Welcome to Term 3!

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Welcome to another busy term! It's hard to believe that we are already at the end of three weeks! The children are enjoying a wide range of exciting and varied learning experiences and have lots to look forward to in the coming weeks. 

This term, our major Inquiry topic is entitled 'Mighty Magnets' and has a technology focus. Our big idea for our topic is that we use magnets in everyday life so we are going to design, construct and evaluate a suitable magnet that will be strong enough to hold our spelling rockets and basic facts carriages homework on the fridge. We are currently investigating how magnets work, the jobs that they do and what they will and will not stick to. The children have been using magnetic sand, magnetix and also been playing fishing games.The Junior School Science club will continue each Wednesday at lunchtime.

We will also be working on the 'Keeping Ourselves Safe' programme as part of the Health Curriculum. In today's world, children have an increasing need to learn, develop and practice a variety of personal safety skills that will help them to keep themselves safe in a variety of situations. They need to learn to interact safely with other people and to have strategies to use should problems arise. 

Our focus for Writing throughout this term will include innovations of stories and poems as well as further work on recounts and argument writing. The children will be learning to increase the amount of writing that they do especially by sequencing their work into a beginning, middle and ending as well as trying to add interest for the reader by including adjectives, nouns and verbs. They will also be using different forms of punctuation and working on proofreading their work. 

In Reading, Letterland and Smartphonics programmes will continue with Year 1 focusing on blends and Year 2 focusing on phonemes. Year 0 children will be learning their alphabet sounds and how to transfer this knowledge to their reading and writing.  All the children will continue to bring home reading books each Monday to Thursday and a poem on Fridays to practice and develop their skills. They will also have Reading and Spelling Rockets as part of their homework in literacy.

The focus in Te Reo will be counting, months of the year and legends involving Maui, as well as building on previous knowledge of greetings and days of the week. 

In Mathematics, the children will be increasing their number knowledge with a focus on addition and subtraction in Year 1 along with multiplication and division in Year 2. Everyone will also be learning about money, which will involve the recognition of notes and coins and comparing their value. later in the term they will be learning about measurement and in particular ordering and comparing the length of different objects. 

Our Visual Art topic for this term involves collage and 3D construction. The children will be working with a range of media to create their art works. 

Some Junior Classes will have Performing Arts involving dance on a Thursday while everyone will be involved in a range of singing activities each week. 

Physical Education this term will focus on gymnastics, skipping skills and large ball activities. Jumpjam will continue on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays outside under the sunshade area from 8.40 a.m. 

ICT skills are being enhanced in every child with the addition of more Ipads. The children have extra opportunities to practice a range of skills including handwriting, spelling, mathematics, music and reading on the ipads. 

All classrooms have a blog. Please go to our school website and click on 'our learning.' Follow the drop down menu to classroom blogs and then click on the picture of the teacher that has been drawn by the children and this will enable you to get a snapshot of what happens in the classrooms. Feel free to add a comment.

Please contact your child's classroom teacher with any queries you may have.

Yours in partnership,
Maureen Buckley - Deputy Principal
buckley@muritai.school.nz