Learning Conferences
What a pleasure to have had the opportunity to meet with all of you over our two days of learning conferences. Thank you for taking the time to come along. We appreciate this is a valuable time to share information and to build familiarity with you and your child/children.
If you were not able to make a time please contact your child's homegroup teacher.

Playground Development
The junior playground is currently under construction. There is an amazing team working on this and we are looking forward to seeing the final product!
Because of this our veranda area can be very congested at drop off and pick up time. You can support your child's/children's independence by waiting to meet them by the hall steps or the library veranda or by the flag pole at the end of the day. This will really help to reduce the number of people waiting near our entry and exit points.

Drop-off's and Morning Routines
As the new year starts and our tamariki are forming new relationships with their teachers and getting to know new friends we understand that your child/children may experience some difficulty saying goodbye in the morning. To support you and your child we encourage you to: 

• Be at school between 8.30 and 8.45. This will allow time for your child to complete their morning jobs and to settle into an activity or task
• Make contact with your child's home group teacher if you need support to farewell your child
• Support your child to find something to do. Often doing the same thing each morning with your child (e.g. a puzzle or reading a book together) is very reassuring
• Let your child know when you will say goodbye (e.g. in 2 minutes I am going to say goodbye, or after I have read a story, or when you've put your bag into the cubby. Sometimes a quick, positive "Have a nice day and I will see you after school" is a good way to share that presupposition and I know you will be fine.   
• Our tamariki appreciate routine and consistency. Establishing these routines and expectations early on is super helpful for everyone! The hub is often very busy with people coming and going and we appreciate you being mindful of the extra noise so many extra people in this space can make. 

Discovery Time
In team Kahikatea we run our discovery time slightly differently to Team Koru. During the first few weeks of school, we will be exploring learning through discovery most mornings and some afternoons.

Collaboration is an important feature of our teaching and learning programs. Your child's home group will often be working collaboratively with other home groups across the day and the week. We use the hub spaces flexibly and we encourage and support our tamariki to enjoy learning across the hub.

Kia ora whanau,
Parent helpers, please meet Jules and Amber in the Kahikatea theatre at 10.30am on Monday 16th December to go over the Safety Action Plan.

Kia ora Whanau,
We warmly welcome you to join us in the hall on Friday the 13th of December at 2.15.
We will have an end of the year celebration, performing our Sasa and singing Christmas songs and our dance group will perform.
All welcome. Meet us in the school hall.

Athletics

Our school athletics days is on this Monday, 4th November.  Please remember to send your child to school with:

• A sunhat
• running shoes
• leggings or shorts
• house t-shirt
• drink bottle

We will have three rotations and these will run from 11.50 - 12.40.
We will resume again at approximately 1.40pm (Kahikatea sprints)
At 2pm the whole school will gather to watch senior sprints and house sprints (2.45)

Throwing

Long Jump

Relays

Long Jump

Christchurch Symphony Orchestra Concert

All of our tamariki were given notices to bring home about this exciting trip which will take place on Wednesday the 13th of November.
The orchestra will be performing a range of classical music and some modern pieces. 
While this is a free event, the school needs to cover the cost of buses to transport us to and from the town hall. A contribution of $4.50 from whanau would be appreciated. This can be made at the office or via your school account.

Our Korero Corner this week.

Games, books and activities

Can you recognize these shapes? Can you name them in Maori? Can you name the parts of your tinana (body)?

We are currently working with our Resource Teacher of Literacy to best target the reading needs of a number of our students. Through observations, we have noticed that some of our readers have not yet made the firm connection between letters and sounds (the alphabetic code).
This is an essential skill for learning to read. We are therefore strongly focusing on letter-sound relationships during reading lessons with some of our children who need it. In order to reinforce the connection we are using decodable texts. Almost every word in these books can be sounded out if unknown. As the books are not rich in vocabulary or sentence structure, it would be very beneficial if you could read to your child to continue to expose them to age appropriate language.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask.
Other games and activities that would help your child make letter-sound connections are: 
I-Spy (using the letter sound and the letter name)
Snap or Memory using the words from the books on small cards
Play 'name 3 things' that start with/end with...
Our glue stick supply is running very low. If you have a glue stick at home please send to school for our tamariki to use. These will be gratefully received!
We have been super impressed by the amazing performances by our tamariki. Look at these gorgeous kids...