Newsletters
Dear Parents,Welcome back to Term 2. I hope you all managed to have an enjoyable break with your children and enjoyed the extended summer! This term, as ever, is a busy time for us and we have many exciting and motivating learning activities planned for your children. In Literacy our reading and writing programmes will reflect our focus on Explanation writing. 20 minutes of SSR daily should still be a regular part of all our students’ homework regime. Spelling and vocabulary topic words will also be coming home on a regular basis throughout the term.We are looking at ANZACs as part of our Social Sciences topic and the children will be undertaking independent research into various aspects of this through our Inquiry lessons. The presentation of their research will be in the form of a 3 minute short film- so we will all be learning some new skills using a video camera but more importantly editing our filming using Windows Movie Maker software. Maths sees us looking at addition and subtraction. Your child will be also be given a weekly set of basic facts to learn for the week (rather like spelling) and will be tested on these in class on a Friday. We have found that too many of our students do not have solid basic facts knowledge. This is essential for their further learning in maths. We will also be focusing on Geometry this term and an assignment will come home later in the term. The Science Road Show will be based at Hobsonville school in the last week of this term and our year 7/8s will have the opportunity to visit the interactive displays. There is a charge of $5.00 per child. This will be a fantastic kick-start to our science unit for term 3 on Forces.In PE and Health the focus for the term is large ball skills learned through TGFU (teaching games for understanding). Our Health studies see us focusing on Personal Hygiene. A need identified by our teachers following hot sticky lunchtimes where the students are running around and then returning for afternoon lessons. We will also be covering Pubertal Change. A parent letter giving you a little more detail about this will be coming home with your child shortly. Our trip to Goat Island last term was a highlight for many staff and students (although strictly speaking I guess we need to call it our Matheson’s Bay snorkelling trip). Thanks so much to the large number of parents we had volunteering on the day. I hope you all enjoyed it. As part of our EOTC (Education Outside the Classroom), Kauri team is in the throes of planning a trip to compliment our ANZAC studies. More information will be forth-coming shortly, and we will be appealing for parent volunteers to join us for the day. A brief reminder about Uniform. Most students are looking really smart in their uniform, and I thank you for encouraging your children in this matter. Sun hats are not required in terms 2 and 3. No t-shirts should be visible underneath polo shirts. As you may know next Friday we bid a fond farewell to Mrs Allison-Dodds who is moving to live in Clevedon with her husband who is situated at the Papakura Army Base. She has been a passionate and caring teacher, thoroughly liked by all the children in room 10 and has taken all of the students in the team for Dance and Drama lessons. The feedback from these sessions has been really positive and I know she will be sorely missed by all her students. We wish her all the best for her future and hope she will be back to visit us from time to time.We are fortunate to have a secured an experienced and extremely capable teacher who is currently working as an advisor in Literacy. Mrs Liz McLachlan will begin in room 10 on 17 May. Homework and Work Completed at home
As year 7 and 8 students homework or work completed at home should ideally be printed at home and brought to school on the due date. We understand that some occasions will arise where printing at home is not possible, when this is the case work can be emailed to the classroom email or saved onto a USB drive and printed it off. When this occurs it is up to the student to ensure that he or she has saved the work in a document that is accessible on the classroom computers (Microsoft 1997-2003). The work needs to be printed off during the child’s own time before the work in due.
Saving a Microsoft document that is accessible at school:
1 – click on the office button in the top left corner
2 – Scroll down to save as
3 – Select Word 97-2003 document 4 – Save onto your home computer or USB drive
1 – Open a new message in your email
2 – Write in your class email address (room#@hobsonville.school.nz)
3 – Select attach file
4 – Select your saved 97-2003 document
5 – Write a brief message to your teacher6 – Select send
Jump Rope for Heart Whole School Event
Jump rope for heart is a physical activity programme that has been run in New Zealand schools for over 25 years. It aims to promote fun physical activity, while assisting children to develop lifelong balance, rhythm, and hand eye co-ordination skills. This year at Hobsonville School, Jump Rope for Heart day is on Friday the 4th of June. We will be asking for a gold coin donation to help us raise money for the Heart Foundation. Your child will be able to wear mufti on the day, but sensible shoes will be a must. Students will participate in skipping activities during one block of the day. (Kauri and Kowhai – 9.30 – 10.30, Rimu and Matai – 11.15 – 12.15, and Pohutukawa and Nikau – 1.35 – 2.15). Within this block of time students will participate in a set of rotational activities, moving from one to another. Students will have opportunities to practice skipping skills during class time leading up to the day. At the end of the day we will come together as a school for an assembly (beginning at 2.20pm) where certificates will be awarded for showing RRAP values during the skipping and older students will have the opportunity to share skipping routines they have created (this is optional).
We would like to welcome you to come and watch throughout the day. The activities will be spread around the concreted areas of the school so you may have to hunt around the school to find your child. If you have any concerns or questions about classroom life please feel free to contact your class teacher to discuss it.Thanks again for your ongoing support. Have a great term. Kind regards Kauri Team Teachers Rachael Sole Brad HillTeam leader room21@hobsonville.school.nz room22@hobsonville.school.nz PH: 4168619 ext: 221PH: 4168619 ext: 222 Aimee Buhler Jacqui-May Allison-Doddsroom23@hobsonville.school.nz room10@hobsonville.school.nzPH: 4168619 ext: 223 PH: 4168619 ext:210
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