16 Apr 2024

Kia ora e te whānau,  

That is term 1 done and dusted. We have loved getting to know your children and reconnecting with students we have previously taught in 2023.  A huge thank you to you all, for making the time to come to the conferences regarding your child's learning over the past week. Spending a little time with you solely focused on your child is lovely. If you haven't already, we encourage you to jump onto the Skool Loop app, hit the forms button, and answer the 2-question survey about how you found the conferences and what we could do to make them even better.  

Home Learning Challenges  
Several students have already shared some Home Learning Challenges with us.  We have thoroughly enjoyed hearing all about the amazing learning that our students have been involved in beyond the school environment.  If your child has challenges that they have completed, they need to write their name on the board in the classroom so that we make sure we allow enough time for them to present their completed challenges to the class.  If there are photos or videos to share, students can post these onto Seesaw in the Home Learning folder.   
 
All Year 5-6 students must complete at least 6 challenges by Friday 8 November for them to be able to participate in the Year 5-6 Home Learning Celebration Day held in early December.  If you would like further information regarding the school’s Home Learning Programme, please check it out on our school website www.waitakereprimary.school.nz.  If you are unsure how many challenges your child has shared, please ask us and we can let you know. 

Next term 
Term 2 learning is looking exciting, with some great learning opportunities in the pipeline! Whilst we have been told that the building work is on track we don't have a moving date just yet. We are however, really looking forward to when we can move back into our classroom. 

Here are some confirmed dates to make a note of for next term: 
Teacher Only Day Tuesday 4 June (no school) 
Year 5/6 Football Zones Thursday 13 June 
AMPT Day Thursday 20 June 
Matariki Friday 28 June (no school) 
Strike Percussion Show Thursday 4 July (cost of $7.00 to attend if school donation has not been paid) 

Speeches 
Heads up, we will be writing speeches next term to be delivered to the class either in the last week of term 2 or potentially in the first week of term 3.  These will mainly be written in class, however parent support with speeches is also encouraged.  Prior to Year 5, students recited a poem to an audience so this will be the first time Year 5 students will write their own speech and present it to the Galaxy.  We will begin speech writing by discussing what makes a successful speech and suitable topics.  Then students will choose their own topic and write their speech.   

This is a great opportunity for students to develop their oral language skills as well as their writing skills.  Speaking in front of the class is a skill that we regularly work on through group and class discussions at various times in our daily programme.  This includes sharing completed Home Learning Challenges with the class.  So, presenting their speech is a natural progression for many.  However, for some this can seem a daunting task that may even feel quite scary.  We always support students through this process so that they experience success and feel a real sense of achievement from speaking to an audience of their peers.  

Class timetable 
We will continue to spend the first 2 hours of the day on our literacy skills. You can encourage your child to have their reading book, writing book, device and pencil case out ready every morning as we start promptly into learning. Our timetable next term will begin with writing and moving on to reading after a quick brain break. We use our literacy sessions to explore the content of our inquiry so that it has a real-world focus for our students.  
 
Maths remains in the middle block next term and our focus will be on multiplication and division strategies with a measurement focus. You should start to hear words like area, perimeter and volume popping up in your child's vocabulary. We will also be checking their knowledge of which terms are most appropriate for what we are measuring.  For example - are km and kg really any use for measuring the outside measurements of your lunchbox? What would we use instead?  

Afternoons in Te Tupuni are generally spent focused specifically on our Inquiry but the first part of the final block of the day starts with silent reading or writing and spelling. Inquiry encompasses all the 'other' subjects - Science, Social Studies, Aotearoa New Zealand Histories, Technology, Digitech, The Arts, Health and PE. Next term our major focus will be in The Arts (Music, Dance, Drama and Visual Art).  Each class has drawn a colour out of the hat and The Galaxy have BLUE for our item. There will be lots of information coming to you next term about our item and production but save the dates of the week beginning 5 August as production performance week (including some day and evening times)!  

The majority of Te Tupuni students go to Kapa Haka - this alternates between a Wednesday afternoon and a Thursday morning.  If students are not in Kapa Haka they go to The Pod for Te Ao Māori lessons. We also have Kupu o Te Rā over the morning notices.  The last two weeks of the term we were learning to use the phrase "Kei te pēhea koe?" (How are you?) and learning to reply. It is amazing how many children love to respond with Kei te hiakai ahau at 9:00am in the morning!   

There were some tired poppets in class at the end of the term so the holidays will be a chance for a reset. We are enjoying some time with our own whānau over the term break. Have a safe and relaxing holiday. 

