Term 1, Week 4

Hi everyone.

Hope you had a nice weekend break - great to see so many of you at school mass on Sunday. 

Homework this week:   Spelling - your child will have their homework book in their bag with updated words for this week.  Please ensure they spend a couple of minutes filling out their sheet each day - Mon-Thur - so that they are ready for testing on Friday. 
Mathletics - each member of Room 5 has a log in for this site now.  It's an awesome site for your child to learn on.   There are loads of set activities based around number with videos and tutorials if your child needs assistance.
Reading - 20 mins each night.

Swimming Sports:  Thursday this week!  Please ensure your child is at the pool by 9am.  Each child is encouraged to dress in their house colours.  Please label your child's swim gear and have them bring 2 towels, a drink bottle and a decent lunchbox of food. 

Timetable: championship and non-championship races will begin as soon after 9 am as possible.

9:00 – 10:00 (approximately) championship & non-championship full length races.

10:15 – 10:30 ish break for morning tea 

10:15 – 11 Junior school sports in the therapeutic pool.

11 – 12 Completion of the championship and non-championship full-length races. House relays – plus a lane for teachers and staff. Do you want to swim a leg of the parent relay? Is there anyone who can arrange a team of 4? This is a highlight for the kids – come on community!

Note: Parents of Junior school students wishing to watch their children we suggest you come 10 – 11.

Children will travel back to school after 12 by bus.

Have a great week!

Mrs Lyon

Term 1, Week 3

Hi all,

We're into week 3 already and the students in Room 5 are settling nicely into the classroom learning routines.  Mathletics is ready to be started so I'll be introducing the class to this in the next week or so - once i've had a play around on the site.   Mathletics will be a nice addition to our maths learning in class.  It won't take place of maths instruction, but will be a tool the children will use themselves to practise and strengthen their maths knowledge and understanding. 

Swimming:  TUESDAY - PLEASE BRING SWIMMING GEAR!  We'll be walking to the pool for our swimming lesson on Tuesday morning.  This will be the only lesson the children get before the swim sports and will be a good chance for me and for them to see which races they'd like to enter for the school swimming sports. Please encourage your kids to have a go at most races they are capable of doing,

Homework:  There will be spelling words to learn this week.  Please ensure your child spends 10 minutes or so a day practising their words.  Their homework spelling sheet has spaces allocated for for each day Monday through Thursday.  Keep up the reading and times tables practise too.

BYOD: We are still waiting for a few signed contracts to be returned to school.  Once these are returned we can begin as a class to use laptops/devices to aid our learning. 

CITIZENSHIP CEREMONY:  On Friday morning Room 5 will need to be at school promptly as we are to be singing the national anthem at a citizenship ceremony at the council chambers and need to be there by 9:20am.   I have done this before - with last year's class - and it's an awesome thing to do.  The children get to hear stories of people who are becoming citizens and then welcome them by singing our national song.  We don't get to do this very often, so I'm excited I have the privilege of our class being invited to sing.

School Mass and Parish Picnic: Mass next Sunday is a school mass and will be held in Pioneer Park.  This will be followed by a parish picnic.  There'll be some fun games for you all to join in on.  Bring along a picnic lunch and spend some time with other school families.   The mass will begin at 10am.  Please ensure your child is at the park by 9:55 at the latest. 

Have a great week,

Mrs Lyon

Term 1, Week 1

Hi Folks,

Welcome to you all.  It was very hot at school today so a bit of a task getting the poor kids to be in school mode instead of holiday mode - and the teacher - ha ha!  Thankfully we're not jumping straight into the learning learning just yet - lots of team building exercises and getting to know each other first.

I haven't set any homework for this week but from next week there will be spelling words, some maths (when mathletics is set up) and the expectation that reading for at least 20 minutes will be a part of your child's day at home.

Waitangi Day: This Wednesday is a public holiday! No school.
There is a 9am Mass at the Church of Dunstan in Clyde.
Also St Gerard's families are invited to meet for a family picnic at Pioneer Park from 11am - 1pm.

Meet the Teacher: NEXT TUESDAY from 5:30pm at school.  Pop this into your diaries team, this is a good time to come and hear what's going on for your child this year in Room 5.

If you need to contact me for any reason during the year please email me at carolynlyon@stgerards.school.nz

Have a great week folks! 

Mrs Lyon.

Term 4, Week 9

Hi all,

I'll keep this week's blog brief with just a few notes about what not to miss!

Monday
Mufti - Dress Up Mania - Tomorrow
Come dressed as your favourite book character - make a gold coin donation

Tuesday
Graduation Mass 5pm

Thursday
Prize Giving 1pm

Have a great week.  I'll be happy for the holidays but also sad to have my gorgeous class moving on to the senior room.  I always learn so much from each class, and for that I am grateful.  What awesome kids you all have. 

