Welcome to Term 3!

Dear Parents and Caregivers, 

Welcome to Term 3 and a special warm welcome to the new children and their families who have joined us over the past term! We hope you have settled in well to the routines of Muritai school and are looking forward to the term ahead.  The Junior Teaching team have planned a wonderful variety of learning experiences for your child to take part in over the next ten weeks so we hope that they have all had a lovely, relaxing holiday and are refreshed ready for new learning. 

The 'Celebration of Learning' afternoon and evening was a great success and very much enjoyed by both the students and parents alike. It was pleasing to see the children explaining their learning steps to their parents and wider family members. The children were absolutely buzzing with excitement and did a fantastic job. Parents were amazed at the amount of work the children do and how much progress that they have made in only six months. Thank you all very much for coming along to support your child in their learning. If you have any questions about your child's learning please do not hesitate to contact your child's teacher. If your child took home their 'Collections' folder could they please return it to school as soon as possible? 

The 'Enrichment' programme was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone and it was great to see the students happily moving into different classrooms to work with different teachers each week. 

Thank you so much to those adults who attended the information evenings about reading, writing and mathematics. I hope you had your questions answered and that you now have a better understanding of where your child is at in their development and where they are headed, the terms that are used  e.g. WALT but more importantly how you can support their learning at home. If you could not come and would like the notes from the sessions please do not hesitate to email me and I will send them home with your child. 

The term ahead - 

Key Competencies - The key competencies underpin everything that we do in an effort to improve student achievement. The Key Competencies are Managing Self, Participating and Contributing, Relating to others, Thinking and Using language, symbols and texts. Our modern learning and teaching environments use the Key Competencies to encourage students to take charge of their learning. For further explanation, please ask your child's teacher or go to www.tki.org.nz 

Values - This term we will be working on self confidence and commitment as well as continuing the work done on respect, kindness, curiosity and excellence. 

Fitness

This term we will be continuing with Jumpjam for the first three days of the week and then classes will do skipping or ball skills outside, weather permitting, or music and movement inside their classrooms e.g. using bean bags, Happy sticks. Parents and caregivers are very welcome to take part in the three Jumpjam routines each morning but please do not talk during the sessions as the children need to concentrate on the movements. Fitness in the morning warms up their bodies and increases their ability to learn. 

Numeracy

Our focus in Number will be on multiplication and division along with building on addition and subtraction from last term. During the first half of the term, we will be focusing on money. The children will learn to recognise the New Zealand notes and coins and understand their values. In the second part of the term, they will be involved in measurement activities and will learn how to investigate the different lengths of objects. Fun Friday problem solving activities also occur throughout the term each week. 

The children will also be bringing home 'Basic Facts Carriages' as part of their weekly homework. The problems in the carriages follow the order of children's development in which basic facts occur. In the beginning your child may find e.g. adding zero very easy but we want every child to go through the process so that any gaps in knowledge can be filled. We also want each child to have success and be able to instantly recall all basic facts (to five then ten for Year 1) and (to twenty for Year 2). They will practice the carriage problems at home and be tested at school on Fridays. 

Literacy

Oral language is the key to learning and we place a firm emphasis on speaking clearly so that each child can communicate their ideas in sequence and that what they say is understood by other people. This involves a myriad of things from looking at the person who is speaking, waiting for your turn, being polite, using manners to using a correct volume for example. We also have a big focus on listening to others without interrupting other people e.g. when they are speaking, contributing ideas, reading out loud, presenting some work. 

Children partake in reading throughout the day whether it be from their Letterland or Smartphonic work, writing, activities during the literacy rotations, inquiry, or using Ipads. They bring home a book to practice reading to you on Mondays through to Thursdays and on Fridays have a poem to share that has focussed upon the letter sound/blend of the week. 

Your child also does lots of writing throughout the day. This term the writing genre we will focus on will be innovations and argument writing. The children will move through their individual learning steps whether they be an increase of their output, writing in a set structure, placing spaces between their words, editing or adding capital letters and fullstops to the correct places. 

