Dear parents & caregivers,
It's been another busy week in the Kowhai community - it's hard to believe we are already four weeks into the new school year! This week we welcomed Annabel, Sophie and Eden to the Kowhai community - we hope you enjoy your time at school. Headlice It's that time of year again - headlice are doing the rounds! Please check your child's hair carefully for headlice (nits). You may need to check several times over the next week or so just to be sure, For those of you who are not sure what to look for, this website has useful information (and photos!) Please treat any headlice found (the chemist can help with advice here), and please remember to tie back long hair. Coat hooks Hooray! We have all our coat hooks installed and they look great. There is now a named coat hook for each child, arranged in pod groups with teacher pictures displayed. Now that there are coat hooks for each child, sunhats can be left at school (saves carrying them back and forward each day!) Pod boxes are now stored in front of coat hooks, so please remind your child to unpack their reading packet and put this in their pod box when they arrive at school. Change... We've made a few subtle changes to the layout of our learning community. We're hoping these changes will help to keep doorways clearer to enable easier access for all! (You'll have to wait until Monday to see what we've done!) :o) Streamlining We've also made a few subtle changes to our programme (these could be harder to spot!) As we've settled into the year and into our new routines, we've found we're getting through our 'core' subjects (literacy, numeracy) more efficiently, and hope to start our inquiry programme in the afternoons in the next week or so. At the moment this is a little difficult with swimming twice a week, but we can see potential! Reading / Poetry We have instructional reading groups on Monday - Wednesday and Friday. On a Thursday we have a poem. From next week we are going to start leaving reading books in the children's reading packets, meaning that they have more choice about what they read at home. Some children may enjoy reading all their books, while others may want to return to a favourite story. On a Thursday morning we will remove all reading books (to return them and allow for teachers to plan for the following week) and all children will have a poem to read. These poems will vary from poems the children can read independently to poems to be read by an adult, or poems to read together. Any combination is fine! Please remember to record your child's reading in their yellow Kluwell reading log. Powerful Connections Meeting On Tuesday evening we will hold our Powerful Connections (meet the teacher) meeting. This is an opportunity for you to come along and find out what is happening in your child's learning community, and to meet the teaching staff who work with your child. There will be two sessions (both covering the same information) to allow for those parents who have more than one child at school. More information on this evening was in the last school newsletter (which is available to view on the school website). We look forward to seeing you there! Have a great weekend everyone - see you Monday. Thelma, Nicole, Jo, Christina, Louise & Natalie kowhai@westmelton,school.nz
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Hi everyone,
What a welcome relief to see the rain today! Even the children commented on how good the rain was, and nobody seemed to mind getting a wee bit wet in the patchy drizzle at lunchtime. We have several 'fire-fighting' parents in our learning community and we know this has been a particularly difficult week for their families. We are very grateful for all your hard work, perseverance and sacrifice. Some children made cards this week expressing their thanks to these hard-working fire fighters, and these have been passed on today. Helping children deal with trauma The fires on the Port Hills have been a hot topic of discussion this week with many children sharing their thoughts and ideas about fires, helicopters and fire fighters. While they are happy to discuss this at school (and usually initiate the conversations), some children may express anxiety at home. The article linked below is an easy read about helping children to cope with stress and anxiety. While it talks specifically about earthquakes, we hope the strategies and suggestions in it may be helpful if you notice your children expressing some anxiety. As always, we are happy to help in any way we can. At school this anxiety often shows itself at morning drop-off time. If you need assistance to settle your child in the morning, please speak to your child's pod teacher. Hopefully together we can come up with some systems and strategies to start the day with a smile! Helping children deal with trauma. Library day Our library days are usually Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon. At the moment our library routine is a little 'mucky' due to our swimming time on Tuesday, so we have Thursday as an extra day. We do not have a 'return book box' for library books, as past experience has shown that the children tend to 'borrow' books from the 'return' box to read, and then put them somewhere quite different once they have finished with them! Confusion reigns for all concerned as teachers try to track down books that children are certain they have returned to school. Our current system is that children take their reading packets to the library with them. Books that are issued to them are then placed in their reading packets to take home. When they return their library books to school they will need to bring them back in their reading packets. Parent help We are always keen for more parent help. Our thanks this week to Natalie, Amanda and Cam for their help in the classroom. If you are able to help out, please let your child's pod teacher know. This year we have a new sign-in system in the school office, and ask that if you are helping out in the classroom (or even if you are just observing for longer than 15 minutes), that you sign in, please. Please don't be offended if we ask you to sign in, as this is part of our health and safety requirements, and ensuring the safety of all people on our school site. Thanks for your understanding! Getting to know... Thanks to those who have returned their child's 'getting to know (you)' sheet. The teachers have learnt a lot about the children in the kowhai community! We look forward to learning about the rest of the children in