Welcome to Term 3!

Welcome back for another exciting term. The children have all had a fantastic first day back. They seemed excited to see their friends and get back into the routine of school.

Term 3 Kahikatea Hub 2017

Kia ora everyone. Welcome back to Term 3. We hope you have all had a relaxing break. It was lovely to see most of you at parent teacher interviews last term and celebrate the progress the children in Kahikatea have been making.

We have another busy term coming up with lots of exciting learning opportunities happening. Let’s hope the weather gets warmer and we can keep the winter coughs and colds at bay.

Please check your child has all the necessary stationery for the term ahead. Last term we had many children without a pencil or pen at school and a large amount of time was spent searching for equipment.

Home learning will be much the same as the previous two terms. It is important the children are taking responsibility for their own independent reading and basic facts revision at home. We encourage the children to write a sentence or look up the meaning for their spelling words this term.

This term the children will have a turn to find a piece of news that interests them and then present their news to the class on a Friday morning. The roster and details for this is glued into their home learning book today. Please check what week your child is presenting.

Weekly notes and reminders for Kahikatea Hub will continue to be added to our Blog every Monday.

Here is a brief overview of the term ahead:

INQUIRY: We are continuing to build on our school wide theme of “Building and Structures” and will be focusing on Building Imaginations. Our focus is around myths and legends from around the world. We are hoping to create a mask or costume piece for each child based on a mythical creature they are interested in. Any donations of materials for decorating, strong cardboard or wool would be greatly appreciated. If your child has any books at home on myths and legends that they are happy to share with others, please bring them along to school.

In the later part of the term we will be thinking about our new school library and looking at creative ways to contribute to library as a hub.

WRITING: We start the term off with a focus on instructional writing and then move to narrative writing. We will explore fairytales and myths and legends and write our own. During the middle part of the term we will be focusing on poetry and exploring different forms of poems and writing a number of our own.

READING: We continue to build on our knowledge of comprehension strategies this term. We will be looking at texts about myths and legends from around the world. We will also be reading a number of poems in preparation for the poetry competition in week 5 of the term. The children will be working in their guided reading groups with the teacher and will have reading activities when working independently.

We encourage the children to be reading a range of books and reading independently at home. Please remember that the children may not necessarily always bring a reader home from school every day this term.   

ORAL LANGUAGE: This term we will be preparing for our poetry competition in week 5. The children will choose one poem that interests them and learn it off by heart to present to the class. Finalists will be chosen from each class. The year ¾ poetry finals will be held on the Friday of week 5.

We also have a current news focus this term and the children have been allocated a Friday where they will present their news.  

MATHEMATICS: We continue with our math classes with a focus multiplication and division strategies. We will learn about time and money towards the end of the term and incorporate fractions and algebra into our term teaching.

PE: We start the term off with a focus on invasion games and developing our skills in a range of sports that use large balls. We will be learning some gymnastics skills and have two sessions planned at the Christchurch School of Gymnastics towards the middle of the term. We will require parent help for these sessions. More information will be sent home in the coming weeks.

VISUAL ARTS: For the first couple of weeks of the term the children will be working on their calendar art. We will then begin designing and making a creative mask or piece of headgear/clothing related to our myths and legends inquiry.

We are certainly looking forward to a fantastic term ahead. If you or your child have any concerns or worries please come and see us or email your child’s home base teacher.

Have a fantastic first week back

Jane, Julie, Adela, Fiona and Trish