End of Year Activities Week Timetable (Week 9 of Term 4)

(Click to enlarge)

If you would like to help on the Monday (Run and Ride event) or Friday (Days Bay picnic), please email your child's teacher to let them know. 

Year 3-4 Newsletter Term 4 2016

Hi Everyone!

Term 4 is here already! Classrooms are in ‘full steam ahead’ mode and each is a busy hive of activity. In a typical week your child will have had learning opportunities in all areas of the curriculum, including Reading, Writing, Mathematics, Science and Social Sciences, Art, PE, Te Reo Maori, all with our School Value and Key Competencies threaded throughout. 

Our classroom CARE (Citizenship, Achievement, Responsibility and Effort) programme is a reflection of our School Values and Key Competencies in action and will be acknowledged and celebrated at our Team Assemblies. 

Towards the end of the term we will have another ‘Celebration of Learning’ evening where your child will share with you the learning they have recently undertaken. Make sure Monday 28^th November, 3:00pm-6:00pm is a date left free in your diary.

 

Teaching and Learning in Years 3-4 in Term 4

Below is an outline of what you can expect your child to be learning this coming term:

Literacy

Our main writing focus for this term is poetry.  The children enjoy reading poems and especially love writing poetry, as it often breaks all the conventional writing rules!  We will be identifying visual effects and language features of poetry and exploring a wide variety of poem styles. There will be plenty of opportunities to write and recite poetry aloud to an audience.  We will also be learning the art of writing letters and will be developing procedural writing skills.  There is still of course, the ongoing focus of embedding effective editing, proofreading and re-crafting skills into every piece of writing the children do.

Oral Language will focus on skills of oral presentation, with an emphasis on using vocal expression, confident body language and addressing an audience.  Children will have opportunities to present their Inquiry based procedural writing, recite poetry and will continue to share news and items of personal interest.

Reading opportunities will be varied: teacher directed (reading groups) and independent (personal interest and enjoyment); and will be integrated across all areas of the curriculum. Children will be researching and reading for information, reading for meaning and understanding a range of texts.  We will continue to encourage fluency, expression and the reading of punctuation to enhance comprehension levels. As previously mentioned, poetry will also feature in our class reading programmes.

Numeracy

This term we will be revising all four number operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division and will continue to develop our basic facts instant recall. We will also be covering Fractions and will begin our maths learning in our cross-grouped classes for the first three weeks of Term 4 before returning to our home rooms for the remainder of the term. 

Integrated Studies

“Everyone, everywhere needs water” is our term long Integrated curriculum study. Our big idea, which guides the study, is that “Everyone, everywhere needs water to survive”. On a rainy Wellington day, it can be hard to believe that water can sometimes be a Taonga and how we chose to use freshwater can impact on our quality of life. Children will be guides through a number of investigations into water and it’s use- firstly from a scientific approach- what is water, actually, and then we intend to branch into more social science investigations- how is water used, how much do people use, and what happens if water gets polluted- where does it go?  Later in the term your child will be given a small homework investigation to find out how much water they personally use in a day. A bucket may be called into use!

 

Physical Education
* Fitness this term  includes a fun rotation of games including: Bat Down/French Cricket, Number Hockey, Bounce Strike, T Ball and the game of Whack and Run.
* Athletics Every Friday in the lead up to our School Athletics Day in Week 4, the children will be taking part in Athletics practice.  Children will need to wear running shoes on these days to be able to fully participate. 

* Swimming is scheduled to begin in Week 7, however this is of course weather dependent. In our experience, the weather never really comes to the party at this time of the year to allow a solid programme of swimming, and we will play this by ear again this year.

* EOTC Week Planning for EOTC Week in Week 9 is underway, and we are planning a fun filled week of events.  More details to follow!

 

The Arts
Visual Art - Stitching and Sewing. One of our most popular arts and crafts topic, sewing returns again to each classroom.

Performing Arts - Each class will also have sessions with Ruth Hooke, our Performing Arts teacher. 

