Kia ora koutou, Kōwhai whanau, Firstly - our apologies for the lateness of this notice! Thanks for your patience. :o) A big Kōwhai welcome this week to Mrs Rachel Stott who has joined us as our regular release teacher. Mrs Stott has been in Kōwhai several times throughout this year as a relieving / guest teacher. We are delighted that we will be seeing her more often! Mrs Stott will be working one day each fortnight (usually a Thursday, but this may need to change from time to time). We've noticed this week (as you probably have!) that we have some super tired children in Kōwhai. It's a good time for us all to practice patience and kindness. Today we hid our #kowhairocks that we made last week, and we sent this message out to our school friends (via email) and our community (via Facebook). "Kia ora everyone, So happy rock hunting! We're really excited about seeing how far our rocks travel, and can't wait to see your photos (no pressure!) Photos Today we sent home very large (empty) envelopes for ordering photos in. You'll find your envelope in the schoolbag of your eldest or only child. Some envelopes were folded quite small, and may not be recognisable as envelopes - they are A4 size, and feature printed writing on one side. Instructions on how to view photos were included in the email about KIT notices sent to all families. Lucy Hone - resilience session Dr Lucy Hone is the director of the New Zealand Institute of Wellbeing and Resilience. She is a highly regarded public speaker, and also writes for the Sunday Star Times. Our Kāhui Ako have arranged for her to speak on October 18 at 7pm. Although this is a free session, tickets are limited. Check the poster below for more information, or today's school newsletter, and plan to come along. You can read more about Lucy and her work here. Community showcase of learning You may have seen this advertised in our whole school newsletter. Our showcase will be held on the morning of Friday September 14. A timetable for the day can be viewed here. And that's it! Sorry again for the big wait. We hope you have a fantastic weekend. Happy Father's Day, Dads and Grandads. Hei te Rāhina, Thelma, Sonja, Jo, Lisa, Rachel, Christina & Kim kowhai@westmelton,school.nz
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Kia ora koutou, Kōwhai whanau, Wow - the end of week 5 already! The term is rocketing by. It's been another busy week, and we're all super tired at the end of it! This week's KIT notice has been brought to you by the letter 'S'! Staff changes A warm welcome to Lisa McFarlane (Mrs McFarlane) who has joined our teaching team this week. Mrs McFarlane has replaced Rachael Fearn, who has resigned due to personal reasons. Please introduce yourself to Lisa and make her feel welcome in our community. Mrs Rachel Stott will continue to work in our community as required, and we are grateful that we have been able to find such capable teachers at relatively short notice! Next week we also welcome Miss Kim Bradley to the Kōwhai community. Kim is a second-year student at the University of Canterbury, and will be based in Kōwhai to complete a five-week teaching placement. Please help Kim to feel welcome in our community and introduce yourself and your child. Kim will be working alongside Christina - if you have any questions, please talk to Christina. Stones (Discovery Friday) Today we talked (again) about ways we can show kindness to each other, and how we might help spread Kōwhai Kindness throughout our school and the West Melton community. Have a look at some of the ideas we came up with:
As part of our plan to spread Kōwhai Kindness, Saffy's mum (Caraline) came to school for the morning and helped us paint our own #kowhairocks. Our sincere thanks to Caraline for all her time, and her patient explanation and demonstrations. Our thanks as well to Tim (Grace's Dad) for donating testpots for us to use.
Sickness
We still have a few bugs around in our community. Please help to prevent the spread of these by keeping unwell children at home. We don't have facilities to keep unwell children inside at break times, so your child would need to be well enough (and warm enough) to spend time outside the day. Scratch, scratch, scratch (Head lice) They're still around! Please take the time over the weekend to check your child's hair, and treat as required. You'll find some information in our previous KIT notices to help with advice and tips. Stop And that's it! Six 's' things to share! :o) We hope you have a super weekend, with lots of sunshine and smiles, and we look forward to seeing you all again on Monday. Hei te Rāhina, Thelma, Sonja, Jo, Lisa & Christina kowhai@westmelton,school.nz Kia ora koutou, Kōwhai whanau!