Mrs Lyon

Term 4, Week 8

Hi folks,

Last week on Friday morning our wonderful Student Volunteer Army were put to work in the gardens at Castlewood rest home to help them clear a spot for a new private garden area for residents.  Thanks to our parent volunteers Ginah and Jenny for coming along to support us - Ginah - we have photographic evidence of you doing hard physical labour!!!

Our help means that when the branches are cleared from the lower half of the big tree, there will be a clear space for the new private garden alcove being planned.

This tree needed a good clear out underneath.



Lachie hard at work on the end of a garden fork!

Everyone afterwards!

Cricket this week: There will be cricket lessons on Tuesday and Thursday after lunch.  The children may wear their sports uniforms if they wish.

Hats: please ensure your child has their school hat on this week - the sun has some heat in it and if the kids are out for a lot of the day in the heat, a hat will stop that sunburn.

Assembly: We are presenting assembly this week - please come along and join us!

That's all folks,

Have a great week,

Mrs Lyon

The Seasonal Cook

‘THE SEASONAL COOK’

Together we can make this a $50,000+ fundraiser for our school!!

Two years ago conversations were happening around how we could raise a substantial amount of money for St Gerard’s. We talked about the need for a library to be reinstated, about the need for spaces for sciences, art and music so that classes could undertake exciting project based, student driven learning and about how we always felt like the school was running on a shoestring...what could we do to help? From these conversations ‘The Seasonal Cook’ was born.

For the past two years many of you have been involved in the project ‘The Seasonal Cook’. We would like to say thank you. Thank you for your recipes, your testing and tasting, your sponsorship and your time. We received over two hundred and fifty recipes for the book - and in the end we could only include just over a hundred and twenty recipes. It has been a huge effort and we are so proud of the book that has been produced.

‘The Seasonal Cook’ was launched two weeks ago with a Home Tour. Once again thank you for your support of this tour. We have received lovely feedback about the tour and it is exciting to be able to report that the home tour raised over $11,000. We also sold over 90 copies of the book on the day.

The sucess of this day and the support of our generous sponsors have enabled us to cover all the costs of printing our first run of books.

‘The Seasonal Cook’ is expected to raise over $50,000 just from this first print run. Once the books have sold then the exciting process of community consultation and planning can begin on how to best use the funds raised to benefit current and future students.

What we need for this to be a success, is for each one of us in our school community to actively promote and try and sell ‘The Seasonal Cook’. It is $40.00 and there is a sample of the book at the school office.

• Have you got yourself a copy of ‘The Seasonal Cook’?
• Do you have people to get Christmas presents for who would love ‘The Seasonal Cook’?
• Do you have family or friends, especially those who do not live in Alexandra, that would love a stylish cookbook?
• Can you help out by manning a stall at the local markets to sell the books?

Books can be purchased at:

• The School Office (cash or EFTPOS)
• www.theseasonalcook.net

To send a message direct to the committee: email recipebook@stgerards.school.nz or

pm us on our facebook page “The Seasonal Cook St Gerards School Cookbook”

Thank you for your support - what a great school community we have!

Term 4, Week 6

Hi Folks.

Here's what's on for the week.

Central Otago Sports - Tuesday, cancellation day Wednesday.

Life Ed - We'll visit the Harold bus again on Monday and Tuesday of this week. 

Speech Eisteddfod - assembly for this is next Thursday the 29th of November.
Please see below for a copy of the senior speech marking schedule.

Have a great week,

Mrs Lyon.

Eisteddfod Speech Assessment

Name: _______________  Topic: ________________________   November 2016

Writing:

• Write a speech sequencing ideas logically.

Do this using the Hamburger format by:

• Having an appetising introduction – an exciting question or ‘did you know’, and tell briefly about the other things that will be in the speech.
• Layers: each layer will be about a different part of the speech topic, each layer will flow to the next layer, because it makes sense to speak about it next.
• Conclusion: will remind the audience about what the speech has been about, or leave the audience with a thought provoking question.

Presenting/Speaking:

• Speak clearly so the audience can hear all that is said.
• Maintain the interest of the audience by speaking slowly and carefully, trying to change the tone of voice, and by using pictures or other props.
• Become so familiar with the material that there is eye contact with the audience.

Content ( _/18)	Rarely (2)	Usually (4)	Almost Always (6)
Speech is well organised (opening/body/close) and has an appropriate structure
Speech ideas are appropriate to topic
Vocabulary suits purpose of speech
Delivery (_/36)
Volume and clarity is appropriate
Expression is evident
Pace is appropriate
Eye contact is made
Stance is relaxed and confident
Gestures are used appropriately
General Comments: Content:          /18 Delivery: /36                         Total:                     /54