We had a great week with our tamariki despite some challenging weather and the Cross Country and School Disco being postponed. We would like to thank you for your understanding.
Nuts / nut-based products at school
This is another reminder that the Kahikatea team has students with nut allergies, one of these is life-threatening. Therefore, we are asking that nuts and nut-based products are NOT brought to school by your child. Nut-based products include items like Nutella, peanut butter, muesli bars containing nuts etc.
The team is also aware that some children may have other dietary requirements. Please talk with your child’s Homegroup teacher if this is the case so that they are aware and we can create a specific plan to support your child if need be.
Our policy at school is that children only eat their own food and not share. Teachers are reminding children about this, along with reminders about handwashing and putting food wrappings in their lunch boxes to take home.
If you have any questions please contact your child's Homegroup teacher.
Thank you for your support as 'We Get There Together'.
Music unit
The children have been super excited and engaged with our Music unit, which has focused on various elements of music, and different types of musical instruments. Most tamariki have designed and made their own instrument and today finished these by decorating them. Children who have been absent due to illness will have an opportunity to work on this next week.
On Monday, there will be a percussion performance called 'Strike to School' at our kura. We will get to see how people use body percussion and handmade instruments to create music.
Cross Country
We have re-scheduled our Junior Cross Country event to be on Tuesday 16th May. Children will gather on the park at 2pm and the races will start shortly after, starting with Year 4 and finishing with Year 0/1.
Please feel free to come along and support your child/ren if you are able. Tamariki may wear their house tops on this day. Please ensure that they are wearing appropriate footwear.
Thank you for your support!
Learning Through Play
This term, we have continued to explore and engage in different activities for Learning Through Play, including water play, body movements with music, chalk art, drawing using Arts for Kids Hub videos, and so on. The children have had lots of fun!
It has been wonderful to see the children embrace being back at school this week after a slightly longer school holiday break. Over the past three days we have noticed children embracing 'We Love Learning' and 'We Love Challenging' as we settle back into our learning programmes.
Music & Technology Learning
Thank you to the many people who have collected their recycling and sent it our way! We will begin our Music and Technology unit next week. This unit will see us exploring how music is made, as children respond to elements of beat, rhythm, and tone. We will explore how different music makes us feel, as well as learn about some of the different families of musical instruments - wind, string, and percussion.
In Week 3, we have a group called 'Strike to Schools' coming to perform percussion instruments for us. We are very much looking forward to this!
During Week 4 we will design and construct instruments using our recycled materials. It would be really helpful if you could have a conversation with your child/ren about what they would like to make leading up to this to ensure that they have the materials for their instrument ready to go.
This is the slideshow that will be shared with children when we begin the Technology component of the unit.
Mathematics in Kahikatea
This week for maths, our students have been focusing on
using the statistical inquiry cycle. They have learnt about posing investigative
questions, deciding on how to collect data to answer questions, sorting objects
into categories for displays, making displays of data they have collected
(pictographs) and making statements about data displays.
How amazing is this photo of the giant graph that Krystal’s Homegroup
made? They read the book Greedy Cat and then created a pictograph of their
favourite coloured cats. They even recorded the data using tally marks!
We are all extremely proud of the hard mahi that our
students are displaying.
What a busy couple of weeks we have had! A highlight, of course, was our team trip to Ferrymead. It was a successful day, with our learners getting to experience a range of activities and transport themselves back to the 'olden days'. Another big thank you to our whānau helpers, you were wonderful.
Student Voice
"My favourite part was making an olden day toy."- Thalia
"We got to go on a tram! It was the only tram I've been on in my whole entire life that doesn't have walls!" - Neasa
"I liked the chickens, dressing up, and the river." - Sarah
"I liked the chickens 'cos they were fun to look at! My favourite thing to play with was the yo-yo." -Jace
"I liked having activities and the playground. I liked the horse toys and the skipping ropes." - Finn
"I liked the toy babies and the bikes!" - Maryam
"I liked the costumes!" - James
Home Spaces
On Thursday, we moved home spaces. Each teacher moved clockwise around the hub which means that:
- Katie's home group is in the Theatre
- Lisa and Quynh's home group is in the Atrium
- Krystal's home group is in the Breakout space
- Amber's home group is in the Nook
Making this move before the end of the term has allowed all of our learners to know where they will be when returning to school at the start of Term 2.
Uniform/ Lost Property
As summer draws to a close and Term 2 and 3 are ahead, sun hats are no longer a requirement at school. We will send home all hats on the last day of term. We will need them back at school for Term 4.
