Olly and Gary get the Chickenpox!

Oh no Olly and Gary! It looks like you have both got the chickenpox on your holidays.
Hope you are feeling better soon and you're not too itchy.

Matariki Celebrations - Wednesday 4 July

We hope to see you all for our Matariki celebrations starting at 7.15am. Parents and children to meet at the Westholme gate end of the field ready to begin the welcome part of the day. If you are unable to make the 7.15am start, you are welcome to come at the usual time and children will still get to be part of the Matariki class activities with their river groups.
* Please dress warmly and bring a torch as it may still be dark at 7.15am.

 Following the welcome ceremony, our class will be joining the rest of our Rakaia River group in Ara Atu (Room 14/15 for breakfast) and parents are welcome to join us as well.
*Please bring a plastic bowl and spoon in a plastic bag (parents and siblings will need one too if they'd like breakfast also).

The coffee shop will be open from 7am.

Ian Taylor is speaking in the hall at 8.15am. Children who wish to listen to Ian may accompany family otherwise they are free to play/mingle until 9am.

Hangi and International food is served from 12.30pm.
* Please still send morning tea and lunch for your child.

Science learning in classes from 1.30pm and then children with parents at school are free to go home. You are welcome to visit other classes as well if you wish. Please let class teachers know when you take your child home so we can mark them off on our attendance roll.

We look forward to celebrating Matariki with you all :)

Jacob and Archie's Motorbike

Check out this amazing motorbike that Jacob and Archie made together. It's almost big enough for the teachers to have a ride on it! On a Friday, the children get to choose their own creations to make on the block challenge and we always love seeing what they come up with.

More Shape Patterns

We love creating symmetrical patterns and designs with our shapes in Kohara. Here are some of our recent creations the children want to share with you...

Atlas, James and Fletcher's Cake

Wow this cake that Atlas, James and Fletcher made looks very impressive! They did a great job of following the recipe step by step and then icing and decorating it. The boys worked cooperatively to decide what the cake would look like and even to decide how to share it - they decided to have a third each so that they each got the same (in maths we call this equal shares). We bet it disappeared pretty quickly into tummies when it got home!

Pippa and Ruby's Song

Pippa and Ruby have also been busy practising learning the words to their favourite song from the movie The Greatest Showman. Sometimes learning the words is quite hard so it was great to see the girls practising whenever they had some spare time. The audience loved the song - we could tell from the smiles on their faces and the way their eyes watched the girls so intently throughout the performance. Thanks Pippa and Ruby for entertaining us with your beautiful song.

Bees

Bees are taking over Kohara!! Our Science learning is spreading throughout the classroom. We love how Luca and Bella made this bee design out of shapes.

Mrs Jenkins has also been popping in and out to help us with our giant bee we are making out of paper mâché. Everyone has been helping out with it. Here was one of the groups adding layers of paper in between letting it dry. It is still a work in progress - it may not be finished in time for our Science sharing on Wednesday but you'll be able to see how far we've got in the meantime.

Sarah and Tess Make A House For Beany Boos

Sarah and Tess have been working collaboratively on a house for beany boo toys. They have put a lot of thought into all the different parts of the house - we were really impressed with the details they have created. We loved the book shelf they made out of cardboard - it even had miniature books for the beany boos to read! Well done girls - you have persevered and done a great job with this detailed house.

Anika, Mylo, Pippa and Ruby Decorate Cupcakes

Mylo, Pippa, Ruby and Anika found a rather interesting recipe for decorating cupcakes to make them look like animals. They had to organise which ingredients they would bring and then they used the recipe to decorate their cupcakes. We think they looked even better that the ones in the book. Those big grins say it all - I bet they tasted as good as they looked!

Luca's Sherbet

Luca has really been enjoying her science projects lately. This time she decided to make sherbet. The ingredients she uses make a sour sherbet taste on your tastebuds when mixed together! We love how organised Luca is for her projects - she independently organised her own recipe to follow and then had fun mixing it all together. She even made her own paper bag to put the sherbet in.

