Welcome Back to Term Toru!

Kia Ora Koutou Katoa,

I hope everyone had an excellent holiday and are ready to hit it hard for another term. I had a really good break and I'm excited about getting into this term; it looks like it's going to be a cracker. Here's the start of term update:

• Speeches are in week 4 or thereabouts. That gives us very little time to get them sorted, but if we work hard it will be just enough. One thing you can do at home, which will really help, is discuss with your child what they would like to do their speech about. It needs to be something they are passionate about that really sparks their interest. If they come to school with a topic ready to go, it makes the whole process much smoother.
• I've changed my spelling / homework programme slightly and now test the spelling words on Monday. They write them into their spelling notebooks (which they've been doing all year), and can take them home to practice (if you include spelling in your home learning). Once the students have their spelling words written into their notebooks and checked off, I get them to write 5 sentences that include one or more of the words in them. After they get that sorted, I've started giving them some free writing time, which the students generally really value.
• Maths Buddy is go, and as per usual I have tasks set. 
• We're covering fractions in maths this term. Doing some baking with your child can be an excellent way of working with fractions in a fun and tasty way. Try to choose recipes that use measuring cups e.g., 1/3 of a cup of flour etc. It's also a good way of reinforcing the measurement unit we did last term.
• This term we'll be doing some science experiments and I'm hoping to get out for some other fun and practical activities to link in with our writing. 
• As always, please make contact if you have any questions, concerns or similar. Popping in to see me is fine. Email is a really good way of flicking me a quick note or setting up a time to come in.
• I have a bunch of videos and pictures from last term showing some of the things we got up to in our maths measurement unit. I'll endeavour to sort out a blog post for them in the next little while. 

Rock On,

Mr M