What's Up Week 6

Welcome to Week 6.  Only a few more weeks left until the school year is finished. The big focus for us this week is of course camp. I'm in the process of crossing t's and dotting i's and making sure everything is ready to go. I'm putting a copy of the gear list on here, as many students seem to have misplaced theirs. If you still have raffle tickets at home, please get them back to school by Thursday as I have to draw it on Friday afternoon.  Remember that students need to be at school by 8am on Monday. 

In class we are busy with Jubilee writing and art as requested by the Jubilee Committee. Students have to hand write a piece of writing all about themselves and draw a picture of themselves doing something they enjoy.

We are also finishing term reflections, which are then being shared with parents at interviews.

Year 8's will be shared a template for their end of year speeches this week, so they can start thinking about these. After camp we will put more focus on this. Parents need to have let the school know by Friday if they are attending the Year 8 leavers dinner.

Rotorua 2017 Gear List

PLEASE DO NOT BRING MOBILE PHONES OR LOLLIES

Day bag (such as their school bag)

Swimming togs

Towel x2 (swimming and showering)

Raincoat

Warm sweatshirts

Covered shoes for camp activities (such as sneakers - may like to bring a spare pair as well)

Underwear and socks for 5 days

Shorts and t-shirts

Long pants (make sure some warm clothes are packed even though it is summer)

PJ's

Sun hat

Warm hat

Pillow

Sleeping bag

Fitted single sheet for over the mattress (optional)

Toiletries (soap, deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrush, hairbrush, insect repellant, sunscreen, etc)

Waterbottle

Lunch box

Food

Packed lunch and morning tea for bus on Monday

Room 3 - home baking

Room 4 - fruit ( bag of apples or bunch or bananas etc)

Optional extra food - muesli bars, snack packs (no lollies or chocolate, etc)

Optional

Camera

Books

Spending money up to $20

Sunglasses

Torch

What's Up - Week 2

Well week 1 has flown by and with week 2 only 4 days long I’m sure it will fly by as well.

Tuesday those kids interested in the road relay will have trials. Once the teams have been named they will continue to train for the event next Monday.

The Lions Speech Competition is on Thursday night so we will be checking in with those who have written speeches to make sure they are prepared for the night.

We wrap up our persuasive writing this week by presenting our letters to the Board and Enviro Teachers. Our letters hope to persuade them that our enviro ideas are appropriate and get permission to go ahead and actually create them.

Notices came home last Friday regarding Positive Puberty so please read through these. Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions. We hope to have our first lesson this Friday.

In Maths we continue to develop our algebraic thinking skills by developing rules for patterns and looking at how patterns can be explained.

Reading will consist of trying out our new CSI kit. CSI reading is a programme of work which works on developing comprehension strategies and exposing children to a range of different texts. We will also be busy with reading assessments in preparation for reports.

Reminder that all children should have a hat at school by now. No hat - no play. Bucket hats only.

Yet another busy week and it is only week 2!

Have a good one!

What's Up? - T4 - Wk 1

Welcome back to what will be another busy term - is there any other sort?? 😊  This term we have calf and lamb day on wednesday, we have lions speeches, Tech week and of course camp in week 7.

Students should be all prepared for calf and lamb day as far as pets go. we will be completing our string art design on tuesday. the only thing students need, if possible, are small picture hook type hammers. we are trying to source as many of these as possible, so if you have any at home that could be used on the day we would love to borrow them.

lions speeches take place in week 2. students who are interested will complete these at home. more information will come home with interested students.

tech will be in week 5 this term. students have filled in their request forms, these will be finalised this week and then students will be informed. the tech options this time are - cooking, art and design, shade house construction, and movie making.

camp is in week 7 and more information will come home as the date for this gets closer. if you have any questions about camp, please feel free to get in touch.

homework this week will just consist of getting animals ready for wednesday. those students interested in lions speeches will have to begin preparing their speech as well.

reminder that touch starts this week on tuesday evenings. toko school sports uniform is required in order to play.  also this coming weekend - labour weekend - is our annual school pig hunt. we would love to see you there supporting the school. Lastly remember Term 4 means no hat, no play.

have a great week.

