Room 15 2022

The Matariki Holiday was a special day with much celebration around the country. The three-day weekend was also a chance to recharge the batteries, as we come to the end of term. There have been many sicknesses over the last few weeks in our community, we appreciate parents keeping children at home when they are sick to limit the spread of viruses. All the children of Rooms 15, 16 and 17 gave Mr Back warm birthday wishes last week, which he really appreciated. Our Sacred Heart of Jesus Mass was great last Thursday. A particular thanks to Mrs Mines and Mrs Dobson for their preparation and of course their enthusiasm as Directors of Religious Studies. Thanks to Mrs Dinniss for taking our Ripper teams to the Regional tournament, Mr G for taking the Chess team to their competition and Mrs Holmes for taking the golfers away for their ‘give it a go’ day. All students acquitted themselves very well by all accounts. Thanks also to Shanelle who is doing all the support work so these trips can go

Today we celebrated as a school at Sacred Heart Mass. Mrs Teidt played the piano and the children sang beautifully. Father Thomas taught us a new song, which we all enjoyed.  Have a wonderful Matariki weekend! 

Children in Rooms 15, 16 and 17 are thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to have a little bit of breakfast at school from 8:30. Thanks to all those parents who donated a range of tasty toppings from which the children are able to make a selection. The children are also expected to wash and dry their own plates and we have some Breakfast Monitors to help with the cleanup at the end.  Bon Apetit!!

  Kia ora parents and whānau,  I hope you have had a lovely weekend so far. I know many children would've played sport on Saturday, I'm sure they all had a great time.  It's hard to believe we are well into the second half of term 2. There has been some great learning going on and plenty more to come. On Friday we had a BIG cleanup of the play-based learning equipment which all the children helped with. We look forward to heading into a freshly organised space tomorrow.  Coming up this week: Tuesday - Room 15 Library. Wednesday - Room 16 and 17 Library.  Thursday - Sacred Heart Mass.  Friday - Pacifica, Choir, Golden Time and Assembly.  Have a wonderful Sunday evening, Sophie Bowie and Team Kahikatea. 

Today we had our Matariki Liturgy which was led by Kahikatea.     Our opening prayer was:  Haere mai We come to this place  of kindness and welcoming We come to worship God We come to welcome God with our prayers and songs We come to think of people who have died  and who shine like stars around us. We come to thank our lucky stars for warm homes, for hearty food and clean water We come to share the starlight of love. We were proud of all our children who did readings and prayers with confidence and courage. The rest of the Kahikatea Team sat and participated in the prayers and songs respectfully.

Good morning on this wonderful, wet Sunday morning.  I hope you are all managing to stay warm and dry.  We had a very rewarding week of testing reading, writing and maths last week.  The children have worked hard this year so far and it can certainly be seen in the gains that they have made. Once again, St Mary's provides our children with many opportunities to participate in a variety of sports and activities.   Young Vinnies have the finals of the Talent Quest tomorrow at 9.15 am in the hall.  Congratulations to those who are in the finals.  Remember to be prepared and bring any props, clothes etc which you may need.  The rest of the school look forward to watching and seeing the talent in our school. The Ripper Rugby Tournament is scheduled for this Wednesday, with Friday as the postponement day. This event has been postponed twice already so let’s hope that it happens this time.  The interschool Cross Country is scheduled for Tuesday, with Thursday being the postponement day. R

Over the past few weeks, our provocations during play-based learning have been focused on science, specifically the changing states of solids, liquids and gasses. The children learned that solid objects have lots of compacted particles that stay stuck in the same place. Liquids are made of less-compacted particles that can move together slightly. Gasses contain looser particles that can move around freely. Today we made vegetable soup and identified the solids (vegetables), liquids (stock and tomato paste) and gas (steam). Afterwards we ate the soup and watched Shaun the Sheep for Golden Time. 

Bonjour parents and whānau, we hope you have had a wonderful long weekend thus far. Congratulations to the children in our class who were Confirmed and received their first Holy Communion over the weekend. I am sorry that I was unable to make it, but I did hear it was a very special day for you all.  We are now halfway through the term. It is going to be a very short Week 6 as Monday is Queen's Birthday Public Holiday and Tuesday is a Teachers Only Day. This means there are only 3 days when the children come to school, from Wednesday through to Friday. During these three days, all Year 3 teachers will be testing their children in Reading, Writing and Maths, in preparation for mid-year reports and to assess how much progress has been made leading up to the midpoint of 2022. Weather permitting, our two 7s teams are competing in the inter-schools 7s tournament on Thursday. We celebrated Pentecost Mass together as a school last week and weren’t our little readers fantastic. The singing

Today we were lucky enough to visit a beautiful piece of artwork showing  Ko Hāta Maria, te Matua Wahine o te Atua - Holy Mary, Mother of God. It was created by Dunedin artist, Damian Walker, who has integrated aspects of the Māori culture into his work. For example, Mary is holding 12 fern fronds and each koru represents an apostle. She is wearing a tiki around her neck which symbolises her motherhood. Baby Jesus is wearing a kahu kiwi (Kiwi feathered cloak) which was only ever worn by Māori chiefs or people with prestigious mana. The children were blown away by the stunning details within the painting and how they all had a special meaning. Father Thomas was able to answer many questions about the art before leading us in singing Ave, Ave, Ave Maria.