Term 4 Week 9
REMINDERS:
· Beach
Education Wednesday
· Tryathlon
Friday
· Return
readers and library books this week
Dear
Families
We are now down to the last full week of school! Where
has the year gone! This week is a very
busy week with a lot happening so please take time to read through this
newsletter carefully.
BEACH
EDUCATION
This WEDNESDAY we head to North Beach by bus to learn
about safety at the beach. We will be
hopping in the water so the children will need to bring their togs and a towel
and if possible we encourage the children to bring a WETSUIT as it is cold in the water! Also remember to pack:
· A good lunch
· A big drink of water
· A sunhat/sunblock on
· A warm jacket incase it is cold
Thanks for the parents who have offered to join us –
please be here early Wednesday morning so we can get ourselves organized and
ready to go!
READING
The reading programme has now finished for the year –
please return any readers you have at home.
We will be reading poems and learning about Christmas in other countries
via the internet this week instead.
TRYATHLON
Weather permitting we will be having a Year 3 Tryathlon
this Friday. Make sure you have the bike
and helmet checked for bringing to school on Friday. Further details will come
in a separate letter.
CHOIR
PERFORMANCE
What a great job the children did on Friday. Thanks to those of you who came to see the
performance!
LIBRARY
This is now closed.
Please return library books to school this week.
Homework
Homework has now finished for the year, however we do
encourage the children to continue to use online programmes such as Studyladder
and Oxford Owl over the school holidays, as well as visits to the local library
to keep the reading going.
Term 4 Week 8
Term 4 Week 6
REMINDERS:
· Swimming
on this week – remember your togs!
· Please
return any instructional readers to school that you find at home!
· Beach
Education – next Wednesday (10th December)
Dear
Families
We successfully got our swimming sessions underway last
week! The mixed bag of weather has meant that we have had days where it was so
fortunate that we had a swim time and other days where it was not possible to
swim because of the rain! Our days for
swimming this week are Tuesday, Wednesday and possibly Friday if we can swap
times – please have swimming togs on those days.
READING
This week is the last week that we will be sending home
instructional readers. We will be
looking at Christmas activities next week.
Please keep an eye out for any of our school reading books and send them
along to school if you find them!
MATHS
Our interchange programme finished on Thursday last
week. We will be looking at MONEY for the next two
weeks.
CHOIR
PERFORMANCE
You should have received a notice regarding the Year 3-4
Choir Performance last week. This takes place this FRIDAY at 11:00. We look
forward to seeing you.
CURRENT
EVENTS
A number of children received a notice about bringing a
Current Event to share this THURSDAY. We encourage you to help your child complete
the form that goes with this presentation.
CHRISTMAS
INQUIRY
Next week we are keen to share some of the ways people
celebrate Christmas in different countries.
If you come from a country other than New Zealand, and have some special
traditions that you celebrate, we would love to hear about them.
Adela and Julie
Term 4 Week 7
REMINDERS:
· FUTSAL on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday – wear appropriate clothing and
shoes
· Return any instructional readers you have at home back
to school this week.
Beach Education Trip – Wednesday 10th December
Beach Education Trip – Wednesday 10th December
Dear
Families
What an amazing event the Monster Fair was! It was great
to see so many of you – before the weather turned ghastly! A HUGE thank you to the families who donated
lollies, home-made sweets and helped on our stall, as well as the many
others! What a great community we are!
Swimming
The school pool is very close to opening! Once we have a
timetable we will be able to let you know our swimming times. In the meantime, start looking for your
goggles, togs and swimming bags – and make sure that everything is NAMED!
Futsal
This Tuesday and Friday our class will be taking part in
some FUTSAL sessions. Futsal is the
football equivalent of touch rugby. It is a good idea to have appropriate
clothing and shoes for these days.
Reading
Books
We will be doing our stock-take of instructional readers
in the next few weeks! If you have any at home, we would really appreciate
these being returned to school.
Maths
This week Room 13’s maths class will be focusing on
Number Knowledge to 1000. Check out the blog to find some activities you can
try.
Enjoy the week!
Adela and Julie
Term 4 Week 6
Dear
Families
We hope you have all had a fabulous long weekend. We
have been busy completing end of year assessments with the children and will
continue working on these, along with reports this week.
School
Fair
The school fair is on this Saturday – we hope to see you
all there. The event is only held every other year and is a big fundraiser for
the school. If you are able to spare one hour of your time to help with Room
13’s sweet stall we would appreciate an extra pair of hands! Please add your
name to the sheet in our corridor or alternatively email either of us.
We would love donations of home made sweets. If you are
able to make some please bring them to Room 13 on Friday and we will bag them
up to sell at the fair.
Athletics
Day
Hopefully by the time you read this letter the children
would have had a great day running, jumping and throwing and knowing that they
have gone out there and given it their best effort.
Spelling
This week we are focusing on contractions. The challenge
is to know where in the word the apostrophe goes (where some letters and sounds
are missing).
Modern
Learning Environments
As you would have read in the school newsletter there is
a community meeting about modern learning environments today, at 6pm in the
school hall. We hope as many of you as possible can attend to find out more
information about how things are changing in education.
Enjoy the week!
Adela and Julie
Term 4 Week 5
REMINDERS:
· Please send in any lollies you’d like to donate for the
school fair. We will bag these up at
school.
· We would love any donations of home made sweets for next
week please – let us know if you are keen to help with this!
· We have had headlice in the class – please check and
treat your child’s hair if needed.
· ATHLETICS DAY – next Monday
· Modern Learning Environments Meeting – next Monday (17th
Nov.) at 6pm in the school hall.
Dear
Families
It is now only two weeks until the Monster Fair! Thank
you to those who have sent along donations of sweets. We will begin to bag these up next week. We would also love to sell traditional sweets
at our stall – fudge, coconut ice, toffee, hokey pokey. If you are able to make some of this at home,
that we can bag up at school, we would love to hear from you please! It would need to be at school late next week
so that it is fresh and doesn’t melt in our classroom! Many thanks in advance!
We will also put a timetable up outside our room, if you
are able to help at our stall on the day of the fair. We will both be on deck,
but would love some extra pairs of hands to help us out! See the sheet in our corridor or alternatively
email either of us if you could give up an hour of your time.
Assessments
We had a productive time last week assessing reading and
maths! It is great to have 1:1 time to
talk concepts and understanding with the children. We have two release days next week and will
have Melissa Barber relieving in our room.
We will spend those days continuing assessments and working on end of
year reports.
Spelling
We will be focusing on singular and plurals again this
week, but looking at different spelling patterns, where an ‘es’ is added to
form a plural. In English words that end in either ‘ch’, ‘sh’, ‘ss’ or ‘o’
usually require an ‘es’ to make a plural.
Athletics
Day
Next MONDAY
is Athletics Day. Please remember to
wear your house colours and sensible clothing for competing! Sunhats are compulsory and lots of water is
advised! It would also be a good idea to apply some sun lotion prior to coming
to school.
Summer
Walk
Thank you to our parent helpers who joined us on this
quick walk to Malvern Park. The weather
held off just! It was ironically cooler than our Winter Walk – that’s life in
Christchurch! It was awesome spotting
one of the Stand Tall giraffes too!
Enjoy the week!
