Term 4 Newsletter- Kahu Team
Kia ora koutou!
Welcome to Term 4 of 2019. It’s hard to believe we are now in the
final term of the year. Term 3 was a success, not only throughout the classroom
work but with the variety of options provided for the students with the SPARK
programme on Mondays, the Tournament of Minds, the Police Competency Test,
Mathswell teams, Arts Evenings and Arts focus, the Wellesley Sports fixture,
Dance Splash and Waterpolo team to name a few. To add to the mix we also
had ERO visit us in Week 9, where we got to showcase what we have been doing
and share the things we are proud of. Thank you to all of our parent helpers in
Term 3, with your continued support the variety of options we can provide are
more accessible and your expertise also enables us to enrich our inquiry topics
in authentic ways.
This term is a 10 week term, ending on Thursday the 19th of
December at 1pm. This includes the second of our two planned PPP programmes,
the Abel Tasman Year 8 camp, Year 7 EOTC and the Year 8 Formal and
graduation assembly. It is certainly set to be a busy term!
Below is a run down on the term. Feel free to contact your child’s
classroom teacher if there is anything you wish to discuss further.
Term Dates to Note
14 October -
Term 4 starts
28 October -
Labour Day
29 October -
School Athletics
29 October -
Abel Tasman Meeting - parents of Year 8 only. (6pm -7pm)
6 November -
EPRO8 Challenge
11 November -
Swimming starts
28 November -
Speech finals 11am
1-6 December -
Abel Tasman Camp
2-6 December -
Year 7 EOTC
10 December -
Year 8 Gardasil Vaccinations
13 December -
Trip to Days Bay
17 December - Year 8 Graduation
Evening
19 December -
End of year assembly - School finishes at 1pm.
Literacy
Our writing focus for this term is persuasive writing and poetry.
Persuasive writing: The idea that we can convince people with the power of our
words, where students will write around topics of personal interest areas that
they feel passionate about. This can also be incorporated into your son or
daughter’s speech which will be written in the first half of the term and
delivered in class in Week 6. The finals will be at 11am on Thursday of Week
7.
For poetry we will be exploring a variety of figurative language
using this context to consolidate, through reflection, the years spent at
Muritai for our Year 8s and the ambitions of the Year 7s as they enter their
final year.
We are continuing to develop comprehension skills through our
reading programme, where we will be exploring poems, and looking at novels
using reciprocal reading strategies. Reading is also integrated across our
inquiry topics.
Numeracy
We start the term with a focus on Algebra, specifically patterns
and derived rules. We will be using rich mathematical tasks as a context to
establish understanding around algebra and formulate teaching goals out of
these tasks to ensure students have the required knowledge and skill sets to be
successful. We will then move into revising some key concepts from the year. We
will be focusing particularly on fractions, decimals, place value and
operational strategies. In addition to this, students will continue to focus on
becoming more fluent with basic facts, specifically their multiplication and division
knowledge. This is one area you could help at home with. We know that students
often get the concepts in maths but are held up by their lack of fluency in
basic facts.
We also aim to give students some experience of open ended
mathematical inquiry within our programs this term, while building their
knowledge and flexibility with strategies.
Inquiry / Integrated Studies
Sexuality Road continues in Term 4. We have our last 4 sessions to
complete our unit called ’Discovering Me’ Throughout these sessions we will be
discussing communication and decision making, reproduction, what support
networks do I have? and then a session to round up all 10 previous sessions and
allow for any final questions. Once again, if you have any questions regarding
this unit, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
***Integrated Inquiry- Careers and Personal Passion Projects
We continue our focus on STEM with our students completing their
Muritai Inclusive Playground and Exploration Site, under the No Place Like Home
banner. The students have been given the brief to design an all inclusive
playground for Muritai school considering the “Gardner's Multiple
Intelligences” and build a playground like no other. They have been working in
small working teams to go through all aspects of the design process.
