A warm welcome to 2011 is extended to you and your family. We hope you have all had an enjoyable holiday break. The children have made a great start to their learning and have quickly settled into their new classrooms. They are positive and excited and have been extremely eager to start their 2011 learning programmes. We know that it has been a long break away from the regular school routine for the children and that for a few it can take a couple of days for those initial nerves to disappear. Please support your child by ensuring that they are at school and in their classroom ready for their day’s learning before 8.40 a.m. Make sure that they have everything with them that they need i.e. book bag, correct stationery items, morning tea, lunch box, drink bottle, swimming gear and sunhat so that they feel prepared and confident. Encourage them to maintain their old friendships from last year and to create new ones by having regular play dates and at home time ask them what was the best thing that they did at school that day.
Introducing the Junior Team
Room 1 – Mrs Barbara Ryan – ryan@muritai.school.nz
Room 2 – Ms Sally Ingram – ingram@muritai.school.nz
Room 3 – Mrs Maureen Buckley – buckley@muritai.school.nz and
Mrs Gabrielle Heath – heath@muritai.school.nz
Room 4 – Miss Sheena Naik – naik@muritai.school.nz
Room 5 – Ms Annabel Capper – capper@muritai.school.nz
Room 6 – Miss Morag Roberts – roberts@muritai.school.nz and
Miss Karen Jones – kjones@muritai.school.nz
We are also very fortunate to have
Mrs Hayley Skilton – hskilton@muritai.school.nz
- our Junior School Specialist Teacher.
Mrs Carolyn Murphy - murphy@muritai.school.nz and
Ms Abby Wilton - wilton@muritai.school.nz
are giving teacher aide support in our Junior school classrooms.
Miss Jones is also our Reading Recovery teacher, who works with some of our children on an individual programme catering for their different needs in reading and writing.
Mrs Margs Mills-Smith will return later in the year to teach our next Year 1 class in room 16. Mrs Mikaela Cody, who is currently on parental leave is thoroughly enjoying being mum to Eva born in December last year.
This term each classroom will be focusing on creating a supportive and safe learning environment. The students will be exposed to many interesting and motivating learning experiences through the different curriculum areas. We will continue to use an inquiry approach where the children have the opportunity to explore through questioning and discovery and then reflect on what they have discovered.
Fitness
All classes in the Junior Team will continue to have daily Fitness from 8.40 a.m. which is when the first bell rings. Please ensure that your child is at school in time, each day ready to take part. On Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays the children will go into the hall where they will have Jump Jam – an exercise programme to music. On Wednesdays and Thursdays students will participate in whole class fitness with a focus this term on skills needed to play a range of games.
Mathematics
For the first part of the term, we will be focusing on number knowledge and statistical investigations. From week 6 we will teach Geometry where the children will be learning about different two and three dimension shapes. The students will be exploring number and numeral identification throughout the whole term.
Literacy
The students will be focusing upon their speaking, questioning and listening skills to improve their oral language. In written language they will be writing recounts of their personal experiences. They will be learning to structure their writing by using a brainstorm to sequence events chronologically. The children will also be learning to add interesting vocabulary to their work and to use full stops and capital letters correctly. All children have spelling programmes in their classrooms and as well as this the Year 2 children will be bringing home a spelling rocket. The words learnt in the classroom and on the rockets are ones that are essential for each child to spell automatically and transfer correctly in their writing. In handwriting the children will be focusing on using the correct pencil grip, forming letters accurately and keeping them a consistent size and shape. In reading, the children will be learning a range of strategies that will help them to work out unknown words independently. They will be building up their letter sound knowledge and using a range of skills to become confident readers. We will be using Letterland and Smartphonics to complement our literacy programmes.
Inquiry
Our inquiry this term is entitled Here’s our history. The big idea for this is that people have roles and responsibilities as they participate in different groups and these roles change over time. This will lead to identifying our roles and responsibilities at school in the classroom and playground, investigate special events in our family history and to also investigate changes that have occurred over time in our own and our grandparent’s lives over time.
Physical Education
The children will be learning new swimming skills during the first part of the term and this year we are very fortunate to have qualified swimming instructors do this with our children. The focus will be on gaining confidence in the water, floating and gliding as well as water safety. As New Zealand is an island nation it is imperative that everyone knows how to be safe in, on and around water. Please send along the correct swimming gear with your child for these important sessions. The timetable changes for each class throughout the term so please check notices in your child’s classroom about which days your child will be going to the pool. When our Aquatics education programme has been completed, the children will be involved in a range of games in which they will be learning how to be part of a team and to develop positive attitudes about physical activity.
The Arts
During this term the students will be exposed to a wide range of media to create visual art in their classrooms with a focus being on drawing. During this time they will be doing a range of sketching and portraits. Each classroom will be doing their own individual music, dance and drama programmes.
Te Reo
This term the students will be learning songs, greetings, feelings and commands in Te Reo Maori.
Information Communication Technology
I.C.T. will be integrated into the daily learning programme to further enrich your child’s learning. All classrooms have access to data projectors and the pod of laptops.
Homework
Homework is designed to support your child’s learning that is occurring in the classroom. All children will bring home a reading book to share with you on Mondays to Thursdays. On Fridays they will bring home a poem to enjoy. We want their home reading to be a positive experience for both your child and your family with it taking less than five minutes each day. It is important for adults to read aloud to your child daily as well. Year 2 will bring home a Spelling Rocket. These words are to be learnt at home throughout the week and then will be tested once a week at school. Some children will bring home a Reading Rocket, which will be tested on a daily basis. It is extremely important to support your child’s efforts in learning to read and spell. To move through the rockets the children need to be able to read the word instantly e.g. ‘got’ not by sounding out aloud g – o – t. Spelling is a written skill so your child needs to practise each word by writing it out and ensure that they can then independently reproduce it in their daily story writing in the classroom. All children are currently being retested on their reading, mathematics and spelling levels and due to no daily practice during the past two months may have forgotten some skills and will therefore be repeating some areas of their learning including rocket levels. Basic Facts carriages will not be part of homework in term 1.
General
We have already met most of you at the “Meet the Teacher’ evening, which is designed for you to meet your child’s new teacher and share information about your child.
We hope you found this valuable as it is important to build a strong home and school partnership. We also met some of you at the Back to School barbecue this week.
This term the children will be going to the Capital E National Arts Festival on Wednesday March 16th to see three shows – ‘Grimace’, ‘Passing Wind’ and ‘Boats.’ Later in the term we will also be visiting Pataka museum in Porirua and also be hosting a Grandparent day at school as part of our inquiry. Further details will come out shortly.
Quiet Zone – This year we have created a ‘Quiet Zone’ area for children to use during morning tea and lunchtime. The youngest children sit and eat their lunch together under the sunshade area and two year 8 children join them along with a teacher to check that they are eating the food in their lunchbox. This area is also for any child who wants to read or draw quietly during lunchtimes.
Junior Jottings is the Junior School newsletter and will be emailed to you each week on a Friday. This newsletter is to keep you informed of what is happening in our junior school in particular.
Classroom blogs are a good way for parents to get a glimpse of some of the learning your child is currently involved in. Please visit your child’s class blog often and leave a comment.
Pre school visits have started already and are once again on Thursdays this year. Visits are from 8.40 a.m. until 11 a.m. in room 3. The ‘Starting School at Five’ information evening will be on Wednesday March 16th at 7 p.m. in the school staffroom.
If you have any questions regarding your child or school could you please email your child’s teacher or myself.
Kind regards
Maureen Buckley
Deputy Principal
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