Reminders

A reminder that Poetry folders need to be returned to school every Monday please. These are kept in the children's tote trays.

Also ALL children need to have a reading folder and bring it every day. This year the children keep their reading books for the week in their reading folders and we collect the books in on a Monday.  This gives the children opportunities to re-read their favourite stories during the week.

A big thank you to those families who sent their child's library bag along for our first visit to the school library on Friday. Any kind of material bag is fine - you can reuse last years or use a re-useable fabric shopping bag. The school office also sells the blue library bags if you prefer to buy a new one.

Thanks for your support with this - it makes it a lot easier to be a self-managing learner when you have everything you need at school.

Farewell Phoenix

On Friday we said farewell to Phoenix who is moving to a new school closer to where she lives. We will miss her smiley face and creativity in Kohara.

Tea Set Project

Stella, Josie and Lucia created a model tea set. Notice the detail! They have shared it with Mrs Coleman and next week we will make the real thing!!

Busy Bees!

We are continuing to work hard in Kohara this week. We are learning class routines and how to be self managing learners. Most of us have created our plans for our first projects and the teachers are enjoying learning more about what the children are interested in.

Juhwan and Dana are busy practising their basic facts. 

Miguel and Jackson are doing a quality job on their poetry.

Zac, Seb, Brooklyn and Natalie are solving basic facts equations.

Zac, Max and Jacob are enjoying relating to others through card games.

Lachie hard at work in our quiet room practising his spelling during free writing.

One of Mrs Campbell's maths groups are putting Statistics into practice.

Zac is putting detail into his sketching.

Layla'h is creating maths patterns using shape blocks.

Ben is enjoying creating detailed shape pictures.

Wow Kohara, this is just some of the great learning that happens in our classroom! 

Block Challenges

In Kohara we have a different block challenge each day. These inspire some interesting discussions and fabulous vocabulary. The children enjoy working out what each picture is and sharing their knowledge and experiences with their classmates. Here are a few of our creations this week.

Juhwan's Planes

Juhwan's first project was to make a plane that is actually three planes in one! He has used origami techniques to make it. We decided to test it's flying capabilities and Juhwan chose to fly each plane separately. He measured each plane's distance and got some interesting results. Why do you think the orange plane flew the shortest distance?

Phoenix's Handbag

Check out this great handbag that Phoenix made for her first project this year. It's made from thick paper, hand sewn with wool, with a button to keep it closed and a colourful fabric strap. We think she looks very stylish!

Amelia's Frog

We have some awesome sewing projects on the go at the moment. Here is Amelia with her stuffed frog. She added details to the frogs face as well as making her frog a bed, complete with a very comfy pillow.

Max's Superman

Here is Max with his first project in Kohara this year. He has created a Superman character out of material sewn together and filled with stuffing. Look at all the great details he has added! Ka pai Max.

 

Parent Interviews

You should have received a notice or email about upcoming Parent Interviews. If you are unsure which teacher you need to book with, just ask your child which teacher they finish the day with. This is a chance to come along, meet us, and touch base at the start of the year. We look forward to seeing you.

Thursday Staff Development

This Thursday 12th February, Mrs Campbell and Mrs O'Sullivan will both be attending a staff development session from 11.45am - 3pm. Kohara will have Mrs Hull and Mr Allert relieving during this time.

Fun Learning Opportunities

There are a number of extra learning opportunities starting this term that the children are welcome to opt into if they would like.

Lunchtime Swim
Year 1/2 children are able to enjoy a lunchtime swim in the school pool every Wednesday if they would like. Just make sure to pack the togs!

Sewing Club
For those keen on sewing, this will be held on Wednesday lunchtimes in the Library from 12.45 (once the children have finished eating their lunch).

French Club
French 1 (Beginners French) is taken by Mrs Pageot on Wednesdays from 12.30 (for those with little or no French).
French 2 is held on Mondays at 12.30 with Justine Lee - for intermediate speakers of French or higher.

Waitangi Day

Just a reminder that school is closed on Friday 6 February as it's Waitangi Day. Have a great long weekend and we look forward to seeing you all back at school on Monday.

Chess Experts

Chess is a great thinking game. In Kohara we have lots of great thinkers! Zac, Natalie and Seb are having lots of fun playing chess together.

Writing

This week in Kohara we are learning about Free Writing. This is a time when we get to practice writing lots of sight words and learn how to spell them. Mrs Campbell got us some colourful egg timers that we use to time our writing and our goal is to get faster and write more each time.

