Puriri Team 5 - Term 3 Week 8 ending 15th September

The Puriri Team - We are counting down to the end of the term now and we are in full production mode! But don't worry parents we are still learning like crazy!  

Senior School Speech Competition - Last week Alice McKendry, Estelle Rae, Gabsy Mitchell and Frankie Ashford competed in the speech competition to a packed hall.  We were incredibly proud of how confident they were and how hard they all worked on their speeches.  

In the end Gus Dallow from Kauri team took 1st place but the judges were so impressed with all our speakers.

Production - Next week is performance week and we have been practicing every day in preparation.  Sven and Jack still need a few parents to help out with costumes and make-up on performance nights so if you are available, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday between 5.30 - 6.30 then please email them to offer your services.
Remember the performance evenings are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and children must be at school by 6pm.

Other important info:
• Performances start - 6.30pm 
• Finished by 7.45pm
• Children at school - 6pm (not earlier please)
• Please do not leave during a performance to collect your child 

• All children must be collected from team spaces by an adult, who must sign them out with the           “Sign-Out” teacher 

Important Term Dates:

September 13 - ICSS Speech Comp - Pons Primary -1.40pm Start
September 19, 20, 21 - Production Week
September 21 -  ICSS Netball @ Onewa Courts
September 28 - Last Assembly for the term @ 1:30pm to farewell Sheryl
Term 4 - Book Bonanza in week 1 - 
Friday 20 October - Special Visitors & Grandparents morning 

Puriri Team 5 - Term 2 Week 10 ending 7 July

End of term and what a term it has been!  We are half way through the year and our learning is going from strength to strength.  Some of the highlights this term have been, winning the ICSS swimming, winning the ICSS cross-country, science inquiries, Jammies in June and House Day, winning the ICSS rugby league and of course the awesome Skip-a-thon!

Skip-a-thon

The Skip-a-thon was a hit. All our hard work paid off and our routine was outstanding. If you missed our stunning performance you can view it on the video below:

Science Inquiry 
This was a great learning experience for us as we had to work very hard independently and with our partners. We developed time management skills, organisational skills, the ability to communicate and collaborate as well and all of the scientific learning that took place was amazing too! We hope you got to see our work on display in the hall!

 Mid Year Reports 
These are coming home on Friday the last day of term. The information in these has been taken directly from our Learning Progressions on OneNote so at any point you can see how we are progressing with our learning.

 Farewells 
The Puriri Team would like to farewell to Deb, June and Jordan who are leaving us. We would like to say a big thank you to our lovely Deb for all you have done for us since we started school. We wrote a song with our thoughts to express how we feel about her.

Always been there for us when we are hurt or broken, Jemima Flatt
You always helped me when I stubbed my toe, Carter McMahon
You are always funny and kind when I am sad, Amelia Brooks
You care about everything you do and every person you meet, you are very kind, Harrison Benton
You are such a hard worker!, Mia Barber-Smith
Thanks for always giving us a smile when we walk by, Lola Hodgetts
Thanks for giving up your time to work in our office, Junah Hodgson
When I am hurt or sad you always make me feel better, Azzy Hodgson
You make Bayfield a better place, Gabsy Mitchell
You're a pretty, nice, caring lady...see you at St Mary's, Francesca Batty

On behalf of Puriri Team we will miss you!

June has also been a very special person in our team and whilst she has been here to help Jack with his learning she has also had lots to do with us and has helped us with our learning. Jack wrote a few words about what June means to him.

June is pretty.  She helps me with my learning. June is very kind to me.  I'll miss June.  I love June!

Puriri Post - Issue 7

Half way through Term 2 and my how the time flies.  We are continuing to work through our learning goals and look at where we need to go and how we need to get there.  This is what we have been up to lately:

Maths

In maths we have been learning all about statistics and reading and creating graphs.  We have also been really focusing on fractions as it is an area a lot of us need a boost.  We are not half bad though...excuse the fraction pun!

Reading

We have been asking lots of questions in reading.  This is good because asking questions helps us make sense of what we are reading.  Jack and Sven have also been bugging us with those annoying Probe Tests.  They are a pain but they also give us really good information about how we are understanding what we are reading and what age we are reading at.

Library - Remember we have changed our library day to Tuesday from 11.20 - 12.00.  

Writing

We get to choose what we are writing!  That's write/right, we choose.
If we have something we want to write about we simply go to OneNote and write our genre request in the genre request page.  We have more say over our learning and more student agency.  It's great!
This week we have done 'Legends of our Houses' which was requested by Mia M and 'Writing from an Animal's Perspective' which was requested by Lola.

