Category Archives: Kowhai

Kowhai News 4th August

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Image result for head lice clip artHi everyone,

Our news for this week.

Head lice
We have have had a couple of children who have had head lice over the past week. Please make sure that you have a look at your child's head to ensure these little critters have not decided to set up camp! Remember, once a head has been treated it is important to keep checking for eggs as they are sneaky creatures and it only takes one egg to start the cycle again. we highly recommend girls having their hair tied up and have discussed the importance of keeping heads apart while at school!


Inquiry- Changes
This term, our inquiry focus is on the concept of change. This ties in really well with the team moving into our new learning space. The children have been identifying the different types of change and how many things stay the same when changes occurs.
On that note, we would like to reassure you that we have continued with the same systems and groupings as last term to ensure consistency for the children. Although we are in a big space with five classes, the learning processes are still the same. Each child is in a target learning group for reading, writing and maths and these groups have been created based on the learning needs of the children. We have been working with our home groups for inquiry and  PE and start and finish in these groups too.
Over the next couple of weeks, we will be exploring how changes can occur in our body and what we need to do to ensure we keep ourselves healthy. The children will be learning about the importance of food, water, sleep, exercise and how we can look after our teeth and body by taking care of it and keeping it clean.

Inspiration Stations
Our focus over the past couple of weeks has been on using SOLO or help direct our thinking during Inspiration Stations time. SOLO is a tool that we use to help us deepen our thing and understanding about learning and work on our next steps. This week has seen the children being agents with their learning by exploring the organs, creating observational sketches and constructing body parts with Lego.


Parent Help Needed
We still need the assistance of some wonderful parents to help support some of our class programmes during the week.
Library- Each fortnight, each home room will have the opportunity to go the the Christchurch South Learning Centre to have a session with one of the children's librarians. As our library is unavailable this term, this will also provide the children with the opportunity to get books out. Please let us know if you would like your child to join the library.

Thorrington Rest Home- We need the help of a /some parents to walk down to Thorrington Rest Home each Friday. The children leave school at 10.30am and return to school at 11.40a. Please add you name to the parent help roster if you can assist us.

Pizza Making- Each Friday, the children have the opportunity to make pizzas. If you can help us with this, please add your name to the part helper roster. This is from 10.45am- 12pm.

Short Films Festival- We have been lucky enough to be asked to the Isaac Theatre Royal on Thursday 17th August to watch a variety of short films as part of the International Film Festival. This is a morning outing. Please let your point of contact teacher know of you can help.

Parent Help Link

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




Welcome Back! Tuesday Term 3

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Dear whanau,

We are looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow morning and hearing about all the wonderful things the children have been up to over the holidays.  Our new hub is all set and ready to go and we are feeling very excited to welcome you and the children in.

Access to the Buildings
There is still construction work which is limiting the access to some of the buildings this term. The children will be able to enter school from:
1. The Sandwich Road gate near the West Hub (by the bike racks) and walk up the park access road or enter at the old Dental Clinic entrance.  
2. Norwood Street entrance and walk up the park access road.
3. Eastern Tce and walk up the pathway near the ponds. 
There will be two teachers outside at the beginning of each day this week to guide you to the right place and show the children their new routines.  

School Items
The only items that your child will need at school tomorrow for their learning are:
1. Home learning folder
2. Drink bottle
3. Warm jersey or waterproof jacket.
Please remember that toys, fidgit spinners or trading cards are to stay at home.

We will be working in our Home groups tomorrow across the hub. Each teacher will have a box for the children to put their home learning folders into by a teaching station. This will also be where the children will start and end the day. Drink bottles are to be kept on the shelves on the outside of the hub. 

Bags and Shoes
Susan, Rebekah and Anna's children can put their bag and shoes on the park side of the building and Paulette and Mike's children can put their bags and shoes on the other side of the building (old staffroom side).

Shoes and Change of Clothes
As the hubs are shoe free please can the children bring a spare pair of named socks to school in their bag. This will replace the need for slippers. The children can keep their spare socks either inside their tote trays or school bags. 
Due to the very wet weather of late, we also actively encourage your child to wear gumboots to school on wet days. If your child likes to play football or games on the grassed areas, please make sure they have a spare pair of old shoes and clothes to change into at school as the park is extremely boggy at present. 

