Domino Maths

Some of our mathematicians have been using dominos to practise our maths with. There is lots of maths in dominos - you have to know dot patterns, you can add the dots on the dominos to see how many dots on each one and we also worked out different ways you could make a certain number. Did you know you can make the number 7 with a 1 and 6, or a 2 and 5, or a 3 and 4. We also found out that it doesn't matter which way round you count the dots, you still get the same answer so 2 + 5 is the same as 5 + 2.

Maybe you could make your own dominos on paper (or print some off the internet) and try some games with them. Here is Paddy, Matthew and Rosalie playing the parking game. You have to park a domino car in each parking space but the dots on the domino have to match the number on the parking space! (Google domino activities and you'll get heaps of other ideas!)

Baxter Teaches Us Fractions

Baxter divided the beads on the abacus in half. He had 100 beads and worked out that there would be 50 in each half because 50 + 50 = 100.

Then we challenged Baxter to see if he could make it into four equal quarters and work out how many would be in each quarter. Baxter made his quarters using the four different colours and used his skip counting in 5s to work out there would be 25 in each quarter. 

25 + 25 + 25 + 25 = 100. 

Our next challenge is to see if you can make thirds out of 100 beads? Would each third be equal? Can it be done?

Sky Tower Block Challenge

When Mrs O was in Auckland she went to the Sky Tower and Kohara had a go at creating it on the block challenge. The trickiest parts were making the round part and making it tall enough without it falling over! Here are just a few of the sky towers that got built.

Kohara Learn French

Thank you to Georgia and Shyla who taught Kohara some French. We learnt how to say hello and goodbye and then Georgia taught us a French song which we loved singing. It's great sharing our knowledge of other cultures with each other.

Amazing Art

Look at this detailed drawing we found on the whiteboard! A real team effort by Georgia, Grace, Amelia and Kahurangi who worked cooperatively to create it.

Amelia's Weaving Project

Amelia had a go at weaving for her first project. She did a great job learning how to start each row by alternating going under or over. Now Amelia is helping to teach others how to weave! It looks wonderful in our Kohara art gallery.

Anna's Rainbow Fish

Lots of you will know the story of The Rainbow Fish. Anna decided to make her own rainbow fish which she made by hand sewing and then painting the colourful scales. And just like rainbow fish, it even has a sparkly scale which Anna made out of tinfoil. We love the time and effort Anna put in to make the details.

Isaac's Maze

Isaac had a great idea to create a maze for his nexo knights Lego figures. He worked out a way to make the cardboard stand up on its side to make the inside walls of the maze. Then he decided to add parts that you could travel along like a board game. Now all he needs is a dice and his Lego characters! He's even tested it out on his friends who loved playing it!

Lily's Owl

Look at Lily's gorgeous owl. It's so detailed, it looks like one you might buy in a shop! Lily hand sewed this and learnt how to sew buttons on as well. The feathers are a fabulous detail and you can have a closer look on our trophy cabinet in Kohara!

Kahurangi's Pet Pig

Meet Buttons - Kahurangi's new pet pig. Kahurangi made her using two plastic buckets, some egg cartons, pipe cleaners and buttons. Buttons has inspired lots of new pet animal projects which are in the process of being created. Ka pai Kahurangi. You persevered to make a really high quality project.

Ruby's Teddy

Here is Ruby's first project - a teddy bear that she sewed and stuffed herself. What a cuddly teddy you made Ruby. We love the details you added. Check it out on display on our Kohara trophy cabinet next time you're in Kohara!

Shyla's Food Chart

Shyla made this interesting comparison between healthy foods and foods that are treats. We love the way she labelled her foods. Which would be your favourite healthy food? What would be your favourite treat?

Thomas and his Guinea Pig

Making a guinea pig out of square blocks is a bit of a challenge but Thomas made a really neat guinea pig. Look closely and you might be able to spy the legs, ears and even the stripy body. Ka pai Thomas.

