This week we will be finishing off our last few Keeping Ourselves Safe lessons. Thank you to those who helped their child with the follow up homework sheets.
Year 1 & 2 Athletics Day - Tuesday 21st November
Our Athletics day is being held Block 1 & 2 next Tuesday 21st November. We will be meeting altogether outside Tindalls at 9.30am before heading off to our field events. After morning tea will be doing running races. It is going to be lots of fun! You are welcome to come along to watch. If you want to take your child home afterwards, please let me know and sign them out at the office.
Check out some of learning & creations so far this term ...
HATS
From this week school bucket hats must be worn when outside.
Children wearing non regulation hats (including the old school cap) or who have no hat will be required to sit/play in the shaded areas. We want children to be protected from the sun.
Mufti Day Tomorrow 31/10/2017
No charge mufti day on Tuesday 31st October. It does happen to be Halloween but children do not have to dress up scary. This is just for fun Outfits that are not scary -Superheroes -Ballerinas -Ninja Turtles -Animals -Onesie -Unicorns -Clothes you wear at home None of the above- Wear your uniform!
Keeping Ourselves Safe Programme
Over the next few weeks we will be teaching the units ‘Knowing what to do” and “Getting Help” in your child’s class. These units are part of the personal safety programmes of Keeping Ourselves Safe connected to our Health curriculum.
The Keeping Ourselves Safe programme enables children and young people to learn and apply a range of safety skills that they can use when interacting with others. Students recognise the differences between healthy and unhealthy relationships, and those who have been or are being abused are encouraged to seek help.
Parents/Caregivers should have received a letter via email outlining what is covered in the programme.
Zones of Regulation
On Thursday afternoon we had a visitor named Jane come and do some work with us around the '4 zones'. These zones are based on our emotions.
The Green Zone - 'Good to Go'
When we're in this zone we are reading to learn, focused, okay, happy, calm.
The Blue Zone - 'Running a little bit slow'
When we're in this zone we can be feeling tired, bored, shy, sick, sad.
The Yellow Zone - 'Proceed with Caution but slow down' When we're in this zone we may feel upset, nervous, embarrassed, annoyed, frustrated, silly. The Red Zone - 'Stop and Think - No longer in control' When we're in this zone we may be angry, out of control, mean, aggressive, terrified.
Jane will be visiting us every Thursday afternoon to do some more talking about the 4 zones of regulation. It would be great if you could talk about these different emotions at home too and how our facial expressions and body languages changes with them. Can you act out different emotions?
Wow! Hasn't this year gone by fast. I hope you all had a lovely, relaxing break and are roaring to go for Term 4!
Zoo Trip
Tuesday 17th October A1-A4 are heading off to the Zoo to kick start our wonderings around this term's Inquiry 'Sustainability'. What does that word mean? Why do animals become endangered? How can reduce the amount of waste in the world?
Please make sure your child has full school uniform on (including black shoes) and has the following things packed for the Zoo
- lunch
- drink
- hat
- sunblock
- raincoat
Maths
We begin this term off by learning about fractions - 1/2, 1/4, 1/3, 1/5, 1/10
First we will focus on identifying and finding fractions of shapes and lengths (strings, paper etc.) then move onto finding out fractions of numbers - 1/4 of 12. Fractions is a fantastic concept to link with real life - cutting food into equal parts.
Writing
This term our writing will link in with our Inquiry. We will be learning how to write factual reports on things tying into our Sustainability learning.
Word Work & Spelling
Our focus for Word Work throughout the first half of the term is on blends - 2 or more letters that make a sound such as /bl/
Can you please make sure your child has their pink spelling book kept in their book bag every day. Our aim is to have a new list of words to learn every week - first list went home today (to be learnt at home and school) and they will be tested next week.
Reminders
- Library day is on Wednesday
- Hats need to be work this term - check they're clearly named
- Black school shoes must be worn to and from school
The last week of Term 3 is going to be celebrated with our Culture Festival! Children all across the school in many different groups have been working hard to show of their talents. Important information for the week -
Tuesday - Run through in the hall for all performers Wednesday - Full dress rehearsal; all non-performers make up the audience for this Thursday - Matinee performance at 1 pm and evening performance at 6.30pm Tickets: are $2/person/seat and are available in the library Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday or until sold out. On the night Year 2 performers (that's us) go to B1 at 6pm Please deliver your performer to the classroom no later than 6 pm. They may bring snacks and something to occupy themselves with, if they wish (no devices). However, there will be movies on and drawing things in the rooms.
