Saturday, March 23, 2019

Week 9 - Feeling Fine!

Week 9  Update for Tūhono


Tēna koutou Tūhono whānau,


We are excited to be working with our Tūhono learners as we head into Week 9 of our 11 week term. Our students are becoming more adept at using their ‘trackers’ each day to record the tasks they are working on. They also have access to our weekly ‘wataka’ (timetable) to help them to plan and organise daily tasks. We aim to foster a growing sense of student voice and decision making in our learning hub.

WEETBIX TRYATHLON
Some of our students will be participating in this event on Tuesday.

We have sent out a Google Form link via email or you could complete by accessing the link here:



SWIMMING CELEBRATION
This Wednesday we are hopeful of going ahead with our Year 4-Year 6 swimming celebration at Highlands.
The weather is not looking that promising but we will try to go ahead with it if at all possible. If it is not possible
we will put a cancellation notice out close to 8.30 am. We will have Juicies for sale at the event ($2).
Ensure your child has lots of warm gear to wear and lots of snacks and water to see them through the day.
Check entries for the events in your child’s wataka (timetable).  Click on this link for more details.

SEESAW LEARNING JOURNALS
This year Frankley School has decided to move to online learning journals rather than blogs.  We have carried out a
lot of research into the benefits of using such a programme and Tūhono trialled it last year with great success.  
You will be receiving an email this week with instructions on how to sign up to your child’s account online or
through an app that you can download onto your devices.  All whānau can be invited to your child’s account,
so if they have grandparents, aunties, uncles, cousins etc. that want to see their learning, sign them up too.
These online journals will carry on with them each year and are able to be downloaded when your child leaves
Frankley School.  Find out more about Seesaw by clicking on this video.

WHĀNAU PHOTOS
Another special display that we have in our classroom is our whānau wall.  This is a place where we show off and
are 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.



READING
We are now usually starting our day with reading. Get your child to show you this week’s wātaka (timetable)
which the students receive each Monday via their own email. This may be reading text from a book or from an
online source. We have many students who are using EPIC and some amazing new facts and vocabulary are being
discovered.  Click here to check it out.  Can you please check that your child does still have a reading bag (keeps
the books waterproof) for library books or if your child has a browsing box to choose books from school to take
home.


Our Chapter Chat novels are underway and have proved to have some fantastic storylines that we are able to
relate to. The ‘Wonder’ novel is still going and the ‘Mouse and the Motorcycle’ group will be moving on to
‘Runaway Ralph’ which is an offshoot from the first story. Twitter has not always been our friend as it has locked
us out when we all try to access it but we are persevering as all great learners do!! The exposure to new vocabulary,
themes and ideas have allowed us all to explore some very meaningful ideas around relationships and friendships
which has fitted in perfectly with the needs of our students as we move through this first term.


WRITING
We are enjoying exploring a variety of vocabulary as we select appropriate words for our camp poems and thank
you letters and also for our shared writing that we are sending down to South Island Schools as part of our ‘Let’s
Get NZ Writing’ initiative. We will post images regarding this after next week as our work goes to schools in
Dunedin and Ranfurly. We receive work back in return. Making connections across NZ is particularly exciting
and gives an authenticity to our writing. We are also doing individual writing samples this week which we will
co-analyse with the students so that we can collaboratively set writing goals together.

MATHS
We kicked off this term with a focus on Symmetry and used the traditional tapa cloth as inspiration.  We have had
fun discovering words such as rotation, symmetry, translation, reflection… Our fractions knowledge is also being
explored and stretched in our math workshops and we are also working towards helping each student to choose
their own personal goal for their math knowledge. Students are consulted individually so during our math sessions;
we have one teacher teaching a workshop and the other working with individual children/groups on their goals.
We also have learning Assistants in our room during our math times. Learning is accessed in a variety of ways
including our on-line classroom, selected worksheets and activities to support the chosen goals. This allows
students to work with others who have the same goal as them and to personalise their own learning as much as
possible. We then have activities linked to these goals as well as workshops available with teachers.   
Online Classroom


KAPA HAKA PERFORMANCE GROUP (Kahikatea Rōpu)
We are now into the business end of Kapa Haka with a group of about 60 tamariki rehearsing each week as well as
whole school sessions.  We currently have 25 of Tūhono involved in the rōpu (group) and we are very proud of
their efforts in giving Kapa Haka a go. They do have weekly home learning in the form of practising their words
and actions for waiata and these can always be accessed through the Kahikatea Kapa Haka blog.  
Kahikatea Blog for Kapa haka   



TŪHONO LEADER
Each week we will have a class leader who will be doing all of the very important duties such as answering the
telephone (it is surprising how many of our students have never done this) and being our class messenger.
Shiloh is proudly wearing the badge as she completed the first week of duty.

HOUSEKEEPING
Although we are not perfect, we do try hard to keep our students and whānau informed about upcoming events and
expectations. We are still chasing some families for responsible user agreements for accessing our school
internet/devices and some BYOD agreements as well. We also appreciate those students who are consistently
bringing their own devices each day.

Week 9 Events:
Monday Writing Samples (please all  BYOD devices to school please)
Tuesday Weetbix TryAthlon  (some of our students participating)
Wednesday Swimming Celebration at Highlands
Thursday Rippa Rugby sessions  (all to participate during day)
Friday Te Puāwai Whakangahau 2.15-2.45


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! Thank you also for all of the lovely messages regarding the upcoming addition to the Trinder family -
it is most appreciated.


Ngā mihi nui

Anna and Kim