Week 2 (9-13 May)

Mothers Day
We hope all our Kohara Mums had a lovely relaxing day on Sunday and that you enjoyed some well earned downtime.

Welcome
This week we welcome Mr Junho Hwangbo to Kohara. Junho is a second year teacher trainee and he is joining us for the next four weeks. We enjoyed meeting Junho last week and look forward to working with him. We're sure he'd love it if you popped in to introduce yourself and say hello over the next week or so.

Reading
Remember that last weeks reading books should be returned to the grey container in R18 on Monday morning. Poetry folders should be returned to the green containers in R19, and reading folders should be put in tote trays before school each day :)

Classroom Release
This week Room 18 have Art with Mrs McHaffie on Tuesday 11-12.30.

Reading Book Returns
There is a new reading book returns roster up on the noticeboard outside Kohara. We would appreciate any volunteers who are able to help us to shelve reading books this term. If you're able to help, please add your name to the roster. Thanks to Mandy for kick starting our returns last week - it was much appreciated.

PTA Chocolate Fundraiser Notice
The eldest child in your family should have taken home a notice last week about our upcoming PTA chocolate fundraiser. This is one of the PTA's main fundraisers for this year and your support would be appreciated. All profit this year is going towards purchasing new reading books across the school so a very worthwhile fundraiser to get behind. You have different options for helping this year - taking a box and selling Whittakers chocolate bars at $2 a bar, or you can make a donation for the amount of profit that selling a box would raise for the school ($25) or you can choose not to participate. You don't need to sell an entire box - part boxes can be returned later if you don't sell all of them. Let's see if we can beat our efforts in 2014 where we raised $9500!!!!
The notice indicating your preference needs to be returned to school by this THURSDAY 12 MAY.

Junior Kapa Haka - Thursday

Library Day - Friday

PTA Meeting

Advance notice that next week (Tuesday 17th May) is our next PTA meeting. The committee meet every third Tuesday of the month in the school library at 7.30pm. If you've ever considered joining, pop along - we would love to see you. A great way to meet other fabulous Waimairi parents and have a few laughs along the way. There's no pressure to take on any extra jobs - you only need commit as much or as little time as you can.

Connell's Bow and Arrow

Connell used box construction to create a bow and arrow. He then used his measuring skills to measure how far he could shoot the rubber bands. They went so far he had to join a tape measure and a metre ruler to measure the distance!

Lucy the Weaver

We were really impressed with Lucy's placemat she made by weaving and then laminating. Lucy was able to clearly explain the purpose for her placemat which was for her little brother to use when he is eating his dinner. Well done Lucy for creating something so useful.

Edward our Engineer!

Edward looked for detail on the block challenge (ferris wheel) and just looked what he created....it even spins!!!!

Fractions

At the moment Kohara are learning about fractions as part of our maths programme. This is a great topic to talk about with your child. We had an interesting discussion today about how many ways you can cut a piece of toast in half - we came up with 4 different ways!

Lunch boxes are a great place to look for fractions - how are your school sandwiches cut? Are they cut in half or in quarters? Or something different? Is each piece equal? We have learnt that fractions are about cutting or sharing things equally.

You might also like to talk about where you might see or hear the word half?
~ half time in a sports game
~ half price in a sale
~ sharing half with a friend
~ cutting things in half
~ half an hour / half past
~ half turn
~ half way
~ half a cup

Telling the time is another great way to explore fractions - quarter past, half past, and quarter to times. Baking and measuring are also other great avenues to introduce fractions.

We are also learning to recognise the symbols for 1/2 and 1/4.

Please feel free to leave us a comment on our fractions blog post and let us know where else you are using or finding fractions at home. We'd love to share your feedback with Kohara (remember your blog comments will only become visible to others once moderated by us).

Toys

A reminder please that toys should not be brought to school (unless children are sharing them for a special reason e.g. birthday). These are beginning to cause a distraction during our class learning time. We appreciate your support with this :)

Welcome Back to Term 2

We hope the children have enjoyed a fabulous holiday break and are well rested and ready for the start of Term 2. We are looking forward to hearing all about their holidays and seeing their smiley faces!

Classroom Release
This week Room 19 children have PE with Mr Lukes on Tuesday from 11-12.30pm.

Staff Professional Development
Mrs Campbell and Mrs O'Sullivan will both be out of the classroom on Thursday 5 May as part of our teacher inquiry group.

Kapa Haka
Junior Kapa Haka on Thursday.

Library
Please return library books to the class containers before Friday.

Reading
Please check that reading folders are put in tote trays (not left in school bags) every morning so that children are organised and ready when their group is called for reading. Poetry folders should also be returned to the green baskets at the start of each week.

Thank You
A really big thank you to all of those who joined our end of term learning celebration at the end of last term. We were delighted with the huge turnout in Kohara and the children really enjoyed having a real life audience to perform to and share their learning with. It was such a fabulous community day and we hoped you enjoyed it as much as we did!

Student Teacher
Next week we welcome Junho Hwangbo, a student teacher from the University of Canterbury who is joining us in Kohara for four weeks (9 May - 3 June).

School Uniforms

Just a friendly reminder that all children need to be wearing the correct school uniform - the holidays are a great time to find those blue jerseys and sweatshirts ready for the winter term ahead. No non school uniform jerseys please.

Sewing Help Needed

We are seeking anyone who can sew to help sew some new kapa haka uniforms - the pattern is a simple one so if you can sew a straight line and zig zag, you'd be just the right person for the job. This can be done in your own time, at a time that suits you.

