It certainly has been an eventful week and our thoughts are with those family members and friends who have been affected by this week's Christchurch earthquake. All offers of support will be gratefully appreciated.
Next week
On Monday afternoon all our Junior classes will be visiting thelocal beach area, depending upon tide times. We are going to explore our local environment as part of 'SeaWeek' to take advantage of this lovely weather at present. We will be following up this experience with recount writing when we return to school.
SeaWeek - February 26 - March 6
This is an annual event which involves a wide range of events, activities, opportunities and competitions. The theme this year is "Back to the future - the culture, history and traditions of the sea - Kia kaha tangata moana". It is an opportunity for both adults and children to learn more about our marine environment and share experiences of the sea. If you would like more details please go to seaweek.org.nz
Full School Assembly
Families and friends are invited to join us for whole school assemblies. They are held in the hall from 1.30 p.m. on Fridays. Our next one is this week. Seats are reserved in rows along the back of the hall for you.
Reading
At school we are trying to develop a life long love of learning and especially in reading as this is the key to future successes in a range of areas. It is imperative to create this love of reading and books as early as possible so it is especially important for parents and caregivers of babies, preschoolers and school age children to read aloud to them for at least five minutes every day. This daily habit makes a huge difference to learning compared to those children who have not had this. Listening to stories helps children to increase their attention span, improve their oral language and listening skills, broaden their knowledge of the world around them, create a love of language and enjoy a loving, special relationship with the adult who is doing the talking and reading of the stories. At school we continue all of this as well by also reading aloud and discussing the ideas in quality books.
Learning to read is an extremely difficult task for children to do. Books that we send home are designed to be easy as this ensures that the children have immediate success for their efforts. They are quick for families, especially those who are often time poor with so many other after school activities. Often we send home the same book three times depending upon your child's reading level.
The first time may be to share and discuss, or to use strategies to work out unknown words or to build alphabet sound knowledge. The next time you child may havemoved up a few more reading levels and can read it to you with minimal support while the third time it is very easy. This is when your child is working on fluency, intonation or thinking or research skills. We know some of the titles that your child brings home may not appeal to you as adults but we only purchase quality reading materials for our children that have been researched as ones that have strong motivational appeal. There is a wealth of fantastic books available at our local Eastbourne library that your child can also take out to practise their growing skills. As learning to read and write require mastery of a multitude of skills simultaneously children progress at different rates over their first three years at school. Please support them and if you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask your child's teacher.
The first time may be to share and discuss, or to use strategies to work out unknown words or to build alphabet sound knowledge. The next time you child may havemoved up a few more reading levels and can read it to you with minimal support while the third time it is very easy. This is when your child is working on fluency, intonation or thinking or research skills. We know some of the titles that your child brings home may not appeal to you as adults but we only purchase quality reading materials for our children that have been researched as ones that have strong motivational appeal. There is a wealth of fantastic books available at our local Eastbourne library that your child can also take out to practise their growing skills. As learning to read and write require mastery of a multitude of skills simultaneously children progress at different rates over their first three years at school. Please support them and if you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask your child's teacher.
Pataka Museum
All children from rooms 1,2 and 3 will be going by bus to Pataka Museum on Tuesday March 8th while the children from rooms 4, 5 and 6 will be going the next day on Wednesday March 9th. We will be leaving school at 9.15 a.m. and returning by home time. Parents are invited to join us for the trip. We are, however, unable to take you on the bus but can arrange car pooling and we unfortunately can not have preschoolers at Pataka. If you would like to join us for this trip please let me know by next Friday March 4th.
Grandparent's afternoon
As part of our current inquiry where the children are learning about their history we will be inviting grandparents to school for an afternoon. We will be doing this on Monday April 4th at 1.30 p.m. in our hall so please ask your child's grandparents (or a family friend who could be an honorary grandparent) to pencil this date into their diary. We would like the grandparents to bring along items that they have used/had when they were younger so that we can make comparisons showing the children how things have changed over time. e.g. toys, telephones, clothing, food etc
Have a lovely week.
Kind regards
Maureen Buckley
Deputy Principal
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