ROOM 7: Year 6 / 7

Monday 16 May 2011 Term 2, Issue 2

Mangorei School Mr Andrew McAllister

http://mangoreischool-rm7-2011.blogspot.com/

CLASSROOM BLOG AND LINKS WITH OUR CLASS COMMUNITY

Hello there to our Room 7 Classroom community. Welcome to our second class newsletter for the year. In our first Newsletter it was mentioned that we hoped that we would be able to share students work through this notice but since then our class Blog has really taken over as the main sharing point for information and examples of student thoughts and opinions as well as an electronic diary of some of our adventures. I would really encourage you to use this Blog to keep up to date with weekly events as found on the Whats Hot page. Our class awards recipients are listed on the Class Awards page with reference on each award to the Key Competencies. The Home Learning page is being used to provide links to appropriate online references and in some cases provide explanations on how these types of activities can support your childs learning. The Thinking Games page provides entertainment with specifically selected activities that work the brain. Our Forest Lakes page is a text and video diary of the Year 7/8 EOTC trip to camp and Wellington city with helpful contributions from our Room 7 students. Keep visiting as we work to use this Blog as a starting reference point to other class material and programmes. A big thanks to our Room 7 parent Jason (Logans Dad) who was able to attend and who did a special job of encouraging all the students that he had the opportunity to work with. A personal highlight for me was standing in the vault at Archives NZ looking at the original Waitangi Treaty document signed by Governor William Hobson and the Northern Chiefs including Hone Heke.

FOREST LAKES CAMP YEAR 7/8

Wow, this week away was an important experience for our class Year 7 students. They were tested in all sorts of ways through our acknowledged Key Competencies and responded really well. It was fantastic to watch them interacting with so many others in such diverse situations while facing personal challenges of their own. The Forest Lakes page on our Blog tells their stories and I urge you all to take a look. What it is unable to show is how well they treated each other and the adults that came along to support them.

The children have all been registered to use Studyladder mathematics and literacy activities online at home. There is an explanation about this website on our Blog Home Learning page with a copy of the generic letter to parents. Individual Usernames and Passwords were emailed directly to each student via their Superclubsplus email address. Please refer to our Blog Home Learning page to get an understanding on how these mathematics and literacy activities can assist in supporting learning at home if you wish your child to use them. Weekly activities are selected and applied to each group by the teacher (me). Advanced apologies as some tasks are a little Australian !

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Classroom programmes.
As term 2 has moved into full swing we have been working to complete the individual brochures on The Treaty of Waitangi in order to demonstrate personal levels of understanding following last terms Study Group research. The class have all just worked through a Reading assessment using the STAR test. (Supplementary Test of Achievement in Reading) This is a levelled standardised test used throughout NZ schools. Mathematics studies are due to move into Multiplication and Division strategies while maintenance work on Number Knowledge and Basic Facts continues on a daily basis Team Inquiry work scheduled for this term will concentrate on a health focus. Written work has been based around our class focus recently and this has continued as we now look to finalise our own authentic Class Treaty of promises based on Values as outlined in the NZ Curriculum. This treaty will be published on our Blog. "...since we can't know what knowledge will be most needed in the future, it is senseless to try to teach it in advance. Instead, we should try to turn out people who love learning so much and learn so well that they will be able to learn whatever needs to be learned." John Holt. US Educator and Author. 1923 - 1985

We would love to find an old sheep or goat skin to publish our class display copy on !??

Science Award Trust

The Science Award Trust of NZ promote an individual award scheme for primary aged students based on personal inquiry and managing self. This year Room 7 and 8 students are being offered the opportunity to participate in the Year 5 Science and Year 6/7 Advanced Science Certificate. Details on this home based science activity opportunity are outlined on the Home Learning page on our Blog with a link supplied to take you directly to the relevant Science Award Trust page. Students will be asked to contribute a small fee to participate, then work at their own pace to complete the required number of tasks from the 4 Science strands in the NZ Curriculum. They are able to choose which activities they do within guidelines and if they complete 8 or more they receive the embossed certificate. Some parent support will be required to complete a selection of tasks. Children are encouraged to work through the contracts because it is something they want to do and it provides opportunities to apply different learning styles and skills. Registration notices will be distributed this week. Check out the Wasp nest excavation report and slide show on our class Blog

SPELLINGCITY for practise of Essential Lists and Room 7s Vocab Builders Wed 25 May Thu 26 May Fri 27 May Fri 10 Jun Thu 23 Jun Fri 24 Jun 27 28 Jun Thu 30 Jun 6 7 Jun Mr McA Release day , Mrs Poulgrain Rm7. Yr 5/6 Sport vs Vogeltown @ Vogeltown. Parent Lunch day. Yr 5/6 Sport vs Oakura @ Mangorei. Yr 5/6 Sport vs Central @ Central. Parents Lunch day. Parent Interviews. Mr McA at Maths PD School Wide Art Swap

This newsletter has been emailed directly to those of you that supplied email addresses and confirmed receipt of our test mailing. Please confirm via email when you have received this Newsletter so that, with your consent, your child can be given a one off congratulations of 1 Starburst Sucks lollipop. Children who received a printed copy rather than email are also eligible for a Starburst Sucks on acknowledgement of the newsletter reaching home.