Thorrington Year 2 2019

Kia ora Whānau

Oh dear- it looks like another soggy Saturday- let's hope the sun shines through soon...

You may have heard that we had a bit of an egg disaster this week. We think one of our cleaners may have inadvertently turned off the power to our incubator. :-( So we had some very cold eggs in the morning- it has all been such a shame, but a bit of a 'real life' lesson for us all! So now we are on the hunt for some day old chicks, as we desperately do not want the children to miss out. Does anyone have information about where we could get some chicks at short notice?

Our Literacy Programme

As we mentioned in our last blog, our new Literacy programme will be starting this week. We thought it might be useful to explain the ' average' rate that children progress through the Reading levels. Upon starting school an 'average' student will progress through Reading Levels 1-12 at a reasonable pace. We all know the excitement of both ourselves and a child when they "move up into different colour books!" Obviously, this varies greatly between children, and please do not panic if your child does not fit this model- we know where each of them are, and what we need to do to help them progress.:-)

However, once your child moves into the levels of Orange / Turquoise and above- you should expect that your child can spend about six months typically at each colour level. This is because we are no longer concentrating heavily on teaching decoding skills, instead, our teaching focus shifts to the comprehension of texts. This includes being able to infer, predict, summarize, look for key points and retell a story in their own words. These are all quite high order thinking skills and they do take a long time to develop and to learn properly. In fact, many adults still have difficulty with inferential questions! Hence your child will stay at a particular level for a much longer period so that they can learn and consolidate these important literacy skills.

Key dates to diarise

Remember to book for your Mid-Year Face-To-Face Discussions: If you have not yet done this- could you please book via Sandy in the school office.
It is Matariki week. Our Kapa Haka groups will kick off our week of celebrations at 12.10 on the courts. Please feel free to come and join us.
Tuesday 18th June- Wear your House colours and have a hangi lunch.
Please keep your baby and whānau photos coming in- the kids are loving seeing themselves up on display!
Please return any permission slips for our Arion Park visit in Week 9 on Thursday 27th June
TLC PJ and Hot chocolate day Tuesday 2nd July week 10
Library Day is each Tuesday
Sausage sizzle this Friday $2 per sausage

The children thoroughly enjoyed seeing our show the recent Playhouse theatre performance of the Tortoise and the Hare earlier in the week. Here are some photos they may enjoy!