We will be offering the second opportunity of Personal Passion
Projects to delve into their passions once more during the last half of the
term. We were very impressed by the efforts of the students in Term 2 and how
the vast majority were confident at directing their own learning. The students
will be completing their proposals during Week 3 of the term for homework and
start these at the beginning of Week 4. They will have 10 full sessions
(9-12:00pm) over Weeks 4, 5, 6 and 7 of the term to work on these, but it is
likely that they will also need to use some of their own time at home to
complete it. They will present their work in Week 9, after EOTC and the Abel
Tasman week. We will also have our celebration of learning on the Thursday of
Week 9 to recognise all of the hard work that goes into these projects. This
will be the major component of homework at this time.
Physical Education
An exciting term for PE is planned, starting off with Athletics.
The children will be taking part in Long Jump, High Jump, Vortex, Shot put,
Discus and Sprints. This leads in nicely to our school athletics day on Tuesday
the 29th of October. We end the term with Swimming starting again down at the
local pool. For swimming we are focusing on instruction and stroke correction
and for many, swimming fitness and distance. Each session will have a water
safety focus as well, with the final session being totally focused on water
safety. We will be having 6 instructed lessons over a two week period from the
11th of November to the 21st of November.
EOTC
Planning is well underway for the Year 8 Abel Tasman adventure and
the first full parent meeting is being held on Tuesday the 29th of October at
6pm in Room 22. The purpose of this meeting is to explain how the camp runs,
the reasons for going and the equipment your child needs to be warm, dry and
well equipped for all activities. We leave on the 1st of December and arrive
back on the 6th of December.
The Year 7 EOTC week planning is also well underway and is going
to be conducted over Week 8 as well. (2nd of December to the 6th of
December). This year we will be taking advantage of some local
attractions designed to challenge and excite the children, as well as showing
their leadership skills in preparation for year 8. This will also include an
overnight camp. A notice for the Year 7’s will come out soon with the cost or
activities and requests for parent assistance where required.
We will be meeting with the students regularly to ensure they are
fully prepared for the exciting week at the end of the term with the Year 8
Formal and graduation. We are also planning on taking advantage of our stunning
local environment by utilising the Eastbourne bush tracks. This is excellent
preparation for the EOTC week, especially for the Year 8s, as they will be
walking long distances each day of the Abel Tasman.
Other opportunities
This term brings the opportunity for our two teams of students to
participate in the Epro 8 engineering challenge. This event will be held
at Wainuiomata Intermediate School from 5pm on Wednesday 6th November.
Reporting to Parents
Teachers will very shortly start writing academic reports for each
student. This is a summative assessment on the progress and achievements your
child has made throughout the year. These reports will be coming home at the
end of the term. Also at the end of the term, students will bring home their
clearfile with work samples from throughout the year. Along with this hard
copy, students will also have work samples in their Google Drive account. We
will be encouraging our Year 8 students to download their samples to a personal
account before the end of the year.
Stationery Check
Many students are now missing pens, pencils, rulers, plastic
pockets and calculators. These are necessary for everyday class work. Can you
please ask your child if they need any items and replace them. Thank you.
Sun Hats, Sun Block and Drink Bottles
It’s Term 4 and each child must bring a hat to wear
everyday. Students not wearing hats have to stay in the shaded area. It
is also recommended the children apply sunblock and have their own named drink
bottle at school. As the days get warmer it’s important they are fully
hydrated.
Footwear and clothing (personal hygiene)
All the children will be a lot more active this term and when the
weather starts to get warmer we all start to sweat (and smell) more. We are
recommending that students bring a spare change of clothes and suitable
footwear for exercising at school. For many students it is time to start using roll-on
deodorant (please no spray deodorant, on their own they smell nice, but 30
plus different fragrances wafting in the air can be a bit overpowering)- we are
more than happy for them to use this at school. Please ensure your child wears
shoes that they can comfortably run in. Jandals and boots are not appropriate.
Finally, if you have any concerns or worries (or indeed if you can
support us with any of the activities for the term!) please contact your child’s
teacher by leaving a phone message at the office or by email: teachers surname
@ muritai.school.nz.
Jon Mackie- mackie@muritai.school.nz
Chantel Lyons- lyons@muritai.school.nz
Stephanie Lamborn- lamborn@muritai.school.nz
Ruth Hooke- hooke@muritai.school.nz
Thank you, as always,
for your continued support,
The Year 7 and 8 team
