Pohutukawa Home Learning - 2016
New home learning will be sent home each Friday and assessments will be completed on the following Thursday or Friday. Home learning books and reading logs should be returned on a daily basis inside the book bags.
Each student will receive the following weekly home learning .
Reading
- practising ring words to develop fluency (not all students will be required to do ring words)
- daily reading and discussing of a text
- daily completion of the reading logbook
Writing
- practise writing, spelling and using the essential words in sentences
Maths
- practise basic facts/times tables as set by classroom teacher
Other
- teachers will add items to support specific learning needs
Help your child to develop numeracy skills
Home Learning
We encourage the learning of basic facts with numbers to 20 and later also the times tables so that the answers to these sums can be recalled instantly. The learning of these facts will support strategy development. Teachers will identify each student’s specific needs through assessment and will set the home learning accordingly. Help your child to learn these off by heart. Please see your child’s teacher should you have any questions.
Here are some simple ways in which you can encourage your child in his/her numeracy learning:
- Discuss what everyday numbers mean
- Write numerals correctly ( Use the guidelines in the Home Learning book)
- Play mathematical games together
- Work together on problems around the home
- Take an interest in how your child figures things out
- Help your child to manage time and money
When solving problems:
There is usually more than one way to solve a problem. If your child has a strategy that works, praise them. If your strategy is different, that’s quite okay. Discuss the differences and similarities or try to solve the problem using each other’s strategies.
Your child will be learning to:
- Enjoy working with numbers (counting, writing the number, reading the number names and numerals, ordering the numbers from largest to smallest or the other way around, etc.)
- Make sense of numbers – how big they are, how they relate to other numbers, and how they behave
- Solve mathematical problems – whether real life or imaginary
- Calculate in their head whenever possible, rather than using a calculator or pen and paper
- Show that they understand maths, using equipment, diagrams and pictures
- Explain and record the strategies they use to work out problems
- Accept challenges and work at levels that stretch them
- Work with others and by themselves
- Discuss how they tackle mathematical problems – with other students, their teacher, and you!
How important is equipment? When children encounter new mathematical ideas for the first time, it is essential that they explore those ideas using equipment. (“Equipment” can mean anything from fingers and clothes pegs to calculators.) Once they understand an idea they should try and use it without the support of the equipment. To make progress, children need to understand what they are doing and be able to work with numbers quickly and confidently.
How you can help your child with reading
Home Learning
Your child will bring a book home every day. Short texts should be completed on the day but chapter books might take longer to complete. That is fine. Return the book in the book bag on a daily basis as we cannot send books home if there is no book bag.
Practise the ring words (if any) every day. We are looking for quick recognition. Reading should be completed and recorded in the logbook on a daily basis. Please read together, talking about the meaning of the story, etc. Complete the log together and decide which facial expression will best fit the story. Later on you can also encourage your child to complete the log independently as the writing skills improve.
Here are some simple ways in which you can encourage your child to read:
- Find a quiet space to read together. Make sure it’s a place where you both feel comfortable.
- Choose a time that suits both of you. After a meal is better than before it, as it’s hard for a hungry child to concentrate.
- Visit the library together and choose books of interest, both fiction and non-fiction.
- Look at and discuss the book. What can we learn from the cover? Who is the author? Change the ending and ask questions about the text.
- Read a variety of text such as newspapers, articles in magazines and online, etc.
- Look for and read words wherever you find them. Some examples are shop signs, labels, shopping lists, instructions, tickets and name tags. Read favourite books again and again! Let your child see you reading.
What to do if your child isn’t sure of a word?
Wait a few seconds. Give that young mind time to think. Often your child will work it out by themselves. If they still don’t know the word, try the following steps:
- Look together at the beginning of the word and help your child to work out the first sound.
- Talk about possible words that would make sense in the sentences.
- Suggest that your child look for clues in the pictures.
- Ask your child to go back to the beginning of the sentence or to read on to the end of the sentence.
- If they still don’t know the word, tell them. Then encourage your child to read the sentence again. Praise your child.
What to do when if your child doesn’t understand the meaning of what they are reading:
- Relate what happens in the story to your child’s experiences.
- Use the pictures to help you talk about the story.
Ideas for using your hundreds board at home
Addition and Subtraction
(1) Use the hundred chart as a number line to do addition and subtraction beyond what your child normally can handle. Take turns making up problems for each other to solve. Develop mental math skills by showing how to add or subtract the tens first (counting up or down) then the ones (counting left or right.)
