Tuesday 31st Cupcake Day

Some of our senior students have organised a cupcake stall to be held on Tuesday 31st March to raise money for Vanuatu. Families are welcome to bring money along to purchase cupcakes before school. $1 for small cupcakes, $2 for large cupcakes.

There is also a class competition going as to which class can bring along the most cupcakes to be sold... so if your family love baking, why not help out a great cause and make a few cupcakes to donate to the bake sale. Cupcakes can be dropped off on Monday after school or on Tuesday morning. There is a prize for the class with the most cupcakes to be sold. If you'd like to contribute, please make sure that Mrs O and Mrs Campbell count your cupcakes before you drop them off!

Tuesday 31st Mufti Day

A reminder that we have a red themed mufti day on Tuesday 31st March to raise funds for those in Vanuatu affected by Cyclone Pam. Children can dress in red - gold coin donation please.

Monday Meet Up / End of Term Awards

Monday Meet Up next week is our chance to celebrate our children who have been nominated for end of term awards.

Cross Country place getters will also be acknowledged at Monday Meet Up so if your child had a top 3 placing, they'll get their moment in the spotlight too!

Cross Country Congratulations

Congratulations Kohara for your perseverance and positive attitude at the Cross Country today. We were so proud of you all for having a go and doing your best. Thank you also to everyone who came along and supported the children with their running.

A special congratulation also to these Kohara children for making it into the top 10...
Jacob
Hugo
Theo T
Rico
Zac L
Brooklyn

Amelia
Keira
Natalie
Addison
Josie
Odette

Friday Black Out Day

To show our support for the Black Caps ahead of their final in the World Cup, we are having a Black Out day at school this Friday 27 March. Children may wear black clothes or cricket gear to school. No donations/cost for this.
GO THE BLACK CAPS!!!!!!

Week 8 (23-27 March)

Cross Country
Cross Country is on this Wednesday 25th March starting from 11.30am down at St James Park.
If children would like a sausage sizzle on the day please send along $1 on Wednesday morning and they can give it to us before school. Parents and preschoolers are also welcome to order sausages - just send your money along tomorrow as well.

Class swimming on Thursday if the weather is fine.

Library day Friday.

Next week is the last week of term. School finishes on Thursday due to Easter.
There is a Mufti Day on Tuesday 31st March - bring a gold coin and help support a village in Vanuatu. There will also be a cupcake stall on Tuesday 31st March as well - children can purchase cupcakes with all proceeds going to Vanuatu as well.

Snow Speeder

Willem, Joshua and Theo have been working collaboratively to make a snow speeder. Here is Willem testing it out!

Week 7 (16-20 March)

Reading
This week the children will be working on learning our mihi during our reading time so they won't be bringing home instructional readers. They will however have a poem to read each night and they can also practice re-reading favourite poems out of their poetry folders each night. Can the children please ensure they have their poetry folders at school every day as we will need them for practising our mihi out of them.

Word Cards
Some children have been given word cards to practice reading at home. It would be great if you can support your child with this. If your child has learnt all of the ones they have been given, please let us know and we can send home the next list to learn (Lists 1-3).

Handwriting Practise
Over the next week some children will be given a handwriting sheet to practice at home. It is really important that the children form the letters in the correct way and start each letter in the correct place. Other ideas for practising handwriting... get children to draw letters in the sandpit (or at the beach), with a paintbrush dipped in water out on the path, with chalk outside or even just on paper! Lots of our children are practising using correct pencil grip as well - hold your pencil with your finger and thumb like a birds beak and tuck the others underneath.

Teacher Only Day
A reminder that school is closed on Wednesday 18 March for a Teacher Only Day.

Swimming
Class swimming days are now Wednesday and Thursday.

Library
Library day is Friday.

Butterfly Block Challenge

We finally have some caterpillars on our swan plants. They were the inspiration for our butterfly block challenge. Check out some of our designs.

The Kohara Cafe!

Keira and Kate wrote stories about making fruit smoothies so Mrs O suggested they write a shopping list and then have a go at making one. They were so organised that they brought along all the ingredients and then using Mrs Campbell's blender they whizzed up a tasty treat. 

The teachers thought it was the best smoothie they've ever had! Yum!

Isaac's Zoo

Isaac was inspired by Miguel's zoo and has created a fabulous zoo for his toy kangaroo. Lots of room for running around on the fresh grass. What a wonderful habitat. It even has windows and a slide!

Nicolas and his Robot

Wow Nicolas what a wonderful robot you have created. Nicolas used spray paint to  create a silver effect. You'd never know it was made from box construction!

Rock Star James

James is rocking it in Kohara with his very cool guitar. James made his guitar out of wood and string and we love the paintwork which makes it very flash. Watch out that Mrs Bentall doesn't borrow it for the birthday band!

Miguel's Zoo

Miguel has finally finished his red panda zoo after weeks of hard work. Look closely. Go through the opening door, follow the path and you'll find a viewing platform for the people. The animals have real grass, trees and fabulous enclosures and we love the signs as well. Jackson has also helped Miguel. We love all the thinking that has gone on to create this!

Layla'h's Painting

Layla'h has created a colourful painting for us to enjoy looking at in Kohara. We love the glittery frame she made for it. It looks like something you might find in an art gallery!

Mrs Templeton Comes to Visit

We were very excited to see Mrs Templeton this week when she popped in for a quick visit. We heard that Mrs Templeton loves looking at our blog so a big shout out to her if she's reading this!! We hope she visits us again soon.

Trailer Block Challenge

Check out some awesome trailer designs from one of our block challenges this week.

Amelia on Stage

Here is Amelia at Monday Meet Up sharing all her ribbons from athletics.

