Sunday, March 5, 2017

Week 5/6 Update

IMG_9594.jpgOUR MISSION:
Maintain a challenging learning to learn community that responds to the interests, needs, and talents of our learners.

OUR VISION:
Positive difference, Creative learner, Effective communicator.

Week 5/6  Term 1

Tēna koutou Tūhono whānau,

We have been so busy the past few weeks that we skipped our weekly update for Week 5, so here is both!  It has been so lovely to get out in the sunshine each day especially the night of the walkathon and for our swimming sessions.  We have spent some time getting ready for camp and are just about at the finishing touches of planning for this event.  Check out our blog for what we have been up to.  Tūhono would also like to welcome Matthew Hay to our classroom who has come to us from Bayview School in Auckland.  Matthew has come from a collaborative learning environment so has settled in quickly and is now part of our whānau at school.

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CAMP VERTICAL HORIZONS
Only 16 more sleeps until our Tūhono Camp!  This means that it is time to start gathering up the gear needed and checking you have everything.  Click on this link for a copy of the gear list.  We went out for a pre-visit last week and everything’s looking good to go.  Vertical Horizons is a beautiful setting and Tūhono is going to love it!  A big thank you to the Greenfield, Taiaroa, Scott, Rangi, Cave, Telfer, Ingle, Smithson, and Fox families who gave up an hour of their day on Saturday to run the Sausage Sizzle.  Tūhono appreciates all of your support.  We still have some sausages left over, so Tūhono is holding another sausage sizzle at school this Wednesday.  Order forms will be given out on Monday.  Our next fundraising venture is our Bingo Night at Good Home on the 14th March.  We look forward to seeing lots of teams entering.  Click on this link for further information and click on this link for a copy of the entry form.

BIKING AND SCOOTERING AT FRANKLEY
A lot of discussion has been going on in Tūhono about the expectations around riding bikes and scooters at school.  Our students are being good role models during lunchtimes and after school and taking responsibility for the equipment they use.  Please click on this link if your child bikes or scooters at school to make sure that they are fully aware of the dos and don’ts.

KAPA HAKA
This week sees the return of the Frankley School Kapa Haka group.  Every morning we sing a waiata to start our day, so we can tell there will be some keen Tūhono students wanting to be involved.  Even if your child is unsure, encourage them to come along on Tuesday afternoon to try it out.

WINTER SPORTS REGISTRATIONS
Even though it’s not officially winter yet, we are well into organising and registering sports teams for the upcoming season.  Just so no one misses out, we have had Miniball (Year 4) and Basketball (Year 5) notices go out, and Netball.  If your child would like to be involved in one of these sports codes, we have plenty of spare notices in Tūhono.  If we have keen hockey players, more details about that will follow.  Also for those of you who are new, we don’t have a rugby or football school team, we only have teams for interschool.  If you were interested in playing these sports, your child would need to join a club.


GOOGLE APPS FOR EDUCATION
At Frankley School we are linked up to Google Apps for Education (GAFE).  That is how we are able to set up and monitor gmail accounts for our students.  Today in Tūhono we had a discussion about the purpose of having a gmail account at school and that it is only used for educational purposes (as mentioned in the digital citizen form that you all signed).  The main points that came up were that all emails sent by the students must be cc to their teachers and that they are not to subscribe to Youtube channels, pinterest or any other social media using this account.  To utilise these sites they would need to have set up a personal gmail with your permission as children under 13 years of age are not supposed to have a personal gmail account.  Any of the sites like Twitter or Youtube, that we use in class, the students access through one class account.  The other request we have is that if your child brings along their own ipad or tablet, can they please have the following free apps installed - Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Sheets, Class Dojo, Twitter, Spelling City, Gmail.  We also have asked the students to take some time as home learning to tidy up their emails and they should be checking them every night.

SWIMMING
Tūhono have now set goals for their swimming sessions by looking closely at videos of themselves swimming.  They have been using the Swim Safe modules to choose the skills that they need to master, skills such as streamlining their body, chin to chest and blowing bubbles correctly.  These will be shared on their blogs shortly.  Please note that swimming is compulsory as part of our physical education programme.  If your child is unable to swim for medical reasons, a note or email needs to be provided to Mrs Trinder.

BEING SUNSMART
Thank you to those students who consistently bring a hat to school everyday and wear it at morning tea and lunchtimes.  Even though the weather hasn’t been ideal lately, the sun is just as harmful.  Dojo points are given out to those who bring their hats consistently.

CLASS DOJO
Screen Shot 2017-03-04 at 5.31.46 PM.pngScreen Shot 2017-02-21 at 10.38.13 PM.png90% of our parents/caregivers have joined up to our class dojo - only 5 more and we will all be connected.  Remember this is a place where you can see what values and attitudes your child is showing throughout the day and what other ones that they may need to work on more.  At this stage, parents/caregivers are definitely winning though as we only have 52% of students connected.  As part of home learning this week, could you please take 5 minutes to have your child sign up as a student so that they can monitor their behaviours as well.  They will need to create a username and password (one that they can easily remember) and their individual code (this was on the original sheet that came home - if misplaced, get them to come see Mrs T).  They will then enter your email address and you will have to verify them before they can start using it.  Any problems, see Mrs T.  There will be participation dojo points up for grabs if they sign up!

WHĀNAU PHOTOS
Another special display that we would like to have in our classroom is a whānau wall.  This is a place for us to show off and be proud of all of those people that help us in our learning, because the students and we, as teachers, could never do it alone.  Thank you to those families that have already sent their photos in, we are looking forward to seeing more of them.  Could you please send along a beautiful family photo with your child for us to hang on our wall, or alternatively you can email it to Mrs T or Mrs Cribb for us to print it for you.

What a week!  Remember if you want to chat or just have a question, feel free to email us or drop in to catch up with one of us or both of us!


Ngā mihi

Anna Trinder / Kim Cribb


1 comment:

  1. Is there really a street called Anna/Kim tuhono street?

    ReplyDelete