Welcome back everyone. We have had a great first week back and loved the 'hum' in the hub as the children chatted about their holidays. We are really looking forward to this term as we know the weather will only continue to get warmer as we head towards summer.

Athletics

At the moment we are currently teaching the children some basic athletics skills including discus, shot put, high jump, long jump and running (sprints and relays) each Thursday afternoon. During this time the children are being taught safe and effective techniques as well as perseverance, resilience and sportsmanship. Our whole school athletics day is a celebration of this learning which will be held on Monday 4th of November. Kōwhai team will begin at 11:50 am.

Hats / Drink bottles / Lunch

Just a reminder that all children need their hat at school EVERY day. Please check with your child to make sure they have their hat (clearly named) in their school bag. As the weather continues to warm up, it is really important for the children to stay hydrated. We will be providing regular 'Drink to Think' times during the day for the children to have some water. We would love your support with ensuring your child has their drink bottle at school.

Lunch and morning tea
Starting next week, the children will be keeping their lunch boxes inside their school bags as they often get the sunshine on the shelves when the weather warms up. We want to make sure the children's lunches are kept hygienic. To make it easy for them to access their morning tea, it would be really helpful if this was in a separate container for the children to put into their tote tray in the hub. Thanks so much.

Inquiry

This term, we are continuing to explore the concept, 'Innovation requires Creativity and has ethical implications'. Our main curriculum focus this term is Science with the children learning about electricity and circuits. Some of the Big Ideas we aim to teach this term include:
1. Electricity is a form of energy
2. Electrical energy can be generated in a number of ways
3. For electricity to flow through a circuit it needs to be closed.
4. There are different types of circuits (series, simple, parallel)
5. Switches can turn circuits off
The children will exercise thier creativity by being innovative with applying this knowledge to a gadget or toy. We look forward to sharing this learning as the term progresses.

TORCHES
One of our lessons requires the children to investigate how a torch works. If you have any old torches that you are happy for us to dismantle to discover how they work, please send them to school on Monday or Tuesday.

Music

This term the children are lucky to be able to receive specialist music tuition. Josie is continuing to teach recorder and will provide lessons for Rowe and Paulette's home group and Roger Hamilton is teaching Nick and Kate's home group ukulele. Our lessons are every Tuesday afternoon. We hope these lessons will inspire some of the children to learn a musical instrument next year.

Literacy- Speeches

At the moment most of the children are all in the process of writing a simple speech to share with their peers. We have provided the children with agency to choose their own topic to talk about. It's been wonderful to see the children so motivated and keen to share their expertise on a specific topic. The children will share their speeches in the hub over the next couple of weeks. Some children might want to practice their speech at home, and if so, will bring their cue cards home to do so.

Basic Facts

As a team, we are having a focus this term on basic facts. We have identified areas the children need to work on and are using Study Ladder and an app that Nick has created to support this learning. You might like to ask your child what skill they are working on and give them time to practice at home.

Discovery

We understand the importance of providing the children with agency and time to develop their communication, problem solving, leadership or cooperative skills, perseverance and risk taking. This term during our Discovery Time, the children will have the opportunity to learn how to programme (code) a sphero, gain art skills, learn some basic cooking/food preparation skills, and complete engineering tasks and challenges. Here are some of the children in action this week.

Dates for the Diary

28th October- Labour Day (school closed)
4th November- School Athletics Day
8th November- Whānau Rōpū Hui
13th November- CSO Big Bang Concert (Trip to the Town Hall)
15th November - Canterbury Show Day (school closed)
20th November- Training Band Concert

That's all for now
Kōwhai Teaching Team

Litter-Free School

This week, the Kōwhai students have been working hard to keep our school litter-free. Each home group has been involved in one of the daily clean-ups and we even have some students who have taken it upon themselves to scour the school for rubbish in their own time. We are really impressed with the wonderful difference the children are making to our environment.

Gymnastics

The children had a lot of fun and learnt some new gymnastics skills during our recent trip to the Christchurch School of Gymnastics. Here are some photos of our trip:

Recorder

This term Nick and Kate's home groups have been learning to play the recorder with Josie, our recorder tutor. The students have worked really hard and have learned to play several songs.

Paulette and Rowe's home groups will have the opportunity to work with Josie next term.

As part of our Keeping Ourselves Safe Unit, the Year 4 children are going to become chief babysitters for an egg! Yes an egg! The children will be responsible for the egg for up to four days and will have to take care of the egg at all times. The children can name their egg and create a bed or house for their egg. If the children want to leave their egg, they have to engage another person to egg-sit!

The aim of this activity is for the children to learn to look after themselves and others – a theme that comes through the KOS programme.

The children will hopefully get an appreciation of the hard work you do as parents!

This will be an egg-citing challenge, and an egg-ceptional week. I am looking forward to watching your children become responsible and egg-tremely great parents!

Thank-you for your co-operation!