Autumn 2017

Dear Parents and Caregivers, 
Welcome to Term 2! A warm welcome to families who are new to Muritai as well. I do hope you have all had a lovely holiday break with your children and that they are feeling refreshed and ready to start this next term's learning.  A wonderful term of learning experiences has been planned. 

Grandparent and Grand-Friend's Day - This was a wonderful occasion for both the students and their visitors. It was lovely to see the students sharing and talking very animatedly about their learning with their grandparents and grand-friends. We are going to have a Celebration of Learning for parents later in the term for them to show you their learning too. It was absolutely amazing to also see the incredible items and hear the wonderful stories that the adults shared. This will indeed be a great memory for the students in the future. Special thanks also to all the parents who sent along food for the sumptuous afternoon tea. 

Learning Conferences - Thank you for coming along and supporting your child in their learning and seeing what goals that they are working on. I hope you have some ideas of how you can support them at home. If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact your child's teacher. 

Easter Rabbit visit - Thank you to our 'Easter Bunny' alias Archie, who hopped into our Junior classrooms and collected the cardboard easter egg shapes that everyone had made. Thank you to our Year 7 and 8 students, who hid them for our Junior students to find and once found have them replaced with a real Easter egg. 

Learning in Term 2 
Our usual Literacy programmes continue with the students building their skills in oral language, reading, Te Reo and written language. Reading eggs subscriptions to support language learning skills are available through the school office if you wish your child to do this. 

Our very successful 'Hooked on Books' programme will again resume during the afternoons. If you have a spare hour each week and are interested in listening to some of our Junior students reread their reading book then please do not hesitate to contact me. I will then meet with you to show you what is involved and create a roster for this. 

In our Numeracy programmes, your child works on a wide range of activities to increase both their Number and Strategy Knowledge. They also take part in Strand activities and this term will be learning about concepts involving time and geometry. 

We are very grateful and thank the Home and School committee very much for their generous donation enabling us to purchase some of the Numicon resources for each of our Junior classrooms. Numicon is a multi-sensory approach to children's mathematical learning that will help support students to communicate mathematically, explore relationships with numbers and solve problems in every day life experiences. 

We also encourage your child to take part in the Mathletics programme as part of their usual homework. It is good for them to do the activities over and over again, even if they find the problems easy, as Mathletics is designed for the concept to be practiced to stay the same while the questions alter each time. Continued practice helps to make their computation in other areas of mathematics faster.

The 100 days at school will be celebrated this term with the students being involved in a whole lot of activities about the number one hundred. 

This term we will continue to be involved in a lot of Science activities and use of our STEM room. In Week 3 it is Primary Science Week and this will involve a wide range of experiments for the students to take part in. 

Our main Inquiry is entitled 'Our Star the Sun - Life and Time in a Solar System.' The students will be learning how to identify and describe some parts of our Solar System i.e. Sun, Moon, Planets and Stars along with investigating Matariki. They will describe changes to the sun, shadows and the moon's appearance. As part of this inquiry we will be going by bus to the Planetarium to the Education centre there. Further details about this will come at a later date.  

moveMprove programme - All our Junior School students will be involved in this programme beginning on Monday in our school hall. This programme will involve learning and practice of different fundamental movement skills involving locomotor skills, stability skills and manipulative skills. Each session is for 45 minutes and will be every Monday for the whole term. The cost has been subsidised and is $20 per child payable at the school office. Thank you if you have already done so.  Please ensure that your child wears suitable clothing on Mondays that does not restrict them in the different activities e.g. they may be doing forward rolls, walking along the beam, climbing on ropes etc

Jumpjam fitness programmes continue at 8.40 a.m. but will only be on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings this term. Our Physical Education programme is working on running as everyone prepares for the school wide Cross Country run. This year it will be on Thursday May 18th from 9 a.m. at the Rec. If it is wet or cold the postponement date is Tuesday May 23rd. Parents are very welcome to come along and support their child in this event. Please ensure your child wears shoes to school that are suitable for running practices. More details to follow closer to the time.

Painting will be the main focus in Visual Art this term. The students will be learning about the colour wheel, mixing colours, shades and tints and will use both acrylic paint and water colour. Some of our classes will be working with Mrs Hooke in Performing Arts as well. 

Toys - We have noticed that a lot of the students have been bringing along toys to school so please note that if they do, it is their responsibility if the toy inadvertently gets lost or broken. We encourage them to have play dates where they can play with their friends along with their toys at home.  

Slippers - Please send along a pair of slippers for your child to wear inside the classroom. Please name them to avoid confusion as many of their peers have the same style, colour and foot size.  

Parent Curriculum Information Sessions - How to support your child in their learning sessions will be held on Wednesday evenings at 7 p.m. for an hour in room 3 and repeated again on Thursday afternoons at 1.30 p.m. The dates for these are as follows - 
Wednesday June 7th and Thursday June 8th - Reading
Wednesday June 21st and Thursday June 22nd - Writing 
Wednesday June 28th and Thursday June 29th - Mathematics
Come along and find out how your child learns to read, write and do maths and some ways you can help them at home. 

The 'Starting School at Five' Information Evening will be held on Wednesday June 14th at 7 p.m. for parents and caregivers of preschoolers. This evening will give them a glimpse into what learning their soon to be five year old will be involved in. 

If you have any queries about the Junior School please do not hesitate to contact either myself or your child's teacher. 

Room 1 - Mrs Barbara Ryan
Room 3 - Mrs Maureen Buckley and Mrs Liz Sullivan
Room 4 - Miss Nicolette Fisher and Mrs Raewyn Roberts
Room 5 - Mrs Janelle McKay
Room 6 - Ms Morag Roberts and Mrs Jo Salisbury 

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley 
Deputy Principal