Week 3 over and out - Welcome to week 4..

Congratulations to the children who made it into interschool cross country - this event is held at Kahuatara School on Wednesday 17th June and postponement 19th June.
I was most impressed with the EFFORT of the Room 7 children at our cross country - well done to those children who participated in the run.
We will be doing training at school, a set programme for the children going through to interschool and the other children will be doing a PE circuit with the rest of the syndicate.

CONTRACTIONS ----we have been learning. Here are some learning games - below:
http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/vocabulary_games/contractions.html

Some good maths ideas for skip counting...you might remember doing a few yourself ;)

Whisper Count

This is an activity which assists children to move from orally counting by ones to skip counting. When counting from the starting number to the finishing number the children whisper the numbers that are not part of the count and say loudly the numbers that are part of the count. For example: If counting by twos the children would whisper the odd numbers and say loudly the even numbers (in bold): 1 2 3 45 67 8 9 10.

In the following example the students are using Whisper Count to count by twos starting at 2 and stopping at 20.

Initially, record all the numbers from 2 to 20.

2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20

Have your child circle the numbers that are part of counting by twos, starting with two.

Starting at one, you and your children whisper the odd numbers and say loudly the even numbers forwards from 2 to 20 and then count backwards from 20 to 2. Gradually increase the range.

Starting, finishing and counting sequences can be changed according to the needs of your children.

How far can you go?

Give your children  a strip of coloured paper or a roll of paper. They record a counting sequence as far as they can. You can assign the counting sequence and starting number or may allow them to choose their own. You can restrict the amount of time spent on this activity or allow children to explore the pattern as far as they are able. Writing the numbers vertically assists the students to focus on any patterns that are formed.

After students have completed their strips you might ask questions such as:

• What pattern did you notice when counting by fives?
• When counting by fives would the number 70 be part of your counting pattern? How do you know?
• What if you were counting by fives and started at 135 what would the next few numbers be?
• What if you were counting backwards by fives from 90 what would the next few numbers be?

HOMEWORK this week I have added this odd/even number sheet - please talk about these numbers with your child as a lot of are still confused. We are doing work in class. 

Knowing odd/even numbers help with their maths. Plus the game we play which says "go to the next even number - go to the next odd number".

A little word on homework - I am still doing auction $$ as an incentive - please help your child to REMEMBER to bring their homework back on Fridays. We do spelling testing and they need their homework book as it has their weekly words in.

Thank you to the SIX children who did all their homework last week.

Look at these gorgeous faces =) HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!! (Nanna's day)

The ASK ME children - each day 2 children wear the ask me tags - they are the go to children for help.

We had a big discussion about our learning and how we learn. We discussed that EFFORT is so important, the children did amazing brainstorming about what they can do if they are stuck. That we just don't ask for help - what are the strategies that you can use?

1 of the best teacher you will ever learn from - mistake! Meet Miss Take =) the children liked this.

 BUSY BUSY BEES.....the children are doing their writing to Abby's Aunt Amy and Uncle Matt.

 Here's Abby and Daisy busy writing....

 Olivia very focused (SHARP student)....on the iPad

 THUMBS UP for our visitor from Australia- ADI! Adi is an ex student of Greytown School and Room 7 was one of her old classrooms. Fancy that!

The little black box - Miss Burt places something in here - The children use the green thinking hat (De Bono's thinking skills)...they think, pair then share what they think could be in there. Some great thinking going on!

Midweek smile...

Kia ora,

We have been writing about YOU Mums & Nanna...

Here's a few sentences I had to share =) made me smile!

I know my mum is smart because I asked her how to spelll Godzilla and she told me.

My mum is special to me because if I wasn't born my mum wouldn't love me. 
I know my mum loves me because I am her lovely daughter and I wouldn't love her if I wasn't born. 

I know my mum is very smart because she went to school and listened to her teacher. (Well done Sally!). And well done to Frankie - My mum is very smart because she always listened so that is how she is very smart. 

My mum is good at many things ... 1 thing she's BEST at is putting on pretty make up. 

And Sally again....My mum is best at make up.

My mum is special because she has a TRUE LOVE!

I know my mum is very smart because she does not need a cook book to serve up dinner ;) (Well done Penny!).

My mum is special to me because she has a BIG heart. 

I was reading a good article about raising happy & smarter children...I thought I'd share this paragraph as I think it's important (especially in the classroom and of course for home):

4.  Praise your children for their effort, not their intelligence.

When you praise a child’s efforts you are bringing attention to something they can easily control — the amount of effort they put in.  This is immensely important because it teaches them to persist, and that personal growth through hard work is possible.  They come to see themselves as “in control” of their success in life.

Emphasising God-given intelligence takes progress out of your child’s control, and it provides no good recipe for responding to a failure.  In turn, your child may begin to think that innate intelligence is always going to be a missing ingredient for them, and disregard the importance of their effort to learn and grow.

With that said, a word to the wise: Don’t over-praise your children for no reason.  Make sure your gestures of praise are warranted.  Because if every single move your child makes is based only on rewards like constant praise, when the praise stops, the effort stops too.  And that’s not good because it means they won’t be able to perform well when you’re not around.

The best thing to do?  Again, praise purposefully when it’s truly warranted.  And when your child gets stuck, give them a chance to learn that frustrating issues can be worked through.