Here are the parent newsletters sent out each week...
OUR VISION: Making a positive difference by being a creative learner and an effective communicator.
Tena koutou katoa
Hello to everyone
This newsletter includes our weekly information as well as outlining next week’s water safety lessons and our trip to Devon to support our Netball team in their final inter school game.
Ramps For Schools
As many of you may be aware we recording how children come to school on the let's Go site organised by the NPDC. This is one way to encourage our students to be active and to help our planet by reducing car use. please encourage your child to walk, bike, scooter or skate. Children who live too far away can be dropped a distance from the school and then walk the rest of the way. This will help us gain points and ultimately gain ramps for our school.
In our classes both room 10 and 11 are still focusing on multiplication and division for maths. Once again we cannot emphasis enough that your support is needed to help some of our students learn both the multiplication and division facts. Some children are not really seeing the relationship between the facts and we encourage you to help your child understand 3 x 7 =21, 7x3=21, 21 divided by 3 =7 and 21 divided by 7 = 3. Please ask your child how they are going and support them by helping devise an action plan to allow these facts to be well known. For those who struggle to memorise these facts use a times table grid but expect quick recall of both the multiplication and division facts. The ability to recall facts quickly is hugely important to being able to solve everyday, real life maths problems using mental strategies effeciently.
Poupous are underway. This art is taking many shapes and forms but each has real significance to the artist.
Next week our Year 5 and 6 students will be involved in the AWE water programme (To give the children water safety skills that would help them in hazardous water
conditions that they may encounter.)
This is funded by AWE for our Year 6 students but not our year 5. The fee for the Year 5 students will come from the activity fee paid by students.
The sessions will be on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.
11 - 12 am Room 10 and 8 students from room 08 (Students leave school at 10.45)
1.00 - 2.00 pm Room 11 and 8 students from room 08 (Students leave school at 12.45)
Students will need togs and towel on these days. Please note on Friday the group that go over lunch will not be able to order pizza.
On Thursday our A netball Team are playing a finals netball game at Devon Intermediate. These girls will be transported by private vehicles to and from Devon. A separate notice will come out asking for transport for the girls.
We would like to take the remainder of our Year 5/6 students from rooms 08, 10 and 11 students to support our team.
They would travel by bus leaving school at 10.55 and will return around 12.05.
Thanks and kind regards
Term 3 Week 1:
OUR VISION: Making a positive difference by being a creative learner and an effective communicator.
Term 3, Week 1
Tēnā koutou katoa
Hello to everyone
We are mid way through our school year and are looking forward to busy and productive learning in term 3.
With Mrs Smith teaching in room 11, Mrs Wendy Parkes will be the release teacher for room 11. Mrs Parkes has a daughter here at Frankley School, she is very much looking forward to teaching in room 11. She will have her first day in room 11 on Thursday.
On Thursday our School football team will be playing a semifinal against St John Bosco School. They are travelling to St.John Bosco in the Fale bus (Thank you Fales). We hope many parents will be able to make it to support our players. Both Mr Anderson and Mrs McAllister will be attending the game.
The team should bring their boots and shin pads to school on Tuesday for a practice and team discussion.
As mentioned last term over the next few weeks room 10/11 students will be working on creating their Poupou. Please remind students to bring any materials to school that they think they might need.
In week 3 all Year 5 and 6 students from rooms 8.10 and 11 will be participating in the AWE swimming programme.
Use this link to read an older article on the programme
While this is funded for the year 6’s , it is not for the year 5’s and the fee for this will come from the School Activity Fee. More information will follow as plans fall into place.
The children will be participating in a fancy dress evening and over the term learning a dance to present on the night.
If you haven’t done so already please ensure you follow the class blog and your child’s individual blog. You can find the class blog links on the Frankley School Website and also links to individual blogs on the class blogs. Your feedback on the learning tasks shared are important in the learning journey and much appreciated.
Have you looked at?
Flynn interviewing the Hot Air Balloon Organisers
Flynn would love some positive feedback on his interviewing skills.
Or
How about reflecting on your child’s basic facts by viewing this post on the room 10 blog?
We look forward to an exciting term. As always you are most welcome to make a time to chat with one of us should you wish to discuss your child’s learning.