Bingo Night and School Disco

Tomorrow night (Friday 1 April) is our parents Bingo evening run by the PTA. Door open from 7pm, with a cash bar and great entertainment by our hosts Ethel and Bethel. It's not too late to come along - tickets are available at the school office at $10 each. A great fundraiser for our children - even if you've never played before, come along and join the fun. You get one bingo card as part of your ticket price but if you are competitive and like to have a few more bingo cards to play with you can purchase these for $2 each. There is also a mystery bottle table (purchase a mystery bottle for $2) and our famous whiskey toss - if you've never seen this, it's a huge laugh!

Next Friday, the PTA have something for the kids... the school disco is on with juniors (Year 0-3) from 6-7pm and seniors (Year 3-6) from 7.15-8.15pm. $2 entry and children must be collected from inside the hall at the end. Come and join Mrs O and Mrs Campbell - we'll be there to check out all your dance moves!!

Library Day and Reading

Remember to pack your library books for tomorrow (Friday).

Also remember to bring your poetry folders please - these should be returned to the green baskets each week.

We would also appreciate it if children could put their reading folders in their tote trays each morning before school so that they are not holding up their reading groups while we wait for children to find them in their bags!

A huge thank you to our Kohara Mums who have been shelving our reading books over the last few weeks - we really appreciate the time you give to do this for us.

Cross Country Wednesday

Please wear sport mufti to school tomorrow with suitable running shoes for Cross Country. The juniors are walking down and will be there by 12 noon ready for our races. Bring your sunhat and your have a go attitudes xx

Week 8 (21-24 March)

Kia ora and welcome to week 8, a shorter week this week due to Good Friday being a holiday.

Easter
A reminder that next Week Easter Monday and Tuesday are both school holidays and the school will be closed.

Swimming
Our classroom swimming is now finished (typical now the weather has warmed up again!!)
We will resume swimming in Term 4.

Cross Country & Sausage Sizzle
Cross Country day is Wednesday down at St James Park. Feel free to pop down and watch the children race and enjoy a picnic lunch with us. For those wishing to order a sausage sizzle, these must be pre ordered on Tuesday and you are welcome to order extras for the rest of the family if you wish. Thanks to our hard working PTA for organising the sausage sizzle on our behalf.

Classroom Release
On Tuesday Room 19 will have Art with Mrs McHaffie and Room 18 will have PE with Mr Lukes from 11-12.30.

Reading
This week due to cross country, classroom release and the shorter week, the children will have a reading book on Monday and a poem on the other days. Feel free to re-read other poems from previous week - maybe each pick a favourite to read. Remember to use lots of expression and to 'read it like a poem'. Children will need to remember to bring their poetry folder to school each day so please have a hunt at home for them.

Library
We have booked an additional library time for Thursday this week due to Good Friday.

PTA Events
Friday 1 April - Bingo night for parents. Come and join us for a fun night with our special bingo hostesses Ethel and Bethel. Tickets on sale at the office now. Mystery bottle donations still being gratefully accepted at the office so have a look in the cupboards and see what you could donate for a good cause.

Disco - Friday 8 April
6-7pm for the juniors (Year 0-3)
7.15-8.15 for the seniors (Year 3-6)
$2 entry, glow products available.

Mystery Bottle Donations

The PTA urgently require mystery bottle donations for their upcoming PTA Bingo night. Please help support the school by sending along a bottle (anything goes as long as it's not opened!) and if possible send it along wrapped to the office.

Ideas:
Sauces
Shampoo
Wine
Bathroom toiletries

And if you haven't yet organised a ticket for the Bingo night, make sure you grab one. $10 per ticket. You don't need to have a group, you can just come along and join the fun.

Reading Homework Thursday

The children have a poem for reading homework tonight (Thursday). But they can also re-read a book from this week if they would like.

Library Day Friday

Please send library books in a named library bag to school tomorrow (Friday).

Last Swimming Day Friday

Tomorrow will be our last class swimming day for the term. If children would like they can bring their togs and pyjamas and we will finish our class lesson with a fun race since they have to now wait to Term 4 for our postponed junior swimming sports.

Junior Swimming Sports Postponed

We can't seem to win with the weather! Swimming sports now postponed until Term 4. 

