Kia Manawanui - Have a Heart

Kia Māia - Be Courageous

Kia Kaha - Do Your Best

Kia Ora - Be Well

You may have heard your tamariki talk about our Puketapu Museum.

Our learning has been around artefacts - reflecting on the society that has made us and thinking about the people who came before us.

We are very excited to share our Puketapu Museum with you next week.

Please come to see our exhibition and taonga on Tuesday and Wednesday next week.

Please note: The Museum will be locked during assembly on Wednesday 5 April but open as soon as assembly finishes.

From time to time in the newsletter we hope to update you about the way teaching and learning is happening at Puketapu School. This will help everyone in our community jump on the same page and further help our tamariki.

This week we want to think about Reading.

Over the past year our school has moved to a Structured Literacy approach, which comes from the Science of Reading.

Five key points of the Science of Reading

1. Reading does not come naturally, it is an acquired skill.

Words are first learned in spoken language. In the past, a popular thought was that kids could also pick up the skill of reading on their own if they had access to books or were read to in their home and there's no denying that early shared reading is important.

Shared reading experiences are essential to the enjoyment of reading and give your child a great model of what fluent and expressive reading is, however this is not the most effective way of teaching children to read.

2. Instruction Needs to be Explicit and Systematic

A highly structured, carefully sequenced manner is an essential part of the teaching of reading. Phonics (the concept that words are made up of letters, and letters represent sounds) instruction plays a major role, but researchers insist it should not be taught in isolation.

Another recommendation is that kids need plenty of time to practice new skills they've been taught, before moving on. You can help with this by re-reading books your child brings home from school and getting them to point out the sounds they know and have been learning. This model moves away from ‘guessing’ words by reading in context or looking at the picture, but insists that students keep their eyes on the word and use the sounds they have been learning to work through the word.

3. The Simple View of Reading

The Simple View formula shows that reading has two basic components, word recognition (decoding) and language comprehension (understanding).

The two main skill sets, Word Recognition and Language Comprehension have sub skills that learners need to combine and master with repetition and practice. The end goal is Skilled Reading, meaning that the child has become a more accurate, fluent, and increasingly automatic reader.

4. Phonemic and Phonological Awareness

Phonemic awareness is a pre‑reading skill, which focuses on understanding how sounds work in spoken language, that is, rhyme, first sounds, and syllable segmentation. Building phonemic awareness helps kids with their fluency when it comes to learning to read.

Phonological awareness is the ability to recognise and manipulate the spoken parts of sentences and words. Examples include being able to identify words that rhyme, recognizing alliteration, segmenting a sentence into words, identifying the syllables in a word, and blending and segmenting parts of words.

5. Orthographic Mapping

Orthographic Mapping is the process we use to permanently store words into long‑term memory.” – David A Kilpatrick

To become good orthographic mappers, children need to master the skills discussed above – phonemic awareness and knowing their letter sounds.

Orthographic mapping is supported by phonics, as it's designed to build and strengthen relationships between sounds and letters and sequences of letters.

What can parents do?

Phonemic awareness (understanding how sounds work when spoken) is a precursor to reading which means it's something parents can help their kids with at home.

Something else parents can do to help with enhancing their child's vocabulary is to read books together. Cuddle up and watch your little one pay attention to your tone, pronunciation and the way you emphasise particular words.

It's a great way to show kids how enjoyable books and reading can be!

Kids are always more engaged when they feel an activity is fun so why not help them develop a love of reading as early as possible. If you yourself find reading tricky, you might like to try listening to an audiobook together while following along with the book in front of you.

The time you give your child reading at home is incredibly valuable to their success.

There may be times when you have a query or concern about your child.

Open communication is a priority.

The Concerns Pathway is important to follow as you will generally be speaking to the person who has the most information and knowledge about your child and others in their environments.

We will do our best to work together for manageable solutions.

Making an Appointment

Classroom teachers are busy and working hard to give all children quality learning time.

Should you need to discuss an issue, please make a time to meet, either before 8.30am or after 3pm, so they can give you the attention you need and deserve.

Kia Manawanui - Have a Heart

Kia Māia - Be Courageous

Kia Kaha - Do Your Best

Kia Ora - Be Well

On Tuesday we celebrated last weeks Te Mako Matawhero Award winners in the staffroom with a special treat.

Top: Harvey Thomson & Melody Hanscombe

Bottom: Harry Perkinson, Cairo Mcleod, Charlotte Mangin, Whaea Micaela, Emilia-Rose Macioce, Romie Marlow, Erin Sowman, Whaea Corinne & Kiah-Jayne Wylde-Prestney

These tamariki have been spotted showing our school values around school in Week 9.

