Mathletics

Exciting times are ahead of us in Maths! Recently Hamilton East school has joined 'Mathletics' a primary maths programme. I have been using this programme for the last three years in my previous school, and I really believe it is effective in helping support students with  their maths. Mathletics is an individualised student programme suitably aligned to the New Zealand curriculum. All students have recorded their password in their small red reading log books. The first time they log on at home they should save their password on the device, which makes it easier for next time!

Tyson's locked screen showing his assigned task his 'must do'

During the week 'must do' tasks will be assigned, these can either be completed at home or before school in class. Once the assigned 'must do' task has been completed the console will unfreeze and your child will be able to practise activities or go onto Live Mathletics where they are able to play their classmates or other students around the world. Most students really enjoy playing the games and it is a great way of reinforcing basic math facts. Please let me know if your child is unable to access the internet at home and I will ensure they have time in class to complete their assigned tasks. Please message me on Seesaw if you have any questions :)

Wecome to Term 2

Welcome to Term 2. It was wonderful to see so many smiley faces back in Room 20 this week.

This term our theme is Kete Aronui. The rich question we will look to explore is "How can I show my knowledge and understanding of Māori and Pacific culture through the Arts? The work that students complete this term will be used in our 2019 Art Exhibition, to be held mid Term 3.

We have lots of other cool learning topics this term: our Chapter Chat book this term is called 'Fing' by David Walliams, in Maths we will focus on number knowledge and strategies for Addition, Subtraction and Multiplication and our Writing will focus firstly on Personal writing, and then later in the term we will move into the genre of Instructional writing.

Final Days of Term 1

School Kit Postcards

This week we received a package from our sister school Waimairi in Christchurch, which we had

earlier sent our School Kit postcards to. The package was full of postcards written by their students!

We enjoyed reading these and putting together the puzzle they had coloured for us. Next term

we plan to write back to them.

Turangawaewae Inquiry

In the last few days of term, all students completed their inquiry into Trading on the River as part of our

Turangawaewae Inquiry.  The students chose a variety of ways to display their learning such as Book

Creator, Pic Collage, Posters, Video and Google slides. The students then presented their work to the

Year 1 & 2 classes.

Have a safe and restful holiday.

Mrs Tyler

Following the style of Romero Britto

After the Christchurch attack our class created some pieces of art to symbolise how we felt. We followed the bold and colourful style of Brazilian artist Romero Britto. Romero Britto believes that the role of an artist is to be an agent of positive change.

Our colourful hearts reflect our respect for the uniqueness of every person and represent love, peace and hope. The original hearts have been laminated and are displayed on our class walls.

Each heart was also copied and arranged on a science board, this is displayed at the St. Andrews library.

Get NZ Writing

This week we have continued exploring words - we have been looking for ‘sticky words’ i.e. wow words that
hold appeal or that we find interesting.

Each student is in the process of completing a postcard with their sticky words, which when jiggled around will form ‘a poem’.

When completed, the published postcards will be sent to another school in New Zealand also participating
in the Get NZ Writing programme.

This is Room 20’s ‘Black’ Poem.

LIFE IS A JOURNEY - metaphor!

Room 20 are involved in the 2019 Get NZ Writing programme. This year's writing is about being in love with words - the sound, the taste, the touch of them. This week we have been enjoying writing metaphors and creating poems about ourselves filled with rich metaphors. We have also had a lot of fun with describing strange items and coming up with as many words as we could to enrich our vocabulary. Ask your child about some of the items and descriptions that we came up with!

Stories from the Past

In Room 20 we have been enjoying our Turangawaewae inquiry and learning about Stories from the Past. We began with the Treaty of Waitangi and linked this to our own Room 20 Class Treaty.

Then we found out more about Hukanui Marae and visited the Te Parapara Gardens. This was followed by a fun afternoon using our creative talents to make a Wharenui (meeting house) out of our stationery boxes.

We are now moving into learning about the role and importance of the Waikato River to Kirikiriroa - Hamilton’s past. This week, we enjoyed learning about the myth Tuna and Hiriwa (the Māori word for tuna means eel) and how the eel got it’s silver belly, but forever has to live in the dark depths of the river.