Inquiry

Our science inquiries are slowly building momentum.  The biggest thing we are working on is, now we know what we want to find out, how can we create a fair test to get the answers we are seeking.  Next week we have two science focus days were we will be doing science from 9 - 12.40. These are on Tuesday and Thursday.

Puriri TV Station
After the success of a student inquiry last term, a group of students are endevouring to set up a more permanent TV station where children can share the news and notices on our blog.  Today they visited Parnell District School to see how they run their TV station. Hopefully they get lots of great ideas to bring back.
Watch this space...

Sausage Sizzle

Please keep supporting our fortnightly Sausage Sizzle, the next one is happening tomorrow. Orders need to be placed via wrap it up by 9:15am on the Friday of the sizzle.

Sport
Our swimming sports team did exceptionally well winning the Inner City Swimming Sports, there were some excellent individual results and our team broke lots of long standing records. Well done to all the swimmers who participated.
Also a huge congratulations to our Inner City Cross Country team that won the inner city event last week.  The team trained well hard for a well-earned result.  

We are having an amazing year of sport at Bayfield!

Puriri Post - Issue 5

Welcome Jack

We are so happy to welcome Jack Peterson to our team.  He is an awesome teacher who has brought new and interesting ideas to Puriri.  We miss Lizzie lots but he has been a great replacement!

Swimming Sports

What an amazing day!  We had a blast and it was so good to see that even though lots of us were really nervous we all gave it our best effort in the pool.  Congratulations to Mia Barber-Smith, Mia Montgomerie, Piper Lodge, Lochie Klouwens, Frankie Ashford, Carter McMahon, Tabitha Sellar and James Nairn on making the Inner City Swim team that will compete on behalf of Bayfield School at the ICSS competition.

Maths

In maths this term we are focusing on fractions and decimals for number and measurement for strand.  Some of the things we have been covering have been ordering fractions, converting improper fractions, rounding decimal numbers, finding the perimeter and area of regular and irregular shapes and we are also continuing to develop effective strategies when to help us solve a range of problems involving the four operations.

Reading

In reading this term we continue to learn comprehension strategies that will help us read a wider and more sophisticated range of books.  We are carrying on with our literature circle too.  In literature circles we are in groups reading the same novel together.  We read aloud (a paragraph at a time) and discuss the book along the way.  It is a great way to enjoy a book together and support each other with our reading.
Library - We have changed our library day to Tuesday from 11.20 - 12.00.  We really appreciated parent help running the desk with this last term and would love more this term.  If you are available could you please email me and I am happy to make up a roster.

Writing

Writing this term has been very science based.  We are learning to write up scientific experiments correctly, forming a hypothesis and analyzing results of experiments we have been doing.  We have also been learning how to use diagrams to help us explain scientific concepts and ideas.

Inquiry

This term is 'Think Like a Scientist' term and we are inquiring into all things science.  To start the term we have chosen different workshops with different teachers to learn about areas of science we are interested in.  During these mini lessons we have been carrying out scientific investigations and experiments.  We have been learning how to carry out a scientific investigation by going through the scientific process correctly, step by step.

This year we are moving away from the traditional 'Science Fair' as we are going to carry out our own scientific inquiries at school with the support of our teachers.  Phew, less homework!

Sausage Sizzle

Tomorrow will be the first of our fortnightly sausage sizzle.  Every two weeks the councilors will run a sausage sizzle for Bayfield students. It will always be the same day that we have assembly.

Future Dates

May 17 - Bayfield School Cross-Country at Cox's Bay
June 1 - ICSS Cross-Country
June 5 - Queen's Birthday
June 22 - ICSS Rugby League
June 23 - ICAS registrations close
   June 28 - Skip-a-thon

Please remember we have an open door policy

svenc@bayfield.school.nz
jackp@bayfield.school.nz

Puriri Post - Issue 3

Learning Pathways

At the end of 5 weeks of school and we are feeling confident that the children have got a firm hold of  ‘Where they are going, how they are going and where to next..’.  All children have transferred their goals from their physical learning journal to their Onenote notebook. The idea behind this is that we can access and update it anywhere and they can share their learning with you at home. As a rule, anything that is not highlighted remains a broad goal, but the goals the children are focussing on are yellow and the goals they have achieved are green.  This rule will apply across the school if you have children in other year levels, yellow: goals and green: achieved.  As the children are all learning at their own pace, goals are constantly assessed and discussed. Your child will talk more about their goals and learning pathways at the conferences in Week 7 – March 20 and March 22.

