Room 15 Class Newsletter (Feb 03 2014)

Dear Parents/caregivers,

This year Ara Teina will be focusing on is Sustainability as our topic.  We hope to explore different facets of this very important concept each term during the year. 

During Term 1 the children will be learning that they are unique and talented individuals, each having a part to play in the classroom and within our school.  The concept of being unique will be explored through Visual Art with the children creating a piece of ‘assemblage art’ that reflects their likes and passions.  (Assemblage art is when an artist collects used objects and assembles them into a 2 or 3 dimensional work of art.)  We are excited to promote the idea of reusing and recycling items to generate good quality art.  Here is an example of the kind of artwork we will be making this term and more examples can be found on our class blog. 

How you can help…

v  Firstly, please help your child to complete the ‘My Favourite Things’ worksheet. This will help your child identify the things they really love and what they could use in their assemblage artwork. Children can return this sheet to me by the 10^th of Feb.

v  Next, we need your help to collect the following items ...

·      small boxes (shoe boxes or slightly larger boxes are perfect), & little boxes that can fit inside it

·      ribbons, scrap fabric (such as flat fats/fat quarters), beads, old jewellery, acrylic paint... in fact, any craft materials would be useful!

·      5 or 6 little items that could be displayed inside the box that reflect your child’s interests, for example, a toy car, a wrapper from a favourite lolly, a piece of lego, a Barbie doll, an outgrown item of clothing, an old headband, a loved toy, a photo of your family...

We are aiming to start painting our boxes early next week so if these items can be sent to school by the 10^th of Feb, it would be most appreciated. Thank you for your help!  We look forward to seeing some amazing artwork later this term!

Please be in touch if you have any questions.

Regards,

Adele Park

Swimming – Due to Waitangi Day, we will have swimming on Tuesday (4^th of Feb) this week.

Children will need to have their swimming suit, swimming cap and a towel in their swimming bag. Swimming cap is not compulsory but it prevents children from getting head lice in the pool. All of these items will need to be named. Please make sure that your child knows how to get changed and dressed by themselves.

Home reading book (Readers) – Children will be bringing home two books on most days. One of these books will be at their reading level and the other approximately at two reading colours below (i.e. if your child is reading at orange/turquoise level, he/she will be taking a blue/green book). The book at their reading level is the book that I will be reading with them at school during guided reading lessons. The other book is for children to increase their reading fluency and develop their love for reading. Please help us by making reading an enjoyable experience. It is perfectly fine for them to use the pictures as prompts and you could encourage your child to check the beginning sounds of words before using the picture. Please initial your child’s notebook after they have read to you. Children can colour (up to) the number of times read.

Homework – Homework book will be given out earlier in the week, please return it in children’s book bag on Monday. Please help me make this experience enjoyable and easy for children. At this stage, we want children to find homework easy and fun. If you prefer your child not getting homework, please let me know.

How you can help us -We would love some helpers to sharpen pencils, put the chairs down, wipe the tables, open/close windows in the cloak bay, put reading books away and volunteers to listen to children read. We would also like to hear from you if you are a keen gardener.  Please fill out the enclosed form.

Thank you to all the parents who have already shown interest in dedicating some of your valuable time to help us. We are grateful for your help.

Toys – Children are to leave toys or valuables at home as they can be easily lost or broken at school.

School website – Please check the school website regularly to be informed of what is happening school-wide. It also gives information about before-school or lunchtime activities available to junior students. The best way to be informed is to sign up for the school newsletter on the school website.  Room 15 is part of the Ara Teina syndicate (Year 0-2 classes). 

Email – if you have something to discuss, feel free to approach me after school and we can organise a time to have a chat. If you wish to email me, I will endeavour to reply as soon as possible but please allow up to 2 business working days.

Below is a link for you to leave your email address. This will help your emails to get through to my inbox without going into spam. This link can be found on our class blog as well.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ujh8rYSukZxA--Cx8FPi9Ais7IV1jBJX-lwSVxovYTE/edit

Thank you for your cooperation.

Adele Park

Student Teacher

Hello parents and whanau of room 15, my name is Rebecca McCulloch and I am a third year Bachelor of Education student at the University of Auckland.  I have been placed alongside Mrs Park this year for my final placement.  This week I have already enjoyed getting to know the children of room 15, and I look forward to my time with the classroom over the following weeks.

Nga mihi nui, 

Rebecca McCulloch

Swimming Tomorrow! :D

Swimming – Our swimming day this Term is Thursday from 2:00 – 2:45 pm. Our first swimming day will be the 30^th (this week). Children will need to have their swimming suit, swimming cap and a towel in their swimming bag. Swimming cap is not compulsory but it prevents children from getting head lice in the pool. All of these items will need to be named. Please make sure that your child knows how to get changed and dressed by themselves.

