Hopefully you and your families have had contact from your classroom teachers to touch base.

Tonight I am able to share with you our first stage of online learning (https://sites.google.com/stmartins.school.nz/onlinelearning-sms/home) – Holiday Activities.  This is our first response and in light of the holiday period 30 March to 14 April.  The holiday activities offer a range of learning activities that parents can select to involve their children in.  It allows families to get ideas and have some time to complete these. There are ideas for online and offline learning.  At this stage we have 6 of 8 learning areas open with resources. These include;

  • Health and Wellbeing
    • mindfulness and movement
  • General Activities
    • over 200 activities
  • Literacy
    • listen to a book online or write a story using one of the picture prompts
  • Maths
    • practice your maths skills or watch one of the Maths Tools videos to learn more about maths
  • Science
    • select a resource and have a go at some of the experiments
  • Projects
    • have a look at the projects on offer and complete one of them

We are still to add information to our Virtual Field Trips, Arts pages and add a few maths workbooks.

Please remember to continue the great work you are doing with your children, plenty of fresh air and involvement around the home.  Nathan Wallis has updated information for us (https://www.facebook.com/nathan.wallis.969/videos/2590330561214555/)

While you and your family are on holiday we will continue to be in contact with you.  I know that many teachers are already sharing videos or preparing shared stories to listen to.

During this time we will be getting ready to provide our 2nd stage of online learning – Structured Learning.  This will be ready for April 15. The difference will be teachers directing you to online learning, providing their specific class and perhaps groups in some cases with different learning.  Structured learning will be pushed straight to children and / or parents depending on the age of the child. We will continue to keep you informed as we progress our thinking.

Thank you for your ongoing support as we prepare new learning approaches.

Take care.

Regards,

Andrew

(andrew@stmartins.school.nz )