Category Archives: Kowhai

Kowhai Team Newsletter Week 5

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Spring is in the air, and the children are loving being out at break times in the glorious sunshine!

Short Film Festival

Thanks to all the wonderful parents who came to support our trip last week to the Isaac Theatre Royal. The children had a wonderful time watching the movies. This has led us to create our own movies that we will share with you all at learning conferences! You will be in for a treat!

Spellathon

Spellathon testing took place last Friday, and now comes the business of collecting all of the sponsorship money back in. No pressure, but...! There is a prize for the whole class which has all of its sponsorship money and cards back into the office FIRST! Congratulations to all the children who have worked so hard to learn their Spellathon words.

Learning Conferences

Learning conferences are next week on Tuesday 29th August and Thursday 31st August. School will finish at 2pm on these days. Please make sure you have made a booking as the children have a wonderful array of learning they want to share with you.
To book your learning conference, please go to www.schoolinterviews.co.nz and log in with the code 'ay2w2'. Although the booking slots say 15 mins, please allow 30 mins for the conference.

Stationery

It's getting to that time of the year where pens, pencils and glue sticks generally start to deplete. Can you please talk with your child about which items they might need to stock up on and send them to school. Thank you very much.
Change of Clothes and Footwear
The park is now open and we are actively encouraging the children to use the park. However, it is very wet and muddy as the water table is still very high. If your child likes to play football or be on the grass, please send them with a spare pair of old shoes and shorts to change into.
Lunches
We are aware that the new cubbies are going to become quite hot for the children's school lunches. Over the next week, we will be creating a solution to ensure the children's lunches are kept cool. Thanks for you patience while we develop an effective system for this.
Writing

The children have been working on writing engaging texts that aim to entertain the reader by including precise vocabulary. Here are a couple of examples:

The marshmallow monster slithered through the water like a snake. He bubbled up to the surface and out of the water. Peering through the trees, his yellow eyes were watching someone. He slowly crept through the trees to the campsite like a spy. Quietly sneaking up behind the boy, he heard the boy’s marshmallow sizzle in the night light of the fire. The monster sniffed the air. He moved much closer. The boy turned around and he stared with unbelieving eyes at the monster.
By Dahlia


Swish! The waves washed up and over her feet. The girl was feeling sad as she walked along the beach. Suddenly the waves washed up a mysterious looking bottle. She opened it and hoped they would be magical bubbles. She blew a bubble and the clouds disappeared and the sun came out. “Wow!” she thought. She blew another bubble and this time she jumped on it. This made her feel happy.
She smiled as she jumped onto the other bubbles. All of a sudden, one of the bubbles went under the water. She saw two fish swimming under the sea. Then the bubble lifted her up and took her high up into the sky. She smiled as she looked down back at the beach. She spied a lonely a girl who was walking. She looked so sad. “Shall I help her? Would that be the right thing to do?”  the girl asked herself.

By Layla

Kowhai Team Week 3 Newsletter

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Here is the latest update from Kowhai Team...

Learning About Change

This term we have been learning about how to look after our bodies and what to do to ensure our body stays fit and healthy so it can grow and learn. We have investigated the importance of food, sleep, exercise and water along with how to care for our body and teeth. Our next step is to examine cause and effect. This will look like us asking and answering questions like: What happens if we don't brush our teeth or eat healthy food? We will extend this to looking at what actions we need to do to keep our hub tidy and appropriate for learning. We will also look at how our behaviour choices can affect other people's learning. You might like to talk with your child about cause and effect in different settings too to extend their understanding.


Toys
We have started to notice the children starting to creep some non essential items like toys to school. It is important that the children keep these items at home as if they come to school, we are unable to guarantee their safety and would hate to see any precious items get damaged or lost. We would love your support with this to ensure that the children only have the necessary items for school at teach day. These are:
Lunch
Drink bottle
Home learning folder
Jacket



Reminder Shoes and Change of Clothes
Due to the very wet state of our grounds, we are actively encouraging the children to bring along a change of clothes and footwear if they intend on playing in the park. 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 still extremely boggy at present. 

Library Visits

This term we are lucky enough to be able to go to South Library to read and to issue books. This is a great opportunity to encourage lots of reading while our school library is out of action. The children will be going once every 2 weeks so if your child has a library card, do make sure they take it with them along with their reading folder. We do also encourage you to pack a raincoat on that day as the weather can change very quickly at the moment. If you would like to come along with your child, parent help is always welcome. Just add your name to the following document: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xohSV9hfkG48Y5hLUvNfkDipbZJrzBLjZHy5zsK5za4/edit#gid=0

We are also in the need for parent help for Anna and Susan’s home groups. The dates and times are all included in the document link above
We have had extremely successful visits this week, orientating ourselves around the library and finding interesting books to read. Just look how engaged they all are!
This coming week:
This Monday Hub 6 will be going to the library and on Tuesday Hub 9 will be going. If your child has a library card, please send it to school so they are able to issue out books. 





Jewellery MAD Group
We are requiring some extra materials for next Friday's jewellery MAD time group. If you have any of the following you would like to donate please bring it into Rebekah in the East Hub. You you have any donations of fine wire, toothpicks, wool, ribbon, fine elastic, loom









Kowhai Teaching Team
x





bands, sequins or anything crafty that might contribute to us making awesome jewellery would love your help.

Short Film Festival
Many thanks to all the parents who have emailed to offer their help on Thursday when we go to the Isaac Theatre Royal to see some of the the NZ Short Films. We know this will be highly entertaining for the children and we hope it will spark some enthusiasm for movie making too!
That's all for now







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