Welcome to Term Four

Let the fun begin.

• Athletics day tomorrow - all going well. Rakahuri Champs on November 7th for all those who beat the standards and make the next realm of competition.
• Show weekend 14th-17th November
• CAMP 27th - 29th November
• 16th December last half day of school.

We have lots happening this term and will try to keep you updated each week with photos and notes on what is happening for the last nine weeks. 

Success in Kōtare

Haven't shared on here for a while so probably time to start adding some gems from Term 2. This term seems to be slipping by really fast. Today our top runners competed at the North Canterbury Cross Country champs with mixed success. It was a great day for running and our kids all tried their best.

Special shout out to these two young lads who got first and second, way to go Leo and Luke.
These boys will now go on to compete at the Canterbury Champs on June 19th at Halswell Quarry. We wish them all the best for this next level of competition.

MANAAKITANGA

In the wake of the dreadful events of last week we came together as a school to commemorate the loss of so many lives within our community of Aotearoa. The children all dressed in bright colours and bought coins to add to our coin trail. The total donations were $1013 - a great effort by our tamariki and their families.  We also held an assembly with much singing and a minute of silence. This was followed by 2 minutes of silence at 1:40pm, which much of the school attended.

The word manaakitanga is one of our values, and simply means 'I respect and value others'. A good sentiment at this time when our lives have been thrown into turmoil.

STEM

Science, technology, engineering and maths. We are currently using a great resource which covers all these areas. Our year 6 group are seen here making simple projectors and discussing how light  is absorbed and can create shadows. These kids love experimenting, researching and making. Always a fun class to work with.
TASK: Design and create two symbols for a superhero signal that can be projected onto the wall.
Some how they forgot about the superheros along the way but had fun creating their own 'signals'.

Seed Swap

Recently we had Lesley in to talk to our class about the seed swap program at the library, and enlist the help of our students to collect seeds, make bags for them, and put them into packets. The kids learnt a lot about what to plant and when, and all about the benefits of the seed swap program. Our payment was some seeds for our own garden here at school.

Book Character Dress Up

Book Week Character Dress Up

What a fun time we have had chatting about which book character we were dressed up as and who had read those particular books!

Check out the awesome costumes some have worn.  Thanks parents for helping make a big effort and recycling old clothing to create new costumes!!  

BOOK CHARACTERS

Our favourite time of year (well anytime we can dress up and the three of us go wild). Great to see all the kids costumes today and the level of participation. Great chatter about books and the characters that were being represented.

Celebrating our 2018 High Performers!

Academic Excellence and 

Excellent Progress Awardees

Congratulations to Flint, Ella-Jess and Cody for Academic Excellence throughout 2018

Congratulations to Violeta, Ashton and Harry for Excellence Progress throughout 2018

 Year 5/6 Top Achievement Awardees

Congratulations to Sami for the Year 5/6 Academic Award

Congratulations to Ella for the Year 5/6 General Excellence Award

Congratulations to Addison for Achievement and Dedication in the Arts

Superhero Dress Up Day 2018

Superhero Dress Up Day

Wednesday 7th November

What a fabulous day we had!  Some of the kids made a huge effort and came to school with incredible costumes.

Take a look and see if you can spot your superhero!

Busy Term 4

This term is flying past and we still have so much to do. As teachers we have reports to write and events to organise. This is our crazy term as we get  your children ready for next year at school and try to fit in all the requirements to successfully finish off a great year.

The children are completing their 'passion projects' where they have shown a great deal of enthusiasm and skill in teaching their skills to others in the school. They have been excellent role models and taken their role as teachers very seriously - we have been thrilled with the outcomes they have achieved.

The next four weeks

Week 3	Tuesday 30th Oct, School Athletics Day Friday	This is an all day event beginning at 9.15am and going until 2.45pm. Mufti day to raise funds for kapahaka uniforms. Gold coin donation.
Week 4	Monday 5th November School Closed Tuesday 6th November Friday 9th November	This is an all day, professional development day for teachers. Rakahuri Athletics for an champion athletes. Superhero dress-up day.
Week 5	Wednesday/Thursday/Friday	Wednesday (not yet confirmed) is a proposed strike day and Thursday and Friday are part of Show Weekend Holiday.
Week 6	BEACH EDUCATION Monday - Miss Hix and ½ of Mrs Jolly’s class Tuesday - Mr Bell and the other half of Mrs Jolly’s class. PUBERTY Lessons	This event will need 4-5 parents from each class. A letter will come home outlining our programme. These lessons will take place in week 6 & 7.