What's Up - Week 6

This week sees another busy week as we kick off in speech board preparations along with Taranaki Trophy and our very first Japanese Day.

This afternoon we were hoping to run our school cross country but weather isn’t on our side unfortunately. We had pencilled in Friday as a postponement day but the weather is looking rough for then as well. We will just have to play this one by ear and see if we can get a clear spell for it. If not we will continue to train when it is clear enough to get out there. Rural Schools cross country is scheduled to go ahead at Rawhit on Monday next week.

Taranaki Trophy this week is on Wednesday at Auroa. The rugby and A netball teams will be travelling to Auroa to play their games. We will be leaving Toko School 10.15am which will allow time for the teams to warm up before kick off at 11.30am. I recommend bringing a towel and change of clothes as the weather isn’t looking too flash for this week. Transportation has been sorted and reminder notes will be sent home to those parents involved today.

In writing and reading we are getting stuck into our speech board prep. We will be looking at depth into each category the children are required to present and discussing what they need to do to be successful. Each child needs to have a topic for their informative talk and a book to discuss. Make sure to check in with your child and check they have their topics and book sorted.

In maths we continue looking into algebra and using open ended tasks to challenge and extend our knowledge.

On Friday we are going to hold a Japanese Day where the kids will spend the each block doing activities based around Japanese festivals, food and the written language. There is a Japanese exchange student based at St Mary’s who is going to come out and work with the kids so we will have an expert to help out for the day. Her name is Saho and she worked with the children during their Japanese lesson last week. The kids homework this week is based around preparing for this day and getting some background knowledge around the areas we will be looking at. Check in to make sure they are on track as this is due on Thursday.

We are still collecting bottle caps to finish off our project from tech week but are only after brown and silver/grey lids now. If you have any please send them in.

Looking ahead to next week there is of course Rural School Cross Country and then next Friday 8th September will be our final Taranaki Trophy fixture which is away against St Josephs. This involves the rugby and both netball teams.

Have a great week, stay dry!

What's Up - Week 5

Week 5! Back to a normalish week at school after another hugely successful tech week. The children all had a great time on their selected tech option and some of the finished projects that were produced during the week are very impressive.

In maths this week we will be looking at Maths Week activities. This is a nationwide week of maths activities and challenges which was held last week but due to tech week we will be working on it this week.

Children will be working on some of these maths activities for homework this week. The Rotokare Scenic Trust is also running a photo competition which is an option for homework this week. Details are in the children’s weekly homework note on their Google Drive so check in with them for some more info on that.

Writing and reading focuses on our classes enviro topics with Room 4 getting into the nitty gritty of beekeeping and working out what we need to get a beehive here at school and Room 3 carrying out design process charts for their projects.

This week we have Taranaki Trophy on Wednesday. We are hosting Coastal here at Toko School. They are only bringing a rugby team so that will be the only competition match. Kick off is at 12 and we ask the players to bring a plate.

The Methanex Maths Quiz is Wednesday afternoon. The Year 7 & 8 teams have been selected and we wish them all the very best for this.

On Thursday both Sasha and I are out until lunchtime with Japanese PD which will help us develop our language skills further.

We will be attempting to get out training for cross country daily this week. This will of course be dependent on the weather and the state of the fields. Due to the huge amount of rain we have had lately it is very wet underfoot so we will do our best with the conditions.

Have a great week everyone.

What's Up T3 Wk3

What a busy week we had last week! The kids have worked super hard to produce some fabulous science investigations. They are now proudly displayed in New Plymouth at the racecourse. 😁😁 We are travelling up on Wednesday to view them and see how we got on.

Also last week we competed in our first Taranaki Trophy match against Oakura School. We had good wins in both netball games and a big loss in rugby. This week we have back to back games with St Joseph’s on Wednesday and Opunake on Thursday. We are taking a bus 🚌 on Wednesday but we will be travelling by car 🚙 on Thursday. A big thank you to those parents who are able to help with transport. A note will come home early in the week confirming with those taking transport.  

