Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Week 4 Update

OUR 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 4  Term 2

Tēna koutou Tūhono whānau,

Week 4 already and what a week it is going to be - Student Led Conferences, half days and reports coming home!  At the end of last week we said goodbye to Micah Lord who has moved onto another school. We wish him and his whānau all the best for the future.

TŪHONO WHAKANGAHAU
Celebration - Free images on PixabayFirstly, a big thank you to all those parents/caregivers that helped make our first whakangahau a success.  We had lots of parents attend the celebration to see what Tūhono have been up to.  We asked our class what they wanted to have as part of their whakangahau and they wanted to share their learning, talents and to have fun.  We most certainly did all of those things, every single one of them (even though we may have gone slightly over time)!  For those of you who were not able to attend, please click on this link to see our presentation from the day.

STUDENT LED CONFERENCES
These have been set for Wednesday 24th May and Thursday 25th May.  School finishes early on the Wednesday at 12:50pm.  If you need your child to be supervised at school until 3:00pm, please email Robyn in the office (admin@frankley.school.nz).  Thursday school hours are as normal.  The SLCs run from 2:00pm-7:30pm on Wednesday and 3:30-5:30pm on Thursday.  So far we have 31 families booked in out of 50.  We would love to see as many of you there as possible, so if you haven’t booked yet and still need to, please click on this link to make an appointment online and enter the code t5asq to access the site.  If you have any concerns or questions regarding the SLCs please do not hesitate to email us.
Free vector graphic: Notes, Office, Pages, Papers, Print - Free ...

REPORTS
Mid-year progress reports will be coming home with your child on Friday.  Keep an eye out for these in your child’s bag.  Sit with your child and share their report with them.  Celebrate successes and look together at next steps to get them to where they need to be by the end of the year.  We have enjoyed being able to write about each child’s learning and their achievements and goals met thus far.  If you have any questions about your child’s report or would like more clarification on what we have written, please contact us by email.

Free vector graphic: Choir, Emoticon, Smiley, Smilies - Free Image ...KIDS FOR KIDS CHOIR  - Performance evening 1 November - put it on your calendar or in your diaries.
Today we started our weekly choir sessions with a group of keen students from Years 4-6.  We had a look at the playlist which has a very kiwi flavour and sung a few favourites.  Check with your child if they are part of this or would still like to be.  We will run another couple of sessions for those that just want to check it out and then after that, we will form our choir list.  All songs and lyrics have been emailed to all of Tūhono, so encourage them to give it a go.  We know for a fact that we have lots of awesome singers in our class, so we would love them to come join us.



WEEKLY WĀTAKA (TIMETABLE)
Just a reminder that this is shared with Tūhono each week and is the one place that our students can go  to access their learning, to sign up to workshops and track their goals.  Take some time to see what we are up to each week, you could even help your child sign up for workshops and get in early.

WHĀNAU HUI
Free illustration: Meeting, Conference, Round Table - Free Image ...In the newsletter last week, it was mentioned that we are going to have a Whānau Hui next week on Wednesday 31 May at 7pm in Tūhono.  Another invite will go out also with further details.  Anyone is welcome to come and we will have a picnic tea together before we discuss our upcoming marae stay/visit, the blessing of the kapa haka uniforms and other items that whānau might like to address.  Children are most welcome and we will put on a movie for them to watch next door, so bring the whole family along :)

INTERSCHOOL SPORTS
Ball, Sports - Free images on PixabayLast week we were lucky enough to have a break in the weather and participate in our first interschool sports exchange for 2017.  Frankley was hosted by St John Bosco where we played netball, football and rugby.  We had a lovely day making new friends and seeing lots of fairplay and good sportsmanship.  Unfortunately, we were not able to get a win in any of our games, but both rugby and the A netball teams were very close!  A big thanks to all of our Tūhono families that took transport to and from the venue and also to the supporters that came to cheer for us.  We hope to see you all again next Friday when we take on Oakura School out at Oakura.  Please click on this link for the latest notice.

