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=media type="custom" key="12352916"= = = =Welcome to the wiki page for Room 4b=

Greetings. I'm Mrs Wendy Morgan the teacher in Room 4b and I would like to welcome you to our wiki page. I have just returned from an amazing trip to the UK and Europe with my family where we saw and did some very exciting activities. I am glad to be returning to school and looking forward to teaching your children in my room in 2012. During the year I will add information that will be helpful to you, interesting webpages to look at relating to our topic and pictures of the children in the room engaged in activities that you may like to look at. Watch this space!

Here are some photos of myself and my family during our recent overseas adventure:

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Tuesday 31 January A warm welcome to all the parents I was lucky enough to talk to briefly this morning, I'm sorry it was such a rush and if you have something you didn't get the chance to tell me this morning please send me a note or stop me the next time you see me and tell me what I need to know. Our meet the teacher evening is next Wednesday 8 February and I'll run through our routines in more detail then. We all had a great day today despite the fact that it got very hot this afternoon - please remember to send along your childs hat and a water bottle to keep them hydrated. Thanks to the parents who have purchased their stationery, remember to get the Phonics Sounds 2 book from the school office. Don't we all look great in our school uniform!

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= A big thank you to all the parents who came to our meet the teacher evening on Wednesday. Remember if you have any problems let me know and we can make a time to meet. Our parent teacher interviews are on Monday 19 and Wednesday 21 March. = = = = Here are a few photos from the first two weeks of school in Room 4b: = = media type="custom" key="12442278" = = Friday 17 February = = What an amazing assembly we had today. A big thank you to our enthusiastic presenters Jaedon and Ohanna and to Blake for reading the prayer so well. We all really enjoyed watching Mrs Field's play called Our Class Pet. Well done everyone. = =  = = The children having been reading Hairy Maclary books and each drew their favourite character and wrote a story about them. I have put together their stories and pictures in two flipbooks for you to enjoy. = = media type="custom" key="12528406" = = media type="custom" key="12528458" = = Thank you to parents who have been so patient about seeing their children's work on the wiki. Hopefully our javascript problems have been solved and the children will start putting their work on their own page next week. = = = = 22.2.12 = = A very exciting thing happened today - two of our butterflies came out of their chrysalis and we took them outside to start the lifecycle again. = = = = =

media type="custom" key="12704806" Below are some photos of some of the "animals" we saw at the zoo: media type="custom" key="12706304" A big thank you to those parents who came and helped our trip be so successful today. We wouldn't have been able to go on the trip and the children wouldn't have learnt or seen so much without your help!

Friday 2 March It has been a busy week in 4b learning about reptiles. The zoo trip was a highlight and we were very lucky with the weather. I have created a zoo puzzle page using some of the photos taken at the zoo and as it looks like a wet weekend ahead you may want to spend some time solving them. They range from easy to more difficult - which ones can you do?

Wednesday 7 March Dear Parents Just to let you know that I am one of the lucky two teachers who has been selected to visit our sister school Coburn in Melbourne next term - 12 to 20 May, obviously the school will pick a fantastic reliever to look after my class while I am away and I am hoping to write on my wiki from Melbourne so the children know what I am up to. Looking forward to seeing you all at the family bbq/picnic on Friday at 5.30, the school council has organised some fun activities to keep the children entertained while you chat with other parents.

Below is a photostory we made about our recent trip to the zoo.

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We love this youtube clip that Hussam and his mum found using our chunk for this week - aw!

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Parent Interviews A reminder that school finishes at 12.30 on Monday 19 March for parent interviews and on Wednesday school finishes at the normal time but there are interviews from 3.30 to 6pm. A big thank you to all the parents who have booked an interview time, I look forward to chatting with you about your child and working out ways that together we can help your child achieve their potential. Please remember to be on time and bring any questions you have. Remember we are on art this week with Mrs Murray so the children need an artshirt to protect their uniform.

