Term Three Information and Update

Welcome to Lily Liu, Mason Eddington and Jayjay Havealeta to Room 5!  Our class is now complete for the time being so it is great to have everyone on board.

We have had a very busy start to the term. This week we had two trips to the Life Education van, a rippa rugby session and we have also started practising for our production. Whew!

I have also included some pictures at the end of the blog from the end of Term 2 festivities for you to look at.

Spellathon:  It is great to see everyone has started learning their words and finding some sponsors. I have a few spare sheets, so if you did not receive your Spellathon information at the end of Term 2, while I was away, please see me.

Holiday Reading: Well done to those people that completed the Holiday Reading Programme and for everyone that kept on reading right through the holidays. It really makes a BIG difference to their literacy progression.

Assembly - We have our School Assembly with Room 8 in Week Three. We would love it if you could come and watch us.  We will be practising for this over the next two weeks.

Production:  We have already started practising our songs and dances for our performance. As this takes up a lot of time this term, normal activities such as reading, writing and maths, may not occur every day. At these times, seen books from their reading box or thier poetry book will come home instead.  If you are able to sew or paint the props, please get in touch with Anna Blair in Room 6. Thank you.

Maths: Over the next few weeks in maths we are studying position and direction. Encourage your child to use language such as over, under, left, right high low, near, far to describe where objects are in relation to each other. Ask your child to describe the path they would follow to get from one end of the garden to their room. Ask them to describe the route they take to get to a friend's house.

Oral language: Encourage your child to use complete sentences whenever they are speaking, instead of just a word or two. This will help them during writing to form whole ideas and to show that ideas need to make sense.

Reminders: Rocket word testing continues this term. Library is on Friday. Raincoats should always be in school bags.

I look forward to meeting with people on Thursday for interviews.

Children's Voice:
I liked seeing Harold. - Leonie
I liked seeing a movie about Harold's friends. - Mason E
I liked going in the caravan and we saw Harold. - Archer
I like listening to stories. - Ismaiah
I liked writing about fairies. - Lily
I like to play on the golden monkey bars at school. - Jahzelle
I like the creative table where we can make things- Sienna
I like playing with Albert. - Mason A

Goodies and Baddies Day

Rippa Rugby

Room 5 meets Harold

Gingerbread, Wigs and Tennis

In maths this term, we have been investigating measurement using the Gingerbread story.  We have ordered gingerbread men from short to tallest, and found other things in the room that were shorter, the same and taller than our gingerbread man. This week, we problem solved how to make a bridge so that the gingerbread man could get across the river instead of going on the fox's back.  The children were given two blocks, a piece of paper and some tape to use. In pairs, they had to discuss and think about how they could make the paper long enough to get across the water.  In the end, most groups were able to solve the problem by cutting the paper in two and putting the two short sheets together to make one long bridge. Finally, we measured our bridges with each other's ones.

Well done to the people who wore wigs or hats on Wig Wednesday.

 We also had a tennis session later on in the week where we were introduced to holding the racket like a high five and learning the word volley.

Next week our focus letters are l, f, r, h and words: my, here, are

Shining Star time and Mrs Barlow

Welcome to Archer.

Teacher Voice: Along with the usual reading, writing and maths and the other myriad of other subject areas that we cover in a week, I try to make sure that every two weeks at least, we have a Shining Star time.  Shining Star time is where I put out special play items such as dress ups, train set, painting, puppets and other developmental items.  This gives the opportunity for children to extend their friendships, oral language skills and mathematical concepts.  It is great to see the enjoyment and roles that the children give themselves during this time.

Mrs Barlow takes the children for music every Monday in the music room. The children really enjoy the time they spend with her. Every three weeks she also comes into the classroom and teaches the children a special topic. This term she is teaching about the maths concepts of rotation and symmetry.

This weeks focus sounds are s, sh, th and the focus words are little, am, have.

Smarty Pants Big Book

Welcome to Leonie, Veronica, Roman and Ethan.

Teacher Voice: Each week we study and read a big book as part of the reading and literacy programme.  The big book gives children the opportunity to have them reading at above their independent level as we all read it together. It also provides a way to explore spelling patterns, the way rhyme is used in words, expression and punctuation features.  On Friday, we usually have a fun activity related to the book to culminate the end of the week.

Just a few reminders: Please make sure that your child has a rain coat in their bag as we walk to the music room, hall and library rain or shine.  Children should be practising their rocket words along with their home reader each night. Library books and bags need to be at school every Friday.  Thank you for your help.

This week's words are: he, she, me and letter sounds of n, m, ng


Children's Voice: A few weeks ago we read the big book of Smarty Pants. Here is the iMovie that we made about it.

While Mrs Hutton was sick this week we:

-put some Maori colour drawings on our sheet and song the Maori colour song  

- wrote about Goldilocks 

-played our maths games and learnt some new ones. 

-put Goldilocks pictures in order, coloured them in and glued them in order on the paper

-ate inside because it was raining

Art portraits - We are ready for school

Welcome to Mason and Sylvester that started with us this week.

Come and see our wonderful portraits that we have made. Don't we look fabulous!

I can...

Please view our video book that we created based on one of our focus words of the week.

Next week our focus words are: is, big, look and the sounds of ch and j.

It was wonderful to meet with you and share with you the progress that has already been made in four short weeks.

Zero the Hero
You may have noticed the poem about Zero the Hero in your child's poetry book. He will teach us about the value of ten as he sends Room 5 a message every ten days that we have been at school. Yesterday we celebrated 20 days at school, and look forward to the next time, which will be thirty days at school.

Dancers
On Friday afternoon, we were able to watch an amazing group of teenagers preform for us which we all enjoyed.

Our Garden Trip

Student Voice:

On Friday morning, we wrote this recount together using the photos that we took on the trip.

We are on the bus going to the Botanic Gardens. We got off the bus when we arrived. Then we had our morning tea together. After that, we are on the mat with the teacher looking at the lady bird on the mat. Next we went to dig some bugs. We found worms, slaters, millipedes, and grubs. Next we went to the classroom and played some games about minibeasts. After lunch, we explored the gardens. We found a tunnel and went through it and then we all had a turn at the water pump. We also looked at the vegetables. Finally, we lined up and went back to school on the bus. It was a happy and enjoyable day!

There are more photos on the classroom window for you to enjoy.

Teacher Voice: Welcome to Albert who started this week, our first boy! Congratulations to Ismaiah who was awarded a certificate in the School Assembly.

I have mentioned to most parents that I would like to meet briefly to discuss the Beginning School Report for their child. Please see me to set up a time if I have not already talked to you about this.

This week's words are went, you and the letter focus will be to complete the short vowel sounds. Please remember that our Library Day is Friday and that children are only allowed to get out a new book if they have returned their old one.

In maths, we are focusing on sequencing numbers, backwards counting and using tens frames to help us solve problems.