Adela and Julie
Term 4 Week 4
REMINDERS:
• Reading folders MUST be at school each day
• Remember to bring your Home/Learning book and school library books back on Fridays
• Summer Walk WEDNESDAY – please return your
permission slips
Dear Families
This
Wednesday we will be taking a Summer Walk to Malvern Park. The aim is to note the changes in our local
community and park, from our Winter Walk, and write about them in an
interesting recount. Please get
permission skips back by TUESDAY, as children who do not bring their form back
will have to stay at school. Another
parent to join us would be great please!
Athletics Day
Our
Year 2/3 Athletics Day is Monday of Week 6.
We are doing a lot of work at school to learn the correct techniques for
using the athletics equipment. We hope
the children have a lot of FUN on the day – and that you can join us too!
Reading
This
week the children will be reading and performing PLAYS in their reading
groups. We will also begin assessing
children’s reading levels for end of year reporting.
Spelling
This
week we are looking at plurals with a focus on changing singular words ending
in a ‘y’ to an ‘i’ and adding ‘es’. E.g. fly becomes flies.
Enjoy
the week
Adela and Julie
Term 4 Week 3
REMINDERS:
· Sun hats
are compulsory at school this term
· Please
send in any lollies you’d like to donate for the school fair. We will bag these up at school.
· Current
Events – if it is your turn to share a current event, please remember to bring
it on WEDNESDAY! Not many people are remembering!
· Scholastic
book orders – last day for orders is tomorrow – Wednesday 29th
October
Dear Families
We hope
you enjoyed the extra day this weekend – a great time to recharge for the busy
weeks ahead!
Reading
In reading
this week we are looking at ‘asking questions’.
This shows us that you are thinking beyond the text you are reading,
setting questions you want to find out and then using resources such as the
internet to help you locate information.
Make sure you are doing lots of reading at home!
Maths
This will
be our last week looking at Fractions.
Remember to look at the class blog for activities on our maths page. The
children have brought home their latest basic facts assessment. A number of the
maths classes have been focusing on multiplication and division recently and
the improvement in these areas could clearly be seen, however the children’s
quick recall of addition and subtraction facts was not as good. It really does
make a difference if the children spend a small amount of time practising basic
facts at home, until they just become automatic. The games on Studyladder and
the School’s Maths Blog can be used for this, as well as simply answering 10
quick fire questions orally or written down.
Spelling
This week
we are focusing on the ‘er’ sound, which can be written with an ‘er’, ‘ir’ or
‘ur’. It is important that the children can firstly hear the ‘er’ sound in
their spelling word and then they need to learn visually which spelling pattern
is used to write it.
Summer Walk – Wednesday 5th
November
Next week
we will be doing a summer walk to Malvern Park.
Athletics Day
As you
would have seen from last week’s newsletter the year 2/3 athletics sports day
will now be on Monday 17th November.
Enjoy the
week!
Adela and
Julie
Term 4 Week 2
REMINDERS:
· Sun hats are compulsory at school this term.
· Please send in any lollies you’d like to donate for the
school fair. We will bag these up at
school.
· Some children are still very short on pencils and
whiteboard pens – please check that your child has the equipment they need for
school
· We have had headlice in the class – please check and
treat your child’s hair if needed.
Dear
Families
The first week of the term went by so quickly! We envisage that the rest of the term will do
the same, with all the activities and events that are planned for the term
leading up to Christmas! We will be
looking for parent helpers during the term for a Summer Walk we have planned to
Malvern Park and for the Beach Education trip near the end of term. Watch out for the details to come!
Oral
Language
Thank you to those children who brought along current
events to share last week! It’s great to
discuss things that are happening in and around our world! Your child will let you know if it is their
turn to prepare an article - your help is much appreciated.
Maths
We have been looking at Fractions in Room 13 for maths –
make sure you check out the activities on our blog and on Study Ladder. This week we plan to look at fractions of
sets – if 1/4 of 16 = 4 then what does 3/4 of 16 equal?
Writing
In writing the children are
encouraged to use VCOP to add quality to their sentences. V – interesting
vocabulary, C – connective words to join ideas together in a sentence, O –
interesting sentence openers, P – correct punctuation.
School Fair
Thank you to those families who
have already made a donation for our sweet stall at the school fair.
Enjoy the week!
Adela and Julie
Term 4 Week 1
REMINDERS:
· Sun hats
are compulsory at school this term!
· Please
send in any lollies you’d like to donate for the school fair. We will be making them into mixed $1 bags at
school.
Dear Families
Welcome
back to Term 4! We hope you all had a
great holiday and are ready to be back at school! This is going to be a very
busy term, culminating in the School Fair in late November! As part of our build up to the fair, we are
going to be looking at Chocolate and how it is made. We will then move onto
healthy diets! We look forward to
watching our inquiry unfold!
Maths
Our maths
interchange will begin this week. Please check the class blogs for any maths
homework that might be required. Continuing to work on basic facts and tables
is an on-going focus. Please see us if you require some probes sheets. We will
do another basic facts assessment early this term, as we felt the children were
too tired to complete one in the last week of term 3.
Reading
The
children will continue to have daily instructional reading this term. It is important that they read with you at
home and are also choosing their own choice of books from the school and public
libraries.
Summer Uniform
Term 4
brings the return of summer uniform and hats!
It is compulsory for the children to wear a hat. Not bringing one will result in having to sit
and play in the shaded areas. A wide
brimmed one offers the most protection from the sun. Please make sure they are NAMED!
Stationery
Please
check your child has enough whiteboard pens, blue writing pens, glue-sticks and pencils to
see them through the final term please!
PE
This term
we will be looking at Athletics and Swimming as part of our PE programme. Details on Athletics Day will come out later.
Oral Language
This term
we are looking at Current Events for Oral Language. Each week, 3 children will be required to
find a current event and fill in the sheet that comes home to then share with
the class. Please help your child with
this when it is their turn – it is a great way to build the ability to speak in
front of others, as well as learning about what is going on in the world we
live in.
Enjoy the
week!
Adela and Julie
Term 3 Week 9
REMINDERS:
• Reading folders MUST be at
school each day
•
Please check your child has the stationery they need for
school – some 1I5s are needed for writing!
•
Please finish your pom-pom and return it to school this Thursday
Dear Families
The
Year 3 teachers had a great time looking at Pegasus Bay School last week. It was interesting to see what they are doing
in their new modern learning environment and where education is heading in open
plan spaces.
The
term is flying by! This will be our last
week of homework.
Pom-Poms
Please
send these along from tomorrow! We did
not get time to use them last week as we had our team assembly. It would be
very helpful if you have made these at home, to cut them so they are finished
and reading to go! One teacher cutting
25 pom-poms is quite time consuming!
ICT
This
week we are looking at iMovie and Keynote to support our Inquiry and Reading
programmes. Please discuss what we are
doing with these programmes in class, with your child at home. You may have Power Point – which is very
similar to Keynote, for the children to work on something at home.
Maths
This
week in class we will be focusing on ‘Time’ and there will no interchange
programme. New time activities will be added to Studyladder and the children
should select the area of time that they need to work on using both analogue
and digital clocks.
Equipment for Term 4
Most
children will require a new glue-stick and whiteboard pen for term 4. If you can purchase these in the holidays that
would be great!
