Kia ora koutou, Kōwhai whanau! It was lovely to see lots of you at this morning's Dance Extravaganza. We hope you enjoyed it as much as the children did! We particularly loved seeing so many of you joining in and dancing with your children, and guess there will be some fantastic family discos over the weekend. If you weren't able to join us this morning, here's a little snippet... Discovery Friday
We've had an awesome day today finding out about volcanoes! We've had artists, musicians, volcanologists and researchers all busy finding out the ins and outs of volcanoes and lava. There was so much to learn that we're going to carry on this focus through next week's literacy time. Watch this space for an awesome volcano report, and check Seesaw for some more volcano photos. Exclude the rude Many thanks for your support of our classroom programme, and our focus on kindness (see last week's K.I.T. notice for more details). We've really appreciated hearing how some of you have started to focus on the same things at home, and can see continual improvement in basic manners and general politeness towards others. Our next focus is to support children as they begin to solve their own problems. Children with minor complaints about other children (eg "he's sitting where I want to sit", or "she's reading the book I wanted") are being encouraged to talk to each other and solve their own problems. If your child comes home and reports they were not listened to (by a teacher) when trying to raise an issue, this could be why! Obviously, we're still attending to 'important' problems (blood, fire, loss of limb), and we always check in with the complainant and victim to make sure they are happy with the solution they've come to. :o) Lost property A gentle plea - can you please check that any clothing brought to school by your child is named with their own name (either given or family)? We have an increasing number of items labelled with names of previous owners, and sometimes struggle to locate the current owner of those clothes. Children do not have the most reliable memories! Fruit, containers, tricky opening things And another gentle plea - can you please check that your child is able to independently open any packaging (including peeling fruit!) in their lunch box? It gets a bit tiresome having to open 36 bananas every day... As mentioned a couple of weeks ago - If your child can not open plastic wrap / containers / bananas / tins / packets at home, they can't do it at school either! You could help by making a small cut in the corner of packaging, or by using a container that you know your child can open independently. Seesaw We currently have 38 children with 'connected' parents, and 42 who haven't signed up yet. Nearly 50%! It's a great start, but we would love to see all children and their families connected! Please see last week's K.I.T. notice for further details about how to sign up for this programme, or contact Mrs Sands if you would like some help. Happy holidays, Mrs Herring! Mrs Herring will be on leave for the next two weeks, spending time with her brother's family in Colorado. Mrs Anna Bray will be covering for Thelma while she is away. Mrs Bray has spent some time in the Kōwhai community already, working with children and meeting with teachers to plan and prepare for the coming weeks. We wish Thelma a wonderful holiday and safe travels, and look forward to seeing lots of photos and hearing about all your adventures! Have an awesome weekend! Kia pai tō mutunga wiki, Thelma, Sonja, Jo & Christina kowhai@westmelton,school.nz
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Kia ora koutou, Kōwhai whanau! Wow! We all looked fantastic in our pink gear today. Thank you for your support of Pink Shirt Day. We had a great day talking about being kind to others, and practising kindness. This fits with our current focus of 'Exclude the Rude' (more on this below). A big welcome to Paige and Blake who started school on Monday - we hope you enjoy your time in the Kōwhai Community. A big thank you to Katie (Natalie's Mum) who helped out in our classroom on Wednesday morning, and Pip (Harry's Mum) who regularly helps to put our reading books away! Exclude the Rude This week we have had a focus on 'Choosing Kindness'. We've discussed what it means to be kind, and how we show this to others. At school, being kind includes: using manners with others, waiting quietly on the carpet, following teachers' instructions, showing respect to others, sharing toys and playing nicely with others (amongst other things). Kōwhai teachers acknowledge that the majority of our learners are kind, polite and respectful. We have a small group of children who struggle with school expectations, especially with showing kindness to others. As a learning community, we have decided that we prefer to work with kindness, and that we will be 'excluding the rude'. This means that any children showing rudeness (interrupting, calling out, not following instructions, demanding immediate attention, telling tales, annoying others etc) will be given an initial warning. If the behaviour continues, they will be given a task to complete while the rest of the class continue with the fun programme. This task may be a simple jigsaw puzzle - the idea is not to 'punish' a child, but rather to show what behaviours are acceptable at school. Your child may come home and tell you about this. We have fancy hand signals and use the phrases 'Exclude the Rude' and 'Choose to be Kind' or 'Kōwhai Kindness'. We spend time in the mornings discussing this, and asking children which choice they have made. We are very pleased to say that there has been a considerable improvement in behaviour already (and we've only been doing this for a few days!) We appreciate your support at home in reinforcing what is kind and appropriate behaviour, and supporting children as they solve their own problems. Discovery Friday Our Discovery Friday topic built on our work around 'Exclude the Rude' from earlier in the week. We focused on being kind, and on making kind choices. We watched an awesome interactive story 'Oat the Goat', and recommend watching this with your child at home. There are opportunities to make your own choices about what Oat should do. For 'homework', we have asked each child to do five kind actions for other people. You can help your child to identify what would be kind and who they could do these things for. Suggestions at school included:
Morning routine To assist us in our learning programme, and to ensure a positive start to the day for all children, we ask that you settle your child to school before 8.50. For most children this will mean a quick goodbye (hug and kiss) and leaving promptly while they play. It is entirely normal for children to feel sad when dropped at school, however they usually are playing happily within five minutes. If any child remained unsettled, please rest assured you would be contacted immediately. If you have specific concerns, please see your child's pod teacher. On to something more positive... Dances for school We have loved our dance sessions this week! And the teachers have loved their moments of Kōwhai cuteness as the children learnt three different styles of dancing. Below are some photos for your enjoyment, and you can see a short video on Seesaw (check details below). We are super excited to share our dances with you in a dance extravaganza. This will be held on Friday May 25 at 9.00 in the Wharenui. Please arrive promptly as there is limited seating. Pre reading workshop
Thank you to all those who attended Wednesday's after school meeting. If you were not able to attend, please follow up with your child's pod teacher at your earliest convenience. You can find more information on how to support your child at this level, here. Seesaw We have started using Seesaw, so we can easily share and communicate your child's learning at school. Seesaw is private, so posts about your child will only be seen by you (except for group or whole class posts). Signing up to Seesaw allows you to receive updates in real time, and to respond to your child's posts with a message (lots of children enjoy this interactive feature, and the feedback from home). To access your child's profile, click here. Choose your child's name from the list, and create your own account. You will need to wait for a Kōwhai teacher to approve your association with a child before you can see any content. If you have previously used Seesaw with another child, you do not need to create another account - simply click 'sign in'. Individual posts can be shared with Grandparents etc at your discretion. If you would like some help with this, or some more information, contact Christina ([email protected]). The Kōwhai teachers are eagerly anticipating the Wedding of the Year on Saturday night. We were slightly surprised that we didn't receive an invitation, but expect to be asked to baby sit in due course. Have an awesome weekend! Kia pai tō mutunga wiki, Thelma, Sonja, Jo & Christina kowhai@westmelton,school.nz Kia ora koutou, Kōwhai whanau!
Another wonderful week in the Kōwhai community has flown by. We've really enjoyed the sunshine this week, and the opportunities to get outside and play during the day. Fingers crossed the fine weather lasts a bit longer! Welcome to Alice who started school with us this week! We hope you enjoy your time in the Kōwhai community. On Monday we had a mihi whakatau to welcome all our new learners and their whanau to school. It has recently been decided that these will be held at the beginning of each term, to welcome new learners as they start at West Melton School. Library books We've recently discovered some errors in our library database. This means that some children are showing as having books issued to them, when these have actually been returned all ready. We are aware of the error, and have made inquiries into getting this resolved. There is no need to contact your child's pod teacher about library books. We will contact you if we have any queries. Cross country We had lovely weather for our cross country on Tuesday! Well done to all runners for their amazing running and determination to finish. Our Kōwhai emphasis was on participation, and sustained running. We were proud of all our children for taking part and trying something new. Pink Shirt day Next Friday is Pink Shirt Day as part of the annual anti-bullying campaign run by the Mental Health Foundation. All children are invited to wear a pink t-shirt or top with normal school uniform 'bottoms', and to bring a gold coin donation towards this worthy cause. Bikes and scooters Our school policy states that bikes and scooters can only be ridden on the school bike track, and are not to be ridden through the school grounds. This ensures that all members of our school family are kept safe, especially around busy pick up and drop off times. We appreciate your support by ensuring that adults and preschoolers also follow these guidelines. Lunch containers Please help us! If your child can not open plastic wrap / containers / bananas / tins / packets at home, they can't do it at school either! You could help by making a small cut in the corner of packaging, or by using a container that you know your child can open independently. Reading readiness workshop Next Wednesday afternoon (starting