February 2016
Room 6 Class Information 2016
Welcome to Room 6. This letter is to introduce myself and share some classroom information with you. This is my 9th year on the staff at Redwood School. I truly enjoy being a teacher and being a part of the growth and learning that takes place while children are in the Junior School. I am excited to be part of the progress your child will make this year and I view their learning as a partnership between school and home.
On a personal note, I am a long time Tawa resident, mother of three and enjoy reading, quilting and going for walks.
Currently we have 8 children in Room 6. It is lovely to start with a small group and allows me to focus on your child and get to know them well. Our class will grow over the term as children are transitioned from our Reception Class.
As the Kiwi Team Leader and Teacher with Library Responsibilities I am allocated time released from the classroom for other responsibilities. Melanie Clubley will teach the class at these times. Melanie is an experienced teacher with Redwood School knowledge. For consistency my release day will usually be Thursday. Melanie and I work well together and the classroom programme will be fluid and consistent.
I have outlined below a little information that I hope will help the year run smoothly.
- The school day begins at 9:00 a.m. I am often at school early as I prepare for the day’s activities, however, I may not be in the classroom and am not available to supervise children who arrive earlier than the school policy of 8:15 a.m. You may be aware that our school offers Before School Care if this is a need for your family.
- Generally we spend our mornings focusing on Numeracy and Literacy, our afternoons are busy with PMP (Perceptual Motor Programme), Art and Topic work. On Fridays we have Discovery Time - a time to learn through play. During the week we fit in other activities such as, Singing, Library, Buddy Class and Assembly.
- We go to the school library on Wednesdays. Children are allowed to get two books out and they may keep them for up to two weeks. When they have finished with their books they can go into our class library box ready to be returned.
- Book bags need to come to school every day. It is our school policy that all reading and library books go home in book bags. Paper notices will also come home in the book bag. We try to send paper notices home on Thursdays. A lot of school information is shared via email. If you are not receiving emails from the school please make sure we have the correct email address.
- It is expected that reading at home will be done daily, and this is really important to reinforce what we are doing each day. Children are in reading groups Mondays through Thursdays. As your child’s reading skills progress we may spend more than one day exploring a book during reading group time. I would still like to encourage you to have your child read something from their book bag daily. Please sign off in the reading notebook and feel free to add any notes or communications to me. Word rings will also come home daily for you to practice. Keep the word ring in the book bag and make sure it comes to school daily to be used at reading time.
- We focus on a poem each week, and a copy of the week’s poem will come home on Fridays in the Poetry Book. Please share and enjoy the poems over the weekend and then return the Poetry Book in the book bag on Mondays.
- We try to encourage healthy lunches; you can support us by NOT sending lollies, fizzy drinks or chocolate in your child’s lunch box. Children are supervised for 10 minutes while eating their lunch. We try to monitor the lunch boxes to ensure they have eaten enough to get them through the afternoon. Lunch orders are on Thursdays and Fridays and can be ordered online from the Redwood School website.
- Parent Help is greatly appreciated in the classroom, we will need a library helper on Wednesdays and someone who will put the classroom reading books away on a regular basis. We are always looking for parents to help at PMP time, the programme relies strongly on parent support. If you are able to help with any of these things, please contact me.
I enjoy keeping the class blog and try to update it regularly. I love when families become followers and leave positive comments regarding our various entries. The blog can be accessed from the Redwood School website at www.redwood.school.nz or http://www.redwoodschoolrachelgargan.blogspot.co.nz
I am available for brief chats before and after school, however, if you would like to talk in more detail we can schedule a time that suits us both. I can be contacted via email at rachelgargan@redwood.school.nz.
Regards,
Rachel Gargan
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