Week 1, Term 2

Welcome back everyone!

We hope you all had a lovely holiday and that the children are refreshed and ready to start the new term.

We say goodbye to Jack, Lilli and Boston who are very excited about moving into Room 7, and Room 2 welcomes Angelina into the class.

This term Kate will be teaching Room 2 on Mondays and Tuesdays, and Bridget will be teaching the rest of the week. (Julie is acting principal for the term).

Room 2 has swimming on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the next five weeks. (Room 1 will have swimming in the fourth term). On Tuesday, the children leave school by bus at 1.15 and their lesson is at 2.00pm. They will then return to school by bus.  On Thursday, they leave by bus at 12.15, and their lesson is at 1.00pm. They will take their lunch to the pool on Thursday.  If the girls are choosing to wear their winter uniform, please ensure they wear trackpants on swimming days as it is too hard to get tights and kilts on and off.  Also, please have all clothing named.

This week we are beginning Action Stations from 10.15 - 12.45 daily.  This incorporates more play-based learning into the classroom programme. During this time, the teachers will be working with small reading and writing groups. Some children may be bringing home browsing books this week instead of new reading books while we get the programme up and running.

PMP (the Perceptual Motor Programme) will be on Friday mornings at 9.15. This is a programme St Gerards has run for several years, which aims to develop the child's perceptions and understandings of himself or herself in relation to her/his world, through movement/motor experiences.  If you are free to give up an hour of your time on Friday, this would be really appreciated as we need 2 parents each week to make this feasible. It involves setting up and taking down the equipment, (there are instructions to follow) and taking a small group on an activity, (there is a card for each activity with pictures and instructions). There will be a roster put up on the Room 1 door so please add your name to it if possible.

Also, if you have any of the following items, please send these along to school: wool, any craft items that you have spare, old cards etc. On a regular basis, we will be needing items for construction eg, egg cartons, yoghurt pottles, containers, plastic bottles and lids, small boxes, cardboard etc.

Have a good week,

Sue, Bridget and Kate