After the Year 2 performance, students will be escorted to L Block to join their Peaches and Pickles Groups Drama: L3 Hip Hop: L2 Junior Choir L5 What to wear... Year 2 item - Some children will be wearing a costume from the Sunflower show. These children know who they are. All other children need to wear plain bright coloured clothes please. Peaches & Pickles Items - Hopefully you should have received an email from Peaches and Pickles regarding outfits for each group. Please let me know if you haven't and I will forward on to you. Children will be able to get changed in their holding room after they have performed their first item. Please make sure everything is clearly named - name and classroom. Please bring these outfits to school tomorrow (Tuesday) or Wednesday at the latest. Feel free to get in touch with me if you're unsure of anything - kmaxwell-brown@wgp.school.nz Thanks, Kendall
Tuesday 12 September 2017
Week 8 - Term 3
Motat
Check out our Motat photos here. We had such a fabulous time there. We were very lucky that the rain held off for most parts of the day. Thank you again to our parent helpers and to all children in A2 for such a tremendous day. Wasn't life so different 100 years ago!
This week is Te Reo MÄori Language Week. We are learning to use more MÄori kupu (words) and phrases like - He aha tenei? (What is this?)
Our Big Book story this week is called Tamure and the Taniwha.
There are lots of MÄori myths and legend stories availble on Youtube. Check out the link below to view the stores.
Word Word & Handwriting
Our sounds this week to learn are the long o (oa, oe, ow, o-e, o) and long u (ue, u-e, ew)
For handwriting this week we are practising the formation of the letters l, t, i, j.
Writing
Our writing is integrated with our Big Book - focusing on how a narrative has a Problem and Solution.
Remember to come check out the fantastic Grandma McGarvey writing.
Maths
This week for maths we are using skip counting, repeated addition and our times tables for problem solving.
Motat Trip
On Wednesday we head off to Motat to learn about how life and houses have changed in Auckland. This ties into our 'Movement' inquiry for the term.
Please make sure your child has
- A packed lunch
- A drink bottle
-Full school uniform - including shoes
- A rain coat or jumper
Thank you to all of our wonderful parents who offered to help out on the trip. Unfortunately we couldn't take everyone.
Handwriting
This week we are focus on forming our lowercase letters - r, n, m, h, k
Word work
We are focusing on the /ow/ (wow) /ou/ (house) sounds and /oy/ (toy) /oi/ (coin) sounds.
Writing
A2 are really into McGarvey books at the moment. We are in the middle of publishing some fantastic writing retelling the story Grandma McGarvey Goes to Sea.
Bikes
From next week A2 and B1 will be buddying up to use the bikes. It would be great if we had some children bring their own bikes to school on Mondays so there's enough bikes for all.
Well done to everyone in A2 and across Year 2 who took part in the Production. The show was absolutely incredible. I'm very proud of everyone for their great success.
I hope all of our A2 family and friends enjoyed the show.
Children in O1 were so amazed by and wanted to tell us what they enjoyed.
Congratulations Year 2.
It was brilliant - the actors, the band, choir and narrators. How long did it take to get all the acting, costumes and talking right? All the costumes like the cows, bees, bulls, butterflies and the sunflower all looked real. I liked when Mr Cronin looked like a cow!
Dear Year 2’s,
Congratulations! I loved it. I really liked the singing but I liked it all. Good work.
I liked it best when all the cows and the bulls danced to the music.
Congratulations year 2’s.
Guess what my favourite part was? My favourite part was when the bulls came on stage and the background music.
Great job Year 2’s. Who would think a bunch of 6 year olds could pull off such a good show!
Congratulations year twos for achieving. You’re cool. You are really brave year 2’s.
Daisy, I thought you were a good actor because you are an amazing cow. You were black and white.
I liked the lovely sun flower with green leaves too.
Dear Year 2’s
Congratulations for achieving a big goal and for stepping up and acting and singing and all the other stuff.
To Year 2 girls and boys and teachers, that was so so good. My favourite performance ever bro.
To year 2 - that show was great. My favourite part was when you sang ‘Good morning’.
This week is Maths Week!! We are taking part in the Survivor Series daily problem solving tasks (so we can find the treasure on Friday) and will also be putting our estimation skills to work. Whoever has the right (or closest to) daily estimate gets to go in the whole school draw to win a neat prize. Ask your child about their clues they have so far or the estimate they made.
