Term 2 learning - Waikanae ...

Te Rau O Te Rangi
                               Newsletter Term 2 2021

Nga mihi nui ki a koutou katoa – We hope you all had a restful and well deserved holiday break.
We are excited and refreshed to commence Term 2 and watch our tamariki embrace all the
exciting learning opportunities on offer this term.

term 2 learning
We would love to continue with the successes from Term 1 and encourage students to continue
with the same independent morning routines. Arriving at school shortly after 8.30am and not later
than 9.00am by themselves allows them time to get organised, manage their belongings and also
provides them with the opportunity to socialise with their peers before lessons commence at
9:00am.

       Reading – We want children to read for at least 15 minutes each night.
At this stage, we are encouraging children to become independent readers.
At home, it is invaluable to provide them with opportunities to read a range of
books, recipes, instructions and try to visit the local libraries. We highly
recommend some of these class favourite series: Bad guys, Babysitters Club,
The Treehouse books, Hot Dog, Wolf Girl, Weirdo, Ninja Kid, factual books, Dog
Man.

                    Chapter Chat - Our Chapter chat books this term are ‘The
              Adventures of the Wishing Chair’ and ‘The One and only Ivan’. We
              read to the students every day during our morning tea ‘Read and
              Feed’ sessions. Students love these sessions and carrying out activities
              during the term based around the stories we read.

        Spelling - We have daily spelling lessons in class through a range of
activities and focused group work. Each week the students will learn spelling rules
and spelling patterns. We provide a structured programme, giving students the
skills and strategies they need to read, spell and write confidently. Using
evidence-based research, our aim is for our students to make connections, to
become lifelong and confident literacy learners by using a multi-sensory
approach and not just rely on the visual recall of words.

Maths – This term we continue to use Mathletics and Seesaw
Activities. When you’re in the car, out for a walk, on a cycle ride, beach
walk… encourage your child to practise their number facts. Multiplication
facts, numbers that make 10 and 20, doubles, halves… you call out a
number e.g. 6 and they call out 4… Monopoly, Bingo, Uno, Rummikub,
dominoes… encourage them to have fun with numbers and provide lots of opportunities for this!
This term we will be focusing on fractions, multiplication and division and measurement.

      Topic - Conservation - Whāomoomo

Our topic this term focuses on the big idea “How can communities protect our
wildlife?” We will be visiting Ngā Manu Nature Reserve which will provide our
students with the opportunity to have a hands-on experience with nature and
hear about what our local community is doing to help our wildlife.

     Writing – This term we will be focusing on building student’s sentence constructions and
vocabulary. We will be offering them with opportunities to write for different audiences and
purposes and linking this writing in with our topic.

      Interchange Programme

This term sees the return of our Interchange programme. The children in Te Rau O Te Rangi will be
involved in an interchange programme on Wednesday afternoons, starting Week 1. This involves
them in choosing one of the activities on offer. Interchange exposes our students to learn in a
different classroom environment, to connect with other students that have similar interests, to
experience different teachers and learn or foster a new or developing skill or interest. It is always
lots of fun! Their choices for this term are as follows:

      Crafts               Dance              Science               Art           Scratch Junior
                                                                                     (Coding)
       Ellen              Aretha              Natasha              Elayne            Katherine

       Sport / PE - CROSS COUNTRY: In preparation for our school cross country we will be starting
training on Thursdays and Fridays. Please help your child to wear appropriate footwear on these
days.

communication - If you have any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to discuss
these with us. We do have our well-being and learning Korero this term so please remember to
book an appointment. We are always happy to have a quick chat, or if you think it will take
longer than a couple of minutes, feel free to make an appointment. Our meeting days are
Mondays and Tuesdays so please respect that on those days we do have other commitments.
Alternatively you can contact us via email or Seesaw.

 Teacher                                Room         Email

 Katherine Schimanski(Team Leader)      18 & 19      k.schimanski@waikanae.school.nz

Ellen Ward                                         e.ward@waikanae.school.nz

Natasha Nilsson                       3            n.nilsson@waikanae.school.nz

Elayne Moore                          2            e.moore@waikanae.school.nz

Aretha Harris                         1            a.harris@waikanae.school.nz

Mandy Shaw                            Syndicate Release Teacher
                                      Team 18 & 19 every 2nd Tuesday

Important Dates and Events this term
3rd May            -      First day of Term
13th May           -      Nga Manu Trip for Team 18 & 19 and Room 2
14th May           -      Nga Manu Trip for Rooms 1 & 3
1st June           -      NZ Playhouse Show
7th June           -      Queens Birthday
9th June           -      Interschools Cross Country (Years 4-8)
9th & 10th June    -      Learning and Wellbeing Korero
16th June          -      School Disco - 4:45 - 5:45 Yr 3/4
25th June          -      Teacher Only Day (School Closed)
9th July           -      Last Day of Term

Ngā Mihi,

Katherine, Ellen, Aretha, Natasha and Elayne