Enjoy
the week
Adela and Julie
Term 3 Week 8
REMINDERS:
• Reading folders MUST be at
school each day
•
Please check your child has the stationery they need for school – some
1I5s are needed for writing, along with writing pencils and blue pens!
• Please finish your pom-pom and
return it to school this Thursday
• Library books should be
returned to school on Fridays
Dear Families
We
all enjoyed the Middle Team Poetry Competition last week – congratulations to
our Ruby, Daniel and Keaira for representing our class. Well done Ruby on your
third placing in the Year 3 competition – we are so proud of you!
Pom-Poms
Last
week we started making pom-poms for art – using a fork! See if your child can
show you this quick technique at home!
We began making a larger pom-pom using the “donut technique”. We have asked that the children complete
these at home and return them to school this THURSDAY! Please support them! You can come and use wool from the classroom
if you have none at home!
Pegasus School
This
Thursday the Year 3 teachers are all going to Pegasus School to look at Modern
Learning Environments. There will be a
reliever in our class Thursday morning.
Reading
Please
make sure you are listening to your children read regularly! Our pop-up library is now open and the
children are able to choose two books to take home each week. It is important that children are reading
their instructional books from school and their own choice of reading from home!
Enjoy
the week
Adela and Julie
Term 3 Week 7
REMINDERS:
• Reading folders MUST be at school each day
For
Art we would love…
·
CDs for weaving (they won’t be returned)
·
Wool for weaving/poms
·
Bring a FORK for making pom-poms this
THURSDAY
·
Make sure you have the right stationery at
school!
Dear Families
By
the time you read this letter we will have had our class poetry competition.
Thank you for helping your child to learn their poem off by heart and thinking
about the criteria set in the class rubric. Our three finalists will go through
to the middle syndicate poetry completion this Thursday at 9 a.m. in the school
hall.
Maths
The
children have all brought home a basic facts sheet to practise at home. If they
passed the previous stage they will have been given the next stage to work on.
We will do another assessment at the end of this term to see what progress they
have made.
Cricket
On
Tuesday Room 13 will be having a cricket session, at school, with Canterbury
Cricket.
Stationery
There
are still some children who are short of stationery to use in class,
particularly pencils and blue pens. Your child has been asked to let you know
if they need any items. If you could name their items it does help to return
lost property to the rightful owner.
Fairytales
This
week we are looking at Fairytales in writing.
We are going to be sharing some in reading too, so would love your child
to bring a favourite fairytale along to school on Monday.
Art Preparation
During
the next few weeks we plan to do some weaving with CDs. Please send any old ones along that you don’t
want back! If you are able to help with
getting these ready for weaving at home, then please come and see Adela on
Wednesday so that I can explain what help we need. We are making pom-poms this Thursday – a fork
is needed!
Enjoy
the week
Adela
and Julie
Term 3 Week 6
REMINDERS:
• Practise your poem for the Poetry Competition
in WEEK 7 so that you know it off by heart!
• Class Poetry Competition on Monday 1st September, 1.30pm.
• Reading folders MUST be at school each day
Dear Families
You
will have seen the wonderful time the children had at Ferrymead, if you have
seen the photos on the blog! They have
written wonderful recounts of the day – the Moorhouse School was a place that
has stuck in the minds of most – the cane being the number one reason! We are
all grateful that schools have changed!
This
week Julie will have release on Friday.
Adela is in on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday this week.
Poetry Competition
Our
class Poetry Competition will take place on MONDAY 1st SEPTEMBER at 1.30pm. We do hope that you have time to come along
to support the children in our class.
Reading
This
week we are having a focus on Poetry.
Instead of a daily reader the children will be bringing home a new poem
each day. We really hope that the children are learning their poems at home –
they will have the opportunity to practise their poem in front of the class
this week. Please make sure that Poetry Books are returned to school EVERY day
this week.
Reading Folders
Please
encourage your child to self manage themselves for school each day by asking
them if they have their reading folder in their bags – with their instructional
reader. It is very important that
children have their books here for group reading each day.
Maths – Basic Facts
Last
week the children completed a basic facts sheet. The goal was to get all the
answers correct within a 5 minute time frame. The children have brought home
their sheets so that you can see what areas they would benefit from extra
practise at home.
Spelling
There
will be no spelling sentences for homework this week in order to allow the
children more time to practise their poem.
Library
We
now have a temporary school library set up in the hall. Our library time is on
a Friday afternoon and the children are encouraged to choose two books. Please
can you help your child to remember to return their books every Friday.
Enjoy
the week
Adela
and Julie
Term 3 Week 5
REMINDERS:
• Practise your poem for the Poetry Competition
in WEEK 7!
• Join us for sewing on WEDNESDAY at 1.30 if you can!
• Family Treasures to share
this week: Benny, Keaira and Keira.
Dear Families
By
the time you read this, we will have enjoyed a wonderful day at Ferrymead,
looking at life in the past. We will add photos to the blog in the next day or
so – make sure you ask your child about the trip.
A
huge welcome to Daniel and his family to Room 13 and St Albans School – we hope
you enjoyed your first few days with us!
Art
We
had a FANTASTIC afternoon of sewing on Thursday – the children were amazing,
patient sewers and have made a great start to our fabric and fibre unit. If you can join us this WEDNESDAY at 1.30 to help with sewing we’d love to see you! We would love wool if you have any to send
along too!
Poetry Competition
A
reminder that the poetry competition is on in Week 7! Your child should have picked a poem by now
and be learning it so that they can confidently share it in front of the
class. The aim is to know it ‘off by
heart’! We will send home a Poetry
Rubric this week so that you can see the criteria we have set and what we are
looking for.
Maths – Room 13
We
continue to focus on Multiplication. We are learning our tables and encourage you
to practise these at home too. The games
on the class blog are exciting ways to help your child master their tables.
Literacy
We
have been reading and writing fables in class.
Fables are a great discussion point, as they look at a moral – often
things we encourage in the classroom! We
have been focusing on writing dialogue – so knowing where speech marks go, and
looking at alternatives for using the word ‘said’. We have an on-going focus on spelling sounds
and patterns and editing our work to check it makes sense and is full of
interesting and varied vocabulary.
Enjoy
the week
Adela
and Julie
Term 3 Week 4
REMINDERS:
• We are going to Ferrymead next
MONDAY. Have
you returned your permission slip? We could still do
with one more parent to help with the trip. Please let
us know if you can be of assistance.
• Bring along a darning needle
for art on THURSDAY if
you have one at home.
• Start looking for a poem that
you can learn off by
heart for the Poetry Competition.
Dear Families
This
week is New Zealand Maths Week. It is a
great week to discuss all things maths with your child! This could be how maths is involved in
everyday life – cooking, shopping, timetables etc. We will be having some time
with our buddy class during the week, enjoying some maths games. Check out the
school Maths Blog for lots of great maths games and ideas.
Room 13 Maths Class
We
continue to work on Multiplication this term in maths. We teach the children multiplying means
making sets or groups, using repeated addition, skip counting and using
arrays. We are working on knowing our
2x, 5x and 10x tables to start with. You will find ways to support these
through games on our class blog.
Art
This
term we are looking at some Fabric and Fibre art. We plan to do some sewing this week onto
hessian. If you have a darning needle or two, that your child can use, please
tape it to a piece of card and send it to school.
