Kia ora koutou, Kōwhai whanau!
Wow - it's Thursday and the end of the week already! This K.I.T. notice has snuck up on us, so we apologise for not quite being ready in time. We hope you all have a safe and happy Easter - remember that school is closed on Tuesday, and drive safely if you're travelling anywhere. Library A friendly reminder that our library day is Wednesday. Please send library books back to school in your child's reading packet on the day. Walk-a-thon All children need to bring their sponsorship money back by Friday 6 April. The FoWMS are fundraising for safety matting under a new playground to be built just outside our Kōwhai learning community. Thanks for your support of this fund-raiser! Toys at school A wee reminder that we do not encourage the bringing of toys to school. This week we've noticed quite a few LOL dolls, the odd matchbox car, and even a (working) camera. We can not guarantee the security of toys at school, not ensure that they are cared for appropriately. We appreciate your support from home in ensuring that all toys are left at home. Lost property We have some grey 'Artengo' shoes, with velcro and laces and a lime green sole. They are size 13.5 US, and we are guessing that they belong to somebody who spends a lot of time in the sandpit! We've left them in the doorway of our Learning Community in case you want to 'inspect' them over the weekend! We've also got a pair of blue slip-on shoes, also looking suspiciously like they've been in the sandpit. They're also in the doorway of our Learning Community! Reports Reports will be sent home at the end of the term. These reports are for children who have been at school for 6 months or 1 year. We have two types of reports - a progress report (at 6 months, 18 months and 30 months) which reports the progress your child is making in reading, writing, and maths; and an end of year report (at 1 year, 2 years and 3 years) which reports the progress your child has made against National Standards (in reading, writing, and maths), as well as a comment about their work in other school areas - health and PE, the arts, and inquiry. If you have any questions about reports, or are unsure if your child will be receiving a report, please feel free to check with your child's pod teacher. The children are all super tired, and we hope you have a relaxing and restful break over Easter. Daylight Saving Time ends on Sunday morning - we're all looking forward to an extra hour in bed! Kia pai tō mutunga wiki, Thelma, Sonja, Jo & Christina kowhai@westmelton,school.nz
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Kia ora koutou, Kōwhai whanau!
What a great way to end our week with the walk-a-thon this morning. We were so happy that the weather held out and the children all tried their best. We were all grateful for the lemonade ice-block at the end and wish to thank the FoWMS for this fantastic event that supports our school. An extra special Kōwhai welcome to George who started school this week. We hope you an awesome time in the Kōwhai Community, George! Spelling books - A friendly reminder It has been fantastic seeing so many children use their spelling books to practise the letter sound for the day. If you could help them think of three pictures that they could draw to show the sound and practise the formation of the letter that would help reinforce their learning for the day. Community meetings Tuesday 27 March, 7.00 - 8.30 Reading and writing information evening Discovery Friday Today we enjoyed singing some songs about walking after participating in the walk-a-thon. Walk-a-thon The children have their walk-a-thon card in their reading packet so that you know how many laps they completed to enable you to collect their sponsorship money. As a school we are focussing on respect and specifically good manners, using the acronym of STEPS. You may also find this useful at home. Smile Thank you Excuse me Please Sorry Lunchtime Opportunities During term 2, the school provides lunchtime opportunities for learner's eg, chess, card-making, scrap booking, sport, games, etc. If you have a particular skill, talent or interest that you would like to share, please let us know when you'd be available. Remember that next week is a short week due to Easter, and don't forget that school will also be closed on the Tuesday 3 April. We hope you have a great weekend, and we'll see you all Monday! Kia pai tō mutunga wiki, Thelma, Sonja, Jo & Christina kowhai@westmelton,school.nz Kia ora koutou, Kōwhai whanau! It's a super short K.I.T. notice this week! You probably won't even have time to finish your coffee (or wine) before you finish reading! An extra special Kōwhai welcome to Maia who started school this week. We hope you an awesome time in the Kōwhai Community, Maia! Assessment Our assessment and preparation for report writing will continue next week. There may (again) be some disruption to our regular programme while we complete important assessments in literacy and maths. Once again - we'll be leaving reading books in reading packets to ensure you have a selection of reading materials! Spelling books All children have spelling books in their reading packets. These are used daily to help with our practice of hearing and identifying sounds in words. We listen carefully to our target sound, and think whether we can hear it at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a word. Each sound is accompanied by a short song (you'll get to know the tune after the first one or ten times you hear it!). We have asked the children to draw three pictures at home that feature the focus sound, as well as practise their correct letter formation. There is a sheet at the front of the spelling book that describes correct letter formation - please notice we are only practising lower-case letter formation. Please help your child to spend five minutes or so each night practising these sounds, and making a connection with the letter that has made that sound. We were going to put a book mark into the book to show what sound we worked on however the children should be able to tell you the sound of the day and please note that we are not doing it in a set order. Community meetings There are a number of parent evenings coming up that you could be interested in attending: Monday 19 March, 7.00 - 9.00 Friends of West Melton (FoWMS) AGM Tuesday 20 March, 6.00 - 7.00 Whanau Hui (RSVP to [email protected]) Tuesday 27 March, 7.00 - 8.30 Reading and writing information evening Discovery Friday Today we looked at 'transportation'. We thought about all the different ways we come to school, and made some graphs showing this information. We used our imaginations to think of lots of different ways we could travel, and what transport might look like in the future! Please have a look at our Discovery Friday tab for some photos of our thinking - and our thanks to those parents who have commented on last week's learning, or sent photos and support materials along during the week! Oderings school gardens show Our congratulations to the Eco Warriors (and their helpers) for their fantastic efforts in this competition. Last night we heard they had won a gold medal for their garden entry! The Kōwhai children helped to make some newspaper flowers for the garden. If you would like to view the gardens over the weekend, head along to the Woolston Club (43 Hargood Street, Woolston). More information on the gardens show is available here. Walk-a-thon Next Friday is our whole school walk-a-thon. We were supposed to send home a notice about this from the Friends of West Melton School, but have forgotten in the end-of-week rush! We're really sorry, and will send this home on Monday. In the meantime, below is a copy of the sponsorship sheet if you wanted to start collecting sponsors over the weekend!
