With only 3 weeks until the end of the term, we are busy right until the end. 

Kia ora whānau,

Congratulations to our students who took part in the 40 Hour Famine last weekend. We have enjoyed hearing the stories of what families did to work the famine into their busy schedules. If your child participated in this event, please get the money back to the School Office as soon as possible.

Our Learning

Writing

We have started to write descriptions. The purpose of this type of writing is to describe a person, place or thing so the reader can form a picture in his or her mind.  Next week we will carry on with the description we are working on with the aim of making it better.

Reading

This week within the reading groups students have been introduced to the reading strategy of Determining Importance. This strategy requires readers to identify the reason they are reading a text - the purpose. Identifying the purpose will determine what parts of the text are important to focus on. Within non-fiction texts there are many features which help the reader identify important parts. Within fiction texts it is harder to locate the required information so takes practice and is helped along with breaking down thinking with the aid of a graphic organiser.

There are still a few children not consistently bringing their reading folders and books to their reading lessons. Please make sure your child is responsible for packing their books in their bags on the days they have reading lessons.

Maths

Miss Hebberd's Maths Group - We are working on comparing numbers to 40 and how numbers can be shown with tens and ones. 

Ms Gallagher's Maths Group - We have completed our first Prime Maths book this week and have completed our Review 3. One common theme with this group is their ability to write a number sentence for a combination of numbers. For Example, 2x5=10,  5x2=10, 10÷2=5, 10÷5=2. Next week we will begin in Book 2B beginning with numbers within 1000.

Ms Mansfield's Maths Group - We are carrying on with multiplication and division of 6,7,8,9.

Please ensure your child is going onto IXL across the week to support their learning.

Notices:

Next week, we welcome two Student Teachers into Pataitai Pod from the University of Canterbury - Larissa Lilley with Ms Gallagher and Andrei Luna with Miss Hebberd. They are in their first year of training and will be with us for two weeks this term and then again in Term 4 for 4 weeks. If you see them in the Pod, please welcome them. 

PLEASE remind your children that Fidget Spinners are not to be brought to school as they distract their learning and we do not encourage toys at school.

The children have all completed their SPELLATHON today. Please collect the money once you get the results back from the PTA. 

Upcoming Event Dates:

Thursday 22nd June - Sausage Sizzle

Friday 23rd June - 

Mufti Day for Parafed Canterbury - gold coin donation 

Movie Night - Trolls.  Doors open at 5pm, gold coin donation per person, all children must be supervised by an adult. We have LOTS of treats to purchase as you watch!!

Week 9 26-30 June:  Matariki Week Celebrations

Monday 26th and Wednesday 28th June - Learning Conferences

Wednesday 28th June - Matatihi Performance

Thursday 29th June - Whole School Hangi. A notice came home earlier in the week about this. Please make sure you get your order in quick as we are limited to the 350 tickets. This is a very special event for the school and we are very lucky to be able to offer this to our community.

Friday 7th July - End of Term 2

We hope you have a great weekend.

Tania Nicky, and Vanessa