Homework Room 8 Term 1 Week 5 Group 2

Dear Parents,
Here is a weekly homework sheet for your child, homework books are to come back to school for marking every Monday. It would be ideal if you sat with your child and guided them through their homework so that classroom learning is supported. I do of course understand that there is not always time and we are all busy with other things!
This week is a full on week for Room 8. Tomorrow we have the Botanical Garden trip which will be lots of fun. Thursday I am on release and there is a Black and Red mufti day and Friday there is no school with teacher only day! Room 8 will no doubt look forward to going back to proper routines next week!
This week in Room 8 we are focusing on the blend ‘bl’. On the line below please get your child to practise writing the blend ‘bl’.
_________________________________________________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
________________________________________________________
Get your child to brainstorm as many words with the blend ‘bl’ with you. This is to be completed in their homework books.
This week your child has 5 spelling words to learn. Your child needs to be able to read the word and spell the word. The spelling words are:
who lost are sit of

MATHS
Number identification is an essential part of maths knowledge, children should know how to count as well as recognise what each number is. Please get your child to fill in the gaps and get them to tell you the numbers. If you can see that your child has trouble recognising a particular number, it may be a good idea to make some flash cards for you to use at home.
1 __ 3 4 ___ 6 ___ 8 9 ___ 11 ___ 13 __ 15 ___ 17 ____ 19 _____

Homework Room 8 T1 Week 5 Group 1

HOMEWORK
TERM 1 – WEEK 5
Dear Parents,
Here is a weekly homework sheet for your child, homework books are to come back to school for marking every Monday. It would be ideal if you sat with your child and guided them through their homework so that classroom learning is supported. I do of course understand that there is not always time and we are all busy with other things!

This week is a full on week for Room 8. Tomorrow we have the Botanical Garden trip which will be lots of fun. Thursday I am on release and there is a Black and Red mufti day and Friday there is no school with teacher only day! Room 8 will no doubt look forward to going back to proper routines next week!

This week in Room 8 we are focusing on the letter K.
On the line below please get your child to practise capital and lower case k.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ________________________________________________________
Please see glued in the back of your child’s homework book a list of spelling words. Please help your child learn the un-highlighted words. They need to be able to spell the word as well as instantly recognise.
MATHS
Number identification is an essential part of maths knowledge, children should know how to count as well as recognise what each number is. Please get your child to fill in the gaps and get them to tell you the numbers. If you can see that your child has trouble recognising a particular number, it may be a good idea to make some flash cards for you to use at home.
1 __ 3 4 ___ 6 ___ 8 9 ___

Room 9 Homework T1 Week 5

Reading Name of book Number of pages read A person who asked me questions:
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday

Spelling: Look at the word, memorise the spelling, cover it up and try to write it. You need to be able to spell these words by Friday of each week.
Word
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday

Maths: Children need to be able to instantly recall these basic facts ie no thinking time. Please help them to build speed by the end of the week NOT to just complete the answers
.
1. 5 + 0= 2. 2 + 3 = 3. 4 + ___ = 5 4. 3 + ___= 5 5. 1 + ____ = 5

6. 0 + ___ = 5 7. 3 + 2 = ___ 8. 5 + 3 = 9. 4 + 5 = 10. 2 + 5 =

11. 5 + 4 = 12. 5 + 1 = 13. 3 + 5 = 14. 5 + 2 = 15. 0 + __ = 10

16. 4 + ___ = 10 17. ___ + 7 = 10 18. 2 + ____ = 10 19. 1 + ____ = 10

20. 6 + ___ = 10 21. 5 + ___ = 10 22. 3 + ___ = 10 23. ___ + 9 = 10

24. 4 + ___ = 10 25. 7 + ___ = 10 26. 2 + ___ = 10 27. 6 + ___ = 10

28. 1 + ___ = 10

Room 6 Homework T1 Week 5

Homework Week 5 Term 1
Read your book and get your book log signed.
Learn your Spelling words (in the back of your book).
Homework needs to be handed in on Thursday this week.
Practise your handwriting - Capital A and lower case a.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------__________________________________________________
br words: bread, brother, breakfast, break.
Father Mouse found some _____________ to eat.
I have my ______________ before school.
My_____________ and I play soccer at school.
Maths Knowledge: This week we are working on instantly recognising number factsto 10 (addition and subtraction). Chn need to know answers and missing addends (numbers) - They need to be quick.
0 + 10 = ______ 10 - 1 = _______ _____ + 9 = 10 10 – 4 = _____ 2 + 8 = _____

10 – 5 = _____ 7 + _____ = 10 10 – 3 = ____ _____ + 5 = 10 10 – 8 = _____

6 + _____ = 10 10 – 6 = _____

*Extra - Double these numbers and write the number sentences and answers on the next page. 6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13.14,15.