Te Reo Maori

Our children will be attending alternate Friday arts and crafts sessions where they will learn the significance of arts and crafts in Maori culture and will also be making a variety of Maori arts and craft, with a modern twist.

Housekeeping

~ drink bottles, sunscreen and sunhats are of course essential this term. We have a 'no hat - no play' policy!

~ stationary: many children may need a top up of their stationary items. Pencils,  pens, rubbers in particular.  Please check with your child as they will know what they require.

Parent Help

Many of you have kindly offered to help out in our classrooms this year. Thank you once again to all our wonderful parent helpers from Term 2 who listened to children read as part of our "Hooked on Books Programme".

EOTC week - We would love for you to come and join us at Days Bay on Friday 9th December for our annual Days Bay picnic. Please let your child's teacher know if you would like to attend- from 10:00am onwards.

Getting in touch

As always, your first port of call is your child’s teacher. We can be contacted by our email address (surname@muritai.school.nz), or feel free to pop in before/ after school for a quick chat. If you wish to talk about your child’s learning at any stage of the term, you do not have to wait until parent interviews to do so! Your child’s teacher will be happy to talk with you - however be aware that Monday and Tuesday after school are usually staff meeting times.

Dates for the Diary

Here is a summary of upcoming events particular to the Year 3/4 Team:

October        

Monday 24th ~ Labour Day – (School Closed)
Tuesday 25th ~ Teacher Only Day - (School Closed)

November

Tuesday 1st ~ Athletics Day
Tuesday 22^nd and Tuesday 23rd ~ Year 3 Anniversary reporting will take place. Further details to come!

Sunday 27^th- Eastbourne Carnival!!!

Monday 28th - Celebration of Learning afternoon, Swimming starts (weather dependant). 

December

Monday 5^th December ~ EOTC week begins
Friday 9th - Year 4 Reports and 2016 class lists go home.

Monday 12th ~ Meet the Teacher for 2016

Friday 16^th~ Last day of Term – Leaver’s Assembly at 11am

Looking Ahead to 2017

We are about to begin the thorough process of placing children into classes for 2016.  If you are considering moving out of the area and your child will not be coming back to Muritai next year please email me as soon as possible.

We all look forward to another great term. Our thanks for your support, as always.

Kind regards,

Richard Dobson and Gabrielle Heath in R7, Karen Chao and Christa Pitman in R8, Heather Mawby in R9, Mikaela Cody and Trish Theobald in R10, Jess Davidson and Fiona Ranchod in R11.

Term Three Newsletter

 Term Three Newsletter

Dear Parents, Caregivers and children,

We are half way through the school year already! Hopefully you all have had a wonderful Winter break - despite occasional storm! Your children are back at school now, probably much to your relief (!) and we are all geared up for another term of fun, laughter and hard work. It was great to see so many of you at the 'Celebration of Learning' afternoon in the final week of last term. Once again, the children showed how proud they were of the work they completed in school and enjoyed having a captive audience in their families to showcase their progress over terms one and two. Remember, any time can be ‘Celebration of Learning’ time so, whenever you can, just pop in with your child and get them to show off all the learning they have been doing.

Housekeeping reminders:

• Slippers are worn indoors during Term 3.
• Football in Schools coaching is on each Thursday in Term 3- a rain jacket is compulsory (just in case we have to walk to the community centre in the rain).
• School Lunch: Hotdogs on Wednesdays and ‘Food for Thought’ on Fridays.

With Mrs Skilton leaving for the balmy climes of the Bay of Plenty, there have been a couple of small changes to the structure of the Year 3-4 teaching team:

• Year 3:
• Room 10 - Mikaela Cody and Trish Theobald (on Fridays)
• Room 9 – Mrs Mawby
• Year 3/4 Composite:
• Room 11 - Jess Davidson and Fiona Ranchod (on Wednesdays and Thursdays)
• Year 4:
• Room 7 – Richard Dobson (Acting Associate Principal) and Gabrielle Heath (on Fridays)
• Room 8 – Karen Chao and Christa Pitman (on Fridays) 
• Team wide:
• Ruth Holmes (Classroom Release Time Teacher). 

