Kia ora e te whānau,

Welcome to Term Two, and a special welcome to our new tamariki and their whanau. It's a pleasure getting to know you all! 

We are looking forward to our visit to Ferrymead Historic Park next week. 

• Your child will need to wear their school uniform
•  A warm jersey or jacket
• A packed lunch, 
•  A drink bottle
• No lunch orders, please 

School Cross Country 

Fraction Fun (MATHS) 

Learning Through Play 

Word of the Week: Honesty 

Ferrymead Heritage Park - social story 

Here is the social story we have shared with our tamariki in the daily notices. You are welcome to go over it with your child/ren at home too. 

Book Character Dress-up Day 

Kia ora whānau,

As part of our readathon, we are excited to have a book character dress-up day on Friday, May 16th.

Students are invited to come dressed as a book character or, if they prefer, in their usual school uniform. It is not a casual clothes day.

Term 1 Week 5 

Nga mihi kia  koutou, 

Our little Kahikatea team is settling in nicely and we have maths and literacy programs underway. We have welcomed one of the Kowhai homegroups into the atrium space so you and your child need to use our East-side entry doors in the mornings. Bags can continue to be placed in either the green or blue cubbies.  

Professional Development Days 

Sarah and Amber are attending a two-day Literacy PD on Monday and Tuesday next week. 

Michelle Bradley will be relieving for Amber. 

Ellie Galletly will be relieving for Sarah. 

Walk and Wheel Week 

Next week our annual walk and wheel week is happening! Check out the Daily themes and Walk or Wheel website. 

Literacy 

Each child has their own literacy folder and if their teacher gives them a decodable book to read it must be placed inside their folder and then put into their school bag. If you can't see it please come into the hub and look in one of the three blue literacy boxes in the pathway. 

Please return the literacy folder each Friday. Thank you! If you have any questions, please ask your child's literacy teacher. 

Naming Items 

Thank you for clearly naming all your child's personal belongings, these include uniform items (hats, jerseys, shirts, school bag), and their drink bottle and lunchbox. 

Maths

Dear family and whānau, at school this week we are completing a maths unit on native frogs in ponds. This unit is all about how numbers are made up of other, smaller numbers, an essential concept underlying addition and subtraction. The unit helps develop two ideas: 

• there are a finite number of number pairs for a given number (for example 5 can be thought of as 0 and 5, 1 and 4, 2 and 3 and no other pairs can be found) 
•  numbers are uniquely paired (if 2 is one of the parts of 5, the other part must be 3). 

Children need to investigate these relationships many times. Once children believe that 2 and 3 is always 5 they see a real reason to remember it. 

At home this week please help your child to solve the inside and outside the house problem below. Encourage them to record the numbers and draw pictures to show people inside and outside. Toys could be used to show these number relationships. Discuss these in your home language also if you wish to. 

______________people live in my house. 

If there are 2 people inside my house then___________people are outside. 

If there are___________inside my house then__________people are outside. 

If there are____________inside my house then__________people are outside. 

If there are______inside my house then______________people are outside. 

Check out some very cool mathematicians!

Kahikatea Change Health Unit 

Library Days 

Talia and Amber go to the library on Tuesday afternoon 

Sarah goes to the library on Thursday afternoon.

 Kia ora whanau, 

Our heartfelt THANKS to all of you and your beautiful tamariki for helping to make a magic year here in Team Kahikatea. We appreciate all your support, help and aroha, and we couldn't have done it without you. 

Have a lovely Christmas and holiday time, and stay safe and well; we look forward to seeing many of you again in the new year. 

For those of you who couldn't make it to our Global Groove End-of-Year Performance, here are some photos of your super kids...

Class Placements 2025

Teachers will give out the class placement letters before the children meet their new teacher and home group friends. These letters will be put into your child's school bags. 

If your child was not here on the last day to receive their letter Jacky can arrange to email those letters to be emailed on WEDNESDAY. 

Have a safe and happy holiday everyone! 

Amber, Quynh, Ella, Sarah, Megan and Lisa 💜

Kia ora whānau, 

Here we are in Week 6, this term has been zooming along! A special thanks to those of you who assisted us during the swimming sessions in Weeks 3 and 5. The kids were all amazing due to the fantastic organisation and your support. We will have swimming again for Kahikatea and Kowhai in 2026. 

Upcoming events: 

• Celebrations Assembly - these will be every Friday at 10am until the end of the school year 

• Kapa Haka - Sarah and Ella's groups will resume weekly lessons with Whaea Kath. These are held in the school hall on Friday

• Whānau Thank You -  Friday 29th November 8.15am - 9am (invitations for this have already been sent out to whanau)

• Kahikatea End of Year Performance - Thursday 12 December 2-3pm (in the school hall) 

Transition Visits

Staying Safe Online

As young people become more independent online, they can connect and communicate with people they don’t know.

Often this is a positive experience, but sometimes your tamariki could be being groomed or talking to someone who isn’t who they say they are. Netsafe’s advice explains how unwanted contact works, including grooming and what whānau can do to educate kids.

Check out the link https://netsafe.org.nz/grooming-and-online-predators/

End of Year Performance 

We are learning two songs for our EOY performance. Please encourage your child/ren to practise! 

UNITY  & Seven Continents 

More Magic Swimming Moments

Nau mai haere mai

A reminder: 

There is a Staff Only Day on Monday 26th of August. 

The school will be closed that day.

______________

Maths Whanau Evening- Calendar Date

Calendar Art

check out our hub walls for our amazing calendar art on the walls

Class discussions- our tamariki have been playing an unkind game of Paper, Rock, Scissors where the winner slaps the loser's face. This is an unacceptable game and we have discussed the importance of looking after each other and keeping ourselves safe. Please feel free to bring this up with any class teachers if you are aware of this or any other unacceptable games and we can support our tamariki in making better choices. 

Uplifting our tamariki with a growth mindset

Learning Through Play with Cook Island Week- waka making and 'ei katu (flower crown or head garland) making. Fun hole digging, card playing, rock painting and a very special visitor called Mitzi.

Cyber Safety Information

The HDCA for Parents and WhānauThe Harmful Digital Communications Act (or HDCA for short) was passed by the Government in 2015 to help people dealing with serious or repeated harmful digital communications. It covers anything digital like text, emails or social media content.

The most useful thing for parents to understand about the HDCA is the way the 10 communication principles define what is good or bad behaviour online.

If you’re ever concerned about your young person (or you just want to brush up on your knowledge!) visit Netsafe’s Guide to the HDCA. 

Ka kite koutou from Team Kahikatea: 
Amber, Sarah, Ella, Quynh & Lisa