What Wonderful Merrin Families!

What a great day we had this Sunday at the school working bee!

 Thank you to all those amazing parents who came to school to garden and paint. 

What a tremendous difference it has made to our school.

We gathered up all the old furniture to be painted.

 Saya came with her Dad and sister. Rick was very busy gardening along the front face. Gee it looks great.

 Will helped Erin and Nathan to paint the furniture. Will got painted red as well!

 Sharyn, Jonathan and Katelyn helped out. Thanks for all that painting Sharyn. 

Jonathan was very good at rounding everyone up for morning tea!

 Here are our busy helpers. Thank you also to Danielle and Inmi who was busy around the back weeding!

 Rohit was very busy sanding and painting furniture. Maybe he could come and work at school every week!

 The Sutton family all came along. We got to see Jessica's newly pierced ears! Thanks Garth for all that hard work.

Look at our school furniture now!

Our special thanks to Rachel from the P.T.A who organised the working bee. 

Thank you for your time and effort Rachel.

We love your pukeko footprints leading up to the library!

The Pencils Writing Group

On Monday the coaches from 'Kelly Sports' took Room 1 for some games. Today these children wrote about their afternoon. 

 Matthew wrote: I like playing basketball.

 Isha wrote 2 sentences by herself: I like playing hockey. I got the ball in the net.

 Bobby wrote: I like playing soccer. It was fun because I got to kick the ball.

 Here is Jessica's story: I liked the basketball. I liked the hockey because it was fun.

 Katelyn wrote: I liked the basketball game. At Kelly Sports I played with the ball.

Samantha wrote: I like Kelly Sports. I liked basketball.

Samantha read her story to her big brother's class in Room 2!

Southern Centre

Room 1 visited the Southern Centre at the Pioneer Swimming Pool complex.

We went into a special room where we had to take off our shoes. It was very dark inside and we really liked the special lights.

We used our different senses to try out the activities.

 Matthew watched the balls as they dived up and down in the bubbles.

 Our shadows made patterns in pink, blue and yellow designs.

 When we talked into the microphone our voices sounded like chipmunks.

 Samantha played us a rhythm on the drums. She was very loud!

 We liked looking at the photos projected onto pieces of material.

 These girls experimented with making all kinds of different musical sounds.

 The memory bed had a special blanket with beans inside it. The blanket was very heavy. When we got out of the bed the mattress kept the shape of our bodies.

 Shoka listened to her voice coming through the speakers as a echo.

 The air blower blew balls and scarves high up into the air.

Dylan enjoyed rolling around the room!

Sophie and Ronan tried out the slip and slide.

 Luciano and Bobby has fun bumping the balls into each other.

At the end of the sessions we listened to music and watched the mirror ball shining on the ceiling.

We would like to visit the centre again one day.

Dad's Breakfast

A reminder that this Friday 31 August is our Dad's breakfast. 

Please return all forms to Mrs Bargh by Wednesday. 

All Dads and Grandads are most welcome!

Olympian Day

On Friday 24 August we warmly welcomed a group of 7 Olympians to our school. The sun shone, the sausages were delicious and the visiting Olympians joined in playing games with us.

The senior children decorated our school with flags and balloons. The decorations were everywhere.

Will, Samantha, Luciano and Bobby enjoyed the sausage sizzle.

Our Kapa Haka group welcomed our Olympians to Merrin.

When they arrived we let out a huge cheer and we waved our flags.

We were fortunate to have a visit from Nathan Handle, Seamus Marten, Tim Myers, 

Shane Archbold, Neil Emblem,Kevin Marr and Sarah Walker.

The team from 'Classic Hits' introduced everyone to the crowd.

Kate received a cheque for $1000 worth of Sports equipment. We are very thankful to her for wining this amazing day!

In the afternoon we played games with some of the Olympians. The games were organised by Sports Canterbury. 

Shaun Archbold helped Samantha with the obstacle course. Shane is a track cyclist.

As part of the obstacle course we had to jump over hurdles, jump in a sack and climb under a parachute.

Shane signed Ronan's bike.

He gave Ronan one of his special Olympic badges.

We all wanted to see Sarah Walker's silver medal.

Room 1 enjoyed having their faces painted with the Olympic rings.

Mrs Coker kindly delivered flags to all of the classrooms.

We cheered so much that we even got slightly sore throats!

Samantha and her buddy Melissa enjoyed looking at Sarah Walker's silver medal.

Sophie and Megan got to meet Sarah Walker and she signed their posters.

Saya thought Sarah's silver medal was very big!

Thank you to all the organisers for such a great day.
Well done Kate! 

Ronald McDonald visit for Road Safety.

Week Rima...Happenings in Room 1

 Ms D visited Room 1 to give us some new die. They are very bright and made of strong plastic. They are great for maths as well as using as cushions!

Thanks Ms D.

 Archie and A.J used our new dice to play 'Snakes and Ladders.'

 This maths group is learning how to use a tens frame to make and compare 
numbers to ten.

Ronald McDonald came to talk to us about road safety.

 Remember to "Stop"...

 "Look"

 and "Listen" for traffic.

We thought Ronald McDonald was very funny.

Woo hoo...Kate has won the Press Medal Competition!

She came to tell us that a group of Olympians are coming to visit us next Friday. They will play games with us and we will be awarded $1000 for Sports equipment.

This is a photo from Archie's farewell party. His family are off to have an adventure in Sydney for a year. We miss him already as he is a special friend!

Our experiment on Wednesday was about mixing paint colours. Scientist 1 organised the equipment. Scientist 2 squirted in yellow paint.

Scientist 3 squirted in red paint.

Scientist 4 added in blue paint. Then we squished the paint together to see what would happen when we mixed the colours. Come and read our results in Room 1!

Tonight is the school disco. The theme is 'Black and White.' Imagine trying to get these balloons to school!