I hope everyone has had a great Christmas Holiday break. It is lovely to see all the 'old' Kereru members back for 2011.
Room 2 extends a warm welcome to our new Kereru members: Princess, Billie-Ruby and Annie from Piwakawaka, and Hannah, Danielle and Rebecca who are new to the Dorie District. We hope they enjoy their time with us.
In Kereru we are looking forward to a busy term full of wonderful learning opportunities, both inside and outside the classroom. With the swimming sports and swim demonstration both taking place in week 3, we have already begun our swimming lessons. We have published a beginning year writing sample for our PRIDE Books, and are busy learning our routines and timetables, and getting back into the swing of being at school again. We have had our first Thursday assembly, and will be presenting at the week 5 assembly later this term.
In Topic during the next few weeks we will be looking at ourselves as individuals, and the many different strengths and interests each of us have. We will also look at how we all fit together in Kereru, despite being all different, and how our differences make Kereru stronger as a team. Later on in the term we will begin our Topic unit on Transport. We will be looking at past, present and future transport, the changes transport has had on our environment, and how it has changed the way we live and work (and farm!). This unit will continue into Term 2.
In maths we will be working through a Statistics unit for the first few weeks of this term, with an emphasis on reading and interpreting data presented as graphs. Last year we focused on collecting data and producing graphs, and this will be re-visited at the beginning of the unit. During the second half of this term we will be looking at place value and addition-subtraction basic facts. Our classroom Basic Facts Programme has already begun, and add-sub basic facts will be part of your child's homework.
In our instructional reading groups this term we will be practising fluency and using good de-coding strategies. Most children will be bringing home a reading book every night, Monday-Thursday. Kereru children need to have a book bag to put their reading books into each day so that they stay in good condition in their school bags. Please check your child's bag each morning and make sure that they bring their book back to school so it can be used in group sessions as we do not have spare copies for them to use. Some children will be choosing their own reading material which they will need to read for a minimum of 15 minutes Monday-Thursday.
Our writing for this term will be based around writing recounts on a range of varied topics. The unit will focus on encouraging good writing practices through writing mileage and reinforcing the indepdendent use of the writing process.
Each Friday afternoon Kereru will join with Piwakawaka for a Developmental Programme. This programme is aimed at encouraging creativity, independent thinking and self-management through free play. Kereru are looking forward to taking part in this programme and extending their thinking and problem-solving skills.
We would appreciate any materials which you may happen to have at home and would be happy to donate to our Programme. Please see the letter which went home with your child in week one. Thank you so much to the families who have already brought items to school. As many of the materials will be used to make things which the children will then take home, we will be happy to take 'top-ups' of materials throughout the year. One thing which would be very useful is clean yoghurt containers (which were not mentioned in the letter), and we would appreciate any that you would like to send in.
Looking forward to a fantastic term,
Kind regards,
Donna Reader.