If you might be interested or you have a family member who might be able to help us out, please let us know or see Anna South (Ruby's mum) for more details. The more helpers the merrier!

Week 11 (11-15 April)

This week we are not having normal home reading due to our focus and preparations for our Learning Celebration. However we would like children to be practising their Kohara Chant (in their poetry folder) as they need to know this for Wednesday.

All poetry folders must be at school each day in our green baskets (not in school bags) - today we counted up 20 children who did not have their poetry folders in the classroom!!! These along with reading folders need to be put away each morning so that children have them ready for when their group is called for reading. Reading folders need to be put in their tote trays. If your child has any spare reading books still in their reading folder from last week can these please be returned asap so they can be shelved before the holidays.

A big thank you once again to all our helpers who have helped return our reading books this term - it is a fantastic help for us and we really do appreciate it. Keep an eye out early next term for the Term 2 roster which will be pinned up outside the doors into Kohara.

Sports Session
On Thursday morning the children get a chance to have a go at some ball skills with a sports session run by Kelly Sports. Please make sure children have suitable sports shoes on that day.

End of Term
Term 1 finishes on Friday at 3pm. We hope the children have a chance to recharge and relax and we look forward to hearing all about their holidays when they return to school on Monday 2 May.

Learning Celebration Wednesday 13th April

Hopefully you all received your programme of events for our Learning Celebration tomorrow (this was sent via email last week or in hard copy for those who don't get their newsletters emailed). In case you missed it here are our times for tomorrow (Wed).

Come along and find out more about our Term 1 Arts/Music Learning - either from 12-12.30 or we will be repeating it again from 1.30-2pm. You are also welcome to come earlier or stay later and visit the other classes throughout the day to see what they have been doing over the term.

At 12.30pm we will be offering up some tasters from some of our cultural groups represented within the school as well as a sample of our hangi (out on the back field). Children still need to bring along their normal lunch as well. A gold coin as koha (donation) towards the hangi would be appreciated and can be given to class teachers in the morning.

If you'd like to lend a hand - Mr Anderson and Darren are leading the men with preparing the hangi pit from 5am onwards and Mrs Coleman and Ms Hudson are leading the ladies with the food preparation from 7am. They would love any willing helpers at any stage of the morning if you have some time to spare.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Izzy's Fish Tank

Look carefully at Izzy's fish tank. It has real sand, driftwood and shells in it to make it look just like the bottom of the ocean. Izzy also created seaweed using cellophane and pipe cleaners. It is such a nice habitat that her rainbow fish has decided to live there!

Izzy made her rainbow fish by hand sewing and stuffing fabric in a fish shape. Her fish also has colourful scales just like the story. Izzy has thought really carefully about what her fish needs and making the tank was a great next step. 

Leon's Handwriting

Our whiteboards are a great way to practise our handwriting. Leon was busy working on letters that all start in the same way. We have been learning that a, o, d, g and q all start like the letter c.

You can practise handwriting in lots of ways - in a sandpit or at the beach with a stick, use a paintbrush dipped in water to write on a path, with chalk, on a whiteboard, on an iPad app (there's even a link on our blog), or just with good old fashioned pen and paper. 

Handwriting is a great activity to practise at home as it helps us get faster at writing our stories and makes our words easier to read. 

Taila's Weaving

Taila was keen to have a go at learning how to weave and Amelia was able to help teach him how to it. Taila chose to weave a flower pattern and even added a bumblebee detail to the middle. Well done Taila, you have shown a lot of perseverance.

Edward's Pet Pig

Check out Charlie, Edwards pet pig that he created out of recycled materials. The trickiest part was cutting out the ears and feet from old egg cartons. We think he will enjoy spending time in Kohara with us! We love the details Edward has added.

Statistics with Izzy and Anna

Izzy and Anna have been busy doing statistics in Kohara. They used the magnetic letters to write names and then compared them to find out statistical information. They found out that Coco and Anna both had 4 letters in their names and Isabela was the longest name.

We love seeing maths in action in Kohara!

Term 1 Learning Celebration

Come join us on Wednesday 13th April either at 12-12.30 or 1.30-2pm in Kohara and learn more about our Term 1 Music. A programme will be coming out soon with more details - you are welcome to visit other class sharing sessions as well and enjoy seeing what we have been doing. There will also be food stalls and a hangi at 12.30. Hope to see you there. 

Library Day

Hunt out those books! Library day tomorrow. 

Week 10 (4-8 April)

We hope everyone enjoyed their Easter break last week. It was a good chance for the children to recharge their batteries ready for the last few weeks of term.

Classroom Release Time
Room 18 have PE with Mr Lukes and Room 19 have Art with Mrs McHaffie on Thursday from 9-10.30am.

Kapa Haka is on Thursday

Library day on Friday - please remember to return books before Friday to our class library containers.

Reading Folders & Poetry Folders
Please encourage children to put their reading folders in their tote trays before school starts in the morning each day. On a Monday morning all of last weeks books can be returned to the grey reading container (the children know where this is located).
Poetry folders need to be returned to the green baskets.

School Disco
The PTA are running a disco for the children on Friday 8 April. Junior children from Year 0-3 are welcome to attend the junior disco which runs from 6-7pm. $2 entry and glow products will also be on sale. Preschoolers are welcome.

School Pool Keys
The school pool is now closed for the season. Families who purchased keys can return these to the office and receive their $20 bond back.

Lost Property
We have a growing pile of lost property inside our classroom - please take a moment and check through the pile next time you're in :)

Lost Cardigan

Bela has lost a brand new cardigan - please check at home just in case it's been muddled up by mistake - it's named.