Welcome to Room 7
Oratia District School
Below is a list of terms, along with brief explanations,
to help make your child’s introduction to school just that little bit easier.
Book Bags: These travel to and from school every day transporting reading books, home
books, reading logs, and poetry books.
Home Books: Your child’s home book will travel to and from school every day in their book bag. Newsletters, permission slips and other notices will be put into this book so that they safely find their way home to you, and visa versa.
Reading Books: Children participate in guided reading or buddy reading sessions during the daily reading sessions. The books they have read during this session will be sent home with the children in their book bags to read to you at home, returning to school the following day.
Reading Log: This is a yellow book sent home once your child’s stationary pack has been purchased. This is for you and your child to record the books they read at home.
Poetry books: Poetry books will come home on a Friday. As your children are new to school they will need support when reading their poems.
Library Books: Library day is Monday in Room 7. Books need to be returned before the
following Wednesday if your child wishes to get new ones out.
Star of the day: In Room 7 we pick a ‘Star of the day’ out of a bag every day. This child gets to
sit on the star of the day chair and look after our class ‘pet’ Woof. At the end of the day the child gets to take Woof home with them, along with the star of the day book, and write a story about what they did together at home.
Brain Food: This is a brain snack that we may have during the morning block if the
teacher feels it is necessary. I encourage children to eat food that will give them energy, such as fruit, veges, nuts, bars or crackers.
Beginning Teacher Release: As I am in my second year of teaching I am entitled to one day each fortnight release. This means that every fortnight a release teacher teaches my class, allowing me the opportunity to attend professional learning workshops, observe other teachers and any other professional matters that need attention.
Classroom Release: As a teacher I am also entitled to 10 hours Classroom Release time per term to
use for professional development.
Oral Language: Oral language is woven throughout our school day, but a special time is set
daily to encourage students to share their ideas, thoughts and opinions in pairs, groups or whole class situations. This may be in the form of sharing items that they have brought from home, experiences they have had, their interpretations of books, photos or pictures, development of vocabulary etc..
Writing: When children first start school, their alphabet letter and sound knowledge is the
focus. This enables them to sound out the words that they wish to write. The second focus is on capital letters, finger spaces and full stops. Any opportunity for your child to practice drawing or writing ideas that they wish to express, will help with their writing progress.
Mathematics: Initially the focus is on number identification and counting up to, and back from, 10 (and then 20). Once this is knowledge is established we can move on to addition and subtraction strategies. Encouraging your child to play board games, measure, compare, bake, look at shapes, graphs and numbers will help with their mathematics progress.
Reading: Reading to your child and with your child every night will help to develop both their
oral and written language skills. Learning the alphabet letters and sounds along with high frequency words (such as I, am, a, look, here) is where we start with emergent readers. As their reading skills develop they will learn new strategies to help them figure out new words.
Inquiry Based Learning: Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) is a process where students develop questions about a
certain concept/topic/issue and seek to answer their questions through a range of discovery processes (books, computers, interviews, experiments, observations etc). This process allows for integration of a variety of different subject areas including Science, Social Studies, Technology, Literacy, Numeracy and The Arts.
Sport: Each term we will have a different sport focus e.g. Gymnastics, Athletics,
Cross Country, Large Balls, Small Balls, Swimming etc. We also have a Sports Coordinator who comes to our school every Tuesday to teach specialised skills to the children. Our class is entitled to half an hour every 2nd Tuesday.
Buses: Four different buses run every day dropping children at school and taking them
home, along four different routes. For more information see the school website: http://www.oratia.school.nz/Site/Home/School_Buses.ashx
Toys: Children are more than welcome to bring toys or special items to school to share
during oral language time on Mondays if they wish, but I will encourage them to return them to their bags or book bags for safe keeping after they have been shared.
Wheels Day: Every so often we have a Wheels Day, usually on a Friday, where children are
allowed to bring a toy with wheels to school to play with at lunchtime. Scooters, skateboards, toy cars, prams and remote control cars are just some of the items children choose to bring. Bikes however are not part of wheels day. A note will be put in the newsletter to let parents know if/when an event like this is happening.
Wacky Wednesday: Wacky Wednesday is another event that often pops up every now and again.
Teachers and students alike make the effort to dress just that little bit wacky – wearing their pyjamas, their shirts inside out or back to front, mismatching shoes or socks, wacky wigs, glasses and costumes .. anything and everything you can think of. Again, a notice should come home in the newsletter or over the classroom speaker to let children know when this is happening.
Parent Help: Please let me know if you are interested in helping in the classroom or around the school. Any help is much appreciated.
If you have any other questions feel free to speak to me before or after school
or email me on leannes@oratia.school.nz
Leanne Shaw
