Welcome back! We hope you all had wonderful whānau time during the holidays. These first two weeks of Term 3 have flown by amidst mixed weather and Olympic excitement.

The start to our term has seen students straight into their mahi.

We have a new Unit of Inquiry: Where We are in Place and Time.

Our Central Idea is The Olympics are about more than sport.

The Lines of Inquiry we are investigating are:

- History of the Olympics

- New Zealand At the Games

- Olympic traditions

- Olympic values

As part of this Inquiry, students are creating a presentation about an Olympian. They will be researching about their Olympian, including their personal history and road to the Olympics, where they're from, looking into their character traits and how they demonstrate those and will compare them with their own attributes.

Reading

Students are reading up a storm researching about the Olympics and about their persuasive speech topics. They are informing themselves of current events by reading articles and Kiwi Kids news, and reading for enjoyment either with a book in hand or via an online platform such as Epic Reading. We are encountering new vocabulary on a daily basis and discuss the meanings of these new words. Through reading various genres, we are able to highlight language features and structural features that authors have used and students are able to then incorporate those techniques in their written work.

Please continue to support reading at home by reading to your child (this is still beneficial and enjoyed at this age group!), or by encouraging them to read. Talk about new words they discover and discuss the themes of what they are reading.

Speeches

Our Writing programme is focussed around writing and delivering persuasive speeches. Students are learning different persuasive techniques, how to structure a speech including writing a great introduction, using form TEEL paragraphs (topic sentence, elaboration, evidence/ example, link) and concluding their speech in an engaging way. Our focus will then shift to the delivery aspects that need to be addressed to present a speech in a way that captures the audience. Students will present their own persuasive speech in Week 4.

Later in the term the Selwyn Lions hold a speech competition. One Year 7 and one Year 8 students will be selected to represent the school in this.

Maths

Students are deep diving into parts of numbers - learning about fractions, how to perform calculations with them and their relationship to decimal numbers and percentages. They have also been learning about symmetry and rotation of shapes.

We encourage you to support with maths at home by getting your child to complete one Maths Buddy 'Weekly Revision Set' per week. If you need your child's Maths buddy login details, please email their pastoral care teacher. Please note that this does not need to be completed in one session, students can pop in and out of the questions and their progress will be saved.

Technology

Students have rotated to their next Technology rotation. A gentle reminder please that students need to have long hair tied up, close toe shoes and only small sleepers or studs for health and safety when attending Technology. We are finding some students are not arriving prepared in these ways on Technology days and would be grateful for your support with this.

Lucas has been speedily sewing and has already finished a cushion (the feature of this article's photo).

Te Reo

Whaea Amy, our learning specialist in te reo Māori supported our students with weekly sessions during Term 2 and is continuing to do so this term. Students are learning a haka, Tahu Potiki and learning the significance of them. It has been great seeing haka used as a sign of respect by our Olympians in France, supporting their significance in NZ culture. Students are also learning about 'time' in te reo Māori and currently are learning about different ways the days of the week are spoken and the history behind these versions.

Spanish

In Spanish, students are also learning about time in the context of age. They are learning to ask and answer questions about how old they are and about when their birthday is.

Visual Art

Inspired by the Olympic mascot, the Olympics forms the basis for our Visual Art. Students are currently researching about a country to help them then design a mascot for that country.

Navigating the Journey

In a few weeks we will be starting our programme on Navigating the Journey. This is a really important Inquiry that covers a great deal of content regarding social and physical changes. There was a Hero notice that went out today, so please have a read and let us know if you would like to discuss the programme further.

If you have any questions about Year 7 learning please use the following emails:

Kārearea - karearea@lincolnprimary.ac.nz (Anna & Priscilla)

Pātiki - patiki@lincolnprimary.ac.nz (Courtney & Rebekah)

Farewell

Yesterday we farewelled Mr De Waal from Kārearea class. He has moved to a high school to take up a position teaching Health & PE. We are grateful to Mr De Waal for the connections he made with students, the belief he had in his students and the learning he facilitated.

Welcome

Mrs Priscilla Powell has taken over as pastoral care teacher and you can read more about Priscilla in a seperate article this newsletter.