Room 15 Newsletter

Dear Parents/caregivers,

Welcome to Room 15! I am very excited to have the opportunity to work alongside you in providing your child with quality education that will set them up for life. We have many interactive learning experiences planned for this term to help your child develop his/her capabilities, learn how to relate to others and engage in exploring the world around him/her. It’s going to be a lot of fun! To start off the year, here is some information that might help you understand how Year 2 classes are run in Arahoe School. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns regarding any information in this newsletter.

Many thanks,                                               

                                                                       Adele Park

The Arahoe School day

8:30am          Children begin to arrive to school, Class door opens

8:55am          Bell goes for 1^st teaching block

10:05am        Morning tea eating

10:15am        Interval play

10:30am        2^nd teaching block

11:45 am       Lunch eating

12:00pm        Break and lunchtime activities begin

12:45pm        3^rd teaching block

1:45pm          Afternoon interval

2:00pm          4^th teaching block

3:00pm          End of the day

 3:15pm          Teacher meetings

Stationery- I would like to ask that all stationery items are named including pencils and glue sticks. Using their own stationery will help them become more responsible with their own property.  Children will start to use their books from the 3^rd of Feb.

Library – Our library day is Friday. Children are allowed to borrow one book at a time. Please remind your child that he/she needs to return his/her library book by Thursday morning so a new book can be issued the next day. Children at Year 2 level are encouraged to learn to take responsibilities for his/her own property including their library card. I would appreciate your support in developing this skill.

Dropping off / picking up children – Class door opens at 8:30 am each morning. From the 3rd week onwards, I would like to ask all students to start their day by reading their book to/with their parent(s) in the classroom after placing their bag, book bag and hat in the right places. With your support, I would also like to make myself available to children whose parents are unable to come into the classroom to read with their child or for anyone who would like to show off their reading skills to his/her teacher. The reason behind this is that not only has this morning routine proven to be very effective in raising children’s achievement levels across ALL curriculum areas but also in helping them set high expectations for themselves. Thank you very much for your cooperation and if you could spare some time in the morning to listen to other students read, that would also be very helpful.

School finishes at 3pm. If you are running late, please call the office as emails may not get through in time. Children left behind after 3:10 will be sent to the office to wait for their caregivers in the foyer.

Spare clothes – Incidents such as vomiting and nosebleeds do happen so please send items of spare clothes to school, in a plastic bag and each item in the bag clearly named. With your permission, I would like to keep these in the classroom. This way we won’t need to disturb you at work with a phone call. Thank you for your cooperation.

Art -shirt - Please provide an art shirt for your child to use when painting. This can be an old oversized shirt of yours, nothing fancy.

Lost property- items lost can be claimed from the Lost Property bin beside the school library. Please ensure that ALL your child’s clothing and property are clearly named.  This is to help you manage the expense of buying a new hat or a jumper each term. There will be a uniform check in the 2^nd week and children whose uniform is not named will take home a note asking you to name them.  

Food & Drinks – children get a total eating time of 25 minutes a day. 10 minutes for their morning tea and 15 minutes for their lunch. To ensure that children finish all the food in their lunch box, I ask all children to focus on their food during their eating time. When they have finished their food, they are then encouraged to develop their personal relationships with their friends. Eating time is strictly supervised so that all children can maximise the use of their time in finishing their lunch. For the first two weeks, I will be giving an extra 10 -15 min for them to finish their lunch but I will be slowly guiding them towards setting up the correct routine of spending 25 min for eating from next week onwards. Also I do encourage children to finish their lunch and eat as much as they can, however, I cannot force children to finish their lunch. Please clarify your expectations with your child so that he/she can monitor their own eating habit of finishing their food.

Sunblock & sunhats – it is compulsory for your child to have a sunhat at school. It must be worn during all break times. Children without a sunhat play in shaded areas. As the risk of sunburn is extreme during Term 1 and Term 4, all children need to wear sunscreen while outdoors. Please remind your child that it is his/her responsibility to ensure that their hat goes into their tote tray when they come back from their play so that we reduce the number of children losing their hats every day.

Medical concerns - We are aware of several children in the class with medical concerns. If you haven’t already spoken to me about your child’s medical issues / medication, please see me as soon as possible.

Swimming – Our swimming day this Term is Thursday from 2:00 – 2:45 pm. Our first swimming day will be the 30^th (this week). Children will need to have their swimming suit, swimming cap and a towel in their swimming bag. Swimming cap is not compulsory but it prevents children from getting head lice in the pool. All of these items will need to be named. Please make sure that your child knows how to get changed and dressed by themselves.

Email – if you have something to discuss, feel free to approach me after school and we can organise a time to have a chat. If you wish to email me, I will endeavour to reply as soon as possible but please allow up to 2 business working days.

Below is a link for you to leave your email address. This will help your emails to get through to my inbox without going into spam.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ujh8rYSukZxA--Cx8FPi9Ais7IV1jBJX-lwSVxovYTE/edit

Thank you for your cooperation.

Adele Park