Kidblog

Many children have begun blog entries.  Please could these be finished and submitted for approval soon.  The stories are getting a bit old and must be finished.  Go through the link on the right.  Thanks!!

Monday madness!

Memory Hooks

WOW!!  I'm so impressed with the speed in which children learnt our new strategy of memory hooks today.  How well did you do?  Can you remember all 10?  Next week will come the next 10.  We are going to remember so much!  Photos coming soon.

Welcome to Term 2

Here's hoping you've all had a relaxing and rewarding holidays spent with your children.  I certainly have and have many new ideas for this term.

Change to Morning Sessions - Literacy time

This term begins an exciting change to literacy time.  As I will be working with the Accelerate Literacy group (out of the classroom), we are fortunate to have Mrs Marion Batchelor step in to teach literacy in Room 1.  Most of you will know her and know that her expertise in this area is valued.  She will begin in class at 10am and complete any reading tasks and groups as she takes over from Mrs Jensen.  She will then teach the writing component until 11am.  We have planned extensively to ensure this will be a smooth transition.  I'm sure the children will be excited about this.

Brain Food/Morning Tea

Snack time will continue at 9.15am to help activate the brain to be ready for learning. This will consist of fresh fruit or vegetable that are cut into manageable pieces, or plain crackers and cheese.  We also drink our milk at this time.  Please remember to include morning teas that don't involve commercial packaging to ensure children can hear stories comfortably.  

Topic Studies

This term we are going global and local.  Room 1 will learn about Norway and its indigenous people.  Can you find out what these people are called?  What is their culture?  We will make passports and in Week 6 travel 'around the world' (to other classrooms) to find out about other countries.  I will be looking out for the most suitable ambassadors to teach children from other classrooms about Norway.  During Weeks 7 - 9 we will explore Matariki and Marae protocols.  There are lots of exciting activities coming up related to this.  Watch this space!

Homework

This will continue in the same format.  Please ensure you support your child with this.  
Reading - 
They will have a book to read each night.  It is crucial that you discuss the concepts and ideas within their text to ensure depth of understanding.  There are several people not completing Reading Logs accurately.  The comments column is commonly misunderstood.  Here, we are looking for a comment that relates to the ideas in the story or article.  Please review Page 5 for ideas.  It might be something that your child has learnt, been surprised by, thought was unfair, made them laugh etc.  
Spelling - 
10 words to learn each night.  Please allow your child time to learn these by following the chart in their homework books.
Basic Facts - 
Practice the 2 steps you are working on each night.  We are fortunate to have several parents coming in to test children each week.  Thank you for this help - it is invaluable.  It is important children have their basic fact books in their book bags every day in anticipation for testing.
Check Term 1 newsletter in the homework book to revise details.
Books and Book Bags
I have noticed some children transporting their books to and from school not in their book bags.  ALL books must be carried in a book bag to protect them.  Please check that your child is doing this. 
Study Ladder
Congratulations to those children who are regularly completing activities.  Now that children are familiar with this site, I am asking that the main focus is the SET TASKS - particularly Literacy and Maths tasks.  Once some of these are completed each session, then they can explore other games etc.  Thanks for your support here.

Communication

Many thanks for your clear communication during Term 1.  Please keep this up.  Contact sooner rather than later avoid major concerns arising.

Enjoy Term 2 everyone!

Room One's Autumn Poems

Autumn breeze flowing down the trees. 

Whooshing leaves softly to the ground.

Falling asleep.  

Crunching and rotting in the ground. 

Dazing in a nap, safe and sound.

Autumn leaves swing side to side up and down making a little soft  scrunchy  rainbow.

Orange, yellow, brown  and gold.

Beautiful coloured rainbow dashing to the ground.

By Alice 

Autumn leaves are bright colours

just like a bees.

Flaxen butter tumbling down from the tree

Into the huge pile of leaves

Just like a rock falling from the top.

Autumn trees remind me of my turtle who was very old.

Her colour turned dull green.

By Kobie

Autumn leaves falling down

Autumn  leaves tumble down.

Autumn leaves in a pile.

Leaves crackling  glittery leaves.

Sparkling leaves in the sun

The most beautiful one.

Crackling on the floor, Lying in the sun.

Leaves on the floor making red carpets.

By Cullen           

Autumn leaves everywhere, 

drifting gently in the air.

