Week 6 Term 2 Newsletter

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Kowhai Team Newsletter Friday 10th June

Hi Everyone,

We hope that you all had a a great, although slightly longer than normal, Queen's Birthday weekend. It was wonderful to be welcomed by so many smiley faces on Wednesday! We have had an action packed week with the children playing in a mini hockey tournament on Wednesday and participating in the Matariki Day yesterday. The children have been highly engaged in their learning and asking LOADS of questions to extend their thinking. As it was a short week this week, so there was no Home Learning but we are back to normal next week with our nightly reading, maths and spelling.


Matariki Connect Session - South Learning CentreTo continue our learning about Matariki, the children are booked in to a session at the South Learning Centre with one of the tutors. They will learn how  to create a porotiti (spinning disk and string game) and use the ipads to take a virtual tour around a marae and whare. As the Learning Centre is so close to school, the children will walk down. Each hub will need some parents to assist them on these trips. Unfortunately we were only offered four sessions, so on this occasion, Hub 7 has been split to enable them to attend the sessions too. Letters will come home closer to the time of each hub trip.
These are the dates for your diary.

Tuesday 14th June- Hub 8 and 6 children from Hub 7
Tuesday 21st June - Hub 9 and 5 children from Hub 7
Thursday 30th June - Hub 5 and 5 children from Hub 7
Thursday 30th June - Hub 6 and 5 children from Hub 7


InquiryOur team has been learning about the weather. We have been investigating why the seasons change, the impact of weather on our environment with a particular focus on the water cycle. We have conducted many experiments to help us learn these science concepts. These science investigations have required us to make predictions, conduct experiments and discuss our findings. Over the next few week we will dig deeper into this topic by investigating the impact of weather on animals and humans, with a closer look at how the weather directly affects us. All our findings and learnings will be on display in the School Science and Technology Fair. The Science Fairs opens on Monday 4th July, 5.30pm - 7pm. We hope you can all come along.

Cross Country - Next WeekOver the past few weeks we have been training for the Kowhai Team Cross Country. The Cross Country is this Thursday 16th June. Our races will start at 11.30am and will follow this order.
Year 3 Girls, Year 3 Boys
Year 4 Girls and conclude with the Year 4 Boys.

Individually the children have been setting personal goals to work towards. These have ranged from being positive about running, improving the distance we can run or increasing our running stamina by running further each time. This year the top six runners in each race will have the opportunity to compete against other schools in our local area in the Year 0-4 Cross Country Challenge at Hillview School. We are aiming to be fierce competition!

Drink Bottles and LunchesWe have noticed that we still have some children that need to bring drink bottles to school. Water is important to keep the children hydrated and it is best if ALL children have a drink bottle at school, especially on wet days.We have also noticed an increase in the amount of food that the children are eating. Some children are eating much more than normal and at times have eaten MOST of their food by the end of the the first break. Can you take the time to ask your child if they have enough food to eat or if they need some more in their lunchbox. Thanks!

Art Gallery TripTo conclude the term, we have a trip to the Christchurch Art Gallery planned in Week 10. We will need parent help for this trip and will send home letters two weeks before. For those of you who need more time to enable you to parent help, the days and hubs are as follows:
Hub 8 and 9 - Tuesday 5th July
Hub 5/6/7 - Thursday 7th July

We hope you all have a great weekend.
Kowhai Teaching Team




Week 6 Newsletter

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Kia Ora

This week has zoomed past with only 3 days with the children at school. We hope you all enjoyed the long weekend. There is a busy week ahead of us next week too.

Cross Country 
On Thursday 16th June at 9:30am until approximately 10:30am we have our Cross Country. Please meet us out on Beckenham Park (the big field) near the benches. It would pay to arrive a bit earlier if possible so you can get a good viewing spot and we can have a prompt start. We will warm the children up in their class groups and bring them out to meet you.

The children will need to have:

  • their house colours 
  • appropriate footwear
  • a drink bottle 
  • a jersey/jacket. 
We will be having a full run through on Monday so the children are well versed in what is happening on Thursday. Please ensure they are wearing appropriate footwear on Monday also. 

Sumdog
Over the next week teachers will be sending home a 'Sumdog login card' in your child's reading folder.   
Sumdog uses educational games to motivate the students in maths, reading and writing. Its adaptive learning engine monitors and guides them as they work. It gets to know each student, leading them through the standards. The skills are aligned to the New Zealand Curriculum and broken into manageable steps. 
You can login at home on this website https://www.sumdog.com/  using your username and password. The school code is beckenham. 

Sun Writing


What is the Sun and why is it important? 

Welcome to the journey of discovering space. 
The sun is a star and it is made out of gas. The sun's name is Sol. The sun is there because if we didn't have the sun we would be in big danger. If the sun wasn't here we would be dead because we need the light for the plants so we can eat and have shade. 
The sun is humongous! 

By Sophie M


What is the Sun and why is it important? 

The sun is huge. The sun is also extremely burning. The sun is important because it gives us light as well as oxygen. The sun gives the plants light for the carbon-dioxide and oxygen cycle which keeps us moving and living. 

By Brynn

Space Discovery 
We were very lucky to have Hugh, Sophie M's Grandad, visit us all the way from Hamilton to answer our questions about space. 
He showed us a presentation to answer our questions:











Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

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We have been learning about constellations today. Oliver described a constellation as, "a group of stars that look like a picture when the dots are joined up." We thought that was a great definition!
Here are a group of Hub 3 children with their Big Dipper constellations. 




What patterns can you see in the night sky tonight? 

Geometry

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We are learning to sort items into groups and explaining our groups using mathematical words like colours, groups, size, shape etc. We need to be able to work as a team with our sorting and listen to each other's ideas respectfully.
"We were stacking them and counting how many there were. We sorted them into size and colours."

"We put them into our own pictures sorting them into colours." 

"First we did our idea of sorting them into groups of animals then we tried out sorting them into colours."

"We put them into their piles of shapes. This is the triangles, hexagons and long ones. We put them into size as well." 

"We sorted into a line in the same colours as every one. Green had the most then blue then yellow then red."

"First we decided to sort them into colours. We decided to put them into shapes too."