To contact teachers by email, please address as: surname@muritai.school.nz


Values Education:
Our classroom CARE programme will once again be closely linked to our school values this year. We will be unpacking these values as the term progresses. This term we will focus on Self-confidence and Commitment. We also continue to foster the Key Competencies of Relating to others, Participating and Contributing, Managing Self and Thinking.

A (midyear) reminder about homework:

• Each night’s homework comprises a total of 15-20 minutes of practice in Reading, Spelling and Mathletics/Basic Facts. A tick the appropriate section/columns ‘proves’ that homework is being done. It is perfectly acceptable for your child (particularly Y4 children) to do these ticks them-selves. 
• Our children lead very busy out-of-school lives. For this reason, it is perfectly acceptable for out-of-school activities to count as ‘homework’. All that is required is that the activity is recorded in the spaces where the ticks would normally go. For example, if your child has Ballet on Monday after school, write ‘ballet’ in the Monday slot for reading, spelling and basic facts.  
• Homework books are returned to school every morning. This allows children to use their spelling words during classroom practice time. If the book is left at home, then the child misses this practice time. Teachers may also wish to check home reading and the homework book for messages from home.

Teaching and Learning in Years 3-4 in Term 3

Below is a quick outline of what you can expect your child to be learning this coming term:

Literacy
The children will further develop their report writing skills from Term 2. They will also be learning how to expertly craft a narrative (story) and enhance the descriptive quality of their writing by, acting on feedback, making changes to the writing to improve clarity and meaning.

Reading opportunities will be varied: teacher directed (reading groups) and independent (personal interest and enjoyment); and will be integrated across all areas of the curriculum. Children will be researching and reading for information, reading for meaning and understanding a range of texts.  We will continue to encourage fluency, expression and the reading of punctuation to enhance comprehension levels even further.

Integrated Studies
Our first integrated study is an investigation into the modern and ancient Olympic Games called: : The Olympic ideals in action”. The ‘Big Idea’ of this study is that “We have the power to inspire others with our achievements”.

Our second integrated study is a trip back to the time of Ancient Greece. The ‘Big Idea’ of this study is that people who lived in the past were not that much different to ourselves, even though some of their cultural practices seem very different to how we do things today.

If you have expertise in either of these topics, please let your child's class teacher know and you will be readily invited in - we love visitors we can learn from!

Numeracy
In Maths, we will begin to use our knowledge of Addition and Subtraction strategies to further our understanding of Multiplication and Division. This will begin for some children, by looking at multiplication as repeated addition and division as repeated subtraction. Knowledge of times tables facts will become more and more important as the term progresses and your support at home with this is greatly appreciated.

We will also explore the Geometry strand and will be looking closely at identifying and classifying 2D and 3D shapes, position, orientation and transformation.

Physical Education
Football in Schools is our main PE this term beginning on Thursday in Week. Coaches (players from local football clubs) run the programme and offer our children new opportunities to develop agility, spatial awareness and teamwork through football.

School Production
“Muritai Broadway” is the theme of this year’s school production. The school values of 'Self-Confidence' and 'Commitment' will be promoted as the children prepare for their performances on stage. While we are still in the initial planning stages, Rooms 10 and 11’s item will be centred around “The Wizard of Oz’ and Room 7-8-9’s item will draw inspiration from “Mary Poppins”. More details will be sent to you in the coming weeks, including how you can help your child prepare.

If you have skill is set design, dance/choreography or costuming, and would like to help in some way, could you please let your child’s teacher know ASAP. Thanks! We will be very thankful for any help you can offer!

The Arts: 
For our Visual Art study this term we will be Printmaking. The children will be experimenting with a variety of printmaking techniques as well as completing a cooperative artwork. For Performing Arts this term, many of our Year 3 and 4 children have opted to take part in our Art Splash choir and will take centre stage at the Michael Fowler Centre later in the term - more details to follow.


