Welcome back and looking forward

This week has been a good start to the term.  All students came back to school with an eagerness to get into their learning.

The key learning this week has included the following: Identifying the main ideas in a text and finding detail that support it. To do this we have used concept maps. Next week students will be aiming to do this independently with text they read.
 In writing all students have chosen one holiday experience to share and are focusing the detail of their writing around two main events. One group is learning to have a variety of sentence beginnings and another group is learning to use clever linking phrases between paragraphs to assist and entertain the reader. By mid next week their published recounts should be on their blog. Be sure to read them and leave a positive comment!
In mathematics the class focus has been on reading and counting large numbers, 100, 10 and 1 before and after. We have also looked at creating our own bar models to assist in understanding word problems and the different strategies we can use to multiply three digit numbers.

Next week we kick of speech writing! Speeches must have have persuasive or explanation structure and students are to choose the topic they want. Class competitions will be in Week 5. Following that the top speakers will compete at a school assembly with the winners (two from each class) competing in the Rotary Speech Competition.

This term we are also learning about different dance elements. We are creating a dance that depicts the creation story in Genesis. Dates of school production are yet to be confirmed.

For te  reo Maori, our morning routine students are taking a more active roll this term. They are learning how to lead karakia, himene, waiata and mihi. This can be quite challenging for some students. With support and encouragement all will achieve success.

Lastly, school cross-country is coming up! Students will be working towards personalized fitness goals. With this, along with netball (Wednesdays) and pakena (Fridays) we will be having a good amount of Physical Education.