Learning Conferences
It has been a pleasure catching up with so many of you this week at learning conferences. We are very proud of the students who have had their learning conferences, showing that they are about to confidently talk about their learning, sharing goals and explaining how things happen in the Kōwhai hub. We really appreciate having this time to discuss your child and their learning.
Home Learning
Like last term, this term your child will bring home their home learning each week. There are only 3 tasks that need to be completed:
1. Nightly reading (10-15minutes) which may be a book of your child's choice or a book that the teacher has sent home
2. Spelling words (5-6 words)
3. MMM sheet (1 minute timed or untimed test)
Can you make sure that your child returns their home learning folder and book to school each day as they need this to record the books they are reading and for them to practise their words at school.
Each Friday, the children have a spelling test and need their home learning books for them to set up the learning for the following week. Your support with ensuring your child has this at school each day is greatly appreciated.
Literacy
Our focus for the start of the term is learning about persuasive text and how to write an argument to persuade others. The children have discussed a variety of topics that they are keen to write about. Over the next few weeks, we will learn how to craft a successful piece.
For their writing to be successful, the children are aiming to:
- State their point of view clearly in the introduction and the conclusion.
- Explain their thoughts and position on a topic.
- Give reasons for why they think that using connectives.
(e.g. furthermore, however, consequently, therefore, so, because, firstly, finally)
- Give reasons and evidence to back up their position.
We will post some of their arguments on the blog for you to read over the coming weeks.
Maths
We have just begun exploring fractions as part of our maths learning this term. It has been great to see the children making connections with their maths knowledge and using this to help them solve their problem. We are currently solving problems like these:
Freya has two pizzas that are divided into eight pieces. She eats 4/8 of one pizza and 5/8 of the other. How much pizza has she eaten?
Torun has two pizzas. She gives 3/5 to George and 9/10 to Quinn. How much pizza did she give away? How much is left?
Sam is sharing some chocolate with the class. There are 24 pieces in a block. He breaks it into thirds to share with Violet and India. How many pieces will they each get?
You might like to discuss fractions at home to help build your child's understanding.
As part of our Inquiry topic in Sustainability, the children are continuing to explore the key statement:
People make choices to sustain their wellbeing and the environment.
People make choices to sustain their wellbeing and the environment.
This term we are going to be exloring our local environment and the ecosystems and the requirements they need in order to stay alive. We will be using the Treemendous area as a place of inquiry and will look at conducting a variety of scientific investigations in this area. We will keep you up to date with our findings.
Hockey
We are lucky enough to have Canterbury Hockey coming in to take weekly sessions will our our hub this term. Over the next 5 weeks, the children will have a session each week to develop their skills and they will then participate in a mini tournament in week 5.
BuddiesLast week, we worked on sharing our learning with our buddies and identifying our next steps for learning. Here we are in action:
Well that's all for now. Have a wonderful week ahead.
Kōwhai Teaching Team
