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