Kia ora parents, caregivers and
children,
Term 4’s looking like our best yet:
Rongoā Māori workshops with
Enviroschools Rongoā expert Arihia Latham, Athletics day, the school fair,
kids-as-experts-workshops, visiting William Kentridge’s The Refusal of Time at
the City Gallery (for the Y4s) and creating a shadow pageant, swimming (for the
Y3s), a student-led Amazing Race, walks to identify local native plants for
Rongoā Māori, Zoo sleepovers, democratic classrooms, making kawakawa balm, walk
to Red Rocks, hackschooling, school picnic, percussion jams…!
U-Learn conference
Last week Shanon and Amy A travelled
to Rotorua with six other teachers from school for the U-Learn conference. We heard some
fantastic international academics and New Zealand practitioners who gave us lots
of food for thought that has inspired us to keep developing our teaching and
learning practice. In M13 we are looking at how our classroom can be more democratic, handing over as much power as possible to children. Check out the hackschooling TED talk, posted below...
Inquiry: Rongoā Māori
Through the context of Rongoā Māori, we will explore the physical
and chemical changes that occur to substances when they are mixed, heated and cooled.
We’ll get hands-on, identifying and classifying local native plants, learning
about their medicinal uses, and creating our own balms and other kinds of
Rongoā Māori medicine.
Enviroschools Rongoā expert Arihia Latham will come and run workshops with us
in the Learning hub to teach us about Rongoā practices. Our reading and writing
programmes will integrate with our Inquiry learning.
Our maths focus
areas this term are Number, Problem Solving, Basic Facts, Algebra, and Statistics – probability. In physical education we will
focus on athletics.
Music: percussion
We are running a music rotation this term – each class
will spend 2 sessions with each teacher in the team, across the term. From
rākau to sāsā to Stomp beats, we’ll be drumming and exploring
different elements of rhythm, beat, and percussion.
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
Tuesday 21 October Rongoā Māori workshops in the Learning Hub
Wednesday 22 October Whole School Athletics Day at
Wakefield Park
Thursday 23 October postponement day for
Athletics Day
Friday 24 October Whole School powhiri, 9.15am
Friday 24 October Whole School powhiri, 9.15am
Monday 27 October Labour Day
Saturday 1 November School Fair
Tuesday 4 November M13’s trip to the City
Gallery
Wednesday 5 November M12’s trip to the City Gallery
Thursday 6 November M14’s trip to the City
Gallery
Tuesday 11 November Southern Zones Athletics
Tuesday 2 December Mahuri inquiry exhibition, 9am – 10.30am
Thursday 4 December Day
walk to Red Rocks
Monday 8 December Amazing Race
Wednesday 10 December M12
& M13’s zoo sleepover
Thursday 11 December M11
& M14’s zoo sleepover
Monday 15 December Whole School picnic
Tuesday 16 December Portfolios come home
Thursday 18 December Poroporoaki,
last day of school
Thank you for your ongoing support.
As always, if there is anything you would like to discuss regarding your
child’s learning, please get in touch to make a time to talk.
Ngā mihi,
Shanon, Adele, Ximena and Amy
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