Room 6 Homework T1 Week 4

Homework Week 4 Term 1
Read your book and get your book log signed.
Learn your Spelling words (in the back of your book).
Homework needs to be handed in on Friday.
Practise your handwriting - Capital O and lower case o.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
__________________________________________________
dr words - drop, dream, dragon, dress.
The ______________ could breathe hot red fire.
Can you __________ yourself in your uniform in the morning for
school?
At night I sometimes have a funny _____________.
*Extra write these words in good sentences on the next page.
drum, dry, drain.
Maths Knowledge: This week we are working on instantly recognising
number groupings to 5 (addition and subtraction). Chn need to know answers
and missing addends (numbers) - They need to be quick.
5 + __ = 5 5 - _ = 1
_ + 2 = 5 5 - _ = 3
2 + 3 = _ 5 - 4 = _
0 + 5 = _ 5 - _ = 5
__ + 1 = 5 5 - _ = 0
4 + _ = 5 5 - 3 =_
* Write out the number facts to 10 on the next page if you can do these.

Room 9 Newsletter T1 Week 4

Parent Overview for Room 9
Term 1 of 2011.
First of all I would like to extend a warm welcome to all of the children in Room 9. It is great to have you in Room 9—you have all settled in so easily!
Below I have listed some of the major events that come to mind this term so that parents can support this learning from home or impart some of their own wisdom or ideas relating to the topics! It is also my intention that the brief outlines may help clarify things that you hear your child talking about when they get home but if not, I can only reiterate that my door is always open and you are very welcome to write, visit, email or call me. So...
Weekly Events
 Homework will be given to children every Monday. They have that week to complete the tasks before handing it in on the Friday. It usually involves reading practice, maths work and some spelling words.
 Library day is on Friday. Children will get a new book each Friday and they are expected to transport it in a library bag in order to protect it. They can return it to the green library box in class on any day in order to be prepared before our library time on the following Friday.
 Assemblies are held every Friday afternoon from 1.45pm. Each Friday we alternate between a Junior Syndicate Assembly and a Whole School Assembly. Junior Assemblies are held odd weeks, Whole School Assemblies are on even weeks.
 Fultons swim school begins this Thursday. Children will swim every day so please ensure they have their togs at school. Later in the term swimming will culminate in our annual Junior Swimming Sports day in our school pool.
Topics
 Written Language—”To describe”. We will be using the senses and figurative language such as similes and metaphors to describe various subjects.
 Numeracy—We began the year with area and perimeter. We will be moving on to Addition and Subtraction after testing each child on their maths knowledge using an assessment called IKAN.
 Health and Physical Education—Swimming followed later in the term by padder tennis.
 Reading, oral and visual language will continue to operate alongside the above topics.
 Science—Living World, “Our Gardens”. We will continue to develop our garden area behind the library. We are hoping that the vegetables grown can be used in a healthy winter foods topic next term.
Edible Garden
As we begin another year so does the garden! We are needing to plant more seedlings in the next week or two in order to get some crops up and going. We have a small budget from selling produce in 2010 which will be used to purchase more seedlings. The cherry tomatoes have proven to be tasty and fun to eat when they explode in the children’s mouths.
The class work on our garden each Friday. A change of clothes is a good idea as we generally get wet watering the garden, dirty or sometimes both.
Junior Blog
Cathie Newton has started up a blog for the junior school where all of our information etc can be placed for you to access at your convenience. The address is http://learningaboutlearningsupport.blogspot.com
Mathletics
Your child received their log in name and password last week at school. Please keep these in a safe place. Encourage your child to use mathletics at home. It builds number knowledge and speed which can support their learning of mathematical strategies at school. I am in the process of setting up the class Ipad with mathletics access and we will use 3 or 4 of the netbook laptops in class so children can play at school as well.
Botanical Gardens
To support our gardening topic we will be going on a school trip to the Botanical Gardens on the 3rd March. We will participate in one of their structured programmes called “Create our own garden”. Please start saving any small yoghurt pots you may use.
So far this term I have focused on building class room routines and setting expectations for neat presentation and tidy book work skills. When helping your child with homework please encourage them to use pencil and do their best to produce neat, high quality work expected of year 3 students.
Thank you for your home support. I look forward to working with you.
Sharon Hill
sharonh@tehihi.school.nz