Technology groups have been selected. Students will be either cooking, constructing, creating art design or making products such as lip balm and hand cream. Some groups will be meeting today to plan exactly what they will be constructing. 🏗👷

Please remember to keep checking your child’s blog to see what they have been learning. We would love comments to be made and are willing to bribe you with offers of chocolate for comments. 🍫🍫

In maths we are learning about algebra and how to find answers with unknown variables. For example a=3 so a x a = 9.  Each day we are also working on increasing our mental recall and our knowledge base. We do this through games and activities before we start the main part of the lesson.

As our science investigations have now finished we move on in writing as well. This week both classes will be basing their writing around their enviro topics. Room 4 will be looking into writing brochures and Room 3 are researching and recording ideas for ways to spice up our school grounds.

Reading of course runs through every subject and is completed many times throughout each day. 🕮📚📙📘

After Tech in week 4 our focus will move to Speech Board. Before then students will need to start thinking about their what topic might be. Information about speech board came home last week and more will come home Thursday this week.

What's Up - Term 3 Week 1

Welcome back to Term three! As usual it’s a busy term for year 7 and 8 students. This term we have science fair, taranaki trophy, speech board, positive puberty and technology - so it is going to be full on.

This week we will be spending time working on science fair entries and learning how to correctly write up an investigation. Students should have their experiments well under way by now.

All students are going to undertake an adaptive maths test so we can see where we’re at. An adaptive test changes the questions to suit the student so that we can gain the most insight into what they can and can’t do. This is really helpful for teaching students to their individual needs.

Japanese continues this term. Students will continue to learn greetings, numbers, short sentences, etc. Myself and miss jury will be involved in professional development in this area on wednesday this week.

Tech will be in week 4 again this term. Students will pick their options this week and will meet for a planning session in the next week.

We will be involved in the Taranaki Trophy sports exchange  this term. Practices for rugby and netball will be on friday afternoons. There will be two netball teams this year - an A and B team. The B team will play nearly as many games as the a team. Teams will be finalised before friday this week.

Our first exchange is here at school next thursday against oakura.

Transport will be required for away games.

Have a great week.

What's Up - Week 8

In maths this week we consolidate our subtracting decimals knowledge and begin to look at reversibility. This is when you can use the opposite operation to help solve a question. For example you may have a subtraction problem like 4.2 - 1.3. Using the reversibility strategy I want to turn it into an addition problem, therefore I turn it into 1.3 + __ = 4.2. If it is a multiplication problem I could reverse it into a division problem. A really effective strategy which also helps our basic facts knowledge. For example with times tables if I know 4 x 7 = 28 I also know 7 x 4 = 28. I can then use reversibility to remember my division facts, 28 ➗ 7 = 4 and 28 ➗ 4 = 7. So with every 1 times table I know I actually know 4 basic facts. On Thursday we also have to squeeze in the Otago Problem Solving challenge.

In writing we start to look at debating with the upcoming rural schools debating competition in week 10. We will learn what a debate is, what it involves and how to debate effectively. We are working towards holding debates in class to practice our new skills.

Reading becomes very self managed this week with the children being given a list of must do activities that they can achieve in any order as long as they are all completed by Friday. We will continue to strengthen the use of our prior knowledge to help us comprehend texts.

We are full steam ahead with our science fair investigations this week and children will be given the chance to develop their experiments and get things organised so they can start their tests. The kids are really enjoying this and it is great to see some of the creative ideas they are developing. Not only are they creating science experiments we also have some creating posters, capturing photos of chemical reactions, drawing scientific drawings of seeds and making water rockets.

We have Jones Cup practice again on Friday so remind children come to school with the correct sports gear.

Girls: sport shoes

Boys: mouthguard and boots

Jones Cup itself is on Monday of week 9. The newsletter this week will contain information about what children need to wear.

ANother busy week! Enjoy!

What's Up - Week 6

We are halfway through term 2 now and time is flying by and With a 4 day week this week it will continue to fly.

This week in maths we continue to develop our knowledge of decimals. We will be learning how to add decimals. Students will be able to work at the level that best suits them through using a system of practice and check. When they get stuck students will use short videos and teacher help to move them onto the next level.

Writing will be spent reflecting on our year so far. Students will be required to look back on the year and comment on different areas using a positive, minus and interesting format.

Reading continues as normal as we develop our reading comprehension strategies to help us understand the texts we read. Texts will be based around our respected enviro focuses.