A slightly shorter week this week, due to the NZEI strike action on Wednesday, so we'll celebrate with a shorter K.I.T. notice! :o) Many thanks to all of you for your on-going support of our classroom programme, our learners, and us as teachers. We have really appreciated your kind messages and emails. We had a 'wheely' great day today celebrating wheels! It was lots of fun riding around the track this morning, and holding some Kōwhai races. We've sent out lots of photos and videos via Seesaw - please have a look, and add a comment if you like! Classroom resources Thanks very much to all those who have sent along small stones or Resene testpot vouchers. We would still love donations of both! We're planning a #kowhairocks workshop for the very near future - we just need to make sure we have enough resources first! We're also very grateful for the boxes, tubes and containers that have been brought to school - keep them coming, please! This week we've had learners who have made predator tracking stations, to keep track of any predators who might be roaming around school (nothing yet, phew!). We've had some ninja warriors (they were pretty hard to spot because of their stealthy ninja moves), and we've also had robots, fire engines and some beautifully painted boxes! Thinking ahead to next week - we're already wondering if wheels have to be round. We've seen some square wheels, and we're wondering about triangles, rectangles, and other shapes. The teachers are thinking we might need more tubes or cylinders, something to use as axles and various other things to make 'wheels'. If you have anything suitable at home, please feel free to send it along! Learner workshops We continue to be amazed at the things our Kōwhai children are discovering, and their confidence to share their ideas and lead others in their learning. This week we've had a very busy hospital with a few expectant mums (no babies, fortunately - imagine the noise!), quite a few broken limbs with paper casts, and even the odd 'wound' requiring stitches (fortunately we couldn't find any needles). The dragons are making a steady comeback, and the fire station is still featuring strongly! There have been regular Jump Jam competitions (with an amazing trophy for first, second, and first girl) and still a few rugby and handball sessions. Great stuff! Library We're continuing with our library visits on a Thursday morning - please ensure your child has their books at school so they are able to borrow new books. Our library had a full stocktake during the week, and invoices were emailed for any outstanding overdue books. Our librarian is confident that all books in the library have now been returned in the system, and that overdue books have not been shelved accidentally without being returned! That's it for this week! We hope you all have a great weekend, and we look forward to seeing you all again on Monday morning. :o) Hei te Rāhina, Thelma, Sonja, Jo, Rachael & Christina kowhai@westmelton,school.nz Kia ora koutou, Kōwhai whanau!
Not that we're counting or anything, but this is two weeks in a row that our KIT notice has been ready on time! Great work, Kōwhai teachers! :o) It's been another busy week in Kōwhai - we've had a lot of children away throughout the week with end-of-winter coughs and colds, chickenpox (still) and even hay fever starting to make its presence felt. We've all enjoyed the sunshine and warmer days, and have noticed it's been much lighter in the morning and evenings - spring is on its way! Head lice Another sign that spring is coming - head lice have made a re-appearance! Please take the time to check your child's hair over the weekend and treat as required. You'll find more information on head lice and how to treat them here. A gentle reminder that long hair should be tied back at school - this helps prevent the spread of head lice, and also helps to keep children safe while they swing, dangle and jump from playgrounds. Parent helps A huge 'thank you' to Andrea (Bonnie's mum), Katie (Natalie's mum) and Karla (Leo's mum) for their help this week. We've had pom poms, science experiments, lots of bug hunting and even bug habitats made. Yamato taught us about life in Japan (specifically Japanese theme parks), and Max helped us with some building and construction! And we've had lots of interest in volcanoes, doctors, lizards, snakes, dragons, airports, fire engines, washing clothes, and making books. After our busy afternoon with the Totara children, we're also very keen to learn about predators, and to make rat and mice tracking stations. If you were able to help a small group with their 'research' and discovery that would be awesome. Feel free to pop in any day between 9.00 - 12.00 and we can find a group to work with you. We've started a new display of our learning from our workshops on the far (west) wall of our learning community - come and have a look to see what we've been learning about, and how you might be able to support and extend your child's learning at home. A big 'thank you' to Sally (Elsie's mum) for the playdough a few weeks ago. We'd love some more, please - if anyone was able to whip some up over the weekend it would be much appreciated. Stones, paint, and other treasures We're planning a super exciting workshop with lots of stones and paint - it's a big surprise at the moment, so we can't share too many details! But we do need lots of flat stones (not too big - 3 cm wide would be perfect). If you're down by the river over the weekend, or if you're doing some gardening at home and come across some stones - please gather some for us! These can be sent to school over the next couple of weeks. We're also after some Resene paint - test pots would be perfect (not left over house paint!) We'd like lots of brights colours. We don't expect you'll find these down by the river (!!!), but we do wonder if you have any vouchers (they used to be on receipts), or if you have any contacts in the painting or building industry who might be able to hook us up! And (goodness, we're needy!) - we'd also love some boxes! Shoe boxes would be perfect (we're trying to make animal habitats), but we'll also use cereal boxes, museli bar boxes - all those boxes that usually go in the