Sunday 30 April 2017

Welcome back everyone! I hope you have had a wonderful break and are returning refreshed and ready for an exciting term of learning in M1. I had a lovely time this holiday with my parents visiting from Australia and lots of time to spend with Charlie and Archie. We stayed in Auckland, but took some fun day trips around the city. I'm looking forward to hearing all about your holiday adventures!

Upcoming Term Highlights:

Maths: The main maths strategy we are working on this term is Place Value, understanding ones and tens and beginning to add by partitioning numbers into tens and ones when we are ready.
We are all working on strengthening our number knowledge of counting by 2's to 20, 5's to 50 and 10's to 100.
In Strand Maths we are going to be developing our patterning skills.  Here are some videos to support practice of these skills at home. They can also be found here on our class Blendspace along with lots of other songs we sing in class.
  


Writing: this term we will be learning about the features of nonfiction books- features like contents pages, diagrams, captions etc. We will then apply this knowledge to create our own amazing nonfiction books.

Reading: Over the coming weeks we will be learning all about retelling stories using our five fingers to help us. We will also be learning how to pick a 'Just-Right Book'  for independently .


Inquiry: Its time for a new inquiry! This term we are learning that change affects our lives and our environment. We are going to be learning specifically about changes in matter. This week, we will be participating in a range of science experiments in each of our VLC classes designed to spark the children's interests and get them wondering about states of matter. These experiments may involve fizzing and foaming, things that ooze, harden or slime, sand, salt or jelly crystals, freezing and thawing etc. From observing the children participating in these experiments and recording their feedback afterwards, we will come to a decision on what we would like to investigate and inquire into in-depth.

PE: This term, we are going to be developing out throwing, catching and striking skills. The children are also encouraged to bring their bikes every Thursday (and any other day they want to also) for some time on the bike track.

Friendly reminder that the class is open from 8:30am.
Name EVERYTHING! We had lots of missing items last term and I appreciate how frustrating and expensive this can become. Remember raincoats - the weather is very unpredictable at the moment.

We have a first year student teacher, Bryon Jenkins joining us for 1 week from 15-19 May this term and returning 28 August – 15 September 2017. 


Wednesday 12 April 2017

Have a wonderful Easter Break. Stay safe and dry and RELAX! Here are some highlights from our morning:




Sunday 9 April 2017

A Wonderful 1st Term in M1

Happy Easter Everyone! 
Term One is drawing to a close this week and looking back we can be proud of the amazing things we have achieved over the past 11 weeks. New friends have been made, routines learned, and skills progressed across the curriculum areas. It must be time for a break to recharge, ready for a new term. 

This week is a short week, with school finishing at the regular time of 3:00pm on Thursday. 

We will be exploring the world of poetry this week in Writing by learning to see everyday objects in fresh new ways by using our 'Poet's Eyes.' We will be examine the short poems of Zoe Ryder White to help us do this. We read one of her poems on Thursday last week and mimicked her style of writing, creating our own poems. 

The Ceiling 


The ceiling
is the sky
for the classroom.
– Zoe Ryder White
This week we are reading;
The Pencil Sharpener
I think there are a hundred bees
inside the pencil sharpener
and they buzz
and buzz
and buzz
until my point
is sharp!
– Zoe Ryder White
We will be learning about how poets make line breaks to show their reader how they want their poem to be read. 
In Maths we are practising our basic facts. We will start by gathering some baseline data to find our starting points and then we will work at getting quicker as the year progresses. 

In Reading we are continuing to work on our visualising strategy. Remember to read over the holidays. Epic Books https://www.getepic.com/ is an app we use at school that has hundreds of great books online. Right now they are offering a months free trial- perfect for the holidays! 
Have a safe and enjoyable holiday and I will see you on 1 May. 
This Week:
Library: Wednesday (whoops sorry we forgot again last week!!!!) 
PAY IT FORWARD MUFTI- Thursday 13 April we will finish the term with a school mufti day. The theme will be: come dressed in something you love doing, your passion, your interest or maybe your dream of someone or something you would like to be in the future. The charge for mufti is voluntary and any money raised will go into a pay it forward account to help our families who may struggle to afford technology, a decent lunch, Friday experiences or trips like camp. Assembly 2:20 Thursday 

Sunday 2 April 2017

Week 10 Already!

Wow! Where has time gone? It is already week 10 and only 9 school days are left in the first term. I guess the saying is true- time really does fly when you are having fun!

We are very much in the thick of our personal inquiries now with the children concluding their sorting out activities and reflecting and acting on what they have learned. This looks different for each group. So far we have a group making a little movie, some blogging, others creating a web of helpers within our school. There are maps being made, images googled and an electric buzz in the air! Thank you to the parents who helped us manage our activities and channel our ideas in productive ways last week. If you are free on Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon from 1:45-3pm or on Friday morning from 9:15-10:40 this week please let me know.

I am also looking for 3 volunteers to help with a little Easter activity rotation on the final Thursday (13th) of this term- time TBC. This would involve getting messy dying eggs, running a little game or helping with an Easter craft. The activities will not have any religious themes but are guaranteed to involve plenty of cotton wool balls and shredded coloured tissue! A small chocolate treat may be given to the children. If you would prefer your child not partake, please let me know and I will organise an alternative non-food based treat like stickers.

In writing this week, we are going to be working on our editing and publishing skills. We call this Fixing up and Fancying up!

In writing we continue with our comprehension strategy of visualising
Check out the children's Nogard (Dragon backwards) Visualisations on our classroom wall. What amazing imagination they all have! 

In Maths, we are all working on knowing the numbers that come before and after. Your child will be working within a range that challenges their specific needs. For some that is knowing before and after to  5, 10, 20 or even 100 ! This is an easy skill to practise at home with the kids or on long car journeys over the break!

This Week: 
No more swimming but we will go riding on Thursday again so bring your bikes!

On Friday, Mrs Kember is out of school from lunchtime onwards. The children will be grouped 4 ways and will be spending time with the other classes in our vertical learning community. At home time the children will be accompanied to our neighbouring class M2 (Miss Holm's class) for dismissal. Please look out for your child there. Thank you 😀

Library Wednesday