Kind regards,
Brendon and Merryl
Term 2 Week 9:
OUR VISION: Making a positive difference by being a creative learner and an effective communicator.
Tēnā koutou katoa
Hello to everyone
We had a very successful trip to Puke Ariki working with Glenn the Puke Ariki educator and also curator of the Maori Treasures. We were very lucky to have Rebecca and Chris, educators from the Govett Brewster Art Gallery. Together the three educators provided three learning sessions for our students. Talk to your child about their learning on our trip.
This week our students will be working on their Poupou design and experimenting with the medium they might use. We may have a need to corrugated card, in fact cardboard in general. If you have a supply of this please could you send it to school.
Next term students will take the first week or two of school to complete their Poupou.
Teacher Release this week
Mrs Dunlop will be in room 10 and Miss Hobby in room 11 on Wednesday to release the teachers for classroom planning.
Basic facts
We have placed an emphasis on this in our last few newsletters. With both classes working on division and multiplication strategies we are seeing many children unable to retain accuracy in their problem solving due to very poor knowledge in the multiplication and division facts.
We can not emphasise enough the need for children to have a strong knowledge in this area. Learn the division facts with the multiplication fact. For those who struggle with recall, being able to use a times table card and understand the concept of multiplication and division is very important. Attached is a basic fact support card for those children to use. Please help children become proficient in its use.
Free printable 10 x 10
General Notices
Our top Interschool netball team has made the semifinals. We are hosting this and this will take place on Tuesday. If your child is involved in this your will receive a separate email. Our football team has made the semifinals and we will be travelling to St John Bosco, this will most probably be in week 1 of Term 3. We will let you more about this as the details are sorted out.
We have had a few reports of head lice within our classes. Please check your child’s hair for this and take the appropriate action if you find any.
This week Room 4 are selling American hot dogs($3.00) , lolly cake brownie, (nut free, $1.00), and cupcakes ($1.00) to raise money for the Rotokare scenic reserve. This will be in place of the usual Friday Pizzas.
Individual Student Blogs ….. Just a gentle reminder to take the time to look at your child’s individual blog. We encourage you to follow the blog by adding your email into the spot on the blog where you can follow by email. Please comment on posts as this positive feedback encourages your child with their learning. As we come to the end of Term 2 it may be beneficial to talk with your child about the learning over the term, reflect back to Student Led Conferences and talk about the nexts steps in their Learning Journey. All student blogs are attached to the main class blog.
Frankleyroom112014.blogspot.com
Your child may also wish to log into their google account and share some learning in here.
Please reflect with your child on the safety practises they follow with internet use. We constantly revisit this with students and emphasise any unusual activity within their email must be shared with you and with the teacher.
Enjoy your holiday break and we look forward to seeing our Room 10/11 students bach at school on the 21 July.
Hei konā mai,
Merryl and Brendon
Week 8:
Week 7:
OUR VISION: Making a positive difference by being a creative learner and an effective communicator.
Tena koutou katoa
Hello to everyone
Te Ara Tika
Many of our groups are now beginning to design the symbols and motifs that will make up their final art piece. They are aware that the Poupou they design will have special meaning and significance for them. Each student will develop symbols and motifs that represent special things about them - family, likes, special objects, talents, personality, special life events, talents etc. Have a chat with your child about the sorts of things they would like to include in their Poupou art piece. They will then use their learnt knowledge of Maori symbols to develop their own symbols that represent these things. Each Poupou will tell a story!
Maths - Basic Facts
Please reread the information we sent home last week on basic facts learning. This contained some excellent ways to help your child learn their basic facts at home and ways you can support them to do this. You can also check out the resources on the NZ Maths Families (www.http://nzmaths.co.nz/families) page for ideas on supporting your child at home. Many of the resources are based around helping your child by providing real life, everyday contexts for exploring maths concepts e.g. baking, gardening and shopping.
Thursday - Trip to Puke Ariki
This Thursday we will be attending some art sessions at Puke Ariki. This has been arranged as many of our students were contacting the library to arrange a visit as part of their Te Ara Tika learning. We are very proud of the students who recognised the need to seek expert help for their art and made contact with an expert. We are scheduled to be at the library from 10:30am - 12:15pm although the details are still being worked out.
