Swimming

Kia Ora Whanau,

At the start of this week we started our swimming lessons at Freyberg Pool (watch this space for photos and videos). This is an essential part of our curriculum, living in New Zealand means lots of time around water, so learning the essential skills of swimming is a must! If there is a genuine reason that your child can't swim on a particular day, please write a note to excuse them. All students have been really enjoying this learning experience and look forward to it every day!

Nga mihi nui,
Stuart Pratt-Room 7 Teacher

Welcome Back to Term Three!

Kia Ora Whanau,

Welcome back to term three! I hope you all had as wonderful a break as I did!

Term 3 promises to be another very busy and important term, with gymnastics underway in the hall (watch this space for pictures and videos) and swimming later in the term. As well as the Art Exhibition in week 3 and the Digi-awards later on, the students are going to be having a lot of fun! We are also keeping a very close eye on the Olympics, ask your child for more information about what we are doing in class!

Next week are the Student/Teacher/Parent conferences, and so far we have a few parents locked in times. If you need help booking a time, see the ladies at the office. I can't stress the importance of these conferences enough, it is a great time for your child to share with you their learning journey so far and what their next steps are, and I am always impressed with how well students are able to articulate their learning, so please book a time. If those days and times don't suit you, please let me know and I am happy to arrange another time for you to come in.

Room 7 have made a very positive start to term three and I am really looking forward to seeing their progress this term.

I hope all you amazing parents are well!

Stuart Pratt
Room 7 Teacher

Mya's Video on Wednesday, 15 June 2016

Kia Ora from Mr Pratt

Kia Ora Whanau,

My name is Stuart Pratt, I am the new teacher in Room 7, apologies for not putting something up on the blog earlier, I have only just learnt how to use it!

I am really happy to have joined the Parkland School community and want to thank all the students, teachers, and parents who have warmly welcomed both me and my family! My wife Jess and I have moved down to Palmerston North with our two young children, Ella who is two and Josh who is only 6 weeks old. If you are one of the parents from Room 7 who is yet to meet me, please come see me and introduce yourself anytime, I always have an open door for all parents.

Just a reminder that we have cross country training every day except for Friday, weather permitting of course, however best to be prepared just in case. If you can send your child to school with a pair of running shoes, a change of clothes (optional) and a drink bottle, that would be greatly appreciated!

Nga mihi nui,
Mr Pratt

Room 7's Post on Thursday, 24 March 2016

Yesterday we had an excellent visit from plant to plate. We had a great day learning about the life cycles of a plant, planting vegetables in the school veggie garden, preparing different dishes and finally tasting the food. We made fruit smoothies, rhubarb and apple crumble, green salad, bean and tomato salad, frittata and creamed potato bake. Everyone tried a bit of everything even things they didn't think they liked. It all tasted delicious. We even got to sit down as if we were in a restaurant and enjoy the creations. The Plant to Plate organisation was amazing and we really enjoyed having them here.

Room 7's Post on Monday, 21 March 2016

Lily was trying hard to get places while being blind. Then everyone got in her way that was even harder. We learnt that disabilities are there to be valued. People with disabilities can do everything we can including driving they just do it differently.

Room 7's Post on Monday, 21 March 2016

Here is Keisha trying out the wheelchair.

Room 7's Post on Monday, 21 March 2016

Today we had a visit from The Disability Awareness Programme. They came and talked to us about what it means to be special and different, we are all unique, different which makes us all special. We even wrote about other people in the class and what we liked about them. We then talked about what a disability is and how it makes someone special. Having a disability is something that is permanent, not just a broken bone that fixes itself. We also talked about learning disabilities and how hard that could be in the classroom. We had to read colours that were written in a different colour. It was a bit tricky. We learnt that if we ever have anyone in our class that has a learning disability that we need to give them more time to think. We talked about communication and how we can communicate if we cant talk and how frustrating that would be. We have to act out different sentences to try and get people to guess them without talking. Here is Reilly trying to act/draw the sentence my head is sore.

Room 7's Photo on Friday, 18 March 2016

Room 7's Photo on Friday, 18 March 2016

Room 7's Post on Friday, 18 March 2016

We have been enjoying our time with our buddies in Room 9

Room 7's Post on Friday, 18 March 2016

Today parkland school senior team did Pe we did gutter board.

Room 7's Post on Friday, 26 February 2016

Here is our shooting practise with the hoop. Remember to use your beef.

Room 7's Post on Friday, 26 February 2016

We have been having some great basketball sessions with Miles over the last few weeks. Today we were practising our shooting. We use the word BEEF to help us remember what to do. B bend you knees (use the power from our legs to help) E eyes on the target so the hoop E elbow, bend your elbow and don't forget your wrinkles F flick, push and flick upwards towards the target Check us out we are getting great at shooting. Ignore my poor videoing skills. Finger in the way

Room 7's Post on Friday, 26 February 2016

Here is our house challenge from yesterday. Each of the houses had competitors from Senior, middle and junior teams. They had to use the huge catapult to fire water balloons at the target. It was pretty hard work. Bright water seemed to do very well and the junior team managed to get balloons right in e target. Well done to everyone who had a go and supported their houses.

Room 7's Photo on Friday, 26 February 2016

It is a rainy day.

Welcome back everyone. A new year, a new room and a new teacher. I am Miss Billyard and I will be teaching in Room 7 for Term 1. I am really looking forward to the exciting learning that is going to be happening in Room 7 and the Senior Team at Parkland. We have got an exciting term ahead of us and I am really looking forward to getting to know you all.