Chickenpox Update

We are continuing to have a number of children still coming down with the chickenpox in Kohara. Please remember that the children are contagious for a few days before the spots appear and remain contagious up until the last spots have scabbed over. Please help us reduce the spread of this illness by keeping children away from the school grounds before and after school i.e. at drop off and pick up time as they are highly contagious whilst they have the spots. Whilst some children are immunised against the chickenpox we have many children who aren't and we are also mindful of two of our staff who are currently pregnant.

Thank you for your support with this.

Pyjama Day Tuesday 5 June

Next Tuesday 5 June we are having a mufti day to support Maisie in Pounamu who is having her hair cut off to donate to the Cancer Society. The theme is pyjamas/onesies or else the children can just wear normal mufti if they don't want to wear their pyjamas.

Please bring along a gold coin to donate to a great cause.

If you'd like to watch Maisie's special haircut - it is happening at Meet Up in the hall on Tuesday morning from 8.50am.

Kindness

In Kohara we have been talking a lot about kindness and what kindness means to us. Often Olly and Gary choose to go home with children that are showing kindness during the school day.

Here are some of our thoughts about kindness...

Kindness is when you help people and say "Hey want to hang with me?"
Mikey

Kindness is when Anika's mum takes us horse riding and I get to have a playdate.
Lucia

Kindness is when someone helps me when I fall over.
Cailee

Kindness is playing together and helping people when they need help.
David

Kindness is when you make toast and a time for your family to be together.
Taylor

Kindness is when you are kind to help your dad and mum and your brother and a cat and a dog.
Monty

Kindness is helping people get out of the tree when they are stuck.
Lochie

Kindness is when my family help me out. I feel happy and zapped and thankful.
Atlas

Kindness is helping people up and saying "Do you want to play with me?"
Jackson

Kindness is letting other people have a turn on the playstation instead of me.
Mylo

Luca the Scientist

Luca was really keen to try a science project so she decided to make a boat which can float. Luca used her prior knowledge of things that float to choose a plastic base for her boat. She has added a mast and a seat, even a steering wheel and a light for the sailors to use at night. We were really impressed with the paint job too!

Now it is time for Luca to test her science thinking out! Will her boat float? Will is stay afloat? How long might it float for?

Sullivan, James and Fletcher Get Crafty!

Sullivan, James and Fletcher have been very busy on their collaborative project. A few weeks ago they thought they were finished but then they thought of more improvements so away they went to add even more details. There is a boat dry dock where the boat can park up for repairs complete with lights down the side for night time, ramps, and even a rolling water part to help the boat float back out to sea! There is even parking alongside for the motorbike they made. The boys have also made a boat, plane and submarine - all of which are really detailed. Next time you are in Kohara, check it out on our trophy cabinet as there are too many details and interesting part to list here!

Tess and Sarah's Dance

We are loving the focus on singing and dancing projects in Kohara at the moment and Tess and Sarah performed a fabulous rendition of Thunder by Imagine Dragons, complete with a dance as well as the singing! We loved how Tess and Sarah thought carefully about the actions - many of them matched the lyrics in the song.

The girls said they started by learning just the song words as they were quite tricky to learn and after many practices then they started to develop the ideas for their dance. They had some moves where they both performed together at the same time, and then other parts where they had solo actions. We were really impressed as it takes a lot of bravery to get up in front of the whole class to perform. Congratulations girls.

Bella's Barn

Bella may have been inspired by Pippa's stable as she designed her own barn. It has an H and F on the roof which stands for horse and foal. Bella has really thought hard abut the things she wanted for her horses and we love how it is different to Pippa's but still has everything a horse would need. Bella chose to use yellow sticks for her hay and for her grass she has used green string on green paper to add texture. Bella's horses look pretty happy!

Pippa's Stable

Pippa has completed her horse stable. She has done an amazing job of furnishing her stable with everything a horse could want! There is hay, water and food troughs, a small enclosure for the foal and even some grass outside with horse jumps and an obstacle course with cones. We love how Pippa made an open window for the horses to look outside too. Pippa's friend Bella taught her how to make the horses look like they were standing up - great teamwork!

Singing Superstars Sofia, Siale-Maia and Nova

Kohara were treated to a fabulous singing performance of 'How Much is that Doggie in the Window?' by Sofia, Siale-Maia and Nova. The girls said the hardest part was learning the words in the verses as the words changed. They found the chorus the easiest part to learn. Kohara enjoyed it so much we had a repeat performance so we could all join in! Ka pai girls - you showed great cooperation and perseverance with learning the words.