Interschool
We have now had all our pool games. Our top netball team went through the pool games undefeated and, our football team managed 2 wins from 3 and our rugby team were beaten in all their games unfortunately. In their last game, our netball b team managed a close 3-3 draw.It has now be confirmed that we will host a Netball semifinal and the football team will travel to play a semifinal at another school. We will let you know the details of these as soon as we have them.
Finally, Mrs Smith is in room 11 on Tuesday as Mrs McAllister is attending an Ipad course. On Friday Mrs Smith is also in room 11 (leadership release ). Room 11 are hosting Assembly on Friday starting at 2.25 pm.
Have a great week everyone.
Kind regards
Brendon and Merryl
Week 7:
OUR VISION: Making a positive difference by being a creative learner and an effective communicator.
Tena koutou katoa
Hello to everyone
Te Ara Tika
We are really involved in the finding out stage now of this unit of work. Please talk with your child about the Pou Pou and help clarify their understandings by sharing their new learning. You might like to talk about symbols they might design to represent significant parts of their lives. Some students may wish to talk about their ancestors.
We are trying to organise a trip to Puke Ariki next week to look at Pou Pou and to meet with Glenn an educator and carver.
Basic Facts
As we move more into multiplication and division it has come apparent that many of our students know some multiplication facts but are not as efficient or do not have a good understanding when ity comes to division facts. By year 5 students should know x2, x5 and x10 , including both multiplication and division facts. They need need to work on the rest and by the end of year 6 we would like our students to know all of the multiplication and division facts. For those that know these and as they learn visit the patterns formed by the multiples, discuss how we can tell if a number can be divided evenly by 3, or 6. These are called the divisibility rules and some understanding of these help. Does your child realise all the multiples of 5 end in a 5 or a 0. Do they know the when the digits from multiples of 9 are added they always add up to 9. eg 81, 8 + 1 = 9. You can help your child with this understanding. I have attached a times table PDF with a few hints for those who struggle with times tables and division facts.
Sport T ~ Skills for Life
We have our last session on Tuesday. Talk to your child about this as we have played some fun games and some activities can be done a home with the family.
Thursday ~ Interschool
We have our last games (another away event) at St Josephs School. Please let us know if your child is playing and you have not received the newsletter. We still need transport for this game. If you are able to help out please email Brendon as we only have around a third of our players catered for in cars.
Mrs McAllister is not in room 11 on Monday, Mrs Smith will be working in room 11. Mr Anderson is not in Room 10 on Friday, Mrs Dunlop will be working in Room 10.
Room 11 are looking after the Guinea Pigs, we are very short of newspaper. If you can spare any please send to school. The Guinea Pigs would love some silver beet, if you have a supply of this in your garden and could spare a bunch, please could you email Merryl and then I can confirm back.
Have a great week everyone.
Kind regards
Merryl and BrendonWeek 6:
Week 5:
OUR VISION: Making a positive difference by being a creative learner and an effective communicator.
Tena koutou katoa
Hello to everyone
The term is zipping along. We hope everyone had a great long weekend.
The Frankley Staff had a brilliant day on Friday learning with Trevor Bond (Education consultant from Core Education).
Skills for Life ~ Sports Session ~ Tuesday
Tomorrow we have another sport session (Skills for Life) with Sport Taranaki. These are great sessions where the students learn attack, evasive and defensive skills and play fun games where these skills need to be applied.
Interschool Sports ~ Friday
We have our second Interschool Sports Competition on Friday at Puketapu. You would have received a newsletter and on this the children involved are listed along with organisation details. Games start at 1.00 pm
SFRC Discos
These are on Friday for all students. Please remember to register at the office if your child is attending. The senior disco is from 6:45 - 8pm. (Year 4- 6), an earlier disco 5.00 - 6.15 is for the younger students.
Room 11 will have a reliever on Wednesday. This person is yet to be confirmed.
Te Ara Tika
Our Learning model is called Te Ara Tika; this is the framework students use when learning. We use this model throughout the day but really focus on it as we explore the technology, social sciences, science and the arts curriculum.