Noho ora mai, 
 
Jackie Still and James Grant 
The Galaxy Kaiako 

12 Apr 2024

Kia Ora Hive whanau,

Wow! What a packed first term we have had. Getting to know each other, setting up our class programs, swimming, statistics, creative writing, Hive 21 Bike West, Matuku link, Weaving wellbeing, going over our school values and what it means to be the seniors of the school.

We are looking forward to Term 2 which will include:

Geometry (Math): reading maps and learning about angles

Reading: building our comprehension skills through story telling

Writing: Building on our poetry skills then moving into writing and presenting speeches

The Arts: beginning to create our production item all around the colour orange

PE: Large and small ball skills with basketball, football, and hockey, and building our fitness endurance for cross country

There are a lot more exciting things in our program for term 2 including Friday program and tech (and Bike West for Hive 22).

For our Year 8s there are also taster days for Massey and Waitakere coming up too.

 

If you would like to be working on anything during the holidays, here are some websites we suggest:

Writers Toolbox - students can use their class log in to keep learning the different sentence styles or do the daily writing challenges

Get Epic - students can use the class code bxv2052 to access books (including audio books)

Mathisfun.com - has a lot of great explanations and practice questions of different math terminology we use, we recommend having a look at compass directions, bearings, scale maps, coordinates, and angles. Continuing to work on multiplication and division basic facts is also very helpful for math at this level.

We look forward to seeing you again for Term 2 on Monday 29 April, but for now tag you're it parents!

Nga mihi,

The Hive Teachers: Jess, Tash, and Ashleigh 

12 Apr 2024

Kia ora e te whānau, 

That is term 1 done and dusted. We have absolutely loved getting to know your children and reconnecting with students we have previously taught in 2023.  A huge thank you to you all, for making the time to come along to the conferences regarding your child's learning over the past week. It is really lovely to spend a little time with you solely focused on your child. If you haven't already, we encourage you to jump onto the Skool Loop app, hit the forms button and answer the 2 question survey about how you found the conferences and what we could do to make them even better. 

Sadly, today we farewell Vali and Caci from our class and Waitākere Primary. They are off on new adventures and we wish them and their whānau all the best for their move. Girls, we are very sad to see you go!

Next term

Term 2 learning is looking exciting, with some great learning opportunities in the pipeline! Whilst we have been told that the building work is on track we don't have a moving date just yet. We are however, really looking forward to when we can move back into our classroom.

Class timetable
We will continue to spend the first 2 hours of the day on our literacy skills. You can encourage your student to have their nuts and bolts book, writing book, device and pencil case out ready every morning as we start promptly into learning. Our timetable next term will begin with handwriting lessons, then writing and moving on to reading after a quick brain break. We use our literacy sessions to explore the content of our inquiry so that it has a real world focus for our students.  Spelling will remain as the first 15 minutes after lunch. Heads up, we will also be writing speeches next term to be delivered to the class either in the last week of term 2 or potentially in the first week of term 3.  These will mainly be written in class, however parent support with speeches is also encouraged.  We will let you know more information about this next term. 

Maths remains in the middle block next term and our focus will be on multiplication and division strategies with a measurement focus. You should start to hear words like area, perimeter and volume popping up in your child's vocabulary. We will also be checking their knowledge of which terms are most appropriate for what we are measuring.  For example - are km and kg really any use for measuring the outside measurements of your lunchbox? What would we use instead? 

Afternoons in Kākano are generally spent focused specifically on our Inquiry time. Inquiry encompasses all of the 'other' subjects - Science, Social Studies, Aotearoa New Zealand Histories, Technology, Digitech, The Arts, Health and PE. Next term our major focus will be in The Arts (Music, Dance, Drama and Visual Art).  Each class has drawn a colour out of the hat and The Pod have PINK for our item. There will be lots of information coming to you next term about our item and production, but in the meantime save the dates of 6 and 7 August as production nights! 

The majority of Kākano students go to Kapa Haka - this alternates between a Wednesday afternoon and a Thursday morning. If students are not in Kapa Haka they stay in The Pod for Te Ao Māori lessons. We also have Kupu o te Rā over the morning notices.  This past fortnight we have been learning to use the phrase "Kei te pēhea koe?" (How are you?), and learning to reply. It is amazing how many children love to respond with Kei te hiakai ahau at 9:00am in the morning!  

There are some tired poppets in class at the moment and the holidays will be a chance for a reset. We are also looking forward to some time with our own children over the term break. Have a safe and relaxing holiday.

Noho ora mai, 

Kristy and Lexi