Olivia and Nova's Finger Puppets

Check out Nova and Olivia's first project - they have sewn these gorgeous frog finger puppets. First they needed to trace around a template, then they sewed the edges, and last they decorated it with eyes, legs and a crown! The girls needed to follow a sequence to finish these and we think they look fabulous. You can view them on the wall above our trophy cabinet/shelf in Kohara.

Week 5 (26 Feb-2 Mar)

Welcome to Week 5 :)

Junior Swimming Sports
On Wednesday 28 Feb from 11.45-12.30pm Kohara will be having our junior swimming sports - a mix of water confidence games, swimming demonstrations and our favourite - the Pyjama race at the end. Feel free to pop along and join us at the school pool from 11.45am.
Children will need their togs, goggles, 2 towels and a pair of pyjamas/nightie/shorts and t shirt to put over their togs at the end for the PJ race.

Swimming
Please send the togs on Monday, Tuesday and Friday for normal class swimming lessons and on Wednesday for swimming sports. There is also an optional lunchtime swim on Monday lunchtime for our Year 1/2 children if they wish.

Classroom Release Time
The Room 19 children have Art with Mrs McHaffie and the Room 18 children have PE with Mr Lukes on Wednesday afternoon. Due to swimming sports as well on Wednesday, the children will not have a reading book for homework on Wednesday night.

Catch the Vibe
Our social studies inquiry this term is centred around the theme of 'Catch the Vibe'. We have been talking with the children about the kind of vibe we would like in Kohara and how we can make this happen. We all agreed that we want Kohara to have a friendly and welcoming vibe. We are working on making people feel welcome by introducing ourselves to new people (including parents and visitors), smiling at people, using friendly words and actions and helping others. We have learnt that is is extra nice to greet people by name and we can ask them if we are not sure who they are. We are practising in many ways - greeting the teachers by name in the morning, smiling and talking to other children and their parents before school, and getting to know our older buddies in Ara Atu and Kahukura who make upour Rakaia River team.

PTA Meeting
This is now taking place this Tues 27th Feb at 7.30pm in the school library. You are most welcome to pop along and see what it's all about.

Did you know that all proceeds from the 4 Rivers cafe and the Friday Hot Dogs go to the PTA to help purchase resources for the school. Every cuppa and hot dog you buy directly benefits the children. You can also purchase reuseable coffee cups from the coffee shop - Julie and Vanessa will name these and children can return them to the coffee shop when they have finished with them and they will store them there until the next time they need them.

Reading Returns Roster
Thanks to everyone who has put their name beside a week this term to help re-shelve our reading books. We really appreciate your time - thanks so much :)

Library day is Friday
Kapa Haka day is Tuesday.

Upcoming Dates
One for the diary - Cross Country is coming up on Thursday 22 March.

Have a great week.

Richie's Milk Run

Just sitting at home watching Graham Norton and on the ads comes Richie's Milk Run.  Who wouldn't want Richie to deliver milk to our school! If you have a moment send in your request for Richie to come visit. I've already sent one!
Have a lovely weekend.

Baking Parent Helper Needed

We would love to have a parent helper to help a group with a baking project on Tuesday next week (27th Feb). Due to school policy, you would need to have been police vetted through the school to be able to help on this occasion.

If you are keen, please let us know via email - first in, wins!!
monique.osullivan@waimairi.school.nz

Missing Scooter - NOW FOUND!!

Elliot has misplaced his scooter - it is a red MGP with a red base and handles and a grey bar. There is an identical one at school that he took home by mistake last night and returned today but his one is still missing. Someone may have mixed them up in error. Could the children please check at home if they have one similar. Many thanks.

Friday Reminders

Friday is our class swimming day and our class library day.
Please send swimming togs and library books to school.

We are preparing for the upcoming junior swimming sports next week so it would be great if all children have their togs at school.

Mufti Day Friday

Remember to send the children in mufti on Friday (23 Feb) to help celebrate the Chinese New Year and to raise money to support the international food section at the upcoming school fair. The theme for Friday is RED clothes - a lucky colour in the Chinese culture.