Spelling is part of the usual classroom programme and children in Year 1 will be bringing home Spelling rockets this term. Over the first two years at school, your child needs to be able to correctly spell 290 words from the Essential Spelling lists. These are the words that are on the Spelling rockets. They will also, of course, know how to spell many other words not included in these lists. 

Handwriting is also a big focus as it is imperative that all the children can hold their pencil correctly and accurately form all upper and lower case letters and numerals. Please encourage your child to pinch their pencil between their thumb and first finger and to reinforce that all letters start from the top and go down when you write them. They also work on the correct letter size and line placement.

This week is Maori Language week and the children will be learning some new te reo. They will also be learning names of trees, streets and using the poi. They enjoyed the Matariki celebrations at the end of last term. They worked with Mr Chadwick and created feathers for a classroom cloak.

Inquiry

'Festivals' is the title of our big inquiry as part of Social Sciences this term. It is a Social Studies unit and will use the inquiry approach to develop children's understanding of how and why festivals are celebrated. At the start they will reflect on festivals and special occasions that they celebrate with their family and friends e.g. Christmas, birthdays, Matariki, first day of school. They will then research the Chinese dragon and other festivals by listening to stories and viewing images. They will use art, drama and dance to explore the customs and traditions behind some festivals and at the end of the unit, they will be encouraged to reflect on their new learning and share what they have found out with others.

Physical Education

The children will be involved in skipping and large ball activities over the term. They will be learning a range of skipping movements and will take part in the 'Skipping September' Jump Off. Last term they enjoyed sessions called 'Fun Ferns Netball' and will be building on these skills along with learning some new games involving large balls. 

The Arts

Performing arts lessons with our performing arts teacher will take place on Thursdays starting with rooms 4, 5 and 6. Each junior class will also be working on an item to be performed on stage later in the term as part of our full school Production. More details regarding this including costuming, times, dates of shows etc will follow shortly.

Mixed Media art is the focus for Visual arts and the children will be creating different artworks using a range of materials. The children will also be doing a piece of art for their calendars.

Other items

The "Hooked on Books' programme has been very successful and will continue for this coming term. We are so grateful to the parents and caregivers who have given up their time, each week so that some of our children get extra reading mileage. 

In term 2, Rooms 2 and 3 took part in the 'What's for Lunch' programme each week and this term, along with Room 1, will do a 'Sustainability' programme. 

All students around our school will be taking part in Star4Jam during early August. This will involve doing some Jumpjam, with more details to follow shortly.

The ' Skipping September Jump off' will take place at school on Wednesday September 24th. Further details to follow closer to the time. 

The 'Starting School at Five' Information evening for parents of preschool children about to start school will be held at 7 p.m. on Wednesday September 3rd in room 3. If you have or know of someone who has a preschooler who turns five this year or early next year and that they wish to come to Muritai school, could you please contact the school office to ensure that their name is on our list? 

Last term we had visits from East Harbour Kindergarten and children from room 1 also returned to Kindy for a visit. These visits will continue throughout this term along with visits to and from the Barnardos Early Learning Centre. Transition to school visits occur on Thursday mornings in room 1 from 8.40 a.m. to 11 a.m. for those children about to start school. 

School production is a wonderful event and takes place in term 3 every two years and involves every child in the school. Further details of this will be sent home shortly. 

Classroom blogs give you a snapshot of some of the learning that your child is involved in so please do not hesitate to have a quick look at them from time to time. Please also click the leave a comment box and add a brief sentence or two about the work that you see. The children love to read the comments that have been left. 

100 days at school this year is approaching fast. Some of the classes will be involved in a variety of ways to celebrate this milestone. Throughout the day, students will be taking part in lots of different activities that reinforce the number 100. Teachers will contact you if your child's class is involved in this. 

From time to time, people move house or get new phone numbers so please can you update your details with the school office if this involves you?

Looking forward to another great term.

Yours in partnership 

Maureen Buckley 

Deputy Principal