Loud Shirt/SuperHero Dress Up Day

Friday 28th September

What a lot of fun we have had dressing up to raise funds for children to get funding for Cochlea Hearing Implants.

Here is what we dressed up like!  

What a colourful bunch!!!

Year 6 Printmaking 2018

Thursday 13th September

The Year 6 have been using their Thursdays while the Year 7's have been at technology to learn about Printmaking.  We read the Māori legend "How the Kiwi Lost his Wings."  Each child selected a native bird of their choice and they have carved their design onto wood.  From this 'block' they have made prints which look amazing.

We then recarved our wood block and reprinted over the top of our initial print.  This has allowed the bottom colour to show through and highlight parts of our design.

Check out the powerpoint of us in action.  Our finished products will be up in our Kōtare space by the end of the term.  Be sure to come for a visit!

Beeswax Wraps

In the last week of school we made beeswax wraps, thanks to the support of Lesley Ottey from Eco Educate who supplied the beeswax and expertise. This was a very popular activity with the kids as they strive to make a difference and reduce their plastics waste. It has been a great week where the children have focussed on healthy lunches and also rubbish free lunches. We look forward to continuing this next term with a POD by POD challenge with the groups around us.

It was great to see so many of the kids using their beeswax wraps over the last two days of the term.

Ki o rahi

Today Jesse and Nick had their last lesson with our POD before they embark on other endeavours. Nick is going onto work with Canterbury basketball youth and Jesse is going back to the cluster he came from. These young NCSRT coaches have done a great job teaching our young people new skills and our children have responded well by participating fully in all lessons.

Today we learnt  some of the rules of playing Ki O Rahi and the kids had a great time learning a new game they had never played before. Watch the clip below to learn more about the game.

youtube clip of Ki O Rahi

Haiku About War

War is loud gunfire

Bombs explode all around me

Poppy’s remind us

War is a loud place.

Screams are heard ,guns are firing.

Mayhem everywhere.

War is torture

Lives of many anzacs lost

War was tragedy

Soldiers are falling

War is a catastrophe

Hiding all night long.

War is terrible.

Red poppies for our Anzacs.  

We fight to the end.

War is terrible
People covered in red blood
We will remember.

Mail from Dawson School

We love getting mail, and today we especially enjoyed opening our mail from Room 18 at Dawson School in Otara. We really loved reading the found poem and reading the metaphors then putting together the poster. This is a great initiative by NZ Post and Warehouse Stationery to get kids across NZ writing to each other.

So thanks Room 18 from Dawson Creek, love the colour, love the metaphors and love the found poem - great work.

The other two classes in our POD also received mail and we will share pictures about this early next week.

Northbrook Waters Walk

A successful and fun day walking to Matawai Park for an easter hunt, rubbish pickup, games and lunch. Then on to North Brook Waters to meet with Parks Officer Dan who informed us about the area and answered lots of questions.

Dan talking to the students about the wildlife found in the area. Previously we stopped to look at harakeke and kanuka which grows along the edges of the lake.

One or two tired bods after walking to the park - little did they realise we still had to walk back to school which would test the patience of a few.

A bit hard to see but a pukeko on the left (yes they can swim) visiting a swan who has made a nest on a small island in the middle of the lake.

Modern Technology

These spheroid balls which Leanne has introduced to our year 6 group have been an absolute hit. The class are learning to code the movement of the sphero, and learning some very practical uses of coding.

We are seeing some real engagement from the students, and they are like sponges when it comes to learning anything new that involves technology. Great thing is, this does require a level of reading skill, numeracy knowledge and teaches science skills as well (mainly physics), so lots of learning going on.

Tennis Skills

This morning was lawn bowls and this afternoon tennis skills. It has been a few full on days of juggling sport lessons and class lessons.

A few hand eye coordination activities before they are let loose with a tennis racket.

Working on our listening skills.