Hi everyone

This is our calendar art for Kate's home group. Kiwiana inspired drawings with colourful painted backgrounds. Feel free to come in and check it out! We have worked so hard and are very proud of our creations.

Welcome back!
We would like to welcome three new children to or team Jaiden, Jenna and Audrey who have joined the Kōwhai Team this term. It has been great to see our new children making friends and it is hard to believe they have just started.

Kōwhai Kid of the Week
Each Friday as part of our team hui, we will be identifying children who have been leaders in the hub, living our school values consistently during the week. These children will be able to make pizza on a Friday for their lunch. If your child is a 'Kōwhai Kid of the Week' they will bring home a certificate  (see below) and we will send an email to the parents to let you know. All you need to do is to provide pizza toppings for your child's pizzas. We will make the dough at school and provide the sauce base. The children were really excited to learn about this today!


DMIC- Maths
Our focus at the moment is on learning about fractions. The children have been working in their DMIC groups solving fractions of numbers. Each Friday we are providing the children with the opportunity to participate in Fraction Workshops. These lessons extend the skills and knowledge that the children currently have enabling them to have a stronger skill-based when working on group problems. It has been impressive to see the children's' understanding grow each week. This week we provided workshops on:
1. Basic Fraction Knowledge- How to read, write and represent 1/2,1/4, 1/3, 1/5 etc.
2. Ordering Fractions
3. Finding the fraction of a number, e.g., What is a 1/4 of 24?)
4. What is a proper and improper fraction?

Here is a cool website with fraction games.

Discovery- Learning through Inquiry
We are lifting the level of thinking and learning this term during our Discovery sessions and it has been exciting to see the children really challenging their thinking when learning during this time. The children have been learning about electrical circuits, how to create stop motion animations, using the sewing machine to make clothing, playing and creating new sports to name a few. This component of our programme not only gives the children agency to explore and learn about personal topics of interest but provides opportunities to problem solve, work and cooperate with others, take risks by trying new things and how to self-manage, to name a few skills. Here are some of the children this week.








Inquiry- WEARABLE ART
Next week we will be beginning to introduce our Wearable Art Inquiry. The children will be learning about the wearable arts, what makes them innovative, how people can communicate their creativity through wearable arts and how wearable art could be an ethical option in the future. If you have any items that might be of use for our inquiry (he children will be designing and making their own wearable art), please feel free to send items to school. We will be sharing our learning with you in Week 7 this term, with a performance in the hall.

Calendar Art
This week we have all been exercising our creativity by producing incredible artworks for our calendar art. We will have these on display in our hubs and will send out a blog post showcasing what we have created next week.

PE- Gymnastics
As Term 3 is often wet, our focus for the first half of the term is on gymnastics. Each Thursday afternoon, the children are participating in a variety of gymnastics activities aimed to develop coordination, balance, confidence and control of movements. At the end of this scheme of learning, we will go to the Christchurch School of Gymnastics. A notice about this trip will be sent home closer to the time,

PTA Cheese Rolls
On Monday, the children will be bringing home order forms for cheese rolls. This is another one of our amazing fundraising activities organised by our incredible PTA. It would be great to have as many people supporting this as possible. The cheese rolls are DELICIOUS!

Kapa Haka
This term, we have started our own Kōwhai Team Kapa Haka as Sherrilee is working predominately with Pōhutukawa and Kauri due to her availability. This has provided us with the opportunity to provide all of our tamariki with the opportunity to perform in a Kapa Haka group. Over the past two weeks, we have been learning the role of Kapa Haka and what skills you learn through performing as a group. Over the past two weeks, the children have been learning two waiata;
ehara e te mea and Tōia Mai
We hope to share our learning with you all later on in the term.

That's all for now
Have a great weekend ahead
Kōwhai Teaching Team

It is hard to believe that the end of the Term is now upon us. We have been so fortunate to have been blessed with such wonderful weather this term as this has enabled our tamariki to play outside.

Over the past couple of weeks, the children have been having a focus on the arts in the afternoons. This has seen the children exercising their creativity in many different ways including; pastel art based on Wassily Kandinsky's Circles, paintings depicting Diane Adam's contemporary work and shadow art using mixed media paint and paper. Children have also created their own characters out of salt dough, some based on characters from the famous series 'Moomins'. Children also had fun doing drama role plays and skits using journal stories and plays. What a fantastic term we have had! Some of the artwork is still displayed on the walls in the hub so please feel free to come to check it out.