Miss Jury and Mrs Hancock are both out of class on Wednesday morning as we have some Japanese PD to help us with teaching a different language.

Enjoy your week and feel free to pop in and check out some of our tech week creations. Toko Tv will also show some of what everyone got up to in tech and of course each student has completed a blog post about their tech experience.

What's Up - Wk 3

Week 3 already and we all seem to be very busy with winter sports kicking into full gear. It’s really neat to see the range of sports the children are playing and following their team’s progress.

Maths is continuing along nicely and we begin to look deeper into the connection between decimals, percentages and fractions this week. We explore how we can convert between all three to help us solve problems and use this strategy to prove our answers in a number of different ways.

On Thursday we have our second session of the Otago Problem SOlving Challenge which pushes the children’s problem solving skills.

In reading we continue to read about our enviro focuses, Room 3 planting and Room 4 bees. In writing we begin to turn our notes into an information report to present the knowledge we have gained. Monday’s writing sessions are a free writing session which the children are really enjoying. They have a focus for their writing to practice a particular skill. Today for example was to vary the way we start our sentences. They are provided with a picture and a 1-2 sentence story starter and then they can let their imagination take control. We have been impressed at the creativity we are seeing!

We continue to work on our mihi’s and begin to start using the greenscreen to make it visual. Be sure to check out our blogs in the next week or two as we get them put together. We had another exciting Japanese lesson this afternoon with Mrs Karasawa so make sure you ask the children to share their new vocab with you.

Other than that business as usual. Enjoy your week and feel free to pop in and say hi.

What's Up Week 2

We had a great first week back; it was awesome to see everyone come back well rested and ready to get stuck into some good learning.

Last week had our first Japanese lesson, which left all the kids buzzing and looking forward to our next lesson - which will be today (Monday).  We also began looking at fractions in maths and have had some fabulous discussions around this learning. We continue to investigate fractions this week and will move into equivalent fractions and then adding and subtracting fractions.

In reading and writing we will begin putting the note taking skills we learned last week into practice and start looking at putting those notes together into reports.

Tech choices were made last week. This week on Wednesday we will be having a pre-planning session where students will join their tech group and go over their project and what things are needed. Students will find out what group they are in Tuesday or Wednesday morning.

Everyone was given an IXL password last week. This is a maths program that can be accessed on both computers and ipads and should help students to reinforce the learning taking place in the classroom.

I will be out of the classroom for a few days at the end of this week and the beginning of next week. I have a course to attend on a couple of days and a family event in  Hawkes Bay. Alison Eagar will be in the class and will be running the usual programme so there should be minimal disruption for the students.

As always you are welcome to pop in or email me if you wish to chat about anything.

What's Up - Term 2 Week 1

Welcome back to Term 2. Hopefully everyone is rested and ready to go.

This term we are going to be focusing on our enviro areas in greater detail and incorporating this into our reading and writing.

We will be investigating planting and what we could do better in regards to this. Therefore the students will be researching planting in great detail. In writing this means that the students need to know how to take notes properly and how to write up their notes into reports.

In reading they will be reading about planting - types of planting, what to plant, when and where to plant, etc. In maths we will be linking our enviro learning with finding a better way to run the enviro bank. As well as that, we are beginning the term focussing on fractions in maths.

Technology will take place this term and you should all have had a notice explaining how it will run. Students will be selecting their choices early on in the term.

At the end of term TOPEC made the decision to call off our trip due to the bad weather. We are hoping to reschedule the trip for later in the year.

Homework will be slightly different this term. There will be reading and spelling for all, and a few maths basic facts for some, including IXL (an online maths programme similar to Mathletics. Then there will be some optional tasks for those that wish to do them. This will discussed with the students during this week.

Remember now that it is colder to please remind your children to wear appropriate clothing to school. Those students playing with an oval ball during break times are required to wear a mouthguard. It is also a good idea to include a change of clothes in case of wet or muddy clothes.

As always you are welcome to pop in or email me if you wish to chat about anything.

What's Up - Week 11

Well the last week of Term 1 is upon us and what a busy 4 day week it is going to be! What a busy term it has been!

