It's Been Raining for So Long!!! (Not just a choir song!)

Who would have thought that Frankley School would be hit by Mother Nature so badly yesterday that we had to close the school?!  Mrs T, Kairangi and Mrs Cribb arrived at school to a lot of extra water running through the school.  For health and safety reasons, we couldn't have children at school, so we took some photos and spent half the day putting up artwork and reflecting on what we do for our Māori students in the school.  We hope you all got to stay warm and dry yesterday.  Today we had lots of flooding stories from Tūhono students and lots of excitement.  Apart from being rather soggy in parts around the school, it was back to business as usual today :)  Check out the footage from yesterday...

Lounging in Tūhono

Here is a beautiful reflection of how learners treat each other in our Learning Family.......look at how they leave the class toys. Respect, care, accounting for individual learning differences (notice some like to group together and some like to work independently from other learners).

Mrs C and her latest learning.......

Here is some work that I did at my learning course last night.  I am studying.......

Postgraduate Certificate in Applied Practice 

(Digital and Collaborative Learning)

It is so interesting but it is really stretching my brain and putting me in 'prickly cactus' thinking every time that I am learning in class. Here is a quick movie that we made to show some of our learning about Growth Mindsets. I worked with Mrs Mills and Mrs Parkes so I was able to work with them collaboratively to solve problems together. We were proud that we got our task finished and in the set time. 

Have you had a learning time when a learning buddy has helped you out of the 'pit' or when you have helped another learner? Tell us about it in your comment.

Welcome back to Term 3

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 3

Tēna koutou Tūhono whānau,

Welcome back everyone for Term 3.  We hope you have all enjoyed some quality time together over the holidays and have had the chance to recharge your batteries.  Tūhono students have returned to school with big smiling faces and a positive attitude towards another term of learning with us.  Mrs T managed to get some gardening done between rain, snow and going on “mummy” dates with her boys and Mrs Cribb spent a week up in Whangarei supporting her daughter Saffy and her Central Districts Hockey team take out the New Zealand Under 18 Girls National Tournament.  

Unfortunately, the holidays ended with great sadness for Mrs Cribb.  She wanted to let our Tūhono whānau know that her dad died peacefully on Saturday morning after being sick in hospital for a week. He was just about to turn 80 and his body was tired. He was full of fun and sparkle until the end.  Mrs Cribb is currently on bereavement leave and we send our love and thoughts to her and her family at this sad time.  Tūhono can’t wait to see her when she returns!  In her absence, we have the lovely Mrs Smith teaming up with Mrs T.

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.  It is shared with each student through their emails on a Monday and it would be beneficial for you to discuss it with your child and it is also a way that you can see what we are getting up to each day.

WEEKLY TRACKING SHEET

Last term we introduced a tracking sheet for Tūhono to use to track their learning for each day.  We have created a simple way for them to show evidence of their learning and a great visual way of making sure that they have a balanced programme when it comes to choices of workshops and learning activities.  Click on this link to see an example.  The hard copies of these live in their WIT books.

MATHS

We finished last term off focusing on multiplication and division strategies for our workshops.  Tūhono students have worked really hard at achieving their individual knowledge goals also and proving this to a teacher.  Ask your child to show you their IKAN analysis in their Maths folder on Google Drive so they can talk to you about what they are working on for their number knowledge.  You could find activities that you could do with your child at home to help consolidate this knowledge.  Remember there are many great resources on our Tūhono Online Classroom.  Currently we are focusing on Geometry, in particular symmetry, reflection, translation and rotation.  We have linked in creating kowhaiwhai patterns that show evidence of this maths based on the works of artist Reuben Paterson - watch this space for our final products.

LITERACY - READING

This term we are going to focus on the Daily Five programme with all of Tūhono.  These sessions will be a time where students can choose to work on the three options of Listening to Reading, Reading to Someone or Reading to Self.  We will use a number of text, online and audio resources to support this programme.  It will also be a great time to continue guided reading sessions with individuals or small groups to cater for specific needs in these areas.  

LITERACY - WRITING

In Tūhono, we have been working hard at independently following the Writing Process in our daily writing sessions.  This involves brainstorming/pre-writing/planning in our books using graphic organisers, drafting in our books or in google docs, re-reading, revising, editing through conferencing with peers first and then the teachers and finally sharing their writing with an audience in whichever format they choose.  To help us record our findings for our invertebrate WIT, the students have all learnt how to write an information report following the process.  Many of them have been shared on blogs or ask your child to show you theirs on their google docs.

LITERACY - SPELLING

Another feature of our Daily Five programme is Word Work.  This is an area of focus for this term and we are working at individualising our spelling programme as much as we can through the use of the essential lists and words from our writing.  Click on the link for more details.

Tūhono Spelling Programme

WIT - WILDLY IMPORTANT TASK

Tūhono have been so enthusiastic about our Invertebrate WIT and have learnt so much about what is in our Frankley Bush, how they all survive together and help our ecosystem.  We have learnt about how to trap insects safely and gather samples for observation.  We are now at the final stages of our WIT in which the groups are to “use this information and research to create a child-friendly invertebrate resource.  Your resource will enable Frankley Students to recognise and categorise Frankley Bush invertebrates, based on their physical features and adaptations”.  Have a chat with your child about what ideas might work for this.

REMINDERS:

• Whānau photos - we have a lot more up but still not a full hub.  We would love to have you all represented in our classroom so please email through or send along a photo with your child.
• SFRC are calling for donations for our grocery raffles over the next few weeks - this week it is “anything in a tin”, so please send along a tin with your child to drop into our collection box in Tūhono.
• Once your winter sporting code has finished and you played for Frankley School, please wash and return your issued uniforms to the office in a named plastic bag.  Thanks.
• Lucky Book Club - orders in by 11 August.

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

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

Firstly, 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.

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.

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

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

Last 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?

Groups 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

anna@frankley.school.nz kim@frankley.school.nz

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

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?