Kahikatea Week 8 Term 4 News

Kia ora whanau, 

We are looking forward to celebrating our last days together for 2020! There are plenty of things on and we encourage you to please check the community calendar to make sure you are up to date with everything. 

Important dates: 

Week 8/9:

Friday 4/12/20- Noho Kura - Year 3 and 4 students 

Tuesday 8/12/20 and Wednesday 8/12/20 - Year 3 softball skills 

Wednesday 9/12/20 - Junior Athletics  @ 1:40-2:40pm  Whole School House Relay  @ 2:45 3:00pm

Thursday 10/12/20 - Waltham Pool and Picnic 

Friday 11/12/20 -  Celebration Assembly 

Week 10:

Wednesday 16/12/20 - Last day of school - school ends at 12:30pm 

Hats

It is getting hotter and sunnier every day. Hats must be worn when our tamariki are outside, this includes morning tea, lunchtime and any learning times during the day. 

Noho Kura/School Sleepover FOR YEAR 3's 

We are all very excited for our Noho Kura tomorrow night. We have shared this social story with the students. You may want to also read this at home with them. 

Athletics Afternoon

We have our Junior Athletics afternoon on Wednesday the 9th of December. We will be doing an Athletics Rotation of Shotput, Discus, High Jump and Relays from 1:40-2:40 and then the whole school house relays will be from 2:45-3:00.

Arohanui,  Team Kahikatea 

Kahikatea Newsletter Term 4 Week 6

Kia ora koutou,

We have had a fun-filled fortnight of learning in the Kahikatea team. 

Rāpaki Marae Trip

The sun shone for us last Wednesday, as we ventured off to Rāpaki Marae. We hopped on board the buses at the start of the day and traveled through the tunnel and around the bays to Rāpaki. We walked down a long, steep driveway, and were in awe of the beauty before us. We were greeted with a pōwhiri, followed by stories from Maui, who explained the history of the area and of the marae. 

We had a fabulous time down at the beach, exploring and searching for items on our scavenger hunt. 

A very special thank you to all of the parent helpers who came along to support us!

ESOL Group

This week the students had the opportunity to harvest produce from their garden to make a colourful vegetable salad to enjoy.

Billy the Magpie

This morning, we had the privilege of meeting Alex's new friend, Billy the Magpie. Billy had an injured leg, and Alex's family have been looking after her. She has decided that she quite likes it at Alex's house! 

Upcoming Events

Wednesday 9th December - Junior Athletic Sports from 1:30pm

Thursday 10th December - Kahikatea Pool and Picnic Day at Waltham Pool

Friday 11th December - Final Celebration Assembly 9:15am

Wednesday 16th December - School finishes for the year at 12:30pm

Kahikatea Waltham Park Picnic and Pool trip

 Kia ora e te whānau

Kahikatea End-of-Year Picnic and Swim

The Kahikatea children are booked in to have a picnic lunch at Waltham Park, followed by a swim at Waltham Pool on Thursday 10th December.  This fun day is to celebrate our fantastic year of learning.  

The children are able to wear either their house t-shirt or school shirt for the day and will be required to wear suitable shoes for walking to and from Waltham Park/Pool.  They will also need suitable swimming costumes: either shorts or togs (no bikinis please).  Please send your child with their togs, towel in a bag, making sure all items are named.  We will be leaving school at 11:00am, arriving at the park at approximately 11:15am.  There will be a range of fun games and activities as well as the opportunity to play in the adventure playground.  We will eat lunch slightly earlier at 12:30pm and leave for Waltham Pool just before 1:00pm.   We will be leaving Waltham Pool at 2:30pm to arrive back at school before 3pm. 

To enable this activity day to happen, we will need the assistance of at least 4- 5 adults for each homegroup.  If you would like to volunteer to do so, please complete the google form here or contact your child/children's homegroup teacher as soon as possible.

There is no additional charge for this trip as the cost is covered by your school donation. If you would like to discuss any aspect of this trip,  please contact your child’s homegroup teacher.

