Aoraki Hub

Kia Ora Aoraki Hub Whanau,

Welcome to Term 2. We hope that you had a happy Easter and managed to enjoy this holiday time with your family. It is an interesting and challenging time for all of us, that’s for sure!

Term 2 begins on Wednesday the 15th April. To begin the term we will be providing your child with meaningful tasks and activities to continue their learning journey at home. We are all in the same boat, managing working from home, running a household and ensuring the welfare of our tamariki, so with this in mind, we have endeavored to make our remote learning tasks simple in delivery and meaningful in context. There will be a range of activities that are plugged in (require devices) and that are unplugged (no device required at all). The weekly grid will be uploaded to our website every Monday. This is where your tamariki will find an overview of learning opportunities, ideas and experiences.

On Seesaw, we (Aidan, Kelly and Haley) will post a morning video greeting and the set tasks for the day. We will also sign off with a video at the end of the day.

We are aware that a lot of learning is done in everyday activities, such as designing and making constructions, creating obstacle courses, drawing, cooking, playing board games, and so on. These all have educational value and are also important to include in your child’s day. However, if your child has access to a device during the day there are also activities on Seesaw and Sunshine Classics (reading), Studyladder/Prodigy (maths) which have activities to practise their learning skills as well.

Please keep posting photos and videos of what your child is doing at home. We encourage children to comment on each other’s Seesaw posts. If you are unsure of how to use Seesaw from home there are two online links with instructions:

How to post to your journal

How to respond to an activity set by your teacher

To keep up with your child’s reading is the trickiest thing to do from home. All our students have been enrolled into Sunshine Classics. Online books have been chosen for them to read based on their reading level. They may need your help to do their reading. We suggest your child reads the story a couple of times. Read it with them initially (if you have time) otherwise they will be fine to read independently, if they are stuck on a word they can click on it for assistance. There are also some fun and meaningful activities at the end of the story, much the same as they would be doing in class. Please only read one book a day. We look forward to listening to the recording of their reading. Your class teacher will share their log in username and password to access this programme. Be sure to continue encouraging your child’s love of reading by making it fun and enjoyable.

We want to connect with the children via Zoom. Zoom is an online video conference programme where we can have several children connected at the same time. It is a wonderful opportunity for us to see and talk to each other. I am sure your children are missing their classmates. Each session will take less than 20 minutes. Parents are welcome to join their child for their conference meeting. We do need you to help get your child onto Zoom. We will send a link/invite to each childs gmail email account to access. There will be a couple of times for you to choose from. We are aware that you may have other children wanting the device to book a Zoom session with their own class, as well as your own need for the device.

At school we have a 9am to 3pm timetable and we talk this through with the children at the beginning of the day so they know what we are doing throughout the day. You may find it useful to create one with your child, timetabling their Seesaw activities, zoom meeting and play times. Add in food breaks and any walks (or biking/scootering) you plan to take.

We are aware families are managing this difficult time in different ways. We are here to help you continue your child’s learning. Please email any questions you have.

Nga Mihi Nui,

Aoraki Hub Teachers

kelly@portahuriri.school.nz, aidan@portahuriri.school.nz,

haley@portahuriri.school.nz, jo@portahuriri.school.nz