This term our two learning teams, Rōpū Kākano (Years 0-2) and Rōpū Māhuri (Years 3-6), have a focus on The Arts as the integral theme of their learning.

Kākano team will be investigating the Arts curriculum. They will explore a variety of materials and tools and discover elements of art that help inquire into the following questions

• What is art? 
• How have people used art to express themselves? 
• How can we express ourselves using art? 

Mathematics will focus on geometry, in particular shape and the transformation of objects. The continuation and solidification of number knowledge, along with the ongoing development of strategies to solve a variety of problems completes the programme for the term.

For both reading and writing, the development and consolidation of the core foundation of early literacy skills and strategies continue. This is supported by the Jolly Phonics and Yolanda Soryl literacy programmes. 

Physical Education will have gymnastics incorporated into the developmental programme and have activities in the hall, top deck and junior deck areas.

Junior Kapa Haka will continue and Taha Maori will look at Maori artists, waiata and traditional artwork. The whole junior school will begin the ignite phase of their inquiry with a visit to the spectacular Glow Show at the Bruce Mason Centre on Friday 6th August.

The Music in Schools programme will run every Friday for the duration of the term. Lessons will be delivered by a specialist teacher and supported by the classroom teacher.

The Mahuri team also has their inquiry focused around the Arts, with students inquiring into the impact that art has on our lives. This will be based around performance and how we can use our voices, emotions and our bodies to convey a message or to entertain an audience.  

For Literacy, the team will focus on speech writing, along with poetry and reading plays. Reading will further develop the students’ ability to comprehend a variety of text types and to express their ideas, making sense of varied and increasingly complex words and media.

Numeracy will continue with number knowledge, with a focus on fractions for the first half of the term, moving into geometry for the second half.

The PE programme will be skill based games that develop hand-eye coordination and comprise the games of tennis, badminton, hockey and table tennis. 

So the term is shaping up to be another busy one.

If you have any questions about what is happening in your child's classroom, please contact the teacher in the first instance.

Scott Boniface