Month: July 2018

We work out the maths question of the day as a class then a few children get chosen to put all our answers in the competition box in the office.

We love Jump Jam!

It seemed appropriate to wait for Maths Week to talk about how multiplication works.  The ‘x’ sign means ‘groups of’ and we also need to know our skip counting patterns.  It is a big topic to chat about and we just touched on it with one group today.  I am still a big fan of rote learning times tables!!  But the children do need to understand the strategic thinking behind our multiplication facts and what that looks like using materials and see the number patterns.  Phew it is a big learning jump for some of our little friends.

The Maths Fairy flew in to ask us some maths questions and give out prizes.  She has a unicorn called Sparkles.

It is Maths Week at KTS.  So much happens during Maths Week.  There is a school maths fairy who comes around and visits junior classrooms every morning asking maths questions and giving out prizes.  There is a maths ninja (a really friendly one I promise) who visits the senior school but will make an appearance down our end of the school too.

We have a daily challenge question we work out, a ‘guess my number’ question and we are also trying to estimate  how many lollies are in the lolly jar in the office.

There is a parent maths question outside the library if you would like to enter also.  There are lots of prizes and house points on offer.  Here is your parent question for the day…

The teachers have a competition upstairs in the staffroom too.

Welcome to the world baby Daphne.  You are gorgeous.  Congratulations Julian and family. x

We went to a great session with several other central schools on teaching oral language and we also looked at our growing ESOL (English as a second language) community.  Auckland especially has a huge percentage of bilingual speakers and we looked at how to nurture those children in our schooling system.   It was run by Cornwall Park School and two of their teachers shared their practise.  We also had Erin, (on the far right/photo below) from the Ministry of Education come and show us statistics and data about our schooling community.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!  I have a busy one ubering Georgia to babysitting jobs, a party, an all day netball tournament and Olivia to waterpolo and soccer.  Hope all the reading is going well at home!  Enjoy your poetry reading over the weekend, (books go home on a Friday and back on a Monday). Don’t forget to return library books on Monday also.

In Room 5 I am introducing ‘calm cards’.  I got the idea off Olivia’s coaching cards she uses when helping out in the playground as part of the coaching system with key points.  We have a few children in Room 5 who get anxious and worried about things.  We also have some children who need reminders about how to deal with big emotions sometimes.  I always think these skills can help all of us though!  Jess has made a few sets for our class but let me know if you would like a set to keep at home for your little person.