Over the holidays please ensure that all of the uniform items that belong to your child are clearly and accurately named. In some cases, there is a sibling's or previous owner's name on labels, which makes it tricky to reunite the items with their owner.
For Terms 2 and 3, your child is welcome to bring gumboots and jackets to school. We have shoe racks and clothing racks to use for these items. Please make sure these are also clearly named.
Innovation
We continue our focus on innovation into Term 2, where the main focus is going to be on following a design process to make an instrument. We will explore different types of music and instruments, listen to a live percussion performance, learn about the technology design process, and make our instruments.
We are looking for items to create these instruments with, such as...
- clean tin cans (with no sharp edges)
- clean plastic containers or bottles (not milk bottles)
- glass jars
- lids (tin or plastic)
- tissue boxes
- other small boxes
- cardboard tubes
- balloons
- thick cardboard
- rubber bands
Ferrymead Photos
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Reminders:
- Last day of school for Term 1 is Thursday 6th April
-The first teaching day of Term 2 is Wednesday 26th April
We encourage you to read through this Social Story before our trip next Friday.
Toys/Bag Toys and Lanyards
We have noticed a proliferation of bag toys, toys on lanyards and soft toys generally. Please remind your child/children that toys like these do not need to come to school. When they go missing children can become very upset and it can impact their ability to focus on their school day.
Thank you for supporting us with this request.
Learning Through Play
Our learning through play sessions are held on Monday and Wednesday afternoons and after morning tea on Fridays.
The amazing tamariki in team Kahiaktea have been demonstrating:
Friendliness
Resilience
Respect
Wall Displays in Team Kahikatea
Here are some of the display in our hub - come on in and check them out the next time you are at school!
Week 5 already! It is fabulous seeing all of our beautiful tamariki so settled into the Kahikatea Hub and doing some fantastic learning.
Nuts at school - Whānau notice
We are aware that the Kahikatea team has students with nut allergies. Therefore we are asking that if nuts/nut-based products aren't necessary for your child's lunchbox please consider not including them.
The team is also aware that some children have other dietary requirements and their diet may need to be nut-based, so will need nut products to be included in their lunch box.
When the term starts, the teachers will remind the children that at school we eat our own food rather than share with others, along with reminders about handwashing and putting food wrappings in their lunch boxes to take home. This will also include washing their hands after eating nuts to remove any potential residue.
If you have any questions please contact your child's Homegroup teacher.
Thank you for your support as 'We Get There Together'.
Word of the week
Our word of the week is RESPECT.
Respect means that you accept somebody for who they are, even when they're different from you or you don't agree with them. Respect in your relationships builds feelings of trust, safety, and well-being.
Math Focus
This week in maths, some of our learners learned about capacity and how different containers hold different amounts.
They estimated how many teddies/cubes would fit into different containers, they measured by filling the containers, and they counted the teddies/cubes to check how close their answer was to their estimate.
It was wonderful to hear the rich discussion about the best way to count the teddies. Depending on how big the pile was, sometimes they counted in 1s, skip counted in 2s, skip counted in 5s and when the pile looked enormous, they skip counted in 10s.
Spare Yarn
During Learning Through Play sessions, we would love to teach some children (who are interested) how to do finger knitting.
Finger knitting is a calming activity that has many benefits for young children. It builds dexterity and strength in those small muscles which control the hand, fingers, and thumbs. These same muscles are the muscles we use to write, so strengthening them is extremely important.
Finger knitting also encourages creativity (the creations students can make with their completed finger knitting are endless), hand-eye coordination, concentration, and perseverance.
In order for us to do this we need some yarn. It doesn't have to be a full ball (small amounts are welcome), or fancy (just regular is fine). The thicker the yarn, the easier it is for children to manipulate.
If you have some spare at home that you wish to donate, please bring it into the Kahikatea Hub.
Boxes and Containers
We would love clean boxes and containers for box construction. Children love constructing with boxes and containers and it is amazing to see all the creative creations that our tamariki come up with.
Don't fill your recycling bin with them - send them our way!
Literacy Videos
Your learner will have brought home a literacy pack in the last week. If you haven't received one, please get in touch with us.
We have recorded some videos to support our whānau with understanding what our literacy stages look like and what you can do to support your learner at home.
Click on the links below to access videos at your child's stage. There are two videos to look at.
If you have never had the opportunity to have a tour of the school, or if you would like another look at how the school works, we are offering a series of dates from Wednesday 15th to Monday 20th March. Our amazing School Ambassadors are looking forward to having the opportunity to show you around.
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