Week One - Start of Term 3 and the Second Half of the Year!

Kia ora e te whanau,

It is great to have all of the students back at school and to see so many smiling faces!  I hope that you have all had a restful and rewarding break and have had the opportunity to spend time with friends and whanau.  In these cold winter months it has been wonderful to have some really sunny days to welcome the students back to school!

This term is going to be a very rewarding term for the students.  In Writing the students will be discovering and working with narratives, in Mathematics the students will be considering shape, symmetry and tessellation alongside multiplication and division, and in Inquiry we are looking at our different cultures and whanau and learning more about ourselves.  

The students are already showing great focus and dedication to their work, and have settled back in well to the routines of school.  

As many of you will already know the homework has changed slightly.  Rather than learning the spelling words on the homework sheet, the students now have a spelling notebook filled with words which they spelled incorrectly in our spelling test.  The homework also now includes mathematics work and will get progressively more difficult as the term progresses.

The children were very positive to begin Reading lessons again and have shown some great teamwork when reading and playing reading games.

Thank you for your ongoing support,

Nick Shimasaki

Week Ten - Gold Awards, Student Led Conferences and Holidays!

Term 2 has been an amazing term for student achievement.  The students have put in a lot of hard work and a concerted effort towards achieving their Term 1 goals.   A large number of students in Room 7 met those goals, and are now tracking towards new goals for Terms 3 and 4. 

I have been so impressed with Room 7 and the progress which they are making in Literacy, in particular with regard to their Reading.  In Terms 3 and 4 I would like to encourage the students to make an even more concentrated effort towards improving in Spelling and Writing.

I have been most impressed with the work which the students have completed around Inquiry and the extra knowledge which they have taken home about how they can save power.  The students are energy saving stars and already I am hearing stories of students practising the knowledge which they have learned at home!

As I am writing this entry for the blog we have almost completed all of our student led conferences in Room 7.  This time has been a great opportunity to catch up with whanau and caregivers to celebrate the learning of their tamariki and look at how we can continue to develop their successes moving forwards.

Bringing a close to this term is the Gold Award Celebration.  This is a time where the students can reflect on the learning of the term and consider the things they might revise or do differently in Term 3.  One lucky Room 7 student will be receiving the prestigious Principles Gold Award and Room 7 will get to share some of their amazing work which they have done over the last month.

Finally, thank you for the great response with returning the Learning Journals.  It has been great to have such a quick turn around and the children have been ecstatic to receive their 5 house points and a sticker for being so prompt!

Below are some photos of this weeks Reading and also our GoNoodle inside fitness.  The students have worked so hard with their fitness that they have actually levelled up our GoNoodle monster!

Nga mihi,

Nicholas Shimasaki

  

Week Nine - Cold Weather, Inside Play and the Amazing GoNoodle!

Kia ora Room 7 whanau and friends,

As the weather continues to get colder and colder and as we get into the real depths of winter, the students are spending more and more time inside, but Room 7 has a cunning plan to combat the winter blues!  We are writing poems about winter and our favourite things about it!  We are also keeping our feet moving and blood pumping through some amazing inside fitness with GoNoodle.  Having practised GoNoodle with the children on a number occasions, I can personally vouch for the effectiveness of this tool in fitness I was puffed!  Our amazingly fit tamariki have made huge gains in their fitness and are certainly showing me up with their dancing skills!  I am sure that if you ask the tamariki about the 'Bones' or 'Disco Brain' dance they will be able to show you a couple of the moves! 

Keeping in tune with this winter theme within Inquiry this week the students have been looking at different ways which they can save electricity and keep warm and snug during the colder months!  The students have learned about the importance of curtains and insulation to keep warm!  Our tamariki have made some great posters to share with the rest of Linwood North School about what they have learned.  Thankfully, these amazing posters begin their journey in Room 7 and are currently brightening up our Inquiry wall.

Thank you to all of those caregivers and whanau who have booked a time for the learning conferences in the final week of Term 2.  It is a great opportunity for the students to share their successes from Term 1 and 2 and to look forwards to the goals they want to achieve in Terms 3 and 4.  If you would like a booking these are available online with a link and instructions having been posted on the Linwood North School Facebook page.  Alternatively, you can pop into Room 7 and see me and I can book you in.

Have a safe and enjoyable weekend, I look forwards to seeing you all again next week!

Nga mihi,

Nick