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Marist School, Mt Albert. Auckland, New Zealand.

-SYNDICATE OVERVIEW

[Senior school] [Middle school] [Junior school]

SENIOR SYNDICATE Term 2 2010
As the senior syndicate curriculum programme runs across terms, many of the Term 1 units remain the same for the first part of term 2.
Religious Education	We begin the term with the topic ‘Baptism and the Holy Spirit’ and recognise that in Baptism the Holy Spirit brings people the grace to grow as children of God in the Church. Later in the term we look at God and how we know Him through Jesus and respond in faith through worship and action in the Church.
Mathematics	Multiplication and division is our first topic, followed by Measurement (weight, linear, mass and time), and we finish the term with an Algebra unit.
English – Reading	Individual class programmes continue focusing on further development of reading strategies and allowing students the opportunities to practise them. We also further develop analysis of the text and inferencing and predicting around the author’s intentions.
English –Writing	We continue our report writing which centres around our integrated unit “Leaders for Equity”. In the second part of the term, our writing will be Instructional/Procedural. This is linked to our new integrated unit “Investigative Science”.
English – Oral	We have two purposes to our oral activities this term - our individual speeches, and oral presentations as a response to our science badge activities.
English – Visual	Our integrated unit, “Investigative Science”, is the basis of our visual activities.
Social Studies	N/A
Science	Our Investigative science unit begins part way through the term, and the children will work through their choice of science tasks in order to gain their science badges. Some of this work will be done at school, while other parts will be carried out at home or in the community. In order to ensure all children understand the tasks, and are able to complete them independently, they will write up each task as a instructional/procedural text and have it signed by the teacher prior to beginning the task.
Physical Education	Cross country is our fitness focus this term, while small ball skills and then later large ball skills are our PE topics.
Health	Linking to our fitness focus, we look at our personal health and physical development.
Technology	We continue linking into our integrated units, “Leaders for Equity” and Investigative Science”, for our technology learning.
Maori	The focus is on increasing our use of Te Reo in our school life through curriculum topics and classroom practice.
The Arts – Visual Art	Our work this term will be ‘scraffito’ art. This involves etching a design into pastel and black paint.
The Arts – Music	We are going to make our own music this term, using a variety of instruments and the talents of our classmates.
The Arts - Drama	N/A
The Arts – Dance	N/A

MIDDLE SYNDICATE Term 2 2010
Welcome to term 2. We are looking forward to a happy and successful term.
Religious Education	The Holy Spirit topic focuses on the Fruits of the Holy Spirit- love, joy, peace, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. We are learning about how we live these fruits in our lives by our words and actions.
Mathematics	Topics to be covered include Measurement (Time & Temperature), Multiplication and Division and Fractions and Decimals.
English – Reading	For the first two weeks of the term the children will read poems focussing on comprehension and poetic language. After reading non fiction books about animals, children will retrieve and classify information, in a variety of ways, from these factual texts.
English –Writing	Poetry: In weeks 1-2 of the term, children will be writing their own poems using poetic language. Report Writing: Children work focus on report writing about the topic “Amazing Animals”.
English – Oral	Children will recite poems to both small groups and the whole class. This will build children’s confidence when speaking to large groups.
English – Visual	Our Visual English is linked to our reading activities. These will include Venn diagrams and retrieval charts. Emphasis will be placed on presentation, size/font and the use of colour.
Social Studies	N/A
Science	‘Amazing Animals’ – In this unit, children will learn how to recognise the characteristics of animals and to classify them into groups.
Physical Education	During our Tuesday and Thursday fitness lessons, we will focus on mixed relays, ball activities and skipping. Our winter team sports include hockey, soccer, touch rugby and netball.
Health	‘Healthy Eating’ is our topic for the term.
Technology	N/A
Maori	Our Maori study is linked to our ‘Amazing Animals’ unit. Children will be learning the names of animals in Maori.
The Arts – Visual Art	Our visual art is also linked to our unit. Children will make a paper animal collage.
The Arts – Music	Our Term 1 programme continues. Children are learning to sing in harmony and accompany a song with percussion instrument recognising the beat and rhythm.
The Arts - Drama	Children will continue to explore elements and techniques of drama, based our unit.
The Arts – Dance	Children will use elements of dance to describe dance movements from the Pacific Islands.

JUNIOR SYNDICATE Term 2 2010

Welcome back to the school. This term we will continue to work on our integrated unit “ Dinosaurs”. Our focus will be looking at the work of palaeontologists and how they discovered dinosaurs. Enjoy the rest of the term!

Religious Education

Prayer – Traditional Prayer – During this module, the children will learn some of the traditional prayers that have been handed down through the generations as part of the Catholic tradition, such as the Our Father, and Hail Mary.

Holy Spirit Strand – In their study the children will learn about God as the Holy Spirit and recognise the effects of the Holy Spirit in people’s lives.

God Strand – The children will recognise that God created the universe out of nothing, and keeps it in being.

They will identify that people are God’s unique creation made in love for love.

Mathematics

We begin the term with Measurement, where we will look at Length and Mass. We will then move on to Number, focussing on Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division. Our last unit for the term will be Geometry - two and three-dimensional shapes.

English – Reading

Classroom Programme

English –Writing

Personal Experience and Poetic (descriptive) writing will be our genre focus this term. Writing will be based on the ‘’Dinosaur’ topic.

English – Oral

The children are focussing on-

Speaking – to join in group and class discussions.

Listening – to listen and respond to others.

English – Visual

Viewing – The children will present a diorama of dinosaurs, depicting a scene of when they roamed on earth.

Social Studies

We will look at the role of Palaeontologists as part of our study on Dinosaurs, to gain an understanding of how the past is important to people.

Science

Our focus will be to look at how dinosaurs were placed in the food chain when they were alive, and explore the concept of Predators versus Prey.

Physical Education

We will be participating in ball games, with a special focus on developing specific ball handling skills.

Health

Our topic, this term, is ‘Road Safety’. We will focus on how to identify and describe obvious hazards on the road and demonstrate safety practices to help us keep safe.

Technology

N/A

Maori

This is linked to our music programme, where we will continue to practise learning and enjoying new and familiar Maori action songs.

The Arts – Visual Arts

Again, working with our current unit, we will be making dioramas, which illustrate what the world may have looked like when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

The Arts – Music

We will explore songs about Dinosaurs and build up a repertoire.

The Arts - Drama

N/A

The Arts – Dance

We will make links to our Dinosaur topic, exploring the concept of Predator versus Prey by focussing on the following skills:

Body Awareness – Non Loco motor and Loco motor movements.

Relationships – Individual, pair, group.

Space – Pathways and directions