Rock It To Week 9

Main events this week

Monday - Reports going home 

Tuesday and Thursday - Parent Teacher interviews

Friday- Kapahaka Festival 

Maths - For the next two weeks focus is on doubles and halves. 

Calendar Maths  - Time - o'clock and half past. (Making connections with a whole and a half.)

Reading  - Prediction and Comprehension

5 W's - what, where, when, why, who 

H  -   how ( amazing job Room 9)

Highlight of the day- Today we were working on the sound of the week and we came across a couple of words that have the same pronunciation ( knew, new). When I was reading with my top group. they were like  "They sound the same." I said  "Yes you are right and these words have a special name - Homophones."  I love extending my kids and they love it too.

Writing - Recount - We are working on writing beginning, middle and ending, And adding lots of details. 

Did I mention that my lovelies are learning to publish their stories on i-pad. One of my boys typed his story and found out that he needs to add more details. YEAH!

We are loving ROCK IT in our room.

Learning Stations

We have Learning Stations set up in our room to make children more independent, to take risks, be creative and above all work independently and collaboratively with their learning partners/buddies. We have a Maths Enrichment station, Science, Literacy, Art and Device stations.
After finishing their set tasks children go to the stations they want to work on. They choose independently and then move to the next stations. They are amazing with how they work with their classmates or independently.
Many of you must be wondering how do I know what they are doing when I am busy with other groups.  Well, there is a catch!  EVIDENCE.   When children are finished working on a station they have to keep evidence to share with the class. They leave it on the learning station with their name on it. We share it after morning tea/lunch. 
The children are so good at showing respect to other's work and at managing themselves by not touching or messing around with the evidence. It has surprised my colleagues as well, how these angels do not touch the evidence lying on the floor. They look at it, talk about it and walk around it BUT do not touch it. (It is probably because of  the Key Competencies  and the values of our school we are focussing on. I will talk about that in my next post.) 

It is time for my Evidence!

Science station - looks like,feels like etc

Maths station

Reading with a buddy

Practicing sight words

Loads of evidence - groups of 10

Independent reading

Maths Workshop Feedback

Thank-you to those parents who took some time out of their busy schedule to feed back on the Maths work shop. Thank-you Mariko and Jenni. ( Jenni I will upload the video)

Thanks for sharing the work, Mrs Dhillon.

The math workshop was awesome. It was great to see how children have been learning and to know how we can encourage them to practice more.

I would like to attend if you provide any workshop in the future again😊 Thank you so much!

Mariko Yoshizaki

Windows メール から送信

Week 7

This week in Maths we are focussing on - 

Subtraction -  Mathematical Language - key words like how many more, less, left behind, minus, minus sign , counting back, say the number before, 

Calendar Maths - focus will be on fractions - 'th', numbers and the words, and sharing equally in halves and quarters.

In Reading we are working on -

Decoding unknown words by finding the chunks /blends and 'little words' 

Looking at the beginning, middle and ending sounds

Comprehension 

Some of the groups are focussing on comprehension strategies - 

Questions to ask before you read 

Can you predict what the story might be about?

What makes you think that?

What does the title tell you about the book?

Have you ever felt this way or or does the topic or the picture relate to you? ( it is making connections.)

Questions to ask while you read 

What do you think will happen next?

What is the problem in the book?

What has happened in the story so far? 

What was the beginning of the story?

What happened in the middle of the story?

Has it ever happened to you?

Can you tell me a word/words that has the same meaning as.....? or What other word/s  can you use instead of this word? 

Questions to ask after you have read

Were  your predictions about the story correct?

What was your favourite part of the story?

Can you retell the story in order?

Why do you think the author wrote this story/book?

If you could one thing about the story what would that be?

(Last week we worked on a word and I said "these words have the same meaning and they are called synonyms". There is no harm to introduce your child with proper words, their young minds are very receptive to new information. Do not underestimate these little ones.)

Enjoy Reading!

Winter Is Here!

Room 9 girls were lucky to be the first in the whole school to get beautiful woolly beanies. Thank-you Mel.

 These little angels are so ready for winter.

Boys, you are amazing for being such a sport. 

A Big Thank-You to Our Lovely Teacher- Aides - Fiona and Claire

A big thank-you to our lovely teacher aides for their tireless efforts and support. Thank- you  Fiona and Claire for helping and supporting us. 

Maths Workshop for the Whanua

On 27th of May we had a Maths workshop for the parents to update them on how Maths is taught in our class and across the school. At our school, in Maths we focus on problem solving  and using mathematical language, making it easier for children to make connections with Maths as a part of their daily life and it's not a subject to be afraid of.
The workshop was attended by eight parents and we had Ms. Christie to share how Maths is taught in her class (Y3/Y4). It was nice to have Ms. Christie because it  showed the parents how the knowledge, strategies and language that children learn progresses from primary levels to higher levels.

The key points I focussed were around  the  mathematical language we use in Room 9:

Calendar Maths - What day is today? what day will be tomorrow? or we can say what day comes after? What day was yesterday? what day comes before?
In four more days what day/date would it be? So today is Tuesday - Children put Tuesday in their head and show four fingers and count on.

What is the date today? or Yesterday was 26th, what comes after 26th or what is one more than 26? 

Even and Odd - So today is  27th of May. Is it a Even number or an Odd number? How do you know it is an odd number? Can you show me? How many cubes do you need to make number 27?
Share it with your friend? How many cubes do you have now? how many cubes does your friend have? Is it shared equally? Do both of you have the same number?

Days at school -  We use beads string, marble jar and straw pipes to make tens. So that children can make connections.
How many days have we been at school? say 64 - how many lots/ groups of tens in  64? How many ones? How many more days until 70? 
We have a jar template in our room and blue-tack marbles on it. We use it for showing days at school. How many rows of ten? How much is that altogether?

Number of the day - What is one less then? What comes before? What is one more /what comes after?.

Fractions - How many part is this cake cut into? What fraction of the cake has blue icing? What fraction has dots on it? You have cut your pie into quarters, how many people can  you share it with?   Parents  can ask how many parts do you want me to cut your apple into? Focus on the language - half, halves, thidrs, quarters. fifths, sixths, sevenths etc.

Making Groups - Get 14 cubes, How many lots of ten will that be? How much is that altogether?How many ones? If I add one more of ten? How many groups of ten will that be? How many tens is that altogether? How many in all?

Problem Solving - Focus is on key words/information. Children know that literacy and Maths is interlinked. We read the problem together and focus on key words, then we focus on "What is it asking us to do?"

In Room 9 my little angles know that Reading,Writing and Maths are integrated. So no excuse to say I cannot read or solve the problem.

If it says altogether -- how many together. join them. add, count on, addition , plus, more, +
it it is left behind - less, take-away. count back, minus,  -

For addition and subtraction we put big number in our head and count on and count back respectively.

I encourage my kids to count in 2's, 5's and 10's.

Ms. Christie shared how making groups at this stage is preparing them to be ready for times tables when they are in Y3/Y4.

For resources - Parents can use pegs for counting as it is readily available source, spoons and plate, numbers on the post boxes for even, odd, number before, after, less or more. 

Thank-you lovely parents for making time to come to this workshop. It was really appreciated.
A big thank-you to Corbin's Mum for bringing yummy cupcakes to share with us.
Thank-you Ms. Christie sharing your ideas and making time for us.