Family Treasures
It
is great to see the items being sent along that are special to your
families! We are seeing a range of items
and the children are sharing them confidently, with good feedback and feed
forward being given. Check out some
photos on our blog!
Spellings
This
week we are focusing on the sounds for the letter ‘e’. E.g. the long ‘e’ as in
eagle and the short ‘e’ as in egg. It is really important that the children can
hear what sound the ‘e’ is making in words, as when it comes to the long vowel
sound there are a number of ways to write it.
Poetry Competition
During
week 7 we will be having our class Poetry Competition, which ALL children will
take part in. Your child could now begin
looking for a poem to present to our class.
We will add some website links to the blog to help find a suitable
poem. Please can the children bring in a
copy of their chosen poem to show to either of us by next Monday. More details will come out shortly!
Enjoy
the week
Adela
and Julie
Term 3 Week 3
REMINDERS:
· Ferrymead
trip – Monday 18th August
· Year 3/4
poetry competition in week 7
· Please
remember your Family Treasure to share if it is your turn this week!
Dear
Families
What a beautiful few days of weather we were spoilt with last
week! It looks like it is back to the
cool weather again – but a hint of what we have to look forward to - hopefully
soon!
Calendars
These are now completed and available to view at the
office! The children have done a great
job on our ‘hearts’ collage. We hope you
like them!
Maths
Today we restarted our ‘Maths Interchange’ programme with
children returning to the teacher they were with last term for maths. Please look at the blog for the weekly Maths
Homework, which is set up to support your child with the topic their maths
class is working on.
Reading
Ideas
We have added a page to our class blog called ‘Book Share’. A
range of books will be added to this page, in case you are looking for new
genre/material for your child to read.
If your child has read some books that have really sparked their
keenness to read, we’d love to hear about them, so we can add them for others.
Ferrymead
Trip
Please make sure that Ferrymead permission notices are
returned to school ASAP.
Inquiry
We are learning about what school was like in the past as part
of our Inquiry Topic. The children will be bringing home an ‘interview sheet’
later this week, to ask you about what school was like when you were a
child. It would be great to hear some
experiences from grandparents/older relatives as well!
Enjoy the week!
Adela and Julie
Term 3 Week 2
REMINDERS:
· School
photos – Wednesday 30th July
· Ferrymead
trip in week 5
· Year 3/4
poetry competition in week 7
Dear
Families
What a cold week we had last week! We are eating inside most days then heading
out to play. Let’s hope that this week
the temperatures rise!
Photos
School photos will happen this WEDNESDAY! Please wear correct winter uniform for these.
Maths
Last week we made some 3D shapes using toothpicks and
peas. Come in and see them if you
haven’t already – there are also photos on the blog. Hopefully the children can
tell you some 3D shapes we have been learning about, as well as explain what
faces, vertices and edges are. Keep up
the basic facts work by revisiting activities we have on the blog and by using
Studyladder.
Reading
We continue to focus on ‘Reading to Learn’. We encourage the
reading of books at home of the children’s own personal choice. Check out our class blog to get some good
ideas of new books your child can try, to encourage new authors and genres.
Calendars
Last week we started our calendars. This week we will finish them. If you can help for an hour on WEDNESDAY afternoon with these
we would really appreciate it! Come
along at 1.30. Our calendars are a ‘collage’ theme. We need some help with cutting out shapes
that we have painted. If you have some
scrap-booking stencil cutters – we would love to borrow them on Wednesday.
Enjoy the week!
Adela
and Julie
Term 3 Week 1
REMINDERS:
· School
photos – Wednesday 30th July
· Ferrymead
trip in week 5
· Year 3/4
poetry competition in week 7
Dear
Families
We hope you have all enjoyed a wonderful break. If your family
did something exciting in the holidays – send some photos along to share at
school. The children will be writing about something interesting that they did
during the holidays this week.
Inquiry
This term our Inquiry has a history focus and is called ‘Looking
Back, Looking Forward’. Later in the term we will be asking if anyone has an
elderly relative or family friend who would like to talk to the class about
their childhood. We will also be going on a trip to Ferrymead in week 5.
Maths
For the first two weeks of term we will be covering the topic
of geometry with the class. The children will be learning about 2D and 3D
shapes, transformations of shapes (reflections, rotations and translations) and
position and orientation (giving and following directions). Maths interchange
for numeracy will resume again in week 3.
Reading
Housepoints were given out today for children who completed
the ‘Book Bingo’ challenge. It is great to see children selecting books of
personal interest to read at home and this is something that we encourage in
year 3. The reading programme started today and the children should have
brought home their instructional reading book.
Spelling
This term the focus will be on long and short vowel sounds. It
is really important that the children can hear the different sounds that the
vowels make. This week we will be focusing on hearing the long and short ‘a’
sound e.g. the short ‘a’ in animal and the long ‘a’ in acorn. Then the next two
weeks we will move onto looking at different spelling patterns for the long ‘a’
sound.
Stationery
Thank you to those of you who have topped up on your child’s
stationery. There are still a few children who are short of certain items –
mainly HB pencils and blue pens. If your child still requires some items they
have been asked to list them on the following page.
Home
Learning
We continue to place an emphasis on quality work both
at school and at home. We appreciate your support in making sure that home
learning is completed to a high standard and that the reading log is filled in,
by either yourself or your child. The reading log should include the books
coming home or your child’s own choice of literature. The children are given housepoints
for completed homework.
Enjoy the week!
Adela
and Julie
Term 2 Week 9
REMINDERS:
• Interviews are on Wednesday and
Thursday afternoon. School finishes early at 2pm on THURSDAY.
• Gymnastics this Wednesday and
Thursday – wear suitable clothing please.
• Check out our class blog!
• Please return any school
instructional readers to school
this week.
• School finishes this FRIDAY at
3pm for the holidays – keep safe and do lots of reading!
Dear Families
The
final week of school is upon us! This
year is moving by so quickly! Today you
will receive the children’s digital reports.
Interviews are on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons to discuss the
reports – we look forward to seeing you.
For the mid-year interviews it is up to you to decide whether you would
like your child to attend.
Spelling Homework
This
week there will be no spelling words to learn as part of the homework. There will be reading books coming home as
well as a Book Bingo sheet, which can be worked on this week and during
the holidays. The children will need to colour in the square on the sheet for
each task completed and record the name of each book they have read in their
home/learning book on a separate page. They will get 5 housepoints for each
square that is completed.
Maths
Last
week we looked at measuring lengths.
This week we are looking at weight and capacity. Talk with your child at
home regarding this – baking is a great way to discuss measurement!
Choir Performance
The
children sang beautifully on Tuesday night – we were all so proud of their
performance!
Gymnastics
This
Wednesday and Thursday we will be taking part in a Gym session here at
school. The children need to wear bare
feet and have sensible clothing for taking part in the activities – school track
pants might be a good option if your child has them!
Have
a fantastic holiday break – we look forward to seeing you all rested in Term 3!
Adela
and Julie
Term 2 Week 8
REMINDERS:
• Choir
Performance Tuesday night.
• Gymnastics
next week at school.
• Make
sure you book your interview times online! School will finish early at 2pm on
Thursday 3rd July.
