Monday 24 September 2018

Reading Homework

The children should all have their poetry folders at home - we are encouraging them to re-read two favourites each night this week since we are not having our usual reading programme. The children can keep their folders at home for the week - they won't need to come back to school until after the holidays.

In the meantime, please keep searching for reading books and send these back by Tuesday this week if possible so they can be returned for our stocktake.

Monty Makes a Friend for Olly

Monty has made Olly the orangutan a friend! They look like they would be great mates as both seem to enjoy bananas by the look of it! We wonder what they would get up to if they hung out together?


Sunday 23 September 2018

Week 10 (24-28 September)

Welcome to Week 10 :)

Carol Coleman's Retirement Assembly
All welcome to join us in farewelling Carol this Monday 24th September from 2.15pm in the hall.
Please note there is NO MONDAY MEET UP in the morning due to the change in time.
Afternoon tea will be served following the assembly and there will be fruit served outside or the children if you wish to stay and join us.

Classroom Release
Room 19 children have Art with Mrs McHaffie on Tuesday morning from 9-10.30am.

Reading
There will be no instructional reading or reading homework this week as we are having a reading book stocktake so we can order new reading books for next term. Please can all reading books be sent back to school for shelving by Tuesday at the latest (please encourage children to empty their reading folder books before school).

Last week a lovely parent volunteered to shelve our books for us - and we have forgotten who!
If anyone has some spare time this week we would love it if you could grab a handful of books to return for us to the reading room please. Don't feel like you need to do the whole lot yourself as the pile is steadily growing! Many hands make light work!

Black and White Mufti Day
Mufti day this Wednesday 26th September - wear black and white to support our Chess Team.
Gold coin donation please.
Sausage sizzle also on Wednesday $2.50 per sausage.
All funds go towards travel costs for the Waimairi Chess Team as they travel to Tauranga for further competitions.

No Kapa Haka this week.

Library Day Friday.

Craft Club Tuesday lunchtime.

Playground Leaders - Monday to Thursday lunchtimes.

End of Term
School finishes for the term on Friday 28th September. Have a lovely term break with the children and we look forward to seeing you all back on Monday 15th October.

Thursday 20 September 2018

Friday Reminders

Please send library books and poem folders for Friday.
Thanks.

Wednesday 19 September 2018

Headlice

Headlice is doing the rounds again... please check your child's hair (every few days is a good idea!)
Girls with long hair might want to keep their hair tied back as well.

Monday 17 September 2018

Leave Us A Comment

You are most welcome to leave a comment on anything you see that you love. The children love reading your messages.

When you leave a message, it won't show up straight away as it has to be moderated by the teachers before appearing on the blog so don't worry if you don't see it show up straight away. You don't have to create a username to leave a comment you can choose to write anonymously - however you can always add your name at the end of the comment itself so we know who it's from.

To leave a comment just click at the bottom of the blog post where it says to post a comment.

Emoji Lego Challenge

We had some fun today learning about what an emoji is and what they are used for. We enjoyed the conversations with the children as they created and shared some of their designs today. This relates to our Visual Language curriculum - learning about symbols and how people use them in everyday life.

Can you spot:
* a smiley face?
* an angry emoji?
* a thumbs up?
* a high five?
* a sad face?
* one you might use if everything turns to custard!!!? (this one provided plenty of laughter today!)




Week 9 (17-21 September)

Welcome to Week 9 :)
It's Spring!! Hopefully more of the gorgeous spring weather is to come - the children certainly love being able to get outdoors on these lovely sunny days.

Farewell and Shared Lunch
This Tuesday we farewell Taylor as she moves over to New York to live. How exciting but we will really miss Taylor. She has been a Kohara girl for nearly two years and we have watched her develop into a gorgeous young lady during her time with us. We will miss her smiles and daily chats but wish Taylor and her mum Leanne all the very best for the move. We hope you'll both continue to enjoy the Kohara blog from afar and maybe even leave us some comments from America!

You are welcome to join us outside the office at 2.45pm on Tuesday to farewell Taylor as part of our Poroporoake ceremony.

Children will also have brought home a notice about our shared lunch for Taylor for Tuesday.

2019
Our management team are currently looking at numbers in each year level for students next year. If your child will not be at Waimairi School in 2019 can you please let classroom teachers know as soon as possible. Many Thanks.

Performance
On Tuesday morning we have a performance in the hall. We look forward to watching Hine Kihawai. A reminder that a small contribution will be added to this terms account for this.
*There will be no reading homework tonight due to the performance. Please enjoy sharing your favourite library books or picture books together at home instead.

Classroom Release Time
This Wednesday afternoon Room 18 children will have PE with Mr Lukes and Room 19 children will have Art with Mrs McHaffie.