Newsletter for the junior team visit to the Botanical Gardens, 2nd and 3rd March

Tuesday 15th February
Dear Parents,
This term your child will be learning about plants and how to create a suitable environment for them to thrive.
To support this learning we have arranged to participate in a “Create your own garden” programme and guided tour at the Manurewa Botanical Gardens. It will cost $4 per student and children will need to take a small yoghurt pot with holes in the bottom to transport a seedling back to school.
Rooms 7 and 8 (Mrs Kenny and Miss Hodge) are booked for Wednesday 2nd March.
Rooms 6 and 9 (Mrs Buckley and Miss Hill) are booked for Thursday 3rd March.
On each day we will leave school soon after 9.00am and return around 1.30pm.
As usual we require parental support for transport and supervision on the day. We are unable to accommodate pre-schoolers on the trip so we won’t be able to accept help from parents who would need to bring younger children.
If you are able to transport children and supervise on the day please fill in the appropriate portion of the slip below. Teachers will collate responses and get back to you as soon as they can. If your transport is accepted you will be required to fill in further forms relating to YOUR health as a parent helper and the safety of your car.
Thank you
Junior Team.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Transport and Supervision
Yes! I am able to help drive and supervise a group of children at the botanical gardens on: (please tick day)
 Wednesday 2nd March.  Thursday 3rd March.
Name of parent helper: __________________________ Signed: ___________________________
Name of your child: _____________________________
Number of children you are able to transport in your car (seat belts necessary): ___________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Permission Slip – PLEASE COMPLETE & RETURN ASAP
I give permission for my child __________________________________ to attend the trip at the Manurewa Botanical Gardens. I understand that they will be transported to the gardens in parent’s cars and that they need to have suitable shoes and food/drink for a busy day’s work.
 I have enclosed $4 payment.
Permission given by: __________________________ Signed: ___________________________
Relationship to child: ______________________________

Room 6 Homework T1 Week 3 Group 2

Homework Week 3 Term 1
Read your book and get your book log signed.
Spelling will start next week.
Homework needs to be handed in on Friday.
Practise your handwriting - Capital C and lower case c.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------__________________________________________________
Spelling: Put in the cr to finish these words. Read the words.
____eep, ____y, ____oss, ____ own, ____unch, ____azy.
Draw a crocodile.



Fill in the missing numbers.
101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110
112 115
123 128 130
134 136
142 145 149
151 154 156 170
163 165 168
178 179
182 184 188
191 195 200

Room 6 Homework T1 Week 3 Group 1

Homework Week 3 Term 1
Read your book and get your book log signed.
Spelling will start next week.
Homework needs to be handed in on Friday.
Practise your handwriting - Capital C and lower case c.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------__________________________________________________
Spelling: Put in the cr to finish these words. Read the words.
____eep, ____y, ____oss, ____ own, ____unch, ____azy.
Draw a crocodile.



1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
12 15
23 28 30
34
42 45 49
51 54 66 70

78 79
82 84 88
91 95 100

Room 8 Newsletter Term 1 Week 2

ROOM 8 NEWSLETTER
Welcome back to school, it has been lovely to have already met many of you. Thank you for taking the time to introduce yourselves. This is my first year at Te Hihi School and I feel privileged to have such lovely children in Room 8. We have a very busy term planned and I am sure that all the children are ready to make the most of the learning opportunities offered to them.
We are preparing for our Junior Swimming Sports, which will be held on Thursday 24th February. As well as our programme with the Fulton Swim School, we are introducing the different swimming events to the children. The children need to bring their togs every day. Please make sure ALL their clothes are marked. We have already had lost shirts and underpants!
Our library session is on Thursday afternoon. We will let you know when the library is open (we are presently completing the annual stocktake). Mrs Hill will be working with the class on Thursdays so she will be taking the library sessions.
We are completing assessments at the moment so that we can group the children in literacy and numeracy. Although the testing may not be completed by the beginning of next week, I will be sending home familiar/easy books for the children to read so that they get into their homework routine.
If you have any queries or your child comes home saying something that doesn’t sound quite right, please don’t hesitate to contact me at school or by email ashleigh.h@tehihi.co.nz. I am available most days with exception of Tuesday after school when I have professional development.
Kind regards,

Ashleigh Hodge

Room 7 Newsletter, Term 1 Week 2

Room 7: Term 1

Dear parents,

It is lovely to see Room 7 children again after the holidays and a big welcome to our children who have just started school this term. We have a very busy term planned and I am sure that all the children are ready to make the most of the learning opportunities offered to them.