• Check
out our class blog!
Dear
Families
Welcome to Week 8! We
had such a fantastic time last week taking part in Book Week, with so many
amazing activities! Highlights included
the book character parade, a visit from Craig Smith, the Book Olympics and
going to the Book Fair. Thank you for
your support!
Reading
We have made some changes to our reading groups this
week. You may notice an increase in the
amount of text your child is reading and the complexities! Please continue to listen to your child read
regularly – it is great for them to be heard reading aloud! Please take time to help your child locate
books of their own choice at the local library too!
Maths
This week we will be returning to our own classes for
Maths. We are focusing on
Measurement.
Choir
Performance
This will be happening this Tuesday night. Please can the children go straight to the school
hall at 6:20 ready for a 6:30 start. We look forward to seeing you there!
School
Interviews
Please remember to book your parent teacher interviews online,
if you haven’t already done so. Details of how to access www.schoolinterviews.co.nz can be found in the previous two school newsletters.
Enjoy the week
Adela and Julie
Term 2 Week 7
REMINDERS:
•
Encourage your child to pack their own bag for school,
making sure their reading folder is inside!
•
Please purchase a 1I5 for writing and bring to the
classroom
•
Choir notices to be returned to school ASAP.
Dear
Families
This week is Book Week, starting with the parade today – and
filled with a lot of exciting book activities.
Take the opportunity to visit the Book Fair – we will be visiting this today
and we’re sure that there will be lots of books that will appeal to all
children.
If your child has a favourite book, they can bring to class to
share - we’d love to see it. They might
have one that is even mum or dad’s favourite book from their childhood! We are looking at books written by Lynley
Dodd, Dr Seuss and Eric Carle – please send them along if you have any!
Gymnastics
Week 9 we will be taking part in two gymnastics sessions here
at school. These are on the Wednesday
and Thursdays. This is a great
opportunity for us to take part in these skills based session – particularly
with the weather being so horrid! More
information will come next week regarding these.
The Blog
Thanks so much to all of you who access our class blog to see
what is happening in our class. We love
your feedback – so do feel free to comment on what is being shared.
Oral
Language
We are now looking at sharing a Family Treasure as part of our
Oral Language focus on a Wednesday. You
will have received a notice regarding this if it is your child’s turn. We look forward to the treasures coming to
school – nothing too precious please!
Enjoy the week
Adela and Julie
Term 2 Week 6
REMINDERS:
•
Encourage your child to pack their own bag for school,
making sure their reading folder is inside!
•
Please purchase a 1I5 for writing and bring to the
classroom.
•
Choir notices to be returned to school ASAP.
•
Slippers a great idea for the classroom!
Dear
Families
Week 6 is upon us already!
This week Julie and I both have a release day to work on assessment,
reports and planning. Anne Talaska will
be in our class on Tuesday and Wednesday – we will both be in the school
working on Room 13 related learning!
Stationery
We are beginning to fill our writing books! Can you please purchase another 1I5 from the office or a
bookshop and bring this into the classroom.
Make sure it is the correct book as the line size is important for our
level to write on.
The Big
Meltdown
I’m sure the children shared the excitement of the Big
Meltdown with you! On Wednesday we
arrived to school to lots of frozen sculptures, set out by lots of innovative
teachers! It created a lot of excitement
and discussion about how the sculptures were made. Read some of the writing on our blog to see
our thoughts!
Choir
Performance
You should have received a notice about this performance,
taking place on June 24th.
Please return the slips to school to let us know if your child will be
taking part.
Book Week
Next week is Book Week.
There will a number of activities happening – including a dress up day
on Monday June the 16th.
Start thinking about a costume now!
The children are encouraged to come to school dressed as a book
character and if possible bring along the book that their character is in.
Enjoy the week
Adela and Julie
Term 2 Week 5
REMINDERS:
•
Slippers can be brought to school to wear in the
classroom
•
Please make sure that your child has their reading folder
at school each day
Dear
Families
How lovely to have a three day weekend! The mornings have been VERY cold! We are lucky to have a cozy classroom to
learn in! Slippers are welcome in the
classroom! Colds are starting to appear
– do keep your child at home if they are unwell! Classrooms are a breeding place for
germs! It is also time to check your
child’s hair – head lice are currently doing the rounds!
Winter
Walk
We had a lovely time walking down to Malvern Park! Thank you
to Jen, Sarah and Sheradyn for accompanying us.
We had some lovely ideas used in our writing. At year three, we have a large focus on
making our writing more interesting through hooks, rich language, similes,
descriptions and speech. We are working
on developing the quality of our writing, which can only happen when there is quantity! For some children, generating ideas and
sequencing their thoughts is the next step. Then there is spelling, grammar and
editing! As you can see, writing is a
very complex area of the curriculum! You
can help by doing lots of reading with your child to expose them to language,
writing structure and to discuss ways the author captures their audience. Working on the spelling is also very
important!
Inquiry
Our Water topic is going well!
Hopefully your child can tell you some of the things we have been
learning about in Science. This week we
are looking at the water cycle.
Enjoy the week
Adela and Julie
Term 2 Week 4
REMINDERS:
· Winter Walk
on Wednesday – bring sensible shoes. Remember to return your permission slip if
you haven’t already done so.
Dear
Families
This week – weather permitting, we plan to do a Winter Walk
and look at what is happening in our neighborhood with winter now upon us! What do the parks and gardens look like in
winter? We hope this will provide
motivation for our Term 2 Writing sample. Please return the slip if you can
join us!
Last week we were able to listen to all children in a 1:1
situation as part of our Reading Assessment.
Whilst this gives us a reading level for your child, there are many
other aspects of reading, which we take into account to make an overall teacher
judgment on where your child is at in Reading.
Their comprehension of the texts, their ability to retell and discuss
the text, being able to make inferences and to use what they are reading in
their learning are all very important skills in reading. It was very pleasing
to see the progress all children have made – keep up the reading at home – not
just the school books, but literature of the children’s own choice.
Maths
Continue to check out the class blog for ways to develop your
child’s understanding of what we are covering in class. Partitioning is proving to be quite a
challenge for some – splitting numbers to help us solve addition problems. Keep working on this at home – it will help
immensely.
For example 8 + 6 = (8 + 2) + 4 = 10 + 4 = 14.
Book
Share
Could Sven, Mohit,
Alannah, Jessendra and Kacey please bring one of your favourite books
to share this WEDNESDAY!
Enjoy the week!
Adela and Julie
Term 2 Week 3
Dear
Families
We hope you all enjoyed hearing about or being part of the
Orana Park trip last week – the weather behaved and a great trip was had! The cross country on Tuesday, whilst a little
cool, was competed with so much enthusiasm by all – thanks for coming along to
support your child!
Reading
This week we will be doing assessment on where your child is
at with their reading. Instead of a
guided reading session with the teacher each day, the children will receive a
book on Monday for the week and will have activities to work on independently
during the week. Make sure you still
read with them each night.
Maths
We are now moving onto solving addition problems by
partitioning – splitting the number into parts.
For example 8 + 5 = 8 + 2 + 3 = 13. Read more about partitioning on our class
blog.
Book
Share
Last term we started a Book Share where some children brought
a favourite book to school to read to their Buzz Group. We would like to continue this, beginning
this week. Could Charlie, Keaira, Bailey, Ashley and Brooke please bring one
of your favourite books to share this WEDNESDAY!
