This term so far

hello every one.
The students have been working hard this term. We have included some of their poetry for you to enjoy.
I will also try and link their report writing to this site so parents can have a look at the fantastic reports that have been written.

Diamante Poem

Dogs

Loud, Smelly

Barking, Sniffing, Hunting

A Man’s Best Friends

Purring, Lounging, Killing

Lazy, Sleek

Cats

AMY

Fire

Hot, red

Burning, killing, warming

It can kill you

Flowing, breathing, swirling

Cold, peaceful, blue

Water

Faizaan

Dog

                                  Loud playful

              Barking chasing swimming

        Cats and dogs are all among us

             Eating scratching sleeping

                              Hungry small

                                            Cat

                                             Fish

                                Friendly flow

                   Swimming feeding playing

             Birds eat fish naughty birds!

                    Flying sneaky catching

                          Small colourful

                                          Bird

Hope you enjoy thise small collection.

if you would like to see more let me know or pop into class

Writing

Your personal writing assignment for the first three weeks of this term.

                                WRITING WEEKS 1-3 TERM 2 2012

Glue into your books and refer to for writing.

Over the next three weeks you need to;

            
Research a topic of your choice that you can write an information report on, this is to be done independently.  Make sure you refer to your writing criteria. 
Plan, draft, peer and teacher check, redevelop and one narrative, this can be about anything you want to write about. Use your personal writing book.
 Write a narrative poem, use resources in class and library to get ideas, must be published.
Write and publish at least one haiku and one diamante poem.

              

Some websites to help you

http://www.poetry4kids.com/blog/lessons/poetry-writing-lessons/

http://www.storyit.com/

http://www.types-of-poetry.org.uk/

ALL OF THIS IS DUE  READY TO BE ASSESSED THURSDAY WEEK 3

Term 2

Wow  term 2 nearly ready to start.
A few reminders of what is happening in the first 4 weeks
WEEK 1
Monday 23 April - student led discussion forms will be sent home, please fill out and return as soon as possible
Wednesday 25 April - ANZAC day - no school.
WEEK 2
Tuesday 1 May Student Led Discussions
WEEK 3
Friday 11 May 9 hour relay. Please make sure you are gfetting your sponsors. Remember to organise a tent or shelter for this day.
If you have any queries phone or email Mrs Hitchens

THANK YOU S4

A huge thank you to everyone in S4 for making this term such a wonderful  10 weeks.
I have been extremely impressed with how you taken care of each other, worked together,encouraged each other and shown such a committment to your learning.
I am proud of the progress you have all made and the effort you ahve put into your learning.
Have a wonderful break, rest up and stay safe and I will see you next term.
Mrs Hitchens

team building fun

Team Building

For the last two weeks we have been participating in team building skills with Matua Shane durng our PE time. We have included some photos.
The first challenge was to move a ball from one end of the turf to the other without using our hands. It was tpough but we fianlly got it!!
Then we had to move the ball as a team without using our arms and legs - that was really difficult.
Hope you enjoy our photos as much as we enjoyed participating in it.

showing balance skills in the kayak

working together

Working out clues in orienteering

A huge, huge, huge THANK YOU

Thank you so much to all the parents and helpers who came to camp with us. we would not be able to give our students this wonderful oppurtunity without you giving up your time and energy, and boy did they use your energy.
thank you for your humor, the way you related to our kids and the care and aroha you gave them freely.

team work and problem solving

Awesome Learning

Well busy busy busy couple of weeks.
We had school swimming, the girls had self defence and we have been working very gard in our learning time.
While the girls were at self defence our boys joined with Stafford 3 boys for 2 blocks and we did some technology challenges. I was really impressed with the level of thinking shown through the boys conversations and their great team work. They came up with some really interesting devices. I had posted some photos of their work.
Chinese is going really well and the children ahd a great time learning a new song which helped them learn introduction phrases.
We are all really enjoying our fantastic class and looking forward to the rest of the term.

