Nga Puawaitanga Team Newsletter

Year 5 & 6

Term 3 2017

Tena koutou katoa Parents and Caregivers,

Welcome to Term 3.  We hope you managed to have some quality time with your child during the holidays.  The weather certainly made it difficult to enjoy the outdoors as much as we would have liked to.

The really exciting news about this term is the whole school show titled ‘Treasure’.  The main roles will be performed by our senior students but the whole school will have the chance to be involved whether it be singing a song, developing/constructing props and other behind the scenes jobs.  This will be a valuable experience as the children learn about all the aspects of putting on a show.

Our Inquiry this term is ‘Oceans’.  The key question being ‘How have people used the ocean over time?’  This is potentially a huge topic and will lend itself to a wide range of possible investigations, including making connections to our school show ‘Treasure’ (Ocean travel and pirates).  One of our starting points will be teaching children about maps and mapping skills.  Our inquiry into oceans also provides the opportunity to explore the development and use of technology over time in relation to oceans.

In Mathematics our focus will be Addition/Subtraction/Fractions looking at both number knowledge and strategies for solving problems.  Our Strand focus will be Geometry where we will study position/orientation and shape.

Literacy will continue to build and extend children's, writing, reading, presenting and speaking skills.  This will be supported by teachers providing guided and instructional lessons.  Children will be encouraged to write in a variety of genre as well as further developing their writing skills like planning, generating ideas, using an appropriate structure and language that is fit for the purpose, organisation of their ideas, accurate sentence structure, punctuation and spelling.  Each class will also have a spelling/word study programme to help support the children’s vocabulary development.  

Speeches This year we have decided to broaden our approach to include both speeches and/or presentations.  This will mean that students will have a choice to either prepare a traditional speech of 3 minutes with cue cards and no props (To be done in their own time at home) or a presentation that may include props, a slide show, a demonstration or use a digital platform of some type. Students who opt to deliver a traditional style speech will be eligible to compete for the school ‘Speech Cup’ and may also be selected to take part in the ‘Inter school Speech Competition.  Students will be provided with the necessary information so that they are clear on what they need to do.

Science and Social Science will be integrated into our Inquiry unit which will focus on ‘Oceans’ as explained above.  We are fortunate that the LEARNZ organisation are running a virtual field trip titled ‘Map My Waahi-My Place, My Story’.  This virtual field trip will focus on traditional paper mapping, digital mapping and other exciting developments in mapping technology.  

In Physical Education the children will take part in Fitness 3 days per week and Sport on Thursday afternoons.  Our Sport focus is ‘Invasion Games’ with large balls.  For example Soccer, Rugby, Basketball and Netball.  This is a continuation of our Term 2 programme which we didn’t finish due to the weather.

Te Reo Maori language and cultural practices will be integrated into the daily routines and systems of classroom life.  Te Reo will also feature as a valuable tool to support our understanding of the cultural value and significance of our local resources like water.

The Arts - Music and Visual Art.  Our school show ‘Treasure’, as mentioned above will address many of the areas covered in the Arts Curriculum; Drama, Dance and Visual art.

Philosophy lessons will continue during the term.  Each class has a 45 minute lesson each week.  These sessions are really effective at encouraging students to think about ideas, to challenge and ask questions about a topic, idea or a position that someone may have.  The discussion based sessions help the students to not only think but also to operate effectively in a group discussion setting.  They learn a lot about discussion/debate etiquette and how to disagree respectfully or how to build on someone else’s idea.  

Homework: The school does not have a specific policy for this.  In the Nga Puawaitanga team, students are encouraged to read daily for 20-30 minutes, practise their basic number facts and to complete any projects or tasks set by their teacher.  If you have a concern or question about homework please speak to your child’s teacher.

Important Dates for Term Three:

Week Beginning	Event
24/07/17	Hockey:  1 lesson per class from outside coaches
31/07/17
07/08/17
14/08/17	Talk with Kerikeri High School DP
21/08/17	Speeches and presentations delivered in class this week
30/08/17	KKPS Y5&6 Speech Finals in hall 11.30-1pm
04/09/17
11/09/17	Inter School Speech Final.  Thursday 14th September, 6pm.
18/09/17	Student led conferences
25/09/17	School Last week of term 3

We look forward to seeing you during the term.

Kind regards,

Michael Baty

Nga Puawaitanga Team Leader