Week 6 Term 2 Newsletter

Kowhai Team Newsletter Friday 10th June

Hi Everyone,

We hope that you all had a a great, although slightly longer than normal, Queen's Birthday weekend. It was wonderful to be welcomed by so many smiley faces on Wednesday! We have had an action packed week with the children playing in a mini hockey tournament on Wednesday and participating in the Matariki Day yesterday. The children have been highly engaged in their learning and asking LOADS of questions to extend their thinking. As it was a short week this week, so there was no Home Learning but we are back to normal next week with our nightly reading, maths and spelling.


Matariki Connect Session - South Learning CentreTo continue our learning about Matariki, the children are booked in to a session at the South Learning Centre with one of the tutors. They will learn how  to create a porotiti (spinning disk and string game) and use the ipads to take a virtual tour around a marae and whare. As the Learning Centre is so close to school, the children will walk down. Each hub will need some parents to assist them on these trips. Unfortunately we were only offered four sessions, so on this occasion, Hub 7 has been split to enable them to attend the sessions too. Letters will come home closer to the time of each hub trip.
These are the dates for your diary.

Tuesday 14th June- Hub 8 and 6 children from Hub 7
Tuesday 21st June - Hub 9 and 5 children from Hub 7
Thursday 30th June - Hub 5 and 5 children from Hub 7
Thursday 30th June - Hub 6 and 5 children from Hub 7


InquiryOur team has been learning about the weather. We have been investigating why the seasons change, the impact of weather on our environment with a particular focus on the water cycle. We have conducted many experiments to help us learn these science concepts. These science investigations have required us to make predictions, conduct experiments and discuss our findings. Over the next few week we will dig deeper into this topic by investigating the impact of weather on animals and humans, with a closer look at how the weather directly affects us. All our findings and learnings will be on display in the School Science and Technology Fair. The Science Fairs opens on Monday 4th July, 5.30pm - 7pm. We hope you can all come along.

Cross Country - Next Week
Over the past few weeks we have been training for the Kowhai Team Cross Country. The Cross Country is this Thursday 16th June. Our races will start at 11.30am and will follow this order.
Year 3 Girls, Year 3 Boys
Year 4 Girls and conclude with the Year 4 Boys.

Individually the children have been setting personal goals to work towards. These have ranged from being positive about running, improving the distance we can run or increasing our running stamina by running further each time. This year the top six runners in each race will have the opportunity to compete against other schools in our local area in the Year 0-4 Cross Country Challenge at Hillview School. We are aiming to be fierce competition!

Drink Bottles and LunchesWe have noticed that we still have some children that need to bring drink bottles to school. Water is important to keep the children hydrated and it is best if ALL children have a drink bottle at school, especially on wet days.We have also noticed an increase in the amount of food that the children are eating. Some children are eating much more than normal and at times have eaten MOST of their food by the end of the the first break. Can you take the time to ask your child if they have enough food to eat or if they need some more in their lunchbox. Thanks!

Art Gallery TripTo conclude the term, we have a trip to the Christchurch Art Gallery planned in Week 10. We will need parent help for this trip and will send home letters two weeks before. For those of you who need more time to enable you to parent help, the days and hubs are as follows:

Hub 8 and 9 - Tuesday 5th July
Hub 5/6/7 - Thursday 7th July

We hope you all have a great weekend.

Kowhai Teaching Team




Term 3 Week 8 Newsletter



Science Alive

Just a reminder that Science Alive! is visiting next week. The dates and times are as follows:

Hub 4 - Tues 15th Sep 11:00 - 12:30
Hub 3 - Tues 15th Sep 1:30 - 3:00
Hub 2 - Wed 16th Sep 11:00 - 12:30
Hub 1 - Wed 16th Sep 1:30 - 3:00


Please be aware that this will inevitably interrupt our normal learning programme so your child may not receive a book to read at home on that day.

Inquiry

Our Inquiry this term is focusing on looking forward and, specifically, modern learning environments, looking at both indoor and outdoor spaces. We will be creating our own idea of what a modern learning environment should look like which ties in nicely with our Science Alive visit.  


Breakfast

As you will know, it is very important to start the day with a good breakfast so that we can focus on our learning. If you are having any issues concerning your child eating breakfast then please do let us know. Please do also let us know if your child needs to have breakfast at school and then you can send it to school with them and they will be given the opportunity to eat it here.



Anna Away 

Anna (Hub 1 and 2) will be away from Monday to Wednesday next week as she is attending her daughter's school camp. We are lucky to have the wonderful Nadine Luscombe filling in for her. She has been relieving in Hub 1 and 2 regularly so she knows all the children and the routines. There should therefore be minimal disruption to the learning programme. 

Art Exhibition

We are approaching the final stages of our very big printing project and the results are looking amazing, as you will have seen in last week's newsletter. Thank you so much to all the parents who have been helping out with this. Your support is invaluable and we would not have been able to complete our artwork without you.









   

Term 3 Week 3 Newsletter

Printmaking

We have started our printmaking and have been designing a symbol or picture that represents ourselves and/or what we like. We have now got to the stage where we are creating the cardboard templates which we will use to make our prints with. Here are some photos of the process so far:

Coming up with some different design options:




Choosing one design and making a simple, larger version of it:




Creating the cardboard templates and trying them out by making some crayon rubbings:




Next week will get stuck into the actual printing. How exciting!

Gymnastics

Gymnastics is still happening every Monday although our time slot has changed to the beginning of the afternoon instead of the end. Please remember to send your children to school in appropriate clothing for gymnastics. If your child is wearing socks or tights, there will be time given for him/her to remove them before we start.


Supplies

We are running short of glue sticks and pencils and would be extremely grateful if you could each bring in 1 more big glue stick and 2 pencils so we can last until the end of the year. Also, if you have any spare plastic shopping bags and old newspaper, we would love to stock up on these too. Thank you so much.




Parent Help

We would love to have your help in the hub if you are able to come along and join us. Please let a teacher know what time suits you. Thanks!

Spellathon

Your child will have brought their Spellathon card home today. Spellathon takes the place of our normal spelling programme so please focus on the Spellathon cards until Friday 21st August. Here is the timeline for these cards:

  • Friday 7th August - Cards go home and children find sponsors
  • Monday 17th August - Cards returned to teachers
  • Friday 21st August - Testing and cards taken home to gather sponsorship money
  • Friday 28th August - Cards and money returned to school