Dealing with Conflict

This year you will hear the word collaboration a lot! The teachers are collaborating, the children are collaborating and with all this collaboration it is only natural that some conflict will arise. We are using these opportunities to try and arm the children with some useful life skills and help this make sensible choices when conflict arises. We have included some of the posters that the children have made to promote dealing with conflict.  We have also seen children ‘choosing kind’ in the classroom which is very humbling.

Chapter Chat – Term 2

The level of engagement with our current Chapter Chat novel, Holes has been admirable. The children have been discussing the novel inside and outside of class, with various theories and predictions happening. The organiser of the Chapter Chat has announced the book for Term 2 and we have once again signed up to take part with 90 other Y5/6 classes around the country.  The novel for Term 2 is Ms. Bixby’s Last Day, which was released last year and is an unforgettable coming-of-age story from John David Anderson.

Headphones for Devices

We have just purchased a class set of headphones for the Puriri Team. These will be really helpful in class when the children are working in Reading Eggpress and other online tasks as some of the activities have sound and music. If your child has some headphones already at home, it would be fantastic is they could bring these in to use. 

#GetNZWriting

We have registered the Puriri Team in an initiative called #GetNZWriting which plans to do just that. 96,000 students around the country have signed up, classes have been connected with other classes geographically and inspired to start conversations. The best lines from our poems about Bayfield School will be winging their way down to Christchurch right now! 

"Loneliness is a myth here because if you're feeling that then the first thing you will hear is "Don't sit there, play with us over there." By Tabitha and Matthew

EOTC – Parent Help

Education outside of The Classroom is one of the most anticipated weeks of the year for our Year 5s. With the goal of getting them to experience new things, challenge themselves and prepare them for Year 6 camp in 2018.  We have an exciting week planned and we are looking for parent helpers Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. If you are available to help please email Sven or Lizzie

Tuesday 4th April – Puriri Wellness DayWednesday 5th April Rangitoto Island Trip and walk to the summitThursday 6th April North Head & Navy MuseumFriday 7th April  Clip n Climb and Wave Pools

Future Important Dates

March 20 and 22 - Goal Setting Conferences
April 1 - Music on the Field
April 4 - 7 EOTC Week
April 13 - Last day of Term 1 May 1 - Term 2 commences
May 3 (Term 2) - Y3 -Y6 Swimming Sports

Please remember we have an open door policy

svenc@bayfield.school.nz
lizzieb@bayfield.school.nz

Puriri Post - Issue 2 - Week 3

Swimming

The children have completed two weeks of swimming at The Tepid Baths. The increase in water confidence for some of the children has been very noticeable. Here are some of the kids comments about swimming:

'We had to do 8 laps of freestyle to start of and then 4 laps of backstroke and then 4 laps of survival stroke. The survival stroke was like backstroke on your back.' Lauren

'The teachers are quite strict and on task and good at teaching us to swim properly.' Teresa-Mae

'I enjoyed diving in at the end.' Maddy

'I learnt how to do backstroke and breaststroke a bit better.' Suki

Swimming Sports is in Week 1 of Term 2. It will be held at Millennium Aquatic Centre. May 3. More details will follow, closer to the time.

 

Meet The Teachers

Thank you so much to those of you that made it along last night. We hope we clarified any questions you had around teaching and learning in the Puriri Team. Please remember we have an open door policy and we value home-school communication. Email Sven or Lizzie if you have any further questions about your child's learning or if there is anything you are unsure of.

Learning

The children are well underway with their learning and we are in the process of identifying relevant goals for core curriculum areas. This year their progress sheets (which relate to the national standards) will be in their Office 365/One Note notebooks. If your child hasn't shown you their notebooks ask them if you can take a look. A lot of important information is distributed through this notebook regarding learning and associated tasks, like, Chapter Chat questions for example. We are strongly encouraging and championing student-led learning in our learning space, where the children know where 'how they are going, where they are going, and where to next.' There are children who may need more support and this support is of course provided.

School Picnic

 A reminder about the school picnic on the field this evening. This is always a nice way to informally catch up with others in the community and the weather is looking good! 5pm - 7.30pm. BYO picnics and drinks.

Future Important Dates

March 20 and 22 - Goal Setting Conferences
April 1 - Music on the Field
April 4 - 7 EOTC Week
April 13 - Last day of Term 1 May 1 - Term 2 commences
May 3 - Y3 -Y6 Swimming Sports

svenc@bayfield.school.nz
lizzieb@bayfield.school.nz

Puriri Post Issue 1