Welcome Back to Term Three!

Kia ora Whanāu,

Welcome back to Term Three - what a busy few weeks we have had! The first two weeks students had a grace period from homework while they were getting their heads around scheduling their maths and reading sessions. I am looking to introduce student agency into our classroom. This is where students choice and schedule when to complete tasks.

We have had a shuffle of our reading groups, with some students getting some extra one on one support to help build their reading and vocabulary skills. Students have access to a planning doc that states when I will see them/their group, they need to schedule time for a follow up activity, literacy skills worksheet (which goes over some basics we often forget during our writing), reading a novel and completing activities, and kiwi kids news (students choosing articles that interest them).

In maths we have introduced workshops which include our strand focus (currently geometry) and filling the gaps indicated from their Maths Buddy Weekly Revision Tasks. Students need to manage their week to include AWS tasks, Maths Buddy Weekly Revision, an Open-Ended Task (a question that has more than one answer and encourages deeper thinking), and must attend 3 workshop sessions per week. Students also have a hands on Taco Truck Challenge which incorporates project based learning with decimals, area and perimeter.

Ask your child to talk through their timetable with you and explain what they have to consider when they 'map out' their week.

For our curiosity hour this term we are looking at Māori inspired art and philosophical discussions. My goal is to develop imagination and creativity through the art sessions, while connecting to Māori culture - I had noticed last term that whenever it was time to illustrate or colour something students went straight to a device for inspiration...where has their imagination gone? I am hoping to develop and foster this in our classroom.

Through the philosophical discussions we look at questions like 'how should we treat animals?' You are only allowed to share if you are holding the ball, you can share a thought/idea or question. Students had their first session this Monday and showed awesome manaakitanga listening and responding respectfully to each others ideas and opinions. The questions posed by some questions, particularly Larissa and Camden, were very well thought out and led to deeper discussion. Our chat went on for 45 minutes. I was proud to see students share their ideas orally, (a great preparation for oral language classes that run at high school), and develop their thinking about a particular subject. 

This term we are looking at Leadership and Community for our Conceptual Learning. We are exploring and learning about different leaders, have found out our dominant leadership style, and will look to how we can all develop ourselves as leaders. 

We have also joined the Student Volunteer Army (SVA) and want to focus on what small things we can do which will have a positive impact on our community. We have floated some ideas, now time to put a plan into action! (WATCH THIS SPACE).

I look forward to sharing our learning with you through this blog and with students sharing via SeeSaw throughout the term.

Mrs Kale