Kia ora, whānau,

We've had a wonderful fortnight, and once again, we've been very busy and our days have been full of fun.

Nicola and Chelsea's Home Groups have 'moved' over to Kōmanawa, where they are starting and finishing each day. Inbetween times, our Structured Literacy and Maths interchanges are still taking place. The children have embraced our new arrangements with typical flexibility and willingness! Teachers have been enormously impressed with the seamless and sensible way the children have moved between spaces, following the lead of one of their teachers whenever they need to transfer. Congratulations, tamariki - we are all very proud of you.

• correct pencil and pen grip
• finger strength and dexterity exercises
• core strength exercises
• tummy lying, with strong arms and straight legs, to help strengthen the shoulder girdle.

Our monkeys, Skip and Bounce, are always on the look out for those children who are putting great effort into their handwriting. Teachers are always thrilled to see children deliberately transferring their handwriting skills into their Structured Literacy lessons. 

Learning Through Play:

We are always delighted to see the different forms of play which the children engage in. Sometimes the children's play might relate to different curriculum areas (for example, Science and Technology) and sometimes the play might take the form of 'role play'. Some of the children have created a game called 'Puppy School'. This game continued throughout last week, and as the days went by, the children realised that they needed more and more resources for their game, including their own karakia and karakia kai, some toys for the puppies (bones and balls), some stickers (!), and a computer for the puppy teacher.

Structured Literacy Parent Meetings:

We hope that those of you who weren't able to attend one of these meetings held earlier in Term 1, either have (last Thursday) or are able to attend on either Tuesday (7:00 - 8:00 p.m.) or Thursday (9:00 - 10:00 a.m.) this week coming. These meetings are being run by Caroline Morritt, our Resource Teacher of Literacy. Caroline is a mine of information and is very happy to answer any questions which you might have. She is also able to refer you to specific youtube clips and websites which will be of enormous value to you, as your children are learning to read and write. Here is the link to the video of a child demonstrating the pure sounds for each of the letters of the alphabet. We have shared this before, but thought it might be of help for those parents of children who are newer to school.

Have a wonderful week to come everyone! 

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou,

Jo, Stacey, Nicola, Chelsea, Tracey and Elizabeth

Kia ora whānau,

We have had another very busy fortnight, with the children engaging in a range of learning experiences. 

We have explored Space during our Learning Through Play, with the children building spacecraft using a variety of equipment including boxes and tubes. We also followed the Space theme in our Maths, as each child worked with a friend to make up groups of ten astronauts. Each time a group of ten astronauts was formed, they were then able to climb aboard the spacecraft, and some children were even able to make up ten groups of ten astronauts, all of whom were then able to leave the spacecraft, and enter the space station. The children practised their skip counting in tens, and also learnt a great deal about place value as they worked out the number of astronauts in their space craft and added on those who were still waiting to enter the space craft.

The children have also been introduced to a new Maths game called 'Move and Prove'. In this game, they are given a statement, which might or might not be true. Children have worked out that they need to:

• think
• decide
• listen
• talk
• be able to say why they think what they think (we have used the words 'justify' and 'justification' when discussing the 'prove' part of the game).

Our big buddies supporting us on a Friday afternoon

Beautiful concentration here!

Having a great time together in the Gallery classroom.

Very happy to be visiting the Art Gallery.

One excited boy with his Dad on the bus!

Love that focus.

Beautiful use of colour.

Showing 'We Care'.

More lovely focus.

We look forward to finishing our art works and displaying them at school.

Great concentration.

This is going to be wonderful when finished.

Gorgeous attention to detail here.

Great work here too.

Carefully taking the tape from the black background paper.

Practising writing our Heart Words.

Providing friends and teachers with a small concert performance.

Viewing and discussing one of Ralph's works, Black Phoenix.

One of Ralph's works on narrow corrugated iron.

Noticing the way the work changes as you move past it.

Listening carefully for sounds in words.

Showing 'We Care' about our learning.

Getting ready to slide the sounds together.

 Kia ora, whānau,

A reminder to you all that Friday is our 'big day' out! We're off to the Art Gallery.

Please ensure that your children have their lunch, drink bottle and a change of clothing in their bags.

Also, please note that it will not be possible to order lunches that day.

We're looking forward with great excitement to our big day out, and thank you so much to those of you who have volunteered to come along and help us on the day.

Please note, that if you have volunteered to accompany us on this outing, your child will be bringing a note home for you, in their school bag tomorrow (Thursday).

Ngā mihi mahana,

Koru team teachers

Kia ora, whanau,

We are noticing some impressive independent behaviour in many of the children at drop off and pick up times each day. Some of the things that you can do to support your children's growing independence are:

• encourage your children to help to pack their own bags at home before school
• ensure that your children carry their own bags to and from school
• give your children verbal reminders, once they're at school and unpacking their belongings, but allow them to be responsible for this part of their daily routine.

 Kia ora ki te whanau,

A very warm welcome to all of our new children and their families, and welcome back to the children and their families who started with us in Term 1. We trust that the children have all had a wonderful holiday, enjoying family time together. We are really looking forward to getting to know all of our new children and families, and seeing new friendships blossom through this next term.

The children have had a marvellous first day (back) at school, and we're looking forward to a fun first week, and term ahead.

Our focus for this week is showing care and kindness towards others (especially towards those who are new to school), and showing respect and care for our equipment and the environment.

Bears, Bears, Bears!

We're also going to have a 'bear' theme this week, with 'We're Going On a Bear Hunt' and 'Bears in the Night' providing a framework for the children's play throughout the week. 

Although most of our Term 1 children have already had a Teddy Bear Day, we are going to have another Teddy Bear Day on Friday, along with a teddy bears' picnic (which will simply be the children's own lunches!). Please send (named, with your child's name) teddy bears to school on Friday. If your child doesn't have a teddy bear, they're welcome to bring their favourite soft toy instead.

Start and End of Day routines:

It's very helpful if you are able to say goodbye to your children out on the veranda each morning. You can encourage your children to take responsibility for their belongings by reminding them to unpack their own lunchboxes, drink bottles and reading folders, and then to store them in the right places once they're indoors. Likewise, at the end of each day, it is really helpful if you wait out in the courtyard where you can easily be seen by your child's home group teacher, so that teachers are able to farewell each child once you've been sighted. You are welcome to come inside if your child has something they would like to show you, once all of the children have been farewelled. Teachers will always endeavour to come out on to the veranda to catch up with you, after all children have been collected by parents or caregivers.

A reminder:

Please ensure that, once your child's Literacy folder starts coming home (again), and you've finished practising the letter cards and heart words with your child, the folder and its contents are returned to your child's school bag and come back to school every day. 

Here are some beautiful Day 1 photos, with the children engaged in a variety of activities during Learning Through Play - how lovely to see new friendships forming so quickly!

Have a great week, everyone, and we look forward to many learning adventures together throughout the term ahead.

Ngā mihi mahana,

Jo, Nicola, Chelsea, Stacey and Elizabeth