In maths this week we will also be looking at multiplication and will be linking this what we already know. For example, 3x5 can be solved by skip counting 5,10, 15 or by repeating addition 5+5+5.
Writing
This term we are focusing on narrative writing. We will be looking at what authors include in their stories (characters, setting, problem & solution) and zoom in on each area. This week we are focusing on describing characters physical appearance & character traits in our writing.
Reading
We are linking our reading with our writing focus by identifying the characters, setting, problem and solution in our readers. Ask your child about the story elements in their book.
Inquiry
Our Inquiry focus for the term is Movement. We are looking at why people move and how, what houses looked like in the past, now and around the world. This week, we're looking into our own movement - who has moved house, towns or country and what our houses look like, how old they might be and what they're made of.
Reminders
- Whole school cross country training - Monday & Wednesday (weather permitting)
- Library day is on Wednesday
- Full school assembly on Friday at 2.20pm
- Check in meetings next week on Tuesday. See below reminders about the meetings-
These meetings are to discuss any concerns or questions about the mid-year reports that went out last term or about how your child is going this term. If you do not feel you need to discuss this, you do not need to book a meeting - they are not compulsory :)
These meetings are for you and your child to attend together.
These meetings are 12mins each.
If you have more than one child please don’t book back-to-back meeting times but allow yourself time between meetings.
Only 1 more week until the big show! Shows times are Tuesday 9th August at 1.45pm- 2.30pm and Wednesday 10th August 9.45am-10.30am.
Well done to all of the Year 2 children for their hard work they have been putting into our practices. Tomorrow (Tuesday) we will be practising with our costumes/outfits on.
Cross Country
Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday we will be practising for cross country. Please make sure your child has running clothes on these days (shoes are optional). Junior cross country will be held on Thursday 24th August. A notice and the sponsorship booklet should have come home last week. There are lots of neat prizes up for grabs to those who raise funds.
Maths, reading and writing will continue to happen slightly different this week and early next while we are rehearsing our production.
Reminders
Cross country clothes to be brought to school every Monday, Wednesday, Friday
Last chance to return any sold or unsold raffle tickets. The draw is being held on Friday afternoon at assembly
Production
This week production practice will be taking place Mon-Thurs for a big chunk of each day. It is important that we use this time while we lead up to the big performance on Wednesday and Thursday of Week 3.
Costume List Band - black clothes i.e. black shorts / leggings and a black t-shirt (plain / no logos). Choir - plain, brightly coloured clothes (no logos or patterns) Narrator - smart clothes / party clothes Autumn Leaf Dancer – black leggings and a plain autumn coloured t-shirt Market Seller – plain shorts / leggings / trousers and plain t-shirt (no patterns) Actors- costumes will be provided
*Please could your child bring in their costumes as soon as possible and in a named bag. We are planning to have our costume call next Tuesday (week 2).
HELP!! – if anyone has any autumn coloured plain t-shirts, black leggings, black t-shirts that they would be willing to lend us, then that would be fab!! If you could put your child’s name in anything lent that would be great.
Maths, reading and writing will be happening slightly different this week and next while we are rehearsing our production.
Reminders
-Library day is on Wednesday, please bring back any unreturned books from Term 2
-Sell your raffle tickets please or bring back any unsold tickets so other children can sell them
This week we are not reading a big book, instead we are looking at a collection of Matariki stories. Matariki is the the MÄori New Year and it is marked with the rising of the star cluster Matariki/Pleiades. There are many different myths about how the stars appeared in the sky. One of them being about how Tawhirimatea (the Wind God) became angry and threw his eyes into the sky.
Word Work
For Word Work we are focusing on the long i sound - 'ie' pie, 'igh' light and i-e bike. We will be working more with alkonin sound boxes to find out how many sounds words have.
Inquiry
A1 and A2 asked the children what they would like to investigate further - coke and mentos explosion was a popular choice. We wondered what would happen if we changed coke to lemonade and mint mentos to fruit mentos. It definitely didn't explode like coke and mint mentos.
Next was slime - we are trying different types of glue to see which makes the best slime! Oobleck was another top choice that we would like to look into further.
Writing
Our writing this week will be around our inquiry experiences and Matariki. We have been learning to using sequencing words (first, next, then, last) and include more WOW words in our writing. Keep your eye out on our blog as some children may publish their writing onto this page!
Production Update!!!
As you know, the Year 2 children are busy practising for our upcoming production 'There's a Sunflower In My Supper'. We had initially planned to perform the show in the last week of this term but to allow the children to reach their full potential we have changed the dates. The new dates for the shows will be Week 3, Term 3 - Wednesday 9th August at 1.45pm and Thursday 10th August at 9.45am.
