Welcome to Term 4! It is great to be back at school again with the final term of the year ahead of us! The children have had a lovely holiday and have been very excited to share their holiday experiences with us. It's hard to believe that one week has already flown by and that in no time it will be Christmas. The Junior team have planned some really exciting learning experiences for the students to take part in over the coming weeks.
This week we have welcomed new staff and students and their families to our Junior School family. We have Mrs Karen Houghton teaching the Year 2 students in room 4 and Mr Hayden Ray teaching the Year 1 and 2 students in room 4. Mrs Annabel Smith is teaching in room 3 on Thursdays and Fridays for the rest of the term. Mrs Fiona Lamb has joined our teacher aides and new five year old children have joined Mrs Sullivan in Room 16 and we also have new children who have joined rooms 3, 4 and 5. Mrs Cody had a baby girl named Zara and we are still waiting on news from Mrs Saker. Thank you to those families who sent along money and gifts for them. They were both overwhelmed with your generosity and kindness.
Thank you to Mrs Barbara Ryan who successfully ran our Junior School Science Club over the past three terms. This commitment enabled sixty children to take part. She will repeat the club again next year.
A huge thank you to all those adults who gave up their time week after week for the past two terms to listen to children read on the 'Hooked on Books' programme. You have certainly made a difference and our children have really enjoyed working with you and have made amazing progress in their reading. Your support in this was most appreciated and invaluable.
'Spellathon' and 'Jump Rope for Heart'
Thank you to everyone who supported the children in these two activities. The children made great progress in their spelling and really enjoyed it. We will be using some of the money raised from the Spellathon to purchase reading books for our Junior School. As each reading book that your child brings home, costs at least $10, we are very grateful that we can increase the books we have and in particular some more Non Fiction titles. The Heart Foundation were very pleased to receive $591.60c from our skipathon and will put this towards providing skipping ropes to other children around New Zealand and research.
Learning in Term 4
Our learning this term in Oral Language continues with children sharing their personal experiences along with them being involved in a range of activities which include discussions of current events, newspaper news, our inquiry topics, guided and shared reading of books and plays as well as activities involving de Bono's thinking hats. They are working on speaking clearly, looking at the speaker, using listening manners, being part of an audience, waiting for their turn and answering who, what, where, why, how, when and why questions in more depth.
In Te Reo, the students will be continuing to gain greater confidence in using Te Reo Maori in a range of contexts by speaking and responding to some sentence structures. Students will also be exploring aspects of the weather as well as enjoying some myths and legends and using both poi and te rakau. They will continue to learn some new waiata as well as sing the New Zealand National Anthem and our school song in Maori.
One focus across the term, in Writing will be writing poetry, which will involve the students in using both adjectives and verbs in their work to add interest. They will also be writing recounts of their personal experiences and be learning how to write a letter using the correct format.
The 'Letterland' and 'Smartphonics' programmes continue in each classroom as part of all daily programmes in Reading as well as their guided reading, shared reading and independent reading. Each child brings home a reading book every day from Monday to Thursday and on Fridays a poem to read and enjoy. They also can re-read the other poems in their poetry book for further practice over the weekend as well as listen to the stories that parents read to them.
In Handwriting there is a focus on holding the pencil correctly along with the accurate formation of all alphabet letters, both upper and lower case. Children need to master these during their first two years at school. They are also trying to write letters using the correct slope, size and spacing between each of the letters.
Throughout the term, the children will continue to develop their number knowledge and practice ways to strengthen their number strategies in Mathematics. The students are also working on weight, volume and capacity. Every child in our school is enrolled in Mathletics. They each have a login and a password and are encouraged to do at least one set of ten problems each week. They can repeat the same area again and again as the concept stays the same but the problems alter. If they score over 1000 points per week they earn a certificate. Some children have got Bronze and Silver awards this year so far but we do not have anyone achieve gold as yet. For more challenge they can try live mathletics where they compete with other children around the world. If you have any questions about Mathletics please do not hesitate to contact me.
