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