We are also on the hunt for any type of bugs/mini beasts costumes. If you have one that we could borrow please send it to school (clearly named so it comes back to the right owner). Please note that the costume may not be worn by your child as all children have a different role in the show.
Have a fabulous week!
Miss M :)
Monday 12 June 2017
Week 7 - Term 2
Reading
Our big book this week is called 'Brave Mouse'. We are focusing on making connections to our prior experiences - times we had to be brave and how we felt before, after and during.
We continue to read 'George's Marvelous Medicine'. The children are absolutely loving this story.
Word Work
This week we are focusing on 'aw' as in hawk and the long e sound - 'ea' (leaves) 'ee' (bee) and e-e (Pete) (bossy e)
Writing
For writing this week we are writing about our fidget spinner design - describing it's appearance and speed. We will then continue to integrate our writing through our inquiry. Most of A2 have a big focus on remembering to use full stops and capital letters! Sometimes it can be tricky to know where the full stops actually goes so we need to read it back to ourselves and notice when we take a breath.
Maths
For maths we continue to work on skip counting, both forwards and backwards in 5's and 10's and 2's and our doubles and halves to 20. We have really enjoyed the skip counting Youtube clips.
Production Practice
Our production practices continues 3 times a week. We have been working so hard to learn our lines, the songs or to play an instrument.
Reminders:
- No toys are to be brought to school. If your child would like to bring a toy to share for news in needs to be given to the teacher and kept in a safe place until home time
- Shoes need to be work to school daily
- Library day is on Wednesday
Wow! What a fantastic job the children did with sharing their learning on Wednesday afternoon. The classroom was absolutely buzzing! I hope you enjoyed seeing what we've been up to this year and what we get up to in our classroom. Thank you to all who made it.
Reading
Our big book this week is called 'Crumpet, the Cat'. We are focusing on making predictions and retelling the story, the '-ink' and '-at' word families and verbs.
Last week we finished our first Roald Dahl story - 'The Magic Finger' and have begun reading George's Marvelous Medicine'. The children did some art this afternoon of what they imagined some of the characters to look like. Feel free to pop in and have a look later in the week when they're complete.
Writing & Inquiry
For writing this week we are learning how to write instructions. We are going to write the instructions on how to plant a sunflower based on our experience on Friday. Our step by step instructions need to start with a Bossy Verb (put, poor) and be nice and clear. We will also be making jelly this week so we can look at the physicalchanges and write our own set of step by step instructions.
Maths
For maths we will be working on skip counting forwards in 5's and 10's to 100. We will also be looking at doubles and halves to 10 or 20 (depending on group needs).
Reminders
-Library day is on Wednesday
-Check that your uniform is clearly named - especially shoes and jumpers
Don't forget this week on Wednesday we are having our Learning Celebrations afternoon. To make a booking follow the link https://www.schoolinterviews.co.nz/?z=SdgiOK and use the code k23pp Please remember that school finishes at 12.30pm and will need to be picked up then
On Friday last week we got to share our learning with the Year 5 tamariki from our team. It was a great practice to have before we share this week! Some of the children even left some feedback in our Goals books.
Year 2 Production - There's a Sunflower in my Supper
Have you heard that the Year 2's are putting on a production this term? This is our first week of practice and the children are so excited!!! The show will be put on in the last week of term - Tuesday PM and Wednesday AM (still to be confirmed).
The children were asked to pick two options that they would like to do and they have been given one of their choices. Ask your child if they're an actor, narrator, singer, dancer or band member.
PARENT HELP - are you able to help with sewing costumes or painting stage sets? Please send me an email or pop in and see me to let me know what you could help with and the time you have available to help.
Reading
Our Big Book we are reading this week is 'Billy McBrown'. We will be looking at rhyming words, reading the story using the punctuation and we will also have a look at similes - saying something is like or as something else.
Well done to our first reading group that performed their play today. You all used clear, loud voices and made the story interesting by using lots of expression. Ka pai!
Last week we started reading 'The Magic Finger' by Roald Dahl. We are really enjoying the story and have been listening carefully so we can imagine a picture in our minds while being read to.
Word Work
In Word Work we are focusing on /ar/ and /or/ then /ai/ and /ay/
We have been recording words on the board and in our books then breaking them up to find out home many sounds each word has. We've noticed that digraphs only make one sound even though there is at least 2 letters. For example shark has only 3 sounds sh/ar/k
Writing & Inquiry
This week we hope to do some experiments followed by writing. We will also be writing some 'I Wonder' questions we have about CHANGE to put on our Inquiry wall and investigate later in the term.