recycling. Basically, anything that you think is junk - we can find a use for it. And the good news is - you'll probably get it all home again in the form of some creation. :o) Library Our library day continues to be Thursday - we visit first thing on a Thursday morning, and managed to get all children to the library this week! We are aware that there are some cases where library books have been returned to the library but not recorded as returned in the library system. The library is undergoing a stocktake in the coming week, and we hope this will resolve any outstanding issues. Wednesday August 15 Please remember this day has been set aside as a strike for teachers. School will not be open, and you will need to make alternative arrangements for the care of your child on this day. Star Jam and Wheels Day Next Friday (August 17) is Jump Jam for Star Jam and Wheels Day. We're sure there will be more information about these events coming out over the next week. Please note that helmets are compulsory for Wheels Day (if you are bringing a scooter or bike!) - you won't need a helmet if you are just walking... Homework We don't have too many formal homework expectations in Kōwhai, but do hope that you manage to read with or to your child each night. Children learn to read by practising reading, and regular practice is essential to form good reading habits and to help early reading processes become automatic. Ten minutes each night would be wonderful! We know it's often hard to fit these things, and that families are busy, but we also know how important these early years are. Thanks for your support at home - if you have specific questions about reading, and how to help your child at home, please check in with your child's pod teacher. The Kōwhai teachers have been talking about how we can support spelling development at home. Watch this space as we come up with some (simple!) ideas. That's it for another week! Our congratulations to Mrs Beaumont who is in the process of moving into her new house - we hope you have a great weekend unpacking boxes, Mrs Beaumont! And thanks for the inspiration for today's Discovery Friday. :o) Enjoy the sunshine over the weekend everyone - rugby parents, enjoy your sleep-in! Football parents - not long to go... Hei te Rāhina, Thelma, Sonja, Jo, Rachael & Christina kowhai@westmelton,school.nz Kia ora koutou, Kōwhai whanau!
Woo hoo! Look at us getting this notice out on time. Go Kōwhai! Special visitors This week we were visited by Professor Toby Greany (visiting fellow) and Associate Professor Susan Lovett from the University of Canterbury. They were accompanied by three representatives of the Ministry of Education, and other principals from schools in our Kāhui Ako. They all enjoyed the opportunity to look through our Kōwhai learning space and spend some time talking with the children about their learning. They were impressed with the imagination and creativity shown by the Kōwhai learners, and their engagement with their learning. Parent help Further to the comment above - we've had some fascinating discussions this week, and had many children involved in running or organising 'workshops' around their learning and personal investigations. We've had workshops in basketball, rugby, geology, robot making, wood work, composing, making books, and many many more! No wonder we're all a bit pooped by the end of the week! However - there's always room for more. This week we've had some very keen learners wanting to find out about lizards, insects, pendulums, wiring diagrams, pulleys, ramps, calendars and more. If you were able to come and spend some time with these learners helping with their research and discovery, that would be very much appreciated (by us and them!) One of the hardest conversations this week has been having to say "Not right now" to the question "Can you please help me with my lizard research?" NZEI Teacher Strike By now you will have seen or heard about the Teacher Strike set down for Wednesday August 15th. Our BoT has emailed parents with information about this day, and this has also been shared on the school Facebook page. As much as we love our jobs, and love working with you and your children, we have to acknowledge that we need more time, more support, and more numbers (teachers) on the ground. Please note that school will be closed on August 15th, and make alternative arrangements for the care of your children on this day. Illnesses This week we've had a few winter illnesses, tummy bugs, and the odd case of chickenpox to add a bit of 'interest' to the week! We hope you and your whanau keep well and avoid the latest bugs. A gentle reminder to please keep unwell children at home, as this helps to prevent the spread of illness for our children and teachers. If you haven't had chickenpox before, this website might help with the early stages of identification. Bus vest spot check Thank you to all of our students who consistently wear their bus vests when travelling on our school buses. Our bus contract states that bus vests must be worn by children when travelling on our school buses. They are given out at the beginning of the year to keep children safe by making them highly visible to other road users when they get on and off the buses. We will be doing a spot check on Monday afternoon for bus vests. This will give everyone who has misplaced their bus vest an opportunity to find or replace it over the weekend. Hell Pizza reading wheels Last week we gave out pizza wheels as part of book week. If your children has completed their pizza wheel, these can be returned to your pod teacher who will stamp them and then return them to you so you can claim your free pizza! Kōwhai teachers will verify wheels once they are completed (not book by book as some learning communities are doing). Library Our library day is a Thursday, and we visit first thing in the morning. Please ensure your child has their library books in their reading packet on a Thursday so their books can be exchanged. Thanks. Have a great weekend, and we'll see you all Monday! Go the Mighty Crusaders!!! Hei te Rāhina, Thelma, Sonja, Jo, Rachael & 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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