Here is Mirai's free writing today. How many of these words can you read?

Here are lots of us practising our free writing. We love being able to choose where we work and where we sit!

Day 2 Learning

A few more photos of just some of the great learning we spotted in Kohara during the day.

Can you guess what famous New Zealand landmark Zac, Jacob and Zac made during our block challenge! Why not leave a comment below with your guess! Clue: you would find it in Auckland!

Rico, Lachie and Theo also completed the block challenge today using our big blocks. It was a tricky one to make it balance because it is such a tall structure. 

Phoenix and Dana were inspired by our class caterpillar. They created this detailed picture of caterpillars with two cocoons attached, and look what emerged out of them! Two gorgeous butterflies. What a neat way to show the life cycle of a butterfly. 

The girls made a very detailed spiderweb. We were very impressed with how they used a lacy material to look like the web. Can you spot the spider in the web? Ooooh Mrs O is glad it's just a pretend one!

Owen worked really hard building his racing bike. It looks quite technical and has included lots of details. 

Nicolas and Amelia enjoyed creating some amazing art today. They can stand up by themselves because Nicolas and Amelia made stands on the back. 

Ben created a cool car while we were swimming today. What parts of the car can you see?

As you can see we love creating in Kohara. We are looking forward to starting our first projects next week. We can't wait to see what wonderful learning takes place!

Swimming Fun

Today was our first swim. It was fantastic to see almost all of Kohara with their togs at school and being able to enjoy the beautiful weather and warm water. Today we practised our water confidence activities and we learnt that Kohara kids love the water!

Classroom Release Time

As some of you may be aware, each term classroom teachers have two days of classroom release time. At Waimairi we split this into 6 shorter sessions over the term. In term 1 some of our Kohara children will have Mr Lukes taking them for Physical Education, and some children will have Mrs McHaffie taking them for Visual Arts.

Tomorrow morning (Thursday) will be our first classroom release time for the term. We're sure your children will be able to fill you in on the fun learning they do!

Our First Day

Today our block challenge was to recreate the Dunedin Railway Station. We had to study the detail in the photo and then try and replicate it. Here is Willem's fabulous version.

Can you guess which teacher Ryan drew today? We loved the detail Ryan put in especially Mrs Campbell's gorgeous earrings!

Amelia and Phoenix enjoyed creating collage pictures today. We love the way they thought of adding frames to their pictures - just like real artists!

We were curious to check out our swan plants today. Owen and Aaron have already spotted one very tiny caterpillar. Will it be like The Very Hungry Caterpillar story? We have noticed some tiny holes in the leaves where we think it has been having a bit of a nibble!

Kohara is a great place for enjoying books! Check out Layla'h and Stella in our library corner.

Wow, check out Nicolas and Tahana's very detailed illustration of Jack Sparrow's pirate ship. Tahana did some research to find out what you call the lady carving at the front end of the ship. He found out it was called a figurehead and it is found at the prow of the boat!

In Kohara we do quality work. That means we take our time to do our very best all the time.

First Week Information

Hopefully your Kohara newsletter came home in the school bags today! A few notices to keep in mind for the start of the term...

* Please send swimming togs and towel (named) to school every day. Our usual swimming days will be Tuesdays and Thursdays but there is also the opportunity for a lunchtime swim on Wednesdays for Year 2 children. We will also make the most of any other swimming opportunities if they arise.

* Library Day will be Fridays starting from Week 2.

* Please send a drink/water bottle along to school each day. These are kept on a shelf so the children can use them during the day as they need.

* Morning tea - we encourage the children to put their morning tea in the labelled containers in the classroom before school. There is a pen for naming morning tea if needed.

* Please bring your named sunhats to school. These need to be worn every day during Term 1.

* Friendship List & Allergy Update - please return your notices by this Thursday 5 February.

* Reading Book Returns - if you can spare a few minutes during the week, we would appreciate your help shelving our reading books. The roster for this is outside our room on the Parent Noticeboard and only needs to be done once during the week anytime that suits you from after school on Monday through to Friday.

* Parent queries - you are welcome to talk to either of us if you have any questions at any stage.
Over the next week your child will get to know which teacher is taking them for their reading, writing and maths groups which may help you if you have questions relating to these curriculum areas.
We look forward to catching up with you all :)