Welcome back to the new term. We have had a mixed bag of weather so far. Now that we have hit August we only have one month left of winter, in theory, so bring on spring!

This term for physical education we have Canterbury Hockey delivering their Small Sticks programme to our whole school. For Pōhutukawa this means a half hour lesson for each home group on Tuesday, for the first five weeks of the term. It's great to have experts in, as it means that the teachers are learning new activities and skills too!

Our other physical education focus is gymnastics. We began this today and the students had a fabulous time using the apparatus and supporting each other at giving new things a go. The students rotated around eight activities - beam, vault with beat board, vault with mini tramp, skipping ropes, forward rolls, cartwheels, handstands and human pyramid.








After the amazing community effort of the mass planting, we have now opened up our Treemendous area for the children to play in, during break times on a Tuesday and Thursday (at this stage). Beach popped down to see what could happen there, and decided it was a pretty cool area to hang out in.



Our new writing topic of poetry was kicked off on Monday by a poetry reading motivation. This could have been quite a dry experience, however we had Jarred accompanying the teachers who were reading the poetry, by acting out the words in the poems using Jarred's very own style of sign language. Much hilarity ensued, and thus started the new writing topic. The students then made their own acrostic poem, using their name. Through Google Classroom, each child has their own Poetry Anthology Google Slideshow. As we learn about different poetry types, the children will be writing their own poems and publishing them in their anthology. At the end of the unit, each slideshow will be printed and made into a book. Today's poem was called the 5W poem, as each line described a part of a story - who, what, where, when and why. There were some excellent poems created throughout the hub.


Superman,  
cruising in the sky, at nearby Hidden Batcave,
close to midnight, trying to find Batman.

By Max Graham

Izzy,playing around,in her backyard,on a hot and sunny afternoon,so she could find her pets.

Nemo,Trying to get attention,
Lying in front of the couch on the soft grey carpet,While I am watching Britain's Got Talent,Because he wants food.

DISCO

The hot topic around the hub is how many sunshine hours Christchurch has had in June, or not had! Approximately one hour a day is not doing our serotonin levels much good. Fingers crossed for the sunny, clear, cold days of winter! The students have been making great choices with regards to sensible footwear and wearing jackets and coats to protect themselves from the rain and cold.


On Friday, as we usually do, the teachers wandered around the hub, picking up bits and pieces and generally tidying. Imagine our surprise we noticed a number of lunch boxes still on the shelf in the maker space, along with abandoned drink bottles. We also gathered up a selection of footwear, which is still at school. We would love to see the lunchboxes and drink bottles go home daily, and how children manage to leave footwear at school, who knows! The routine is for the children to grab their lunch box on the way to pick up their bag (they literally walk past the shelves to get their bag). A further reminder from home to do this would be very helpful.







A pyjama mufti day for tomorrow has been organised by the Student Council in collaboration with the PTA. It is in support of The Methodist Mission to help restock food banks over winter. Please bring a can or two of food to donate. This can be dropped off at the multi purpose kitchen, and in exchange you can grab a bowl of hot porridge for a sustaining winter breakfast. The PTA will be making porridge for breakfast and this will be available from 8:00 - 8:55am from the hall kitchen servery. Please bring a named bowl if you would like to take advantage of this kind offer.

We had a fabulous day last Friday, learning much from our two special guests Ruud Kleinpaste (The Bug Man) and Riley Elliott (The Shark Man). The students were entertained, enthralled and informed by these guest speakers, who were a lead up to our Treemendous Day on Saturday. Many thanks to all of the families who came down to school to help out with the planting. What a fabulous community spirited morning it was, ending with a delicious sausage sizzle!


Reminder: Tuesday 26th June - School will close for formal instruction at 12:30pm
Due to the Paid Union Meeting for teachers in Christchurch that will be happening on the afternoon of Tuesday 26th June, we will be skeleton staff (Principal and Teacher aides only) from 12:30pm due to our teachers all needing to attend the union meeting. We are requesting that you pick up your children at 12:30pm that day, or contact the office to let us know they will be staying at school so we can arrange supervision.

On Tuesday 5 June, Gayle and several parents accompanied two basketball teams to Hillview School to represent Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto at the South Zone Basketball Tournament. Both teams played very well, and now we send good luck to the boys team which will be competing in the Year 5 & 6 Canterbury Primary Schools Indoor Basketball Tournament at Pioneer Stadium on Monday 25 June: Josh Brietmeyer, Harper Ford, Ben Newton, Izaak Broughton-Wealleans, Marcellus Scott, Walter McLoughlin, Henry Hood, Thomas Lyall, Josh Welch, Cooper Reddecliffe and Tom Armstrong-Gallot (who will be unable to attend as he will be travelling to France).

It might be a good time to check in with your cherub/s about how their stationery supply is going. It has been noticed that a few children seem to be lacking a pencil, pen or even have possibly lost a book!

We would like to introduce and welcome Eve Driver to our hub. Eve is from the University of Canterbury and is in her first year of studying to be a primary school teacher. She is based with the Beach and Tracy. Eve will be with us for two weeks, observing and learning lots. She then returns in term four for four more weeks, ready to learn more and begin some teaching. We know Eve will love being in Pōhutukawa, and we love having another teacher around.


Fingers crossed that the sun hangs around a bit more frequently! I'm sure we are all in agreeance that we love it when the children can get outside and run around, as well as the rays lifting our spirits!

Kind regards
Tracy, Katie, Nick and Gayle

Bbbbrrrrr.....thank goodness for underfloor heating. While it is freezing outside, it is toasty warm in our hub. With more wet and cold weather forecasted, encouraging your child to bring along a pair of slippers to wear inside is a really good idea. We have also been asking the children to make sure that their bags are securely tucked up in the cubby hole they select at the beginning of the day. When the cubby holes were checked by Sandy this morning, she found bags/parts of bags hanging out of them. This means these bags are may get wet. If your child brings home a wet bag today, a reminder about tucking completely into the cubby hole may be in order!



This week each class has been attending an ASB GetWise financial literacy session. The session gets to the heart of inspiring Year 5 and 6 students to start being much more creative and entrepreneurial with their earnings, saving and spending. Students explore the opportunity to start saving now and the power of interest while helping set-up and reach their very own CASH goals.
Concepts covered include:

• Setting up a savings goal.
• Different ways to earn.
• Establishing a small business.
• Earning interest.
• Using a CASH goal (or basic budget) to get the things you want.