Our present Te Ara Tika has our students exploring the task where they are asked to explore a form of Maori Art where eventually they will design and create their own Poupou making it meaningful to them. They have formed their initial questions (ask them how they improved their questions from earlier in the year), brainstormed key words and phrases to do with this topic and formed more solid questions to form the basis of the information they will need to complete the task. Room 10 has begun the finding out and room 11 is heading into finding out this week. If you have a particular interest in Maori Art or could help our students with finding the information they seek, please let us know.
Kind regards
Merryl and BrendonTerm 2 Week 3
Tena koutou katoa
Hello to everyone
Te Ara Tika
We are really involved in the finding out stage now of this unit of work. Please talk with your child about the Pou Pou and help clarify their understandings by sharing their new learning. You might like to talk about symbols they might design to represent significant parts of their lives. Some students may wish to talk about their ancestors.
We are trying to organise a trip to Puke Ariki next week to look at Pou Pou and to meet with Glenn an educator and carver.
Basic Facts
As we move more into multiplication and division it has come apparent that many of our students know some multiplication facts but are not as efficient or do not have a good understanding when ity comes to division facts. By year 5 students should know x2, x5 and x10 , including both multiplication and division facts. They need need to work on the rest and by the end of year 6 we would like our students to know all of the multiplication and division facts. For those that know these and as they learn visit the patterns formed by the multiples, discuss how we can tell if a number can be divided evenly by 3, or 6. These are called the divisibility rules and some understanding of these help. Does your child realise all the multiples of 5 end in a 5 or a 0. Do they know the when the digits from multiples of 9 are added they always add up to 9. eg 81, 8 + 1 = 9. You can help your child with this understanding. I have attached a times table PDF with a few hints for those who struggle with times tables and division facts.
Sport T ~ Skills for Life
We have our last session on Tuesday. Talk to your child about this as we have played some fun games and some activities can be done a home with the family.
Thursday ~ Interschool
We have our last games (another away event) at St Josephs School. Please let us know if your child is playing and you have not received the newsletter. We still need transport for this game. If you are able to help out please email Brendon as we only have around a third of our players catered for in cars.
Mrs McAllister is not in room 11 on Monday, Mrs Smith will be working in room 11. Mr Anderson is not in Room 10 on Friday, Mrs Dunlop will be working in Room 10.
Room 11 are looking after the Guinea Pigs, we are very short of newspaper. If you can spare any please send to school. The Guinea Pigs would love some silver beet, if you have a supply of this in your garden and could spare a bunch, please could you email Merryl and then I can confirm back.
Have a great week everyone.
Kind regards
Merryl and BrendonWeek 6:
OUR VISION: Making a positive difference by being a creative learner and an effective communicator.
Tena koutou katoa
Hello to everyone
Skills for Life ~ Sports Session ~ Tuesday
On Tuesday we have another sport session (Skills for Life) with Sport Taranaki. These are great sessions where the students learn attack, evasive and defensive skills and play fun games where these skills need to be applied. This week some of our students have been putting their learning into action by designing games that reflect the skills being taught. The instructors were very impressed by the games designed in a previous session. This is just one instance where we have provided leadership opportunities for our Year 5 and 6 students.
Interschool Sports ~ Friday
Thank you to the parents that helped provide transport or came and supported our teams in our Interschool Sports on Friday. The results (Frankley score first) were Netball 30 - 7, Soccer 13 - 0, Rugby 38 - 45. Our last round robin games take place on Friday next week where we travel to St Josephs.
Te Ara Tika
Our Te Ara Tika units are progressing well. Students are now in to the researching stage. We encourage our students to think through all the possible sources of information which will answer the questions they have set themselves. This may take the form of using their identified keywords and phrases to search for relevant websites, images, books or video clips; identifying experts in the community who they can visit or interview or even identifying experts from around NZ or the world. We encourage you to ask your child to explain the process they are using, their learning about Maori art and the enjoyment that is clearly evident within the classroom.
Maths
A reminder that your child will have access and log ons to several excellent websites that can support their Mathematics learning: Khan Academy, E-Ako and Study Ladder. They can also view videos of the strategies they are learning in class on the Teacher Tools website http://teachertools.co.nz/lessons-and-more/more-free-lessons/
Khan Academy in particular is an excellent website covering many different curriculum areas where children can view learning videos and practise the skills they are learning in class or even learn new skills. Take a look with your child.
