Josie and Tao Making Mathematical Dogs!

Because it is the Chinese Year of the Dog - we thought we'd have some dog themed maths activities for the children to explore in their independent learning time. The children had to follow the picture pattern to create dogs out of the multi links cubes and then count up how many cubes were needed to make each type of dog. They also had to compare the longest and the shortest as well as the dog that used the most cubes and the dog that used the least cubes.

Josie and Tao were caught on camera with theirs!

Sofia the Writer

Sofia was enjoying challenging herself to write as many words as she could on the whiteboard.
What a super way to practise your writing Sofia!

Tao, Jacob and Declan Bake Chocolate Afghans

A delicious aroma was in the air on Friday as Tao, Jacob and Declan made chocolate afghan biscuits for their project learning. We love baking in Kohara as it provides an authentic context for putting our measuring skills into practise - reading fractions (e.g. 1/2 a cup) and following the steps in sequence.

It also posed an interesting maths problem for Kohara to ponder...
Tao, Jacob and Declan made 14 afghan biscuits. How many biscuits do they each get? What should they do with the leftover ones that can't be shared equally?

Kohara worked out that they could each have 4 afghans as 4 + 4 + 4 = 12
They would then have 2 left as 12 + 2 = 14.
They decided that Declan's mum should have the spares since she came along to help them.

Great team work boys!

Week 7 (12-16 March)

Welcome to Week 7 :)

Visiting Author
On Monday morning we have the author James Russell visiting some of our junior classes. James writes picture books for children and last week we enjoyed reading several of his books about dragons. Due to this visit, there will be no reading books sent home on Monday night for home reading - instead please enjoy a favourite book from home or the library or get the children to tell you about the visit today.

Classroom Release Time
Kohara have Art (Room 19) and PE (Room 18) on Wednesday afternoon from 1.30-3pm.

Union Meetings
Over the next few weeks, staff who are union members will be attending union meetings. We are attending these on different days to allow our normal class programme to continue uninterrupted. Additional staffing will be in place on these days.

Swimming
Hopefully we have better luck with the weather this week! Swimming days are Monday, Tuesday and Friday. Our Monday swim will be dependent on what time the visiting author finishes - but please send togs along just in case.

Kapa Haka is on Tuesday.

Touch Rugby Uniforms
All touch rugby uniforms (tops) are being returned this Friday. If your child plays touch rugby for one of our junior school teams, please ensure your t shirt has been given to your team coach before Friday as these all need to be returned together.

Library
Library day is Friday.

Headlice
Please continue to check hair regularly as headline are still doing the rounds at school.

Have a great week!

Suggestions for Learning High Frequency Words

Reading High Frequency Words

Here is a collection of ideas that you could use for learning to read high frequency words.

PASS THE WORD: Put the words onto flash cards and put them on the fridge or pantry door. Children must read the words before they can open the door and eat!

REACH FOR THE SKY: Have the words on flash cards and blue tac them on to the wall. Place the words one on top of each other as they learn them. The idea is to see if you can reach the ceiling and go across the room. Always start by reading from the bottom word as this helps to revise previous words.

WHO AM I?: Parent or child gives a clue to the identity of the word. “ I start with D and end with d. Another word for father” Child then has to read the word in order to gain a point.

ROLL THE DICE: Write the words onto a large dice or stick them on with blue tac so that they can be changed readily. Roll the dice and read the word. If its read correctly then progress around a board game.

GOODMORNING/GOOD NIGHT: Blue tac words to the wall beside the child’s bed so that they read them first thing in the morning and last thing at night.

BINGO: Draw up a simple playing card board for the words and play in the usual “Bingo” manner.

TREASURE HUNT: Hide the flash cards aaround the room and read them as you find them.

SNAP: Make two sets of High Frequency Words and use them like playing cards to play the game.”Snap”. When a snap occurs the child has to read the word before being able to keep the catds.

STEPPING STONES: Lie the words out on the floor and get your child to step from word to word as you call them. Use chalk on concrete as an alternative.

Have fun and praise, praise, praise all the effort.

Friday Reminders

Swimming day on Friday.

Library day on Friday.

