Welcome back to school! We have kick started the school year looking at the Focus of our School Vision being COMMUNITY and through the lens of God's story with the theme of Identity and Belonging.

Teina Rua, welcome back for the school year!

A very warm welcome to our new students Malcolm and Zoey and their families to our BSDA School Community. It is with great excitement that we have begun on a new academic journey together.

Bible

Encounter & Teaching for Transformation (TfT)

We have started looking at the God's Story in Creation and how with The Fall was disobedience and lack of trust in God. This is a lesson for us today. Which brings us to look at our Redemption through Jesus our Saviour our gift from God out of love for his creation. We will look at what are our God given gifts & talents as well as natural ability.

Term overview

Reading

This term we will be looking at Recount and Explanation type text starting with our most important source the Bible. We will be learning to decode using the sounds of letters and chunking as well as honing our comprehension strategies to give deep meaning and understanding of what we read.

Daily reading with your child will help with fluency, and build confidence as a reader. We are using Structured Literacy approach and The Code. Home learning will have some of this word work for consolidation of what they are doing in class.

Writing

For writing we will apply the reading of recounts and explanations to plan, draft, edit, and publish our writing. These writing experiences will outline the importance of structure in writing to retell an event for recounts. With Explanations they are either to explain the How? or Why? about a set topic based on facts.

Mathematics

This term we are consolidating our number knowledge and ability to count forward and back from 100, confidently and learning to 1,000, for Years 3's in 2's, 5's, and 10's and 10,000 for Year 4's.

Basic facts step programme will be a weekly test to ensure students are rote learning. Students will have a set of 10 basic facts to learn weekly as part of homework.

We will look at measurement reviewing Time, and covering Area & Mass using non-standard (hand, feet) and standard units (the metric system) of measure.

Te reo Māori and Languages

We will be covering Te reo Māori weekly building our confidence in speaking and vocabulary. We will also use Mother tongue languages of our classroom to appreciate the gift of language.

Social Science

We are looking at ourselves, and the communities that we belong to and learn to celebrate, appreciate the culture of our diverse classroom. We will research organisation that support and provide assistance to our communities and how we can be part think of ourselves as 'hands and feet' for God.

Health & Physical Education (P.E)

We have daily fitness, and Friday JUMP JAM along with P.E on Friday's and we will be looking at Athletics and Aquatics -Swimming starting in Week 3. Our Annual Athletics day with Waitakere SDA School is this term and details about that will be coming out soon. Please ensure your child is wearing their Sports Uniform each Friday or on days of swimming.

Dance

We will be looking at the 5 elements of dance and have a whole School trip in Week 3 to assist us with this learning. This is a wonderful way of students learning to express and have appreciation of World cultures and different forms of dance.

Home Learning

Starting Week 2 homework will consist of reading, writing, and maths. This will be sent home on a Monday and to be returned on Friday of each week. This is seen as a vital part of your child's journey in education to build good study habits.

Communications:

Water bottles: I ask that each student brings a water bottle to school to ensure that are hydrating well while at school. It will keep disruptions of leaving class to use of fountains during class time.

Class Dojo : I will be using Class Dojo to record class points student's earn daily. This is a free app for recording points communicating to Parents in a fun way the class is accustomed with. If you would like full access at home, it would be at your cost for your child/ren.

Epic Reading: This is also a free web-based online library to use in school time. If you wish for your child to have access at home the cost would be with you.

I can be contacted by email and will respond after school on the same day.

isalesa-nanai@balmoralsda.school.nz

So let us continue to foster a community where our school values of Respect, Integrity, Responsibility and Excellence for learning are strived for and celebrated.

May every lesson learned and every challenge be overcome, we grow not just in knowledge, but in character and wisdom of who's we are...God's children.

Ia manuia

Be blessed

Ilafehi Salesa-Nanai