Welcome to Week 4

 Kia Ora Koutou Katoa,

It's been a busy but exciting start to the term. Last week we had Tracey from Hearing Nelson in to run a session about caring for our hearing - a topic close to my heart. Below are some photos of the session.

Daffodil Day on Friday was a success - thanks to all those who donated ingredients for the fritters etc. Also a big thanks to Mark and Lynnette who cooked up a storm with the children in preparation. There are a few photos below of that too.

This coming Friday, we're heading to Parapara and so will need plenty of parent helpers to help with transport. So far I have two drivers locked in so another 6 -7 drivers would be excellent. Please email me ASAP if you're able to help out!

Harold the Giraffe will be at school on Monday and Tuesday.

I've changed up my reading programme for the last few weeks. If your child has been bring a reading book home daily, it's likely they won't be doing that between now and the end of the term. I highly recommend regular trips to the Tākaka library to augment our weekly trip to the school one. All the children have Sunshine Online accounts so that's a great home reading resource too. Please let me know if you have trouble with Sunshine Online and I'll send you the login details.

Rock On,

Mr M

On Fridays we do Enviro School activities. Here are some pictures of the children responding to what they find in nature by making making leaf art.

Sound experiments at Tracey's hearing workshop.

Daffodil Day preparation

Week 9!

Kia Ora Koutou Katoa,

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend. Here's a long awaited (and incomplete) blog post about what we've been up to recently. 

• On Friday 1 October the whole school is doing a trip to Wainui. We'll be needing some parent helpers. If you're able to come along to help out for the day please be in touch. At this point Room 2 still needs some more parents.
• This week, we're going to start a character portrait about someone who is special to us. It could be a parent, grandparent, sports coach, music tutor or someone of significance. Friends or siblings aren't encouraged as topics for this one as I find that the quality of ideas can be too dependent on their latest interaction. Please have a chat to your child and decide on a person of significance to them whom they would like to write about. Students sometimes like to bring in photos of their special person (which I can photocopy) to put on their desk as they write. If you'd like to sit down with your child to jot down details and ideas about their chosen character that would be a great resource for generating writing ideas at school.
• Homework books to school on Monday please!
• Book bags have become very thin on the ground of late, please help your child remember to pop their book bag in their bag daily.

Last week was Te Wiki o te Reo Māori. On Tuesday the school came together to celebrate the Māori Language Moment - an initiative to try to break the work record for the most people celebrating an indigenous language at one time. At Motupipi, we got together to sing one of our favourite waiata, Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi, which the students sang with enthusiasm and pride. In classes, students continued their te reo learning, karakia and waiata. On Friday we did a te reo scavenger hunt where the students worked with their tuakana teina buddies to hunt down and match up te reo numbers and colours which were hidden around the school. As always, the older buddies did a wonderful job of making the activitiy fun for the younger ones. Ka mau te wehi!

Rock On,

Mr M

Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi Video

Jett Attenborough and Her Amazing Lizard Lockdown Video

Evalyn's Recent Adventures

The First Day of Level Two

 

Lockdown Work from the Room 2 University

Kia Ora All,

It's been great receiving videos and pictures of all the learning everyone has been doing at home. Here's a selection of some of the stuff that's been sent through. My apologies if I've missed your contribution - please email me and let me know if you've got something you'd like included in the next post.  

Rock on,

Mr M

 Jett W's Frog Project

"Today we made 2 frog ponds out of an old mussel boys!!! they dig them into the ground, put rocks, and collected pond weed, frog eggs… here’s hoping we have frogs soon!!"

Jett's 'not to do' list - I especially like 'don't punch a bee's nest'

Jett's Are You A Frog Quiz

Rory's Chemical Compounds Project

 Jed's Creative Island Map + Limerick 

Jed has been making the most of lockdown by doing plenty of the work I've sent out and also by honing his violin skills!