Please send along library books and swimming togs.

Josie and Arlo Create With The Shapes

The shape mat is not only a great place to make patterns or creations - it is also a great place to make new friends! Josie and Arlo were having a super time creating today.

What shapes can you spot?

Can you find a shape with 6 sides?
How many shapes can you see with 4 sides?
What shape has two long sides and 2 short sides?

Anika the Author

Today Anika published her very own book all about an exciting family adventure. It's so delightful - we thought you'd like to read it too! Anika thought really hard about the sequence of events in her story - she has used words like first, after, next and then to show the sequence.
Bon travail (good work) Anika!

OUR WEEKEND
By Anika

I went to Castle Hill. First we went to drop the stuff off. Jonny lended (lent) her house to us.

After we went to the forest. We saw a poisoned mushroom. Zara and I licked the tree. There is some hair and on the hair there is some sugar.

Next we climbed the mountain. We saw the rocks from far away. Did you go to Castle Hill?

The day after it was hot. We decided to go on a hydro slide. Dada was impressed. Look at me!

After that we climbed the rocks. It was fun. We even saw a rabbit. Look at us!

Finally we went home.

Monty Practises His Chinese

Today Monty was enjoying practising writing 'Spring' in Chinese. It's so lovely to see our children embracing different cultures and sharing them with each other.

Fletcher the Mathematician

Some of our groups have been learning about number bonds to 10 and trying to find all the possible combinations of numbers that can add up to 10. We worked out that you can reverse the numbers as well e.g. 2+8=10 and 8+2=10. Our numicon equipment has been really helpful with exploring these combinations.

Fletcher then had a go at working out number bonds to 20. Then we challenged him with numbers adding up to 100! Fletcher found the ones using groups of 10 easier but his brain had to work really hard to work out ones with trickier numbers. Fletcher persevered and used a hundreds chart to help him solve the problems. We were really impressed with his mathematical thinking and how he really took on board some strategies that would help him solve the trickier ones.
做得好

Zuò dé hǎo 

(well done Fletcher)

Lexi's Symmetrical Butterfly

Today we talked about symmetry which is where both sides look the same. We often look for symmetry in our shape patterns and try and locate the lines of symmetry (which ways you can cut it in half and have both sides the same).

One of our class activities today was to create a symmetrical butterfly. This is Lexi's and she has really thought hard about making her patterns the same on both sides.

Small Boxes Needed

Our Kohara box construction supplies are getting low. We would love any small boxes, tubes or clean lids for our projects (no bigger than a shoe box/cereal box though please as otherwise they take up too much space!) These can be dropped off into the big container in our art area. All supplies most appreciated :)

Ice Cream Containers Needed

The PTA are after about 80 clean ice cream containers to use at the upcoming fair. If anyone has any spares lying around please drop these off to the office and they will collect them from there.
Many thanks.

School Sores

We have had a case of school sores (impetigo) at school. These are blister like sores that can appear as itchy, fluid filled or crusty sores. Please click on the link below for more information.

School Sores (Impetigo) Information

Week 6 (5-9 March)

Welcome to Week 6 :)

Swimming 
The forecast at this stage is not looking great for our swimming days but please send the togs along just in case - Monday, Tuesday and Friday. Optional lunchtime swim for Year 1/2 on Monday lunchtime as well.

Welcome
This week we welcome Fabiana Preston to Kohara as part of her teaching requirements at the University of Canterbury. Fabiana will only be spending one day with us but will be in at Waimairi one day a week over the next few weeks, spending a day with various class levels.

Reading Reminders
Thank you for encouraging your children to put their reading folders in their tote trays each morning before school - this makes it so much quicker for our groups at reading time. Poetry folders go back in the green boxes on top of the tote trays on a Monday morning as well.

Projects
Many children are now underway with an individual or group project of their choosing. Our class name Kohara means 'to enthuse or be passionate about' and this is a big part of our class programme. The children drive the projects from their own interests in consultation with us, and we help facilitate or guide this for them. The end product is not necessarily the most important element as throughout the projects the children are learning many valuable skills - collaboration, problem solving, perseverance, sharing, oral language, taking a risk, trying something new, developing detail, observation, and many skills from across the curriculum.