Week 7 (14-18 March)

Welcome to Week 7! As usual, we have lots happening in Kohara this week.

Junior Swimming
Don't forget to pop along tomorrow (Tuesday) between 11.45-12.30pm to watch Kohara share some of our swimming skills and confidence activities. Remember to pack some pyjamas as well for our finale pyjama race! If the weather doesn't play it's part, the postponement date will be Thursday instead.

Monday - lunchtime swim (optional) for Y1/2
Tuesday - Junior Swimming Sports
Wednesday & Friday - usual class swimming days

Classroom Release
On Wednesday, Room 19 children will have Art with Mrs McHaffie in the afternoon.

PTA Meeting
If anyone is keen to check out our fabulous PTA, we have our annual general meeting on Tuesday night (15th) at 7.30pm in the school library. This is always a good meeting to come along too as we have nibbles and drinks to share at the end! We have a few Kohara parents on our PTA (and Mrs O) so you'll be guaranteed to see some familiar and friendly faces there. We'd love to see you there.

The PTA also have some fun social events coming up - the first of which is our Bingo night on Friday 1 April with fabulous hosts Ethel and Bethel Bingo Babes! Tickets are $10 and include a bingo card. Why not get a group together or come along and join a group on the night - all welcome. This is our first time hosting a Bingo night format and it looks set to be a fun filled night.

The PTA is also selling tickets to Ali Harper's Doris Day Show at the Court theatre and you can buy tickets through the school office (several dates available). Ali is one of our Kohara mums and for those of us who went to her show last year, we all couldn't stop raving about how wonderful it was. A great opportunity to see Ali in person and fundraise for Waimairi School at the same time.

Headlice
The dreaded headlice is doing the rounds at Waimairi currently so it's a good reminder to check children's hair (and maybe wash sunhats over the weekend especially those that have made their way into the basket just inside our door). Girls with long hair might also like to keep their hair tied up in the meantime at school.

Reading
Thanks once again to our fabulous helpers who have been putting our class reading books away - much appreciated! And well done to the children who are remembering to put their reading books in the grey container on a Monday morning. A reminder also that the children can put their poetry folders in the green boxes when they bring these back to school.

Thank You
A huge thank you to our lovely mums and a big sister who have helped us get our waka tied together and hung up. The children are enjoying having these on display in our entrance.

The Arts/Music
We have finished making our musical instruments and on Friday we got the chance to find out all the different kinds of instruments that the children had chosen to make and to listen to different ways they can be played. Our Kohara band has guitars, shakers, castanets, drums, didgeridoos, Chinese gongs, and flutes! We enjoyed having some fun with them last week and learning more about keeping in time to a steady beat.

Kapa Haka on Thursday

Library Day Friday

Upcoming Dates
Cross Country is coming up on the 23rd March. We have started practising for this and are working on building up our fitness and our 'have a go' attitudes. More information will be out nearer the time but we will also be having a picnic lunch on the day and you can enjoy a sausage sizzle (pre orders will be taken prior) and the coffee van will also be there for parents.

Measuring Fun

Grace, Amelia and Georgia found some tape measures on our maths shelf. They decided to see if they could measure how tall they were and recorded their findings so they could compare them to see who was the tallest. Then they decided to have a go at measuring other things.

What could you find at home to measure? What other things could you use to measure besides a tape measure?

Anna The Author

Here is Anna reading us her story that she wrote at home. She used some interesting describing words to tell us all about her adventures at the playground. Since then she has inspired the children in Kohara. Now we have so many authors writing stories at home and bringing them to school to share. We love being authors in Kohara!

Brock The Teacher

Brock read an interesting story to us all about caterpillars. Kohara enjoyed the way he read in a loud, clear voice and we all thought he did a wonderful job reading it to us.

Luke and Amelia's World Travel

Luke and Amelia worked cooperatively to complete our world map puzzle. Great team work! They then used the map to find countries that they knew. Great job finding New Zealand!

Kahurangi's Guitar

Look at Kahurangi's guitar that she created on the block challenge. It looks just like a real one!