Food Breaks
This term we are trialing not having healthy food in the middle of the first block, so there is no need to send along a separate item of food.  It will be important for the children to have a good breakfast each morning so they feel satisfied until morning teatime. This term the children will be having morning tea at approximately 10:20am each day and then going out to play afterwards.  Lunch will be at the same time of 1.10pm and will follow the play / eat/learn routine.

There is a noticeboard that we will have on the outside of the hub (park side)  with anything you may need to know about the day ahead. We will send home a more detailed newsletter outlining the programme later on in the week.

Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow.
Kowahi Teaching Team

Kowhai Team Update Week 8

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Hi everyone,
It is hard to believe we are in the final weeks of the term! This week has been particularly exciting with the first of our team having the opportunity to be working in our new learning spaces and the exciting cross country event yesterday.

New Learning Spaces
Our whole team visiting the new building.
Hub 5/6 moved over to the new building on Thursday and will be based here until the end of the term. As a team, we are really excited to be able to work in this space. So, over the next two weeks, everyone will have time to work in this space to give our tamariki a 'taste' of what will will be like next term when we move into our new building.
As part of our circle time discussions across the team, we have been talking about the concept of change in preparation for the move. We have discussed our thoughts and feelings when we experience change and how many things continue to remain the same. With that in mind, although the space will be different, all our routines will continue as they currently are. These circle time sessions will continue to provide the children with the opportunity to ask any questions they have about our new learning spaces. As a teaching team, we are really excited about the opportunities that working together will provide and having a team of teachers supporting and caring for each of our students is really exciting!

Learner Agency
Sewing spare bags for the library.
As a school, we believe that the most powerful learning occurs when it is driven by students. This is often referred to as self -directed learning or student agency. Student Agency is about the student being the "agent" (or "person with an active role" in learning) rather than the teacher. When students connect to their passions and interests, they have a greater stake in what they are doing as they are creating, doing, sharing, collaborating, and publishing their learning in ways that are meaningful to them.
We promote agency in many different ways across our team and this, like our learners, can look different as we all have differing learning styles, skills and knowledge. At the Year 3-4 level, our role is to discuss learning steps related to our observations and assessments and encourage our students to make choices about how they can work on new learning goals.
Here are some children demonstrating agency by completing a variety of learning tasks:
Working independently
Working collaboratively in a group.
Creating our own art that communicates a school value.

Agency in Literacy - In Hub 5/6, four reading groups have been trialing a 'Literacy' time. In this learning block the children have been reading articles related to our inquiry around the environment and how environmental change occurs. The groups have then been encouraged to produce writing based on their reading. The children are being encouraged to decide what type or genre of writing they want to produce and then given scaffolding and support to create their work.




Agency in Maths - Having agency in maths is about children taking charge of their learning and having a growth mindset. This means that they have the skills to persevere with new learning and are able to ask questions and try different ways to solve a problem. We never say, "We can't do do that." Instead we say, "We can't do that yet!"
We encourage each other to be successful in maths by talking through different strategies to solve problems and choosing the ones that work best for us.



Inquiry Update
In Inquiry, we have been learning about the plants and animals in our environment and about how plants and animals adapt to their changing environment. We have also been thinking about how our environment helps to shape our identity. The children have been coming up with deeper questions that they want to research related to this topic. They are currently preparing to answer these questions and any more that may arise. Their next step is to think about how they want to make a difference with their newfound knowledge. This will be up to the children as to what they want to do. It gives the children the perfect opportunity to take their Inquiry in their own direction and have a richer and more meaningful learning experience.





Agency in MAD Time

MAD time (Make A Difference time) has been a great success! The children have selected an area they are passionate about for the term and wow, they have been doing a lot of learning around their projects.  Woodwork,  Passion Projects, Sketching,  Italian, Korean Dance and Visiting Thorrington Resthome residents have all allowed the children to take ownership of their learning and have a great time seeing how they can make a difference to others and work through their own challenges. Check out our awesome photos of our K Pop dances we have perfected. The children have had a blast learning about Korean culture and dance.

S.P.C.A Donations Urgently Needed
A group of MAD Time students are currently needing donations of blankets and cat/kitten food for the SPCA. If you have any items that you are able to donate, these girls and the SPCA would be most grateful! Donations can be made by either dropping food into the school office or to the girls who are collecting items each morning BEFORE school by the flag pole. Thanks for helping this very worthwhile cause!