Wednesday 4 April What an amazingly busy term we have had! I hope everyone has a very well deserved relaxing Easter break. Below are some pictures of some dyed reptiles that the children have just completed and in the class I have just hung up the children's reptile projects - thank you to all the parents who helped their children complete their draft copy at home. Next term spelling will start, we have just finished our testing and the children's levels range from level one to level five, I'm sure all the spellathon testing and chunk work the children have done this term helped their results, so far the spellathon has raised over $10,000 which is wonderful, a big thank you to you all for your support. If you get the chance have a look at Jaxon's page as he and his parents have put on some of the photos of their recent trip to Australia and they are amazing, lots of great reptiles to look at.

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**Welcome back to Term 2** **ANZAC day tomorrow!** [] Saturday 12 May I am packed and ready to go to the airport and really looking forward to visiting our sister school in Coburn, Melbourne for the week. I know that the class will be in capable hands with Mrs Cairns in charge. I hope all mothers have a lovely day tomorrow and enjoy the surprise that the children have made for you. Hopefully I will have lots of photos and new ideas to share with everyone when I return, until then have a lovely week and remember to work hard.
 * What a lovely day to come back to school! A big welcome back to everyone, we have a busy term ahead as you will see from the syndicate newsletter that came home today. If your child has any allergies please send back the slip at the bottom as we will be doing quite a bit of cooking over the next couple of weeks during our Kitchen Chemistry unit. This morning we saw the chickens being put into their hutch outside our room and we will be able to watch their progress from our windows.**
 * To celebrate the fact that it is ANZAC day tomorrow we made ANZAC biscuits in class today after we discussed why we don't have to come to school on Wednesday. They tasted great and I was lucky to have Mrs Warburton's help. I have included the recipe below and a great website to visit for information about the day.**

Monday 14 May Hello all children from 4b, I am sending this message from Coburn School in Melbourne. Mrs Martin, Mr Jenkin and I are having a great visit over here even though the weather is cold and wet. All the children who are with us seem to be having a good time as well with their homestay families and they did lots of exciting things yesterday. On Sunday Mrs Martin and I went shopping with our homestay teachers and had a look around Melbourne city. Today we were introduced to the school at an assembly and Mr Jenkin gave the school a kiwi with a maori costume on. I have looked in lots of classrooms and seen lots of children working hard. The children at Coburn have a purply coloured uniform and have a lovely looking school with lots of amazing art and playgrounds everywhere, unfortunately it was too wet for them to play on them today. Tomorrow I am going to visit the grade 1 and 2 classes again and I hope to bring back lots of interesting ideas for us to try. Mrs Field said that you are working hard for Mrs Cairns which is great to hear. Have a lovely week. From Mrs Morgan

I returned to NZ yesterday afternoon after a great week in Melbourne looking at schools and spending time looking around the city. Mrs Martin, Mr Jenkin and I spent the first part of the week at Coburn and the surrounding schools finding out about education in Australia and how it differs and is similar to New Zealand. On Thursday we went with our children to ScienceWorks which is an interactive museum, we all had lots of fun there and enjoyed looking around and trying the experiments. That night we went out for pizza with all the children and their homestays. On Friday we went into Melbourne city on the train and visited the Queen Victoria Markets. The children had fun spending their money and buying gifts for everyone back home. It was an amazing trip that I was lucky enough to be part of, all the parents of the children who went from Wakaaranga can feel very proud because they behaved beautifully all the time and were a credit to the school and their families. Below are a few of the pictures I took.
 * Monday 21 May **

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Friday 25 May This is our last week of Kitchen Chemistry and the children have been involved in a couple of experiments this week. We mixed baking soda and vinegar and food colouring to create lava flowing from volcanoes we made in the playground bark, we made a large gingerbread man for morning tea and we observed mentos and diet pepsi reacting on the grass. Below are a couple of photos taken by children in the class.