Spelling
Please continue to work on helping your child with learning
their words each week! Talk to them about the sounds that are being focused on
each week in their words – see if they can think of other words that have the
same sound.
Enjoy the week!
Adela and Julie
Term 2 Week 2
REMINDERS:
· Cross Country
– Tuesday 13th of May, postponement day
Wednesday 14th May
· Check your child’s stationery please – many children were without
pencils last week!
· Sport on
Tuesday afternoon’s this term – remember suitable shoes
Dear
Families
By the time you receive this newsletter, we will have enjoyed
a fantastic day at Orana Park! Thank you to Anna Ashby for organising this for
us!
The Water Ignition day – or the Drip, Drip, Drip day, was so
much fun! No doubt you will have heard a
lot about the day from your child! The
children have all talked about how much fun the day was!
Cross
Country
This takes place tomorrow!
You will have seen the times in the school newsletter last week as well
as the letter that the children brought home.
We hope you can join us! In the
event of bad weather the postponement day is Wednesday
Lucky
Book Club
Orders for Lucky Book Club need to be back at school by Friday
23rd of May.
Spelling
This week we are starting our new Spelling Programme. The children will receive 8 spelling words
each week and will have activities related to their words at school. We would still like you to test them on their
words each night, and help them to put their words into a sentence – you can
put more than one word into each sentence to cut down the workload! We want to see that the children know what
their words mean.
Maths
In Room 13 we continue to look at ‘tidy numbers’. If I have 4 + 16 + 8 – then I can add the 4
and the 16 to make 20, then add 8 to make 28.
Keep working on the PROBES and the class blog – they are activities
designed to increase your child’s basic facts speed and number knowledge and
strategies. Remember to check out your maths’ classes Blog if you are not in
Room 13.
Enjoy the week!
Adela
and Julie
Term 2 Week 1
REMINDERS:
· Water Day –
Wednesday – bring extra clothes
· Cross
Country – Tuesday 13th of May
(postponement day is Wednesday 14th May)
· Check your stationery please!
Dear
Families
Welcome back to Term 2!
We hope that you survived the wet weather and made the most of the time
off school! We have a busy term
ahead! Julie is back on Mondays,
Tuesdays and Fridays and Adela on Wednesdays and Thursdays!
Drip,
drip, drip!
This term our topic is WATER.
We will be looking at the water cycle, how we can use and conserve water
and doing a range of water activities including scientific investigations. We will attempt to have our Water Day again
this WEDNESDAY – a change of clothes might be a good idea to add to your
child’s bag, as we intend to get WET!!!
Orana
Park
We are still waiting to receive confirmation of a new date for
this trip and will let you know once we have one.
Cross
Country
Our school cross-country will happen on TUESDAY the 13th
of MAY. Our practice had been going really well before the holidays! The children will need to wear their house
colours and MUST wear suitable shoes for running! We hope to see you there on the day!
Spelling
Programme
We are going to be starting a new Spelling Programme this term
based on the STEPS to LITERACY spelling resource. The children have been grouped and set at an
appropriate level. The focus is on
sounds – particularly vowel sounds, and uses a range of written and computer
activities to learn and maintain words.
Each child will have 8 words to learn in a particular pattern or
sound. Our aim is to see the children
using these words correctly in their writing and everyday work. This will start NEXT week so there will be no spelling words this week.
Reading
We will be focusing a lot on comprehension this term – do the
children understand what they are reading – and can they find information in
the texts. Please keep up the reading at
home – even if a school text does not come home each day! Make sure you record your home reading on the
home learning sheet. We will be doing running records on all the children throughout
the term, to have current information for the reports you will receive at the
end of the term.
Some reading groups do not need to be read with every day with
the teacher – they are able to read and work on activities independently.
Class
resources
Hats are no longer compulsory at school. As the weather gets colder, extra tissues are
always needed in the classroom. Please
send along a box if you can! Children
may wish to wear slippers in the classroom as the weather outdoors gets wetter
and muddier – but they must keep their shoes under their bags in the cloakroom.
Please make sure drink bottles go home regularly to be washed.
Can you check your child has enough pencils, pens, glue-sticks
and whiteboard pens to begin the term please.
Have a great week
Adela
and JulieTerm 1 - Week 9
Dear Families
What a busy week ahead of us!
I hope that some of you will be able to join us with the sewing and
creating of our class community cloth this WEDNESDAY
at 11.30 or THURSDAY at 1.30.
There will be sewing, gluing, cutting and stuffing required! We would love to have any newspaper, buttons, glue guns,
cool fabrics and sharp scissors suitable for children to use. I look forward to seeing you!
Spelling/Homework
Thank you to those who are making the effort to work on and learn
the weekly spelling words. There is a
lot of debate around class spelling programmes and homework! I believe the more you support your child and
find ways to help them learn and maintain their words – the better! We are looking at a variety of programmes as
a school to support the learning of spelling. Whilst some words seem easy for
the children to learn, you would be surprised how often they are spelt
incorrectly in their daily writing! We
are having a HUGE focus on
“sight words” in class, making sure we get these mastered!! This week I am trialing a house points system
for homework, to see if we can get a better number of children completing it,
and therefore supporting our class learning.
Cross
Country
This will happen early into next term! We have started developing our fitness – it’s
a good idea to keep this up during the holidays!
Maths
We are looking at making ‘tidy numbers’ this week. A tidy number ends in a 0 – so if I was
adding 3 + 7 + 8, I’d look to make a ten first – 3+ 7 = 10 + 8 = 18. Work through the homework activity on this
and check out our class blog to see the online games you can play.
Have a great week
Adela
Term 1 - Week 8
NOTES
AND REMINDERS
•
Swimming is now FINISHED!
•
There is a Mufti Day on this
THURSDAY – a gold coin donation
is required.
•
Have you read an eBook on Oxford
Owl yet?
The login is
room13stalbans and the password is
mrsbrown!
•
Do you have any of the following we
can use for our community cloth:
· Felt fabric
· Hessian
· Buttons
· Ribbons
· Needles
suitable for children to sew with
· Wool or
embroidery string
Dear Families
This
term is flying by! We have a busy four
weeks ahead of us! Just to reiterate
last week’s notice that after today, Julie will be taking some time off to
recover from surgery. Adela will be
working full-time during Weeks 8-10, but is away for Week 11 on a pre-arranged
trip. If well enough Julie will return,
but in the unlikely event of this, we have got a fabulous person on stand-by to
take the class for the four days of Week 11.
She will be left with the planning and procedures usually followed in
our class.
Community Cloth
We
will be focusing on making a class ‘Community
Cloth’ over the next few weeks and will require a lot of parent help
with this! There will be sewing involved
and so we plan to run a few afternoon sessions with parents coming in to
assist. Please mark these dates and
times in your diary: Wednesday 2nd of April from 11.30-12.30 and
Thursday 3rd of April from1.30-3.00pm. If required we will also look Thursday 10th
of April from 1.30-3.00pm as well. We
would LOVE and NEED a parent to help with some cutting out of fabrics in
preparation for the cloth work. This can
be done at home! If you can help, please see Adela on Tuesday!