Our major Inquiry topic is a Health and Physical Education unit entitled ' Safe in my world.' The students will identify and discuss hazards in their school and local environment and adop simple safety practices. These will include safe practices in our classroom, playground, on the road, in the sun and around dogs.
Our Physical Education programme will focus on athletics skills and aquatics. The students will learn about moving in different ways, challenging themselves, sharing space and equipment and reflecting on how they worked. Each Thursday afternoon, if fine, the students will be learning and practicing athletic skills and will take part in our Athletics event later on in the term. Jumpjam continues on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the hall from 8.40 a.m. as part of our fitness programme while on Thursday and Friday mornings they will be using a range of equipment to learn and practice skills needed for games and relays.
With over 150 children in our Junior school currently and increasing, we would appreciate it if parents, caregivers and preschool children could be very quiet during the Jumpjam sessions. The children in each class need to concentrate on the actions to improve their concentration and co-ordination and as the hall echoes, conversations adults are having are being overheard by the children. Please feel free to join in along with your child and do the routines.
Our Visual Art topic this term involves creating with clay. The children will be learning how to follow instructions and a process to make a 3D structure or item out of clay and to make comments about their own and others' art. They will also be learning to use their observational skills in a workshop about drawing later in the term.
Performing Arts sessions will be undertaken by rooms 1, 2 and 16 over this term with Mrs Hooke, our Performing Arts teacher. Well done to rooms 3, 4 and 5 who performed on stage at assembly on Friday. You have enjoyed your weekly sessions with Mrs Hooke last term and you all did very well in front of the whole school. Thank you to those parents and caregivers who joined us for this.
I.C.T. is an integral part of the daily classroom programme. We are very lucky to have benefitted from the purchase of more ipads last term. We will be using them extensively in each classroom in a variety of curriculum areas to reinforce the children's learning. We also have Ipods to use in the classrooms. Four staff from our Junior School attended the ULearn conference over the holidays and already the children have benefitted from this professional development. Each classroom has a blog. Please visit the blogs regularly to get a snapshot of the learning that is taking place. Feel free to make a comment about what you see as the children and teachers really enjoy reading them.
Homework
Your child has homework every day so please support them with this. Every child brings home a book to read on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with a poem to share on Friday. Some year 1 children will also have a Reading Rocket while all Year 1 and 2 will have a spelling rocket and basic facts maths carriage. Reading rockets are tested on a daily basis whereas Spelling rocket words and maths carriages although practiced daily are tested once per week.
Sunhats, Sunscreen and Sunglasses
We operate a 'no hat, no play' policy which means that your child needs to wear a named sunhat (not cap) while outside at school. If they do not have one then they will be staying under the sunshade area in the Junior School courtyard. It would be a good idea if your child had two sunhats - one to stay at school and one for home use. Please put sunblock on your child before they come to school. Your child can bring along sunblock (named) in their bags and we will get them to re-apply it during the school day. It is not to be shared with other children. They can also wear sunglasses when outside. As part of their inquiry, the children will also be learning about keeping safe in the sun and we will be encouraging them to slip, slap, slop and wrap.
Swimming
The Eastbourne Pool will be opening later this term and we have been given some times and days to use in late November. We will let parents and caregivers know at a later date when it is our turn.
Reports and Conferences
All parents and caregivers will be having conferences with their child's teacher this term. All children in rooms 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 will also be having a written report. Some of the older children in room 1 will have a written report but the younger children in rooms 1 and 16 will just have conferences this term.
Full School Assembly
There will be assemblies on November 1st, 15th and 29th this term. Parents and caregivers are very welcome to come along and join us from 1.30 p.m. in the hall. The seating along the back in front of the hall kitchen is allocated to parents and other family members, whereas teachers sit along the sides of the hall to supervise their classes.