Car Parks and Out of Bounds Areas

Today one of our staff members found some children playing in the staff car park at lunchtime and two other children playing just outside the school gate. We have spoken with the whole class about how dangerous this is and reinforced that these are not areas that children may play in. It would be really great if you could also reinforce this by having a conversation with your children around safe areas to play at school (the scooter park, playgrounds, field, library and courts are all safe places to play). Duty staff will continue to monitor these areas as part of their duty. Thanks so much for your help to reinforce this really important safety message.

Gate Safety

With the recent bad weather, it is timely to remind the children about keeping safe coming in and out of school with the extra traffic at drop off and pick up time. The children (and parents) should only be using the gate / entranceway nearest the pool - not the side by the staff carpark please.

Also please help spread the word that the turning area at the end of Tillman Ave is not a drop off zone. Please avoid double parking along Tillman Ave as well - it is much safer to park a short distance away and walk in. Thanks of your help with keeping all our Waimairi families safe.

PTA Meeting Rescheduled

This weeks PTA meeting has been postponed to next Tuesday 27th February 7.30pm in the school library. Everyone is most welcome - we'd love to see you there.

Mufti Day Friday 23 Feb

This Friday 23 February there is a mufti day to celebrate the Chinese New Year - 2018 Year of the Dog.

Children to wear red as this symbolises good luck in the Chinese culture.

A gold coin donation please with all donations going towards the international food stalls at our upcoming school fair.

Jacob and Elliot growing their brains

Jacob and Elliot were found in the lounge teaching themselves to sketch animals. They loved working together and were able to identify the good things in their sketches and what they would improve next time.

Dustyn, Lucia and Arlo's Numicon Learning

Numicon is a maths resource we have for children to use. It is a visual way of seeing numbers represented by a variety of shapes and sizes. Arlo, Dustin and Lucia put all the numicon pieces together to create this long pattern. Then they measured it to see how long it was. They used non standard measurement to work out it was 2 and a half children long! Then they used a combination of rulers and other objects to see how long it was - 2 metres, 60 centimetres plus a felt pen and a crayon long!

What other ways do you think they could measure it?
We have all sorts of things to measure with in Kohara - tape measures, small and long rulers, ice block sticks, cubes and much more...

The children also found out the the short way of writing the measurements - m for metres, and cm for centimetres.

Tess the Musician

Tess has completed her first project in Kohara - a drum set that she planned, created and painted before using it to create some beats! The different drums make a variety of sounds when Tess plays them and she has thought carefully about how to make them different sizes and with different noises.
Ka pai Tess - we loved hearing your music.

The Chrysalis

It was very exciting the other day when we actually saw one of our caterpillars making it's chrysalis right before our eyes! As we watched we noticed a small green patch, which quickly spread before it completely covered the caterpillar up. Then we noticed that the caterpillar had shed it's skin as it had dropped onto the table below. Now we are waiting patiently for our butterflies to hatch - we have quite a few that have made their cocoons already.

Buddy Reading with He Tangata

Kohara had the opportunity to work with the children from He Tangata recently to do some buddy reading. We found out we had many connections with He Tangata as lots of the children have siblings in that room. The Kohara children loved being read to by their new friends - we look forward to continuing this throughout the term as it is a lovely way to develop relationships with the senior children and our Kohara children love knowing a few new faces in the playground and around the school.

Missy Comes to Visit

We had a special visitor in Kohara - Archie's new kitten Missy. Kohara enjoyed finding out about Missy and having a pat. She felt very smooth and she was very friendly. Thanks Archie for letting Mum bring Missy in!

Swimming Fun

Kohara have been enjoying using the pool especially on some of these hot days lately.

We have been focusing on pool safety - how to get in and out of the pool in different ways safely including getting out quickly in the case of an emergency.

We are also focusing on water confidence games as well as practising our swimming techniques.

Lochie the Big Brother

Last Monday Lochie became a big brother!! He was so excited to share his news with Kohara and show us his photos of Bodhi. Lochie tells us that Bodhi loves cuddles with him and is very smiley. Lucky little Bodhi having such a kind and caring big brother to help look after him. We look forward to meeting Bodhi soon.

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 :)