Road Patrol
This
week we are on Road Patrol after school.
We will need to get out to the road very promptly –
so may leave a few minutes early, with the children waiting until the bell
goes. You may want to be at the
classroom at 2.55pm to make sure your child does not leave before the bell
goes.
Favourite Books
This
Wednesday, a group of children will share their favourite book with the class. A notice will come home with them on TUESDAY to give them the night
to choose. They will be reading it, or a
part of it, to a small group, so it would be great to have gone through this
process at home. We are aiming to
promote expression when reading aloud, share a range of books with our peers
and to self manage a homework task. Each
child in our class will have the chance to share a book with a small group
before the end of the term.
Orana Park
Have
you returned your permission slips for this trip yet? Make sure you do –
it is an exciting trip and not too far away!
We now have three parent helpers who we have approached –
it was based on first in! Thanks for
your offers to help – there will be other trips for those who
missed out!
Haruno
Haruno
and her family will be heading back to Japan to live this week. We will miss you Haruno and hope you stay in
touch with us from Japan!
Maths
We
are looking at ‘Ordering Numbers’ this week – keep up the place value games on
the blog, and see the new Maths Activities this week based around ordering
numbers. Study Ladder is operating – make sure you are accessing it
at home too!
Term 1 - Week 7
NOTES
AND REMINDERS
Weather
permitting – this is our final week of swimming at school!
Please
make sure your child has a whiteboard and their ten sided dice by now.
Dear
Families
It was great to meet with all of you last week. We feel very lucky to have such a great group
of children in Room 13 this year who are being supported by wonderful
parents! Every little bit that you can
do with your child will help their learning – taking time to listen to their
reading, doing some basic facts, practising the weekly spelling words and
discussing what they are learning in class are all important tasks that will
benefit your child immensely!
Julie on
Leave
Next Tuesday, Julie will be having an operation that requires
her to have 3-4 weeks off work to recover.
Adela will take on the role of full time teacher for that period! We wish you a speedy recovery Julie!
Maths
We continue to work on Place Value. You can discuss this with your child by
getting them to tell you what numbers are made up of – 45 is four tens and five
ones or 45 = 40+5. The homework for
maths is on our class blog - Room 13 maths’ children have been given a ‘climb
the ladder’ sheet to complete.
Orana
Park
Have you returned your permission slips for this trip
yet? Make sure you do – it is an
exciting trip and not too far away!
Haruno
Haruno and her family will be heading back to Japan to live
next week and her last day will be Wednesday 26th March. We will miss you Haruno and hope you stay in
touch with us from Japan!
Have a great week
Adela and Julie
Spelling Homework
This week the children are asked to write out each
spelling word in an interesting sentence following the criteria that they have
been given.
NOTES
AND REMINDERS
Parent
Interviews Wednesday and Thursday – school
finishes at 2pm Thursday.
Please
make sure your child has a whiteboard and their ten sided dice as we are using
them now.
Dear
Families
What a week last week turned out to be! It was a shame we could not do the Year 3 TRYathlon
– but this gives the children the chance to work on their biking, swimming and
running in anticipation of the event now planned for term 4! We look forward to seeing you all at Parent
Interviews this week. Please return the
information pamphlet that was sent home prior to your interview.
Maths
This week we are learning about Place Value in
maths. This means looking at numbers and
how they are made up of hundreds, tens or ones.
For example – 134 is one hundred three tens and four ones. Check out the homework for our class on our
Blog. Visiting the school Maths Blog is
a great way of gaining mathematical strategies and knowledge through games and
activities.
Orana
Park
Please could the permission slips for the year 3 Orana Park
trip be returned as soon as possible.
Swimming
We will continue to use the school pool for swimming where the
weather allows. Can you please make sure that your child has their swimming
togs and a towel on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday this week. There may be a
chance we can swap to an afternoon slot, as the year 0-2 children will be
swimming at Aquagym this week.
Our Blog
Do you check our blog regularly? We are always updating it – make sure you
check out the TABS – not just the home page!
We would love you to comment on the items we add!
Have a great week
Adela and Julie
Term 1 - Week 5
Dear
Families
Tomorrow we take part in the Year 3 Tryathlon! (weather permitting!) With our school pool
back in action, it is going to be great to see the children taking part in
something new and exciting! Whilst some
children may feel a little daunted by the challenge of this new event, we will be
encouraging them to try their best, have fun and celebrate their participation
in their first St Albans School Tryathlon!
We look forward to you joining us at 9.00am – check the class blog in
the morning for updates on postponements!
Your child needs to bring their togs, house t-shirt, helmet
and bike – which can be parked on the path next to our ramp before school. We encourage parents to take the bikes home
AFTER the Tryathlon as we don’t physically have the space for all the extra
bikes at school! If your child wears
their togs to school under their uniform – please remember underwear! They will change back into their uniform
after the event. If you can help with
getting the children changed after the swim, please let me know!
Reading
Our groupings are now more settled! There will still be some changes as the needs
arise, but your child should now be bringing home books suited to their reading
level. Do come and see us if you have
any questions on this. We have started the OXFORD OWL Online Programme in class
with some reading groups. There is a
link on our blog. Click on the My Class Login on the link. Our class username is: room13stalbans and the password is: mrsbrown. The
children have a reading log they must keep at school to record the Oxford Owl
ebooks they read, and they must fill in one Book Review per week.
Maths
The first week of Maths Interchange has gone very well. The children have quickly learnt to have
their maths equipment ready on their desks BEFORE
the bell goes at 9.00am. It is very
important that your child has a whiteboard to use during maths and has
purchased two ten sided dice from the office.
We are working on doubles and halves and near doubles and halves. These are proving tricky and so practice,
practice, practice is what is needed to master these! Please make a conscious effort to work on
knowing the doubles to 20 at home – it will help immensely! Near doubles means that if we know 6 + 6 =
12, then 6 + 7 = 13.
Have a great week
Adela and Julie
Term 1 - Week 4
NOTES AND REMINDERS
- Remember to book your interview for Week 6.
- Swimming this week is Tuesday, Thursday and Friday
- Whiteboards are needed at school this week please.
Dear Families
It’s hard to believe it is Week 4 already! Swimming at Aquagym last week was very
successful! The children gained a lot
from the consistency of being in the pool everyday. We received great feedback on the amazing
attitudes and fantastic behavior of our children – so well done kids!
Reading
The groups are now starting to settle and a few changes have
been made. It is not possible for us to
know every book your child has read at a particular level, but it is still good
practice for them to read these again!
Skill teaching happens at school and by the time your child reads their
book to you after school, it should be quite easy for them! Remember that the local library is a
fantastic FREE resource with great people who can help you find books that your
children will enjoy!
Maths
Today we started our Maths Exchange Programme. This means that your child may not be in Room
13 for maths, but with another teacher in the Year 3 team. This ‘interchange’ worked very successfully
last year, with the children being grouped with other children working at their
ability. The homework for Maths will be
put on the blog of the teacher’s class they go to. These are now added onto our blog, under the
Maths Homework Page. Just click the
link! Can your child please have their
whiteboard at school this week for maths starters and group sessions.
