Redcliffs School
Sue.hayward@redcliffs.co.nz
Room 18
Dear Families
Welcome to Redcliffs School at Sumner. My name is Sue Hayward and I would like to welcome your child into the New Entrant’s class. I look forward to teaching your child and will endeavour to provide him/her with a caring and confident start to their school career.
The following information is about the class routines and homework.
Routines
Setting routines is very important. Please encourage your child toward independently:
- Bookbag, reader etc to be put away
- Putting their chairs down
- Greeting their friends and teacher
- Sneaky snack on the table
Library
Once we return to our School site, I will inform you of our day for the library. Meanwhile we will have a class set to use.
Reading
This is an area where your support as a parent is appreciated and valued. Establish a routine at home that is fun and consistent. A yellow notebook will help us keep a reading record. Your child will have a reading book to read at home on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Some prompts and ideas to help your child’s reading progress
- Look at and talk about the pictures first
- Get your child to practice pointing to each word
- Talk about the spaces between each word
- Look for high frequency words i.e. the, I, is, to, my, at, away, for, go, went, we, you
- Find individual alphabet letters
- Question for meaning
- Retell the story
On Monday through to Thursday their phonic/alphabet book will come home too. Feel free to support your child with any letter and sound games but this is optional and should be fun and not compromise any after school activities you have. On Friday their poetry book comes home. You can encourage your child to share their favourite poems. Poetry is a great way to encourage a number of early reading behaviours such as 1-1 correspondence with the words, recognising high frequency words, left to right direction and sound analysis skills. Both of these books need to be back at school on Monday of each week. Your child may also have some repeat readers from their browsing box.
Uniform
All clothing and items such as lunchboxes should be clearly named.
Literacy
Our focus will be-
Alphabet letter names and sounds, increasing high frequency word bank, accurate letter/sound analysis, a love of books, poetry and authors, independent writing skills, social and active listening skills, clear, concise and descriptive speech, and asking questions.
You can help by reading to and with your child, introducing a variety of reading material, discussing the topic for the term, regular visits to the library, increasing their awareness of events happening around them (community, local and national news), giving your child lots of writing experiences – thank you cards, letters, grocery lists, invitations.
Numeracy
Our focus will be-
Numeration knowledge, recognising numerals, skip counting, counting on from a specified number, counting back from a specified number, odd and even numbers, recognising simple number patterns, finding number patterns, making up number stories. The focus is on the ability to do these things mentally as opposed to recording them on paper.
News
News will be shared daily in a variety of ways. Encourage your child to bring in a photo, book, toy etc. and discuss suitable information they could share. A timetable for items and subjects will come home once our numbers grow.
Lunch boxes and drink bottles
We have a fruit break at 9.30am. Please place a piece of fruit (or cut up in a container) on your child’s desk.
It is a good idea for children to have a named drink bottle in the classroom. These will need to be taken home on Fridays for cleaning.
Communication
Please check reading folders for Newsletters and notices. Visit our School website for further information and updates. Please feel free to come and visit the classroom at anytime before or after school and celebrate our learning. Tuesday, after school and Thursday mornings we have meetings but I should be available at any other time for a chat. More detailed tips for helping your child with reading, writing and maths concepts will be available on the notice board.
In the Morning
If your children arrives late for school they must go via the office and let the staff there know they are at school. I am required to mark them on our electronic rolls as soon as school starts. If you know in advance that your child is going to be away please send a note to school.
This is a very special time when your child begins school and I am eager to share their learning journey with you.
Thanking you in anticipation of your support.
Class Teacher
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