 Fiery red, golden brown gliding to the ground .

Sparkling  leaves on the ground.

Red gold brown yellow and orange.

By Dannii

Autumn leaves pretty  and lemon, cherry, ruby, scarlet, carrot and plum.

All autumn colours.

                                 Fiery orange like a dragon blowing fire.

Orange as a sour orange.

Mustard yellow, ruby red

As gold as  golden caramel.

Autumn leaves as red as a  fire-engine red

And as yellow as a lemon.

By Lennox

Colours of lots of different leaves  

Falling from the Autumn  trees  .

 Crunch ,crunch, crunch on the ground.

Tumble,  down yellow , Red, green and brown.

On the ground  the little circle star.

All the colours are beautiful by far.

I love leaves they’re fun to play in.

Make a pile to jump in. Yay!!!

                                                                 

By Liam

Happy Holidays Everyone!

I hope you are all having a nice relaxing time, with lots of adventure too.  Remember to use Study Ladder regularly and I would love to see some Blog stories.  Send them to me for approval and I will publish them.  I'd love to hear about what you're doing in the holidays.  If you can't remember your password drop me an email.

It was lovely to see some children from Room 1 at the ANZAC service in Clive.  Thom even helped with laying the wreath.  I'll post some photos soon.

We wrote some lovely Autumn poems at the end of the term.  I'll publish some of those here soon too.  Watch this space!

Personal Experience Writing

We are learning to:   Use a Red Thinking Hat idea to begin our stories.

Joni's story uses a variety of interesting language features including Red Thinking Hat idea to begin:

I felt like a dog that couldn't swim last week during the Aquathlon.  "On your marks, Get set, Go!"  Zoom!  Off we went like a rocket zooming off into space.  I felt the wind on my face.  I was in lead!  But when I heaved myself into the water I started to panic.  My eyes bulged like two balls popping.  I felt like stone.  I had to keep going.  I couldn't stop.  It would be too embarrassing.  I hoisted myself up out of the water and ran into the scorching sun.  I ran round the field twice.  When I stopped I was so puffed that I just about couldn't breathe.  Then it was time to call out the names and GUESS WHAT?!  I came third!  I had a fabulous day!

Here are some of our story beginnings.  Do they make you want to read more?

I felt nervous when I was at the front of the line of the waterslide but I gave it a go. Kylie

Every day feels exciting because I am getting two guinea pigs for me and Jamie.

Alice

When I hopped off the water slide I felt dizzy.

Kobie

Icy cold water.  Oh no!  It's my turn on the water slide.  I felt like a frog going down the water slide.

Thom

It felt easy when I ran but when I hopped in the pool I felt like an ice cube.

Scarlett

When I went on the water slide I felt frightened because it was so so bumpy.

Coco

I felt petrified on the water slide as I zoomed down because it was a long way down.

Jack

I felt cold at the Aquathlon because I had no t-shirt on.  My brain was hurting because it was moving in my head.  I was exhausted.

Nic

Our Aquathlon was legendary because it was easy.

Dannii

When we arrived at the Aquathlon I felt nervous because it was a really hot day and I thought that I could not do it.

Amy

What a bunch of talented writers!

Week 6

This week the main concepts we are learning are to:

• Use a Red Thinking Hat idea (feeling) to begin a story.
• Use Past Knowledge of a topic to build new learning in our reading.
• Understand sounds of letters and parts of words in order to read and write unknown words.
• Write a personal blog.
• Identify how we deal with conflict.
• Use known basic facts and understanding of Place Value to solve addition and subtraction problems.
• Form letters and numbers correctly.
• Play a simple musical instrument.
• Publish a piece of work on a Word Document and save it to a personal file.
• Rescue a person in the water.
• Swim freestyle and backstroke.

We are also exploring various ways to complete work and discovering how we learn best.  For example, we might be most comfortable lying on the floor with a bean cushion to write, or it may be better to stand at a high table.  Some people enjoy sitting on a couch or sitting at a regular desk.  The desk may be isolated or in a group.  We might prefer to kneel at a low table.  Ask your child where they prefer to work.  Next week we will consider other aspects of learning styles such as light/dark; noisy or quiet.

Check out children working in many different spaces today!

Standing table

Kneeling table

Floor or desk

alone or together?

on the couch