Kowhai News Week 6 Term 2





Kowhai News Week 6 2108


Bug Art Extravaganza Day 

Next Thursday, the Kowhai Team are having an Art Extravaganza Day. This has been inspired by our investigations into bugs, following on with a visit from Ruud Kleinpaste, 'The Bug Man'. We are looking at creating some amazing sculptures and outdoor art for everyone to enjoy. We would love some more art supplies (wool, fabric, clay, wire, beads or newspaper) so if you have anything spare you could drop into us, we would very much appreciate it.


Treemendous Makeover!

We have a very exciting couple of days next Friday (15th) and Saturday (16th June), with the Treemendous Makeover happening on the Saturday, preceded by a Treemendous Build-up Day with Ruud Kleinpaste (The Bug Man) and Riley Elliott (The Shark Man) on site at school all day. We have 800 trees to plant on the Saturday, with a sausage sizzle for all around noon.


Sleep Scientist 

During week 8, we will be entering the next phase of our inquiry into sleep, which comes under the bigger umbrella of 'sustaining our well being'.  This will involve the children being sleep scientists. Being a sleep scientist will involve your child bringing home sleep slips to fill in or them to record the time they go to bed and how long they sleep for. They will also be given a small clock, which is theirs to keep. The students are required to fill out three consecutive slips in order to analyse their sleep patterns and formulate a goal to do with sleep. We would love these slips to be filled in (with your assistance, if needed) and returned to school the next day so that each child has a record of how they slept and how they felt when they woke up.


Literacy 

Tied in with our Bug Art Extravaganza Day, we are going to be focussing on learning about insects during our literacy time. We will be reading all about insects and their features and how they survive in their different habitats and then we will use this information to write reports on them. It will be bugs galore! If your child is interested in a particular bug or bugs and they have some books or interesting information about them, then please do encourage them to bring these in. We would love for them to share their enthusiasm!
Image result for cartoon image of bugs


ASB Financial literacy

This week we have had a special visitor in our maths groups. An educator from ASB came to teach us about money!

We learnt about notes and coins and the difference between a debit card and a credit card. Now we know that a debit card uses our own money while a credit card uses the bank's money (and charges us a fee!)


Then we played a really cool game called "Look for the best deal". We visited a virtual supermarket and made good choices about what to spend our virtual money on.


We are very grateful for these financial literacy lessons from ASB.



Winter!


We were talking in our home group about winter this week. We have all been finding it difficult to get out of bed lately! We decided that we needed to remember all the good things that winter offers us and came up with this list:


20 GOOD THINGS ABOUT WINTER

  1. Snow! (if we’re lucky) and snowball fights
  2. Jump Jam inside
  3. Crazy weather
  4. Vida’s birthday
  5. Hot chocolate and marshmallows
  6. Snuggling up in bed
  7. Lighting a fire
  8. Skiing
  9. The fresh feeling on our skin
  10. Football
  11. Seeing our pets stretched out by the heater
  12. Matariki
  13. Sausage sizzles at hockey practice
  14. Soaking in the spa (or the hot pools at Hanmer)
  15. Hot chips
  16. Hot dogs
  17. Family winter holidays where it’s warm and cozy.
  18. Hot soup on a cold day
  19. Walking in the hills when the sun comes out.
  20. Macaroni cheese
That's all for now.
Have a wonderful weekend ahead!

Kōwhai Teaching Team



    Term 2 Week 6 in Pōhutukawa

    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.
    The students are finding the session very engaging and interesting. Don't be surprised if there are talks around the dinner table about wanting to begin a dog walking business or questions about how much interest you earn on your account.


    We are still in need of magazines and newspaper for our art activities. Your child will be handsomely rewarded for bringing in these items!

    Our sleep inquiry is ongoing. Hopefully by now your child has filled in three sleep slips. These need to be returned to school tomorrow so that sleep goals can be decided upon. 

    Our new writing topic was launched today. This piece of writing is going to be an argument. The writing motivation the teachers chose to initiate thinking for this was a debate on whether Beau should be allowed to come to school or not. There were sound arguments from both sides, but in the end the kind hearted students were swayed to vote for the affirmative side, indicating that indeed, Beau should be allowed to come to school. Discussion around what things people are passionate about and believe in would be helpful. We are asking the students to choose something they are passionate about, then to write an argument about this, with at least four points, persuading us to agree with their point of view. Planning for this begin in the next day or so. Verbal discussions around this topic will greatly help your child launch into their writing.




    We have a very exciting couple of days next Friday (15) and Saturday (16 June), with the Treemendous Makeover happening on the Saturday, preceeded by a Treemendous Build-up Day with Ruud Kleinpaste (The Bug Man) and Riley Elliott (The Shark Man) on site at school all day. We have 800 trees to plant on the Saturday, with a sausage sizzle for all around noon.


    Keep dry and warm everyone.
    Tracy, Gayle, Nick and Katie

    Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 3 Week 6

    Last week we wrapped up our Treaty of Waitangi workshops. These sessions gave the children great insight into the history of our country. We have also welcomed an ASB facilitator into our hub to share a practical session on financial literacy. The children have just finished a free choice writing topic and tomorrow we will have our motivation session, which will lead to opinion based writing.

    Communication:

    From time to time we have issues with communication pathways at school. It would make life much more straight forward if you called Jacky in the office if:
    • you are dropping your child off at South on Tuesday mornings.
    • you need to get a message to your child during the school day.

    Choir:

    The choir are busy practising for their upcoming concerts on Tuesday the 19th and Wednesday the 20th of June at Hillview. All children in the choir, which is most of our hub, need to be at both concerts. Each student will be allocated two tickets per night, at a cost of $5 per ticket. There may be some spare tickets. These can be purchased from the school office from next Tuesday, June 12th. It is very important that the children are practising the songs at home. Jarred has sent them an email with instructions to sign up to a new google classroom, with the code bluzoap. This will give them access to Kauri choir music. 

    Camp Photo Book:

    Thanks to those of you who have completed the form to order your camp photo book. If you planned to do this, but haven't, now would be a good time. Orders close on Friday. Please click on this link. 

    Volleyball Passion Group

    Cashmere High School have offered an after school coaching session to our passion group to further promote the sport and make connections between the two schools. This will be an optional after school activity on Thursday the 21st of June. The children will be transported by car to Cashmere straight after school by adult helpers. Once there, their senior volleyball team will run a coaching session and play a mixed, friendly game. This season will finish at about 4:30. A form will be put in the next blog for you to indicate wether your child will be attending and if you are able to provide transport. 

    Sport:


    The children are loving their winter sport experience at Hagley Park. Here is some of the action from netball and hockey...





    Thorrington Resthome and What Now!





    Last Friday, the children who visit our elderly residents at Thorrington Resthome were filmed for the What Now TV show. This was a super exciting experience for all involved. What Now are currently creating an item to show how people volunteer in our local community. They heard about our team visiting Thorrington Resthome to connect with our elderly friends and wanted to put us on the show.
    Here are the children in action, being filmed and wearing the new High Vis vests that have been kindly donated by HRS Construction.
    We hope to organise a trip to the What Now Studio for these children so they can see how the footage is edited!







    Friday Sport






    Friday Sport


    Each Friday, the children in our team have the opportunity to learn and play a winter sport. At the moment, each home group teacher has taken an invasion game sport to teach. 
    Each session gives the children the opportunity to learn some of the skills required for the sport and concludes with a modified game for the children to practice their teamwork and collaborative skills. Here are some of the children playing hockey on Friday. The grass was too wet, so we made do with the inner courtyard. This created a few more challenges when controlling the ball as it was much easier to manoeuvre!