(2) Look for addition and subtraction patterns. 3+9=? Now go to 23+9, 33+9, 63+9. What do you notice? What do 15-7, 25-7, 45-7, etc. have in common? Find other patterns.
(3) Count by whatever number you want, but start at an unusual place. Count by 5, starting at 18. Or count by 2, but start with 37. Or for a tougher challenge, practice your mental subtraction skills: count down by the number of your choice.
(4) Try some of these counting ideas with charts that start and end at other numbers.HelpingWithMath.com lets you create printable charts that start at whatever number you specify and count by whatever interval you like. You could make an even numbers chart, or a multiples of 3 chart, or . . . the possibilities are endless!
(5) How many numbers are there from 11 to 25? Are you sure? What does it mean to count from one number to another? When you count, do you include the first number, or the last one, or both, or neither? Talk about inclusive and exclusive counting, and then make up counting puzzles for each other.
Number and Pattern Activities
(6) Make picture puzzles: You give the clues — either a description of a number (“It’s two less than 26″) or an equation that equals that number — and your student colours in the appropriate square. Repeat to make a design (samples here, or try this cross-stitch heart). Now, let your student make up a puzzle for you to colour.
(7) From Mathwire: Cut up a hundred board into irregular pieces to make a puzzle. For more of a challenge, cut a blank chart into puzzle pieces, writing in one or two numbers per piece. Can your student fill in the rest of the numbers? [Or use this printable puzzle worksheet. If you press the “Print” button, they will ask you for a member password (which costs money), but if you just use your browser’s print function, the page should print just fine. Refresh your screen to get a new set of numbers.]
(8) Play “Arrow Games”: Starting at the number given, each arrow means to move one square in the direction shown. What number is “45 ← ← ↑ → ↑”? How would you use arrows to say, “Start and 27 and move to 59″? Make up your own arrow code for someone to follow. Mathwire has a pdf version of this activity.
Hundred Chart Games
(9) Play “Race to 100.″ Take turns rolling one or two dice and moving that many spaces on the hundreds chart. If you correctly predict your landing place before you move (without counting squares!), then you can go one extra space as a bonus. The first person to reach or pass 100 wins the game
(10) Play a number bonds game. Take turns pointing to any number. The other player has to say how many more it takes to make 100.
(11) Play Five-in-a-Row, on a printed hundred chart. Use a wide-tip marker to make Xs and Os, or use pennies and nickels to mark the squares. On each turn, the player must make up a calculation that equals the number in the square they want to mark.
Spelling Program
Dear Parents/Caregivers
Each
child has 5 spelling words to learn each week. They must write the word down
with no prompting and each letter must be around the correct way. I have
written the words in each child's note book. Each set of words
is individual for your child. Could you please make sure that the note book is at school every Thursday as that will be the day of their
individual test. I will endeavour to get the new words for the
week written into your child's book that day and sent home to you.
Sometimes this may not be possible, but I will do the best I can.
Please
look at the sheet that is glued into your child's home learning book for
suggestions to help your child with their spelling words. I will also
glue spelling lists into the home learning book so that you know what is
expected. I will also put the sheets on my blog 'Ms Sholson's students.'
Children
will be able to track their progress on the spelling tree at the front of the
classroom. They will move their name up the tree as they go up a level.
Thank
you for the support you continue to give your children.
Kind
regards
Tracey
Sholson
Sharing my News - 2016
Monday
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Tuesday
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Wednesday
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Thursday
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Friday
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Finn
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Kasey
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Cody
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Indy
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Jamie
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Lucie
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Savan
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Joel
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Lizzie
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Tom
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Tighe
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Liam
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Flynn
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Zara
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Hugh
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Nicholas
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Lucus
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Ruqayyah
|
Xanthe
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Max
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Aimee
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Jack
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Children love to share things that they have been involved in or are interested in. In order to give everyone a turn, the children have been allocated a day each week that they can share an interesting piece of news or teach the other children something that they have learnt.
Children need to know about their news, and to be able to talk to it. They also need to be able to answer questions about it.
Relevant learning news:
- a newspaper article - the child must be able to talk about the article in their own words
- photo
- award they may have received
- an event they have attended
- an interesting book - with relevant pages marked
- simple science experiment
Children do not have to present every week but it is expected that they will contribute on a few occasions throughout the term. Please do not send toys for news as these can get lost or broken.
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