Kahikatea Newsletter T4 Week 4

 Kia ora e te whānau

We have had a lovely 2 weeks of swimming and water safety lessons at Pioneer Pool.  Ngā tamariki have had developed confidence and water safety skills,  as well as strengthening their swimming strokes and breathing techniques.    This would not have been possible without the fantastic help from our wonderful parent community.  Thank you for all that do to assist us and tatou tamariki to have the best experiences possible. Also a huge thank you to our amazing tamariki who were fantastic throughout, shining through putting our Kete Values into action.  

Rapaki Marae Trip

Please see our latest blog post dedicated to the upcoming trips to Rapaki Marae.  Again, these rich learning experiences would not be possible without the support of whānau, thank you.

Athletics Day

The date to hold this event will be finalised over the next week, and we will let you know as soon as it has been confirmed.  

Kete Value Awards

This week the Kahikatea Kete Awards were given to:

Sofia Frei for We Love Challenge

Jensen Spence for We Love Learning

Leo van Eysden-Grice for We Love Learning

Merit Award

This week's merit award went to Shikani Powell for Being a Great Friend

Book returns

It is reaching that time of the year when we have a larger amount of books to be returned and sorted into the correct boxes in our resource room.  We would really appreciate assistance with this if you have a spare hour or 2 over the coming weeks.   Please let your child's home group teacher know what days you would be able to assist us with this, thank you.

Kia ora mo o awhina, kia pai ou mūtunga o te wiki   (thank you for all your support, enjoy your weekend).

Noho ora mai

The Kahikatea Team

Rapaki Marae Visit Year 1-2 & Year 3-4

Rapaki Marae

All tamariki will need to be at school by 8.45am on Wednesday.

Please, no lunch orders  on this day.

Parent helpers- please make your way to Rapaki in your own vehicle.  

The children will arrive at approximately 9.25am and we will walk our tamariki down to the top carpark (just above the marae) so please meet us there by 9.25am.  

IF you are planning to stay the day please bring your lunch. 

IF you can only stay for some of the day, please let your child's teacher know. 

The powhiri (welcome) will begin at 9.30am. 

After the powhiri we will split into 2 groups. One will remain at the marae and the other will make their way down to the beach. Then we will swap over. 

Our waiata (song) will be E Tu Kahikatea.

Our Kaikorero (speaker) will be Steve Cooke (from Pohutukawa team).

Because our trip includes half of us spending it down at the beach, it is weather dependent. If the weather is too inclement we will let whanau know by 8am Wednesday morning. 

Year 3 & 4 Visit to Rapaki Marae/ Noho Kura 

These visits to Rapaki Marae will take place on 30th of November and 1st of December.  Due to a variety of factors out of our control, the sleepover part of the marae will no longer go ahead. 

We know that many of the children were looking forward to the sleepover part of our marae visit so we have decided instead to have a Noho Kura (sleepover at school) on the night of Friday the 4th of December. 

This will involve the Year 3 and 4 students spending the night at school, having a BBQ dinner here and sleeping either in the hall or in our hubs. We will have breakfast the next day and your children will be ready to pick up by 9.30 in the morning. 

We will be needing  parent volunteers to help us cook a BBQ and organise dinner on the night and will send out more information about the organisation around the Noho Kura in the next week. 

Kahikatea & Kōwhai: IMPORTANT swimming update for tomorrow, 4/11/20

 Kia ora Whānau

Thank you for your ongoing support during our water safety programme at Pioneer Pool, especially if you have been a parent helper at the pool.

Please remember to send togs and towels every day for the rest of the week (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday). For tomorrow, Wednesday, 4 November, your child will also need to bring: 

* Pajamas - old ones if possible, top and bottoms. Not onesies.

* An extra bag - to put wet pajamas into after swimming.

Many thanks, 

Kōwhai and Kahikatea Teachers

Year 1 & 2 Kahikatea Swimming Update

Kia ora koutou, thanks to you all for helping to make our first 3 days of water safety lessons a success! 

As you can imagine there are a number of logistics involved with planning and implementing this type of activity. 

Consequently we have changed the departure from school times and the pick up time (from Pioneer Pool).

