Happy, Happy Holidays!

I hope you all have happy holidays full of laughter, sleep, running, reading, hugs, talking, eating and exploring. You've worked hard and been wonderful friends to each other this term.
Remember to care for your family - even those annoying brothers, sisters and cousins.
See you in October! BTW - why is OCTober the tenth month when an OCTopus has eight legs and an OCTagon has eight sides? 100 house points for anyone who has the correct answer on Day One, Term Four!!

Congratulations Sophie!

We are proud of you getting third place in the Year 3 and 4 Talent Quest.

We can't wait to hear and see you and your friends perform for us tomorrow!

More Book Recommendations

Year Three Tabloids

We had a fun time out on the field today doing various sporting activities. We had Rob the Nest, obstacle relays, egg and spoon races and the good old kiwi classic - the gumboot toss.

After we'd tossed the gumboots a bit we discovered they could develop super powers. Who knew - right?

Our Year Two Heroes

Super Heroes Parade on PhotoPeach Today we'll be able to give the children the cards we made yesterday about the parade.

Book Reviews

We are enjoying the book reviews some children are sharing this week. They have made good use of notes and props as well as all those poetry competition skills like using expression, gestures and projecting their voices. Tau ke!

Happy Birthday Aakifah!

We hope you are treated like a princess all day long!

Poems Available To Watch

Hey everyone I'm about to hop on the plane to Melbourne but I've managed to upload the Poetry Competition Videos. Take a look at your fantastic performances!
See you on Friday!

English Park Performance

What a beautiful afternoon for an outdoor performance at English Park. It was almost as warm there as it was at the rest home yesterday!

The Room 17 Folk Dancers perform for the school.

Te Mahuri Kapa Haka

The Haka

Hunter made a connection between our performance and the Te Mahuri's performance. He suggested they are both dances from "past times".

Diana Isaac Rest Home

I'm sorry I don't have photos of our visit to Diana Isaac today. If I did have I can tell you the faces would have smiles on them and the few tears were tears of joy.

Highlights

• meeting old people and talking to them
• seeing tears of joy
• watching the old folks tapping their feet to the music
• seeing the birds in the cage
• giving people a present that we'd made ourselves
• knowing that we'd created moments of joy
• making people happy
• being brave 
• getting a chocolate fish
• being asked back at Christmas
• discovering one of the people went to St Albans School as a child about 80 years ago
• realising that even when your brain is muddled you can still be happy 
• having so many parents able to help us and take us there in their cars
• representing St Albans School and doing such a good job of it

Proud, Proud, Proud!

That is how I felt today. I hope you all did too - you should have. You walked to the hall this morning like true leaders. As an audience you were respectful and celebratory. Sammie, Isobel and Makenzie were all wonderful performers who represented our class so well. We felt particularly proud of you three.

That Sammie came first and Isobel came second was the icing on the cake - and so well deserved!
Tau ke!

Chicken Pox

Along with Spring we have had the arrival of chicken pox in Room 17. Please keep an eye out for the arrival of spots on your little chicken!

Cricket and Fitness

It must be Spring if we're talking about, and playing, cricket!

It took us a while to get the hang of the speed cricket game they taught us, but now we've got it mastered we'll be able to go out and have a game from time to time.

Don't forget to keep developing your upper body strength and fire fighters' pole climbing skills. Will you get to the top of the pole by the end of the term?

Congratulations!

You all did a splendid job this afternoon reciting your poems. I'm sure you all feel proud of your efforts.  Special congratulations must go to Makenzie, Isobel and Sammie for winning the opportunity to represent Room 17 in the Middle School finals on Thursday. Many of you will be disappointed that you will not be doing this, but we can be sure that Makenzie, Isobel and Sammie will do us all proud!
I will prepare and load the videos over the next week or so so friends and families can enjoy your performances again! Keep an eye on the poetry page above.

We Have Sprung into September!

Yay for Spring!
Tomorrow we are having the poetry competition. Please remember...

You will feel nervous tomorrow and it will be hard to say your poem slowly and clearly.

The Memorial Garden

Last week Aaron was at school carving a manaia for the memorial garden. We watched him working and asked questions about his work. The manaia is a guardian creature. There was also a taniwha carving there.

The memorial garden will be a special place to help us remember Tracy and Doug who used to work at St Albans School.