PTA Meeting
This is on Tuesday night (18th September) at 7pm in the school library. We are looking for some new members so if you've ever thought about joining or just coming along to find out more about what we do, please feel free to come along. We'd love to see you there.
This meeting we are looking at a sustainable fundraising opportunity, our upcoming fun run/walk  and our lego event amongst other things.

Calendar Art
Your order form for Calendar Art went home with the children today (attached to the shared lunch notice). Orders are due back at school by Wednesday 26th September if you would like to purchase calendars, cards or diaries. Our artworks are on display in a folder on top of the iPad cabinet - feel free to pop in and have a look. Here's a few examples from Kohara of our dandelions blowing in the breeze...





Music Extravaganza
This Thursday 20 September starting at 6.30pm, at Christchurch Boys High School hall.
Door sales from 6pm onwards and tickets cost $5 per adult or $2 for children. Please come along with family and friends to help us cover costs. We even have a few familiar faces from Kohara performing on the night - we are sure the children would love to come along and watch them in action.

*For those children performing, please make sure you have your instrument at school on Thursday for final rehearsal.*

Mrs Coleman's Farewell Assembly
Next Monday there is no morning Meet Up - this will be held at 2.15pm in the afternoon instead as we celebrate Carol ahead of her retirement at the end of the term. All parents and friends of the school (past and present) are welcome to come along and join us. Our junior kapa haka will be performing and Kohara and Korimako are also doing a song for Carol. Afternoon tea to follow - all welcome.

Mufti Days
The Cross Country red and black mufti day has been postponed until next term.

The Chess team's black and white mufti day is still on - this is on the last Wednesday of term (Wed 26 September) - wear anything black and white and bring a gold coin donation to support the Chess team.

Reading Book Returns
We've had some amazing helpers over the term who have done a super job or sorting and shelving our class reading books. Thank you so much for your time this term - it is really appreciated. If there is anyone who would like to give it a go this week (we can show you the ropes) we're sure our usual crew of volunteers would love a break. Just touch base with us if you can lend a hand - it's a job that can be done at drop off or just before pick up time or whenever suits :)

Library Day is Friday
Thanks to those who remember to send books back each week - we are loving seeing the library bags and books coming back so children can issue new books to share with you at home.

No Kapa Haka this week.

Craft Club Tuesday lunchtime from 12.45pm in Room 22.

Playground Leaders
Join the fun in the playground with the playground leaders. Monday to Thursday lunchtimes from 12.45pm.

Have a great week :)




Lola's Floral Art

Lola created a beautiful spring flower picture for Mrs O'Sullivan and Mrs Campbell. We just loved it Lola and thank you for brightening up our day.

Monty's version of Auckland

Monty made a collage city. He's been to Auckland so this is his impression of Auckland in collage. Those  skyscrapers look like they would give you a great view of the city!

Brayden and Sullivan's Airport

Brayden has travelled to Namibia this year so had some experience of airports. Sullivan had some knowledge as well so they created a futuristic airport. It has a helicopter landing pad and large windows for observing the planes. Fantastic effort boys.

Kohara Parent's Dinner This Wednesday 19th September

Remember that this Wednesday 19th September is the Kohara Parent's Dinner organised by your classroom connectors. Dinner is 7pm at Phuket Thai on Papanui Road. Please rsvp as soon as possible to Fran on 021 024 83114 or email Fran at fpaget@xtra.co.nz. Everyone welcome.
BYO. Enjoy a fun night out away from the kids!

Taylor's Farewell Shared Lunch

Sadly we are saying farewell to Taylor who is moving to America.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) is her last day so to send her on her way we thought we would have a shared lunch.

 Please can the children bring a plate for sharing tomorrow. If your child has a special dietary requirement can you please label the food. We have children with egg, nut and dairy allergies so can you please label food that contain these. If your child is gluten free or has allergies perhaps bring a small lunch as well in case the options are limited. 

Many thanks
Tracy and Monique


Thursday 13 September 2018

Upcoming Performance

On Tuesday 18 September, we welcome to our school the Taki Rua Productions who will be performing Hine Kīhawai.  The whole school will be attending.  A small contribution will be added to your child's account to support this production.

Hine Kihāwai tells the story of two tamariki fighting to hold on to their departed mother's memory. Only through retaining all that she taught them can they truly face the challenges of their turbulent world.

Junior Kapa Haka Leaders

Matua Steve has been looking for some of our junior boys to have a go at being a Kapa Haka leader. Can you spot David, Riley, Atlas, Dustyn, Caleb, Fletcher and Mylo having a go on stage? Well done for conquering your nerves and giving it a go.





Tess & Cailee's Cake

Tess and Cailee had lots of fun by the sounds of it making this delicious looking cake. They worked together to follow the instructions, reading a recipe, using fractions and symbols and doing lots of measuring. The final touch was decorating it with chocolate fingers, marshmallows and sprinkles - all their favourite decorations! At the end of the day Tess and Cailee shared it equally by cutting it in half and taking half each home to share with their families. Mathematicians as well as bakers!



