Buddy Reading

Each Friday we get together with our Buddy Class and read books. We really enjoy this time reading and talking.

Hot Shot Tennis

Today we were playing Hot Shot Tennis.

Mr Craft comes to Saint Mary's to teach us Hot Shot Tennis. 

The people with the racquets have to hit the ball over the net. 

If someone catches the ball, the hitter is out and goes to the other side of the net.  

The people on the other side of the net try to catch the ball.

You can catch it in the air with 2 hands or one bounce/one hand.

Mrs Tilley is throwing the ball for people to hit.

written by Pinqi, Jake, Levi and Ocean

Sharing our Tiki Collages

We made Tikis.

Here is Aedan telling us about his creation.

Library Display

This week Emma D., Emma R., Irelyn & Molly made a new library display called "Once upon a time".

Emma D. and Irelyn created the 3D book label. 

They put stickers and pictures on it to go with the display.              

Then we choose the books to put on the shelves.        

Young Vinnies

Today the Young Vinnies went to church.

We sang some Christmas Carols and did a little performance in front of the people of the parish.

There were about 50 people in the audience.

The Young Vinnies like to help people and we like to help the church a lot. The teacher who help us is Mrs Lemaire.

Back: Seddon, Emma R., Irelyn, Olivia, Zoe, Ruby:
Front: Sophia, Ocean, Camille, Jason

The Potato Competition

We have entered the potato growing competition.

The competition is run by the Alzheimer's Society.

Our potato is growing in a bucket.

In the last holidays Irelyn took it home and planted it. 

When the holidays finished she bought it ot school and it is growing quite a lot.

Noe and Pinqi made the watering cans from ice cream containers so we can water it carefully.

We put it outside lots so it gets sunshine. 

Olivia, Theo, Irelyn, Noe & Pinqi with the potato plant

Reading with "The Spaceships"

This week in Reading our group, The Spaceships got some senior independent readers to read in class.
Emma R said that the books give us a lot of information.
Emma D said that some of the books we could find in the box were double sided and had 2 different stories in the same book.

Hot Shots Tennis

On Tuesday we had "Hot Shots Tennis" with Mr Craft.

We learnt how to hold a tennis racquet properly.

He learnt about hitting forehand and backhands.

We learnt how to play a game.

The best bit was "bonus" ball when people could get back into the game by catching the ball with 2 hands before it bounced, or with one hand if it had bounced.

We used the padder tennis bats from school and Mr Craft bought proper racquets.

Learning Pathways

Learning Pathways are helping us with our writing, our learning.
The cars are different colours and tell us where we are with our learning intention.
Here are some of our Learning Pathways from writing this week.

Red means we understand it.

Orange & Green means still learning

Noe is proud of writing more high frequency words correctly. 

This week Noe got his pen license this week

Jason is proud of working on his proofreading.

Pinqi is proud of being able to write more words correctly.

Enviro School Update

Wow! Saint Marys were trying to get a Silver Award this year.

But they got a Green Gold award.

It is really special to us.

Keep up the good work St Mary's.

Room 4's contribution was to pick the fruit before it went rotten and took it and shared it.

We have been doing Magic Play with recycled stuff and creating things.

Silver Reflection Environmental Day

Today is Enviro Day. 

St Mary's School is trying to get a Silver Award.

The school has already got a Bronze Award.

Emma told us about the letter from Pope Francis. He wrote it to everybody in the world.  We have written some letters back to thank him for teaching us how to care for our common home. Here is Emma's letter.

Aidan told us about what Room 4 does every Friday. They create things out of the "Magic Play Box" and share together at the end. We describe what we have made. The "Magic Play Box" has a whole lot of recycled materials in it for us to choose from.

Pinqi showed us the watering bucket he created for the "Spud in a Bucket" competition. He used an ice-cream container and made hole sin the bottom so the water will flow out softly to water the potato as it grows.

What do you like to create with recycled materials?

Room 4 @ StMary's

We are a class of year 3 & 4 learners at 

St Mary's Catholic Primary School

in Turanganui-a-Kiwa/Gisborne, New Zealand.

Our teacher is Mrs Tilley.

Nau mai, haere mai ki tēnei taonga

Welcome to our class blog.

We look forward to sharing our learning with our school,

our whānau and friends everywhere.