Please read about what is happening in our Junior Learning Community this term!

Welcome to the Otakaro Learning Community

Junior Years 1 and 2 2017

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Kia ora and welcome to Term 3! We all hope you have had a great break with your beautiful children and were able to get on top of all the sickness that tends to stick around in the winter months. We are still in our temporary space for most of this term and will continue to use Wai-iti for a teaching space.

Clothes/Lunch

It would be helpful to have a change of clothes in their school bags for any accidents/mud and please make sure all their clothes are named. Little people also have little stomachs. When packing their lunches, think about ease of eating (for example cutting apples into quarters) and having a healthy balanced lunch. Please also just have water in their drink bottles.

Teaching Staff

Welcome to Lisa Wilson who is joining us full time for semester 2. Lisa is an highly experienced teacher and we are looking forward to her being part of our team. She will be tagged to Rakiraki Kaitiaki while Mrs N is doing some additional learning support in the afternoons. We also welcome Ruth Grey who will an additional Teacher Aide in our Space.

Sharing News Completion

We have completed our Oral Language component which focussed on speaking about our news and asking questions. Please do not bring news to school for this semester.

Morning Routine

The children come into the Otakaro Learning Spaces between 8:30 and 8:45. They will then sign in and put their belongings in their tub. For this term we won’t have School Library visits while the buildings are being refurbished. The Library Bus days are on the calendar.

Linc-Ed

By now you have logged on and have seen the wonderful work your child produced last semester. You must have a password to do this. Please contact the office if you have not been able to log on, or have changed your email address or email alice.harris@wairakeichch.school.nz . Some parents haven’t been on yet and as this is the report, it is important you are able to access it.

Class Programme

The timetable is kept in the Otakaro Space. We are using the Casey the Caterpillar Handwriting Programme this year. It uses clear visual and spoken instruction on how to correctly form letters and numerals. This is also in conjunction with our Building Blocks to Literacy Framework which ensures literacy skills are taught explicitly. We are working on the Speaking and Listening Domains. The domains cover phonemic awareness, spelling, oracy, visual motor-skills and print concepts. During the literacy block we will run reading and writing groups in a quiet space with our learners ability grouped for instruction. Other children will be participating in Action Learning Stations, with explicit activities which are targeted towards literacy skills. Children know that it is OK to have a look and talk about Action Station activities but not to start these activities before school. Our Friday literacy programme includes poetry and a ‘Loving and Living Literacy Programme’ based on the big book for the week with rich language experiences around this. Loving and Living Literacy replaces Discovery learning.

Week 2: Wednesday 2 August - ‘Crazy Hat Day’

A day where children can come to school wearing a fancy/crazy/unusual hat! A paper notice reminder about this will be sent home in Week 1.

Term 3 Curriculum Information

Maths - Number and Geometry

Inquiry - Energy - This will be an ‘Arts’ focus

PE/Sport - Obstacle Courses and Athletics near the end of the term. Fitness will include Kids Yoga and Jump Jam/or similar

Experiences - Wairakei Variety Bash (31/8, more info coming), a football and tennis session, Kelly Sports, and our ‘Junior Experiences Days’ - always on a Wednesday!

Otakaro Crazy Hat Day 2 August, Odd Item Day 23 August and Superhero Day 13 September

Library Bus - 3-4 times this term

PLEASE HELP

We would love small boxes, old magazines, tubes and other making equipment for our construction box. Thanks!

Kind Regards,

Cathy, Janice, Jenny, Maria, Lisa, Ollivia and Sue