Dear Parents and Caregivers,
Welcome to 2015! A warm welcome is extended to you and your family and a special welcome to those families who are new to our Junior School. I do hope everyone managed to have a lovely time with their families over the holiday break and also to enjoy the glorious weather. The children certainly looked refreshed and ready to return for another year of learning. They settled quickly into their new classrooms despite initial nervousness of some and enjoyed catching up with both their old and new friends.
Thank you so much to the parents who have supported their child already this week to having a great start this year by ensuring that they are well rested ready to learn and have been provided with all the necessary items i.e. lunch, morning tea, drink bottle of water, named wide brimmed sunhat, sunblock, named swimming gear, named sweatshirt, bookbag and correct stationery which means they feel confident and prepared. It is also very helpful if your child is in their classroom at 8.40 a.m. at the latest ready to start their day. This gives them the opportunity to catch up with their friends and complete their morning routines before beginning their programme at 8.40 a.m. If they are late to school, they can be embarrassed and take longer to settle, which disrupts both their learning and that of others.
Thank you also to the parents who attended the 'Meet the teacher' conferences on Wednesday to share your thoughts about your child with their new teacher. We find these meetings invaluable as they are great way to establish the home and school partnership and to build stronger teacher and child relationships.
INTRODUCING THE 2015 JUNIOR TEAM
Room 1 - Mrs Barbara Ryan ryan@muritai.school.nz
Room 3 - Mrs Maureen Buckley buckley@muritai.school.nz and
Mrs Liz Sullivan sullivan@muritai.school.nz
Room 4 - Mrs Margs Mills mills@muritai.school.nz
Room 5 - Mrs Janelle McKay jmckay@muritai.school.nz and
Mrs Sue Steele jamie.steele@gmail.com
Room 6 - Ms Morag Roberts roberts@muritai.school.nz and
Mrs Jo Salisbury salisburyjo@gmail.com
We are also very lucky to have Mrs Carolyn Murphy, Mrs Carolyn Littlefair, Mrs Hilary Beadle, Ms Imogen Wallace, Mrs Narelle Ferrier, and Mrs Hannah Watkins, who are our teacher aides, supporting the learning and working alongside the teaching staff in our Junior school.
We have planned many different and motivating learning experiences in different curriculum areas for your child this term and our current focus is to create a supportive and safe learning environment for everyone. We have begun to create our class treaties and are working on two of our values - kindness and respect.
OUR PROGRAMME
FITNESS
Each day we begin with our fitness programme starting at 8.40 a.m. On Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays we have Jumpjam in the hall. This is an exercise programme to music and we encourage all children to do the three songs each day so that their bodies warm up ready for their day's learning. The routines are designed to increase the child's focus, fitness levels, concentration, following of instructions and develop their thinking and crossing the mid line. Parents and caregivers are very welcome to join in with their child but if you are watching please refrain from having private conversations. The children need to be able to fully concentrate and follow the movements correctly and in time and not be distracted. Some younger children may find Jumpjam hard at first but it is important that they persevere so please encourage them with this. On Thursdays and Fridays we use the courts outside for a range of fitness activities including team games, relays to using equipment in different ways. This term our focus will be getting to know each other, working together and improving large, motor skill development.
LITERACY
The key to all learning is oral language and developing this is a focus for each child. It is really important that they know how to speak clearly, how to question and how to listen to others. There are lots of opportunities throughout the school day where oral language is enhanced and practiced. Children will be taking part in discussions like news, current events, values, inquiry, books and in all curriculum areas for instance.
Each day your child learns to read and is exposed to reading in many different ways. They read independently where they practice and increase their reading mileage, read with a group where they have teacher support with the strategies that they are learning and shared reading where the whole class enjoy enlarged texts and poems. Teachers also read high quality books aloud to their classes. Children also take part in a rotation of literacy activities that are designed to cater for each child's learning style and enhance their literacy learning.
Letterland and Smartphonics programmes operate daily in each classroom as it is important children know all the sounds and their combinations and use them in their reading, writing and spelling. Most of our children are very good at decoding hard words but we concentrate on the child's understanding of what they read and how they can apply this knowledge to a range of situations. We want them to gain deeper comprehension before putting them on to higher levels. We also want them to read fluently and not sound out words letter by letter or learn words in isolation. Our Junior students learn to read at a high level and get a very good grounding in a range of strategies before they move further up the school where the focus in reading changes for them to read to learn and cope with more complex information.
Writing is a big focus as it is important that all children learn to form ideas and then write about them in greater depth. Learning to write is a hard skill and the child's development in writing needs to match their development level in reading. To write just one word requires your child to do twelve different things at the same time. During this term, the children will be focusing upon writing recounts and their personal experiences. They will be learning how to brainstorm and then write a well structured story to match.
