Term 2 2010
Throughout this term we will be fine tuning our Report writing skills. The Juicy Writing programme will continue throughout the term with Mrs Flack taking both room 10 & 11 while Mr Booth will be taking a Poetry unit with the children completing a personal Poetry Anthology. We are aiming to further increase your child’s written vocabulary. Each student is expected to complete and publish all writing work. This will involve some work at home. Encourage your children to share their writing with you. Senior students are being encouraged to keep a Journal throughout term two. Time will be set aside each day for individual reflection on positive and negative aspects of the week. Students will be encouraged to share their writing but it is not a requirement.
Writing will focus on Journal Writing, Information reports,and poetry. Students will be encouraged and supported as they experiment with and write poems, their personal journal and learn about an information report, producing a brochure about one of our neighbouring countries and a Poetry Anthology.
Maths
Statistics and Measurement is our Maths focus. We will be uing metric and other standard measures, make simple conversions between units using decimals,describing locations and giving directions using scales, bearings and co-ordinates. We will also be using side or edge lengths to find the perimeters and areas of rectangles, parallelograms and triangles and the volumes of cuboids.
Please feel free to ask your children how they are going in class. Basic knowledge of Number Facts, including the Times Tables is essential.
Big Picture
“Neighbours” is our Big Picture topic this term. We will be exploring our family origins and our culturally rich society. Over the last two hundred years a diverse range of people have chosen to immigrate to New Zealand. As a result New Zealand is now a multi racial society. Students will be completing an individual investigation, writing a report in the form of a travel brochure on a country of their choice. Citizens from their chosen country must be living in New Zealand today.
Reading
The importance of reading for pleasure and to inform will continue to be emphasised in our class. All members of Room 10 have set individual reading goals. Each student is undertaking two in depth Novel Studies this term, the first is due in week 6, the second in week 11. In order to successfully complete all the required activities students will need to work on them outside school hours. I have endeavoured to select books that suit your children. If you have any concerns please see me.
EOTC / SPORT / PE. Our focus for Term One is large ball skills, especially soccer and netball. We have George Vale providing a soccer skills programme on Thursday afternoons called Samba Soccer which teaches skills to the beat of Brazilian music. A lot of fun.
Home Learning
Unlike the middle school syndicate we do not send home a weekly home work sheet. Senior home learning requirements will vary from week to week, as they do at high school. At times students will be required to complete writing at home. Throughout the year students are encouraged to use class time wisely; work not completed during class time may need to be finished at home. At times students will be expected to complete Topic assignments. . All students should be reading at home. It is expected that each student will be reading a minimum of two novels per term. Novel studies will be completed for these books.
Reading:-
This will require them, at times, to read and completed associated work sheets at home. They will be looking in depth at plots, characterisation, and how the author builds the suspense in the story. As well as this we will be tackling more in-depth understanding in their reading with work on inferencing, evaluation and re-organisation
Art
All students are creating a unique piece of art for the Taupaki School Arts Festival. The theme will be linked to our Big Picture topic, Neighbours. Students are reproducing images that are representative of their home environment, a local suburb, Auckland city and New Zealand in their art.
Merit Badges:- Once again thes badges will be awarded to those students who show high levels of achievement, leadership or participation .
BADGES CURRENTLY AVAILABLE
House Captain Student Council Enviro Team Sport Library monitor Music Monitor Phys Ed Arts School Band Academic Outdoor Education Music StudentLeader Excellence Flag Monitor
I am really enjoying working with your children. I encourage them to be curious, creative, innovative, loyal to others, show respect and work to the best of their ability at all times. Please encourage them to discuss what we are doing at school. Get them to share their work with you. Self responsibility and good time management skills will continue to be promoted in our class. Feel free to pop in any time to discuss
R. Booth
