Kia ora Koutou,

Teacher Only Day;

The kaupapa of the day was Moving from being ‘in’ the Ngahere to being ‘with’ it.

We had to adapt our plan as the weather did not allow us to participate in the outdoor activities. The day started with karakia in the ngahere followed by learning the history of the ngahere.

As early as 1927 an area was set aside for the planting of native flora as a response to the rapidly disappearing native bush. Today Hamilton City Council has a vision to have 10% of the land within the city boundary reinstated as native bush by 2050.

This is a memory from a former pupil during the war years:

“Many pupils who were at the school during the war years (1939-1945) will remember digging trenches in the plantation and under the trees in the school grounds. When the Hamilton alert sirens sounded, all pupils and teachers moved quickly in an organised manner to the trenches. Each pupil had a small bag of calico which was held around the neck by a small piece of tape. Inside each bag was a cork and a quantity of cotton wool. Pupils were instructed to hold the cork firmly between teeth and to plug their ears with the cotton wool. These precautions were to prevent damage to the ear drums if bombs were dropped”

Val Gunson - former pupil

It was in the early 2000’s that the name changed from The Plantation to our Ngahere.

One activity we took part in was a silent writing activity. We stood on the verandah out of the rain in silence and recorded what we could hear. Following is a sample of the writing:

"A peaceful tranquility is felt as the rain hits the ground, and the wind whistles through the Ngahere. In the distance thunder rolls, but getting closer with each rumble. Nature is a stunning musical, only interrupted by the sound of cars as they pass by."

School Lunches

The lunch giveaways worked very well last week and so will continue weekly Monday - Thursday. On a Friday the boxes are collected early so if you would like spare lunches for the weekend please ask your child to put them aside in their classroom and take them with them Friday afterschool. We are trying to avoid having food in the school over the weekend.

Covid Update

This week covid has impacted our teaching staff and we have been unable to staff the Rumaki fully. To support parents of essential workers we have managed to bring a small group of children back for the rest of this week. While this message went out on Monday to Rumaki whanau, if you missed it, then please email Whaea Chris.

Today (Wednesday) positive cases that would have been infectious while at school this week have been reported in Kahikatea 2 and Matai 3. Parent, please be vigilant in monitoring for symptoms.

Today I will close with this quote below in the context of Covid.

Ngaa mihi

Whaea Chris

Term 1 comes to an end on the 14th of April, with Term 2 resuming Monday 2 May. Hopefully this will be a far less unsettled term with the pandemic not affecting our kura to much.

Please click the link below to have you say on what our School Insignia means to you. Responses need to be submitted by 30/3/2022.

This year we are holding our triennial elections. The timeframe has been moved to term 3/ 4 and will likely be an online voting process. I will include dates for our upcoming hui so if you want to know a little more about what a Trustee does feel free to attend a hui. Currently we have these online.

28th March 2022

2nd May 2022

30th May 2022

27th June 2022

25th July 2022

29 August 2022

26 September 2022

31st October 2022 ( New board)

The board fully supports the decision taken yesterday by the Leadership Team to move our Rumaki to online learning. The indicative return date is Monday 14th March. This decision may need to be made in other areas of the school dependent on numbers of positive cases and students isolating.

At this stage we are fully stocked in all uniform except for the polo-shirt. We only have adult sizes left in these. We unfortunately do not have a estimated delivery date for the polo-shirts, but have been notified that the cost of them will rise slightly. The polo-shirts will now cost $47.50 for sizes 4 to 14 and $49.50 for adult sizes. The school hats have also had an increase in price and now cost $16.50 with the new shipment arriving.

Kia ora, Talofa lava, malo e lelei ki he taha kotoa, Hi everyone,

Ko Tainui te waka, Ko Taupiri te maunga, Ko Waikato te awa, he piko he taniwha.

I’m Liz. I’m a Social Worker in Schools from Family Works Northern, or a SWISsy. What do I do? Well - I’m here to support you, the parent, the whānau, to be the best parent that you can be. I know that all parents want the best and try to do the best for their kids, and sometimes this can be a hard and lonely job. It doesn’t have to be. They say a problem shared is a problem halved, so if you find that the kids are struggling with things at school then let’s talk.

