Come to Market Day!

We'd love to see you, your family and friends at our Ohau School Twilight Market - Friday 27th March from 5pm.  Plenty of fun and food to be had, not to mention great things to buy.

And now, some shameless advertising we created for Room 5's products!

Making Market Day Marvels

Room 5 have been hard at work making marvelous things for Market Day.  Here are some photos of us at work creating our designs.

Come along to Market Day on Friday evening!

Our New Furniture!!!

Our snazzy new kid-sized furniture has arrived.  We love it!  

Rainbow tables, whiteboard tables, ergonomic chairs, bean bags, a comfy rug, a changeable pod couch, ottomans, and cookie pad mats. Here are some photos of us enjoying our furniture:

Design, Make, Market! 

Room 5's Inquiry focus for this term is 'Design, Make and Market.  At our level, we are inquiring into designing, and making an item to sell at our Market Day, later this term.  

The purpose behind this inquiry is to help us understand and become involved in aspects of real life 'enterprise' at our level of learning. We will have a focus on our part in helping to raise money that will go towards all our lovely new furniture.

Part of our initial wondering is exploring ideas around buying and selling. Here are some photos of our learning in action!

Room 5 NewsNote

9 February 2015

Dear Room 5 Parents/Caregivers,

Welcome back to another exciting year of learning with your child.  This year we are again sharing the teaching in Room 5.  Col Tombs will be teaching Monday, Tuesday and most Wednesdays, and Jamie Thomas will be teaching some Wednesdays, Thursday and Friday.  If you have any questions please feel free to approach us. 

Spelling

Room 5’s spelling programme is based on a word study approach to learning how to spell words.  This programme is part of our daily literacy learning.  For this reason, children will be exploring, reviewing and using them within their daily learning at school.

What is a word study approach? 

Word study is based on learning word patterns and spelling rules rather than memorizing unconnected words. It provides children with opportunities to find out about and understand some of the patterns in words, as well as explore meaning.  Word study can help students become fluent readers with a strong vocabulary, and give students the chance to fully explore words in a variety of ways. 

§  Word study isn’t about memorizing spelling words but about understanding spelling patterns.

§  It isn’t about working with a random group of words but can compare words that have connections and similarities.

§  It isn’t just another literacy activity but is a purposeful look at the world of words.

                     

Below we have also outlined some ways that you can help at home to support your child with their learning.

Reading

Each night your child will bring home 1 or 2 books from their choosing box.  The books we use for guided reading in class will not come home until your child is familiar with them and then they will go into their choosing box.  Please write the books that your child chooses into their reading notebook and sign the notebook each time the book has been read.  You can write a comment about their reading too if you like.  Please feel free to use the notebook for other communication also.  On Wednesday the children will have been to the library so they will have these books to share with you.  On a Friday they get to choose 2 books from their reading box for their own enjoyment over the weekend.  Listening to your child read each night helps them become confident readers.   Reading time should be a time for your child’s and your enjoyment.

Numeracy

Counting with your child forwards and backwards, and playing card or board games can be great ways to reinforce number knowledge at home.  Also counting things in the car e.g. how many red cars can you count?, or reading numbers (and words) on gateways and the supermarket are fun learning activities too. 

Useful Websites

www.starfall.com                                for literacy

www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks1               for literacy, maths and science

www.nzmaths.co.nz/families              for maths

www.coolmath4kids.com                   for maths

Thank you for your support of your child’s learning and we look forward to seeing you soon.

Col Tombs and Jamie Thomas

Elf Job Applications

We have been immersing ourselves in the season and thank the families of Room 5 for their great input with ideas, supplies for crafting, and also the feedback for our Christmas Survey.  

Some of our writing in the last few weeks has been exploring ideas about Christmas too. We found ourselves wondering what it would take to be one of Santa's elves.  Room 5 came up with some great ideas, and we used some of these to fill in Elf Job Applications for the Toy Workshop, Elf Bakery, or the Gift Wrapping Department.  Have a peek at some of our ideas:

"I am really good at baking because my mum taught me and I can work fast at baking.
 I work all the time at home.  I bake cakes, cupcakes and birthday cakes for birthdays".

"I am really good at crafting things like origami.  That's why I wanted to sign up for this job.  So I can learn more about toys, get to know how toys work, and see the smiles of the children when they unwrap them."

The Thinkers Keys

In Room 5 this year we have been practising critical and creative thinking with the Thinkers Keys.  There are 20 keys such as:

• The What If Key - ask virtually any What If question e.g. What if all cars turned into skateboards?
• The Question Key - start with an answer and list 5 questions that give that answer e.g. midnight, seaweed or monkeys.
• The BAR Key - make an item BIGGER, ADD something to it, REPLACE something on it e.g. a skateboard, an umbrella or a freezer.

These Keys help us to think in more inspiring ways, are really challenging, and lots of fun!  Also, each of the keys can be tailored to the current learning in class. 

Recently, we have been using the Christmas Thinkers Keys,  Here is some of our thinking about 'The Reverse Key' - List 10 things you don't want for Christmas: