Mutukaroa Learning Conversations

Dear Room One Parents,

I have finished testing your gorgeous children and over the weekend or early next week, I will be arranging a time to meet with you and discuss the testing, give you a copy and set some targets together.  This conversation takes about an hour and can take place at school or I can meet you at a convenient place e.g. a workplace.  

I look forward to sharing your child's learning with you!

Amy Collins

Pasifika Time with Latu

Today we had our second Cultural lesson with Latu from Niu Preschool.  Latu bought some of the older students from Niu Preschool to help us learn the new songs.  It was a fun time  together learning new hiva (Tongan for song).   

This term Rooms One and Five are having Pasifika time together each Friday afternoon and Rooms Two and Four are having Kapa Haka with Stacey, Cane and Jonathan's Mum.  In Term 2 we will swap over.  We look forward to sharing our learning with our whanau later in the year.  

Latu and the Niu Preschool children

Alex and Mrs Sutherland singing the alphabet song

Niu Preschool children sharing their learning with Rooms One and Five

Rahnui and Her Friends At School

One Lucky Family...

Last week one of our families successfully bid on one of the giraffes that were part of the Christchurch Stands Tall outdoor exhibition.  The giraffes were displayed around the City over summer and I know lots of people took advantage of this free exhibition.

Aurora's family bought 'Animal Biscuit' which was displayed at The Colombo over the summer period.  Animal Biscuit was designed by Adam Fields.  

Here are some photo's Aurora's Mum sent in for Aurora to share.

Animal Biscuit at The Colombo before he moved to Aurora's house

Aurora blowing bubbles from the prize box in front of her new giraffe.

Animal Biscuit at his new house!

Our Butterflies Hatched!

In the holidays Miss Collins bought Room One a swan plant.  A swan plant is the special kind of plant that the Monarch Butterfly lays hers eggs on.  A Monarch Butterfly laid eggs on our plant and they hatched into caterpillars. The catterpillars ate ALL of our swan plant and got really fat.  Then they hung upside down like the letter J.  After a wee while they went into a chrysalis.  We have been waiting a long time for our butterflies to hatch and today the did!  It was very exciting!

Here is a link if you want to more learning at home: 

http://www.kidzone.ws/animals/monarch_butterfly.htm

This is us watching the butterfly hatch from the cocoon.

This is the butterfly flapping its wings to dry them so it can fly away and lay some more eggs.

This the butterfly flying away to look for another plant to lay its eggs on.

Learning About The Letter Tt as Tooth Defenders

Today for Language Experience we practised being Tooth Defenders.     

Our phonics focus is the letter Tt so we learnt how bright smiles and teeth cleaning are important for everyday health.

After we had learnt about to correctly brush our teeth we all got given a toothbrush and a tiny tube of toothpaste and we brushed our teeth.  

Doctor Rabbit said we must: 

• Brush our teeth at least twice a day
• Floss daily
• Not to eat too many snacks during the day
• Visit the dentist to check our teeth and gums are healthy.

Mutukaroa - Home and School Partnerships

What is Mutukaroa?

Mutukaroa is the name if our school and communtiy learning partnership. Mutukaroa is about working with parents and whanau to understand how your child is progressing in their learning over the first three years at school. It is also about supporting parents to help their children in their learning at home.

Making the most of this opportunity.

As a parent you want to know how your child is doing in their learning. Mutukaroa allows you as a parent to know exactly how your child is doing at every stage of their learning.

Mutukaroa is about: 

• Having in depth knowledge of how your child is doing in their assessments and learning from Years 1-3 by having regular meetings with the Mutukaroa Co-ordinator.
• Sharing specific information about your child so you can feel well informed and confident in what they are doing in school.
• Accessibility - Parents can choose where to have meetings, when and what time of day.
• Providing support with translators if required.
• Using parent friendly language.

Regular learning conversations that equip parents to:

• understand data about their child's achievement
• ask questions
• select next steps for learning at home
• choose and take home learning resources to support learning at home

How Mutukaroa can help you as a Parent

Mutukaroa supports learning-focused relationships with parents.

