Term 2 Week 9: Learning

Wow, two more weeks until the school holiday start. Hope you are all looking forward to some well rested, and family time with the kids. This week we will be continuing with our VLC sports. Where we have each teacher taking a skill in a different sport and the children move around the different stations. The children have loved this and it has been a great chance for them to meet new students and work with children from different year levels.

For reading this week we are working on the different strategies for sounding out unknown words. We will be talking about, using the pictures for clues, reading on to help decode unknown words, and stretching it out and chunking the words. Remember the children have in their Communication Books this template, to help support you when working with the children at home on reading.

This week on Monday we will be heading out on the Bike Track to keep building the confidence of the children on them. We only have 3 students left in the class to learn to ride a 2 wheel bike, and our goal as a class is to teach them by the end of the Term. Also, we will be playing green light, red light, where the children will be practising starting and stopping.

In Writing, we are going to be working on making our own book. We will be focusing on sequencing our writing, understanding what it is to be an Author, and be creating a Title for our book. We will be illustrating our books. When reading to the children this week, unpack the book with your child, talk about the Title, Author, Illustrations and message behind the story. 

Reminder: 

Bikes on Monday (Bring your Bike if you want and make sure you have Shoes) 

Wednesday Library 

Week 8: Bike Track

Term 2: Week 8 Learning

Week 8 is going to be a fun week. For writing the children have really enjoyed writing about bubbles so we thought we would take it further and write an Acrostic Poem about Bubbles. We will give the students a word to start with each letter to help support them to write their poems. We will continue working on using those WOW words that we put together last week. Along with this, we will be focusing on, the children to go back and check their own writing by underlining words that they think looks wrong. 

In Maths as our warm up, we will be exploring equal sharing of objects. We will be working with word problems around this, and will be working in mixed ability groups. Along with this, we will be working on counting to 100 and knowing the numbers that come before and after. 

This term we have been working on Ball Skills. So far we have worked on kicking, dribbling, rolling and passing. Last week and this week we will be working on bouncing a basketball and continue working on passing. We will be talking about having our hands up for a target for our buddy to pass to, and what part of our hands we use when bouncing a ball. Take the opportunity of getting outside with your child to practice these skills. 

Reminder

Bikes Monday Afternoon

Library on Wednesday 

School Assembly on Friday at 2:20 pm

Week 7: VLC Sports

On Friday as a VLC Team, we got out to learn some different ball skills. All the children had a fabulous time and really enjoyed working with different children from different class and year groups. 

Week 7: Student Teacher

My name is Kendall Rouse and I was born in Auckland and have lived in Dairy Flat, just north of Auckland for all of my life. 

Living in this area led me to a passion for all animals after hand raising sheep and having many types of pets throughout my childhood. This passion eventually led me to horse-riding and therefore voluntary work and then a part-time job at Auckland Equestrian Centre. This time volunteering and working as a horse riding instructor allowed me to work with people of many different ages, ethnicities and abilities and grew my passion for sharing, learning and teaching. 

I also have a passion for family and spending time with those who positively support my choices. My close family have always supported me through life and this has inspired me to push myself for full success in academics and other areas I enjoy such as the performing arts. Performing arts is an area close to my heart and my joy for performing and seeing others performing is still very much a part of who I am, and I strive to include performing into my teaching someday to help students try and find joy from it the way I have.

Thanks Kendall 

Term 2: Week 7 Learning

This week we welcome a Student Teacher from AUT to our classroom for 2 Weeks. She will be working alongside me getting to know the learners and seeing what is involved with teaching. This is her first placement so we would love to make her feel welcomed.

Throughout the week we will be working on problem-solving. This may involve, working through a problem when playing a game with groups, to problem-solving in maths, to solving a problem in writing, when they come to an unknown word eg what do I do? Sound it out.  I have picked this to focus on throughout the week, as it is a good skill for the children to learn, and allows them the opportunity to explore. It's ok to make a mistake, think about it and try again.

On Friday we took the opportunity of the nice sunny weather and getting outside to explore bubbles. We will be using this for our writing. Allowing the learners' opportunities to explore something, before writing will help motivate them and widen their vocabulary they can use in their stories.  This week we will be working on the vocab that they use in their writing.

In Maths we are going to continue working on doubles and halves of numbers to 10 for our warm up. Along with this, we will be working on different problem-solving tasks that involve our knowledge of addition and subtraction.

For Reading, we are focusing on predicting, what might happen in the book, what will happen next, what could this book be about. Along with this, we are going to be looking at word endings, 'ed', 'ing', 's'. We will be working on these with our Big Book, Poem, and in our reading groups. Talk to your children about the word endings and get the children to predict what might happen in their library book they bring home this week.

Reminder
Bikes Thusday
Library Wednesday

Week 6: BUBBLE

On Friday we took the opportunity of the nice sunny weather and getting outside to explore bubbles. We will be using this for our writing next week.

Term 2: Week 6 Learning

Hope you're all had a fabulous long weekend and enjoyed some rest and family time. This week we will be continuing on with 'Sorting It Out'. We will finish reflecting on the questions that we haven't  finished and decide how we would like to take this inquiry of 'Change' Further. Last week from our discussion the kids wanted to look into growing their own Crystals and seeing if we could make our own Crystals. This may be one way that we decide to take it further.

This week as our warm up we are revisiting doubles to 10 and introducing halves of numbers to 10. We will be playing games and be unpacking the meaning. Along with this, we will be working in our ability groups on different strategies to work out addition and subtraction problems. These were stated on the front of your child's Maths Book.

On Friday we will be working on our Strand Weight. We will be exploring scales where the children in groups will have time to compare two weights of objects and saying which one is heavier/lighter. The children will be ordering 3 objects from lightest to heaviest and recording it on a sheet.

This week for writing, we will be continuing on Report Writing. We will be discussing why we would want to write a report. As well, I will be reading the children a range of different books that are a report. The children will be working on writing a report on a superhero with 3 facts. We will be publishing them and putting our writing into a class book for us to keep in our class library. 

Reminders

• Library Wednesday 
• Full School Assembly Friday from 2:20 pm 

Week 5: Report Writing

This week we have been working hard on our Report Writing. We wrote a Report on a chosen Animal. On Friday we made our Reports into books and have hung them on the wall. Please come in and have a read of them. We are very Proud of our Reports.