Scholastic Books
If you would like to order any books from the Scholastic Books ABC, Arrow, or Lucky Book catalogues, please send along your order form and payment to the school office. Cash is not accepted so please either write a cheque to 'Scholastic Books New Zealand' or provide your credit card details. With Christmas coming up there may be items that you would like to purchase without your child's knowledge so please let us know so that we can put them aside for you when they arrive.
Calendars, Cards and Diaries
If you would like to order these using your child's artwork please do so as soon as possible at the school office so that orders can be returned to school before Christmas. Your child's art work for these is on display in classrooms.
Reading Eggs
This online computer programme is very good at supporting your child with their reading and spelling. It operates for children from ages three to thirteen and we have noticed huge improvements in those children who have been doing the programme. It usually costs parents $80 per year but I can get it for $20 per year and now that we have only four months to go till February I can get it for the reduced rate of $5. If you would like to have a subscription for your child that runs through to the end of February next year can you please send along $5 to the school office and I will sort out the subscription for you?
Toys
Some children have been bringing many toys to school. We have reiterated to them that it is the child's responsibility if the toy(s) gets lost, damaged, broken etc Please encourage your child to leave their toys at home and ask then to invite someone over for a play date instead.
Looking towards 2014
I am about to begin the process of sorting out staffing and classes for next year. If your child has a birthday in April and you are considering keeping them longer in the Junior School either in year 1 or year 2 or have any questions about next year can you please email me so that I can set up an appointment with you over the next few weeks?
This week
Coming up this week we have organised a visit from Jane, on Wednesday, as part of our inquiry topic. She is an education officer from the Hutt City Council and will be bringing her dog Amber to school with her. The children will be learning ways that they can keep themselves safe around dogs. Staff will be involved in professional development by attending a workshop on Monday about painting, a workshop on Tuesday on Mathletics and the Teacher Only day on Friday will see them spending the day working on the Inquiry process.
Term 4 Junior School Diary dates
October 22nd - Vision and Hearing retesting of some New Entrants (your child will bring home a note on this day if they were involved)
November 1st - Full School Assembly
November 6th - Photographer is here to take photos of children in rooms 1, 3 and 16 as they had not started school when she was here last. You will get a notice about this shortly.
November 15th - Full School Assembly
November 25th - Visiting artist for Junior School
November 27th - 'Starting School at Five' evening for parents of preschool children 7 p.m.
November 29th - Full School Assembly
December 2 to 6th - Junior School 'Education outside the Classroom' week.
December 3rd - 'Celebration of Learning' after school.
December 4th and 5th - Parent and teacher conferences
December 9th - Junior School Athletics Sports
December 11th - Junior School Christmas concert and party
December 16th - Meet the teacher for 2014
December 17th - Junior School Athletics postponement date
December 20th - Last day of term 4
Communication
If you need to contact your child's teacher through email you use their surname and then Muritai School.
Yours in partnership,
Maureen Buckley
Deputy Principal
buckley@muritai.school.nz
phone 04 562 8409, fax 04 562 7704
on behalf of the Junior School Staff -
Room 1 Year 0 and 1 - Mrs Barbara Ryan ryan@muritai.school.nz
Mrs Liz Alderson - Teacher aide
Room 2 Year 1 - Mrs Margs Mills mills@muritai.school.nz
Mrs Lorna Lane - Teacher aide
Room 3 Year 1 - Mrs Maureen Buckley and
Mrs Annabel Smith - smith@muritai.school.nz
Mrs Sandra Blair and Mrs Romy Anderson - teacher aide
Room 4 Year 2 - Mrs Karen Houghton houghton@muritai.school.nz
Room 5 Year 1 and 2 - Mr Hayden Ray ray@muritai.school.nz
Mrs Fiona Lamb - teacher aide
Room 6 Year 2 - Ms Morag Roberts roberts@muritai.school.nz and
Mrs Jo Salisbury salisburyjo@gmail.com
Room 16 Year 0 - Mrs Liz Sullivan sullivan@muritai.school.nz
Mrs Ruth Holmes - extra teacher working with Year 2
Mrs Carolyn Murphy - teacher aide working with Year 1
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