Our topics this term are;-
* Learning’s the thing
* Our Gardens

We are preparing for our Junior Swimming Sports, which will be held on Thursday 24th February. As well as our programme with the Fulton Swim School, we are introducing the different swimming events to the children. The children need to bring their togs every day. Please make sure ALL their clothes are marked. We have already had lost shirts and underpants!

Next week an instructional reading book will come home that has been read with me at school. The children enjoy reading their books to you, so please try to make the time for this shared experience. The more reading they can do, the better the progress. The children are also expected to practise their spelling words by copying the words underneath in the spelling book. Please see the “Welcome” letter for more details on their reading and maths homework.

If you have any queries or your child comes home saying something that doesn’t sound quite right, please don’t hesitate to contact me at school or by email cesk@tehihi.co.nz.

Thank you once again for your support.

Regards,
Ces Kenny

Welcome to Room 7 Newsletter

Welcome to Room 7!

Dear parents/caregivers,

Just a quick hello and a few administration matters to make
everything run smoothly for both your children and me.

I am looking forward to working with you and your children this year. I believe in displaying the children’s work as much as I can and making the room attractive, colourful and a learning experience for all. The children are encouraged to work quietly so that they do not disturb their peers. There is no running in the classroom and they are made aware of other safety factors in the room – how to walk with scissors, etc.

Your children will bring their reader home each night in the book bag. The children must bring their book bag to school each day or no reader can be issued. They put their book bag in their chair bag when they come to school each morning. Please read the book with your child and question him/her about it. The poetry book will come home on Friday and must be returned on Monday in the book bag.

Each week the class will have a new ‘star’ word and letter to learn. We will study the letter of the week in both our handwriting and phonics work. On Monday I will give your child his/her spelling notebook with one word that should be learned. This spelling book should be returned to school on Thursday. In the back of the spelling book there will a sheet, which informs you of the maths knowledge your child is learning and you could help them to learn these facts.

Our library day is Friday and during the morning we will visit the library. The children may borrow a book from the school library and this needs to be returned the following week. The book will be brought home in the library bag and should be returned to school in this bag.

Please feel free to come and see me at any time if you have any queries or concerns.

Thank you,
Ces Kenny

Reading testing and groups - notes from Meet the Teacher BBQ

Developing groups
• At the NE level, sometimes further up in the juniors, groups can be determined by the children’s alphabet and word knowledge as they are not yet readers.
• As children begin to read their grouping is determined by running record results and their performance in the reading group. As the children progress they may change groups or the group may stay the same.
Frequency of testing
• Each child is tested within the first 2-3 weeks of the school year.
• School wide data is gathered at the end of each term.
• Teachers test children approximately twice a term unless their performance indicates a need for earlier testing or the child feels he/she has made significant progress and asks to be tested. The changes occur as needed.
Other
• Easy home readers
• Helping children at home
• Supporting learner

Numeracy testing and grouping - notes from Meet the Teacher BBQ

Developing Groups -
• Data collected from previous year passed on to next T
• New assessments also done T 1
• NumPa assess 2011 – assessing child’s strategy level
• and number knowledge – this identifies gaps and helps the T group according to levels. Groups can change.
• Teaching initially may be mainly knowledge to build a foundation for strategy learning.
Frequency of testing –
• At the end of a unit eg Measurement. May be formative/summative. Peer /Individual.
• According to need- eg child displays understanding and could be moved to a new group. Can be confirmed with
• “ a snap shot assessment “ to confirm Ts observations.
• Types of assessments that guide learning – range, purpose. Some individual, group, class wide or school wide assess.
Other:
• Numeracy workshops
• Home numeracy kits to support number knowledge learning.
• Parental support- goals child want to achieve.

Composite classes - why do we have them?

