It is crazy to once again be writing a Term 4 blog. How has 2023 whizzed by so quickly? Our Learning Support team have found 2023 to be a busy year with schools mostly being back to their regular events and activities with COVID not being as prevalent. It is great to hear of the exciting extra-curricular events and opportunities that our LS students are now able to participate in again. We thank you for your regular communication about school events and also for your ongoing support with homework despite us heading into an extra busy time with tired kids (and parents).
Many of the tutors will be finishing up tutoring by early December to ensure your kids can make the most of the end of school celebrations and fun. Please touch base with your child’s tutor if you are not sure of your child’s last tutoring day for 2024. All tutors have also sent out intentions emails for 2024 tutoring. This is so we can organize timetables for Term 1 2024 and possibly place students off our waitlists if tutors have spaces. Once again, your child’s tutor will be able to chat with you if you are not sure about Term 1 tutoring so please just reach out if you are not sure about what to do for Term 1.
If your child is finishing up with Learning Support at the end of Term 4 we want to say a huge THANK YOU to you. We are so appreciative of the opportunity to work with and support your child. Our tutors love being part of student’s learning journeys and we wish your child all the very best for 2024. Please do stay in touch with your child’s tutor and let them know how 2024 is going for your child. We do love hearing from our graduated students! If you are staying with us for 2024, we look forward to seeing your kids after the Summer break, all refreshed and ready for another term of learning!
We are on the lookout for new tutors!
Our Dunedin and Tauranga branches are all on the hunt for more tutors for a Term 1 2024 start. We are expanding and are looking for passionate people who have experience in education to join our team. If you or anyone you know may be interested please send an inquiry email with your C.V. to [email protected] and Kim and Holly will touch base with some further information.
There are loads of games you can buy that support students with their Math! If you are looking for a game to give your child for Christmas, these are some ideas;
Summer Holiday Ideas
We are big fans of having a rest and reset over the Summer holidays, but we know some parents also like to have some tricks up their sleeve in case their child needs some learning practice over the break. It can be a long time off school! Below are some ideas for the Summer break.
ReadTheory - We always suggest this website! It is a free reading comprehension website where students read a short piece of text (aimed at their reading ability) and then answer a few reading comprehension questions. The pre-test sets the reading level and it then adjusts itself whether the student gets the questions correct or not. Amazing! Check it out here https://readtheory.org
Summer Reading Challenges - Many libraries run Summer Reading Challenges where kids can tick off books they have read and win prizes. Check out your local Library for information about the challenge beginning close to you in December.
Here are the links to the libraries:
Wellington City Library website
Phonological Awareness Apps - Below are three FREE apps that you could download for your child to use over the Summer. They focus on different phonological awareness skills and help kids with the basics of PA.
Phonics Tic Tac Toe (free) helps with recognising sounds in words, syllables etc
Partners in Rhyme (free) uses only pictures to support rhyming matching so great for students who struggle to decode lots of words
Phonemic Awareness Bubbles (free) Similar to the Partners in Rhyme app, uses pictures and focuses on PA skills
Phonological Awareness Activity - Most kids we know have at least one Pop It lying around their house. You can use this to help practice segmenting and blending words over the Summer.
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Get out your Pop It
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Have Mum or Dad say a word “blast” (maybe from your Brain Bag of learnt spelling words)
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Your job is to carefully segment the words and push in one ‘pop’ for each sound in the word “b-l-a-s-t”. See if you can do 5 words accurately!
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THEN: you can reverse this, Mum and Dad can give you the sounds in a word “sh-ee-p” while popping your pop It and you have to say the word “sheep”.
Writing
Many of our kids find writing challenging and unenjoyable. They will struggle to write over the holidays so a couple of ways you can encourage them to write is;
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Have them write an email to a family member, friend or their tutor telling them all about something fun they have done in the Summer.
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Use a book creator app (such as Book Creator) to create a short book about the Summer break. Your child can input photos, write comments and then send it to friends and family.
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Write a journal, buy a cool tiny notebook (like this) and have your child write one sentence each day. You can use some prompts like these from journalbuddies.com.
Maths
Having an engaging app is a great way to keep up some practice with basic facts, times tables and number bonds over the Summer. All of our numeracy students will know that we LOVE the Squeebles Apps. They are fun, engaging and really helpful to practice Maths! We especially love; Maths Race, Number Bonds and Times Tables, but we do think they are all great!
Another website to use is www.topmarks.co.uk. It is FREE and has many different games to practice numerous math skills. Hit the Button is a favourite, but there are loads of different games and activities that focus on different math strands and skills.
There are loads of websites that have free printable activities and games as well. This is one we have seen: MathSalamanders. There are lots of different games you could print if you’d like to play a game with your child over the Summer.
Most importantly, we hope you and your family have a wonderful Summer break and are able to have some downtime with friends and family AND enjoy some lovely New Zealand Summery weather. We thank you once again for your continued support and collaboration with your child’s learning and wish you all a happy end to 2023.
The Learning Support Team xx