Jack, David, Tess and Fletcher's Maths Game

Some of the Kohara children have been learning how to play a new maths game. This is a great way to practise recognising dot/dice patterns and adding numbers. It's a bit like connect four except you have to get three in a row with your counters before the others in the game beat you to it! To play, you have to roll two dice and add them together to see which number you can cover. It's quite a strategic game too as you can have fun blocking your friends! Here are Jack, Fletcher, David and Tess challenging each other.

Cecilia's Rocket

Cecilia has been working on her box construction rocket for a long time. She got a bit stuck when she wasn't happy with how it was looking so she had a break for a while. When this happens it is important to talk to your friends or a teacher to see where to go next.

After talking with Mrs O, Cecilia used a picture on the computer to give her some more ideas about what to add next. She decided to make the end pointy but couldn't find anything the right shape. Mrs O showed Cecilia how to make a 3D cone shape by using a circle shaped piece of cardboard or paper and then Cecilia had a go using some cool silver bubble wrap. Now Cecilia can teach others how to make this shape for their projects!

Cecilia has also added yellow fabric to symbolise the fire and has added stuffing underneath for the clouds of smoke that come out when a rocket takes off. We love the painted designs on the outside too - Kohara even helped count backwards to blast Cecilia's rocket off into space (or the trophy cabinet!) You got there in the end Cecilia!! Well done.

Siale-Maia, Lola and Monty's Bee Drawings

In Science we have been practising drawing like a Scientist using skills of observation to draw realistic looking bees. We have found that in picture books, artists and illustrators often raw bees that don't look like the ones in real life. However a Scientist draws pictures which look like the real thing!

We have been improving each time we do an observational drawing and now we can draw a realistic looking bee on our own. Check out these bees that Monty, Lola and Siale-Maia drew on the whiteboards. They look fantastic.

Lucia's Song

Lucia did a wonderful job of performing her song for Kohara all by herself after her friend decided she didn't want to continue with the singing project. It is really hard to sing in front of the class with someone else but even harder to do it all by yourself so well done Lucia. You were very courageous!
Lucia performed a Katy Perry song and we could tell she had practised a lot as she knew all the words! What a singing star!

Taylor's Art

Taylor adores Paw Patrol and this gave her the idea for her art on the whiteboard. Taylor is able to tell us lots of interesting facts about her Paw Patrol characters. How many of them do you recognise?

James and Fletcher's Maze

James and Fletcher have been busy designing mazes lately. There is a lot of thinking that goes on when designing a maze as you have to create a way out of the maze but also lots of tricky paths and dead ends! We thought they did such a great job that we photocopied their drawing off the whiteboard so that some of the children in Kohara could have a go at completing the maze.

Now we are thinking of other ways to create a maze...
* using lego on a board
* making a cardboard maze
* maybe a marble run maze?

What will they design next?

Izzy and Josie's Song

Izzy and Josie have been working really hard learning the words to Believer to sing to Kohara. It's such a tricky song but the girls did a great job and we thought they were so brave getting up in front of everyone to share their beautiful singing. They told us they were very nervous - that is a common feeling from those who have chosen to perform in front of the class but we loved how they still gave it their all. We were really proud of you both.

Monty's Soccer Player

Monty has been closely following the Football World Cup and we have loved hearing his updates about how his England team is going. This gave Monty the idea for creating an English soccer player out of box construction. Good luck of the next round Monty - we hope England play well for you!

Luca's Stable

Luca's latest project was to make a horse stable - inspired by the recent creations of Pippa and Bella. Luca's stable has wonderful painted designs on both the inside and the outside which create a really interesting look - lucky horses that get to live in this stable!

Inside the stable is everything a horse would need and we love how the door opens to let the horses out and the windows allow fresh air in. Well done Luca - you have really thought hard about your resonation skills.

Lola's Penguin

Lola loved the idea of making a paper mâché penguin as she had seen some that the other children had made earlier in the year. Paper mâché was a new skill for Lola and we think she did a wonderful job. During Lola's project she encountered a problem when the egg shell inside her penguin body shrunk and she had to start the process again. We loved how she didn't give up!

When she finished several layers of tissue paper, Lola then painted it and added paper details for the wings, feet and beak and added some eyes. We were really impressed with the quality of Lola's project. You can take a look on the trophy cabinet in Kohara!