Projects can be anything - you'll see a great variety over the year. They can be:

• box construction
• art
• science experiments
• woodwork
• gardening
• musical
• dance
• drama
• singing
• sewing
• making a game
• teaching others an activity - the list is endless...

When the children are not working instructionally with the teachers, they can work on their projects. Some projects are finished in a day and others take a few weeks. Some even develop into the next project! The children have to follow a structured sequence to complete their project.

1. Plan their idea and draw what it might look like.

2. Discuss it with a teacher (list what they need and talk about the purpose of it and the skills they will be developing).

3. Once they have the tick of approval they can make a start.

4. Once it's finished, they get a photo of it for their book and also for our class blog.

5. They share it with the class (great oral language opportunity) and then it is displayed on the trophy cabinet in class for others to admire and be inspired by.

6. Then they write about it in their writing book and reflect on how it went and any next steps or improvements they would make in the future.

The children do not have to work on their project everyday - some like to do a little bit every now and again and others like to work on it until it's completed. We are enjoying seeing the first round of projects starting - watch out for the finished ones on the blog!!

Scooters and Bikes

We have recently moved our scooter stand to the end of the walkway outside Kohara. We are working very hard on encouraging the children to take the time to park their scooters neatly in the stands so they are not left spread out across the path where people walk. Children with bikes can stand these up in the wee gap to the left of the scooter stand (bike helmets hanging on the handlebars). 

Word Lists

We have been re-testing the children on their high frequency words. It is quite normal for children to forget a few over the long holiday break so we will be redistributing word lists over the next week. Some children may have previous ones to revise. Please feel free to use these however you'd like - you can cut the words out and use them as flash cards, stick different words in places around your house (putting a tricky one on the bathroom mirror to look at while brushing their teeth at night etc). We recommend that children who are just starting a new list don't try and learn all of them in one go. Start with the ones your child knows and just add a couple of new ones in with those, then as they become known, add a couple more. It is really helpful to continue to practise the words they already know as this keeps these fresh in their minds and helps them recall these more quickly within their reading and writing.

Thank You

A big thank you to everyone who came in over the last two weeks for parent teacher interviews. What a busy time but it was so lovely to meet up with you all and find out more about your child and your family. Don't forget you are welcome to pop in before or after school to chat or drop us an email. If you have an urgent message regarding your child please ring the office and they will let us know as we do not always check emails during the school day or when we are out on playground duty at break times.

Have a great week.

Dustyn's Chapter Book

We love writing in Kohara!! It is always exciting to read the imaginative ideas that the children come up with. Over the last week or so Dustyn has been working really hard on his chapter book and it is now ready to share with you. We love how he has sequenced his ideas into parts - sequence is another important word in Kohara as it applies to so many aspects of our learning.

Part 1

I am fighting a snake but it is 3 headed and I am the king and I have a crown and I have a sword.

There is a monster and there is a rocket.

Part 2

The dragon flew down and blew my crown off my head and I cut his head off!

Part 3

On Tuesday night I turned into a hyena and the dragon got killed.

Harry, Arlo and Fletchers observations

Harry, Arlo and Fletcher were taking a 'really close look' at our swan plants. Detail is one of our key words in Kohara and the way to understand detail is to simply take a 'really close look'. We wonder what these scientists observed!

Thomas's Basketball Hoop

Thomas created his own basketball hoop. He used a box to catch the ball and guess what the box can be moved so 9 times out of 10 it goes in! Perfect for Mrs O and Mrs Campbell! Creativity is the name of the game here!

Lola, Mikey and Cailee.....Kohara Masterchefs

This is our first baking project of the year and WOW do they look good! The children checked out what ingredients they needed and bought things we didn't have at school from home. They had help from a parent that only came to put the books away!!  Now we have a real maths problem for Kohara to ponder. There were 12 muffins and 3 children...how many did they get each?

Declan's Basketball Hoop.

The Kohara kids know that basketball is talked about ALOT in our room. We can't wait to try yours out Declan. Declan worked hard on adding detail to his creation. Go Declan!!