Mathematicians

We have had some very busy mathematicians in Kohara. Taila, Hannah, Johnny, Kingston and Ruby have been practising their addition and subtraction skills. What a great way to grow our brains!

The Rainbow Tree by Georgia

Once there grew a rainbow tree. It stood there for many years but a wild cat lived in the woods. It collected apples from the trees but in the night the cat found the rainbow tree. It wanted every last fruit on the tree. But later in the night some people came to see if they could find a pet so they could look like a vet. So they got the wild cat and became a vet and the cat was even happier that he got taken home by the people.

By Georgia.

Junior Swimming Sports

Our junior swimming sports has been rescheduled for Tuesday 15th March. Our class time is 11.45-12.30. You are welcome to pop along and watch us showcase a mixture of swimming skills and water confidence activities. In the event of bad weather, the postponement date will be Thursday 17th March.

Week 6 (7-11 March)

Another busy week this week - and a few changes to our usual programme. See below for details.

Swimming
Monday - optional lunchtime swim for Y1/2 children
Wednesday - class swimming
Friday - class swimming
*We are lucky enough to have some staff professional development opportunities with a swimming coach on Wed so please make sure children have their togs at school. See information below for children that have been away with the vomiting bug.

Update: Please disregard previous notice about extra swimming day on Thursday - we have done a swap with another class.

Vomiting Bug
We continue to have children from our class coming down with a vomiting bug. Please ensure your child stays home for an additional 24 hours after the last vomiting occurrence even if they are keen to return to school. Coming back the next day is only spreading the bug amongst classmates. Please also note that children who have been away with this bug are not able to use the school pool for 10 days after vomiting.

Staff Development
This week staff are being released to work with Mr Anderson and the management team. Our session is scheduled for Tuesday from 11.45-3pm. Kohara will have Tania Stott and Sue Marshall relieving.

Reading Returns Roster
A huge thank you to our fabulous parents who have been busy over the last few weeks shelving our class reading books. We greatly appreciate your time with this.

Kapa Haka on Thursday 12-12.30pm

Library Day is Friday. Great to see so many children with their library books and library bags. Remember these can be returned any time during the week - there is a container at each end of Kohara that they can go into.

Musical Instruments
We have been busy creating our musical instruments as part of our Music/Arts term. We still need longer cardboard tubes (e.g. glad wrap rolls or handy towel rolls length) so if you have any spare lying around home, we would love to take them off your hands!

Have a great week :)

Library Day Tomorrow

Please send library books along - library day tomorrow.

Pool Open Friday

Yay the pool is back up and running. We told the children the pool was still closed but if you get this message in time, please send togs along to school tomorrow (Friday) and if we have enough swimmers, we will go for our usual class swim.

LOUD Shirt Day Friday 4th March

Tomorrow (Friday 4th March) is Loud Shirt Day. Wear your loudest, most colourful shirt to school and bring along a donation to help our Fijian community raise money to help support their family and friends back in Fiji. Thanks in advance for your support with this.

Vomiting Bug

We have a vomiting bug doing the rounds in class at the moment. If your child is away from school with this, please make sure they stay at home for at least 24 hours since the last time they vomited. Children coming back to school the next day spreads the bug around and means we have more children absent as a result.

Kahurangi's Lost Cardigan

Kahurangi has lost a named school cardigan. If you could please check the girls cardigans just in case anyone has accidentally taken the wrong one home, it would be much appreciated.

Help needed please

Our Wakas have been sitting on our benches waiting to be put together and hung. Monique and I are having trouble finding the time to attach the visual mihis and wire for hanging. Could we please have a couple of volunteers on Friday morning to do that and then we will hang them. First in wins!!!! Many thanks

Junior Swimming Sports Postponed

The junior swimming sports have been postponed for tomorrow. A new date will be advised as soon as possible so don't put those pyjamas away just yet!

No Class Swimming Wednesday

No swimming Wednesday this week - the pool is still being repaired.
We will update regarding swimming sports on Thursday as soon as we know whether the pool will be up and running.