Saturday, 3 November 2012




Ronald McDonald

Written by Miyuki  (Year 3)

Today was a special day. My teacher said so. My teacher told us,” There’s a surprise in the hall.” Some people came and said,” It’s time to go.” “Yes!” replied the teacher. We were ready to go.  We ran outside, lined up and off we went.

In the audience I sat curious to what would happen next. After a while Ronald came in. He held a metal thing that I’ve never seen. He opened it up and reached into his bag. He opened that up and  … splat! The metal thing closed. He tried again and again but it just closed anyway. Then he opened it and twisted the top. Guess what, it didn’t fall down. He pushed it a little and it wobbled. He wobbled his hips in time to the wobble.

After a short story about road safety, he found his missing sock. His sock told him that it wanted to stay. So it happened. The sock (actually a puppet) stayed at St Albans School.  Hooray!



Road Safety
Written by Lauren (Year 3)

Bang! The door suddenly burst open and in walked Ronald McDonald. He was very a very tall character with short red hair. He was wearing overalls and read and white stripy top and socks.

Ronald McDonald came to St Albans School to talk about Road Safety. Three of the things to remember were: stop, look and listen. He told us not to hang your washing out on windy days because if there is a strong wind it could blow some, or all of it away and you’ll have to chase it down the street until you catch it.

Ronald McDonald also told us to always wear our seatbelts whenever we’re in a car. If you’re in a car crash and you don’t have it on, you’ll go flying forwards and hurt yourself badly. You certainly don’t want that to happen, do you?

At the very end, Ronald McDonald found his lost sock that had blown away in the wind. It was inside out so he turned in the right way and put it on his arm. It looked just like a puppet because it had eyes. 

Thursday, 1 November 2012

Last week we discussed the storm that hit Christchurch at the end of the holidays. Diagrams were used to explain a front and the type of build up to severe weather changes. Storms have been a talking point again this week with the devastation experienced in the America.

The objective for this piece of writing was to use imagery and similes to describe events.

The Bucket of Water  

Written by Quentin

Did you see and hear that ginormous wind and rain storm in the weekend? It was like a massive bucket of water being dumped on Christchurch. I stayed inside my lounge and watched television all that day. I saw a few branches lying in the neighbours yard. That was after the storm had finished having its temper tantrum. The sky was so pale. I wished that the weather had been the same as it was when the holidays started. It was so sunny then. 

The Day I learned about Callum's Fear

Written by James

Have you ever been in a huge storm? Well I have. Here's how it started. On Friday I was innocently playing by myself when I looked up and saw this huge cloud rolling viciously toward Christchurch. Anyway it was nearly bedtime so I had to go to bed. The next day I woke to hear 'pit, pat, pit, pat. Immediately I knew that it was still raining. I ignored it for a while until a rain drop hit the window breaking into approximately 5 mini drops. Then Callum let out a high pitched scream. I stared at him for about ten seconds and left to watch Lord of the Rings. 




Welcome back to Term Four

We thought that you would like to read some of the children's recent writing.
During the first week back at school we all reflected on the Celebration Day held on the last Thursday of last term and the reasons behind it. Apart from getting into the spirit of the Olympic Games in Term 3 Inquiry focused on exploring the concept of a global community. Celebration Day was a very authentic way of bringing the children's discovery to a closure.

These are recounts that were written during our first week back. There are a number of photographs from this event that were posted on the Blog last term.

Our Celebration Day 

Written By Nikau (Year 3)

Well you will never guess what St Alban's school did on Thursday. The whole school had an STA Games Day. It was such an energetic day. I thought it was going to be an action packed day and it was.

At the start of the games, the King and Queen (Mr Warren and Mrs Bateman) arrived . Children came out onto the court and performed cultural dances for them. Then Mrs Warren spoke about the STA game for quite a while before they kicked off.

My favourite event was 'Fill the Bucket' hosted by Miss Archbold and Miss Bunting. A sponge was involved in this event. It felt as though filling the bucket was a fitness game. The sponge was used to squeeze water into a bucket. I got soaked when I was hit by the water and sprayed by the teachers' water guns.

I really think that the fantastic STA games should be put on again because all games were fairly played. It was a lot healthier than staying indoors for the day.

The STA Games

Written by Catherine (Year 3)

At the end of Term Three we had the STA Games. The STA games were played because we were celebrating community.

At 09:30am we went onto the court and lined up in house colour numbers. Then the King and Queen declared the games open.

Of the games, my favourite was the 'Hurdles With Hoops.' When we jumped over the hurdles I felt like a kangaroo. When going through the hoop I felt as though I was on a trampoline.

My least favourite activity was the 'Sponge and Bucket Race.' This was where the sponge in the green, yellow, blue or red bucket was dipped into the water and filled and then you had to run and squeeeze the water out into the bucket at the other end. But the teachers had water guns to squirt us with. I didn't get a single bit of water on me. Not even a teensy weensy bit.

Then we had lunch. If you had ordered cultural food you had to collect it. I sat with Ava and Zoe because we could sit wherever we wanted to. Now isn't that cool.

After lunch more games. My favourite in the afternoon was the sack race, but we used garbage bags instead of sacks. We had a three legged race as well. I was really good at it.

Finally after the games were over the King and Queen declared the games closed.

Wednesday, 25 July 2012

Room 22 News


Room 22 Newsletter 2 Term Three      23rd July 2012

Dear Parents/Caregivers
Welcome to term three from me… I know you are a week ahead of me, but I hope you all had a refreshing break as I did. I enjoyed my second visit back to Guangzhou and now look forward to the next ten weeks of this term. There are eleven weeks this term, so the children will get very tired by the end and the weather will not be great many inside lunches, so patience and tolerance will be practiced.

School photos will be this Wednesday so make sure the children are in full clean winter uniform, this does not including a polar fleece, so a jersey or cardigan please. Hair brushed off the face will be great or include a brush in the bag.

Topic: The whole school is focusing on Community. Room 22 will look at Communities in different countries comparing them to our own. We will use the diverse cultures within our classroom to lead our inquiry unit. The class reading and writing programme will also centre around different cultures. This is a great opportunity to learn about different countries foods, lifestyles, art, beliefs and land etc. We can make comparisons and also discuss our values, what is important to us as an individual and us as a New Zealand community.

Math: We will stay together in class this week and focus on temperature activities and knowledge. This is a good time to talk about temperature in our everyday lives around the home.

Dates to Check…
Mufti-day Olympics Opening Friday 27th July
  Fun raising’ to celebrate the Olympics. Come as an athlete, country of choice, black for NZ
School Photos 25th July. Tidy winter uniform
School Assembly Monday 30th July 2:30
Poetry final for Room 22 3rd August –weekend to practise
Court Theatre 8th August production called Antarctica
Poetry Competitions Thursday 9th August 11am
School Assembly Monday 20th August 2:30
School Assembly Monday 9th September 2:30
Big Day Out: Action Sports 11th September
Year 4-6 Awards Assembly Monday 24th September 9:30
Awards Assembly 28th September
STA Games 27th September, whole school celebration                              Tracey Steel

The Milky Way

In term 2 our inquiry was Space! The Space in  our Universe.
We got grouped into pairs and chose what we would like to learn about.
We did research on our topic, found answers to our questions and presented our results.






 We got to make a mozaic of what we researched in space. It was AWESOME!!!!!

We would love you to come in and see our work!