Monday, August 31, 2015

Week 7 Update....

Hi everyone!

Just a quick notice:

Homework: Instead of basic facts and spelling, our homework this week will be speech writing. We will save the new lists we made last Friday to use in Week 8. Parents, please try to support your child with their writing efforts as they craft their speeches during homework time over the next 2 weeks. They will be able to show you the steps they are using to create their speech, but any help you can give would benefit them. Once the children have their final speech drafted and edited, they can put them onto cue cards and start practising them.

The focus on speeches is in preparation for the Ara Pakeke Speech Competition  in Week 9.

Our class speech competition will be at the end of Week 8, most likely Thursday and Friday. It is from the class competition that a Year 3 and a Year 4 will be selected for the Pakeke competition.

Below are the marking criteria for the speeches. While the prop/s and slideshow are not compulsory requirements, they could potentially add another 10 points to the speech score. The slideshow only needs to be one background picture, to add interest for the more visual learners in the audience.

Going through this with your children will also help them to stay focused on what is required.
There has been an interesting range of persuasive arguments being cooked up so far in Room 8- it's going to be exciting to hear the final products!









Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Week 6 Blog

Hi everyone,

This term is going so quickly!!!  We have been working very hard, so that has made the time seem to go faster.

Here are a couple of important events for this Friday:

~Ara Pakeke Assembly, 1pm

~Ara Pakeke Disco.  Starts 6.30 pm, finishes 7.45. Please pick children up from the Hall..  The theme is "Game On". Dress as your favourite game character, or a game piece...use your imagination!!!  What a fun way to end the week.  We have been practising the "Continental Drift" dance for Friday, and there will be prizesfor the best dancer. Will it be a Room 8 person???

Here is a link to the dance moves for anybody wanting to get REALLY GOOOOOOOD


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMuJxd2Gpxo


Writing;
We are really getting into our Persuasive Writing now. We have just finished a persuasive argument about whether or not Rm 8 people think homework should be banned. Mrs de Jong was really encouraged to read that most of the people in Room 8 think homework should NOT be banned! That tells her that Room 8 value their learning a lot, and are already starting to think about their futures.  What an amazing group of learners Room 8 are.

  Mrs de Jong has noticed that some Room 8 students who were finding Writing tricky are starting to find it easier and enjoy it more when they follow the Writing Process, because "it gives me ideas on what to write, and helps me when I'm stuck".  (Moutaz)


 Here are some photos of  some of us as we were working through the Writing Process to produce our  persuasive work:










Reading:
A lot of us are really proud of the progress we are making in Reading, and so is Mrs deJong. Some of us are REALLY close to moving up...to help us get there we have to READ, READ, READ. And that means taking Choosing Books home.

Some of the boxes are a bit empty though, because people have been fantastic at taking them home, but are forgetting to return them to the box at school, so other people are missing out.  Let's have a good hunt at home and bring back the books that are hiding under our stinky socks, our cat's bed, under magazines on the coffee table, or in parent's cars. Thank you!!

Mrs de Jong has found other fun things for us to read at home to keep our skills growing... check out these great videos that we can read along and practise with:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt6GSoouja0


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrlXLPP7c0U


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X7GaRCw5HA


Maths:
As well as fractions, we are looking at Measurement in our Strand Maths. We have been deciding what the best benchmarks would be to measure things with.
We had fun with our discussions when we worked out that it's probably best not to try and measure a nose in KMs, a car in MMs or the Sky Tower in CMs!!!
We have been estimating then checking the measurements of objects around school, and thinking carefully about the benchmarks we would use.

Topic: 
We are right into making our prototypes now, it's really exciting! Mrs de Jong's Board Games group will need to remember to bring along any bits and pieces that they want to use to decorate their boards with, or make game pieces with.
The strong card for the base boards and card for use in the game will be supplied by Mrs de Jong.

Parent Interviews:
The next interviews will be in Week 10.

Bye for now!!




Thursday, August 6, 2015

Celebrating Pakeke Talent!

We have had an exciting Friday, celebrating the talent we have in Ara Pakeke.
 2 students from Room 8 received certificates for excellence in their work, (Leila) and showing Arahoe values of Community Participation (Arizona). Well done girls, we are all proud to have you in our class!!!

We have  other talent in our room, too. Poppy is learning the guitar. if we are very lucky, she might play for our class when she feels ready. Go Poppy!!! 



At Ara Pakeke assembly, Room 10 did a funny dance, and Mrs Makani's choir sang the beautiful "Fireflies" song by Owl City...



Yesterday we had great fun trying out some new Maths games that Mrs deJong had made for our class. They are helping us to get stronger in our fractions and Basic Facts, and we learning about respecting property and looking after gear. Some of us really got into the games!


TOPIC....

We are nearly at the stage of building our prototypes, so if anyone is able to help out with donations that were mentioned a couple of blogs ago, we would be extremely grateful, thank you!


Have an awesome weekend!  ðŸ˜‰







Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Weds 5th August.

APOLOGIES!!!!!  Make that  12:45 for Pakeke Assembly - sorry!


Wednesday, 5th August, 2015.

Just a quick note to parents that Ara Pakeke assembly this week has been shifted to 1:45.

All the best,

Christina de Jong.