Maths
Our whole class focus for Maths has been Measurement - Weight. We have explored balance scales - using different amounts of weights to find out which side is heavier or lighter. Some of us were even able to make the scale balance. This week, we will be ordering items from lightest - heaviest and vice versa.
Have a lovely week, see you on Wednesday afternoon.
A Team teachers have thoroughly enjoyed the return to learning this term. We sure hope the students are having as much fun as we are! The feedback from them and parents of A Team students says it certainly looks that way.
We wanted to take this opportunity to unpack a little more about teaching and learning in today’s landscape. It’s looks and feels very different from our classroom days, regardless of where in the world you attended school. Frankly, so it should be. With the well researched best approaches to teaching and learning easily accessible and with the tools we now have at our disposal our ‘digital natives’ deserve nothing less than an environment that will allow maximum engagement, growth and achievement.
Using this research and allowing the use of tools for learning Whangaparaoa School has adopted a fully integrated inquiry approach and use our amazing chromebooks to respond to our curiosity and ‘OWN’ our learning.
The Inquiry cycle at WGP School starts with provocation. Last week and this week A Team students have been ‘reclassed’ into groups from each different room. Groups from Year 1 to 6 move around A Team each afternoon and engage in new experiences related to the concept of “CHANGE”, within the context of Science. The purpose of these experiences is not to ‘teach’ science in the old way but to ignite and excite the students curiosity in this area so they can explore, question, research, investigate, test and share their hypothesise and findings with a targeted audience.
We are engaged in the first stage of “INQUIRY”
‘Sandy the Scientist’, a visiting expert ;) has joined us for both Monday’s this term with the intention of sparking student interest in chemical change before all of A Team students are cross grouped for the afternoon session. If you are wondering about where your child is in the afternoons at the moment CLICK HERE.
Following our provocation focus students will be identifying areas of high interest and pinpointing learning they’ve been exposed to that has made them extra curious. You may have noticed them coming home and wanting to reproduce the experiments they have enjoyed at school. This is a good example of how we are trying to incite continuous learning. This then motivates student questions and we know from the research that when a student’s learning is platformed from their own self-directed questions and curiosity it makes the end result powerfully learned.
Our inquiry model has come from Kath Murdoch’s work, an Australasian Educational expert who responds to research by providing a scaffolded way to ‘do it’ for teachers. Here’s a short clip of her explaining what it means to be an Inquiry Teacher:
Sharing what is learned is an integral part of Inquiry - In essence, we learn, we create, we share. Not necessarily in that order and when you look at your child’s day each aspect of this process should be evident. Creating has taken on a whole new meaning. Before the digital era (and we define this as since ipad technology exploded onto the market, only in 2009) we could access a student’s learning response in books and on classroom walls. This is no longer an accurate indication as the platform they now have to share their work has grown exponentially. Teachers are the experts in analysing and identifying progress and the tools they have to do this also reflect the digital age. This means anyone making an assumption on progress by simply looking in a book could be grossly misguided and just plain wrong. For any questions regarding progress it is best to talk to the teacher.
Our school website is about to be updated to reflect our new understanding around what best practice looks like in an inquiry class. It says this: Inquiry-based learning is a constructivist approach. This means children are engaged in constructing knowledge rather than simply acquiring it. Knowledge is constructed based on personal experiences and hypotheses of the environment, meaning students take ownership of their learning. It is the New Zealand Curriculum’s approach to teaching and learning.
Our unique Vertical Learning Communities allow children of all ages to share experiences and knowledge around our inquiry focus, while strengthening our learning community as the children become teachers to each other.
The benefits of learning through inquiry include higher order thinking, improved problem solving abilities and critical thinking skills. These are all identified as the leading skills looked for in today’s employment market. It increases personal ownership and responsibility for learning, develops skills of research and a student’s ability to determine the importance of the information they encounter.
Inquiry Learning supports our school ORCA values of Ownership, Respect, Collaboration and Achievement.
We look forward to the questions our students will ask, the discoveries they will make and how they will share what they’ve learned to others.
Please feel free to ask any questions you may have about how your child is learning and why with the classroom teacher. We are also very happy to share with anyone interested more about the landscape of teaching and learning so any misconceptions out there can be addressed. Ka kite ano...