Our sympathies to Mrs Sands on the passing of her Uncle earlier this week. Mrs Sands will be away from Tuesday to Thursday attending his funeral in Blenheim. And that's everything for this week! Short and sweet. We hope you have a great weekend, and we'll see you all Monday! Kia pai tō mutunga wiki, Thelma, Sonja, Jo & Christina kowhai@westmelton,school.nz Kia ora koutou, Kōwhai whanau!
And just like that - we are half-way through Term 1. :o) The days are starting to get shorter, the temperature is slowly dropping, winter sport sign-ups are happening and the summer sports are coming to an end... As often happens at this time of year, we've started to notice a few coughs and sniffles around the place. Even our teachers are not immune - Mrs Herring has been home sick this week with a sore throat which turned to laryngitis! We look forward to welcoming Mrs Herring back next week after she has rested and recovered. This week we welcomed Charli to the Kōwhai Learning Community - we hope you enjoy your time in the Kōwhai Community! NPDL parent evening Our thanks to those of you who were able to attend the NPDL (New Pedagogies for Deep Learning) parent workshop during the week. If you were unable to attend, we understand that a link to the presentation will be shared via the school newsletter or website. We will clarify this once we have this information confirmed. We look forward to making connections to our NPDL learning - you may notice some extra information being added to our wall displays. Our next parent workshop is our Whānau hui on March 20th at 6.00. Further details on this meeting were included in last week's K.I.T. notice. Discovery Friday Today we discovered what it would be like to live under the sea! It was a terrifically exciting day with lots of enthusiasm and loads of questions to follow up next week. Thanks to those children who brought supporting resources from home. We all agreed today was 'jawsome'! Have a look at our 'Discovery Friday' tab for some photos and video from the day, as well as some links to support your learning at home. Celebration of Learning We were proud to share our learning about the rain at this morning's Celebration of Learning. If you were there and took some photos or video, we would love to see them, please! Please comment below or email them through to your pod teacher so we can add them to our blog. Assessment Our teachers are getting ready to write reports for those children who are due to receive a report at the end of Term 1 (children who have been at school for six months or 1 year). Next week we will be assessing in the key areas of literacy and maths. This will cause some disruption to our regular programme, so please do not be alarmed if your child comes home without a reading book each day. We have left this week's readers in reading packets to ensure you have a selection of reading material. Guest teachers Next week Mrs Herring and Mrs B will both be attending an off-site course about implementing Restorative Justice. They will be away from school from Wednesday - Friday. We will have two guest teachers in the Community at this time. Kia pai tō mutunga wiki, have a jawsome weekend! Thelma, Sonja, Jo & Christina kowhai@westmelton,school.nz Kia ora koutou, Kōwhai Parents and Caregivers, Kei te pehea koe? | How are you feeling? Today we talked about our feelings - it seemed the ideal Discovery topic when we've all been feeling a bit 'out of sorts' and super tired over the last week! We've discussed lots of different feelings, and we've talked about how we might respond to those feelings in the best way - not everything requires tears as a first response! You might want to follow-up on this discussion with your child over the weekend - we tried to watch the movie 'Inside Out' this afternoon as a great way to identify different feelings, but unfortunately the technology was against us - this could be a good quiet day choice for the weekend. We welcomed Sam to school this week - we hope you enjoy your time in the Kōwhai community! And we said 'farewell' to Harold the Giraffe and the Life Education caravan as Harold and Amanda moved on to another school. Today we have sent home the activity pack that Harold gave each child - again, please take the time over the weekend to discuss the activities and ideas within them with your child. Thanks Our thanks to those of you who were able to attend our Learning through Play parent workshop on Tuesday evening. We appreciate the questions and positive feedback we've received. If you get a chance in a morning (or after school!) do pop in to see the different areas and things the children have created as part of their play. We've currently got some or-some octopus pictures on display, some very creative space-creature posters, an amazing Kowhai Kai recipe book, and some competing Hair Salons (without scissors!) If you're looking for a cut or colour, or a mohawk for your sheep, do come and check out their prices. You will find our presentation below as a pdf document, and the handout is also available electronically below.
Conversations with your child Some parents have expressed concerns that their child doesn't talk about their school day. This can be common for this age group. From our experience as parents, we've found that it's best to avoid direct questions such as 'what did you do today (in maths, reading, writing etc)?'. You could model talking about your own day, as this may trigger a memory or spark a conversation. There are lots of good ideas on the internet and question or conversation starters - if you have a favourite, please mention it in the comments below. Swimming The temperature in the pool has dropped significantly, and so we have had to make the call that this week of swimming was the last week. We will not be swimming again until the end of the year. We know there are some items of clothing that have been mixed up and returned to the wrong people after swimming. Some of this is clearly named, so please check you have the correct uniform items. If you are missing / looking for items, please comment below. There is a lost property box (for the whole school) at the western end of the brick building in front of our classroom. Please check here for any missing containers, lunch boxes, towels, underwear, clothing, or children. ;o) Reminders
Whanau hui We have a whanau hui coming up on March 20 from 6pm. Please register your interest by phone or email to Carolyn ([email protected]). See the poster below for more information. Kia pai tō mutunga wiki (have a great weekend),
Thelma, Sonja, Jo & Christina kowhai@westmelton,school.nz Aargh! It's been one of those days, and we're not quite ready...
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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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