Week 5 (28 May-1 June)

Welcome to Week 5 :)

Classroom Release Time
This week Room 18 children have Art with Mrs McHaffie and Room 19 have PE with Mr Lukes on Wednesday afternoon.

Lunchtime Options

• Our senior playground leaders are running organised games for year 1-4 children every lunchtime. Children can meet at 12.45pm after the end of eating time bell has gone, over by the big tree outside He Tangata.
• Craft club is on every Tuesday lunchtime in Room 22 starting at 2.45pm.
• Our library is open at morning tea and lunchtime for quiet reading or colouring in activities.

Farewell to Mrs Parnham
Join us on Friday just before home time outside the school office for our special farewell to Mrs Parnham who is taking up a promotion in Auckland. We are really going to miss having Leanne around Waimairi and wish her well for her move up North.

Junior Disco
The PTA are hosting a disco for the children on Friday 22 June.
Juniors (Year 0-3) from 5.30-6.30pm. $2 entry and glow products will be available for purchase on the night.

Christchurch Marathon
We only need 2 more helpers for this Sunday 3 June for the morning to help on a water station for the Christchurch Marathon. If you can help the PTA with this by volunteering a few hours of your time, please let Monique know.

Library
Please send books and library bags along for our Friday library session. Books can be returned anytime, you don't need to wait until Friday. You'll find our yellow library containers in the middle space of Kohara by the bookshelf.

Reading Book Returns
We would love a helper to put away this week's books - anytime from Tuesday onwards (books are returned by the children on a Monday). Many thanks to our wonderful helpers who have helped with this already this term.

Connect Waimairi Volunteers
We are still searching for two lovely classroom connectors who would be interested in being the class reps for Kohara. If you would like more info, please come chat with Monique or Tracy.

Winter
With the winter weather upon us (sadly!) it is time make sure that all children have a jacket at school everyday, particularly important if there was an emergency evacuation as children would be outside in the cold. Please also ensure that these are well named.

Coffee Shop and Hot Dog Sales
Did you know that every hot drink or hot dog you order at school raises money for our school and our wonderful children? Our PTA are just fantastic, and at last months PTA meeting they put $60 000 aside for a playground and landscaping in the rebuild. A large percentage of this was profit from our school fair so if you see our hardworking PTA members around, be sure to congratulate them!

Sickness
Currently chicken pox and a nasty stomach bug are doing the rounds at school as well as the usual coughs and colds.

Science
Does anyone have any contacts with anyone who works with bees/beehives? We are after a contact person to come in and speak with the class about their work. If you know of anyone, please let us know.

Have a great week.

Sarah's Elephant pillow!

Sarah has designed her own Elephant pillow. She chose an outline of a picture and used that as her pattern. It was cut out and Sarah stitched the pillow and added detail. We think the smile on the Elephant pillow isn't as big as Sarah's smile!!

Brayden's fantastic warship

This warship has been Brayden's project prior to going to Namibia and even on his return. There were many problems to overcome and lots and lots of perseverance but we think the final edition with a control tower, guns, TNT barrels is a quality project.

Fletcher, Sullivan and James (who was at reading!!!)

Wow!  Look carefully this picture tells a story. Working together, collaborating and problem solving were involved in this activity.

NEWSPAPERS

Hi All

We desperately need newspapers for our classroom. If you have any just hanging around please send them our way.
Thanks

The Giant by Luka

The Giant by Luka

The giant is awesome because he did not get out.
His foot was under the building.
The giant is angry because the people were playing soccer on his head!

Luka, we love how you used the photo to  imagine how the giant was feeling. Your stories are getting longer and more detailed. Great work.

The Giant by Sofia

The Giant by Sofia

The giant is stuck in the grass and he got dirty.


Well done Sofia. You are working hard to make your stories longer. Its was great to see you thinking hard about the photo and thinking about what might have happened next for the giant.

Thank You by Lola

Thank You by Lola

Thanks Mum for cleaning my room.
I felt happy becauseI can watch tv.

You have a lovely kind Mum to do that for you Lola. We are impressed with how well you are sending out your tricky words and you are learning so many words now that you can write by yourself. Great work!

