Welcome Back to Term Two!

Kia Ora koutou! I hope everyone is safe and well in their bubbles.

A new term brings new learning adventures for us all. It has been fantastic to catch up with learners this morning via Seesaw.

Please remember that teaching and learning will look different to what we are used to during this period of time.

Both Nigel Latta and Nathan Wallis have said that this is the time to put the well being of our tamariki first. What this means for your family might look different to what it means for another family, and that's ok. Now is a time to be gentle with ourselves and support each other.

TVNZ has released today two television channels full of educational content, so you might also like to check these out.

Learning looks different for each child, and so, while I have set tasks for the whole class, you might chose to do one or two, or none, or all and then some. And each of these ways is absolutely fine. This is not a time to put extra stress on yourself or your tamariki.

Follow this link for this weeks learning tasks.

This is also a great time to be teaching the skills that help our tamariki in many ways, from fine motor skills, to self helps skills, through to being an active participant in our whānau. Below is a table with just a few ideas.

Ideas for the school holidays

Me mahi tahi tātou mō te oranga o te katoa.

We should work together for the wellbeing of everyone.

 

For all children, we will be supporting their learning from your home in the new term through online learning via Seesaw, class blogs and via links on Facebook.  For the next three days and during the school holidays (that have been brought forward to next week 30th March to 15th April) learning resources will be available on class blogs. We are currently developing online programmes with some degree of connectivity to begin after the school holidays.

A message from Nathan Wallis:

If I can leave you with one thing, it’s this: at the end of all of this, your kids’ mental health will be more important than their academic skills.  And how they felt during this time will stay with them long after the memory of what they did during those weeks is long gone.  So keep that in mind, every single day…

This is just to say...

This week the learners of Akomanga 19 had a great time sharing some of the naughty things they had done, as part of our writing focus on poetry. We used the template from William Carlos Williams’ poem to come up with our own piece of poetry. Keep an eye out for your child’s poem coming home this week in their poem book. 

Let your imagination run wild.

This week as part of our chapter chat activities learners were invited to put their imaginations to work. They could chose from redesigning the book cover, creating a scene with the BFG, Sophie and the Queen, or recreating the giants cave.  

As you can see each learner put their own twist on the brief and the results were fantastic. 

Ko wai au? Who am I?

Learners in Room 19 have spent the last couple of weeks creating their visual pepeha. A pepeha is a way of introducing ourselves and tell where we have come from. The children all have an individual pepeha as well as a school pepeha that we use. Their pepeha includes their maunga (mountain), awa or moana (river or sea) and their whānau (family). Learners have taken these pepeha and created a visual representation which includes themselves, their maunga, awa and where they are from. You may have seen this on your child’s seesaw. Below are some examples and how we use these pepeha during hui. 

Friday celebrations.

At Hamilton East School we love to celebrate the achievements of our learners. We do this each day in class celebrating the small steps we take on the way to bigger achievements. We also do this every Friday at Positive Assmebly. We’d love to see you there if you get a chance. 

Here’s Sophie from Room 19 talking about her achievement of placing 6th out of more that 60 entrants in this years X race. Ka wani ke Sophie! 

The BFG

This term Room 19 is taking part in Chapter Chat as part of our literacy programme. Over the space of a week, we read the book and then on Thursdays and Fridays undertake activities and answer questions related to what we have learnt that week.

These are posted to the Chapter Chat twitter and learners have the opportunity to interact with learners from more than 140 other schools New Zealand-wide.

This week learners had the opportunity to make a dream jar and label it with a dream that they have. If they didn't take part in this task they were answering ten questions about this weeks chapters.

One thing we have had fun with this week is discovering the made up words that Roald Dahl used in the BFG and trying to work out what they mean (have you ever tasted a snozzcumber?!?)

Ko wai au? Who am I?

As part of our Turangawaewae inquiry this term learners are finding out about who they are and where they fit in our class, school and community.

One of the activities we have been doing is beginning the process of creating self-portraits.

We have been learning about look-draw-look, using a photo of ourselves. Once they have completed the sketch, they will darken the outline and then "colour" using tissue paper collage.

Below are some examples of learners engaging in this process.

Team Work Makes The Dream Work

One of the goals for this week has been to think about what helps us work together as a team, in our class.

Learners had to work in groups and try and find a way to make the longest piece of paper from one A4 sheet.

They had five minutes to consult with their group and plan their strategy and then 10 minutes to make the longest strip they could.

The results were interesting! But what really came out was what things help us work together in groups.

Learners came up with concepts like :

Contributing
Sharing ideas
Using everyones ideas
Talking to each other.

Combined with some work we did last week on how we like to be treated as individuals, the learners will take these words and ideas and make feathers for our class Korowai, which will represent the things we say and do as a class that help us to look after each other, learn and grow.

Let me introduce myself

1st February 2020

Kia ora koutou!

My name is Ange Dent and I will be your child’s teacher this year.
I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself. 

This is my second year teaching Year Three and Four learners at Hamilton East School. 

My education journey started when studied Psychology and Sociology at the University of Auckland.

After leaving university I studied Child Psychotherapy and then worked as an early childhood
educator for a number of years.

I left teaching to look after my children (Noah, Isobel and Jack) and returned to the workforce
as a teacher aide in a special needs unit of an Australian high school.

When my children and I returned to New Zealand, I decided it was time to follow my dream and
gained a Graduate Diploma in Teaching. Hamilton East was one of my practicum schools.
I loved it here so much that I was very excited to be offered a teaching position.

My passions include art and craft (I am an avid sewist and make most of my clothes).
I love reading, writing, and being in and around the water. In my spare time, I race dirt karts
and collect and fix vintage sewing machines.

Your child’s year in Room 19 is going to be full of fun, lots of learning and exciting adventures. 

If at any time you have any questions, problems, or just want to have a chat about what’s going on,
please don’t hesitate to contact me,

Ngā mihi nui,

Ange Dent

adent@hameast.school.nz

Science in action

This term food science has been out focus for inquiry. Learners have been learning about scientific observation and forming hypotheses (predictions) about what will happen.

 I have attached two of the slideshows for learners to share with you.

Food preservation

Citrus and Baking Soda