Kia ora koutou, Kōwhai whanau, Kei te pēhea koe? | How are you feeling? It's the end of week 8, and we're all pretty ngenge (tired) around here! It's been a super busy week, with lots of different things going on! We've noticed a few children have started to 'hit the wall' (not literally), and we know from our conversations with you that some of you are having similar experiences at home. Kia kaha! We have just two weeks until the next school holidays, the days are getting longer, and daylight saving is nearly here. The week that was... This week we've all enjoyed a brief cricket coaching session. We have one or two children who may feature in the Black Caps in the future, some could even get there this season if necessary! ;o) The children brought home a small piece of paper with details on how to get involved with cricket if you were looking for a summer sport for your child. We also enjoyed a visit to the fire station! It was fantastic to see the new station, the fire engines, and all the fire fighters' gear. We were allowed a little sit in the fire engine, and were even allowed to use the hose! We're told the official opening of the fire station will be held in October, with a community day for everyone to have a look through. Ahakoa iti, ākona, kōrerotia - Learn a little, use a little This week we've celebrated Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori by talking about our feelings. You may have noticed our teachers wearing wee 'emotion' cards - not to show how they are feeling, but to use with our Kōwhai children! We've been really interested to see that some emotions are not 'recognised' or able to be described by our children, and have been deliberately discussing and highlighting those emotions when we see them. Emotions like 'proud', 'embarrassed' and 'frustrated' have been discussed this week. We're emphasising that none of our emotions are 'bad', but we do need to think carefully about how we respond to them. You might like to follow this up at home as you see various emotions over the weekend! Reminder A gentle reminder that children can not be supervised before 8.20am. We realise that there may be occasions when you need to drop your child to school slightly earlier, in which case children are welcome to play outside. Our teachers really need time first thing in the morning to catch up with each other and any specific details around children or timetable changes. Pre-entry visits After a flurry of New Entrants in Term 1 and 2, this term has been rather quiet! We expect to welcome a few more visitors over the next two weeks, in preparation for starting school in Term 4. We're starting to look ahead to organisation for 2019, so if you know of any pre-schoolers who are starting later this year or early next year, please check if they are pre-enrolled, or that we are aware of them in our school system. At this stage we expect to finish the year with around 100 children (and five teachers). We will continue with the four pod teachers and pod arrangements as they currently stand, with Mrs McFarlane being used in a supporting role. Reading at home We've been analysing our assessment data in preparation for reports (as mentioned last week), and notice that many of our children need support with learning and recognising high frequency words. Previously we've sent these home on small laminated cards, as a child reaches a new 'colour' level. We're aware that some of these get lost, so will be making an electronic copy available on our blog. Mrs Sands will be working on doing this over the weekend, and you will find it on a new page - 'Things to help at home'. We'll be adding new ideas to this over the rest of the year. Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi Thanks for your on-going support - it is very much appreciated! We wish you all a wonderful weekend in the sunshine. Kia pai tō mutunga wiki!
Thelma, Sonja, Jo, Lisa, Rachel, Christina & Kim kowhai@westmelton,school.nz
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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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