Uenuku Newsletter
Term 1 Week 6
Nau mai, Haere mai ki Uenuku
It's great to see the sun shining again this week. We are enjoying taking our learning outside, using the Adventure Zone, singing, doing PE and having fun at playtimes. Please remember to apply sunblock to your child before school. We will help them to reapply this at lunchtime, either with their own if they have it or with the school supply.
There was great excitement as the digger arrived in the staff car park today (for staff and students alike!). This means that staff will be parking their cars on the roads surrounding school so please allow extra time in the mornings and afternoons to find a park, and probably have a longer walk to school.
This week we are pleased to welcome Braeil and his family to our Uenuku whanau.
Learning in Uenuku
We would like to begin to share some of the learning opportunities the children have been involved with over the last few weeks. Here are just a few highlights.
We have been learning lots of the sounds of the letters in the alphabet, and blending them together to make words. The children use actions tapping their head, tummy and knees to show where they can hear a sound in a word and work out what the word is as they say the sounds quickly together. See if they can demonstrate some three letter words to you such as 'cat', 'mum', 'dad', 'pot'.
Our reading programme has concentrated on shared reading in a group, concentrating on discussing the texts, learning about different aspects of books and exploring fiction and non-fiction books from the library. We are lucky to be able to visit the library twice a week so that the children have lots of opportunity to bring books of their own choice home to share with you.
In maths we have been exploring the many different ways of showing a number, for example, dice patterns, pictures, finger patterns, tally marks to name a few. We ask the children "what can you see" and "how do you know" to encourage them to explain what the patterns or pictures show them. We have also started exploring repeating patterns (algebra), shapes and their properties, and solving number problems based on a short word story.
Google Classroom and Seesaw
The children have all posted something on their Seesaw account to share with you, as they learn to use this digital tool independently.
How can you help?
A few requests/reminders
- Please send a spare change of clothes in your child's bag. There are many eventualities when a change of clothing is useful.
- At this time of year layers of clothing are a good idea, to enable your child to add an extra layer if it's cold, or to be happy in shorts and t-shirt if it's hot. We do help the children to regulate their temperature if they are looking particularly hot or cold by suggesting they take off a layer or put on a jersey if they are cold.
- Students need to wear a wide brimmed sun hat outside everyday in terms 1 and 4. Thank you for sending these to school so promptly. We keep the hats in class overnight unless you request otherwise.
- We encourage the tamariki to drink lots of water throughout the day, especially during the warm weather. Please male sure that your child has their water bottle everyday.
- Library Days are Mondays and Thursdays. Please make sure that your child brings their books back at least once a week so that they can change them.
- Poetry books come home on Fridays and should be returned on the following Monday.
How can we help?
Team Uenuku
Miss Jensen - Michaela Jensen mjensen@paparangi.school.nz
Rebecca - Rebecca Arrowsmith rebecca@paparangi.school.nz (team leader/AP)
Email: office@paparangi.school.nz
Website: paparangi.school.nz
Phone: 04 478 6617