Some of the struggles that our kids might face are that they may be shy, withdrawn, are being bullied or bullying others, are disruptive or not getting on well with others and they may slip behind in their schoolwork. Where do you go?

Whānau may struggle too. With making ends meet, with not knowing who’s out there or what’s out there, it may be about your own worries and fears. Let’s talk! And get you to the right place.

The service is voluntary, you call the shots, it’s free and it’s open to Y1 through to Intermediate tamariki. Come in or phone, I’d love to meet you. I’m at your school/kura on Wednesdays and Fridays (In Kowhai block - the little room on top asphalt). You can pick up a SWIS pamphlet from the office if you want to know more. Otherwise call me on 0275631018 or email liz.kerapa@fwn.org.nz

Matai 1 & 2 -

Matai 1 & 2 are able to count accurately and then find the numeral to match. We even started challenging ourselves by adding two numbers together to make a bigger number.

We are now able to hear and record beginning sounds in our writing and have even started to write our heart words we have been learning in our stories as

well!

Our amazing giraffe art can be seen below. We challenged our fine motor skills by ripping up the paper for the background and then our listening skills following the steps in drawing a giraffe. We LOVE them!

Matai 3 -

In Matai 3, we have been learning to create maps of our school. This is so we know how to explain to visitors how to get to Matai 3 from our school office. With blocks, we recreated our own road map. We have also been learning how to mix our paint colours together to create new colours. Here are the awesome frames we created from mixing colours.

Matai 4 -

Matai 4 have been working hard on improving our Writing skills. We are making sure that we are writing sentences that have a character and explain what a character is doing. We have even been practising having a go at writing our stories independently, by using our sound and heart word knowledge and our writing buddies help.

In Math’s, we have been busy increasing our number and repeating pattern knowledge! We even made patterns using movements that we use in P.E. It was lots of fun!

Matai 5 -

In Matai 5, we have been working hard to strengthen our fingers. Through Fine motor activities, we have been creating a range of ways we can master this by using a sewing machine to make new creations, tweezing pompoms into cups and designing our own earth mobiles. With Earth Day just around the corner, Matai 5 have been doing lots of brainstorming around ways we can look after our Planet. This included…

• Recycling materials.

• Plant new trees.

• Walk or Bike to school.

• Use only Natural products that are environmentally friendly. Such as flowers, sticks and stones.

We have been busy bees. In Math’s, we have been tallying and questioning our peers to find out their favourite pizza. We were even lucky enough to make our own homemade pizzas. Below are Matai 5’s Favourite Pizza flavours.

Tēnā tātou e te whānau

Kua hoki ora mai tātou katoa ki te kura! Hūrō! E harikoa ana mātou te whānau o Rumaki Teina te tae mai ki te kura, he pai te kite i ngā kanohi o ngā tamariki me te kura whānui anō hoki. I te rangi tuarua o Poutū-Te-Rangi (02-03-22) i tīmata mātou te Akoranga Tawhiti, ia rā i mahi mātou i te karakia hei te 10 karaka i te ata, kātahi ka paku korikori mātou mā te mātakitaki i tētahi kiriata me te whai i aua mahi ā tinana ā te kaihākinakina. I aro hoki matou ki ngā mahi Pāngarau me Te Reo Matatini.

I te rāngi tekau mā whā o Poutū-Te-Rangi (14/03/22), i whakatūwhera te akomanga ki ngā tamariki anō kia hoki mai ki te kura, i kitea e ngā kaiako te maha o ngā kanohi harikoa me ngā kare ā roto tino hikaka kua puta atu mai ngā tamariki. I taua rā hoki i whakamōhio atu ngā kaiako ngā ture o te akomanga, ngā mahi tika, ngā whanonga tika me ngā wariu o te kura hoki kia hoki ngā mahara ki ngā tamariki me pēhea te mahi kei waenganui i te akomanga, i hoki mātou ki ngā wātaka o te kura hoki. Ia ata ia ata, i oma ngā tamariki huri rauna te whira hei whakamahana i tā rātou tinana, he mea nui te whakapakari tinana ahakoa he tamaiti koe, he pakeke rānei