Horse Dream by Lucia

Horse Dream by Lucia

I love horses. I dreamed of having one because I love them.
I love riding a horse because they are beautiful.
We need Dad to win a lotto ticket.
Then he will buy me a horse and I will keep it in my big backyard.


Fingers crossed for you Lucia!! It's nice to dream about special things. I wonder what other dreams the children in Kohara wish for?

Skateboarding by Sam

Skateboarding by Sam

I went skateboarding. I flipped. I nearly did a double flip.
I scratched my skateboard.
Me and my brother, it was about who can do the most tricks and I won.
It was fun but I was scared the first time I went down the hill fast.
Then we went home and I had lunch.


Sam is such a keen writer. He can't stop writing and writing and we love how long and interesting his stories are getting. Great job Sam.

Thank You by Jarrett

Thank You by Jarrett

Thank you Mum for letting us go to the park.
I felt happy because like the monkey bars.

We have been talking about kindness in Kohara and it is really nice to thank people who do kind things for us. Jarrett, it was lovely to read about how kind your Mum is to take you to such nice places like the park.

A Spider In My Room by Lochie

A Spider In My Room by Lochie

I saw a spider in my room on the roof.
I was scared because I thought it would bite me.
I put it in the box because I do not allow it in my room!


Lochie, you are working so hard on adding detail to your stories. We love how you added a because idea. Definitely no spiders allowed in Mrs O's room either!!!!!

Waimairi Beach by Arlo

Waimairi Beach by Arlo

I went to Waimairi Beach.
I ran into the waves and got wet.
It was fun and I got sandy.
The water was up to my knees.
It was freezing.
It made me walk slow.

Well done Arlo - you thought about interesting words to include in your story like freezing and sandy. This makes us imagine just how it would have felt being there.

The Zoo by Theo

The Zoo by Theo

In the holidays I saw Olly at the zoo.
It was at the toy shop.
I saw a real Gary and the fake one and a real Olly!


Well done Theo - we love how you just kept on adding ideas to your story. What fun it was finding Olly and Gary's real friends at the zoo. The gorillas and orang-utans are such cool animals to watch.

Seeking Classroom Connectors

Can you help?
Our fabulous Connect Waimairi group are looking for a minimum of two classroom representatives to be the classroom connectors for Kohara.

*Minimum of 2 per class. No maximum

*Emphasis on inclusion, kindness & support

*Host/hostess – encourage connections

*Conscious engagement

*Build effective communication with teachers & families

*Assist with classroom and school gatherings

*Encourage correct communication sharing within the school i.e. notices, events, use school info booklet etc.

If you think this sounds like you, please get in touch with Tracy or Monique or feel free to speak to Fletcher's mum Mandy or Sarah's mum Catherine for more details.

Tess and Siale-Maia Creating Art

Tess and Siale-Maia were working cooperatively on this wonderful piece of art on the whiteboard. Tess was so helpful showing Siale-Maia how to improve her love heart shapes. Great team work. We wonder who gets to have this yummy looking birthday cake?

Block Challenge and Shape Mat

Here are a few snapshots of what the children have been making on the block challenge and shape mat during the last few days. David made a albatross, Lola and Izzy made a symmetrical pattern, and Luca made a giraffe.

Craft Club Fun

Jacob, Tao and Elliot enjoyed making creatures at Craft Club last week. We always love seeing what creations the children make when they go to craft club. Tao made a wriggly worm that wiggles and Jacob and Elliot made dragons which can fly.

Mikey's Warship

Here is Mikey and his helper Riley with his war ship. Mikey told us how he mixed black and white to get just the right shade of grey and that he is interested in war ships which is how he came up with the idea of making it. Riley has used different gluing techniques which depended on what he was gluing - he found the hot glue gun worked best for the heavier boxes. The opening at the bottom allows the smaller boat to come in and out and the children liked the cannons on the top. Great work Mikey - you persevered over a few weeks to make this detailed warship.

Bee Sketches

Here is a sample of our first bee sketches as part of our Science Inquiry. We were learning to do observational drawings to produce a realistic looking bee.

Marathon Drinks Station

We still need 9 more helpers (adults or children intermediate age or above) for the upcoming drinks station fundraiser at the Christchurch Marathon on Sunday 3 June from approximately 7.30-11.30am. If you can help, please let Monique know asap.
This is a fun social morning and a great way to help the school.

