Term 1 Week 5 2018

Week 5 Blog Post 

Kia Ora Year 2 Whanau, welcome to Week 5! We are ticking along in Year 2 and the students are getting into their routines of Tuuhura Time, Daily 5 Literacy, Maths and their Inquiry. 

Below is a pic of our Fitness routine when we are indoors. We use the GoNoodle website which can also be accessed for free at home. 

Go to the website at this address https://app.gonoodle.com/ 

KOS - Keeping Ourselves Safe 

This week we will be starting our KOS program and next week Constable Ross will be coming in to run some sessions for us and the rest of the school. 

Below is an abridged version of the Newsletter post shared last week. I am aware that children may read this blog post at home with their parents. 

Dear Parents and caregivers,

Over the next few weeks we will be teaching the personal safety programme Keeping Ourselves Safe.

Keeping Ourselves Safe has been designed to give students the skills to cope in situations involving child safety. It has three overall aims:

• to develop and strengthen children’s skills to keep themselves safe with other people;
• to support and encourage children to get help from caring adults;
• to make teachers and parents/caregivers more aware of the need to keep children safe from adults or other children.

Keeping Ourselves Safe will be taught by your child’s teacher, with support from the local Police School Community Officer as required.

To be successful, Keeping Ourselves Safe needs your help and support. Your child may have homework activities to work on with you.

It is important that you participate as much as possible and talk to your child about what they have been learning. This will help reinforce the messages the school is giving, and help your child to use his or her new skills with confidence.

A parent and caregiver meeting will be held as follows:

• Date: Wednesday 28th February
• Time: 2.15p.m- 3.00p.m
• Venue: Staffroom, Thorrington School

Please contact the school if you would like any more information about the programme or about child safety.

Whole School Assembly

This week our Timatanga Assembly will be replaced by our Whole School assembly at 2.15pm

Date: Friday 2nd March

Time: 2.15pm

Place: School Hall

Library Day

Library day is Tuesday, please bring Library folders on this day.

Bug Club

There are still a few accounts that have not been activated. These will be done on Monday. As part of our normal reading program each child will read a Bug Club book at home instead of a physical book. This will happen once a week. 

If you have a mobile device you can use a QR Scan App to link to the Bug Club website or you can click on the Big Club icon down the side of the Year 2 Blog page, or click here 

Daily 5 swapping with our KOS program on Thursday. 

To accommodate the KOS program we will run our KOS sessions on Thursday morning in readiness for Constable Ross' visit next week. On this day we will not run our Daily 5 program. Students will be able to use their Bug Club accounts to read at home for that day. 

Writing Books and Daily 5 Books

To clarify, Year 2 students have two writing books in class. One is called a 'Daily 5 Book' where they will record free choice writing during the Daily 5 activity 'Work on Writing'. Another book labelled 'Writing Book 1' is used for instructional writing with their writing teachers. This book will have learning objectives stuck into the front for you to check progress. Highlighted goals mean achieved regularly and mostly independently. 

We will not be marking the Daily 5 book regularly but will use it to reference when needed. 

Have a good week everyone and as always feel free to email us or catch us before school if you would like to chat and share regarding your child's learning. 

From Carl, Kendall and Lizzie 

Term1 Week 4 2018

Week 4 Blog Post 

Kia Ora Koutou, welcome to our latest blog post. This week Year 2 have been thinking about 'When we need to be brave' - this is one of our questions connected to our inquiry. 

To start our week the Timatanga Teachers put on a short play about being brave in the mornings. Mrs Price and Mrs Clarke dressed up as school children! Mrs Skelton and Ms Sinclair were their parents! The teachers were payed by Mr Scurr and Mrs Rodda. 

Our play explored what makes us worried in the mornings and what strategies we could use to help us be brave. 

Year 2 then went on to make some '3 photo stories' about being brave using our ipads. We will turn these into posters this week and then post them on the blog - watch this space! 

Assembly

This week L2 will be hosting. If children are presenting they will take home some script to learn during the week. As always, all parents are welcome to attend. 

Date: Friday 23rd February

Time: 12pm

Place: School Hall

Library Day

Library day is Tuesday, please bring Library folders on this day.

Pegs

Thanks for all your feedback about how the bag pegs are going. We are talking to our Site Manager Bill Page about how we can label the pegs to make it easier for students to manage in the mornings and during the day. We will keep you updated. 

Daily 5 

We have moved onto 'Read With Someone' this week to add to 'Read To Self' and 'Work on Writing'. Below are some pictures of us training to read to each other. 

See below for our Progress Charts for each part of our Daily 5. We are working on our stamina for each component. 

Bug Club 

During this week your child will get a Bug Club password and QR Code in their notebook. It will look like the image below. 

If you have a mobile device you can use a QR Scan App to link to the Bug Club website or you can click on the Big Club icon down the side of the Year 2 Blog page, or click here 

Bug Club will have online reading books assigned to each student for their home reading. Once a week instead of reading with a teacher students will have time to read on Bug Club in class. This will then be their home learning for that night. Bug Club books will match reading levels as they are in class. Students have a free choice of books in their bug club account. 