Kei te ako ēnei tamariki me pēhea te tāpiri i ngā tau e rua, kei te whakamahi hoki rātou i ngā paraka hei awhina i a rātou te whakautu i aua rapanga:

E rata ana ngā tamariki katoa te peka atu ki te KiwiCan, anei ētahi pikitia o rātou e tākaro ana ngā kēmu ki roto rā. Kei te hanga ngā tama (Te Kahui Whetu, Ryu, Hendrix) i tētahi rocketship, kei te hanga ngā kōtiro (Anaise, Harper, Aroha) i tētahi donut.

Kahikatea 1 has been researching the history of the Forest Lake area, in particular Forest Lake School. The children then created posters about the Kura and local attractions. Below are some examples:

Kahikatea 2 made name monsters this week. We folded pieces of paper in half, wrote our names and then cut around them to make our own unique monsters. We used adjectives to describe our monsters. Below are some examples.

Te tuhinga auaha o Te Miringa -

Pānui ana tēnei tuhinga tumeke e tai mā! Kua whakaniko ana a Te Miringa i tana tuhinga mā te whakauru i ētehi kupu hōu me ētehi reo peha. Kua waihanga hoki a Te Miringa ki ngā kōwae, kia pai ake te rere o te pānui. Wēkeneru e hine!

Akoranga Matihiko o ngā Tau 4 me ngā Tau 5 -

I tērā wiki, i whakapau kaha ngā tauira tau 4 me te Tau 5 ki te ako me pēwhea te whakamahi i ngā hua matihiko hei tautoko i a rātou akoranga. Ānei te hua i hanga ana a Quest mā runga i tana whārangi Heitiki.

Tau kē e Quest!

Akoranga Tawhiti, Mahi Auaha -

I ēnei wiki kua pahure, kua ūpoko pakaru ngā tuakana o te whānau Rumaki ki te whakaoti i ngā mahi whakaū. I whakanui ngā kaiako i a rātou mā te whakatau he rā Hari Rāmere. Mō tēnei kaupapa whakanui, i werohia ngā kaiako i ngā tamariki mā ngā mahi Kā-hu-tu, te waiata Karaoke me te whakapakari tinana.

Aue te mīharo o tērā mahi. Mauri ora ki a koutou ngā tamariki o Kauri 2.

What a fantastic start to the year we have had. Our students are showing great confidence with our new contract programme, progressing nicely through each phase/level. At phase 1 students were introduced to a daily contract with three tasks, reading, writing or mathematics. The goal is to see our tamariki communicating how they are going to schedule their time to complete each task to encourage student ownership so they feel confident to independently manage their learning. At phase 2 students are given a weekly contract in which they need to manage and select a range of reading, writing or mathematical tasks based on their learning needs. There is also an additional guided task that involves an inquiry approach, integrating reading, writing and math skills to present a final product. Students working at phase 2 have created a canva account which is an educational graphic design programme that allows them to create their final product for display. Some of their work can be viewed on our class seesaw account.

As you will be aware our class has been introduced to Banqer this term which is a fun way to learn about money and expenses. In week 5 tamariki were introduced to their Banqer reward options which they can purchase using remaining pocket money. It is great to see so many of our whānau connecting to their children's accounts. If you would like to extend this learning at home there are homework sheets that parents can download through their accounts.

Finally, It was so lovely to see all our tamariki brighten up our school with their wonderful colours for our school-wide colour day. Looking ahead we have an exciting wheel day planned for week 10. Information on this will be shared with whānau shortly. We are very proud of the way all tamariki have settled into their learning this year and look forward to watching this progress continue.

Wheel's Week is coming. Keep an eye out for information shortly on this fun filled activity.

YMCA school holiday programmes are now available to book online! Book before 3rd April and save up to 20% on the programme - get in quick by hitting the link below

If you require any further information or would like any help with your booking please do not hesitate to contact us at: oscar.waikato@ymcahamilton.org.nz