Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Duffy Role Model Assembly

We were very fortunate to have Diana Queenin at school this afternoon sharing her interesting experiences and passion for reading with our Te Mahia School tamariki. Diana has travelled to many places in the world and shared with us some treasures she acquired along the way. Her treasures included a stingray barb, different types of fossils (a geode, trilobite and ammonite), a nautilus shell, the skin of an Egyptian cobra, and an empty shell of a horseshoe crab.
Diana worked at the New York Museum of National History (this Museum is seen in the children’s movie ‘A Night at the Museum’) and mentioned to the children that she had to study a lot which involved a lot of reading before she could work in the museum. Her job involved talking to people about dinosaurs and sea life, some of the many wonderful artifacts in the museum.
Diana is an enthusiastic reader and captivated our tamariki with her exciting stories she told. She encourages everyone to read because reading is key to knowledge and learning.


Thank you for sharing some of your special treasures and inspiring stories with the tamariki of Te Mahia School!


       


                                      






Monday, March 16, 2015

Wairoa District Inter-School Swimming Sports

I travelled with a team of five excited swimmers and two parent helpers to the Wairoa District Swimming Sports last week. The children had an awesome day competing in every event, but butterfly. A superb effort from our Te Mahia School students who were up against some tough competition but held their own very well, placing in heats and making some finals. The children were very well behaved and cheered each other on which was wonderful to see. It was a long day but a fantastic one had by all! Thank you to the parents who came and supported our tamariki on the day.



 



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Monday, March 9, 2015

Whats been happening in Room 1..

With the swimming season coming to an end we will have more time in class to focus on learning. This week we have continue with our learning programs in the areas of math, reading, writing and inquiry.
The children have produced some very detailed graphs in statistics in which you can view some on their blogs. They have learning intentions and success criteria for their math groups. An example is we are learning to make and label our graphs correctly. The success criteria for this learning intention was to select the correct graph (depending on the type of data – continuous or discrete), give the graph a detailed title, and lastly label the x and y-axis. The children are all proficient in collecting data for their graphs. Using the success criteria they could identify if they achieved their learning intention or not. Each child could identify the changes they needed to make on their graphs. We are moving into place value – add/sub learning this week, the children are eager and excited to learn more efficient math strategies!
In reading we are trying to infer (conclude from evidence and reasoning) what the author’s message is and using evidence from the text to justify their reasoning. Room 1 students are all capable readers yet sometimes find it difficult to comprehend the main ideas/messages the author portrays in the text. Therefore we have literature circle activities, comprehension, and word work activities that the children work on in class to aid in their own comprehension skills and strategies when reading.
Of the three writing groups, each has a different learning intention. For example one group is learning to write paragraphs (how to structure their paragraphs). A paragraph contains a topic sentence, 3 supporting sentences relevant to the topic, and a concluding sentence. The children are beginning to understand that each paragraph should have one main idea and that they shouldn’t introduce/add in new ideas into that paragraph. It is nice to see all the children really trying to improve in their writing and provide us with as much detail possible.
Room 1 children are engrossed in their inquiry learning ‘Future kaitiaki of Mahia’. They have all identified issues in our area that need to be addressed and are eager to get in contact with organisations that will benefit in the sustainability of our place, Mahia.

Keep a look out on Room students’ blogs. You will see their learning intentions and success criteria (which differ depending on what they really need to focus on in each learning area). These are vital, as the children need to understand what their learning and why, and they can also self-assess against the success criteria.


Watch this space for next weeks learning!!



Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Eastern Zone Senior Swimming Sports at Morere

WOW what an awesome day we had at Morere last Friday for the Eastern Zone senior swimming sports!! Our Te Mahia School children were very eager to get in the water and compete against fellow Nuhaka School tamariki. Both schools did extremely well and the children persevered finishing each race. Our Te Mahia School children represented not only themselves but also our school with pride!! They finished the day with a nice soak in the hot pool, one that was well deserved. Thank you to parents and whānau who came along to support swimmers and help out on the day.
I am looking forward to the Wairoa District Swimming Sports next week. GO TE MAHIA SCHOOL!!