Rāmere, te 6 o te Tīhema 2024
Orewarewa whenua, puāwai māhuri
On the fertile ground of Orewa, the sapling blooms
Have something to share? Get in contact with one of our Across School Leaders – we would love to hear from you!
[email protected] Te Ao Māori
[email protected] Hauora
[email protected] Future Ready
[email protected] 21st Century Learning
[email protected] Structured Literacy
The Orewa College teachers are laughing right now, as they have finished for the year! For the rest of us, the finish line is in sight!
This time of year is so busy, teachers leaving schools, moving classes, end of year assembly items, camps and trips, all while we manage excitable children…..
However, if you want to add to the excitement and craziness with a game that promotes oral language try this one…
Guess who/what am I????
- Have children each write a character or an object that relates to Christmas e.g. elf, reindeer, Christmas tree on a piece of paper and put it in a box.
- A child is then asked to turn around and the teacher shows the class the word that has been drawn out.
- They then have to guess their word by asking questions
- The other players can only answer, yes, no, could be, I don’t know.
- The child cannot ask “Who or what am I?”
- Set a timer and they have one minute to guess.
- If they guess, they can take another card and keep going.
- They can guess the answer any time in the minute, but if they are wrong their turn is over.
- It can be played in teams with each player in the team taking turns.
- The team or individual who guesses the most correctly wins.
Beware: it can get loud and crazy but it sure is fun!
From the 21st Learning team, thank you for your hard work and commitment this year. We know you are dedicated, you’re reading this newsletter in December!
Wishing you a happy and enjoyable Christmas and hope you take time to rest, recharge and have some fun. Merry Christmas!
Minecraft Christmas Activity
Challenge your class to complete the 12 days of Christmas Activities and share them with the class. A fun way to build skills and engage students in a collaborative activity
Minecraft-12-Days-of-Christmas.pdf
Looking for a Math Activity for the End of the Year? Check out the link here. Solve the puzzles to find the answer.
The summer holidays and Christmas time can be a refreshing, fun time, but can also be pretty stressful. Here are some ways to lift your hauora/wellbeing in our Wellbeing Christmas Holiday Edition
Writing in a Structured Literacy Context
The refreshed New Zealand English Curriculum which will be in place for years 0 – 6 from 2025 has a strong Structured Literacy theme. There is a change in emphasis within the writing section of the NZ Curriculum from learning how to write a lot of different genres at an early age to a focus on mastering the sentence. In fact, during the third year at school, the expectation is for students to be only writing a paragraph but with a deeper understanding of sentence types.
This hopefully will ensure that student’s writing development follows a more logical, cumulative, sequence.
If you are looking for some good professional development for your staff I can highly recommend The Literacy Place’s Teaching sentences and punctuation to support writing with Louise Dempsey who has recently completed her training with ‘The Writing Revolution’. The course is easy to access being online, cost and time-efficient, and delivers a lot of key information that aligns with the NZ Curriculum and a Structured Literacy approach.
Another great resource is Dr. Helen Wall’s (with Dr Christine Braid) book available from:
This is a one-stop-shop grounded in the science of writing that includes assessment and planning resources as well as a sequence guide.
Check out the very flexible online course that supports this great resource.
