Week Eight - Easter and a Long Break!

Having had an eventful week last week, it was clear that the students were ready to get back to normality.  Apart from having Friday off this week, there were much fewer extracurricular interruptions.  The children worked hard this week to complete activities before the short week ended.  Many spoke of their anticipation of the long weekend, and some of the exciting events that they were to participate in!

Although Athletics Day was last week, the positive vibes could still be felt during fitness and P.E. this week.  As you can see from the photo below Room 7 love participating in outdoor activity!

Smiles all round the children completed extra laps around the field during fitness to start practicing for our upcoming cross-country at the end of Term 1.  

In writing this week we continued our focus on recounts, but moved into the idea of developing an orientation.  Alongside organising and sequence events, it is key that the students are able to introduce the topic they will be writing about appropriately.  The students used the events of Athletics Day as a prompt to begin practicing writing orientations which include - who, what, where, when, and why.  Some amazing work around this topic has been completed, and improvements from the beginning of this year are already evident.  The students are looking forwards to Literacy Week next week, and I am also looking forward to inviting parents into the class to introduce our literacy programs.  

In numeracy this week the students were focusing on developing their individual needs again.  To begin the lessons we have been working on 'hotspots' which are all about handling and dealing with numbers - this includes counting, skip-counting, and basic facts.  Further to the information provided in the last two weeks blog entries, if there are any questions regarding Mathletics or our maths program, please don't hesitate to contact myself or Sharon, our team leader.

Finally, congratulations to those Room 7 learners who handed their homework in before Thursday, and to Ngarimu for winning Monday Funday!

Nga mihi,

Nicholas Shimasaki

Week Seven - Athletics Day

This week saw the culmination of all of the practise and hard-work that the students have been putting in -  Athletics Day.

The children gave their all, and worked hard as a team to bring home house-points for their respective houses.  Although it was a tough slog, all of the students deserve commendation for their school spirit and effort!  It was really great to see such a big turnout in house colours, and students proud to be LNS learners.

Thank you to all of the parents from Room 7 who came down to support our akonga and cheer them on!

As you can see from the photo below, a lot of effort was put in by whanau and caregivers to make the day as bright and cheerful as possible!

Congratulations to those Room 7 learners who handed their homework in before Friday and to the winning house on Athletics Day!

Nga mihi,

Nicholas Shimasaki

Week Six - Practice for Athletics Day, Buddy Time, and Monday Fun-day!

As we inch closer to athletics day the children are practicing their fitness during Kiwi-sport and P.E., and are also honing their skills at running during fitness time.  Many of the students are running two laps of the field already and I am sure their will be some close competition during our athletics day events!

This week saw another meeting with our buddies where we took advantage of the opportunity to further develop meaningful and caring relationships.  The Room 7 students read to their buddies and the younger Room 2 buddies drew a picture based on what they heard!  They were also able to rate the book with a smiley face or a frown face.

In writing this week we moved further into our focus on recounts and recounting a story.  With a recount it is important to organise and sequence the events in the order that they happened.  The students are, at the moment, focusing on writing their stories and ensuring that the events they write are in the order that they happened.  The students are enjoying using snippets from the Lego movie to practice their sequencing of events.

Now fully underway the numeracy classes and groups have began to focus a lot more on the individual needs of students.  In the various groups we are targeting the needs of these learners.  The students are enjoying complimentary activities such as maths games and follow up activities during the other maths time.  For a short period during maths interchange they also get to take advantage of the Mathletics system that the school has in place.  If there are any queries about Mathletics or how to access it from home please don't hesitate to contact me!

Congratulations to those Room 7 learners who handed their homework in before Friday and to Wilding for winning Monday Funday!

Nga mihi,

Nicholas Shimasaki

Week Five - House Meeting, Recounts, and Maths Interchange

This week saw the bi-weekly event of house meetings.  Together with our house groups we constructed inclusive banners to fly at school events - The next one being athletics day on the 18th March.  Alongside our house names, the students each drew a picture of themselves to be placed on the banner.  These banners will look very impressive and will surely spur some of our sports stars on during the races!

In writing this week a focus was placed on describing characters and their physical and emotional characteristics.  The focus this week was on short clips from the movies 'Planes' and 'Cars' and describing a given character.  The students had great success in this area and are continuing to develop their understanding of physical and non-physical attributes.

This week in numeracy we continued to look at number.  This includes basic facts and general number knowledge.    The transition from statistics has seen an interesting shift in the way the students are interacting with their maths work.  Week five was also an opportunity for Room 6 and Room 7 to continue begin to get used to maths interchange and the routine of the timetables and groups.  

Finally, it is great to see a number of students beginning to complete their Home Learning Challenges tasks!  The increase in the return of homework and reading folders on a daily basis is also pleasing as the students get a house point for each day they are taken and returned!

Nga mihi,

Nicholas Shimasaki