Have a great week! 

Carl, Lizzie and Kendall, the Year 2 team. 

Term 1 Week 3 2018

Kia Ora and Welcome to our Week 3 Blog Post!

We have had another great week in Year 2, below are some highlights and some messages for the week. Don't forget you can also check out our Timatanga blog (click here to go straight to it)

Welcome to Aeden and Moustafa! 

We are lucky enough to have two new students join us in Year 2. We welcome Aeden and Moustafa. They have made a great start at Thorrington School and in Year 2. Below are the two boys with their Welcome Certificates. 

El Gregoe

Check out our Timatanga Blog for some pictures of the El Gregoe show we saw last week to support our 'Being Brave' Inquiry. 

Daily 5 

Our Daily 5 training is going really well and students are learning to manage their learning by choosing great spaces to read to them selves and to work on their writing. After a week of training we will be running parts of our Daily 5 for real as we start our guided reading program. 

Messages for this week 

Reading Books

Reading Books will come home this week as we start our rotations. As in previous years we appreciate you signing the note book along side the book that is read each night. Students will have reading groups three days a week between Monday and Thursday. They will take a book home on the day they read in a guided group. On the fourth day they will have an opportunity to read online as part of our 'Bug Club' program, this can be also be read at home, as can a range of books on the website.

The 'Bug club' is a digital reading program we use that will be up an running next week. Students will have a QR code link and log in details glued into their note book. Below is a YouTube clip telling you a little more about how Bug Club works.

Poetry Books
Each Friday students get to explore a new poem and take it home in their poetry books for sharing. On Monday these poetry books can be returned to the red poetry box in the book trolly by the wooden bench.

Library Day

Our Library day in Year 2 will be on a Tuesday. Students will need to bring their Library folder on this day in order to bring library books back home. The Library bag is an important part of the process to ensure our books are kept in good condition. If there is no library bag then we will not be able to send books home.

For the first week library folders should be in class as we collected them in week 1. 

Tuhura Time

Tuhura time is going really well and we are seeing some wonderful examples of creativity and social skills being developed. If anyone has any items they think would be great to make, build and role play with then feel free to drop them off to us. 

Assembly 

Thanks to those who attended our assembly last week it was a great occasion in a new venue. Well done to those who got a Certificate this week! We have posted their photo on the Timatanga Blog This week assembly will be hosted by Year 1. See below for a reminder of the time and place details.  As always all parents are welcome to attend. 

Day: Every Friday 

Time: 12pm

Place: School Hall

Cyber Safety Notices to sign and return 
If you have not done so already please return the cyber safety notices given out at the Whanau Connect meetings at the beginning of term. If you need a form please ask at the office.

Have a great week and we hope to see some of you at the Whanau Picnic on Tuesday! 

Term 1 Week 2 2018

Welcome to Year 2! We have had a great first week settling into our new learning space and getting to know each other!

Well done all the students in Year 2 as you manage yourselves in your new space. We have been so impressed with the way you have listened to new information and followed instructions. It is going to be a great year! 

Here is a photo of Mrs Rodda and Mrs Skelton modelling how to come to school in the morning. 

Tuuhura Time

Our new focus this year is our morning routine of Tuuhura time. This is a time to be creative, to play and to relate to others. Already we have seen some wonderful moments involving sharing, working things out and caring in the morning. 

Throughout the year we will be adding resources to our Tuuhura Room (entrance way). If parents have any materials they would like to donate to us then we would gladly accept them. We are looking for creative things to design, make, build or role play with. See one of the Year 2 teachers if you have anything you think might be used. 

Literacy = Daily 5 

Year 2 have had a taste of the Daily 5 this week. We have been training how to 'Read To Self'. This is just the beginning of our journey towards self management and student agency or choosing our own learning and getting it done. See below for pictures of us choosing where to read, what to read and managing our own materials. 

Assembly 

This week will be a chance for our first Timatanga Assembly for 2018. The big change is that we will be running our assembly in the school hall this year to give us more room to celebrate our learning. We have also changed the time for assembly. This year we will on a Friday at 12pm. L3 will be hosting. Children that are presenting will receive a script to practice during the week. Throughout the year we will give every child a turn to present or take part in assembly. So...

L3 Assembly this week

Date: Friday 9th February

Time: 12pm

Place: School Hall 

El Gregoe - Performance on Monday 

To kick off our Inquiry about being brave this term we have the chance to watch this fantastic show in school on Monday. If you have not returned the permission form to your Home Base Teacher please bring this on Monday. 

All About Me Bag

Remember to bring your All About Me Bag on Monday. In your bag should be 4 items that help you tell us all about YOU. Remember you can take a picture or draw an item if it is too big. Also don't forget to decorate your bag if want to!