YEAR 3 AND 4 NEWSLETTER TERM 3 2017

Kia Ora Koutou

Welcome to Term 3!

The Year 3 and 4 team hope you all had a relaxing break and managed to spend some quality time with family and friends, despite the miserable weather. 

TERM 2 ROUND UP

What a busy term of learning and new experiences we had last term.  We have just about covered every letter of the alphabet in our learning.

Here are just a few highlights:

AFL Kiwikick 

AFL Kiwikick

Cross Country

Cross Country

Science fun

Science fun

Making plastic from mi

Visiting Eastbourne Library

Tuakana - Teina time

Filming with What Now

TERM 3

We are already over half way through the year and are heading into another action packed term. Here is a brief outline of our learning programme for the term.

INQUIRY

Our theme for the term is Fame! Kiwis have made a big impact on the world.  We'll be finding out about some of those people and thinking about the impact they have had on the world and on us.  We're also going to explore what fame is and find out more about famous places.

LITERACY

Our Inquiry will continue to influence our Reading and Writing programme.  Students will be refining their research skills by learning to read for information, summarise the main ideas and to gather information from a range of sources.

In writing our focus is specifically Report Writing, presenting information about an object, animal, person or place.  We will be encouraging our students to explore different ways to present their information, including digital presentations.

We are excited to be taking part in CHAPTER CHAT for the first time.  This is a Twitter book chat for New Zealand kids, based around a book read aloud in class.  This term's book is The Sasquatch Escape, by Suzanne Selfors.  Each week we post pictures of our work on our Twitter page and we take part in a live chat on Friday mornings.  If you want to see our work our Twitter pages are:

Room 8:  Muritai School Room 8 (@Muritai8)

Room 9 & 10:  Muritai School Room 9 (@Muritai9)

Room 11:  Room 11 (@Room11Eastbourne)

MATHS

This term we will be focussing on multiplication and division. Basic Facts will continue to be our knowledge focus, students will be working to improve not only their accuracy but also their speed of recall for both addition and subtraction and multiplication and division facts. We will also be focussing on the Statistics strand, gathering, presenting and interpreting data.

PE 

We continue to have regular fitness sessions this term.  We are also going to be learning the skills of throwing, catching and striking (hitting a ball with a bat).  We will be using these skill in some new games which we hope the children will enjoy playing at lunch time.

ART

Planning is underway for an Art Exhibition at the end of the term.  All students will have an artwork exhibited and an entry in the school photo competition.  More information will be available a little closer to the time, so keep an eye out as you won't want to miss this event. 

The art exhibition will also include a photography competition, so part of our art focus this term will be around the art of photography.  

TE REO/TIKANGA MAORI

We continue to focus on greeting and farewelling others, introducing ourselves, days of the week, months of the year, counting and colours.  Our Tikanga Maori focus this term will be Myths and Legends and we hope to bring this into our Fame theme with some legendary figures like Maui.

THINGS TO KNOW

Homework will continue to be sent home on each week.  

As the cold, wet and often windy days are now well and truly here it is important to be prepared. Shoes need to be taken off before coming into the classrooms so your child may like to keep a pair of slippers at school to wear in the classroom.  It would also be a good idea if your child has a change of clothes in their bag each day.  We don't want to discourage their active play, but we also don't want the mud from the field in the classrooms.

At the end of last term we farewelled Christa Pitman, who has taken up a position at Wellesley.  We wish her all the best for her new adventure.   We are excited to welcome Lisa Allen to our team, she will be teaching in Room 8 on a Friday.  many of you will know Lisa as our Learning Support teacher. 

Finally if you have any questions or concerns regarding our classroom programme or your child's learning, please do not hesitate to contact us.  Feel free to pop into the classroom before or after school or send us an email:

Mikaela Cody: cody@muritai.school.nz

Karen Chao: chao @muritai.school.nz

Heather Mawby: mawby@muritai.school.nz

Jamie Power: jpower@muritia.school.nz

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Nga Mihi

Year 3 and 4 Teachers

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.