Week One Letter Home

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

                                                 Hello and welcome back to Eskdale school for another exciting term. My name is Mike Moriarty and I am the new Kotare room teacher, as well as the Deputy Principal in the junior school. Although many of you have already met me, I’ll tell you about myself. I have been teaching since 2006, and I spent a year teaching at a boy’s academy in the Middle East. During this time I have taught in the junior school for four years, and have been a Syndicate Leader and School Principal. I am married to a beautiful woman named Sone’ and I have a two year old boy named Leon, and we have a little girl on the way. Also I am a tragic NZ Warriors fan and I love surfing.

My aim for your child is for them to be engaged in their learning by giving them a voice in the classroom by encouraging responsibility, choice making, goal setting and perseverance to complete a task. We have fun, play and work hard in Kotare class. If you have any queries please feel free to contact me in person or by email.

This term the learning for each subject will focus on:

Science: observing, questioning, and sorting and classifying like scientists

Maori: Otatara Pa visit and the ‘Pania of the Reef’ myth

PE & Health: Large ball and striking skills (hockey), and Life Education mobile bus visit

Music and Art: Junior singing and warm and cool colour knowledge

Oral language: Speaking and listening skills, role plays

Key Competencies: Using language, symbols and texts, and relating to others

Reading: Letter sound knowledge, magenta colour word recall, one to one finger pointing when reading, using the first sound (letter) of a word with the pictures to guess a word

Writing: correct letter shape and size, writing and memorizing magenta colour words, using the first sound (letter) of a word to attempt a tricky word, having finger spaces between words, finishing ideas (sentences) with full stops

Math: reading, writing and showing with materials numbers to 20, ordering numbers to 20, recalling groupings within 5 and with 5 e.g. 2 + 3, 5 + 2, measurement and patterns

I have attached a copy of the magenta words for reading and writing so you can practise these at home, as well as some useful tips around reading at home with your child. If you would like to discuss these further please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards,

Mike Moriarty