Many children struggle with writing as it is their handwriting that is impeding them. We focus on the correct pencil grip in the first two years of schooling as if it is incorrect it cannot be undone when they are older. In handwriting, we encourage the children to form their letters accurately from the top down and to keep their letters to an even size and shape. This helps them to develop in speed and neatness. If you want a copy of the handwriting script that we use so that you can support your child at home please email me for one. Encouraging your child to do lots of different activities with their fingers and hands will help the development of their fine motor skills. For a list of activities on how to do this please also contact me.
All children will take part in a spelling programme in the classroom and Year 2 children will bring home a spelling rocket with spelling words that they need to practice as part of their homework. Sometimes children can spell words in their weekly testing but they do not automatically carrying this into their writing so parents may find at the beginning of the year that your child will be redoing some of the levels that they covered in the previous year as they have not as yet committed the words correctly to memory. Spelling is a written skill so it is important that your child writes down their spelling words so that they can see them visually and not just recall them orally.
NUMERACY
The majority of our Mathematics programme is spent on exploring number and numeral identification. All our children need a strong understanding of number and related strategies as this forms the basis for the other aspects of mathematics like time, measurement, geometry etc along with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. For the first five weeks classrooms will be focusing upon number knowledge and statistical investigations while for the last part of the term they will carry on with increasing both their number knowledge and doing a Geometry unit where they will be learning about two and three dimensional shapes. Each week there is also a focus on problem solving activities. Every child is signed up to Mathletics and has been given their username and password. Please go to www.mathletics.co.nz and choose some of the activities to practice as part of their homework. Teachers will assign particular areas shortly. The same activity can be repeated numerous times as the questions alter but the concept is the same. For our younger children it is advisable that an adult or older child reads the questions or interprets the instructions for the younger child and gives them support where necessary. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask your child's teacher.
INQUIRY
Throughout the term we do lots of inquiry based learning. This term the children will first be learning to work together as a team and then move onto having an understanding that people have roles and responsibilities as they grow and participate in different groups and that these roles change over time. They will also be learning about how the past is important to people and how every day items have altered.
Each of our Junior classrooms is responsible for the care of a garden as one of the activities that we do as part of being a Green/Gold Enviroschool. Our gardens around the Junior area are planted with particular plants that encourage the life cycle of the Monarch Butterfly and currently there are many caterpillars and chrysalis there so please stop and have a look.
ICT or INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY
Each of our Junior classrooms has access to Ipads throughout the school day, which are used to enhance learning in a range of curriculum areas. There are also Ipods in each classroom which the children are able to use.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
As already mentioned the children take part in fitness each day but alongside this they also learn and practice a range of physical skills during Physical Education lessons. For the first part of this term they are learning swimming skills in our Aquatics programme. On Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week and next there are qualified swimming instructors in the pool alongside each child as they build the children's confidence in, on and under water and can show them the correct placement of their bodies in water. The progress that the children have made already has been amazing and the instructors are extremely pleased with their efforts. As we live in a country surrounded by water it is imperative that every child knows how to keep themselves safe in and around water. Please support your child in their efforts in learning to swim.
We will be having our Junior School Swimming Festival in the Eastbourne Pool on Tuesday March 10th and hope many of you will be able to come along and see the progress that your child has made. Further details will come home at a later date.
When the pool closes in March the children will then be practicing their running in preparation for the annual Cross Country run on Tuesday March 31st. Details for this event will also be sent home later this term.
THE ARTS
This term the focus for Visual art is drawing and the children will be using a variety of media to create a range of art works. They will be doing a range of sketching and portraits and will be focussing upon drawing what they see not what they think they see. Our focus in music this term is singing.
TE REO
The children have already experienced a powhiri last week and have also been doing some learning about Waitangi Day. This term they will continue to learn and practice some te reo with a focus on greetings, farewells, feelings, colours and some numbers. They will also be learning some new waiata as well as singing our school song and the National Anthem.
HOMEWORK
Homework is designed to support your child's learning that is occurring at school. All children bring home a reading book to share with you from Monday to Thursday and a poem on Friday.
We know that the book is easy for your child as the book they bring home is designed to be at least one or two levels lower than what they can independently read. The focus for homework is on daily practice and enjoyment of books and to practice reading orally so that they are fluent and expressive and are not sounding out every word and losing meaning to what they are reading.
It is important that home reading is a positive experience for both you and your child so if you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask your child's teacher.
It is also very important that adults continue to read aloud to your child on a daily basis as well as this is where they hear and enjoy models of good reading. Children who are consistently read to and have questions asked about the story that has been read make faster progress in all literacy areas.
