Dear Parents and caregivers
Welcome to Room 3. We hope that everyone has had a restful break
over the summer holidays so that we can enjoy a great start to our year
together. We have 26 amazing children in our class this year, all of whom come highly
recommended from last year’s Year 3 teachers.
Rosina
Tippen will be teaching on Monday, Tuesday and Fridays and Trish Bunting is
teaching Wednesday and Thursdays.
We are
looking forward to getting to know both yourselves and your children. It is
always exciting to see Year 4 children
becoming much more in charge of their own learning routines. We encourage children to make good choices in developing their work habits
so that they can take satisfaction in their own progress.
Some key dates for Term 1 are:
· Aquagym - Week beginning Monday 16th February
· Senior Swimming Sports - Wednesday 5th March
· Gaol setting interviews – 25th & 26th February
· Big Day Out - Wednesday 11th March (Provisional Date)
TEACHING AND LEARNING IN YEAR 4
IN TERM ONE
There
is lots of great learning happening this term.
Below is a quick outline of what you can expect your child to be
learning this term:
“Life
according to ME” is a term long inquiry unit into what is important to us. The focus for the first week at school will
be on learning class routines and expectations, building friendships and
working together as a class. Each child will set personal goals to work on and
achieve. We will look at different
learning styles and optimal conditions for new learning.
In Writing, the focus will be on both
Transactional (diary writing) and Narrative (creative) writing. Children will be learning to structure their
writing by sequencing events in orders, linking ideas in a variety of ways
before writing. The children will be
learning to edit their own work by proof reading to check for meaning and by
using simple dictionaries to correct spelling.
The Reading programme is designed to
scaffold and support the learning of the individual child. This term we will be using a specific
programme designed to build upon the children’s reading skills. This includes buddy reading and guided
reading sessions at reading time.
In Maths, we begin the term with our basic
facts check up and then move onto working with graphs. The children will be involved in an
interchange programme across the Year 4 classes, starting in week 4. This will enable us to teach more
specifically to individuals Numeracy stage and ability. The majority of the term will be spent on
number knowledge and strategies, particularly Place Value.
Homework expectations: Starting next from next week the children will
have weekly spelling, basic facts and reading.
From time to time we might include an optional ‘extra for experts’,
which could be spread out over the week.
Each week we will send home a class notice, which will be glued, into
the home learning book. We hope this
will keep you up-to-date with what is happening in Room 3. We would really appreciate a parent signature
at the bottom of the note to let us know information and home learning is
making it home!
The children
will write their weekly spelling words on the newsletter and there is space for
the children to keep a reading log for the week.
Each night’s
homework should only take 15 minutes. We
are well aware of the busy out-of-school lives our children lead. For this reason, it is perfectly acceptable
for out-of-school activities to count as ‘homework’. All we require is that the activity is
recorded in the reading log space. For
example, if your child has guitar on Monday after school, write ‘guitar’ in the
Monday slot on the reading log.
Reading is
the most important task to do every night at home. It is expected at this level that most
children are reading a book of their own choice for enjoyment for sustained
periods of time. Some groups will bring
a reader home each weeknight. Sometimes
a reading book for the whole week will be used at school. The children are free to take this home and
share it with you but my preference would be your child’s personal choice of
reading material at home. The idea is that this is the time to practise fluent
reading and that it should be fun. As
adults we choose to read easy material for our recreational reading and
therefore this is the habit we are seeking to create. It is time to practise using funny voices and
expression and talk about what is happening in the story.
Basic facts practise
will be sent home each week and your help in assisting your child to commit
these to memory so they are able to recall them almost immediately is a great
advantage to their maths learning in the classroom.
Swimming is the main PE focus for this term, followed by cross-country
training later in the term. We are lucky
to be going to Aquagym for a week of lessons.
Please ensure that all togs, towels and goggles are clearly named.
Housekeeping:
·
Term 1- is a
hat wearing term so please help your child to ensure they have one at school to
wear.
·
The
Classroom Timetable will soon be on display in the cloakroom so that you can
find us if you need us when we are not in the room. Our Year 4 assembly time is Thursday 2:15 and
will rotate around the four classes.
·
Please check
Room 3’s Blog regularly as we will be continually updating it with all the
exciting happenings in our class. It
would be great if you could become a follower as the children love reading comments
that have been posted on there. You will find the link through the school
website.
·
Please bring
swimming togs to school every day this term.
Even though we are not allocated a swimming time each day we may get an
opportuntiy to sneak a swim in. Please
ensure all swimming gear is clearly named.
·
If your child is late to school in the morning, they
must report first to the school office and get a green late pass. Those children not in the classroom by 9am
will be marked as late. Thank you for
your help with this. It is really
important for your child to be at school with enough time to unpack and settle
in, so they are ready for a day of learning.
If you would
like to be part of our class phone and email contact list please complete the
form at the bottom of this newsletter and have your child return it to school a.s.a.p.
so we can get it typed up and sent back to you.
Please feel
free talk to us if you are unsure of anything related to the classroom or your
child. We can be contacted by email – ros.tippen@stalbans.school.nz and trish.bunting@stalbans.school.nz or feel free to pop in before/after school
for a quick chat. If you wish to talk
about your child’s learning at any stage of the year we will be happy to make a
time suitable to talk with you – however be aware that Monday and Wednesday
after school are our staff meeting times.
We know 2015
will be fun, fantastic and filled with fabulous learning experiences and
adventures! Thanks for your support and commitment
to your child’s learning.
Kind regards
Trish
Bunting and Rosina Tippen
Ph 355 9132
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Room
3: Contact List to return to Miss Bunting or Mrs Tippen
Child’s name:
______________________
Mother/Caregiver name:
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Home/Cell Ph:
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Email address:
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Father/Caregiver name:
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Home/Cell Ph:
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Email address:
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