Kia ora parents,
caregivers and children,
Can you believe we’re
in to the second half of the year already?! We’re looking forward to next
week’s Parent Teacher Child conferences when your child will lead us through
their learning and we can set goals together.
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. Here’s one of her blogposts on How do inquiry teachers… teach? that gives a sense of her approach. 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, learner licences that offer greater autonomy
and independence as students demonstrate their self-management skills, weekly
learning goals and class reflections. If you have any ideas, suggestions or
feedback please let us know.
Student teacher in M13
We are lucky to have a
student teacher working with us this term. Megan Lindsay is a qualified early
childhood education teacher who is now training to be a primary school teacher.
She will join us from 11th August until the end of term.
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 Fractions, 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 basic facts to be learned off by heart during the week.
Dates this term
Monday 28th
July:
Speak
Easy performance for Y4-6, 9am in the hall
Tuesday 29th
July:
Y4-6 swimming sports
Wednesday 30th
July: Powhiri 9am
Parent Teacher Child conferences
(Y4-6)
Thursday 31st
July:
Parent Teacher Child conferences
(Y4-6)
Friday 1st
August:
Freedom Friday begins
Monday 25th August: ICT Parent meeting
Friday 12th September: Dancesplash
performance, 5.30pm, Michael Fowler Centre
Thursday 18th
September: Mahuri
Celebration of Learning, 9.15am in the hall
Tuesday 23rd September: Parent
Teacher Child Conferences (NE-Y3)
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
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