time. ;o) If you haven't yet returned your child's sheet, we'd love to be able to read it early next week. If you need another copy, please email Christina ([email protected]). Lost things We've established a 'lost things' box in our learning community. If your child is missing socks, sweatshirts, drink bottles etc, please have a look in here! Where items are named clearly we are endeavouring to leave them by the child's coat hook (side note: yay! We have all our coat hooks now, and they look fabulous!) On a Friday afternoon we will place any items that haven't been claimed on the tables outside our learning community. Unclaimed items will then be placed in the school lost property. Please ask us if you are unsure where this is, and we can let you know! Manaakitanga Our focus at the moment is manaakitanga - respect - for each other, for our environment and for our things. You may hear this word at home during the next few weeks as we work hard to establish this important part of our class programme! Today lots of children helped to give our outdoor area a really good tidy up. Manaakitanga in action! Some of those children shared (quite enthusiastically) that they were going to go home and tidy their bedrooms! :o) Have a fantastic weekend, everyone! We hope it rains and rains and rains (sorry if you had washing to do or weekend sports to play). See you all next week! Thelma, Nicole, Jo, Christina, Louise & Natalie kowhai@westmelton,school.nz Kia ora koutou Kowhai parents & caregivers,
It's the end of a short but busy week in the Kowhai team! An extra special welcome to Brooke who started school with us on Tuesday. It was lovely to see so many of you at our Teddy Bears' picnic on Wednesday. The teddy bears were all very well behaved, and we do hope to invite them back to school on another occasion! Parent help We would love some parent help during the day! Thanks to those who have already offered this. If you are able to help please have a chat with your child's pod teacher. We are thinking this help could involve: woodwork (construction) table, baking with a group of children, reading a story, taking a group of children to the sandpit, or to weed a garden or to visit the hens. You could play a boardgame, have a tea party, make some playdough (please!) or shop at our local (pretend) store. Of course, we're open to offers, so if you have another idea in mind, let us know! A big thank you to Cam (Tegan's Dad) who came and helped out during the week with the woodwork - "Tool time with Cam" was a big hit! New parent get together On the 23rd of February the Friends of West Melton School are hosting an afternoon tea for new families at school. All new families should have received an email invitation during the week with more information. If you did not receive an invitation, please see your child's pod teacher for details, and check with the office that we have your email address on file. Spare clothing If you have 'spare' uniform items or underwear at home, we would appreciate donations that can be used following 'wee' accidents. :o) Please see your pod teacher if you can help out here. Thanks! Blog We've updated our blog this week to show you some of the things we've been learning about while we play. Make sure you have a look, and feel free to comment on our blog post - we'll be sharing your comments and feedback (on the blog) with the children! Lost sweatshirts, socks, drink bottles, hats, polar fleeces... Please make sure all clothing is named clearly with your child's name. We are trying hard to match children with various items that float around our learning community, and endeavour to put any items found at the end of the day near the appropriate pod spot for collection the following morning. We are hopeful that the rest of our bag hooks will be available for use soon, and expect this will help children to keep track of their own belongings. Library day Our regular library time is Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon. Please return library books to school in your child's reading packet. Reading packets can be placed in the plastic pod group box by your child's pod spot (meeting place) and we will return books to the library from here. Reading, writing, arithmetic... Next week we begin the more formal aspects of our programme. Throughout the day teachers will be withdrawing small groups for specific instruction in reading and writing (literacy) and maths. Your child will bring home a reading book to share with you most nights of the week, and a poem to share once a week. Please record details of your child's reading in their yellow 'Kluwell' reading log. We have spent this past week assessing all children in reading and maths. We are still fine-tuning instructional groups, and expect there to be some movement (both up and down) over the next week or so. There will be more information in future K.I.T. notices about how you can support learning at home for your child. School fete Don't forget the school fete is coming up on the 2nd of April! There is a Facebook page to 'like' (West Melton Fete) so you can keep up to date with all the latest news and requests for help. There's also a dedicated website (http://westmeltonfete.co.nz/) so you can check details of stalls (wow - it's an impressive list!) and timings for the day. Make sure you keep this date free and plan to invite your friends and family along too - the Friends of West Melton School have been working hard to prepare a fantastic event for us all! If you would like to volunteer to help with anything related to the fete, please contact Hannah Fifield on [email protected]. Celebration of learning Our school-wide celebrations of learning (assemblies) are held three times each term. Our first celebration of learning for 2017 will be held next Friday at 9.00. If it is fine the whole school will meet on the court for a time of sharing. You are more than welcome to attend and celebrate the start of the year with us! Getting to know each other As promised last week, today we finally sent home a sheet for you to discuss and complete with your child to help us learn about some of your home culture. Please write your child's name at the top of the form, We would appreciate it if you could return this by Friday of next week, please. Scholastic book club orders Today we also sent home order forms for Scholastic book clubs. If you would like to order any books, please check the back of the order form for ordering options (note there is the option of online ordering). If you are ordering through school (cash or credit card payments), order forms need to be returned to school by February 13th. That's all for this week! Thanks for your messages of support and on-going interest in our programme. Have a lovely weekend - enjoy the sunshine! Thelma, Nicole, Jo, Christina, Louise & Natalie kowhai@westmelton,school.nz Hi everyone,
