the internet and read books, magazines and newspapers to find the information. Research your chosen natural disaster (volcano, earthquake, tsunami, hurricane, flood) and record your notes in your homework book.

All the information you collect you will need to use at school so the more information the better!!

Week 7 Homework

Homework was given out on Monday this week and is due in on Thursday. It will also be given out next week on Monday because of our Year 4 Camp this Thursday and Friday. Literacy Write a cinquain A cinquain is a five-line poem that describes a person, place, or thing. line 1: a one word title, a noun line 2: two adjectives line 3: three -ing participles line 4: a phrase about the object line 5: a synonym about your title, a word that means the same for example: dessert cold, creamy eating, giggling, licking a cone with three scoops ice cream

Maths See the maths worksheet in your book

Spelling Write a sentence for each of these words adjective, noun, verb, similie, shape, haiku, cinquain, poem, season, poetry Remember to Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check

Homework Help

I have added a link to the Acrostic Poem website.
You could print this out and stick it into your homework book or even publish it on this blog to share with everyone!
The poems you have been writing in class have been fantastic, keep it up!

Kelly Sheppard