Kia ora whānau,

What a busy couple of weeks we have had! Everyone is fully ensconced in their learning now and working really hard.

Discovery

For Discovery, we have had the opportunity to do gardening with Charlotte, working in the garden behind our hub, weeding and picking all the juicy, ripe apples. Some of the children have put their heads together alongside Charlotte and Sonya and they have come up with some wonderful ideas for creating more outside play options in the garden. Charlotte would love donations of:

• Old trucks and cars, large and small  
• Old bowls 
• Old trowels and sand pit toys 
• Old bowls, pots, muffin trays and so on

Maths

Reading

Just a heads up that we have started sending reading books home with some children at the end of each week, depending on their reading level so it would be great if you could read with your child at home and then remember to bring the books back again. If your child is in a higher group (Stage 7 and above), they may not be given take a book home. In this case, we would encourage them to read a book of their own choice. Thank you so much for your support with this!

Writing

We are just launching into a new focus for writing, creating slideshows on various topics. The children are really excited about it!

Art

For art, we are still working hard on our self-portrait collages and we are nearing completion. Here are some examples of our creations so far.

Kete Certificates

Congratulations to this week's Kete certificate recipients!

Learning @ Home

Finally, a reminder that if you are needing to access the Learning @ Home site, it is on the school website and there is a link on the left hand side under the photograph. Alternatively, here is a link straight to the Kōwhai site. You will find a wide choice of activities in all curriculum areas. Some are online activites but there is also a range of activities that can be done offline.

Have a great weekend! 

Kia ora whānau,

We are now well settled into the school routine again and we are so impressed by the way everyone has been wearing their masks. Ka pai, everyone!

Over the last 2 weeks, we have gradually started getting into our regular learning, delving into geometry for maths, focussing particularly on 2D and 3D shapes, and introducing free writing and reading groups. 

Have a look at some of the shape patterns some of the children have been making in maths:

For art, we are creating collage self-portraits and to begin with, we have been practising drawing ourselves. We are going to be using scrap material, magazines, patterned paper, ribbons, crepe paper straws and many more materials to create these masterpieces which we are calling, "Sustainable Me!" Here is an example from one of our practice sessions:

Every Friday this term, the children will be going to Kapa Haka with Whaea Cath and they will get the opportunity to learn a special karakia and the Kōwhai haka. At the end of Term 1, they will then have the option of continuing in the Kapa Haka group for the rest of the year if they want to. We have been going in our homegroups for 20 minutes at a time and while a homegroup is at Kapa Haka, the remainder of us have been focussing on circle time and wellbeing. We are currently looking at Te Whare Tapa Whā and getting the children to think about how they, for example, look after their physical wellbeing, their spiritual wellbeing and their emotional wellbeing.

As we are unable to have full school assemblies, we have decided to have a weekly team hui in the hall instead. At these hui, we are celebrating birthdays, learning clapping songs and handing out Kete Certificates. This gives the children a chance to get together and celebrate in a setting where there's plenty of room to space out! This week's Kete Certificate recipients were Lilly, Levi, Jaxon, Ben, Paige, Tom B, Julia, Adele, Nelly and Arlo. Congratulations!

Yesterday, during Discovery, we were lucky to be given a concert by Erina on her cello. She had quite a captivated audience. Thank you for your beautiful playing, Erina!

We have also been having a bit of a tower building competition during Discovery. Here are a couple of

photos of a wooden block tower versus a plastic cup tower.

Our apple trees behind Tahaki have been thriving this year and producing a lot of apples so some of the

children had the privilege of stewing some apples with Sonya, out wonderful teacher aide. You can see

that they were delighted with the experience!

Finally, just a few reminders:

• Could you please make sure your child brings a polar fleece to school every day as it can be quite cold at times. Thank you!
• Home group library days are as follows: 
• Monday = Nick and Rowe
• Tuesday = Anna
• Wednesday = Charlotte and Quynh
• Laura is in for Rowe every Friday so if you have something you need to share on this day then please communicate directly with Laura.

 Kia ora whānau,

Welcome back to school! We have had a great first couple of days back getting to know each other and enjoying discovery and water play among lots of other activities. We hope you have a wonderful long weekend. 

Here are some photos from our first 2 days:

 Kia ora whānau,

Welcome back to school! We have had a great first couple of days back getting to know each other and enjoying discovery and water play among lots of other activities. We hope you have a wonderful long weekend. 

Here are some photos from our first 2 days:

 Kia ora whānau, 

We have had a lovely week in Kōwhai this week. It is great to have the weather becoming nicer, so we can do more activities outside. 

It was fantastic to see so many caregivers at our Student Led Conferences. It feels like it has been a very long time since you were in the hub. We loved having you back in and being able to chat with you about your tamariki, the year they have had and any wonderings about next year. 

During Week 5, 6 and 7 the student leaders have been leading House Games on a Thursday at 12pm. It is a great opportunity for our tamariki to get together with their houses and play a variety of team games. 

Kapa Haka

Next week we will be filming our Kapa Haka performance to share with you. If your child is part of Kapa Haka please make sure they are wearing their correct red uniform top on Thursday. 

Here are some pictures of some of the activities we have been doing in the hub over the last few weeks. 

Have a lovely weekend.

The Kōwhai team