Wednesay 23rd July
Kia ora parents, caregivers and children,
Can you believe we’re in to the second half of the year
already?!
Student agency
The teaching staff has been thinking and talking about
student agency this year. During the holidays we had an
excellent professional development day exploring this with Kath Murdoch, an
Inquiry learning expert from Melbourne. We are keen to support children’s
independence and self-determination in their learning as much as possible, and
are exploring ways to do this. This may take the form of independent
mini-inquiries or passion projects, allowing kids to pursue a particular area
of interest, and to consciously develop their independent learning skills (like
time management, researching, collaboration, communication, etc.) at the same
time. Other ways we aim to develop children’s agency are through learning
reflections, weekly learning goals and class reflections. If you have any
ideas, suggestions or feedback please let us know.
Inquiry
Building on last term’s wonderful inquiry into Changes to
the Land, we are moving on to a design and innovation inquiry this term,
exploring how we can be Kaitiaki of the Land. Children will identify a need and
create designs for protecting and taking care of the land in our local
environment. If you have, or anyone you know of has, expertise in design,
landforms, erosion, local government, or the changing environment, and would
like to share this knowledge with us, we would love to hear from you!
Our maths focus
areas this term are Number: Multiplication & Division and
Proportions & Ratios, Problem Solving, Basic Facts, Geometry, and Measurement.
In reading, we
will continue to develop comprehension
strategies through reading texts
about changes to the land, design, and other interest areas. Our writing programmes will flow from this
as we write reports, explanations, procedures, and scientific investigations,
interspersed with ongoing recounts, character writing and poetic writing.
PE
Our focus this term is striking and catching. We will
develop these skills through games and activities using small and large balls
and different strikers: hockey sticks, cricket bats, etc. Let’s hope for some
good dry weather to get outside and get active!
Parent help
If you can support our class programme with either regular
or one-off parent help, we’d love to hear from you. Spelling testing and
reading with children are particularly useful ways to help. We always welcome
parents visiting to read a favourite book or share some knowledge or expertise;
even if you’ve already read to the class, we’d love you to come back again!
Home learning
A reminder to return home learning folders to school on Mondays. Each Monday children will
bring home a new list of ten spelling words, an updated Reading log (if needed)
and a maths worksheet.
Student Teacher
M11 have been given
the opportunity to have a Student Teacher from Vistoria University. His name is Daniel Bell and he will be here
from week 4 until the end of the term.
During this time, he will have three weeks sole charge. He has already come and met the class where
he learned their names and helped us create some art.
Needs - Could each child
please purchase two new pencils and two new glue sticks for the next two terms. Buy them from the office before school,
purchase them when you are out and about or donate a gold coin to the class and
I will sort it out. We also need tissues
and ice cream containers.
Dates this term
Wednesday 30th
July: Parent Teacher Child conferences (Year 4 – 6 Only)
Thursday 31st
July: Parent Teacher Child conferences (Year 4 - 6 Only)
Friday 1st
August: Freedom Friday begins
Monday 25th August: ICT Parent meeting
Thursday 18th
September: Mahuri Celebration of Learning, 9.15am in the hall
Tuesday 23rd September: Parent Teacher
Child Conferences (Yr 1-3 for those who had a PTC in term 1).
Friday 26th
September: Last day of Term 2
To be confirmed: A school trip to the landfill
Thank you for your ongoing support. As always, if there is
anything you would like to discuss about your child’s learning, please get in
touch to make a time to talk.
Nga mihi,
Shanon, Adele, Ximena and Amy
No comments:
Post a Comment