Week 4 (21-25 May)

Welcome to Week 4 :)

Monday Meet Up
We have a welcome meet up on Monday morning to welcome our new families.
Seating for meet up has been tweaked slightly - the blue mats in the front row are for the Te Puna children, however Korimako children can sit on the next row of blue mats and Kohara children on the third row of blue mats. Please mention this to your children so they can leave room for the Te Puna children. A reminder that no children should be sitting on the adult's seats unless they are part of the welcome to Waimairi group being welcomed (they sit to the right of the stage).

Playground Leaders
Starting this week we are lucky enough to have our senior Playground Leaders beginning organised lunch time activities every day for the Year 0-4 children. Children can meet the playground leaders at the big tree just outside He Tangata at 12.45pm after they have eaten lunch and join in with the games. A huge thank you to our senior students for giving up their lunchtimes to offer this opportunity.

Craft Club
This runs every Tuesday lunchtime from 12.45pm in Room 22 (by the hall). All ages welcome.
If you or someone in your family is keen to volunteer as a helper for this please let us know.

Sickness
Besides chicken pox doing the rounds at school, we have also had a few children away with gastro bugs. A reminder that children should be kept home for at least 24 hours after they stop vomiting to avoid the spread of illness to others.

Classroom Release Time
On Wednesday Room 18 children have Mrs McHaffie for Art from 9-10.30am.

Kapa Haka
Junior Kapa Haka is on Tuesday 1.30-2pm in the hall.

Library Day
Please encourage children to return books each week as this is part of our classroom reading programme.

Poetry Folder Grumble!
Last week we had 26 children who did not have their Poetry folders at school in the poem containers!!!!!! Please remind children to put their folders in the green boxes on Monday morning before school, and reading folders are to go in their tote trays every morning. We are having a big focus on this at the moment as it wastes valuable learning time whilst we wait for the children to locate these in their school bags.

PTA News
Pool keys - two weeks left to return your pool key and get your bond money refunded. Please take your key and eftpos card to the office for a refund.

Mamma Mia movie night - a fun night out for parents at Hoyts Northlands on 22 July.
Tickets are $15 each and can be ordered online.
Please deposit the funds into the Waimairi School PTA account 12-3149-0102113-00 using reference MOVIE and your SURNAME, then email sheryl@killick.nz with your request. There will be no physical tickets, your name will be at the door. Tickets will not be available from the office and are strictly limited.

Merino school jerseys - the PTA require another 6 orders for them to go ahead with ordering jerseys. If you'd like to purchase one for your child, please order at the office.

Uniform Sale
Our second hand uniform sale is running on Thursday 24th May between 8.30-9.30am and 2.30-3.30pm from the PTA room at the back of the hall. Payment is by way of donation. The PTA will also gladly take any uniform donations in clean and tidy condition.

Upcoming Events
School Disco - Friday 22 June. Juniors 5.30-6.30pm and Seniors 6.45-7.45pm. Year 3 children may choose to go to other disco but not both. $2 entry and glow products will be available for purchase also.

Have a great week :)

Oat the Goat Story

Today Kohara watched this delightful story about Oat the Goat. We had to help Oat the Goat make choices along the way. Kohara were very good at choosing kind choices and helping Oat make the right decisions.

You might like to watch this together as a family. It's available in either English or Maori and you can choose of the narrator to read it to you, or you can read it yourself.

https://bullyingfree.nz/parents-and-whanau/oat-the-goat/ 

Chickenpox

Chickenpox is currently doing the rounds at school - we have a couple of children from our class with it at the moment so please be on the look out for spots as children are contagious from a few days before spots appear until the last spots have crusted over.

Friday Library Day

Please send books and library bags along - currently there are only about 2 library bags in our class library boxes!

Pink Shirt Day on Friday

Don't forget to support Pink Shirt Day in support of Bully-Free NZ Week.
No money required but children will need to 'pay' a compliment to someone :)
If you can't find a pink shirt, a red or purple top would be fine with the mufti.

Week 3 (14-18 May)

Welcome to Week 3 :)

Staffing
Mrs Campbell is away on Wednesday and Thursday this week. We welcome Ms Jill Kelk to Kohara for those two days.

Pink Shirt Day
This Friday 18 May is Pink Shirt Day to raise awareness of Bullying Free NZ Week. The donation is to pay someone a compliment during the day (no money required!) It would be great to see the children in a pink shirt (or maybe red if they can't locate anything pink).