Lego Challenge

This term we have included a daily lego challenge in addition to our block challenge. The children are always eager to have a go and engage with this and we are noticing some very detailed thinking, problem solving and collaboration between the children as they work alongside each other. This is also a great prompt for developing oral language and conversational skills, social skills (turn taking and sharing) and persevering when things get a bit tricky.

Here are a few photos of some of our recent challenges of superheroes, helicopters and pokemon characters...









Monty's Ramp

Monty is having so much fun with his projects at the moment - trying out new things and having a go at making things in different ways. This time he has decided to have a go at a woodwork project, making a ramp for his cars. Monty told us his challenge was getting the ramp smooth so that his cars could roll down easily and we think he persevered until he got it just right! Monty ended up using a egg carton to add on as he couldn't find a skinny enough piece of wood - great problem solving! At the end Monty decided to paint it to make it look even more special.


Playground Leaders

Our senior playground leaders run fun games and activities every lunchtime Monday to Thursday for the junior children but they had noticed that not many children had been coming to join in so they offered to spend some time getting to know us on Friday afternoons and teaching the children some of their games so that we will be more confident in coming along and joining in at lunchtimes.







Numicon Fun

Recently we had the Numicon maths equipment  and numerals out for some maths exploration. It was interesting to see the different ways that the children could use the numicon.




















Thomas used numbers up to 10 and matched them with the numicon by using pairs of numbers e.g. 2+2=4 or 6+1=7.




















Lucia was having fun ordering the kiwi numbers as she skip counted in 5s.
















We used the numicon to skip count in 2s and noticed that all the teen numbers had one blue tens piece each.




















Caleb discovered he could make the number 10 in heaps of different ways!
9+1, 6+4, 8+2... what there ways can you spot?


Pizza Day

Thanks to the PTA for organising our recent pizza day. Many of the Kohara children enjoyed their pizza lunches by the look of these photos!





Luca's Canvas Art

Luca was inspired by the canvas art that Mylo and Dustyn did earlier in the term so she planned a project around painting scenes of places she enjoys visiting. Luca started by sketching her ideas and then doing a practise painting on paper to check she was happy with it before transferring her ideas onto canvas.

Luca learnt that sometimes artists also paint the edges of the canvas if their is a background so she did this for her painting of the sunrise. However her other painting didn't have a filled in background so for that painting she left the edges white. Luca also had to think about size as her canvas was a lot smaller than the paper. Lots of thought has gone into these paintings Luca - they also make us think about similar places we enjoy spending time at.



Anika & Lucia's Pillows

Anika and Lucia have been busy creating pillows and improving their sewing techniques. They have created some pretty flash looking pillows - they will be a great addition for their bedrooms at home! Lucia thought carefully about how to make her name as she wanted to be able to lie on the pillow so she used felt for the letters which had a flat, smooth surface. Anika made hers as a decorative pillow so she chose beads to create her name instead.



Dustyn & Lochie's Art

Art is everywhere at the moment in Kohara - it is great to see the children enjoying creating artworks in many different ways. Dustyn and Lochie have been enjoying the opportunity to work together on a collaborative piece over several days.


Monty's Bee

Monty enjoyed our Science learning on bees so much that now he looks for new ways to follow his interest. Monty is often found practising his sketching of bees and in his latest project he has challenged himself to create a bee as a sewing project. Monty thought carefully about all the parts of a bee and you can see how he has included these on his sewing using lots of different materials. It looks fabulous Monty.




Luca's Weaving

Luca has been busy practising her weaving skills. Weaving is a great way to practise using your fine motor skills as there is lots of cutting out and detail in the weaving process. Weaving is also an art form - lots of artists use weaving to create interesting effects in their art.


We LOVE Reading!

We love spotting children who LOVE reading... there are lots of cosy nooks, couches and chairs for relaxing with a favourite book in Kohara. Great to see Arlo and Tess reading for pleasure.



Kobe & Riley's Art

Kobe and Riley have been enjoying the opportunity to create art - this piece was inspired by their love of sea creatures using book illustrations to guide their drawings. You can check it out on display in Kohara.




Wednesday 12 September 2018

Reliever

Welcome to Mr Julian Dent who is relieving for Mrs O on Thursday as her son is unwell.

Monday 10 September 2018

Spotted! Kids Who Love Learning!

Mrs Campbell and Mrs O spotted these gorgeous Kohara kids busy working on their independent learning tasks BEFORE school had even started the other day!!!!!!

We love how Kohara kids LOVE learning :)


Sherbet Makers - Josie & Sam, Anika & Lucia

Josie and Sam had lots of fun making sherbet together as did Anika and Lucia. Sherbet is an interesting science project - as the ingredients combine to create a reaction. It also involves accurate measuring to get just the right taste. Maths and Science!!