Welcome to 2017

A warm welcome to all children,  families and whanau who have joined us in Rooms 1 & 2 this year. We hope you have enjoyed your first week at school and are as excited as we are about the learning journey we are embarking on in 2017.

WELCOME TO TERM ONE 2017

Welcome  

We are very excited about embarking on a learning journey with a group of wonderful children, parents and whanau.  

The Teachers

We have two teachers, Ms Rhonda Aitken and Mrs Karen Morganty working in the shared Room 1/2 teaching and learning space.  You may also see our Learning Assistant, Mrs Marie Edmonds working throughout the week with the children.

About Ms Rhonda Aitken

I have been at Banks Avenue School for twelve years and have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to work in a variety of roles. I am excited about working in Room 1/2 this year as this is where I started my time at Banks Avenue. I have worked for many years with Junior children and am always thrilled to see the progress and successes made. I have also worked as the Learning Support Teacher at Banks Avenue. This role has been varied with a number of challenges and rewards.

I am the mother of two teenagers - Liam 18 and Rory 15. They are both busy, active boys who are involved in both sport and music. I am now at the 'taxi driver' phase of parenting, so much of my time is taken up with getting the boys to where they need to be.

When I have the opportunity I enjoy gardening, reading and spending time with my family and friends.

About Mrs Karen Morganty

I have been at Banks Avenue for many years.  During my time I have been fortunate to work with children in  all levels across the school. I am excited to be working with the wonderful children in rooms 1/ 2.. .  I also have 2 teenage children, Brooke 17 and Adam 15.  They keep me busy with sports and other activities which require being dropped here and there.  I enjoy walking, swimming and time with my family and friends.

Communication

We believe that communication is very important. We operate an open door policy in Room 1/2, and will usually be available before and after school.  On the odd occasion when we are unavailable, feel free to contact us via email. 

* Rhonda:raitken@banksave.school.nz

* Karen: kmorganty@banksave.school.nz

Your child also has a KIT note book which is a great place to write any messages. We will also write messages in here when needed, so please check these daily. 

A reminder that sunhats are compulsory for Term 1 (and 4). They should be full brimmed or bucket style. Sunhats can stay at school until the end of the term. They are stored in your child's tote tray. Please make sure your child's hat is named.

Classroom Programme

Our library day is Friday. Children must have their library bag at school on  Friday so they can have library books issued.

Reading books will come home on a daily basis. Please ensure you spend some time enjoying and sharing the reading of these books with your child. Please make sure they are returned to school in the reading folder each day. Reading folders can be stored in the children's tote trays. Once your child has read to you please date, write the title of the book and sign the KIT notebook. For some children there are also sight words at the back of the KIT notebook. If your child has these please practise them at home on a daily basis. These will also be practised at school and tested most Fridays.

Alphabet books will come home every Monday with the letter of the week home learning and/or digraph or blend home learning. Talk about the letter /blend of the week thinking about what begins with the letter/blend, the sound it makes and how it is written. Alphabet home learning must be handed to the teacher by Friday each week.

Poetry books will come home every Friday. Please ensure your child brings it  every Friday. This is a good opportunity for your child to practise reading in an expressive way. They could share their poems with friends and family (pets or toys) face to face or over the phone.

Drink Bottles

We encourage children to have their own named water bottle in the classroom. These are stored in a box near the tote trays. The children will have access to them throughout the day. 

Hygiene

Please ensure that your child has a named hand towel at school.  These should be taken home every Friday to be washed and then returned to school on Monday. 

We would appreciate each child bringing a box of tissues. We store these and use them as required throughout the year.

Parent Help

We welcome parent help in our classroom. If you have some time and would like to assist in the classroom please have a chat with either of us to arrange a suitable time. We are particularly looking for parents to help children improve our garden area outside Room 1 during our Discovery time on a Friday.

Learning Conversations

These will be taking place on  Wednesday 1 March and Wednesday 8 March. Information regarding the conferences will come out closer to the time.

We are looking forward to a busy and exciting year. It is important we work together to ensure the best learning environment. Your support with the classroom programme is appreciated.  