Weekly Events:
Both is us will be out of the classroom on Friday as part of our duties on the Learning to Learn team. We will be working on the continued development of the Frankley Curriculum. Room 10 will have Kaye Dunlop relieving and the Room 11 reliever is to be advised..
Room 10 is hosting this weeks assembly, come along to support the students taking part.
Kind regards
Brendon and Merryl
Week 5:
OUR VISION: Making a positive difference by being a creative learner and an effective communicator.
Tena koutou katoa
Hello to everyone
The term is zipping along. We hope everyone had a great long weekend.
The Frankley Staff had a brilliant day on Friday learning with Trevor Bond (Education consultant from Core Education).
Skills for Life ~ Sports Session ~ Tuesday
Tomorrow we have another sport session (Skills for Life) with Sport Taranaki. These are great sessions where the students learn attack, evasive and defensive skills and play fun games where these skills need to be applied.
Interschool Sports ~ Friday
We have our second Interschool Sports Competition on Friday at Puketapu. You would have received a newsletter and on this the children involved are listed along with organisation details. Games start at 1.00 pm
SFRC Discos
These are on Friday for all students. Please remember to register at the office if your child is attending. The senior disco is from 6:45 - 8pm. (Year 4- 6), an earlier disco 5.00 - 6.15 is for the younger students.
Room 11 will have a reliever on Wednesday. This person is yet to be confirmed.
Te Ara Tika
Our Learning model is called Te Ara Tika; this is the framework students use when learning. We use this model throughout the day but really focus on it as we explore the technology, social sciences, science and the arts curriculum.
Our present Te Ara Tika has our students exploring the task where they are asked to explore a form of Maori Art where eventually they will design and create their own Poupou making it meaningful to them. They have formed their initial questions (ask them how they improved their questions from earlier in the year), brainstormed key words and phrases to do with this topic and formed more solid questions to form the basis of the information they will need to complete the task. Room 10 has begun the finding out and room 11 is heading into finding out this week. If you have a particular interest in Maori Art or could help our students with finding the information they seek, please let us know.
Kind regards
Merryl and BrendonTerm 2 Week 3
OUR VISION: Making a positive difference by being a creative learner and an effective communicator.
Tena koutou katoa
Firstly a big thank you to those who managed to come to your child’s student led conference last week. Allowing our students to articulate their learning to their families helps them clarify understandings and their needs in the their learning journey. For some children this was quite easy and for others they needed more support. We encourage you to ask your child to regularly explain what they are learning and to explain different systems for their learning. Take the time to continue discussions started during the conference. You are very welcome to come into the classroom anytime to allow your child to share their learning. We are hoping your child now has your email address in their gmail and can share learning from their google drive with you.
Please have a look on the room 10 blog where students have left comments reflecting on the Student Led Conferences, you may like to leave a comment.
Room 11 are working on little videos with a few reflective comments on their conferences.
Students from Room 11 who did not attend Student Led Conferences with their families last week will bring their reports home tomorrow. All room 10 students should have theirs.
We have a busy week coming up.
Monday: Mrs Smith in room 11. ( Mrs McAllister has Leadership meetings)
: Mrs Fothergill in room 10 ( Mr Anderson is unwell)
Tuesday : Interschool Frankley Vs Waitara East ( Please refer to your earlier newsletter)
We are still short on the number of drivers required to transport our Interschool teams to Waitara East School on Tuesday. If you can help out, can you please email Brendon back urgently with the required information for drivers on the attached document.
Please also note that a number of children have not returned the attached permission slip on page 3. This needs to be filled out and returned before we can allow your child to travel.
Friday: Mrs Smith and a Mrs Watson will be in rooms 10 and 11 as Mrs McAllister and Mr Anderson are both released to work on the Frankley Curriculum.
Just a reminder to all Year 6’s it is 8 days until we go to palmerston North for the Young Leaders Day. The cost for this trip is $75.00. Please pay ths to the school office oif you have not already done so. A notice will come out this week with last organisatonal details.
Have a great week.
