Welcome back to Term 3!

Kia ora whānau,

Haere mai and welcome back to Term 3. I hope you all had a lovely holidays and Matariki with your tamariki.

All the tamariki (and teachers!) in Rūma Whitu seem excited to be back at school and raring to go with this term’s inquiry topic: Nga Whetu me tua atu – The Stars and Beyond. A focus on Puanga and Matariki will start our term which connects nicely to many of the childrens’ experiences celebrating Matariki by visiting the TSB Festival of Lights: Winter Pop-Up. As part of this learning we will also be learning about our solar system, traditional systems of navigation and we are also planning a visit to Cape Egmont LightHouse later in the Term.

The MANA value we are focusing on this week is Manaakitanga (Respect) with a particular focus on Being School Ready. Here are important reminders so you can work together with your tamariki to be ready for school each day.

Important reminders:

  1. Breakfast club is open from 8 – 8.45am. Students are welcome in class from 8.30am. School starts at 9am. Please work on making it to school before the bell goes at 9am.
  2. Fruit in Schools starts again on Monday 24th July. Please send along a piece of fruit or snack for your child each day until then.
  3. Book bags will start coming home next week. Each Monday we will send home 4 books for your child to read over the week. Please fill out the reading log in your child’s homework book each time you read with them and practice their updated Maths goal.
  4. He Ara Hou Family School Conferences are scheduled to take place next week on Wednesday 26th and Thursday 27th of July. A notice will be coming out today or tomorrow for you to book in a time to come and meet with me to discuss your child’s progress and learning.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please drop in to see me or send me an email: melissa@marfell.school.nz

Ngā mihi nui,

Melissa Harvey
Rūma Whitu Teacher

We got Moana the Moa!

This week, Room 7 were awarded Moana the Moa at assembly for the BEST attendance last week. We had 97%! That means only one person was away one day last week. Tino pai Rūma Whitu tamariki and whānau – awesome work!

As well as getting Moana in our class for the week, we also got 15 minutes extra play time after second fuel today.

The tamariki chose to play shots with the basketball, Farmer farmer and duck duck goose. Here are some photos of us enjoying our extra long play time. All of the games involved awesome turn taking which is an important part of Ngāwari. Ngāwari is this week’s Mana value.



Friends to 10

The tamariki in Room 7 have been exploring ‘friends to 10’ – the different pairs of numbers that add together to make 10. We each had 10 blocks and had to make 2 towers with our blocks.

2 and 8 are friends to 10 because when we add them together we get 10.

4 and 6 are friends to 10 because when we add them together it makes 10.

Can you think of other pairs of numbers that are friends to 10?

Share: Maths Learning

In Room 7 we have been learning to add numbers together and write a number story as a number sentence using + and =.

We have been enjoying watching all the beautiful Monarch butterflies fluttering around our school. Check out the awesome number stories we created about counting butterflies with one of our friends.

Mana Learning: Room 7 Morning Routine

In Room 7, we have been learning about “Being School Ready”. Part of being ready for school and learning is knowing what to do when we first get to school.

We brainstormed all the little jobs we need to do to get ready for the day. Then we acted out each task and Ms Harvey took photos.

We used the photos to make a cool poster together to remind us what to do each morning. Take a look! This poster is also up on our classroom door.

Class Newsletter Term 1

Kia ora whānau,

Haere mai and welcome to Rūma Whitu (Room 7)!

My name is Ms Harvey (Melissa) and I am one of 2 teachers taking care of Rūma Whitu this year. I will be teaching Monday-Thursday every week and Ms Mills (Nicola) will be teaching on Fridays.

A little bit about me: I have been teaching at Marfell Community School since Term 2 2022 so I’m still a relatively fresh face here! Although Taranaki born and bred, I have spent most of my adult life in Wellington and Auckland. I am loving being back home, enjoying our beautiful Taranaki lifestyle and being part of the Marfell school community. Teaching swimming, te reo māori, music and literacy are some of the passions I bring to my job.

We have had a lovely settled start to the term with the 8 tamariki joining Rūma Whitu this year. The children have been learning the routines of the classroom and what they need to do to “Be School ready”. Now it’s your turn!

Important reminders:

1. School starts at 9am. Students are welcome in class from 8.30am. Breakfast club is open from 8-8.45am.
2. Thanks to all those who have bought the stationary pack. If you have not bought your stationery yet, please do! Some students may also need to purchase a set of headphones. Please ask Whaea Angela at the office if you’re unsure.
3. Fruit in Schools has not started yet so please send along a piece of fruit for snack breaks for this week. Fruit in Schools starts again on Monday 13th February.
4. Please send togs and towel to school every day! The kids LOVE getting in the water and we’re teaching them important water safety skills for life.
5. Home learning will start next week. More information to come.

If we haven’t already had the chance to meet, I look forward to catching up with you at school drop offs and pick ups. If you have any questions or concerns, please drop in to see me or send me an email: melissa@marfell.school.nz

Ngā mihi nui,

Melissa Harvey
Rūma Whitu Teacher

A trip to Puke Ariki – Part 1

Last week on Tuesday 22nd of November, we went on a school trip into town. We grabbed our hats, our drink bottles and some kai from the kitchen, and we were off! We went on a bus to get there. John was our bus driver and when we got off the bus we said “thank you!”.

First we visited Puke Ariki where Anne showed us around and taught us about animals that live on Taranaki Mounga. Then we went on a hunt to find different animals in groups with our whanau helpers. We also learnt about pests and how DOC rangers trap rats, stoats and ferrets to save the birds on our mounga. Stay tuned for what we got up to after our Museum visit!

 

    

Seven little balls of fluff!

Last week, Zeke, Zeke’s mum Brittany and his sister Aria brought 7 chicks to visit us in Room 8. Zeke has hatched these chicks from eggs at home using a heat lamp. Brittany told us these are Wyandotte chickens which are grown for both their eggs and meat.

We loved holding the chicks and watching them eat and drink. Room 8 have since watched some videos of chicks hatching out of their eggs. This was a great introduction to this week’s big book “The Safe Place”.

Zeke will sell these chicks back to a farm in a few weeks time for $10 each. If there are 7 chicks, how much money will Zeke get from the farm?

Swimming in room 8

This afternoon Room 8 had swimming in our school pool.  It started to rain a little bit shortly before we were due to go to the pool but the students were so excited to go and didn’t want to miss it, so we braved the rain and went anyway!  The students said the water was actually lovely and warm!  During this swimming session, they practiced entering the water safely, getting across the pool and back again without touching the bottom and swimming under the water to collect the dive sticks!  It was so much fun!

Multiplication in Room 8

This term, Room 8 has been learning to skip count in 2’s, 5’s and 10’s.  We have also started to connect this learning to learning our 2 times table.  As part of this, we used small objects to show what each of the 2 times tables facts looks like.  Here are some photos of us busy with this work!  We had  to collaborate, listen and share our ideas with our partner too.