24 Apr 2024

Kia ora everyone.

We hope you are all having a fabulous break and are (nearly) ready to tackle Term 2!

Thank you to all who attended our student-led conferences last term. It was wonderful to see you and share some of your child’s learning and the goals they are working on. 

SPELLATHON: Our much-anticipated fundraiser, the Spellathon, will take place during the second week of Term 2. Please let us know if you need another copy of the list. We encourage your child to diligently practice and seek sponsorship to support this event.  

CAMP: We should have the final list of names for the parent helpers by the end of the first week back at school. The $85 deposit for the school camp is due so please pay this as soon as possible. PLEASE let us know if you have any queries or concerns about camp.

LEARNING FOR TERM 2: 

Math: Fractions, Multiplication and Division

Writing: Narratives, freewriting, Writers Tool Box sentences

Reading: Continue building on decoding and comprehension skills

Inquiry: Dance and Drama in preparation for our production

Heath and PE: The Waitākere Way, Te Whare Tapawhā, big ball skills, cross country

Visual Art: Mixed Media, Matariki

Digital Citizenship: Media Balance and Wellbeing

Te Reo: Ko wai tō…? Who is your…? Matariki

Kapa Haka: Working with Matua Hawaiki 

PRODUCTION: Our preparations for the school production are underway, with the date set for Term 3, Week 2. Our theme colour is BLACK and we will be performing to a medley of songs based around the colour BLACK. If you are able to assist with dance routines/ movements or you have any wonderful ideas please let us know.

IMPORTANT DATES FOR TERM 2: 
Monday, 29 April – Term 2 begins 
Week 2 – Spellathon 
Friday, 17 May – Deadline for Spellathon contributions 
Monday, 3 June – King's Birthday public holiday 
Tuesday, 4 June – Teacher Only Day 
Friday, 28 June – Matariki public holiday 
Thursday, 4 July – Strike show - $7 if you have not paid the school donation 
Term 3: Week 2 – Production 
 
Enjoy the remainder of the holidays. We look forward to seeing everyone back at school on Monday.

Kei wareware tātou - Lest we forget

Ethan and Kura

18 Apr 2024

Happy holidays everyone!

Hope everyone is well.

I have completed registration for the netball season (apart from our junior year 1 team), if you are a manager or coach for one of our teams you should have received an email from me outlining the scoring code and information evening details, if you have not yet got that please reach out and let me know. 

All students should now also have a uniform for the season please let me know if you have not yet got one.

Fees are also due, $90 per student, please pay this to the office with netball as a reference, if there are any problems with this let me know. 

At this stage, we are still after at least one more player for our Junior year 1 team before I will register the team, if you know of anyone that is interested, please give them my details. 

As always reach out if you are not sure of anything. 

Thanks 

Nina

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