Year 3
Tryathlon
Next Tuesday , 4th March, the year 3 children will
be having a Tryathlon. Further details about the event will be sent home this
week. All children will require a bicycle and helmet for the event. If your
child does not have either of these and you are unable to borrow them please
let us know. Likewise if you have a spare bicycle or helmet that you would be
able to loan someone please let us know. The postponement day will be Friday 7th
March.
Have a great week
Adela and Julie
Term 1 - Week 3
NOTES AND REMINDERS
· Aquagym swimming
EVERYDAY this week – we will not be swimming in the school pool this week
· Hats are
required at school everyday this term
· Stationery –
please have at school ASAP!
· Make sure your
child has a reading folder at school each day – no reading folder – no book!
· Check out our
blog for things we are doing in the classroom
Dear Families
This week we will be swimming at Aquagym everyday, traveling
by bus. Your child needs to have their
swimming costume, towel and preferably goggles, in a NAMED, sturdy bag. Goggles make it a lot easier for children to
put their head under the water. It is very important that school uniform is named
– so that we can return it to the right person if it is found! The swimming in our school pool is going
well. Regular opportunities to get into
the pool, is a great way to develop confidence in the water and ultimately
develop the ability to swim.
Homework
Your child will bring home some spelling words today as part
of their homework. There is a lot of
research into ways in which children learn to spell and how effective spelling
homework is. We believe that children
should know what their words mean and how to use them in the correct context,
as this is one way of learning to spell a word. To begin the term we will be focusing on the
essential spelling lists – the words most commonly used words in everyday
reading, writing and conversation. Whilst
they may seem easy, they are still words that are commonly not spelt correctly
in children’s writing. Your child will
have 6-8 words each week, which we encourage you to practise each day and
record on the homework sheet. Please
continue to read each night and record this on the homework sheet also. From this week children should return their
reading books every Friday, this should enable them to re-read texts or catch
up if they have had a busy evening. Books should always be kept in the reading folder,
as they may be required to complete reading activities in class. Maths homework
will be set on the class Blog every Monday. If you do not have internet access
please let us know.
Community
Cloth
This term we will be producing a class piece of Art – a
Community Cloth, which will become part of a whole school art-piece. We will be looking at “sewing” our piece
later in the term. If you have any felt,
Dacron, or buttons that you can give us to go towards this work, please send
them along!
We have been so busy the last few weeks and you will be
starting to see some of our work being displayed in our class. Please continue to introduce yourselves
Have a great week
Adela and Julie
Term 1 - Week 2
Dear Families
It was great to get the school year off in such a positive way
last week. The children have settled
into a new class and team very smoothly.
Over the next few weeks we will continue to focus on getting to know
your child and establishing the routines and expectations in our class.
Stationery
Please make sure this is at school this week if you have not
yet sent your child’s stationery along.
It is important that the correct books are here to work in, as we are
already well underway in a range of our class programmes.
Hats
We are now enforcing the ‘hats rule’ for Term 1. Children must have a named hat at school to
wear, or they will have to play in the shaded areas. We used some UV beads last
week to show the importance of being protected from the sun – even when it
appears that they day is not so sunny!
Make sure you get your child to tell you about this!
Reading/Homework
This week the children will receive a reading book as we begin
our reading programme. Our focus is to
establish effective routines, and to develop independence and self-management
from your child as we use a MUST DO/MAY DO system. The children will have a Must Do activity
each day followed by a choice of May do activities once they have completed
work. We have a focus on ‘quality work’
and higher order thinking.
Writing
If your child still has their red dictionary that they used
last year, please can they bring it along to class as it can still be useful
when writing.
Aquagym
Next week we will be swimming at Aquagym everyday. We will be
leaving school at 11:00 and returning at approximately 12:30. Please can you
ensure that your child remembers their togs and towel and that all clothing
items, including their school uniform are named.
Have a great week – come in and say hello if we haven’t met
yet!
Adela and Julie
TERM 1 - WEEK 1
Dear Families
Welcome back to Room 13 in
2014! We hope you have enjoyed a fabulous summer break, and like us, are
excited about the year ahead! We have a fun, interesting classroom filled
with lots of exciting programmes and events! We hope you and your child
will enjoy the learning journey with us!
Our
Teachers
Room 13 operates as a
job-share classroom. Mrs Julie Worthington will be teaching Mondays,
Tuesdays and Fridays and Mrs Adela Brown will be teaching on
Wednesdays and Thursdays. We have
complimenting strengths and interests, common philosophies, consistent
practices and are in constant communication with each other. Please feel
free to approach either teacher with any queries that you have.
Stationery
Thank you to those of you
who have sent your child’s stationery along to school today. We are
already using our books in the classroom, so please send them along to school
as soon as possible if you have yet to do so. In Year 3 we expect the
children to be responsible for looking after their own pens, pencils etc. so
they may wish to bring a pencil case to school. Labeling items will
hopefully prevent things from being lost!
The School Day
Our school day begins
at 9.00am, with children being able to enter the classrooms from 8.30am.
We ask that your child arrives earlier than the 9.00am bell so that they can be
‘ready’ prior to the school day beginning. At Year 3 we expect the
children to organise themselves independently before school and hope you will
support us with this.
Reading Folders
The children will begin bringing home a reading book in
Week 2, from Monday to Thursday. At this
early stage of the year, your child may receive books that they have had
before, or that they may find easy or difficult to read on their own. Please bear with us whilst we establish our
guided reading groups – it won’t take too long to have these sorted! In Year 3 it is important that children are
reading books of their own choice, in addition to the guided reading books. After
a stock-take during the holidays of our school readers, we found that a huge
amount of books were missing! If you
find any school readers at home, we would really appreciate these being
returned. They cost approximately $12
per book to replace! Books must come to and from school in a reading folder every day.
Class Blog
Our class blog is room13stalbans2014.blogspot.co.nz We believe that the blog is a great way to
share our learning and to celebrate our successes. We update the blog regularly with class
events, the weekly newsletter, our Stars of the Week and our special
achievements. Please make sure you check
it regularly – you could make it the homepage in your browser settings!
Homework
The first few weeks of
school are about us getting to know each other, with a large emphasis on
learning about ‘Me and my Peers'! We do not expect homework to be too
onerous, instead a focus on supporting your child in what we are learning in
the class. Next week, the children will begin to bring home a Browsing
Box book, and in Week 3 we will begin sending home some word study and maths
activities. More information on this will follow in the next few weeks.
Sunhats
Sunhats are to be worn
everyday in Term 1. A full brimmed hat is encouraged and must be
named! With the weather being so amazing at the moment (hopefully!) we
encourage lots of water for drinking throughout the day! We are so
fortunate to have air conditioning in our classroom that will make the hot days
more bearable!
Swimming
The school pool will again
be in use this term. Our swimming days
are Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. We ask that the children bring their swimming
bag containing togs, a towel and a rash top if they have one on these days. We
will be swimming at Aquagym during Week 3. You will receive more
information regarding this shortly.
Whiteboards
Last year your child should
have purchased a whiteboard that was used in the classroom for various subject
areas. If you still have these at home,
could they please be sent back to school, as we plan to use them again this year. They can be purchased at the school office if
you are unable to locate it!
Enjoy the week - we look
forward to meeting you all!
Adela and Julie
Julie Worthington (julie.worthington@stalbans.school.nz)
Adela
Brown (adela.brown@stalbans.school.nz)
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