Rocket Maths
This term, Kate and Dorinda have provided an extra maths session to boost the maths knowledge and ability of some of our students. This has involved the children in having 3 extra fun maths sessions each week. We have noticed a HUGE improvement in the confidence of some of these students when solving DMIC problems and stronger number knowledge.
If you would like to give your child extra maths basic facts practise, you can use this website as it has a lot of great drill activities.
Maths Playground is another great website with great games to develop maths skills.
If you have any questions about your child and maths, feel free to drop in and see one of us as we would be more than happy to help out!

Hillview Cross Country
We sent 12 children to the Hillview Cross Country on Tuesday. We were highly impressed with the wonderful behaviour that our students demonstrated. They all showed the school value, 'We Love Challenge'. It was great to see the children pushing themselves to achieve their personal best. Well done to all those who participated.



Next Term
Rowe is away for the first week next term, as she is having an exciting adventure white water rafting through the Grand Canyon. Dorinda will continue to teach in the hub in her absence.

Wearable Arts/ Innovative Inventions
We have a variety of fantastic learning planned for next term. The children will be involved in creating some cool wearable arts or innovative inventions as part of our inquiry learning. If you have some cool items that could be used for this (ducting pipes, foil, cellophane, clothing etc), feel free to bring the items in. There will be an evening show for you to view these creations in the latter half of the term.

Gymnastics
For PE, next term, the children will participate in a gymnastics unit here at school on a Thursday afternoon. For these sessions, the children do need to have bare feet. It would be advisable for the girls to not wear tights on this day. We hope to go to the school of gymnastics at the conclusion of this learning.



Music/Dance
Next term, the children will be participating in music and dance lessons each Tuesday afternoon. We are going to use the afternoons to develop a dance sequence to support our wearable art/ innovative inventions showcase. Josie Stanford, who is one of our itinerant music teachers is going to be conducting recorder lessons from week 5 for the children in our team. We are really excited to be able to provide this opportunity for our children. As she won't be able to teach all the children this term, she will continue her programme into Term 4, so all children have lessons with her.

Ear Buds
If your child has a set of earbuds that they can bring to school next term, that would be great. This will enable them to listen to the audio on the ipads or chromebooks.

That's all for now
Kōwhai teaching team

Sensory Spelling

Hi everyone,

Wow! What a change in temperature this week! We have been so happy to have the underfloor heating on!

Learning Conferences

Please remember that learning conferences are being held next week on Tuesday 11th June and Thursday 13th June. School will finish at the earlier time of 2 pm on both days to allow for the learning conferences to take place. These conferences are an opportunity for you to meet with us to discuss your child’s current achievements and their next steps for learning.

If you would like your child to stay at school between 2 pm and 3 pm on one or both of those days please fill in this google survey so we can plan ahead.

We are looking forward to sharing your child's progress with you!

ART

The children have been busy creating wonderful artworks this week. Rowe and Kate's home groups created Kandinsky Circles and Dorinda's home group painted some Diane Adams inspired art while Nick's home group made some incredible silhouette art.  Here are some examples.

Lunchtime Activities

We are so lucky to have many innovative thinkers in our team. Over the past few weeks, a group of students have provided an activity table for children at lunch. They have provided crafting, drawing and origami to name a few. Look at them having fun!

Phonics/Word Study

One of our word study groups has been using a multi-sensory approach to help them learn how to spell some of their high-frequency words. One of the activities has seen them making words with clay which has helped their visual memory. In each session, they need to create and read the words. We have noticed a huge improvement with their retention of these spelling words.

PTA DISCO

The PTA is having their annual Disco, next Friday 14th June. The children in our team have the option of going to either the NE-Y3 disco from 4.30pm-5.30pm  or the Y4-6  disco from 6pm-7pm. This is a really fun event and we are so appreciative of the PTA for organising it.

Up and Coming Events

11th and 13th June- Learning Conferences. School closes at 2pm on these days.
15th and 16th June- Pūkaki Working Bee Let Jacky at the school office know if you can come along and help.
21st June- Shortest Day Breakfast. Come in your PJs and have breakfast at school. Bring along your own plate and spoon and have some yummy breakfast in the hall. The breakfast is being provided by and served by our wonderful PTA.
2nd July- Y0-4 Cross Country. This is for the children who placed in the top 3 at our school cross country.

That's all for now. Have a wonderful weekend ahead!
Kōwhai Teaching Team