Saturday 2 December 2017

Term 4: Week 8 Learning

Week 8 and only 2 weeks until the School Summer Holidays. The time has finally come for the Christmas Show and all the children are really excited. We hope to see you there. On Monday we will be having our dress rehearsal, then Christmas show on
Tuesday 5th December at 9:30 am 
and
Wednesday 6th December at 2 pm 
The show will only be about 30min long
(There are no tickets for this show, just a gold coin donation at the door if you would like to)

This week for Reading the children will be bringing home a poem each day. This is due to all the reading books needing to be back in. If you have any more at home, please sent them back to class. When reading the poems with your child focus on rhyming words, initial sounds, isolation sight words, grammar, punctuation and the titles.  All poems will be around Christmas.

For writing, we will be finishing off our letters to Santa. To follow on from this, Nicola and Baylee have organised a Video call to Santa next week. We will be working on constructing some questions we might want to ask Santa when we talk to him. We are super excited about this. 
With all this going on, we will also find some time to make a few Christmas Crafts.

Reminders: 
  • All Readers and Library Books need to come back to school
  • Christmas in the park at school on Monday from 6 to 7:30 pm. There will be music, our school band and a sausage sizzle

Christmas Song to the VLC

Sunday 26 November 2017

Term 4: Learning Week 7

This week we are really busy. We will be meeting each day this week with the year 1's to practice our Christmas Show, so we are all ready for you to come and watch up next week. Please remember to bring in your clothes if you have not by Wednesday. The shows will only be running on
Tuesday 5th December at 9:30 am
and 
Wednesday 6th December at 2 pm 
(There are no tickets for this show, just a gold coin donation at the door if you would like to)
Please practice the songs at home. 

Along with this, we are learning this song for our Poem this week. We will be performing this to our VLC on Friday, with B4. In this Poem, we will be talking about the rhyming words, the beet and relating it to our own wish list to Santa.

In Writing this week, we are going to be writing our letters to Santa. We are going to use the Poem/Song as a model for our Letters to Santa. As a class, we will unpack the way we need to lay out a letter and what we need to include in it.

This will be our last week of Keeping ourselves safe. We will be covering dealing with unwanted behaviour and touches, and what words we should say, secrets and tricks and what we should do, adults who can help and safety rules. Please get in touch if you have any questions about this or would like further information. 

Please remember on Monday 4th December (Next Week) is our Whangaparaoaoa Primary School Community Christmas Picnic from 6 to 7:30 pm (at school). 

Reminders:

  • All Library Books need to come back this week
  • Assembly on Friday from 2:20 pm 

Week 6 Year 0, 1 and 2's Athletics








Week 6: Keeping Ourselves Safe

We have been talking about different touches and have made a poster of, Nice Touches, Hurt Touches, and Confusing Touches. 

Sunday 19 November 2017

Term 4: Week 6 Learning

Wow, we are into week 6 and what a busy week we have. On Tuesday we have the years 0, 1 and 2 Athletics Day. So please come down and watch and support us. It will be running from 9 am to 12:30 pm. The Year 1's start off with the track events (Running Races) and follow-on to the field events. The children have all been practicing there running, jumping and throwing skills, so this is a good chance for them to show you what they have learned. Also, the children can wear mufti clothes (Shorts and T-Shirt) See you all on Tuesday.
Along with this B3 and B4 will be starting our first week of 2 weeks of Keeping Ourselves Safe. This week we will be covering the importance of knowing our Full Name, Address and Phone Number, why we should know them and, who we should tell. Along with this, we will be talking about different touches (Nice Touch, Bad Touch, and Confusing Touch) which will follow us into labeling different parts of the body. Please keep an eye out, in your child's book bag as there may be a few task and follow-ups for you to complete at home with them.
Here is one of the clips that we will be sharing in class this week. 

For Writing this week, we are making cards to thank all the wonderful people who have helped B3 this year. We have had so many helpers this year from, helping in the class, class trips, supporting the class with resources and much more. Without all these wonderful people in our class community, we wouldn't have been able to complete and do the things we have this year. We want to THANK YOU for everything you have done.
Reading this week we are focusing on retelling the story, making sure we are pointing out the main details and retelling the story in order. Along with this, we will be revising the different strategies of decoding unknown words. Remember this is in our communication books.

Christmas Show
Please if you haven't sent your child's clothes in for the Christmas Show to bring them in by the end of the week. Also please remember the Christmas Show is on
Tuesday 5th December 9:30 am 
and
Wednesday 6th December 2 pm 
There is No tickets for this, just a gold coin donation at the door.


