Hi Parents, what an eventful week with a typhoon warning to spice things up… the excitement never ends. I have enjoyed your child this week; we are really getting to know each other and our expectations for behavior and the day-to-day running of the classroom are coming along beautifully. It is going to be a great year.

Only a week ago our class pet Shadow gave birth to 6 babies, 5 are alive and well at my home at least until their eyes open and their mother stops being so protective. We started science this week by looking at the scientific method although I think a look at ‘life cycles’ might have been more appropriate considering all of our hamster activity. Enjoy some photos of the tiniest little critters I have seen as well as the students enjoying their first science class.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

Today we completed our Unit One math test, I then worked through my lunch break to correct it and we spent half an hour just now going over the results. The students should all be able to explain to you exactly how each question was corrected and assessed; most answers were worth one mark; the total test was out of 22. Please sign the test over the weekend to acknowledge that you have seen it.

Please go easy on those that didn’t do to well, it is only early in the year and I would rather encourage them to do better next time than discourage them from being honest and open about how they went. It is always the ‘naturally clever math students’ that make the silly errors that I am most frustrated with as I know they can do better and it annoys me that they don’t read over the test when they are done as they would often see their mistakes.

Monday is a day three and the children have their last swimming class in PE and have been asked to bring in a bag appropriate for taking their swimwear home with them. Their next PE unit will be soccer as our first soccer day for the year is coming soon.

Your child was set up with their own blog this week and they are on a huge learning curve, they will learn far more quickly than most of us will however there will still be many frustrations in the early days of having access to this technology. They will enjoy your encouragement and interest at this stage and as the weeks go by their will be many opportunities for learning that can be enhanced through the use of their blog.