Back at school!

It was a fabulous day back at school today. 21 out of 23 students returned with big smiles. We hope Sadie and Te Aroha will join us tomorrow?

At writing time today we wrote about our earthquake experiences. Here are some examples.

Madeline wrote "I was eating lunch when the earthquake happened. It was really scary. I went to the field. People were crying. Everything was wrong!".














Luke wrote "When the earthquake came I was very lucky. We had water and electricity and our house didn't come down".





Caitlyn wrote "Last night we had a aftershock. 3 bricks fell off the roof. I stayed in the lounge for a wee bit and then we went to bed".














Alura wrote "I helped Nana. Her house is not safe".
















We had a super day...even with the 4.1 aftershock at lunchtime!

A big super thank you to Christian and his family. They gave everyone in Room 10 a Pinky Bar. Thank you!

Don't forget to bring your boiled water to school tomorrow.

Point View School

Wow! We have attracted a lot of interest from around New Zealand. If you look at the comment spaced on the previous post, you will notice heaps and heaps of comments from a Year 1 class at Point View School (Auckland). They have asked many questions, and tomorrow we will try to answer them all. Thanks, Room 3 Point View School.

On another note, I have been looking after Room Ten's class teddy bear, Mr Bojangles, since the earthquake. He has been busy helping me with many jobs. One of his main jobs was to boil water each day for our drinking water. He also helped dig up some liquefaction...he had big strong muscles for this job!

His favourite job was to look after my pet cat, Sook. Sook was a bit frightened since the earthquake, especially during the aftershocks. Sook needed lots of cuddles and company.
Mr Bojangles has loved staying here with me, but he tells me that he is very excited to go back to school tomorrow (he has his own drink bottle all ready too!) as he has missed everyone terribly. He can't wait to choose someone from Room 10 to go home with tomorrow!

It is official...school is back tomorrow!

Yay!

School starts at normal time of 8.50am.

All children need to bring their own named drink bottle filled with boiled water. The water at school is still not drinkable and is a lovely khaki colour. There will be a supply of boiled water to refill drink bottles during the day. We would love some parent volunteers to help with the refilling at 12.20pm...please pop along if you are able to help. There will be water stations in each area of the school. Thank you.

At lunch time our buddy class (Room 6) will be joining us for a shared lunch. Children can bring their usual lunch, or bring a plate of finger food to share. Parents are welcome to come along and join us too.

There are still school bags in our cloakroom. If you would like to have these before tomorrow, you are welcome to collect these before 3.30pm today.

See you tomorrow!

A comment from Robert.

Robert has been looking at Room 4 Halcombe School's blog. Here is a comment written by Robert and his Mum. Click here. Well done, Robert! I'm glad you are enjoying school down in Timaru.

I hope to see you at Wairakei School on Wednesday! I'm sure you will have lots of stories to share.

Re-opening the school

Yay! Engineers have thoroughly checked out the school and it is structurally safe and sound to re-open. Here is the process of re-opening:

1. Monday - school is open for staff only. Between 10am and 2pm parents may come and collect school bags and lunchboxes etc. Please note - NO CHILDREN are allowed on the school grounds. This is because the school has only been given the ok for adults only at this stage.

2. Tuesday - builders will be onsite to repair the damage. Some staff will be onsite. NO CHILDREN to be onsite.

If the Civil Defence clears the school ready to re-open at this stage then on:
3. Wednesday - school open for children. School starts at normal time of 8.50am. From 8.45am parents are invited to meet for a coffee in the community lounge (by office) for a cuppa...and I'm sure there WILL be some yummy food too.

All children MUST come to school with their own named bottle of boiled water. All water in Christchurch is still to be boiled for atleast 3 minutes (the council has put chlorine into our water, but this is not enough to clean the water for all of Christchurch).

I can't wait for school to start...just need a good nights sleep first - yeah right! Hopefully, I will see you all on Wednesday!

Red and Black Day

Apparently it is Red and Black day today. This is where people all around the country are wearing red and black to school, work, or just around home, to lend their support to Christchurch. Some schools around New Zealand are also holding cake stalls, coin trails, and the like, to raise funds.

How amazing is New Zealand?

Here is a gorgeous photo of my cousin, Paula's two girls (Alex and Olivia). Alex (on right) started school earlier this year in Wellington, and her school is holding a red and black day today. Of course, Olivia (my god-daughter who is 3 years) had to dress up too. Well done, girls!

N.B. Alex's school (I'm not sure which school) is having a their school gala soon, and they have decided to donate 75% of their profit to a Christchurch school in need. Last year, their gala raised $59,000!!! This is amazaingly generous!

Room 4 Halcombe School

Room 4 Halcombe School

Wow! A positive from last weeks earthquake has been Room 4 Halcombe School, Manawatu. They are a Year 4/5 classroom who heard about the earthquake and found our blog. Room 4 have been reading our blog over the last few days and have even left messages (in the comment boxes)....how cool is that!

Thank you Room 4 Halcombe School - we really look forward to further communication with you once school starts back.

If anyone wants to look at Room 4's classroom blog, just click on the above link.

Here's a challenge for Room 10 students - find out where in New Zealand is Manawatu?