We are off to TOPEC on Wednesday and all notices regarding this went home last week. Be sure to check the gear list to ensure your child brings everything they need for the day. Fingers crossed the weather is good for us! Remember we are leaving school at 8.45am so make sure you are early.

We continue with our ANZAC unit this week where the children are finding out about life during World War 1. They are busy researching a soldier and creating a care package for them which will include a daily menu for them while they are at war and a letter from home that will be tailored to them based on the information they find out about them and their family.

We have also created some fantastic poppy field art pieces which will be finished during this week. If you get the chance pop into school and check them out, they are fantastic!  

Thursday morning we will spend some time making ANZAC wreaths. We need students to bring in plants such as Rosemary, COnifers, Camellias, some greenery and anything that won’t wilt too quickly. This will be followed by the annual ANZAC assembly that afternoon.

There will be no homework this week except working on their ANZAC work if they need to.

We expect to see books being added to reading logs throughout the holidays.

Enjoy the holidays, rest up, have some fun and take care. I’m sure the easter bunny will spoil you all.

We look forward to seeing the children back for term 2.

What's Up? Week 10

The next two weeks of the term are jam packed with lot of different things going on.

On Tuesday evening our 2 Year 7/8 EPro8 Challenge teams will be competing at Stratford Primary against a number of other schools to solve problems in creative and practical ways. The children have had plenty of practice for these challenges with our weekly STEM challenges we have been having in class every Friday. If your child is involved in this please make sure their permission slip has been returned.

On Wednesday the creative problem solving approach will continue as we have the Otago Problem SOlving Maths Challenge. This is a number of problem solving questions which push the children to think outside the box.

On Thursday we have Athletics here at Toko School. If it is wet Friday is the postponement day. The children have been developing their athletic skills over the last few weeks with the Run, Jump, Throw sessions. It will be a great day and we hope to see as many parents there as we can.

The final paperwork and details regarding our TOPEC River Safety day which is Wednesday 12th will be coming home this week so keep an eye out for them.

Reading, writing and maths are going to be integrated into an ANZAC unit which will run over the last two weeks of term. Such an important day with great significance that we will be learning a load about.

Both Year 7 and 8 teachers spent a day learning some of the basics of Japanese in anticipation to kicking off our Japanese Language Unit next term. We are excited to be introducing this new language.

Have a great week.

What's Up - Week 8

This week we have our school Tryathlon on Thursday afternoon. It kicks off at 1pm and children will need to bring their bike to school on Thursday morning. Please park it on the bottom field in their year group line. There will be signs to direct you. Children will also need to remember their swimming gear as well as suitable shoes for the bike ride. It would be great to see you there cheering them on.

In writing we continue to work on poetry, this week taking a look at found poems and blackout poems. Both activities are part of the Get NZ Writing programme we are participating in. We will also be finishing off our postcards with our metaphorical poetry on them which we will be sending off to our partner schools on Friday.

In maths we continue with decimals this week looking at subtracting decimals. The children are going to need to make use of their place value knowledge for these activities.

In reading we are full steam ahead into our reading programme, introducing a number of new activities and tasks which will support the children in developing an understanding of what they are reading.

Run, jump, throw with Ollie from Sports Taranaki continues this week. The children have really enjoyed the discus and long jump sessions we have had.

Please remember to return TOPEC forms to school as soon as possible. These need to be back at school by Friday 24th March.

This week for our STEM activity we will be needing toilet rolls. Banqer money will be given for each toilet roll that is sent in.

Week 8 already!

Have a good one!

What's Up - Week 7

Welcome back to a short but busy week! I hope you all had a good long weekend, despite the horrible weather.

Since this week is short and disrupted with swimming we will be using it as a finishing week. By the end of the week our postcard writing should be finished, our one-point perspective art should be up on the wall and on blogs and our Toko TV show should be planned out and ready to go.

Students are being offered bribery in the form of chocolate to get people signed up to their individual blogs.  I cannot stress enough how valuable it is for your child’s learning to know that people other than their teacher are reading and commenting on their work.

Please remember to return immunisation forms and TOPEC forms to school as soon as possible.

Wednesday is swimming sports at Stratford Pool. Please ensure your child wears the correct TOko School uniform and brings plenty to eat as well as remembering important things like togs and towels!

