Letters to Parents and Caregivers

Monday 2nd February 2015

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Welcome to the 1st term of this year.
It is great for me to be here team teaching your children
with Sharon McNish ensuring they have an enjoyable and rewarding year.  I will be teaching Monday-Wednesday and Sharon Thursday and Friday.
We look forward to getting to know those of you we have not met over the next few weeks and continuing the parent teacher relationship created with many of you last year!!
We look forward to teaching but also learning from your children as the year progresses. We find it very worthwhile and exciting to see children develop their skills and advance on their learning journey. As this journey is a shared partnership between home and school we am very happy to answer any queries or talk over any thing you would like to share with me about your child. However, it is a good idea to make a time so we are not interrupted and we can give you our full attention, this does not always happen before or after school. We can be reached at amy@stmaryshoki.school.nz and sharonm@stmaryshoki.school.nz
Our aim for all the children in the class is to develop independence – please help by:
  Encouraging your child to unpack their own bag each day when they arrive and be prepared for each day with their kiwi pack and all its necessary contents.
  Having the children at school early enough to have time to play before the 9am bell rings. This is such a good opportunity to calmly settle into the school day and develop friendships with their peers.
 They also need time to put their drink bottle on the table provided and put their kiwi pack in their desk.
A few helpful reminders and notes about our classroom this term:
 A reading book will come from Monday to Thursday. Sometimes children will have the same book depending on what we are doing in class and timeframes for that day. The children will keep all the books they read for the week in their book bag and put in the pink basket when they arrive at school on Friday morning. Please read the new book and one/some of the others each night, ensuring the reading notebook is filled in. Rereading books is a vital way of practicing reading strategies and skills. At the weekend a poem will be sent home in their school book which will need to be returned to school on Monday, at times there may be other homework sent home depending on what is happening in class. There may also be a bag containing some sight words to be learned plus their spelling book these both support their reading development. Group reading will begin on week 3.  Children will have spelling words to learn each week. These will be based on words from the essential lists, their own writing and/or the basic sight words. Spelling will begin later in the term.
  Library change day is Wednesday. Please ensure your child has their book to exchange on this day.
 This year we will send a class note home only when necessary.
 As mentioned, we would appreciate the children being at school and ready for the day before the 9am bell. We start the day with a class prayer and go over the daily time table which is a very important part of our day together. Also, at the end of the day it would be helpful if you could stay outside until 3pm when students line up outside ready for hometime. It can be disruptive having people coming in and out.
 Show and Tell News – this will be held on Thursdays. The students are allowed to bring items to    share on this day based on a roster that will be provided.
 This term swimming will begin week 1 on Tuesday the 11th of February.
 Please let me know asap (especially for swimming) if you are available for parent help it would be greatly appreciated.
 School Pack Information
We are sending home books etc to be named, labelled and covered (if you wish) to be returned to school on Friday.
The books are as follows:
3B1 – Spelling
3B1 – Alphabet Book
JWB – Handwriting
SBKA4 - Writing
Fun Doing Maths- Maths
Clever Kiwi Company- RE
The Big Book – Topic
The Big Book - Poetry
The Really Useful Big Book – Reading
Clear File – Name Only
Clear File – Name Only
Pencils x 2 - Name Only
Glue Stick - Name Only
Reading Diary – Name Only
Total Cost for pack will be invoiced to you by Steph. 

Kind Regards,

Amy Teen and Sharon McNish







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