Friday 1 June I'm sure you are all looking forward to a long weekend, hopefully the weather will stay nice. This weekend is my parents 50th wedding anniversary so we are having a family weekend with a party on Saturday night, my sister has come over from Brisbane and I'm really looking forward to catching up with her and other family. Our topic is wheels and next week I have asked the children each to bring in a small toy on Tuesday for us to sort and sketch and to bring a box (about the size of a weetbix box) to make into a vehicle. We are having a wheels day on Thursday 21 June and the children can bring their toys with wheels, roller blades, skateboards or scooters. No bikes please. Week 8 11-15 June is book week and we are looking forward to watching Stu Duvall on Tuesday 12 June, thanks to the parents who have sent along the $5 already. The year 2 theme is the circus and clowns. On Friday 15 June the children can dress up as their favourite book character which could be a clown.

Friday 8 June We had a very busy day in room 4b today, the class had a lot of fun creating their own vehicle with wheels out of the boxes that they brought along. Below are some photos of the children creating and more photos of their creations. Jaxon again took some of the photos and tried hard to make sure that the children were closer in the pictures so they were easier to see. We are all looking forward to book week next week, thank you to the parents who have sent along the $5 for the Stu Duvall experience. Please remember to check your child's hair as we are having problems with the reoccurance of headlice, unfortunately it only takes one louse!

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Tuesday 12 June Today the children were lucky enough to hear Stu Duvall present his story about a little green book monster. The children were entralled by his performance. They laughed and really enjoyed watching and listening to him. Below are some pictures of the performance.

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Friday 15 June A very busy end to book week happened today with the children dressing up as a book character at school (see book character day page for photos and words) and some of the children coming back this evening for the junior school disco. (see photos below)

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Friday 22 June What a wonderful assembly we had this morning. Our play was terrific and worth all that practice. A big thank you to Jaedon and Harteij's mums who came in this morning and helped get everyone ready and thanks also to Jaxon's mum who videoed our play so if you missed it you can watch it below. I have also put the stories the children wrote about our recent Wheels Day on a new page in the wiki called Wheels.

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Here are some photos taken by Mrs Govender and Mrs Morrison at today's assembly. media type="custom" key="19506582"

The children had a lot of fun this morning learning speedminton, a combination of badminton, tennis and squash, with Mr Mannion in the hall. I hope you all have a well earned lovely holiday and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone back on Monday 16 July. Remember to keep learning your basic facts, spelling words and get some books from the library to read. media type="custom" key="19689174"
 * Thursday 28 June **

= Welcome back to Term 3 = ====I hope everyone had a lovely break and are all ready to come back to work hard this term. Our first topic is Road Safety and Constable Painter is coming to do some work with the children. My husband and I spent a few days in Rarotonga for his 50th birthday. The weather was lovely for all but one of the days and it was nice to see the sun again and swim at the beach. Below are some photos taken during our holiday:==== media type="custom" key="20365670"

Tuesday 24 July - Road Safety The children had a very interesting session today with Constable Painter who was talking to them about booster seats, airbags and seatbelts. The majority of the class should still be in booster seats because the seatbelts cut across their faces and would hurt them if they were involved in an accident. All the children have brought home information about this today and should be able to talk to you about it. Below are some photos of the session: media type="custom" key="20454604"

Friday 3 August Year 3 put on an amazing assembly this morning to welcome our Korean visitors and to share the two dance group items and a kapa haka item. Fredy and Ovin were fantastic in the dance and well done Anastasia and Sylias who got certificates and to Sylias who also go a principal's certificate for improved work. Below are some photos from the morning: media type="custom" key="20524788"

Friday 17 August Here are our pictures of our amazing calendars. They will be on sale soon.