Getting in touch
As always, your first port of call is your child’s teacher. We can be contacted by our email address (surname@muritai.school.nz), or feel free to pop in before/ after school for a quick chat. If you wish to talk about your child’s learning at any stage of the year, you do not have to wait until parent interviews to do so! Your child’s teacher will be happy to talk with you - however be aware that Monday and Tuesday after school are usually staff meeting times.

We all look forward to another great term. Our thanks for your support, as always.

The Year 3 and 4 Teachers.

A visit from a World Vision Youth Ambassador

Recently we had a visit from one of the  amazing World Vision Youth Ambassadors (Jay Adams) who travelled to Jordan at the beginning of the year to visit the refugee camps that the 40 hour Famine will be supporting.

He  shared his stories with students and allowed them to ask him any questions about his experiences and who he met which was fascinating.It was a wonderful opportunity to learn about where the funding went and the impact it could have on the lives of others. 

He was an amazing role model being only 18.

Constable Julie talks to us about Kia Kaha

In Room 9 we have begun learning about how to stand up against bullying and how to become an active bystander.

Constable Julie taught us the difference between rude, mean and bullying behaviours.

She shared photographs with us which showed some children bullying others.  We talked about how the children were feeling and what choices they could make to make the bullying stop.

We also talked about how important the bystanders are and how they can help.  

The person being bullied can tell the bully to stop by using a loud voice so other people can hear and the bully knows you mean business!

The bystanders can also tell the bully to stop and invite the person being bullied to play with them.

The person being bullied and the bystanders, can tell the Peer Mediators and Duty Teacher what is happening.

The bully still has a choice and can stop what they are doing and apologise.

Constable Julie said it was important to talk to our families, teachers, friends and/or our school Peer Mediators if we are bullied at school.  

Thank you Constable Julie. We have the power to be 'Active Bystanders' now!

Term 2 2016

Dear Parents, Caregivers and children,

Hopefully the school holidays have been wonderful for you all and you have continued to enjoy the beautiful weather! We are looking forward to welcoming you all back to Muritai School to commence Term 2 on Monday 2nd May.

Last term we made a fantastic start to the year with an amazing variety of learning experiences inside and outside of the classroom, including rippa rugby, a fundamental skills day, swimming sports and of course our trip to the Island Bay Marine Reserve.  

The children and staff have quickly settled into the year and routines and class cultures are now firmly engrained.  Recently we were very proud to report our Year 3 and 4 student achievement and targets for the year to the Board of Trustees. The Year 3 and 4 teaching staff have a common understanding of where our children are now and what they will focus in on to ensure our children make accelerated progress and are in the right place by the end of this year.  On a personal level we also shared your child's progress and goals at the recent Parent Teacher interviews.  At the end of Term 2 we will be reporting on student progress and goals once again through a written report and our very popular Celebration of Learning afternoon.

Once again Our classroom CARE (Citizenship, Achievement, Responsibility and Effort) programme will be closely linked to our School Values and Key Competencies. This term we will be focusing on the values of Curiosity and Excellence, as well as continuing to foster the Key Competencies of Relating to others, Participating and Contributing, Managing Self and Thinking.

Teaching and Learning in Years 3-4 in Term 2

There will continue to be lots of great learning happening in term 2. Below is a quick outline of what you can expect your child to be learning this term:

Literacy

For written and oral language, the children will be learning about report writing. News time will take on a more formal stance where children will be required to orally present reports (news articles) to an audience (their peers). Their peers will then provide written and/or verbal feedback on the report presentation.  Children will be learning how to use appropriate verbal and non-verbal features to gain attention and how to effectively communicate ideas to an audience. Your child will need support with this at home as it will largely form the basis of their homework 'other tasks' this term.  It would be great if you could help prepare your child by helping to research interesting articles online or in newspapers/magazines and of course by being their 'practice audience' at home!  

The children will also be learning how to write instructional and procedural pieces by following set criteria including: writing in paragraphs, using connectives, headings and subheadings and using interesting vocabulary.