Reminders

  • Monday: Library
  • Tuesday: Athletics from 9-12:30
  • Friday: Whole School Assembly from 2:20

Monday 13 November 2017

Trip: Kaipara Plant Centre and Sculpture Trail

A wonderful day.

Thank you so much for all our parent helpers and our guides from Kaipara Plant Centre.

We covered many aspects of sustainability - growing your own vegetables, reusing all things even as art, caring for our bush and birds through regeneration and elimination of pests.

We broke into three groups and went on three different adventures

  • a conservation trail where we learned about bush walk etiquette and safety; elimination of pests and why; the history of the bush we were in.
  • a sculpture trail where we saw a beautiful vegetable garden and tried some edible flowers (Day Lilies) and chewed on some sugar cane. We also saw fascinating sculptures made from all sorts of recycled materials!!
  • seed collecting and potting where we learned how to gather seeds from several native plants and we potted them up to bring home. Hopefully, we will have some new plants to plant in our gardens!

Our children represented us well and I didn't hear one complaint about the walking - 2.5km in total, I believe. There was so much to see and learn about the whole time there, was no time for feeling tired!

Everyone who was there wants to return again soon.

Sunday 12 November 2017

Term 4: Week 5 Learning

TRIP ON TUESDAY 14th NOVEMBER
On Tuesday, we head off on our trip to Kaipara Coast Plant Centre. The children will need to be at school on time with a packed morning tea, lunch and drink bottle. There is some walking through the bush, which is not in any way arduous, however appropriate footwear is a must (Gumboots is a good idea). Make sure we have our school hat and we will carry the school sunscreen. If your child is unduly affected by insect bites please send them with insect spray. Please also include a raincoat and jumper in case it's cold or there is a shower. Leave book bags at home.

We are continuing with our persuasive writing this week and will start on a bit of a Christmas/Santa theme as we build to the end of the year. We will write to Santa persuading him if we should be on the nice or naughty list. Along with this, we will be saying how we have reflected our ORCA values this year.
In Maths this week we will be revisiting Fractions and will match the symbols and the fractions together. We will also be ordering fractions from biggest to smallest.  Along with this we will be working out addition and subtraction problems using the best strategies to solve the problem. Ask me to share with you how I work out different addition and subtraction problems.
Athletics
We have been busy over the last few weeks practicing our field and track events for Athletics. The Year 1s and 2s Athletics day will take place on 21st November from 9 am to 12:30 pm. 

Year 1 Christmas Show
Please see the dates below as we have had to change the days and times of the shows as there was a clash with other commitments 

New dates are:
December 5th Tuesday - 9.30am performance
and
December 6th Wednesday - 2 pm performance
Reminders: 
  • Monday: Library 
  • Tuesday: Trip

Wednesday 8 November 2017

Christmas Show


Sorry there has been a change of date and time to the Christmas Show 

New dates are:
December 5th Tuesday - 9.30am performance
and
December 6th Wednesday - 2pm performance

Sunday 5 November 2017

Term 4: Week 4 Learning

This week we will continue working on our inquiry Sustainability.  So far, we have been working on understanding what Sustainability is. We have also been talking about recycling and making sure we are recycling and using the compost bin where we can. The children have really got on board with this and they remind each other when an item is in the wrong place. So far in the class, we have a paper bin, compost bin, soft plastic and rubbish bin. Along with this, we have also made a list of different things we could do to help maintain and support the world we live in. From this list, we will be picking two of these, that the class will carry out. 
We thought we would share a clip that we really enjoy about 'Looking after our Planet'.

In Writing this week, we have planned to write a Persuasive piece of writing about 'The best thing to do at the Park is......' We came to writing on this topic as last week on Thursday we had a vote on what they would like, to persuade me about and this was the winner. The children have really been enjoying trying to persuade me with there opinions and have been doing some amazing writing. We will be reinforcing that the children are using different sentence starters from our Persuasive Anchor Chart and using a wider vocabulary in there writing, than just the words they can spell. 

In Maths this week we will be working on playing a game with a buddy, which involves the children collecting data in a tally chart and graphing in a simple chart after. From this, we will come back and talk about our findings and why ours are all different. Along with this we will work on equal sharing in our ability groups and be using our knowledge of sharing by 1, skip counting and doubles.

The Big Book we will be looking at this week is 'Little Dan'. With this book, we will be focusing on processing the information we have read, relating to a personal experience and changing the ending for the story. Along with this, while we are reading the book we will be working on finding interesting words, capital letters, punctuation and word families in the book.