Year 2 have spelling rockets containing words that they need to practice and are tested upon weekly. Year 1 will have reading walls once they have attained a particular reading level. Each child also has Mathletics and five minutes of this daily would be beneficial. If you have any queries about homework please ask.
WHAT'S ON THIS TERM - SOME DATES FOR YOUR DIARIES
FEBRUARY
Swimming lessons started this week
Tomorrow is Bike to school day
MARCH
* A trip to Pataka Museum in Porirua has been planned as part of our inquiry. Year 1 (rooms 1 and 4) will be Monday March 9th and Year 2 (rooms 5 and 6) will be on Wednesday March 18th. These trips are for the entire school day. If you are interested in coming as adult help could you please email me as soon as possible as it will be allocated on a first in basis? Preschoolers are not permitted on the trips.
* Junior School Swimming Festival - Tuesday March 10th during the morning at Eastbourne Pool.
* Festival of the Arts - Wednesday March 11th - All children will be attending three shows during the day. The shows are 'Carnival of the Animals', 'Squaring the wheel' and 'Orchestra of Spheres.'
* "Starting school at five' information evening for parents of preschoolers who will start school this year will be on Wednesday March 18th at 7 p.m. at school.
* Parent and Teacher conferences will be on Monday March 23 and Tuesday March 24. School will close at the earlier time of 2 p.m. on these days.
* Cross Country is on Tuesday March 31st
APRIL
Grandparents and Grandfriends afternoon - This is on Wednesday April 1st. We would like to invite the grandparents of our children to school for the afternoon. If grandparents are unavailable could parents please arrange for another special person i.e. older aunt, neighbour, etc (not you the child's parents) who could come to school to be with your child? A letter will come home next week with details about this but in the meantime please contact someone for your child and save the date.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Allergies - Some of our children are severely allergic to nuts especially peanuts so we would ask that parents do not send along nuts or nutella or peanut butter sandwiches with your child for lunch.
Lunch eating - The children in Year 2 now sit with the students from year 3 to 6 to eat their lunch. They are supervised while eating but their lunchboxes are not checked to see what they have eaten or how much like they were in year 1. If you find your child is not eating enough of their lunch, please contact their teacher.
Year 1 children sit under the sunshade outside the Junior rooms to eat their lunch. They are supervised while eating and their lunch box is checked to ensure that they have eaten sufficient food (especially sandwiches or yoghurt first) to provide them with the necessary energy for their afternoon learning.
It is very hard to gauge whether the parent expects their child to eat everything in their lunchbox or just some items. Some children have too many items to eat in their lunchbox as parents want to provide them with choices about what they would like to eat but some children confronted with this don't know what to choose. They would not get any play if they ate it all while other children take so long to eat a couple of items that they too would miss out on playing. Other children want to rush off to play as soon as the bell has rung and don't eat much at all so if you are concerned about your child not eating enough please also talk to your child's teacher.
Communication between home and school - If you have any queries about your child's learning or school please do not hesitate to email either your child's classroom teacher or myself. If you wish to make an appointment to see your child's teacher either email them or phone the school office on 562 8409 and the teacher will return your call.
The whole school newsletter - 'The Bird's Eye View' is published once every two weeks and is an overview of what is happening around the school as a whole. The 'Junior Jottings' is a newsletter I write during the term to keep you in touch with what is happening in the Junior School.
Classroom teachers place items onto their classroom blogs usually every week to provide you with a snapshot of some of the learning that your child is involved in. Blogs for rooms 1 and 6 are live but rooms 4 and 5 are currently waiting to be linked onto the school website - our apologies for this. Please feel free to leave a comment on the blogs. The children love to read what is written about their work.
Preschool visits -These continue to be held on Thursday mornings from 8.40 to 11 a.m. in room 1 for children who are about to turn five. We also will be having groups of children from East Harbour Kindergarten and Barnados join us for extra visits this term.
Reading Eggs - Current subscriptions to Reading eggs are about to finish. If you would like to continue or start a subscription to this please send along $22 to the school office by February 26th at the latest so that I can activate your membership. Reading eggs is an online programme that supports children from as young as three through to thirteen with reading and spelling skills. Subscriptions from home are over $80 but they are providing us with a school price for the same thing. If you want to find out more please ask me or visit www.readingeggs.co.nz
Absences - If your child is going to be away from school could you please email us to let us know or leave a message on our school answer phone (04 562 8409) as we have to account for the whereabouts of every child. Please leave your child's name, room number, your name and the reason for your child's absence. This would be much appreciated as it would save Jo and Carole a lot of time from being wasted trying to track down children.
Yours in partnership on behalf of the Junior Team
Kind regards
Maureen Buckley
Deputy Principal
No comments:
Post a Comment