Warm regards,

Rhonda and Karen

Life Education

During the second week of the term, Harold and Jamie came to visit us in the Life Education caravan. We all loved going to see Jamie to sing songs and do some really cool stuff with Harold.  He is amazing!!!!  We loved all the stories and the incredible technology he had. 

One of the most important messages Harold had for us was to make sure we fill people's invisible buckets up everyday by showing kindness. This is really easy for us because we know that using kind words and kind actions is showing HEART. We know to use our HEART values everyday.

Have a look at Regan's story about the Life Education visit. He made a great job of writing a recount of what happened.

On Monday the class went to Harold's caravan because it was Life Education day. We went in the caravan and met Jamie. Harold was sleeping in his world. We said 'Wake up Harold!!! and he woke up.

We can change the weather in his world. We made it go snowy and rainy and thundery. It was on the TV and it was really well done! We met Harold. He played tricks on Jamie.

On Tuesday Harold taught us about our buckets that you can fill everyday - it's called 'bucket filling' and 'bucket dipping'. We watched Harold's movie with Possum, Rabbit and Harold in it. Possum and Harold went on the jungle gym but Rabbit didn't like the jungle gym. Harold sang a song for us and we sang it too.

Our friend Jaime was really excited to meet Jamie from the Life Education caravan and Harold too. Have a look at the photos we took of Jaime, Jamie and Harold together.

Jaime, Harold and Jamie in the Life Education caravan.

WOW!!! Harold is tall!!!!

"Remember the bucket fillers" said Harold.

Cultural Day

What a wonderful day we had at the end of last term celebrating the variety of cultures we are lucky to have in our school. Here are some photos and some stories about this exciting day.

Here is Chloe's story. She is from South Africa.

Hooray! Hooray! It is Cultural Day today. I am a South African because I am from South Africa. I like eating the food. We ate some of the food. I saw the big kids dancing. I went to the parade. I waved my flag.

Here is Taani's story. He is from Tonga.

I am going to the parade with my Mum and my brother.

Here is Shaista's story. She is from Fiji.

Hooray! Hooray! I am so excited because it is Cultural Day and I am going to wave my flag. First we celebrated Jaydah and read the book 'All Over the World' to the children.

Lego Day

Hooray!!! Hooray!!! Today was Lego day!!! What a lot of fun we had building and making things with Room 5. We had to make tall things, long things and wide things along with numbers, estimating and measuring the size of the object we had built.

We know 'Together is Better' at Banks Avenue School and today we proved it because we had to work with a partner to create our objects. Lots of talk and discussion had to take place along with
co-operation and sharing. Respecting other people's ideas and opinions was also needed to finish the job.

Have a look at the photos of our fun morning of maths in action.

Our Learning About Water

We have been working in three groups to find out information about water. Ms Aitken's group learnt about 'The Water Cycle', Mrs Nicoll's group learnt about 'The States of Water' and Miss Lester's group learnt about what happens to water when it goes 'Down the Drain'.

Now that we have completed some learning and carried out some experiments, we have written up our findings and we have talked about what we have learnt with some friends. We have become the teachers!!!!

Have a look at the photos below. Here we are working in groups of three to teach each other about what we know.

Isla, Tane and Caleb teaching each other about water

Casey and Cooper teaching each other about water.

                                                    Lucy, Kaiya and Hank teaching each other about water.                                                                                        

We were very fortunate to have an expert who works with water come in to talk to us. He answered some of the questions we had and explained how he uses water at work. Thank you to Holly's Dad for coming and spending some time with us.

Holly's Dad talking to us about water and how he uses it in his job.

Learning About Water

In Base Camp 1 and 2 we have been learning about water. One group has been working with Miss Lester and they have been learning about what happens when water goes down the drain. Have a look at our video where we explain what happens.

More Numeracy Learning

In Base Camp 1 & 2 we are busy every day with our numeracy learning. Sometimes we work with the teacher on problem solving activities. Other times we work collaboratively to investigate other areas of maths learning.

Have a look at these photos that show some of the work we have done recently.





 These girls have been solving
 number stories.

These boys have been working collaboratively to create some interesting designs.