Kind regards
Merryl and Brendon
Term 2, Week 1
OUR VISION: Making a positive difference by being a creative learner and an effective communicator.
Tena koutou katoa
It is great to have our students back ready for another term of learning. Term 1 involved a lot of setting up and now we are really into that Learning Journey for our students.
This newsletter will have points around:
1. Results of our Survey Monkey on our newsletters
2. Information on a trip to Devon to experience Technology next Tuesday
3. A reminder about the Young Leaders day in Palmerston North for our Year 6 students.
4. Students preparing for Student Led Conferences on 13/14 May
5. Other
We had 21 responses to our survey. Key points noted were parents would like a clearer format perhaps with bullet points and a more concise newsletter. The majority of parents wanted our newsletters to continue. One area we have noted we would like to improve on is encouraging you to leave comments on your child’s blog. Perhaps during the student led conference on Tuesday or Wednesday will be a time where your child can support you to do this.
All Year 5/6 students will be visiting Devon on Tuesday, we leave school at 10.50 and return before lunchtime. Students will get to experience one area of technology during the time we are there. Students need to wear closed in footwear on this day. Devon Intermediate will provide buses for transport.
All Year 6’s will be undertaking a trip to Palmerston North on Tuesday 27 May, for the Young Leaders Day please revisit your earlier notice, a final notice will come out before the trip. Of you have not paid the fee of $75 for this trip, please do so.
More information will be coming home this school on Interschool Events.
There is a school assembly on Friday hosted by room 09.
We look forward to seeing you with your child at their conference this week. Please do contact the office if you have had or are having and problems booking a time on line.
Mrs Smith will be in room 11 on Thursday.
Kind regards,
Merryl and Brendon
Week 3
Our vision: Making a positive difference by being a creative learner and an effective communicator. Hi Parents
Thank you to all those parents that attended parent interviews. It was great to meet you all and discuss important information related to your child. I personally found these very helpful in getting to know each child a little better and in painting a bigger picture of them as an individual and as a learner. If you have any concerns about your child’s learning please don’t hesitate to pop in to make an appointment or drop me an email.
Camp - in the next few days a final camp notice will be going home. This will have an amended gear list on it. It would be great if you could involve your child in packing their equipment as much as possible. The class is very excited about this and this week in class, we will be sorting out things like tent groups, activity groups etc. Children will have a chance to ask any questions they have about any aspect of camp (although we do like to keep a few surprises up our sleeves!). We are all looking forward to it and Merryl and I are working extremely hard to make it a fantastic camp where children will have the chance to take part in activities they may otherwise have the chance to.
Te Ara Tika - this week in class we started our Te Ara Tika (The Learning Pathway) Terrific Tupare unit. You can check this out by viewing our class blog http://room10frankley2014.blogspot.co.nz/ and clicking through the short slideshow on it. The children were involved in discussing their prior knowledge of Tupare and virtual tours. They were also involved in writing questions and identifying key words and phrases that will allow them to research the answers. The ability to create relevant questions to unlock information is a key skill which we as teachers are striving to build across all aspects of the curriculum. When children have the ability to ask questions and then use the important words to find the answers, they will be well on their way to being lifelong and independent learners. I am impressed by the questioning skills demonstrated already and am looking forward to the final product in this unit of learning.
Blogs - these have just about been fully set up now. I would encourage you to look at your child’s blog. You can subscribe to your child’s blog, and the Room 10 class blog, by adding your email address to the “follow by email” button. All children have been asked to add this gadget to the blog to allow you to do this. It would be great to also see grandparents, aunts, uncles etc follow their blog. I have found that when children have a real audience for their writing, their writing improves dramatically. The added motivation of an audience seems to lift their writing especially with boys. We have continued discussing aspects of cyber safety related to this and are becoming more aware of always thinking about what they are posting online - gadgets, comments, photos etc. They also know that if anything ever makes them feel uncomfortable to tell an adult straight away.
Weekly Events Tomorrow (Monday) I am out of the class attending meetings, the class will have a reliever. The last few swimming sessions have seen a number of children without togs. You you please check that your child has their togs everyday except for Wednesdays. Have a great week and enjoy the rest of today’s sun!
Week 2
Our vision: Making a positive difference by being a creative learner and an effective communicator. Hi Parents
Week 2 is over and we are beginning to get more and more into our learning. This week in class we have begun Maths learning in area of Measurement. We are going over basic ruler and measurement skills, learning about the units of measurement and learning how to add,subtract and convert units of measurement. We have also spent more time setting up children’s Google Drives. As with last week, the class are enjoying completing their work via the computer. Already there is a high level of engagement and children are becoming very competent at managing their own Drive, folders and learning. By using this we are aiming for each student to take more ownership of their learning and the direction it might take for them. We have also looked at some Internet safety and I know there have been some excellent discussions at home. Get them to show you their document on this about digital footprints and passwords. This week we began our class spelling programme.
Each week your child will have between 8-10 words to learning, more if they choose to. These words are based on the essential spelling lists, commonly misspelt words, topic related words or words in their own writing. These words are entered into a document on their Google Drive on a Friday- get them to show you. The idea is that during the following week they spend time learning these words. I have also given them a log in for spellingcity.com They can use this to enter their spelling words and comeplete acitivities based on these. There are also lots of other activities related to spelling and grammar. The school has paid for a premium account and it would be great to make use of this excellent resource. This week we will also be taking a closer look at our school’s vision statement found at the top of the page. We would love for children to know it and be living it! It is our aim that children learn to communicate effectively by both giving and receiving messages in the many different forms, learn creatively and through these, make a positive difference in the class, school and their daily lives. Have a chat to your child about this as the week unfolds. A few reminders: Individual blogs - these are up and running and we will be making more and more use of these. Hopefully everyone has now brought their stationary to school. If not could you please make sure that it is here by Tuesday. The school picnic is Tuesday. We would love to have you join us at Ngamotu beach after 12pm. Wednesday and Thursday is parent interview day. This is a chance for you to tell me about anything that may be relevant about your child - likes/dislikes, learning needs, personality etc. The better I know them, the more I can help them! Swimming is everyday except for Wednesday, please help your child to remember their togs. Library day is Tuesday - book bags please. Camp notices - keep these coming in thanks, I just about have everyone’s. Have a great week and hope to see you Wednesday/Thursday.
Week 1
Our vision: Making a positive difference by being a creative learner and an effective communicator. Hi Parents
We have now had two (very hot) days at school and the class is settling in well! I will be keeping in regular touch with you in these newsletters and letting you know what we are up to with our learning in class. Hopefully your child has passed on that we have swimming 4 times a week - everyday except Wednesday. Our library day is Tuesday. Please help your child to become responsible for bringing their swimming gear and library book bag on the required days. I have found that a note on the fridge or their bedroom wall is a great visual reminder for helping them to remember. Your child may have also passed on or shown you that they have their own school Google Apps for Education (GAFE) account. This is an exciting initiative that we have started this year. Modern learning is vastly different from the way it was when we were all at school. It has even changed a lot since my beginnings as a teacher. Each child now has their own account which they can use to access documents related to their learning. They also have their own email which they can use to communicate. The class have enjoyed the work we have done on introducing it so far and are very excited about using it more and more. The system is managed by our school. We will also be educating our students on cybersafety and it would be great if you could have follow up discussions with them on this. Two great websites are the netsafe website (www.netsafe.org.nz/) and Hectors World (hectorsworld.com) One exciting aspect of our Google accounts is that as they will be doing much of their learning and class work online, you will be able to see what they are learning and have direct input into this and a far greater understanding of their curriculum levels, growth, progress and goals. More about this in the coming weeks but I encourage you to get your child to show you what they have done so far. Our class blog address is http://room10frankley2014.blogspot.co.nz/ Please bookmark this site. We will be using it as a resource to share work, information about class learning, photos and resources. You will also see that each child has their own blog where they can share published work and writing. Children write much more effectively with a real audience - we would love it if you could take the time to regularly look at their blog as well as their classmates and leave a comment. Once again, more about this in the coming weeks but for now you can subscribe to the class blog by going to the address above and entering your email address into the “follow by email” box at the bottom of the page. Lastly, if you have any concerns regarding your child’s learning or want to know more about how your child is doing, please feel free to drop me an email or pop into the class to see me to make a time convenient to both of us. Have a great week
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