The Poem for this week is 'Fun in a Box'. The poem we will be focusing on rhyming words, repeating sentence starters, relating to a personal experience and words and sounds of the week.

Reminders: 

  • Library on Monday 
  • Whole School Assembly Friday at 2:20 pm

Sunday 29 October 2017

Term 4: Week 3 Learning

Week 3 and only 2 weeks before we head out on our class trip with B4 to visit Kaipara Coast Plant Center and Sculpture walk on Tuesday 14th November. Thank you for all the parents who have said they are able to help. It's wonderful to know you are all so keen to help support our class. Regarding payments for this, if you haven't already paid for our trip, the cost for the trip is $18.50 per pupil. This covers the buses, Kaipara Coast Plant Center and Sculpture Walk entry and an education session. This cost will come out of the activity fee paid at the start of the year, however, if you have chosen to 'pay as you go' you will need to pay $18.50 to the office. If you paid upfront for the activity fees, you will need to pay a top-up of $9.50 PLEASE.  THANKS

This week for Writing the children will be writing a persuasive piece, where they will be trying to persuade me 'why it's not a good idea to have a dinosaur as a pet'.  We will be working on a layout where the children will need to write an introduction, give 3 reasons and a conclusion. Our main focus is that the children are using different sentence starters from our Persuasive Anchor Chart and using keywords in their writing to hook the audience in. 

The Big Book we will be looking at this week is 'Baboon's Nest'. This book fits into what we are learning, with the range of vocabulary and onomatopoeias in the story. Along with this, while we are reading the book we will be working on identifying the beginning, middle and end, retelling the story, reading with fluency and expression, identifying the repeating sentences and the words and sounds of the week.

Our Poem for this week is 'The Funny Lady'. This poem we will be focusing on rhyming words, decoding the poem by using the pictures on the page and looking into word families. 


In Maths we will be working on our basic facts problems. Each morning we will play the game around the world to see how quick we can get with them. Along with this, we will be working on collecting data in a tally chart and talking about what we have found. In their ability groups, we will continue looking into addition and subtraction and working on equal sharing. 

This week we will be getting outside with the year 1's to continue practicing the field events and working on the skills we need to learn for the different activities. Also, we will be going outside on Thursday to practice our running and starting for the track. 

Last week we had our first rotations of our VLC activities for Passion Friday. All the children got to pick 1 of the activities that our VLC had to offer to attend a for the next 5 Weeks. All the children came back buzzing from this and it was great to see them working with all the ages. This Friday will be our second rotation out of five.

You might have been hearing us practicing singing the 3 songs we are learning for the year 1's Christmas Show. All the children are really excited about getting up on stage and performing to all of our parents. We will be practicing the songs and dance throughout the weeks to come.  

Save the Date: There will be two performances 6th Dec at 9:30 am and 7th Dec at 2 pm. We hope you can make one of the shows. Our theme is Christmas around the World.  B3 is partnering with M1 to bring you a taste of a Hawaiian Christmas- ALOHA!
Where possible we will try to provide costume items, but request that parents of boys dancers and ukelele players try to find a Hawaiian style shirt and combine it with a pair of summer shorts. Start asking friends or family now if you don't have one in your child's wardrobe.
Girls, please wear a plain bright coloured singlet top (no words on the front if possible) and dark shorts/short for under their grass skirts. We will provide skirts and leis, but if you have a grass skirt or lei at home please send it/them in before we buy more to top up our collection).
A small number of children have asked to be palm trees- if that is your child they need brown/black pants and a long sleeve plain brown top (no writing if possible). At school, we will add leaves to the top with safety pins- similar to the picture below. I will be in touch if your child's costume differs from the above-listed items. If you know you will be absent for these dates, please let me know so we do not purchase items for your child. 


Singers: Ivy, Charlie, Xeila
Ukulele: Artemus, Jaxon, Kaiden, Caleb, Jacob
Dancers: Jasmine, Mia, Zoe, Leila, Caitlyn, Evan, Aston, Liam, Cooper, Max, Matthew
Trees: Lucas, Wirimus


Just a quick reminder that all children need to remember their hat each day or they will need to hang out under the shade. Also, I will place the sunblock back up by the door where the children's lunch-boxes are, for you all to use.  Another thing, there will be a mufti day just for fun on Tuesday 31st October. There is no obligation to come in costume and there is no donation required.  

Reminders: 

  • Library Mondays
  • Whole Assembly on Friday at 2:20 pm 
  • Please pay for the Trip