Sewing/Craft Club 
This is now running at lunchtimes on Tuesdays in Room 22 (by the hall) starting at 12.45pm after the children have finished eating lunch. All children are welcome. Last week the children painted special rocks for Mothers Day.

Reading Book Returns
We would love some helpers to put away some reading books for us - there is a rather large pile on the bench in the blue tray (down Room 18 end). If anyone has a few minutes to spare before pick up or after drop off in the mornings we would love your help with this please. Thanks to our lovely mums who have already sorted these into colour coded piles the other day.

Library
Library day is Friday. Remember books can be returned any day and put into the yellow library containers in the middle space. If your child is not bringing home library books, please let us know as it may be they have overdues that haven't been returned.

Poetry Folders and Reading Folders
Please help us in reminding the children that Poetry folders should be returned on Monday mornings to the green poetry boxes on top of the tote trays and reading folders should be put in their tote trays every morning before school. We are finding we are having to wait in our reading group time for children to locate their folders which is wasting their instructional reading time. Many children are also telling us they don't have their folder at school - please hunt these out and send them to school.

Blend of the Week
This week our blend is th. The children love this one as you poke your tongue out to make the sound!! Look for words in the reading books this week that start with th - there are many high frequency words that start with this blend... the, this, that, then, there, they. How many others can you find? Have a go at writing/spelling these words. You might even think of some words that have th  on the end like with.

Lost Property
As winter approaches, please check that school jerseys are well named. This makes it much easier to return items to the right person.

PTA Meeting
This Tuesday the PTA are meeting at 7pm in the school library. If you've thought about coming along or just want to find out more about what we do, then please feel free to come along and join us. There are a number of familiar faces from Kohara there.

The next PTA fundraiser is helping out at the drinks station at the upcoming Christchurch Marathon on Sunday 3 June (Queens Birthday weekend). This year we only need 12 helpers for the morning from approximately 7.30am to 11am. If you could help out, please let Monique know.

Kapa Haka
Junior kapa haka is on Tuesday after lunch.

Have great week :)

Science

We have been investigating Living Things as part of our Science learning in Kohara. We have been using our observation and classification skills to work out what makes a living thing and what they have in common.

We think that living things all need oxygen, they all eat and they all grow or move. We used this criteria to classify objects into living and non living.

Next we thought about living things in more detail. We had a number of pictures of living things and we had to use our observations and scientific thinking to group them. We came up with three categories - animals, insects and arachnids (spiders). We shared lots of scientific ideas about what made a living thing either an animal, arachnid or insect.

Buddy Readers

During May some of our children are lucky enough to have buddy readers from Ara Atu working with them after lunch each day to practise their reading and high frequency words. It is lovely to have our old Kohara students coming back to help out and the children are enjoying getting to know them. Next month we will be able to choose some more Kohara readers to work with a different group of buddies from Ara Atu.

Thanks Ara Atu for showing us kindness by helping us with our reading.

Congratulations Elliot

Congratulations to Elliot who won the prize for the best dressed (and pinkest) at Friday's mufti day. Thank you to everyone who donated money towards helping those with Breast Cancer and to all the children who supported the day with all their pink.

Don't pack the pink away just yet as this coming Friday (18 May) we have Pink Shirt Day as part of Bullying Free NZ Week. There is no monetary donation this time - the donation is giving someone a compliment.

Happy Mother's Day

We would like to wish all our lovely Kohara Mums a wonderful Mother's Day on Sunday. May you all get a sleep in and lots of kind deeds over the day. The children may need to be reminded to give you a little surprise out of their  school bags on Sunday!!

Son's Graduation!!

Hi All

Just wanted to let you know that I will be away Wednesday 16 May and Thursday 17 May in Wellington for my son's graduation from Victoria University. Yah! Last one through and that is that for parent funded education in our house! Jill Kelk will be relieving for me. Jill is almost a Kohara teacher herself and knows our routines and many of our children so everything will continue as normal.

Cheers Tracy

Library Day Friday

Please send library books along on Friday :)

Pink Mufti Day on Friday

Remember that Friday (11 May) is our pink themed mufti day. If you don't have any pink, then feel free to wear your favourite mufti clothes and bring along a gold coin donation.

Olly Rides A Bike

You'll never guess how Olly the Orangutan got to school this week! He even brought along his friend Josie. Word is he had a wheelie great time :)

Block Challenge

The Petronas Towers in Malaysia inspired some fabulous block creations this week. Here are a couple of our collaborative efforts..