An enviroschools play

One of our reading groups the Pukeko readers have taken their reading to the next step by creating a play about what they have read. The Pukekos read an article about an enviroschool and as Paroa are just embarking on their journey as an enviroschool these bunch of rad readers used their knowledge to write and present a play to the class. Ka pai to mahi, Ngā Pukeko, you guys are indeed showing yourselves well on the way to being Ruma ono, Rad Readers by using your reading to generate new understandings, and you showed some tumeke team work while you were at it!

The video link is below, it is quite quiet so you may have to turn your speakers up.

Maths Strategy Touch Up

Kia Ora All,

Here is a maths strategy that I've been working on with a bunch of students this week. It's a really useful one and I recommend looking at it with your child. If you want to know how to pitch the level of questions you make up for them to practice with here are my suggestions:

• easy: 12 x 5 = ?
• slightly harder: 56 x 8 = ?
• hard: 352 x 4 = ?
• very hard: 983.463 x 6 = ?

Rock On,
Mr M

Inquiry Wall

We've kicked into gear with our inquiry by recording our prior knowledge about plants. We've also discussed what plants students may like to grow. I'm hoping to get some seedlings started in the very near future, so your child may talk to you about what they want to grow. Below is an image of the inquiry wall to date. Special thanks to Sonny for thinking of a humorous title for our inquiry.

Term Four!

Kia ora All,

I hope you've had a great holiday break and are ready to rock 'n' roll for one more term. Here are some important announcements for the oncoming term:

• This term our inquiry focus is "Diggers and Planters". As part of the study we'll be growing our own seedlings. Many students have been experimenting with New World Little Gardens, so we'll be looking at branching out (pardon the pun) and growing a regular seed from scratch. If you have any expertise in this field please talk to your child about how to do it as I have no idea...
• At the end of last term I did a maths test to see where the students are at with their number knowledge. I'll be working on some stuff around this in class this term, but I've also set a bunch of Maths Buddy tasks covering gaps I found. Some students will have really a lot of lessons set - I'd recommend making sure you have regular Maths Buddy time set aside as part of your home learning. 

Enjoy the rest of the holiday break.

Mr M

Cyber Safety

Kia Ora All,

Madeline (the Toki Pounamu facilitator) is scheduled to come in to class weekly for this term to help prepare the students for blogging and continuing the Cyber Smart curriculum. We had a really interesting conversation today about what the students are up to online with their gaming and any online profiles they have. Here is the link to the programme Madeline's running. I'd suggest regularly chatting to your child about how they are keeping themselves safe online and get them to talk to you about what we've covered in school. 

Let me know if you have any questions. 

Mr M