Home Learning

Home Learning continues the same as usual as set out below plus....
On Study Ladder there is a large section on countries participating in the Olympics.  Try completing a country a week for the next 3 - 4 weeks. Find out about countries that you don't know much about. 
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Room 11, 12 and 13 HOME LEARNING

  This home learning is to cover all of Term 2. Children still need to bring back their home learning folders each week. They should have their spelling list in their folder so they can learn their spelling at home and their Ravenous Reader information and green card to record the books they have read.

Reading SMART

  This is a MUST DO activity.

1.     Please read for 15-30 minutes each night from a variety of books, from home or a library. Make them books suitable for the Ravenous Reader awards. If unsure check with Mrs Hayes or me. 2.    Record what you have read in your Ravenous Reader sheet and get a parent to sign this section. Any other books you read outside of the Ravenous Reader sheet you don’t have to record. Mathematics  SMART This is a MUST DO activity. This term it’s time to learn and practice the times tables so you can recall them instantly. Your maths group teacher will assign you tasks on multiplication and division on Study Ladder so use the user name and password they give you. There will be basic facts sections as well.   If you are learning your times tables writing them out is a really good way to learn them. Say them as you go and make flash cards so you can get really quick with them. To make sure you learn your basic facts well requires practice each night.

Spelling  SMART

This is also a MUST DO activity

Spelling continues through Term 2. A list should come home on Mondays for children to practice each night. These words will be tested at the end of the week. Writing SMART This is also a MUST DO activity. Write 5 - 10 minutes daily or once a week for 30 minutes.  Check out the "How you can help at home sheet" below for ideas on what you could do OR if you have a brilliant idea of your own, just do it. e.g. a silly sentence that makes sense, a sentence a night, a chapter book that you can write over the whole term, a descriptive paragraph.

Rm 11 and 13: Please bring your Homework Learning folder to class every Monday and Friday morning. This is so your spelling can be tested on the Friday and the new list sent home on the Monday.
Rm 12: Please bring your Home Learning folder to school every day. It will be collected in on Fridays.  

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Writing at home

Write for fun

• Writing about their heroes, sports events, tīpuna (ancestors), hobbies and interests helps your child to stay interested in what they are writing about
• Help your child to leave messages in sand on the beach, send a message in a bottle, do code crackers, word puzzles, crosswords, word finds – these are all fun to do together
• Make up a story or think of a pakiwaitara (legend) and act it out with costumes and music. Write down the names of the characters or tīpuna (ancestors)
• If you or someone in your family has a computer, encourage your child to use it to write, email and publish or print for pleasure (emails, birthday cards, poems, jokes, letters, pictures with captions). Or you could use a computer at the library.

Here's a tip - keep writing fun and use any excuse you can think of to encourage your child to write about anything, any time.

Talk about your child's writing

• Get your child to talk about their writing and share it
• Cut out words and letters to make stories, codes, poems, puzzles and more…
• Play word games together
• Play with words. Thinking of interesting words and discussing new ones can help increase the words your child uses when they write – look words up in the dictionary or on the Internet or talk with family/whānau to find out more about where the words come from.

Here's a tip - talk about what your child writes. Be interested. If you don’t understand what their story is about, ask them to tell you more about it. Use questions they will want to answer.

Write for a reason

• Get your child to help write the shopping list, invitation lists for family events, menus for special dinners, thank-you cards when someone does something nice
• Postcards are a good size for a sentence or two and they are cheap to post, too. Have a special place to keep your child’s writing at home (notice board, fridge, folder). You might frame a piece of writing and hang it up, too.

Here's a tip - be a great role model. Show your child that you write for all sorts of reasons. Let them see you enjoying writing. Write to them sometimes, too. You can use your first language – this helps your child’s learning, too.

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