after school at 3.15ish), the Kōwhai teachers will be holding a brief meeting to outline and explain some useful strategies for children who are just beginning reading, or have just started school. This meeting is open to everyone, but only of interest to those with children in a 'pre-reading' group. If you are not sure, please check with a Kōwhai teacher. We intend to run workshops for other groups of readers in the coming weeks. Please leave a comment below if this is something you would be interested in, or if there are other areas where you are wondering how to support your child at home. Parent help We'd love some help in the classroom to enrich our play experiences. This week we had pirate ships, World War 1 trenches, loads of Fairy Tale plays as well as all the other things we normally play. If you are able to spare an hour or so in a week, please let your child's pod teacher know, or leave a comment below. We're happy if you want to just pop in - no need to book in advance! Have a wonderful weekend! Kia pai tō mutunga wiki, Thelma, Sonja, Jo & Christina kowhai@westmelton,school.nz Kia ora koutou, Kōwhai whanau! Welcome back to Term 2! We've had a fabulous first week back at school - it's been lovely to catch up with all the children, and to hear about their holiday adventures. This is quite a lengthy K.I.T. notice - find a spot in the sunshine and a coffee to help you through. :o) A big Kōwhai welcome to Elsie, Kayla, Caya, Molly, Chloe, Sienna, Beau, Lily, and Saffron who have started school for the first time this week. Welcome to Hunter who joins our learning community from Rolleston, and Indigo who is transferring from Yaldhurst. We hope all of these children have a fantastic year in the Kōwhai community. Library day We've made a change to our library day. We now visit the library on a Friday afternoon. Please ensure your child's library books are in their reading packet for a change on Friday. The library is open at lunchtimes during the week, so if your child would like to change their books more often, there is an opportunity to do this. Head lice Head lice (nits) are doing the rounds again. They are surprisingly common in schools and other places where young children congregate. Please take the time to check your child's hair, and to treat as required. You can find more information on head lice here. Cross country Our cross country will take place on Tuesday (May 8) from 10.00 - 11.30. This involves all children running a lap of Kirrin Island (in Preston Downs). Please note the following points:
Lunchtime
At the end of last term we changed the format of our lunchtimes so that children were playing first, and then eating at the end of lunchtime, just before the learning time. We have decided to continue this trial until Week 4 of this term, and will seek feedback from our children, their parents and our teachers at this time. Parent helpers We would love some parent help in our learning community! If you are free in the mornings between 8.50 (school drop off) and 11.00, or from 11.20 - 12.00 (on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday), we would love to hear from you! We are especially looking for somebody who could supervise sandpit or outdoor play, or who would be happy to bake with a small group of children. If you are interested in helping, please let your child's pod teacher know! Learning support parent workshop The learning support parent workshop will be held at 7pm on Tuesday May 8, in the Kōwhai learning community. The aim for the night is to:
Please email through any questions you have, and the presenters will endeavour to answer these for you on the night, or privately if preferred (please indicate your preference). Entertainment books The Friends of West Melton School (FoWMS) are selling Entertainment books as a fundraiser. Children were given an information flyer today with details about purchasing these - please check your child's school bag for this! Books cost $70 each, and the school receives $14 from the sale of each book. Our school link for purchasing is: www.entbook.co.nz/135s003 Fab Five A reminder that our Fab Five (release) time is on Thursday morning from 8.00 - 10.00 for this term. This means that the Fab Five teachers will be in the Kōwhai learning community before school and at the start of the day each Thursday, and also means that the Kōwhai teachers will be unavailable for meetings or catch-ups before school on Thursdays. We will be reminding the children on Wednesday afternoon, and setting up our new expectations for Thursday at that time. For those parents new to our school, our Fab Five teachers are specialist teachers in visual art, PE, music, and drama. They work with all learners across our school each Thursday. Classroom teachers are released during this time to complete admin tasks, undertake professional development, or complete assessment and reporting responsibilities. Discovery Friday Today we talked about Fairy Tales. Thanks to those parents who sent Fairy Tale books with their child for BYOB (bring your own book). You might notice there's no poem today! We ran out of time, because we had a practise for our cross country, and there were loads of stories to share and discuss. We'll be continuing this theme throughout next week (and next Friday). As always, if you have any questions, please either email your child's pod teacher (firstname,[email protected]), or use [email protected] for all Kōwhai teachers, or feel free to comment below! Have a wonderful weekend! Kia pai tō mutunga wiki, Thelma, Sonja, Jo & Christina 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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