Term One, 2012

Hi Everyone!

With the start to the new school year well under-way, it was time to send out our first Y3-4 newsletter for the year. What a great start to the year each class has had, judging by the buzz in each classroom. "The Twits", "Charlottes Web" and 'Tornadoes in a bottle' all seem to be topics of conversation in each class!

You will have met your child's teacher at Parent Interviews already, but you may not know some of the other teachers in the Y3-4 Team...

Room 7: Richard Dobson/Ruth Holmes Y4
Room 8: Karen Chao, Y4
Room 9: Sheena Naik Y3
Room 15: Annabel Smith Y3

This year we are also very lucky to have Narelle Ferrier working in Year 3-4 as a teaching assistant, from 9.15-12.30 Monday-Thursday.

Sarah Richardson (Learning Support teacher) continues in 2012 to do amazing work with a number of our Y3-4 students each day.

Upcoming events later this term:

Friday 24th February is the date of our trip to Days Bay- 10.00-2.00pm. We require lots of parents for supervision (since we will be on the beach and near/in the water). We had a wonderful time last year and hope lightening strikes twice! If you would like to come along with us, please let your child’s teacher know via email.

Wednesday March 7th Year 3-4 Swimming Sports, 9.30-12.00 at Eastbourne Pool. We do require a number of parent helpers for the day. Please let your child’s teacher know via email if you can help.


Main theme for 2011

The school-wide main theme this year is "Make it happen". This theme will help us encourage our students to persevere in times of struggle, proud of their effort in times of achievement, and willing to put in the hard work to achieve. Teachers will take a little bit of time each week to visit this theme and encourage the children to make it happen’.

Curriculum:

Literacy
Our focus for writing this term is recounts. Children will be learning to structure their writing by sequencing events chronologically, linking ideas in a variety of ways and adding an introduction and conclusion. During this topic we will also be focussing on the writing process and encouraging children to plan their ideas in a variety of ways before writing. Children will be learning to edit their own work by proof reading to check for meaning and by using simple dictionaries to correct spelling.

Mathematics
The major part of the term will be spent on number knowledge and strategies, particularly Place Value. This will include a focus on problem solving and algebra. Cross-grouping of students during Math time will begin in Week 5 and continue for the rest of the term.

P.E.
Swimming is the main PE focus for the first 6 weeks, followed by large ball skills later in the term.We are lucky to have the skilled instructors of Swimming NZ taking each class for 8 lessons over 2 weeks. Their focus is on fundamental swimming skills. In addition, each Wednesday and Thursday afternoon this term, we are very lucky to have specialised football coaching from the New Zealand Football (NZF) - Football in Schools Programme coaches. Each class will get a weekly 45 minute football coaching session. With both swimming and football this term, the children will be very active!

Integrated Study:
“A Butterfly Garden” is the term long science and technology investigation for Term One. Students will be learning about the anatomy of a butterfly, the metamorphosis a caterpillar undergoes, and what butterflies need to survive. The Year 3-4 vege-garden will be converted into a ‘butterfly garden’, with the children choosing butterfly-friendly flowers to plant. This should be a fun investigation!

Homework:
During weeks 3 and 4 of Term One, your child will sit a range of tests in Reading, Writing, Maths and Spelling. Teachers use this test information to help plan a more individualized, needs based learning programme for your child. Teachers also use the spelling and maths results to help set suitable basic facts and spelling homework. Therefore, the ‘official’ homework programme of Reading, Spelling and Basic Facts will not begin until Week 5, once testing is complete.

Housekeeping:

Drink Bottles
Children may take a bottle of water into the classroom to drink from during class. Please help reinforce with your child that it is water, not fruit juice or other sugary drinks that can be drunk during class time.

Sunhats
As all children are required to wear sunhats during outdoor activities, please ensure that your child has a named sunhat that is to be kept at school.

Lost Property
This is kept under the stairs outside Room 7. At the end of 2011 there was estimated to be over $1000 worth of unclaimed lost property left after the last day of school. Please help clothing be re-united with owners by naming as much clothing as possible. Lost property will now be shown at assembly so please encourage your child to look out then for any lost belongings.

Keeping in contact
Have you visited your child's class blog lately? Teachers (and students) regularly update these, so they are a great way of keeping up to date with what is happening at school, and the teachers and children enjoy reading the comments visitors make.

As always, teachers can be contacted by our email address (surname@muritai.school.nz), or feel free to pop in before/after school for a quick chat. Thanks for your support so far this year, it has been a wonderful start to the school year.

Kind regards,

The Year 3-4 Teaching Team.

EOTC Week 2011

Please find below the timetable for next week's EOTC week.

We require parent help on Thursday, fishing off the Eastbourne wharf from 11.00am onwards. If you are able to assist, please let the class teacher know.