Rationale:
In smaller schools there is less flexibility when determining the composition of classes. The table below shows the number of children we have at each year level. From this we can see that straight year classes is not an option for our school.
NE/Y0: 4
Y1 22 Y5 30
Y2 31 Y6 25
Y3 35 Y7 22
Y4 35 Y8 23

How do we teach children in different years?
Assumptions:
• All children of the same year have the same or even roughly the same ability in all areas.
• There is a different curriculum for each year a child is at school.
• It is easier to teach children of the same year level.
These assumptions are not correct children enter school with what I call different ‘libraries.’ Some children have had many and varied experiences; some very limited experiences. Some children have had a great deal of exposure to literacy and numeracy; some children have had no exposure. Some children are gifted, some average, some have learning disabilities or English as a second language. Our job is to take a child from where he/she is at and support them to progress onwards.
How do we organise the make-up of composite classes?
• We know the children well as young people and as learners over time
• We have end-of-year assessment data beside each child’s name and knowledge of where they have come from.
• We have a list of the numbers of children and year levels in each class.
• As a team we sit down and pool what we know. We consider academic, social, physical and personal details for individual children and for a possible class. We also think about which teacher would best suit a child and the range within a class.
• We draft, we think and talk, we redraft – what would be best for our students? This process can take many, many weeks. Where appropriate we talk with parents or listen to parents.
• The final draft goes through to the management team and discussions can start again.

Welcome to our Junior School Team

Welcome to our Junior School blog. We hope that you find our blog useful and would welcome any comments you have to make as to how we can make this informative for all.

Junior Team Expectations

Our school expects a high standard of behaviour from our students, as they learn to follow our school motto of Character, Kindness and Courtesy. As classroom teachers we will be revisiting these in the first few weeks of school, helping the children to further understand how we behave when we show these qualities. Discussions will also continue throughout the year as appropriate.

Alongside our motto, there are other rules that need to be followed and, in order to support our classes, our first unit will be titled “Ourselves, Our Community, Our Country” This unit provides the vehicle for exploring further the social studies objectives in the new curriculum of how places are significant for individuals and groups and how people can influence places and vice versa. Our initial intention is to build a team and classroom climate where there is a shared understanding of who we are as individuals, as a group and what our rules are at Te Hihi School, providing an opportunity for our students to feel secure and to have clear boundaries. We will then look at important places in our community and our country

We would also appreciate your help in ensuring our classes begin the year in a happy and successful way. The following routines may seem small to you but, to our little people, helping them in these ways makes life so much easier and smoother.

Name all of your children’s clothing with labels or a permanent marker. In particular, names on jackets, hats and swimming gear are important as these are items that can often be put down or mislaid. Of course, there are consequences if these items are lost or mislaid. For example, if you don’t have a school hat, you have to play in the shade area rather than the playground as a whole. If you lose your togs, you can’t go swimming and if you lose your jacket you get cold. For little people these can be devastating events and ruin the whole day. If you would like to purchase labels, visit the website www.stuckonyou.co.nz to order.

Remembering to return library books in your child’s library bag and reading book in the reading bag is really important. Our children love taking library and reading books home and not having their bags or having overdue library books means no new books. It also means they can’t do what their classmates do and that also is important to the children.

Bringing our togs on our swimming days means we can have fun in the water with our classmates. For some children, swimming may be an anxious time and, rather than not go swimming, please let us know so that we can cater for your child and help overcome that anxiety. This year the Board of Trustees are generously providing swimming lessons with trained swimming instructors for all of the children in our school. We are delighted about this opportunity, the details of which were outlined in this week’s school newsletter.

Communication

COMMUNICATION
Communication is the key to our successful partnership in supporting your child’s learning. Our team will endeavour to make sure that we communicate our concerns and celebrations quickly and clearly with you, our parents and we would appreciate you doing the same. No matter is too small and we all know that addressing concerns together at the early stages prevents them from growing into bigger concerns.

The process for addressing concerns is first and foremost talking directly with the classroom teacher. My role as team leader is to facilitate and support these discussions when required or to answer queries that relate more to the structure of the team, behaviour management or the curriculum we have devised. We can be reached either by visiting our classrooms before or after school (or 1B in my case – between Rooms 1 and 2), leaving a message at the office or emailing. Our email addresses are as follows:

Ces cesk@tehihi.school.nz
Ashleigh ashleigh.h@tehihi.school.nz
Sharon sharonh@tehihi.school.nz
Sally sallyb@tehihi.school.nz
Cathie cathien@tehihi.school.nz

We are happy to meet with you before or after school, depending on our commitments. At this stage our teaching team has meetings on Tuesdays, before and after school and some Thursdays.