Term Three Newsletter

Dear Parents,

Term 3 is now well under way, and we all hope you had a lovely time with your children over the school holiday. Teachers were busy planning the term ahead, and we have some exciting learning ahead this term centred around “Dinosaurs”.

Many Year 4 students are currently practising their singing and learning songs, ready for the Art Splash Choir performance on the 21^st September at the Michael Fowler Centre. This is a wonderful opportunity for our students to participate in a large-scale performance, and as many of you with older children know, the night is a very exciting one for all involved!

Room 8 performed some wonderfully acted plays.

Events for the diary: 

• September 21st, 7.pm Art Splash Choir performance at MFC.

There are no other major events planned for this term. 


Reminders:

• Slippers: Term Three is an indoor term. If your child does not yet have slippers at school, please help encourage them to do so. Slippers are worn inside to keep the carpets dry and mud-free.

• Clothing layers: With the particularly mild winter we’ve had, some children quite happy to wear just a t-shirt to school. However, we have noticed a number of children first thing in the morning shivering during fitness, just wearing a t-shirt, and with nothing warmer to put on. Please make sure your child is wearing ample layers to school, so they can add/take of as the day warms up or cools down. Thanks!

• Drink Bottles: Children are still to bring drink bottles to class. Encourage you child to regularly take their drink bottle home for a clean.
• Equipment: Some children are running low on essential supplies such as rubbers, rulers, pencil sharpeners, colour pencils. Please check with your child to see if they require a top up of supplies. If in doubt, an extra rubber and pencil sharpener is always welcome.
• Lost Property: It is crucial to have all clothing named so that it may be reunited with its owner quickly. Encourage your children to look for their missing clothing as soon as it is lost. If you go through the lost property after school, please ensure this is left in a tidy state. It is being left in a shambles quite often, and Room 7 children (who have the responsibility for looking after school lost property) have a hard time keeping it neat and tidy.
• Beginning of the school day: When the bell rings at 8.40, it is time to get ready for fitness. The focus changes as the year progresses, but at the moment on Mondays, Tuesday and Wednesday fitness times are spent on ‘core skills’. Students who are late miss out on this, so it is important that children are at school by 8.40am.

Room 7 made and launched some aerodynamic air-powered rockets.

Reading, Writing, Information Literacy and ‘Dinosaurs’ Integrated Study.
Reading and Writing will be strongly integrated with our Dinosaur study as the term progresses. Writing information reports and reading of non-fiction texts will be the main focus during literacy time, along with spelling and handwriting skills. Key information literacy skills, such as skimming and scanning for key words and ideas, note-taking and note-making, summarising and questioning, will be a big focus in both literacy and integrated study time.

The study of ‘Dinosaurs’ has already proved to be a highly motivating and exciting topic for most children. However, rest assured the focus will not be on stuffing children’s heads with dinosaur facts and figures! There will be some very solid teaching and learning occurring in the area of questioning (open vs. closed questioning skills), gathering and interpreting information from more than one source, and making judgements on the usefulness of the information gathered. Being a 21^st century learner is all about being able to find, use and evaluate the usefulness of information, not just memorising facts and figures.

Room 9 made some wonderful pop-up instructions!

Maths
In Term 3, children will be consolidating understanding of multiplication and division, and apply this understanding in problem solving situations and to work out the fractions of whole numbers. Recall of timestables features strongly this term, and you can assist your child by helping them practise their timestables as part of the homework programme.

The Arts
This term we will be learning how to make prints using a number of different printing techniques. Recently the Year 3-4 teachers attended an afternoon workshop run by Hayden Ray, and learned all about these different techniques. There will be some glorious printmaking happening this term, so keep an eye out on the classroom blogs for photos.

Room 10 and their buddy class went to the beach to collect seaweed to make compost for the school garden.

Physical Education
As well as fitness every (fine) Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the Year 3 and 4 classes are  learning large ball skills through games of Football, Rugby, Netball, Basketball and Four-Square. PE will happen on a Thursday or Friday (Each class will initially have a different PE time), but as always in Term Three, it is weather dependent.

Class Blogs
Please visit the class blog to see what has been going on recently in your child’s classroom. Feel free to leave a comment too!
The children would love to receive comments on their class blog from family and friends all around the world.
Here are the instructions so that you know how to do this.
1. Go to our school site www.muritai.school.nz
2. On the home page click on class blogs.
3. Click on the classroom number you want.
4. Have a look at the posts (the writing and photos) and decide which ones you would like to leave a comment on.
5. At the bottom of the post are the words “__ comments”.
6. Click on the word ‘comments’
7. A box will open and you now write a comment in it. Please try to give the students positive feedback about what they have been doing. What did you like? What did you find interesting? What did you learn? You could even ask the class or a student a question.
8. Sign your name.
9. Choose an identity – If you have a Google account you can sign in using this. Or you can click anonymous.
10. Now click on ‘Publish your comment.’
11. Your comment will be sent to the classroom teacher for moderation. Once they have approved it, your comment will appear on the blog.

Room 11 students mind-mapped what makes Muritai School and 'Green-Gold' Enviroschool.

As always, feel free to contact your child’s teacher at school by either emailing (surname@muritai.school.nz) or popping in before/after school for a chat.

Kind Regards,

The Year 3-4 Teaching team.