Kia ora koutou,
We have loved catching up with the children over the course of this week, and hearing all about their holidays! It's been lovely to see all of those happy smiles, and the excitement about being back at school.
Everyone, of course, is extremely excited about our new building which many of you will have had the chance to look around on Monday at the official opening. We are loving the spaces, and feel very lucky to have such a beautiful outlook over Ōpāwaho, and through the trees with all of their birds and wonderful birdsong.
You are welcome to come into Hangere on any day after school, and have your children show you around.
The children are showing impressive respect for the environments they're learning in, as well as the resources we're using. Their level of tidiness is to be highly commended!
Here is a guided tour for you, in photo form...
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| Our games and jigsaw puzzle 'shelves' |
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| Soft toys awaiting a good book! |
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| View beyond the al fresco dining area and into one of our breakout spaces |
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| A closer view into the same breakout space |
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| The small group teaching space |
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| The wet area and kitchen |
Structured Literacy Home Learning:
As of next week, we are going to be starting to add some extra Structured Literacy activities into the children's Literacy folders. These are short paper-based activities which you will be able to supervise and support your children to complete at home. Once finished, these can be returned to school and will be checked by teachers and filed for each child. These activities are purely optional, and there will be no compulsion to complete them. These activities will not be coming home every day, rather, just on occasional days.
Readathon:
Today the Readathon cards are coming home. For our learners who are within Stages 1 to 6 of our Little Learners Love Literacy programme, we would not expect independent and fluent reading of texts beyond the children's reading level. Some of our children who are not yet bringing home reading books from school, will have alphabet letter cards in their Literacy folders. Children are also able to practise their letter sounds, join letter cards together to make up words, and make up simple sentences using their heart word cards as well as their letter cards. Children might need to make extra letter cards if they find that they need more than one of some of their letters when making up little sentences.
We have left the 'Reading Target' (number of minutes per day) blank, and we ask you to fill this number in so that it is appropriate, while also being a little challenging, but at the same time, achievable, for your child.
We would love to use this opportunity for our learners to engage passionately with books and Literacy in general. This could include whanau reading library books to/with their children, children enjoying a picture book independently, and could also include a focus on the language comprehension strand of the ‘Reading Rope’ below:
Identifying, and getting excited about, new vocabulary is particularly beneficial and fun and can have a large impact on writing too. Have fun throughout the Readathon, everyone!
Cafe Theme:
We are having SO much fun with our Learning Through Play theme this week! The play the children are engaging in is absolutely delightful and clearly they have a great deal of experience in this aspect of life, given the inspiration they are bringing to their role play! The cafes have been named, menus have been concocted, there are sign in sheets, QR codes, and indoor as well as al fresco seating available. Orders can also be phoned in and the phones are running hot! Our chefs and wait staff have been kept very busy and customers have been highly appreciative. Their manners are impeccable. The queues on opening day were out the door and down the path!
We will definitely be continuing with this theme throughout next week.
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| Yum, yum! |
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| The 'sign in' form |
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| The al fresco dining area, with a very busy kitchen beyond |
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| Orders being taken |
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| Checking the baking in the oven |
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| Queueing at the door into the cafe |
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| The QR code ready for scanning |
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| Opening up for business |
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| A VERY enthusiastic team of chefs |
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| The cafe menu, including orange juice, apple juice, blueberry muffins and strawberries |
Healthy Lunches:
Please note that our school approach to children's lunches is to have a balanced and healthy range of food items. We understand that some children have particular dietary requirements. We encourage the children to eat one or two items for their morning tea, but to save the main items in their lunchbox (e.g., sandwiches, filled rolls, wraps, yogurt, pizza) until lunchtime eating. We ask the children to eat these main items before eating any of their remaining snack items.
Please note that the Canterbury District Health Board has brought back this campaign, with its key message being 'Brush teeth twice a day with fluoride toothpaste!' Follow the link above and this will take you through to the CDHB website.
Reminders:
- Please ensure, when you drop off and pick your child up each day, that you are using the main school gates or the entrance from Eastern Terrace, rather than walking through one of the school carparks. At school, we ensure that the children know that the carparks are out of bounds
- Also please continue to encourage your children to be as independent as possible at these drop off and pick up times. Your children are able to take responsibility for their own schoolbags, both carrying them as well as packing and unpacking them. This independence is encouraged even further when you say your goodbyes in the morning, outside the classroom doors, where there will most likely be a staff member waiting to greet them
- Literacy folders need to be returned to school every day (please remind your children to unpack their folder and take it indoors each morning when they arrive at school)
- Friday is our library day so your children need to ensure that they unpack their library folders and bring them indoors each Friday morning. Library folders will come home again each Friday after school, and can remain at home until the following Friday
- Poetry books will also come home on Fridays, and need to be returned to school on the following Monday.
All the best for a lovely weekend, everyone, and we look forward to seeing the wee ones again, bright-eyed and with wide smiles, on Monday.
Ngā mihi mahana,
The Koru team: Elizabeth, Tracey, Nicola, Chelsea and Stacey
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