 Zoe has been sending through some super maths, writing, reading and drawing tasks. 

April's Water Blasting and Map 

April has been helping out with some water blasting and also managing to fit in a bunch of school work. The map was an 'Unplugged Friday' task which April took to the next level by using Playmobil to create the scene and then photographing it before adding in the captions. 

Marlee's Home Learning Regime 

Here's a pic of Marlee's study regime (she can change the order daily)

Room 2 Online University - Reading Task

This week we're reading Iron Tamariki.

pdf of the book

mp3 file of the audio

Youtube video I made - click on the 'Youtube' icon bottom right hand side of video and watch full screen so you can read along as the audio plays.

Before Reading
Have you ever wanted to do something really badly, but haven't been sure you could do it? Talk with someone in your bubble or write down:

• What you wanted to do.
• How did you feel when it got hard?
• What did you do that helped you succeed, or what could you do next time to help you succeed?

During Reading

1. Who are the characters in the story?
2. Why did the dad tell the boy the story about Richie McCaw? 
3. What sort of pasta did they eat?
4. What is the Iron Tamariki event? 
5. Where is the Iron Tamariki event?
6. How is he feeling just before the event and how do you know - find some evidence in the text.
7. What does he tell himself just before the race starts to help with his nerves?
8. What does he do when he realises he's in the lead?
9. Make a list of the different settings (places in the story). There are 4 main settings. 
10. At the end, what was Dad's trick with the macaroni cheese?

Vocabulary

• What does the author mean by 'mean buzz'
• Look up these words in a thesaurus (either book or online): yak, insulation & version. For each word, write three other words that have the same meaning.
• Use each word in a sentence - full stops and capital letters please!
• What does 'oma' mean? Draw a diagram. 

After reading

Welcome to Term 3!

Kia Ora All,

I thoroughly enjoyed Term 2 and I think the kids have made a great start moving into Term 3.

This term is very sports heavy with much of the class playing miniball weekly on Tuesdays. Throughout the term we'll also be heading off to football and hockey tournaments which will be very exciting.

Last term in Room 2 we had an environmental theme as we worked towards our class trip to Wainui. This term we've got a maths focus in which I'm hoping to cover some parts of the wider maths curriculum such as measurement, time, problem solving as well as continuing to boost the numeracy along. I've signed the class up for Maths Week so will have some resources to use this coming week (which is Maths Week), but will also use the resources throughout the term. I love maths and I know that there are some super enthusiastic mathematicians in the class so I'm thoroughly looking forward to it.

Helen is going to be coming in to continue to boost the school along with te reo Maori this term. She's stepping in for Alice who helped us out in terms one and two but couldn't continue this term unfortunately. I think the class has done some excellent te reo learning so far this year and have had plenty of positive feedback from parents, Alice and Helen about their progress. I'm hoping to introduce some new ideas into the class programme to build on the learning that's been going on so it should be an exciting term of language learning.

At the end of the term we'll be doing the school production at the playhouse. Leading up to it we'll be doing plenty of drama, music and plays. Bridie has kindly been keeping an eye out for costumes for us so we're building up a good bank of dress ups. If you have any good dress ups you could donate to the class they would be gratefully received. 

Homework goes home on Monday and books should be back on Friday. If the book doesn't make it to school on Friday, having it there on Monday is the next best option because then the new homework sheet can be glued into it. A significant effort is made every Friday to test spelling, track progress, and make a new list of words for children to learn, so it's a shame if homework sheets go missing because there is no book at school to glue it into. Book bags should go between home and school daily with the homework book, personal reading book etc in it. Some kids have school reading books to take home and read daily and some don't, if you're not sure if your child should have a daily reader in their book bag please make contact. 

Below are some pictures of the homework certificate presentation and BTB points auction from last term. 

As always, if you have questions or concerns please be in touch. You're always welcome to pop in to see me or to make a time to catch up.

Rock on,

Mr M