What we have achieved so far in Term 2:
* Completed inquiries looking at "Beauty" and "Joy" - linking to our school whakatauki "Joy for learning, joyful living"
* Progress in reading, writing and maths within our inquiry and workshops
* Learning beginner glockenspiels, ukulele, recorder
* Polished our powhiri and haka
* Continued our language learning in Te Reo and Mandarin
* School Cross Country
* Student Led Conferences
* Art Unveiling
* School concert and disco
* Welcomed seven new children to our hub
Events for the Rest of Term 2:
Star Lab Trip Wednesday 30 May Learn about Matariki!
Junior Cross Country Friday 1 June We welcome other schools who will race with us! Queens Birthday Monday 4 June Have a day off!
School Community Evening Wednesday 6 June Join us for "Banana or the Bag"
Learning Programmes for the rest of Term:
* Inquiries around the history of Amesbury School, how we got to be here, what things are and how they work, the designs, the decisions and the stories! This will involve interviews, research and identifying relevant information that answers our wonderings. Curriculum areas that fall out of these inquiries include, literacy, maths, science, social sciences, and technology.
* iTime and Workshops. Children work through their personal learning contract which covers learning activities that meet their goals. These include 'must do' and 'can do' tasks. Workshops focus on information literacy, reading, writing, maths, ICT, social/group skills as they are identified as a next step from our inquiries and from the assessment matrices. Some workshops are ability based and some are mixed ability with the choice to sign into them if this is a learning goal they need to explore.
* World Cafe Maths. Every Tuesday children are organised in mixed ability groups. Working on a maths problem children will begin by individually working it out. They take turns to share their strategy and answer. When all children in the group have explained their strategy, the group must decide which strategy is the most effective and why. World Cafe Maths give children the opportunity to see a variety of strategies, to clearly articulate their learning, to learn from their peers in an authentic context, to develop their group skills, to come to an agreed consensus and to use strategies that might be new to them. On Wednesday and Thursday children work in ability groups. They explore problem solving to develop their strategies and participate in ability based workshops that focus on their maths knowledge as identified from the maths matrix.
* Music. Monday with Judy will cover a lesson for every year level. A tuned percussion group is on offer to those who wish to sign up, with the intention to develop a school orchestra. Artsplash is compulsory for all year 3-6 children.
* Te Reo and Kapa Haka. Crisanna is at Amesbury on Monday and Friday. She will continue to take every year level for a Te Reo lesson. Haka and powhiri protocols continue to be practiced. Poi will be starting soon for the girls and a new haka for the boys. Street Dance continues and is on offer to everyone.
* Mandarin with Lulu is on every Friday. A lesson for every year level and also extension lessons for children who have prior knowledge of Mandarin.
Remember if you would like to see what we are doing each day, have a look on our planning site. Look under Term 2 and then the calendar page. All our planning is available for viewing. Chat to your child to see whose workshops they have been attending and look under that teachers page for the current week.
Thank you to all the parents who are transporting us to Newlands for the Star Lab Matariki visit and for swimming next term! Your assistance helps us to keep our groupings flexible, the cost is heaps cheaper which means we can have more trips.
Ka Kite Ano!