TOP: Arlo Macbeth, Addison Leathley and Darcy Walthew,

BOTTOM: Zoe Jones, Pippa Perkinson, Mason Cadman and Aki Ekeroma

We are lucky to be a Duffy School. This week ALL of our tamariki received TWO Duffy books each to take home. These were picked by tamariki earlier in the term.

This week we have also had some Duffy Award recipients who were able to select another Duffy book of the Duffy shelf.

Ka pai Romie Marlow, Rosalie Rodgers, Oscar Jacobsen, Mila Hyland, Olivia Pryce,
Piia Simpson and Jaytee Tangiia

We are so grateful for our wonderful kai team and the meals they make with aroha for us every day.

On the menu for next week...

Monday: Wholemeal Pizza

Tuesday: Meatball Subs

Wednesday: Butter Chicken

Thursday: Toasted Sandwiches

Mmm delicious Butter Chicken!

Touch has now finished for Term 1. Well done to all our teams and a BIG THANK YOU to all our Coaches and helpers.

COACHES: please return your touch bags to the school office asap so we can distribute them out for winter sports.

TAMARIKI: please return your borrowed Sports T's to the office, washed and ready for the next player.

NETBALL:

Good luck to our Year 7 & 8s who play their first game on Saturday! Year 1-6 more information for netball next week. First game is the first week back of Term 2.

MINIBALL & BASKETBALL:

Registrations are closed and more info will come out next week.

HOCKEY:

Registrations are closed and more info will come out next week.

Well done to Puketapu Matawhero, Puketapu Mako and Puketapu Steelers

BRING BACK TE REO - By Erin & Ella

For our tech project at school, we have been learning about Te Tiriti O Waitangi and had to design something that relates to it. We have created a board to help bring back the Maori language by ordering your coffee in Maori. We are gifting this board to the White Pear Cafe.

Te Reo Māori used to be the only language spoken in New Zealand and then after the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, this was lost and not encouraged to speak.

To make this project on the laser cutter it was a very long process and we didn't get it on our first try. We used lots of different types and sizes of coffee cups to find the one we liked. We could only print one cup at a time which made this process very slow. By week 6 we had all the cups printed and all the names on them (English and Maori) . All we needed was to print the board, we made a mini prototype to see all the sizing and placements then we made our final board and lined up all the cups on it. We had to line them all up straight then glue them on.

We are very proud on what we have created.

Erin Sowman and Ella Rauputu with their te reo coffee sign.

Tino Pai!

BINGO NIGHT NEXT WEEK -

Don't miss the Home & School BINGO night next week - Wednesday 5 April.

Register Here: Register by clicking here now!

This week has been full of fun - Swimming sports last Friday, Year 6's off to camp, Year 5 FUN WEEK, Weet-bix Kids TRYathlon, Touch finals on the school field and lots more!

Prime location for the Weetbix Tryathlon on Thursday. Thanks Katie MacRae and Natalie Mabin for setting up our School Gazebo!

Well done to all our tamariki who entered the Weetbix TRYathlon on Thursday!

Senior Swimming sports on Friday at Bell Block Pools.

Year 6's leaving for Camp! So much excitement and lots of high-fives on their way to the bus.

Year 6 campers and whānau settling in for the week.

TIME TO GET MUDDY! The Year 6's & the parent helpers having fun in the mud run.

Learning about RIPS in Kauri

Year 5 activity week! Sock Puppets and Photo Booths.

On Monday two of our Under 12 Touch teams played off in the U12 final (instead of Wednesday as some of the players would be at Year 6 camp).

Ka Pai Whaea Kennedy's class - they all have their hats!

It's free, it's delicious and it's a great way to start the day!

If you have anything you would like to share or celebrate from home please email it to office@puketapu.school.nz

Please check the Hero App for more dates specific to your child's class.

Friday 31 March

• Year 6 return from Camp

Tuesday 4 April

• Puketapu Museum (Open Day #1: 9.30-11.00 & 2.00-3.30)

Wednesday 5 April

• End of Term Assembly @ Northpoint Church 9.15am
• Puketapu Museum (Open Day #2 after assembly & 2.00-3.30))
• Home & School Bingo Night @ The Good Home

Thursday 6 April

• Last Day of Term 1

TERM 2

Monday 24 April

• First Day of Term 2
• Starting with a special show for the whole school at 9.30am!

Tuesday 25 April

• ANZAC Day / School Closed

Monday 1 May

• Staff Only Day / School Closed