Firstly, many thanks to our superb team of parents who joined us on Wednesday for our trip to the SPCA. We were fortunate to have had the only fine day last week and we made the most of it with a walk through the town belt to the Velodrome for lunch. We returned back to the SPCA via a ‘secret’ hill track which involved lots of climbing. Such enthusiasm! Over the next few weeks we will continue to look at how we can care for animals, and we will let the children lead us in their inquiries into pets.
Thanks again to the parents who responded to our survey about learning in our Kowhanga. The workshop went really well and there was lots of interest from other teachers. We very much appreciated your constructive feedback and we will certainly move forward next year with the feedback in mind. If you would still like to comment on anything the survey is still open.
Our writing focus continues to be on how we can ‘hook’ our reader; use of description to add interest; and mastering punctuation in our writing. It is always exciting to see the quality content the children include in their writing after a real experience, such as our SPCA trip, or hands on learning in class, and they all wrote with vigour last week!
Our Friday construction sessions will continue this week - the children are LOVING it! I am sure you are all very appreciative of the wonderful, HUGE creations they are bringing home on a Friday afternoon (!!!) Experiences such as these allow for the development of so many skills: team work, creativity, innovation, communication…the list goes on. Love it!
In a couple of weeks we will begin our full -school swimming lessons, which will be held at Huia Pool and McKenzie Pool. We will need parent help for these trips: if you think you may be available to join us we will be very happy to hear from you. Our two sessions will be on Thursday 24th and Friday 25th November at McKenzie Pool (the end of next week). We then break for a week, and continue with lessons on Monday 5th December, and then through until Tuesday 13th December. More information will come home this week with times etc. We require the children to be able to dress and undress independently before and after the lessons, and it would be great if you could practise this at home.
In our Kowhanga we try to motivate children less with rewards, like stickers and treats, but rather motivate children to succeed through their own sense of challenge and achievement. We do however have a class system that we call 'bucket filling', and celebrates kindness, awareness of others, teamwork, and celebrating their own and others successes. The class works together on this common goal, earning pom poms which go into a jar. When the jar is full we plan to celebrate together in some way - a water day, a trip, a party, the children will decide. This will probably be during Week 9, and we would love families to join us (if you are free). More information to come as our jar gets closer to the top!
Enjoy the rest of your weekend - it’s nice to have a bit of a break in the weather!
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