Kia ora e te whānau,
Welcome to Week 8! Time is flying in the Kōwhai hub, and our days remain packed with energy, learning, and discovery. As Term 3 draws to a close, our students continue to be fully engaged and working hard right up to the finish line.
Life Education
Harold the giraffe continues to inform and entertain our tamariki in the Life Education bus. The Kōwhai team have all attended our first session, with the second session focusing on interpersonal relationships coming up in Week 9. This programme complements the friendship lessons that we are currently teaching in class. With the aid of some wonderful friendship books from our library, we have facilitated some great discussion and reflection on what it is to be a good friend.
Hip Hop Dance Lessons
We continue to enjoy learning and practising our hip hop dances in our home group classes. We are improving each time and are having fun along the way. We had planned to perform our dance at the end of Term 3. This has now been moved to the beginning of Term 4; more information about this will be communicated soon.
Kapa Haka Performance
A reminder that in Week 10, the Kōwhai team will be performing at assembly. Our tamariki have been working hard to put in the final touches on our performance and have worked hard to learn waiata. You are welcome to attend the Celebration Assembly in the hall at 10:00 am. We look forward to seeing you there to support our tamariki.
Maths In Action
Maths is fun when we can apply it in the real world. At the moment, all children in Kōwhai are learning and practising our measurement skills. We are enjoying measuring the length, weight, and capacity of classroom items as well as learning to tell the time, with lots of hands-on activities involved.
Privacy and Social Media
Actively managing your tamariki’s privacy settings on the social networks they use can go a long way towards keeping control of their personal information.
Any information that is easily available online, whether it’s an email address, date of birth, or pictures, could end up causing harm if it gets into the wrong hands.
To help you navigate privacy on social media, Netsafe has put together a guide on How to Use Privacy Settings on Social Networks.
Learning Languages: New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL)
We have been working hard in Term 3 to learn the basics of New Zealand Sign Language, which has been a good challenge and lots of fun! We are very lucky to have two members of the deaf community visiting us in the Kōwhai hub next week to talk to us about NZSL, deaf culture and the importance of being inclusive and respectful of different ways of communicating.
Beckenham’s Got Talent
The final of Beckenham’s Got Talent is fast approaching!
The Kōwhai team have held the semi-final auditions and have narrowed performances down to five acts. Next week, they will put on a whole hub performance where we will choose the top three acts to go through to the whole school show in Week 10. We certainly have some talented tamariki in our midst!
Heritage Day: A Message From The Student Council
On September 18th, next Friday, the Student Council has organised a Heritage Day to celebrate our diverse cultures.
Children are invited to come to school dressed in something to represent their family's heritage. This could be a costume, something special about the country, or simply wearing the colours from the country's flag. Please bring a gold coin for Big Brothers and Big Sisters.
Big Brothers Big Sisters is an organisation that helps children and young people build confidence, resilience and positive relationships through mentoring. The programme matches young people with caring adult or older-youth mentors who spend regular time together, talking, sharing activities and simply being there. These supportive relationships can make a real difference to a young person’s sense of belonging, self-confidence and ability to navigate life’s challenges.
Have a great weekend!
From the Kōwhai team