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Friday 24 August Today was the Year 2 assembly, thank you to the parents who were able to come and watch us. Today we were lucky enough to have Mr W-B's class perform and play about Matariki (the Maori New Year) and the children sang some Maori songs that they have been learning with Mrs O'Shea who comes in each Thursday to teach the children some Maori. The assembly was a good introduction to our next unit "Our country, our culture" and if you have any information that you would like to share with the class about your culture please let me know as I would love to have you in to talk to the class. Here are a few photos that Mrs Govender took for us: media type="custom" key="20658811"

Saturday 1 September We have just started our new unit "Our Country Our Culture" and we have been lucky enough this week to hear from two parents in Mrs Field's class about their country and their culture - Nadine's mum spoke about South Africa and George's mum talked about growing up in Tonga. On Tuesday Hussam's mum is going to share about her culture with us and I know Harteij is creating a powerpoint to show us. Molly is trying to convince her grandfather to come and speak to us about Scotland. If any other parent has something to share we would love to hear from you. It is fascinating to learn about the children in our classes and where they and their parents come from and how their culture is different from kiwis in New Zealand.

Tuesday 4 September
A big thank you today to Hussam's mum who came and talked to the children about life in Jerusalem and how her culture differs from life in New Zealand. The children really enjoyed hearing what she had to say and were fascinated when they saw how Arabic writing differs from English. They also really enjoyed the herb bread that she brought in to share.

Here are some photos of the tiles the children made with Mrs Murray. Soon they will be on display in the school grounds for everyone to look at. The children have been doing some amazing work with Mrs Murray and we are really lucky to have her as our art teacher.

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Monday 10 September A big thank you to Jaxon and Harteij's parents who have helped them to make a powerpoint about their culture to share. The children really enjoyed looking at them this afternoon. We are all making our own powerpoints in class a well and I have been very impressed with the skills the children have shown and their work so far.

Tuesday 11 September Thank you to Tia's mum Jo who came and spoke to the children today about her Maori culture. The children enjoyed the number game she taught them, the simple song and the legend that she read. If any other parents would like to come and talk to the children about their culture we would love to hear from you. Thanks also to Liva and her parents who made a power point about her Indian culture and emailed it to me. If any other parent wants to send us a powerpoint my email address at school is morgan@wakaaranga.school.nz. The children's powerpoints are progressing well and I will put them on a wiki page when they are all done.

Wednesday 19 September We have had a busy week already in 4b and it is only half over! We welcome Mr Smith into our room for the next 5 weeks, he is a trainee teacher and eager to work with the children in our room and help them with their learning in any way he can. Monday we heard from Emma Zhou's dad about Fiji and on Friday Molly's grandfather is coming to talk to us about Scotland. We have really enjoyed learning about other cultures from the families in our syndicate, it is not too late to come and talk to us! Tomorrow is the cross country. It will start at about 1.45 and the children can wear their running shoes and bring shorts and t-shirts to change into at lunch time if they prefer to run in them instead of their uniform. One week to go and then it will be the holidays. A note will come home on Friday about our trip to the Howick Historical Village on Tuesday 23 October. It will cost $13 and we are sending the note home early to give you plenty of time to find the money needed. It is always a great trip and fantastic that it is local. Remember to keep sending items for our Gardening Gift Basket. Grandparents/Grandfriend Day is on Wednesday 17 October and I have made a new page on the wiki with information about it and the song that the children need to learn for it.

Thursday 20 September
It was great that the weather today was fine enough to run the junior cross country. The children all enjoyed themselves and Mr Smith took some great photos which are below. Remember that from now on the children need to wear their black school shoes to school and not their running shoes. We are looking forward to hearing Molly's grandfather talk tomorrow about Scotland.

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=Friday 21 September=

It has been a very busy week in 4b! This morning we were lucky enough to have Molly's grandfather - Mr Kennedy - come and talk to the children about growing up in Scotland. The children were fascinated by what he had to say but had difficulty believing that 5 children slept in the same bed, that the washing was dried inside the house, that he walked to school every day even if it was cold and snowing and that they had to heat the water for the bath and then shared the water. They were also interested in the concept of different tartans for different clans and hearing about bagpipes. We have been so lucky to hear about the many cultures the children in our class represent. We also enjoyed watching Kaveeshi's powerpoint about Sri Lanka and looking at the diyas that Harteij brought along to share from the Diwali festival. Wakaaranga is truly a multi-cultural school!