Cross Country
Due to the weather last week, the cross country will now be held this coming Thursday 29th June.  The times are as follows:
1:50pm - NE race begins / Y1 warm up
2:00pm - Y1 race begins / Y2 warm up
2:10pm - Y2 race begins / Y3 warm up
2:20pm - Y3 race begins / Y4 warm up
2:30pm - Y4 race begins

Cheese Rolls
Delivery of these yummy cheese rolls will be on Thursday 29th June. Make sure you have put your order in as they are delicious!

That's all for this week.
Kowhai Teaching Team

Kowhai Newsletter Week 4

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Trip to Hillview Christian School to view JRock

This coming Monday, 29th May, we have been able to book the Hillview Christian School gym so that our amazing Year 7/8 students can share their superb JRock performance with the rest of the school. With our own hall out of action, only two classes managed to see it in dress rehearsal last week. At this stage, the forecast is clear and this will see the entire school walking down to Hillview and back leaving at 9.10am and returning by 10.30am. 


Reading- Developing Fluent Readers
In Year 3-4, our reading focus shifts from learning to read, to reading to learn. Our team reading programme is centred around developing reading fluency which will enables children to have greater comprehension of what they read, and as a result are able to use ii for learning.  
Fluency is the ability to read  a text accurately, quickly, and with expression and because fluent readers do not have to concentrate on decoding the words, they can focus their attention on what the text means. 


Fluency is a significant indicator of reading comprehension. When children can read fluently, it means that instead of using brain power for decoding (working out words), they can turn their attention to the meaning of the text. And it gets even better! When students reach higher levels of fluency, they’re able to tap into meta cognitive strategies. This means that they can visualise, question, and interpret what they are reading, and they can think about their own feelings and opinions while reading text. This is the highest level of reading comprehension.

Across our team, this term we are actively promoting reading fluency. The books that your child either brings home to read from school or is a book at home that they are reading, we want this to be able to be read fluently. In our Hubs we talk about finding a 'Good Fit Book' this is a book that is of interest and fun and easy to read so our reading sound like talking. If the reading is robotic, then the book is too hard. Reading at home should be enjoyable for both you and your child!

Buddy Writing Programme


In Hub 7,8,9 some of the children have been apart of our buddy writing programme. This is where a writing tutor helps a tutee with their writing. We have seen the children interacting so positively during writing. Some children who started off only writing ten words are now writing fifty words or even more! Our tutors are enjoying being the teacher and encouraging others to write. 





Home Learning
Thank you to all the wonderful parents who actively support this component of our class programme. As a school, we believe in the importance of developing a love of reading, being numerate and able to spell most high frequency words. We are very aware of the many families who have commitments with their children after school each day and have tried to make our home learning as simple as possible. It should only take about 15-20minutes each day to complete.
Reading - 10 minutes (fun easy read!)
Spelling - 5 minutes
MMM - 1 minute


Kowhai Trip to the City


Looking through the kaleidoscope in New Regent Street

Last Wednesday we had a wonderful trip to the city and the Margaret Mahy playground.
The aim of the trip was to learn more about our changing city, especially the transitional artworks that have become a feature since the earthquakes. We completed a scavenger hunt as we made our way through the city, visiting the Bridge of Remembrance, City mall, Cathedral Square, the Dance-o-Mat and New Regent Street, noting down many of the artworks that we saw on the way. Finally we finished our trip at the Margaret Mahy Playground where we had lunch and a great time.
Over the next few weeks we will be creating our own temporary artworks to feature around the school during the rebuild. You can find our first artwork hanging from the fences in front of the hall.

Thank you so much to all the parents who came on the trip with us. We couldn’t have done it without you!

Dancing at the Dance-o-Mat!

Margaret Mahy Playground

Margaret Mahy Playground


Toys, Pokemon cards  and Fidget Spinners
Over the past week, we have noticed a variety of 'toy' style items coming to school. Across the team, we have reminded the children that the only items that are to come to school are those that are required for learning (lunch, water, Home Learning folders and warm jackets/jerseys). Toys (including small animal soft toys), fidget spinners and Pokemon cards are not allowed at school.  If a child wants to trade Pokemon cards, this can be done after school with a parent bringing in the cards after 3pm. We would love your support with this, as these items can interfere with classroom learning. Thanks so much!


Thank You!
A huge shout out goes to the parent helpers who came with us on our exciting city trip this week. You were all absolutely amazing and we could not have gone on this trip without you.  It was great to see so many Dads on the trip too! this children had a fantastic time exploring the city and seeing the art works that have been put up to add colour and create interest for locals and visitors alike.

Have a wonderful weekend ahead!
Kowhai Teaching Team