WIT - WILDLY IMPORTANT TASK
A big thank you firstly to the families that came and joined us at Puke Ariki to view the Bugs exhibition.  It was enjoyed by all of Tūhono and was a great way to ignite our WIT.

We are very much underway now with our WIT around invertebrate insects.  Tūhono have been learning about keywords, key phrases, needs statements, questions and a whole lot more and most are ready now to get into the “Find” stage of Te Ara Tika.  A lot of groups are now researching ways that they can trap or catch insects in our bush area and how they can handle them safely.  Check with your child about what they have found out so far; have they found the answers to their questions?

Butterfly, Girl - Free images on PixabayGroups will be starting to think about what equipment/tools they need, to carry out insect catching, so they may need to gather things from home to help with this.  They may need to think about containers for collecting insects in to observe them, digging tools to make traps, suitable footwear and clothing for going into the bush (even a change of clothes this term could be put in their bags just in case, as we also have a lot of invertebrate collectors that love the mud areas around the school too). Please name all of the belongings that are sent to school.

REMINDERS:
  • Our whanau wall is still looking a bare considering we have 49 students in Tūhono.  Please could you email through or send in a photo of your family for us to have up in our classroom.
  • We still have some emails being sent to only one of us.  As we are a collaborative pair and do everything together, it would be great if you could email both of us, so that we can address questions or concerns as soon as possible.
Ngā mihi,
Anna and Kim


Monday, May 15, 2017

For all the whānau that couldn't make it to Tuhono's Whakangahau




What Worked Well for our Whakangahau

  • lovely voices  singing focussed bodies still - set the tone
  • Jump n Jive - Carwash - everyone was happy, right moves  supporting each other on stage.  EVERYONE from Tūhono participated right through to the end, audience followed the actions and participated right to the end of whakangahau
  • Loud clear voices
  • Leading the younger ones (tuakana/teina)
  • Kahikatea Y5 were closer to the action.
  • Kept it real!!!!! Wasn’t absolutely perfect because that is life…….c’est la vie
  • Sensible choices from Tūhono
  • Sharing of our work - all student voice, students wrote script, students created imovies etc.

Improvements for next time

  • Less wriggling
  • More practise with the microphone
  • Pre-record with screencastify or another option to give perfection
  • Know what you are doing
  • Timing could be better
  • Apologies to the magic group….we will share in a different way via our class blog and sending of link to ALL classes and parents
  • Planning of the whakangahau earlier
  • 2 microphones

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Tūhono's Got Talent!

We don't like to skite in Tūhono, but man have we got some talent amongst our tamariki.  Check out all of our finalists that performed on the last day of Term 1.  Mrs Cribb and Mrs T are sure that it was the amazing camp concert that set the scene for it all!  If you were going to be in a talent show, what talent would you like to share?












Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Welcome back to Term 2!

OUR 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 1  Term 2

Tēna koutou Tūhono whānau,

Welcome back everyone for Term 2.  We have kicked off the term in true Tūhono style - lots of learning, listening, laughing from all 50 of our students.  A big welcome to Ella Malster who has joined us from Central School.  We look forward to working with her and her whānau for the rest of the year in Tūhono.  
We certainly started off our first day “freshly” and we bet that it was tough getting out of warm beds this morning.  Our holidays were a good time to reflect on our term’s learning and refresh our ideas to suit the needs of all of our learners.  There have been a few changes to our classroom environment and programme that will help our learners access their resources better and also add more personalisation and agency to their learning.

WEEKLY WĀTAKA
This is the name of our weekly timetable / plan that both the teachers and the students can edit and use to organise our daily lessons.  As each day can differ, we are setting aside time each morning to go through the timetable so that Tūhono clearly know what is happening and what workshops etc. that they are booked in for.  Click on this link to see a copy.

