Term Two is now underway with lots of exciting and interesting learning occurring in all four classrooms. Doesn’t the Year 3-4 garden look great? Many children helped keep this watered over the Easter holiday so we have many healthy looking veges growing strong at the moment!
Term Two is a very busy time. Student portfolios will come home on at the end of term, and will be discussed at Parent-Teacher interviews. The children put a lot of time and effort making each ‘artefact of learning’ that make up each portfolio, to provide a snapshot of what they have been learning so far this year. We hope that you will take advantage of the opportunity to meet with us and discuss your child’s progress and celebrate their achievements.
Reminders:
• Slippers: Term Two and Three are indoor terms. 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 fine days we are going out for cross country training. Students who are late miss out on this, so it is important that children are at school by 8.40am.
• ‘Hooked on Books’ and ‘Hooked on Basic Facts’ begins in Week 2. Thank-you if you have volunteered you time to work with children on their reading or basic facts here at school.
The major focus for the term, after the ANZAC DAY study concludes, is “Permanent and Temporary Changes”. This is a major science focus for Term 2. Students will experiment with a wide range of familiar and unfamiliar materials and observe the changes that occur when such things as heat, cold and chemical energy are applied to them. It should be a very exciting and stimulating investigation! The key skills we aim to develop with the children are: principles of fair testing, prediction, observation and questioning skills.
In Literacy, news-telling is the focus for oral language development. The children will be learning how to ask open and closed questions, and know the different purpose of each. In Writing, the focus is on children understanding of, and their increasingly independent use of, the language features of Narrative writing. As always, the children also work hard at learning how to improve their writing by editing and revision. Your child’s teacher will provide your child with honest feedback on what they are doing well, and what skills they need to develop next. In Reading, the key skills of self-monitoring, questioning and summarising are a focus this term. These skills are taught within the context of Reciprocal Reading, a reading strategy that encourages and scaffolds deeper reading of text.
In Mathematics, from weeks 1-6, we are teaching using a cross-grouping structure on Monday to Wednesday, with ‘home room maths’ on Thursdays. For the first 6 weeks the major focus is on developing knowledge and strategy in Addition and Subtraction. Later in the term the focus will turn to Fractions and Geometry.
In Art, the main focus is Painting, with an emphasis on experimenting with colour mixing, using different brush strokes. Each class is teaching a music programme called ‘Music Room’, which teaches key musical concepts, such as beat, pitch, tempo and dynamics.
Our PE focus this term is firstly preparing for the school cross country, followed by ball skills. Training for the cross country has already started, leading to our school cross country competition in Week 5 (Tuesday May 18th).
Around the middle of term two, the second major round of data collection occurs in Reading, Writing, Maths and other key areas. This information will be used by teachers to give you accurate and up-to-date information on your child’s progress in the end of term report, and the mid-year interview.
As always, feel free to pop in and see your child’s teacher if you wish to discuss any aspect of your child's progress at school. Email is a very handy way of communicating if you are unable to get to school- each teachers email address is surname@muritai.school.nz. Over the last few years, classroom blogs have become an important way that teachers can communicate with parents about what is happening in their classroom. Please visit your child’s classroom blog to see what has been happening, and leave a comment. To get regular email alerts when a classroom blog is updated, become a ‘follower’ of the blog by simply clicking the 'become a follower of this blog' link on the right hand side toolbar.
As you can see, we are planning to have a very busy term with a very solid academic focus. Thank-you for your support so far this year, especially is you have volunteered your time to help in different ways. We really appreciate this!
Kind regards,
Richard Dobson, R7 (Team Leader Y3-4)
Vita Collier, R8.
Sarah Drinkwater, R9.
Hayden Ray, R10.
Karen Chao, R11.