Please click on the timetable to enlarge

Athletics Day Timetable

Timetable for Tuesday 15th November 2011

Term 4 2011

Term 4 Newsletter for Year 3 and 4

The year has flown by so quickly! The Rugby World Cup excitement over the last couple of months is much missed as the moment, particularly by Mr Wyllie, but with Christmas just around the corner, there are at least other things to look forward to.

At school, we are looking forward to Athletics day, E.O.T.C week, the silent art auction, ‘Child Labour’ day and the end of year Christmas concert.

Dates for your Diary:

November 15th: Athletics Day
November 18th: Y3-4 "Child Labour" Day
November 28th: Swimming begins (depending on the weather, not all classes may start on this date)
December 2nd: Silent Art Auction, 7.00pm. Money raised goes to The Green Gecko Project.
December 5-9th: EOTC Week
December 15th: Year 3-6 Christmas Concert, 1.45pm
December 16th: Last day. School finishes at 1.00pm

Looking back over Terms 1,2 and 3, it has been such a busy year filled with so many amazing learning experiences. The teachers hope that you are able to visit your child’s class blog from time to time and see for yourself some of the wonderful learning opportunities that happen in their classroom. Rocket building and launching, Dinosaurs, the digestive system, all have been very popular learning topics this year.

Room 7 enjoying "The day it snowed at school"

The flowing is an outline of what will be happening this term. Later in the year, extra emails about E.O.T.C week and Athletics Day will be sent by class teachers, so look out for those.

“Working Hard”

Term 4 is traditionally the time of the year when we look at the wider world and think “how can we make a difference” in the lives of others less fortunate that ourselves.

This year we are taking a look at the issue of ‘child labour’ in other parts of the world, and how this prevents children from going to school and getting an education. After investigating why child labour is not desirable, the children will be given an opportunity ‘make a difference in the lives of others’ by engaging in ‘child labour’ of their own. Unlike the children they have been learning about, the labour involved will be making a piece of collaborative artwork with other children. The Enviro-school group, lead by Mr Ray and Miss Berry, are organising for later in the term a ‘Silent Art Auction’ where these pieces of artwork will be auctioned off with money raised going to benefit the Green Gecko Project. Green Gecko is an organisation in Cambodia which takes street kids engaging in child labour off the street and gives them housing, an education and a safe place to play and ‘be children’.

Room 8 celebrating New Zealand becoming Rugby world champions!

READING AND WRITING:

Our writing focus for this term is Argument Writing. There is also the ongoing focus on embedding effective editing and proofreading skills into every piece of writing the children do.

Oral language will focus on the oral presentation of poems and stories orally, with a focus on using vocal expression and confident body language. This will lead up to the Christmas concert, where each year group will be presenting a small poem or Christmas story, alongside the usual singing of carols.

Reading continues in all classes, with particular emphasis on reading for meaning and (out aloud) for expression.

Room 9's amazing tie-dye T-Shirts!

NUMERACY:

We start the term in cross-grouped classes, re-visiting the addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and fraction skills learned earlier in the year. Ongoing basic facts practice and learning how to problem solve will also feature.

PE:

Each Tuesday and Thursday mornings in the lead up to Athletics Day, the children will be taking part in Athletics practice. The school’s Athletics Day is Tuesday 15th November (Week 4) here at school and at Eastbourne Rec. The PE team, a little closer to the time, will send an email about this.

Swimming is scheduled to start in Week 6, however in reality this date is weather dependent and we will not begin swimming until the weather has warmed up a little.

Room 10 painting the set, ready for the Wearable Art show.

ART:

We will be teaching your child how to sew this term! Most classes have already started teaching children how to thread a needle, tie a knot and sew a simple stitch. As the term progresses, children will learn to cross-stitch and sew some simple patterns on material.

E.O.T.C. Week:

Planning for E.O.T.C. Week in Week 7 is underway, and we are planning a fun filled week of events close to home, with a ‘Beach Fort’ technology challenge, a ‘make a fishing rod and fishing off the wharf for a fish’ challenge, as well as an arts, craft and science morning, among other events. A schedule of events will be posted on this blog over the coming weeks. Most of the events this year won’t require additional parent helpers, but if this changes, we’ll let you know via email. However you are always more than welcome just to come down and join in if you like ☺

Room 11 dressed all in black for "Black-Out Day" in support of the mighty All Blacks!

As you can see, it is a very, very busy term. To contact us, the easiest way is to email us (teachers surname @muritai.school.nz), or just pop in.

Kind Regards,

The Year 3 and 4 Team.

Mckenzie singing

Mckenzie, who is in Year 4 this year, took part recently in the "Wellington's got talent' competition. She is a wonderful singer as I'm sure you will agree!