Turnball Cup is on Wednesday night as well. If your child is a part of this team they will be issued with jackets tomorrow at school to wear to the event. They will be given toko swimming hats on the night. Please ensure your child is there on time.

Have a great week.  

What’s Up - Week 6

Hopefully you’ve all had a chance to view the videos the students made last week about their Tiny Houses. We’d love you to leave a comment on your child’s blog relating to how you think they went with their goal.

If you are not signed up to your child’s or the class blog, I urge you to do so. It is the best way to be a part of your child’s learning. The school web site and the class blogs have short videos explaining how to sign up.

In Maths we are moving into adding decimals. We’ll be learning how important it is to keep the tenths, hundredths and thousandths in the correct column when adding.

As well as reading individual novels we are sharing a class book called Tomorrow, when the War Began. I share the book onto our smartboard and the students follow along as I read, which really helps with comprehension.

In writing we are looking at metaphors and the work of Iain Sharpe. Students will be creating their own poems based around Iain Sharpe’s work. They will also be learning and creating ‘found poems’ - watch out on our blogs to find out what these are.

This week is the last official week of swimming, however if it is still warm enough we will continue to use the pool in the following weeks.

This week Sport Taranaki begin a weekly programme called Run, Jump, Throw which will support our students in the lead up to athletics.

If anyone has any magazines to spare we would greatly appreciate having them. Also a reminder we are after spare craft type bits and pieces to add to our STEM Challenge box.

Reminder that this Friday is Teacher Only Day - this means students have a 4 day weekend as Monday is Taranaki Anniversary.

What's Up - Week 5

In Maths this week we continue to look at place value and ordering decimals. We move into bigger numbers as we progress and then begin applying our decimal knowledge to solve word problems.

Reading this week we continue to get stuck into individual novel studies and look at the comprehension questions that accompany each book. We will also continue to look at a weekly wonder on Wonderopolis. We will read about it together as a class and then the children can choose an aspect related to what they have read to research. We had some really interesting outcomes from last weeks which looked at our middle names.

Our Writing this week is based around informal writing and description. We are taking part in a New Zealand wide postcard swap. This means we will all be filling in a postcard and sending them off to another school and they will send a class set back to us.

We are also signed up to a census in school programme which will inform part of our maths programme. This week all Year 7 and 8 students will complete a survey for census and then later on we’ll use the data as part of our statistics unit.

It is our second to last week of swimming so we need to be making the most of it. The students are required to bring their togs every day. If your child is not swimming a note needs to come to school on that day to explain why.

On Friday the School Council are holding a PPP, Pink, Purple and P day to raise money for Renee. Donations will be used to send a care package to her and her family in Texas. We hope things are going well over there for them all.

What's Up - Week 4

We survived our first full week of school last week, but there were some pretty tired children by Friday afternoon!  Our week was full of learning including continuing with our Tiny House maths activity, our creative writing tasks and our STEM challenges.

This week it’s important to remember all Year 7 and 8 children will be going to the Stratford pool on Wednesday to complete a swim safe survival session with an instructor. While we are there, interested students will partake in trials for the Turnbull Cup Team. A note was sent home about both these things today. We will be at the pool from 10.30 - 12.30.

In Maths this week we continue to look at area and perimeter as we finish off our Tiny Houses. We also begin looking at place value and ordering decimals.

Reading this week involves getting stuck into individual novel studies and looking at the comprehension questions that accompany each book.

Our Writing this week is based around a picture and a story starter. We are getting our individual writing goals sorted as well.

Swimming is still on at school every day , weather dependent, and students are required to bring their togs every day. During swimming times we are also doing some light training to gear up for our school tryathlon.

A big reminder that this Friday night is our Country Fair. Be sure to come along and support the school by participating in some exciting activities.

We are looking to create a class collection of materials for our STEM activities. If you have any of the following at home that you are happy to donate please send them in!

Wool, string, ribbon, plastic lids, straws, small containers such as yoghurt and butter tubs, corks, bubble wrap, cardboard tubes, buttons, iceblock sticks, beads, toothpicks and pipe cleaners. Thanks in advance.

Have a great week.