If you are a helper for the Year 1 students: please be at the pool to assist with changing by 12.15. Their bus will collect and return them to school at 1.15pm. 

If you are a helper for the Year 2 students: please be at the pool to assist with changing at 12.45. Their bus will collect and return them to school at 1.45pm

If you are helping with Year 3 students: please be at the pool to assist with changing  at 1.15pm. 

If you have any questions about swimming please email your child's home group teacher. 

Kahikatea Year 1-2 Visit to Rāpaki Marae Wednesday 11th November 2020

Kia ora whānau,

We are excited to be able to provide our students with a visit to Rāpaki marae in Term 4. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn about Te Reo Māori language, customs (tikanga), games (kēmu) and songs (waiata), the history of Rāpaki Marae and the ecology of Horomaka, Banks Peninsula. We will explore both the Marae and the surrounding stone beach, banks and rocky areas.

Key dates:
Wednesday 11/11/20  Year 1 & 2 tamariki, depart 9am, return 3pm
Wednesday 2/12/20 Year 3 tamariki, day trip or overnight stay (noho).

We are currently seeking lots of parent helpers for the Year 1-2 trip on Wednesday 11/11/20. Parent helpers are welcome to join us on the bus. If you are available to assist, please email your home room teacher asap.

Further information about the Year 3 trip will be emailed over the coming weeks. The cost of this trip will be covered by your annual donation.

For the trip, your child will need to wear and/or have:

• school uniform
• sturdy, comfortable footwear
• a windproof jacket which they can carry in their bag
• healthy, substantial morning tea and lunch
• named water bottle

Please note there will be no postponement day if the weather is unsuitable. An email message will be sent out at 8am on the day, if the trip is being cancelled.

Many thanks for the help and support.

Ngā mihi nui,

Kahikatea Teachers

Kahikatea Newsletter Term 4, Week 2

Kia ora e te whānau

We have had another busy week! Read about our highlights and upcoming events below. 

Key Dates 

27-29 Oct & 2-6 Nov : Water Safety Sessions at Pioneer Pool 

30 Oct: Whole School Athletics. 11am-12.15ish & Sprints/Relays 2pm

11 Nov: Trip to Rāpaki Marae - parent helpers will be needed. More information coming about this.

Kete Awards For This Week 

Well done to the children who got "We Love Learning" and "We Get There Together" awards this week.

Head Lice 

...are on the move again. Please check and, if needs be, treat your child's hair. Long hair should be tied up, not just to prevent the spread of Head Lice, but for swimming as well.

Tea Tree Oil can be a good preventative treatment, and for children with long hair, plaits with hairspray can also be a good barrier for transmission!

Swimming - Next Fortnight

Key information about swimming can be viewed here. 

We have discussed and role-played what we will need to do for water safety sessions next week, including getting on the bus and changing. Please encourage your child to practise: 

• Drying themselves
• Getting undressed and dressed 
• Putting their clothes in their swimming bag
• Putting jumpers etc in the right way

As well their togs, towel, goggles and swim cap, children will need a larger lunch and water bottle at school every day next week. Many thanks for your help. If you would like to read our Water Safety Social Story with your child at home, please do so.

Please NAME all of your child's clothes.

Re-visiting Our Treaty 

Over the past fortnight, we have revisited how we show our school values & reconstructed our Team Treaty (see below). This is inline with our school-wide Positive Behaviour For Learning protocol. Do feel free to talk with the children at home about this. 

Kahikatea Treaty

• We use kind hands and words.
• We include others.
• We move safely and carefully.
• We keep our hands and feet to ourselves.
• We stay in our personal space bubbles.
• We try our best and never give up (this shows that we love challenge).
• We listen to the person talking with our bodies, eyes and ears.
• We care for the environment and nature. 
• We look after our materials (pens, paper, devices, books, games, chairs).
• We ALL help pack up. 
• We help others and encourage them, too.
• If there is a problem, we use our words to say, “Stop it please” and we find a teacher if we need more help.
• We have fun!

Photos of our whole team Treaty and values discussion:

Discovery Photos

Games & Construction

Dressing Up

Our Little Gardens