Welcome to the school year for 2017, and our exciting new Kowhai learning space! We've had a great week this week meeting all your lovely children and getting to know each other. We've enjoyed meeting lots of parents as well - if we haven't met you yet, please come and say 'hello'! On Tuesday we will be sending home a sheet for you to discuss and complete with your child to help us learn about some of your home culture. We would appreciate it if you could return this by Friday of next week, please. K.I.T. notices This year we are sending electronic K.I.T. notices. They will be kept on this blog for you to check each Friday, and so you can easily find earlier notices as well. We will send an email reminder with a link to this page on a Friday afternoon. If you do not receive an email reminder please check that the office has your correct contact details. Swimming We are currently swimming on a Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. Please ensure your child has named togs, towel and goggles with them. Please also make sure you have named all uniform items (they do look very similar!) ;o) If your child has grommets, or requires assistance with changing, please let your pod teacher know. The children have been grouped according to ability and we have a swimming ratio of 1 adult to 10 children. Class programme We have had some questions regarding 'play' in our programme. Play is a permanent feature of our learning space, and we look forward to sharing our research around this with you (we've already set up a special 'teaching thoughts' page for this!) From Tuesday we will begin withdrawing small groups of children for in-depth numeracy and literacy assessments. This will enable our instructional programme to start in Week 3. We will share specific details of our programme with you at our 'Powerful Connections' meeting in week 5. Storage of school bags We are waiting on coat hooks that have been made especially for us. We are hopeful they will arrive very soon. (Fingers crossed!) Update: The first of the coat hooks were delivered on Thursday afternoon - there are more to come! We will begin storing children's bags on these as they are available. Thanks for your patience while we waited for the hooks to be completed. Signing in The children have done a great job this week of checking in with their pod teacher as they arrive at school - well done everyone! From next week we are going to ask the children to 'sign in' with their pod teacher. The children will need to find their pod teacher and then write their name on a laminated sheet with their photo on it. This gives good practise at writing our names, and provides teachers with an easy visual of which children are at school. It's also a very helpful list in the unlikely event of an emergency. Thanks for your support as we establish these early routines! Classroom release This year, as part of our classroom release entitlement, specialist teachers will be coming in to take the children for drama, dance, PE, visual art, music and mindfulness. As a teaching team we will be meeting to plan, reflect, research (and write K.I.T. notices!) for two hours during the day. Our specialist teachers are Mrs Brook (drama), Mrs Kilpatrick (dance), Mrs Cockburn (PE), Mrs Meyers (visual art), Mrs Thomson (music) and Ms Riley for mindfulness. For Term 1 our classroom teachers are released from 10.00 - 12.00 each Thursday. As part of her beginning teacher release, Natalie is released from the classroom one Wednesday a fortnight. This release time is covered by Rebecca Brook, who will follow our normal planned programme. As part of her leadership role, Thelma is released from the classroom on alternate Wednesdays with Natalie. This allows her to meet with the leadership team and complete leadership duties. This release is covered by Anna-Kate Kilpatrick, who will follow our normal planned programme. In order to complete Digital Technology tasks across the school, Christina is released from the classroom for two hours on a Thursday, from 12.00 - 2.00. This release will be covered by a different specialist teacher each week, who will follow our normal planned programme. From time to time other teachers may require release for specific school-wide responsibilities or for other reasons (sick leave, bereavement leave, medical etc). Where possible we will use one of our specialist teachers as a reliever to minimise disruption to the children. Coming up
Library times One of the highlights of our week was our visit to the school library on Thursday afternoon. Each child has two library books in their school bag. Books are issued for two weeks at a time, but can be returned earlier than that if wished. Our regular library time is Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon. Please return library books to school in your child's reading packet, and then to the plastic box in their pod group. Change of clothes As part of our play programme, we will be regularly playing with sand, water and even dirt! We know that there will be (many) times when your child will come home wet and / or dirty. We're sorry for the extra work this causes at home, and invite you to send a change of clothes for your child if you prefer them to come home clean(ish). Subway orders / class absences / bus notices If you are filling out any of these forms, please note we are the Kowhai Learning Community! Phew - that's it for this week! Sorry for the super long novel - they won't all be like this! We hope you've all had a fantastic week back at school - we are all certainly very tired, and ready for a long weekend. We look forward to catching up with you all on Tuesday and hearing about your weekend adventures! Thelma, Nicole, Jo, Christina, Louise & Natalie kowhai@westmelton,school.nz |
K.I.T. noticesK.I.T. notices are published every second Friday. They contain information that we hope will help to keep you up-to-date with what is happening in our learning community as well as the wider school. Please feel free to comment on each week's post with any news items or community notices of your own, or to ask any questions you may have! Archives
December 2020
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