Labels for Exercise Books:

Mathematics

Draft Writing

Religious Education

Working with Words

Work for other Teachers

Reading

Writer Notebook

There will be an extra one, leave that at home until you find out which one you run out of, and then that can be used. It is best to buy them now because of the bargains in stationery at this time of the year.  You will have two Mathematics books, label both and bring with you to school.

These people already have their Writer Notebook at school as we kept it here at school.

Breellen, Daniel,  Jordan,  Siabhaon, Emma, Teegan, Miggy, Cameron, Jessica, Joseph, Charlottem Simone, Sahara.

Please place your name on things like glue sticks, scissors, earphones.  Please place your earphones in plastic ziploc bag and label the bag with your name.

Large boxes of tissues do not need naming.  We keep these together and use them throughout the year.  Please hand them in to me on arrival the first morning so I can tick your name off the list.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment.

I hope you are making the most of the last week of the holidays. I am already back at school getting the classroom up and ready. It’s looking better every day. I hope you like it, I think you will.

Just a reminder if you are covering your exercise books, remember to put a label on the outside so that your name is clearly shown and there is a place for the subject. There is no need to cover them if you don’t want, it is entirely up to you – and your Mum I guess!

Also don’t forget, if you have exercise books from last year that haven’t been used much, use those before you buy more. If you want, that is!

It would help if you can clearly label your clearfile as well. There is a new system of organisation for exercise books and clear files.

Remember to check out where your sunhat and PE uniform is. Those need to be clearly labelled as well.

How do we have lunch time at our school? We have two breaks, a half hour each. One at 11am and one at 1:10pm. The ten minutes before that is eating time. Unlike schools in many other countries, we bring a cut lunch to school. Again here is another video that students worked on before school ended but we never got to the final point of publishing and discussing the star and wish (what we like about the content and movie making and what we wish had been developed further/better.)

Below is a video made by some students about books being read in the class. We didn’t have time to completely finish it or view it before the school year ended, but here it is anyway. I think they would have learned a number of things and will notice a range of ideas to develop. So here it is, nice work team.

I have finished reading War Horse today and now I wish I was at school to say, “Who wants to read this next?” I know I just want you all to read it because I am sure you would love it.  It has been sitting on my table at home for a couple of months and I never got around to reading it.  I thought I would interest people like Connor to read it.  After reading it I now know many of you would love this story.  I will have to wait to wave the book around and say “You just have to read this!”  How I wish I had read it earlier in the term.

There are a couple of copies in the Kapiti Library although I notice they are both reserved, although it says one is available. Go and put pressure on Carol. Or leave me a comment and I will drop my copy off to you before you see the movie.

I also discovered today that a movie has been made by Steven Spielberg and it is due for release on January 12th in New Zealand.  I will definitely want to see it, and some of you will too.  But I wish you could read the book first.  I am wondering how true the movie has stayed to the book.   I always like to read the book before I see a movie.  Well usually!  Here is a movie trailer clip.  It captures a little of the book, but doesn’t do the wonderful relationship of horse to horse or horse to person justice.

I have a list so long it would take me longer than 2012 to get them all read. However these are the ones I intend reading over the summer holidays.

War Horse is the one I have started already, it is by Michael Morpurgo.  It was first published in 1982.  It is told from the horses point of view and is about a powerful friendship between an owner and his horse Joey.  It takes place during World War 1.

The second one is Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz. I know this series has been popular with some of my students in the past so I want to find out what they like about it.  It was published in 2000 so it has been around awhile.

Son of Neptune is next on my list.  I read the first one earlier in the month and couldn’t resist buying this one while I was in the book shop.  This belongs to the Heroes of Olympus second series.  It was published in 2011.

This is a rather unusual book that I found out about from some teachers online.  It is a rather large hardback and is a little different from most books.  It contains two stories 50 years apart. One is told in words, the other pictures.  They eventually link. That is all I know until I read it. Published in 2011.

I would also like but don’t yet have sitting beside me a few other books.  One is a graphic novel that I have heard good things about.  Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol.

Our Only May Amelia by Jennifer Holm  is the other book I would like to read when I get it.  It was written a number of years ago, but the author has written a follow up just recently.  So I will need to read this one first!

So…. how about you?   What are your reading plans for the holiday break? I would love to know.  

I do know that Daniel hopes to be reading one of my choices after Christmas has hopefully delivered the book!

It’s time for all of us to vote.

Do it at home.  Only one vote per day from an IP address, so at school only one person’s vote will count on any day, so we will set up a roster!  Vote at home.

Here are some categories you might like to vote in!  Watch out for Teegan, let’s support her.  Street Talk is in the video/podcast category, and vote for which free web tool you have enjoyed or used and like.

Vote for Teegan! And Street Talk!  I have!

And in Best Media/Podcast, scroll down and find Street Talk. I think they deserve our vote, we have enjoyed their shows.

And by the way, you also might like to vote for Sue Wyatt in the Lifetime Achievement category. Sue has organised all the Edublog Student Blogging Challenges.  Let’s support her too.

Every year we spend a morning fund raising so that we have some money to send to overseas children who are in need, or sometimes New Zealand. Today was that day. The weather was fine and we had a lot of fun as usual. Well done Year 7, you did a fantastic job with your games. Year 8 you were fabulous on the stalls. Up there with the best. Thank you all.
We made over $1920 and still have some bits and pieces of coins to add in! Well done.