Reading opportunities will be varied: teacher directed (reading groups) and independent (personal interest and enjoyment); and will be integrated across all areas of the curriculum. Children will be researching and reading for information, reading for meaning and understanding a range of texts.  We will continue to encourage fluency, expression and reading punctuation to enhance comprehension levels.

Integrated Studies - We have three Inquiries this term:

Health: Kia Kaha 
 
Big Idea - Through Kia Kaha students develop strategies for respectful relationships where bullying behaviours are not tolerated.  Students will be able to define the differences between: Rude, Mean and Bullying behaviour.  Through this Inquiry we will endeavour to 'empower the bystander' where students will develop the confidence to intervene as well as seek help for themselves and/or others.
For more information please click on the link: 
http://www.police.govt.nz/advice/personal-and-community-advice/school-portal/resources/successful-relationships/kia-kaha/kia-0   

Social Sciences (Continuity and Change): ANZAC DAY 

Big Idea -The past can be remembered in different ways. Why do we commemorate ANZAC day?  

Science (Material World): Fizzing and Foaming
Big Idea - Substances have physical and chemical properties that can be described. When a physical change takes place, a substance changes form only. When a chemical change takes place, new substances are formed.

Numeracy

The majority of the term will be spent on number knowledge, number strategies and problem solving, with particular reference to addition and subtraction.

We will also be teaching the Measurement Strand and will be looking closely at how to measure Length and Area with standard and non-standard units. There will also be a Statistics focus this term in which children will be mastering tally charts, tables, line graphs, bar graphs, pictographs and pie graphs. 

Physical Education - We begin the term with Cross Country Fitness each morning in preparation for our School Cross Country event to be held on Tuesday 24th May. Children will need to be at school promptly each morning with running shoes on to ensure they are ready to take part and build up their endurance for the big day!

We have two units this term:

Gymnastics is the main PE focus for the first 5 weeks, followed by Winter Games and Ball Skills later in the term. 

Art - Painting

The children will be experimenting with colour, tinting and shading, brush strokes, adding texture etc.  They will also be discussing and reflecting upon colour choice and techniques used by themselves and other well known New Zealand artists.

Housekeeping

We have a 'shoes-off' policy throughout the Winter months to make sure the class carpets stay dry and clean and suitable for sitting on.  There are shoe racks outside or inside each classroom.  It is best if slippers stay at school for the term. Water bottles each day are still required as the children need to stay hydrated and trips to the drinking fountain can be quite disruptive to class programmes. Hotdogs recommence on Wednesdays for Term 2 and 3.

Parent Help

Many of you have kindly offered to help out in our classrooms this year - we would like to take you up on your offer this term in the form of listening to children read.  This would entail listening to children read for 10 - 15 minutes at a time.  If you are able to help out please email me: hskilton@muritai.school.nz with the days (mornings) and times you would be able to help.  Thank you once again to all our wonderful parent helpers from Term 1, who assisted us with our trip to the Island Bay Marine Reserve, Swimming sports, Rippa Rugby and Fundamental Skills Day.

Reporting and Celebrating

As previously mentioned, towards the end of the term the children will bring home a written report of their progress and we invite you in to school to a ‘Celebration of Learning’ afternoon where the children will share their artwork and book work from the year so far. Whilst the teachers will be there, this is an opportunity for the children to share their learning with you. The children are very proud of the successes they achieve in class on a daily basis.

Getting in touch

As always, your first port of call is your child’s teacher. We can be contacted by our email address (surname@muritai.school.nz), or feel free to pop in before/after school to make an appointment. If you wish to talk about your child’s learning at any stage of the year, you do not have to wait until parent interviews to do so! Your child’s teacher will be happy to talk with you - however be aware that Monday and Tuesday after school are usually staff meeting times.

We all look forward to another great term. Our thanks for your support, as always.

Kind regards,

Hayley Skilton, Karen Chao, Richard Dobson, Mikaela Cody, Jess Davidson, Gabrielle Heath, Trish Theobald, Nikki Andrews and Ruth Holmes.

Fundamental Skills Day (Tabloid Sports) at Hutt Park