Week 4 (19-23 February)

Welcome to Week 4 :)

Whanau Picnic Dinner
Thank you to everyone who came along to our Rakaia River family picnic and swim. It was so awesome to see such a big turnout of families. We hope you enjoyed getting to catch up with new and familiar faces and making some connections with other Waimairi families. It was great weather for it!

Meet the Teacher Interviews
Meet the Teacher Interviews are coming up over the next few weeks. Details for logging in online to make a time were in the school newsletter. If you need help to make a time you can also do this through the school office. These 15 minute interviews are a chance to meet class teachers and share with us a little bit about your child - what their strengths are, the activities and sports they love, their friendships and peer groups, and to share any concerns or questions with us. We look forward to catching up with you then.

Swimming
Our class swimming days are Monday, Tuesday and Friday. Please send swimming gear on these days. On Mondays there is also an optional lunchtime swim for our Year 1 and 2 children if they wish.

School Drop Offs
The classrooms are open to the children from 8.30am onwards - before this time, children are not supervised by the teachers as we are often out of the classroom preparing for the school day or attending staff meetings. This is particularly important in the event of an emergency before this time.

Junior Swimming Sports
The junior classes have their Junior Swimming Sports Day on Wednesday 28th February. Each class will have a 45 minute scheduled time to share their class swimming activities with you. More information will be coming home soon with details for each class.

Sun Safety
Thank you to those children remembering to bring their school sunhats. Children are often outside throughout the day so it is really important that they have these in their bags each day. Sun screen is also freely available in the classroom for children to use at lunchtime.

Classroom Release Time
This Thursday Room 18 children have Mr Lukes for PE and Room 19 children have Mrs McHaffie for Art from 11-12.30pm.

PTA
This Tuesday 20 February we have our first PTA meeting for the year at 7.30pm in the school library. We love to see new faces, so you are most welcome to pop along and see what we are all about (visitors are welcome!) There is no pressure on members to take on big roles within the committee as many hands make light work and everyone contributes as much or as little as they'd like over the year. The main fundraiser for this term is our school fair on Saturday April 7.

Our lovely PTA also run the 4 Rivers Coffee Shop at school and the weekly hot dogs on Fridays. This is another great way to support the school - each coffee, hot chocolate, flavoured fluffy or hot dog directly supports resources for our wonderful children. Hot dogs can be ordered outside the hall before school on a Friday morning for $2.50 (gluten free option available on request) and the children collect their hot dog at lunchtime from the hall.

Library 
Our class library day is Friday.

Kapa Haka
Our junior Kapa Haka is on Tuesday.

Reading
Last week the children will have started bringing home class reading books to share with you at home. These are kept in their reading folders for the week and we will collect them in the following week. Please encourage your child to put their reading folder in their tote tray before school each morning so they are ready for their reading group when called. Feel free to re-read the books from other days if your child would like to.

On Fridays the children will bring home their poetry folder with a new poem to share with you. Enjoy re-reading other poems from earlier weeks as well. Poetry folders need to be returned the following school day to the green boxes on top of the tote trays. On days when the children have Classroom Release Time sometimes our home reading is a new poem on these days instead of a reading book.

School library books and favourite books from home or the public libraries are also wonderful for home reading - whether it is you reading to your child or them reading to you.

Have a great week :)