=Wednesday 17 October= A big big thank you to all the grandparents and grandfriends who were able to come to school today for our special celebration. The children really enjoyed having you visit their class and spend time with them at lunchtime. It was a very successful day. Thank you also to Gabriella's grandparents who were unable to attend as they live in South Africa but they sent a beautiful letter that she shared with us. Below are some pictures taken during the event.

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A couple of reminders -
 * The children now need to bring their hats to school.
 * We have our trip to The Howick Historical Village on Tuesday and the children are able to dress up. Thank you to everyone who has paid and to Tia and Jaxon's mums who are coming to help.
 * Remember to send along a gold coin or something for our Gardening Gift Basket which will be raffled off at our gala next Saturday 27 October - fingers crossed for a lovely day, it is always an enjoyable day and a great fundraiser for the school.

Tuesday 23 October
A great trip was had by all today at the Howick Historical Village even though the weather was not nice. A big thank you to Victoria, Tia and Jaxon's mothers who came and helped with our trip, it would not have been such a success without them. Below are some pictures that I took.

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=Term 4 Week 2= What a very busy week we have had with our trip to the Howick Historical Village on Tuesday, learning to use the pois with Whia O'Shea on Thursday, learning about toys from the past with Mr Warburton, seeing the new chick running around with it's mother outside our window and our gala on Saturday. Below are some photos of our week:





=**Term 4 Weeks 4 and 5**=
 * A big thank you to Blake and Adelaide's mums who helped us in class last Friday to make our pegdolls like children used to play with in the olden days. The children made great dolls and we had fun this afternoon playing with them. Below are some photos, most of them were taken by Bill. On Thursday the 7 and 8 year olds will be involved in their athletics after our final bible assembly.**

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Friday 7 December One week until the end of the term and the end of the year. Lots has been happening at school but it is a very busy time of year so I haven't had the opportunity to write on the wiki - many apologies. You will have heard from the children about the unfortunate stealing of the chick and one of the hens from the chicken enclosure outside our room. Rose the reporter came to talk to the children on Wednesday and had a close and personal interview with Blake, Sylias and Tara which you can see if you follow this link - Click here <[]> to read the latest issue.

Today the children will have brought home their reports and if you have any queries please don't hesitate to contact me. Next week we are very busy with the following events - Monday - a farewell assembly in the afternoon for Mrs Grant and Cheryl who are retiring and a thank you to Whia O'Shea for all her hard work with the children teaching them Maori this year. Tuesday - weather permitting a whole school photo in the morning and our talent show in the middle block. Wednesday - Green Gold day, the children brought home a programme today and are encouraged to wear green and gold to celebrate our becoming a Green Gold Enviro School Thursday - Awards assembly at 9.30, children who are getting one of four commendation certificates at this assembly will have had a note in their report, please don't tell the children about this if they are getting a certificate as it is supposed to be a surprise. Friday - final day for 2012 and school finishes at 12.00

A big thank you to all the parents of the children in my class this year. They have been a lively bunch and I have enjoyed teaching them and getting to know you all. Class lists for 2013 will be posted up at school a couple of days before school goes back for 2013. A very Merry Christmas to you all and a Happy New year and enjoyable Christmas break with your family.

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 * Below are some photos from a couple of events we had this week. First are some photos from our mini concert held on Tuesday which gave some of the talented children in the syndicate the opportunity to perform publicly and second are some photos from our Green Gold Day held on Wednesday to celebrate the fact that our school has reached green gold status with regards to being an enviroschool. Thank you everyone for the lovely cards and gifts, I was truly spoilt and look forward to using all my 'smellies' and eating some of the yummy goodies I was given. Classes for next year will be posted on the afternoon of Friday 1 February outside the year 3 block, near the staffroom. A great well earned break to you all!**

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