Games for learning

Leadership in our class

Over the last week students have been working hard to gain leadership positions in our team and class.
We have been deciding our House Captains and our Class referees.
Candidates for House Captain had to submit a C.V, outlining why they felt they could fulfil the responsibilities of this role. They went through an interview process. They were given practical tasks to show some of their organisational skills as well as their ability to motivate and inspire other students.
It was a tough campaign and I take my hat off to all the students who participated in this.
It was an even harder decision to choose our house captains.
I am very pleased and proud to share that our very own Maria Te Ahuahu is one of our House Captains.
Fantastic Maria.
Throughout this process we also had students in the class campaigning for our class referees. They needed to show that they could interact with other students possitively. Take a lead role in organising and encouraging students in the class during PE and student engagement. Show their time management by completing class tasks within time frames and show organisation skills by being prepared for learning all the time.
I am pleased to share that Te Kaneri Te Kani, Darcy Rutter-Duckmaton, Amy Proud, and Arahia Faalilo are our Stafford 4 referees.
Awesome everyone.

Stafford 4 operational values

Over the last two weeks we have spent quite a lot of time in groups and as a class discussing how we want the class to operate and what things are important to the students to ensure that we have the optimum learning environment for everyone.
I have been extremely impressed with the thinking and consideration for others shown by all the students in the class as we have worked through this process.
The following is the expectations and values the students have decided are important to them:

• Everyone in the class is constantly and consistency striving for excellence in all that we do.
• We respect everyone's personal values, cultures, and individual experiences and differences.
• We treat other people as they like to be treated.
• We treat each other with kindness.
• Listening when others are speaking, if we disagree we can, but we wait our turn and give our opinion respectfully.
• We take pride in our work and our books, we show this by always striving to do our best work, following the set out guidelines and ensuring our book covers are clean.
• We keep our environment tidy and clean.
• We use safe hands and words.
• We use people's proper names.

What's coming up

Dates to remember for the next few weeks.

Friday week 2  10 February   School photographs

Friday week 3  17 February  School Swimming at Rotorua Aquatic centre. Remember to go to the aquatic centre in the morning - be there by 8.40 and that you will be leaving there to go home.

Monday and half Tuesday week 4 - girls self defense

Tuesday week 5  28 February we go to Tarawera camp. Home Friday. Camp forms will be coming home this week.

Wonderful week 1

Wow. What a fantastic week. Thank you very much to all the students who have been in class this week. I am so impressed with your wonderful behaviour and fantastic cooperation.

We have been working  hard at establishing our class and work environment. Students are producing some detailed and thought provoking art while developing their identity quilts and we are all looking forward to seeing them completed and displayed.

We had our team swimming on Thursday and the kids were fantastic. We will be posting student voice about the day next week.

We have started our writing and maths programme and set our expectations and started our daily routine for these. Thanks everyone in Stafford 4 for making this a very easy task.

Welcome to Stafford 4 2012

A copy of our first class newsletter for you to enjoy

 

Welcome back everyone. I hope you had a great holiday break.

I’m Rachel Hitchens. I have been at Rotorua Intermediate for 6 years.

 I can be contacted through my email,

rachelh@rotorua-intermediate.org.nz or the office phone 3489888. Please feel free to come into class at any time, however if you wish to discuss anything with me please make a time with me that is outside teaching hours. Thank you

We have a very busy and exciting term coming up with a variety of learning experiences and activities in and outside the class room.

 We will be starting our learning programme in week one which means it is very important that our Stafford 4 students have their stationary in the first week. Please contact me if there is an issue getting stationary. My expectation for students is that they take pride in their work and books and they keep them as clean and tidy as possible. 

We have a class blog and students will be contributing samples of their work, sharing ideas, showing photographic mementos of their learning and inviting comment from parents and whanau. The address for the site will come home in the first week. If internet connection is not available at home family are welcome to come into class before or after school to view our blog.

A letter with our daily timetable and what’s coming up over the term for Stafford 4 will come home this week.

The expectation of the school is that all students will arrive at school in the correct uniform every day. We have a visual poster of correct uniform for students in the class and office, a description is also in the prospectus. Please make sure your child’s uniform is clearly named as it is difficult to determine who uniform belongs to when it is not named. Thank you.

Students are also expected to bring the correct PE uniform every day for PE, fitness and student engagement. If a student chooses to wear incorrect uniform to school they will be asked to remove it until they get home, if there is a second occurrence the item will be collected and kept for parents/caregivers to collect. I appreciate your support with this.

Effective and productive learning is a partnership between students, whanau, and the school I will contact all parents/caregivers by phone, letter, or email a least twice a term to touch base.

In the first week forms will come home with your child for camp. Even though the school already has contact information it is important these details are completed  and returned as soon as possible as we take these forms to camp with us.

Rachel Hitchens