Otakaro Learning Community Newsletter 

Term 2 2017

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Kia ora and welcome to Term 2! We all hope you have had a great break with your beautiful children and enjoyed the Easter break. We are still in our temporary space for this term, but with the Middles and Seniors all settled into their spaces, we can now use some other areas of the school.

Clothes/Lunch

It would be helpful to have a change of clothes in their school bags for any accidents and please make sure all their clothes are named. Little people 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 only in their drink bottles. Thank you for ensuring your little people are wearing shoes suitable for running. Our Cross Country event is in a few weeks.

Teaching

We are lucky to have Deb Brennan working with us this term with our learning support programme. Also we now have Sue Williams with us for most of the week. Mrs Cathy Dean is the release teacher for Miss Rockell and Mrs Williams.

Community Time

Every morning Otakaro meets for community time. On Mondays we have sharing news. Please help your child to choose something to share with their group. This could be a photo, book, something they have made, an experience they can talk about or a toy. Please don’t send anything special to school. Assemblies are going to be held every second Friday now (beginning week 2).

Morning Routine

The children come into the Otakaro and Timatanga Hou 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

Hopefully you have logged on and have seen the wonderful work your child produced last term. 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.

Hats are kept at home for the next 2 terms.

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 Movement Domain. 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.

Term 2 Curriculum Information

Maths - Number and Time

Inquiry ‘Systems’ - Science with a focus on lifecycles, the human body and the solar system

PE/Sport - Long distance running (Cross Country) and fundamental skills

Experiences - Life Education Bus and Science Alive (Astronomy Dome)

Discovery - Every second Friday morning

Library Bus - 3-4 times this term

Ronald McDonald House Mufti Day - Friday 12 May

Otakaro and Timatanga Hou Fun Loud Shirt Day - Wednesday 17 May

Our New Space

The fences are up and the Junior Block is beginning its transformation. We are excited and looking forward to watching the progress over the coming weeks.

PLEASE HELP

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

Kind Regards,

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