MATHS
Free photo Education School Teach Maths Mathematics Abacus - Max PixelOur first focus to start the term is Addition and Subtraction.  In our workshops, we will be focusing on reviewing and introducing numeracy strategies that the students can use to solve.  The students are again booking into teacher workshops at least once a week, using online programmes like StudyLadder and eAko Maths, working on their knowledge goals with others and practising problem solving strategies.  Our online classroom has had lots more updated on it, so sit down with your child and have a look.   

LITERACY - READING
Reading, People - Free vector graphics on PixabayChapter Chat was definitely a hit last term with all of our students reading either the novel “Holes” or “Tuesdays at the Castle”.  We were able to base a lot of our reading programme on these books and were able to dig deeper into the story and the authors and the features of the text.  Tūhono also enjoyed participating in the weekly twitter chats connecting with other students from all over New Zealand.  This term we have decided to carry on Chapter Chat for those interested in which Kim will be reading “Matilda”.  For those that would like something different, Anna is going to run the Daily 5 programme, which consists of a combination of the following: Read to Self, Read with Someone, Listen to Reading, Work on Writing, Word Work.  Check out our blog for more details throughout the term.   

LITERACY - WRITING
Writing - Free images on PixabayWe are so lucky to have such keen writers in Tūhono who love to share their creative ideas with others.  At the end of last term, we introduced Quick Writes, which helped our students with getting their ideas down onto the paper or device and not worrying about spelling or thinking too much about it “Fingers of Fire”.  This really helped improve the amount of writing students were recording and was a good starting point for our writing sessions.  This term, Quick Writes will continue and we are going to also look at using graphic organisers for planning different types of writing, e.g. persuasive, informative…  This will help our students understand the different forms of writing and when is the right time to use them.

LITERACY - SPELLING
Last term, each child was tested on the Essential Spelling Word Lists, which are the words that are used most in everyday writing.  Each student has identified the words that they still need to learn and the part of that word that tricks them when learning.  We have purchased notebooks for each child to use to record these words before inputting them onto our online learning programme “Spelling City”.  Once they are entered onto Spelling City, they can of course be practised at home too if this is necessary for your child.  Click on the link below to read about the spelling process.  All students will receive their notebook, username and password this week.  Tūhono Spelling Programme

INTERSCHOOL SPORTS
Term 2 sees the start of our annual Year 5/6 Interschool Sports Exchanges.  For most exchanges, we will have a rugby team, football team and 2 netball teams.  These teams are currently being trialled and selected and a notice will come home this week about our first exchange vs St John Bosco on Thursday next week.

WIT - WILDLY IMPORTANT TASK

This Friday (5th March) half of Tūhono will be going to the Bugs lesson at Puke Ariki. The following Friday (12th) the rest of our learning team will be going. We will leave school at 1.00 pm and travel by bus to Puke Ariki. It would be great to have some parents attend either of these events with us.
Weta230-WEB.jpgPlease check in with your child to see which session they have booked into and let us know via e-mail if you can come with us. We would meet you at Puke Ariki or else let us know if you will travel on the bus with us.  We will return in time for the end of the day. These visits will help set up our intrigue and enthusiasm for our W.I.T. inquiry.




MARK OSBORNE
Just a reminder that Mark Osborne will be back on Tuesday 09 May 7:00pm.  Mark will talk about the future focus principle and look at what might you see in a learning hub, what teachers might be doing differently, how children might be learning differently.  Please RSVP to Robyn admin@frankley.school.nz to confirm your attendance.
Following are the video links to last years presentations;
  • 08 March 2016 - "Why is education changing?  Why are we moving to innovative learning environments and collaborative teaching?"
  • 13 September 2016 -  The focus on the changes that we’re seeing in education in response to a Future Focused education.

REMINDERS:
  • Our whanau wall is still looking a bit bare considering we have 50 students in Tūhono.  Please could you email through or send in a photo of your family for us to have up in our classroom.
  • Please let us know if you can help out with our trip to the museum for this Friday or next Friday.
We look forward to having another awesome term with your tamariki.  Remember our door is always open (unless it’s a really chilly day!)

Ngā mihi, Anna and Kim