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
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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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