Room 18

Welcome to Term 1

It is great to have the younger siblings of children I have worked with before and a pleasure to have so many new families. 

The class has settled exceptionally well, thanks to both parents and children as we are all on the same page and keen to get into learning.   We have a number of exciting things planned for the year. 

Thank you also for your support with ensuring that your children have the correct uniform and suitable footwear.  Long hair needs to be pulled back as this is a health and safety issue, as are earrings.  Please keep jewellery for at home as we often find that it gets lost or broken at school. 

The children who bring water bottles to school are able to use them in class. Research shows that drinking water assists learning.  So please encourage your child to bring a bottle to school. 

To ensure books etc stay safe in bags we use our book bags to transport things.  This prevents lunch from being spilt on library books.  Please encourage your child to use this system.

Topic this term:

Our topic is Tangata whenua (people of the land), we are looking at maps and the different cultural groups that make up New Zealand.  We will also be investigating Maori culture in more depth and having a brief look at the history of New Zealand.  We will then be investigating the different cultural groups that make New Zealand and Oteha Valley School what it is today. 

We will start the term with a short recap of place value. Please encourage your child to read numbers up to and including millions.  It is much better when these things are part of everyday life, such as a walk around a car yard or numbers in the newspaper.    If you are shopping with your child please talk about decimal numbers as well. 

When your child is successful with this task, can they tell you how may lots of 10’s, 100’s etc are in that number? 

Statistics and data will be another focus for us.  You may have been asked about graphs already, as we have been making graphs and manipulating data in the classroom.  We are going to investigate a range of graphs as well. 

We will continue with our basic facts every week and the children already have this terms list in their homework book. 

Try some of these neat games

Fractions

www.mrnussbaum.com/tonyfraction.htm

www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/fractions/index.htm

Probability

www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/maths/data/probability/play.shtml

Money

www2.nzmaths.co.nz/newcoins/games.htm

Homework   

We will start next week with reading only. Our focus will be on writing useful comments into our reading log, as part of this process we will look at these every day.  We do this is to encourage the children to think about what they have read.  It is important at this stage of their learning that they reflect on what is being read.  Most of the children at this level are now using reading to learn, as opposed to learning to read. 

We have discussed in class how to ensure a book is a good level.  Please ask your child to explain the 5 finger rule for books to read at home.  Books can be from home or school, the library is now open at lunchtime so they are able to get books then as well as class library times. 

Our library day is Monday. 

Homework books will go out on Friday 10 Feb and will be collected in each Thursday after that.  Reading logs will be collected Thursday’s only after week 3. 

 Please sign the homework grid.  This encourages children to share with you what they are doing. 

The children need to write their spelling words neatly into their books.  There is a list for the child’s spelling level in the back of the book.  Please find 10 words from the list your child doesn’t know.  Our focus in on words being written correctly, if your child is unsure of the spelling of a word please include it in the list. 

 The list of 10 words should be tested at least 4 times during the week.  They can be ticked if they are correct.  Please use a dot if they are not as this is only temporary.  If you come across a problem word it can be moved to next week’s list or left for a week and then re introduced.   Please have the children write the words down when testing and learning.  This enables them to have a visual picture of the word and assists when they are proof reading.   Use of colour is also thought to help with the learning of words.  White boards are great for this, and computers can be used as well. 

We will be completing Journal work in class this term. 

As homework books are collected on Thursday and returned on Friday homework can be done at a time that suites your family and the children’s after school commitments. 

Try this site to help children to select books.

www.teachersfirst.com/100books.cfm

If they need any other help I love to chat about books so please ask them to talk to me.  I’m in the library on Wednesday and am happy to help locate books and/or information.

 

Please encourage your child to take responsibility for their homework  as Intermediate requires children to step up and use those self management skills even more.  We are not wanting them to miss out at all so are fostering the development of these life skills now. 

 

Please also talk to your child about what they put into the empty squares in their home work grid.  These need to be a range of educational activities.  Music, sport and cultural activities are all very important and should be included.   There is a list to assist you on the cover of your homework book. 

 

Writing

We will be reviewing the proof reading and editing processes as this is such an important part of writing.  We will also be writing recounts (retelling something that happened) and narratives (stories). 

As part of our written work I would like to focus on myths and legends.  If you have any legends that are important to your culture please do share them with your child so that we can enjoy them as a class. 

We have been looking at planning stories; have a play on this at home

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/writing/story_plan.play.shtml

http://www.carnegielibrary.org/kids/storymaker/embed.cfm   - Write your own story using this site

This is a great site if you find spelling tricky

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/spellits/activities/activity1.shtml

If you are feeling brave you can play the punctuation game

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/spelling_grammar/punctuation/play.shtml

 

Also try

www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/interactive/literacy2.htm

Reading

Try this site. 

www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/reading/

Monday

Mr Koziarski will be taking the class on Mondays and for a short time on Thursdays.   His strength is in music and but he will be teaching other subjects on Monday as well.  It is a pleasure to be able to welcome him to Oteha Valley School and I’m sure the class will learn a lot from working with him.    

Library day is Monday so please make sure you have your books to return and your book bag. 

We will also be doing softball on Monday

 

If you have any concerns or questions about anything please don’t hesitate to contact me. It is often very productive to have a little chat and share information. 

   

Extra for experts

www.wicked.org.nz/

Don't forget to have a look on the Discovery Zone.  There are heaps of great things there.

It is great for children to learn to type.  Try these sites

tux4kids.alioth.debian.org/tuxtype/

www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/

www.rcls.net/nelson/KeyboardingGames.pdf.pdf

Konica Minolta have a  League in Libraries class literacy competition.

Entries are now open and must be received by March 23^rd 2012.

So if you are keen have a look at the attachment at the bottom of the page.