Legends and the Crusaders

Last Friday Zac and Jacob got to take part in a special skills practice with two Crusaders players - Tim Percy and Mitchell Drummond. The boys were part of the Legends touch rugby team which won every single game this season. They were also lucky enough to get given a take a kid to footy bag!

The rest of the school received a poster and Weetbix from the Crusaders as well. 

Change in phone number for Friendship List

Gregg, who is Sebastian father, has changed his phone number to: 3520296.

Teacher Only Day

A reminder that Waimairi School is closed on Wednesday 18 March for a Teacher Only Day.

Week 6 Update (9-13 March)

Monday 9 March
Mrs O'Sullivan is attending a staff induction day and Mrs Campbell is away sick so Mr Allert and Mrs Kelk will be teaching in Kohara for the day.

Wednesday 11 March
Mrs Campbell and Mrs O'Sullivan have a classroom release session so the children will have either PE with Mr Lukes or Art with Mrs McHaffie from 11-12.30.

Change of Swimming Days
We have swapped one of our swimming days with Kahukura so our new swimming days will be Wednesdays and Thursdays. Children will still have the option of a lunchtime swim on a Wednesday as well if they wish.

Reading Folders
We have noticed that some children still do not have a reading folder at school. Can ALL children please ensure they bring one to school everyday please (you are welcome to reuse last years one).

Library Day is Friday.

Cross Country is coming up soon. This will be held on Wednesday 25 March (postponement day is Thursday 26 March).

School Disco Friday 27 March.

Tricky Tiki

Today's challenge was a tricky one. We were impressed with how the children replicated the details of the tiki.

Aleah's Octopus

Aleah had a very clear design in mind for her octopus. We love the way this is entirely her own work and the clever way she added on the pipe cleaner legs using a hole punch. What a gorgeous glittery octopus!

How to Make A Handbag

Here are Ryan's instructions for how to make a handbag. You might remember he made a gorgeous handbag for his mum earlier this term.

1. Get the fabric

2. Get the string

3. Get the needle

4. Make the bag

5. Make the straps

6. Glue the jewels

7. Put the buttons on

Natalie's Animal Poster

Look at Natalie's poster! It gives you lots of interesting facts about all kinds of animals. Natalie wrote a story about it...

Today I'm finishing my animal poster. I have already finished a page. I'm doing a second page today and there will be a lot of information and it will be amazing! Then I'll take it home and use it as a poster on the wall at home for me and it will be amazing but... I might add on to it some day. Now I've done another page!
By Natalie

Can You Help?

We are always busy creating in Kohara but our supplies are getting low in a few areas. If anyone is able to help donate any of the following we would be most appreciative.

* Fabric offcuts
* Sewing thread (for hand sewing)
* Balloons
* Straws or pipecleaners
* Wool
* Buttons

Plus we are always happy to receive any empty boxes, containers, lids, cardboard etc for our box construction area.

Many Thanks :)

Building A Marae

After hearing Melanie talk about visiting a marae, we had a go at building our own during the block challenge. It was great to see lots of different children having a go at this. Look at all their great designs!

Term One Inquiry

This term our Inquiry focus is all about how we greet and welcome visitors to Kohara.

We started out by sharing what we knew about greetings using a define map and then we went out near Te Puna to be Greeting Detectives just before home time. We observed all sorts of different ways to greet people! We then took another look at our define map about what a greeting is and decided which ways of greeting people we thought would be best for greeting visitors to our room.

  

Then on Tuesday Kohara was lucky enough to have Tahana's mum Melanie come along and talk to us about Maori greetings and welcoming people. We found out lots of information about what happens when you visit a marae and the protocol for being welcomed on. Melanie also shared her pepeha (what we often call a mihi) with us. Soon we are going to have a go ourselves at learning a simple pepeha or mihi. 

Tahana also shared a karakia that his family say before eating. We are going to learn this as well as we found out that sharing kai (food) is an important part of the welcoming process. We discussed how when we have friends over to play, we often have a shared afternoon tea, just like people share kai when they visit a marae. 

Thanks Melanie for sharing your knowledge with us.
 

Swimming in Pyjamas!

Thank you so much to all our Kohara families who came along to cheer on our children today. The children had so much fun and one of the highlights was definitely the pyjama race! It was great to see even our less confident swimmers getting in and having a go. Ka pai Kohara! 

What is a Kohara Kid?

Ever wondered what it means to be a Kohara Kid? Well here's what the children had to say...

Kohara Swimming Sports

Reminder that tomorrow (Wednesday 4th) is our junior swimming sports day. This is a fun day for the children to share lots of our water confidence activities as well as some fun swimming races. We'd love you to join us down at the school pool. Our time is 11-11.45am.

Don't forget ALL children need their swimming togs, 2 towels and their pyjamas for the pyjama race at the end (something easy to put on quickly over their togs at the end).

Postponement date is Thursday 5th March in the event of bad weather.

Dolphin Block Challenge

Today's block challenge was to make a dolphin. We had to think carefully about how to create the fins and tail. Didn't Zac and Ollie do a great job.

Eli's Gingerbread Man

Run, run, as fast as you can... Watch out for Eli's gingerbread man. He looks very stylish with his buttons. Mrs Campbell and Mrs O think that Eli might need to try baking some real gingerbread men next. What do you think Eli?

Amelia's Goody Bag

We can't wait to find out what is in Amelia's goody bag. She has been busy working on it during the last week! It might be handy for all the birthdays we are having in Kohara!

Jackson's Tiger Cage

Come visit the tigers at Jackson's zoo! You can look through the glass windows to see the two tigers inside but don't worry, they can't escape as Jackson put bars made from straws on the back to keep you safe!

Eli's Computer

Look at Eli's computer. It has a cover, a keyboard for typing, and a mouse. Squeak, squeak... No the other kind of mouse!