It can help you to:

• have more equal learning-focused conversations with teachers, both formal (e.g. three way conferences) and informal (e.g. discussions before and after school).
• enjoy learning conversations with your child as you learn more about the way they are learning in school.
• access relevant infomation about how your child is progressing in their learning and in class.
• learn more about your child's achievements and learning needs.
• find out some of the ways you can support your child to meet his or her learning needs at home.
• access resources used in school to support your child in their learning at home.
• have a School coordinator to talk to at any time during your child's schooling if you have any queries about your child's learning.

Important to note

Mutukaroa is focused on learning; the coordinator does not discuss behaviour in meetings. These queries can be discussed with your child's classroom teacher.

Some questions are best answered by your child's classroom teacher. The coordinator can help you to develop these questions to ask the teacher.

As a school we still report as we usually do to parents and the community.

Please make every effort to give honest feedback to the coordinator, so that they can make the programme more effective for everyone. We will send out an evaluation form for you to be able to do this.

Contact info

If you have any queries feel free to contact our Mutukaroa School Coordinator or visit the Mutukaroa website:

http://mutukaroa.org.nz/How-it-works/For-parents

Amy Collins

Tel   3898 112

amy@linwoodnorth.school.nz

Wonderful Room One Linwood North Learners

Wow!  We have finished our second week of school and what a great week of learning we have had.  Room One LOVES Reading!  We are superstars at pointing to each word.  Miss Collins and Mrs Tizzard are very excited about the cool books we will be able to read soon.  

Room One have made a great start on their Home Learning and it has been awesome seeing the Room One students reading nights adding up in their notebook.  Both Teachers are looking forward to giving out the first 25 nights certificate!  Keep reading!  

We thought we introduce the first 2015 learners in Room One...

This is Izzan and he started this week.  Izzan enjoys reading and likes our class fish Ma and Karaka.

This is Micheal and he is a pointing superstar.  Micheal enjoys fitness and can run really fast.

This is Dupree and he does everything with this wonderful smile.  Dupree is a super messenger.

This is Naomi and she enjoys drawing.  Naomi is great friend to the other children in Room One.

This is Justine and she loves School.  Justine is the most amazing dancer and loves to take risks and try new things.

This is Mitchell and he is a confident LNS learner.  Mitchell is a superstar at writing and enjoys writing stories.

This is Jaedyn and he loves to draw pictures.  Jaedyn is a superstar at thinking of ideas to write stories about.

This is Aurora and she is a great friend to others.  Aurora enjoys exploring the Learning Centre.

This is Zivan and he loves coming to school.  Zivan is great at getting ready to start the day and at packign his bag at the end of the day by himself. 

This is Ferishta and she is a superstar at getting her work finished.  Ferishta loves learning new things!

This is Rahnui and Miss Fraser.  Rahnui is a special member of Room One and loves being read to by other children.  This children in Room One have been making Rahnui a special feelie book.  Rahnui loves music and responds with lots of laughter and smiles.

Welcome Back to School Powhiri

Today we started school with a Powhiri to welcome all of the new people to Linwood North School.  We welcomed two teachers and about 20 children.  It was wonderful to see so many parents stay on for this special occasion. Our Kapa Haka group performed for us and Ms Smith and Mrs Leatham both did a great job of calling us on and replying.  

Our lovely parents

Mrs Leatham being the Kaikaranga

Mrs Tizzard walking on with our new entrants

 Our 2015 Kapa Haka group

Ms Smith welcoming the school

Making Seed Caterpillars

Today Room 1 and Room 2 made a seed caterpillar using an egg crate and mustard seeds.

We were using the seeds to help us with our learning of the letter S that is our phonics focus for the week.

 We glued eyes on to the crate and then filled it with potting earth.

It was fun sprinkling the mustard seeds into the caterpillar. We then sprayed our seeds with some water and then put them in a safe place in Room 3 so they can germinate.

We must remember to spray our caterpillars to keep

them moist so they grow.

This is what we hope our seed caterpillar will look like.

Putting the soil in our egg carton

We had to be careful adding the seeds to the soil

         

Spraying the seeds with water