I am writing from School Camp this week. We are all thoroughly enjoying some excellent weather and some incredible adventures. The Year 6 camp is always a highlight for our children as they progress through the school. I assure you that by Friday we will have some very tired, and very happy children returning to the school.

We hope that you enjoyed our new digital format for the newsletter last week. We know that some of you will have been disappointed to not see your children receiving awards at assembly due to COVID restrictions. The good news is that because of this new format, you will be able to see the awards in the video below!

Nga mihi,

Gareth Swete

This week in Papatūānuku, we have been learning some new class songs. These have generated some fun actions and giggles as we sing. We’ve started making our wigs for Wig Thursday next week. They are sure looking creative! We’ve been learning some more numeracy games in Maths time. Our focus is not only increasing our number knowledge and ability to add or subtract, but also to work together in a small group. We are learning to take turns, speak nicely to our buddies, and give positive and encouraging comments to each other. The Papatūānuku kids are great at this and have worked so well on this task this week.

We have continued integrating our maths learning about positional language, with our Maori language learning, by singing the Hoki Toki action song, in Te Reo. What a hit! The tamariki love it.

The weather has been fine enough to skip outside again this week, and I’ve aimed to video everyone doing their skipping in the big rope. Check out your child’s Seesaw Journal to see their success!

Our clay creating took a step further this week, after we read a story called “The Penguin Who Wanted to Fly”. We learned to make a clay penguin by moulding and shaping just one piece of clay. The penguins look great! I’m really proud of how the children followed the advice given and created their own penguin. Our class enjoy doing yoga some days. This week it’s been Sonic the Hedgehog inspired yoga, which gets us stretched and relaxed and ready for learning!

Report From Mrs Campbell

Kia ora, the students in Hine-Rau-Whārangi have been very enthusiastic this week, making a wonderful atmosphere to teach in. This week we have spent some time making wigs in preparation for the upcoming Wig Thursday. Students are starting to work more independently on their writing and producing some awesome stories. As a class, we have been grooving along to music with some new moves in preparation for our assembly item this week.

Report From Miss Finnie

This week in Tāwhirimātea we have been learning some sign language. We learnt each letter of the alphabet and used that knowledge to sign welcome to Sawyers Bay School and our names. We are also learning how to sign the song Take It Easy by Stan Walker, which we are getting good at!

This week we have been working in groups to develop a game to teach the class. We have had to consider lots of things to ensure that our game contains everything it needs so our classmates can play the game. The important things we needed to think about were the number of people, the time of the game, how to play it, the name, location of the game, roles or positions, and rules. We are super excited to teach each other our games.

Report by Miss Sims

Hi everyone,

It has been a lovely learning week again in Ranginui, with the buzz about bees, writing articles on the local news, and the completion of our stop motion olympic movies. We are looking forward to finishing a couple of tasks that we had begun this term but haven’t quite finished and ending the term with the mini olympic sports.

We have planted sunflower seeds and are observing their germination process. We hope to plant them at school to attract more bees.

Report From Miss Ruzsa

It has been a super busy week in Hinemoana this week. We are finishing up our learning about shape by creating our own Joan Miro inspired sculptures. Our sculptures are made up of many different 2D and 3D shapes. We are using cardboard and other recycled materials, painting them to make our sculptures bright and colourful. Some of us are also using nets and building up our 3D shapes. When these are finished we will be writing about them, sharing what shapes are in our sculptures and the features and attributes of each. We have learnt about adverbs this week too - maybe you could ask your child what an adverb is and get them to give you an example? The children did a great job adding interesting adverbs to sentences at the start, middle and end.

Report From Miss Laing

Wow! What a busy time it has been at camp with the Year 6s from Tane Mahuta! It has been awesome to see the children getting fully involved in the activities and challenge themselves. So far we have had a go at: abseiling, kayaking, rock climbing, bush craft, air rifles, low ropes, ziplining and shooting up high on the flying kiwi. It will be exciting to see the raft building tomorrow! Take a look at some of our cool videos and photos from the activities that we have done so far.

Report From Miss Tenci

For Term 4 2021, we will be offering two extra-curricular sports options, Touch Rugby and Futsal. Both sports will be strictly dependent on our ability to be able to make teams with he correct number of children (e.g. if there are not enough Year 5 and 6 touch players for example, we will have to look at other options).

When we confirm teams, you will be invoiced for the competition per child (If this is a challenge, please do come and see me in confidence and we can work something out).

We will also be asking for help with coaching. This is really essential for us to be able to offer these sports. If you have no experience with coaching, or the sport in question, don't worry we can help you out there too! All we need is someone enthusiastic and organised.

Once we have all registrations in, we will make teams as soon as possible. All teams will be final and will have a balance of ages across the Year bands (e.g. Year 5 and 6), a mixture of experience, and a combination of friendship dynamics.

Touch Rugby is played at the Oval on a Thursday afternoon.

Dates: Thursday 21st October through to Thursday 9th December

Times: Years 1-4 - 3.45pm, Year 5-6 - 4.15pm or 4.45pm

There are various grades available but are generally in Year 1/2, Year 3/4, Year 5/6 groupings

Registration fee for Touch= $25 per player

Futsal is played at the Edgar Centre on a Tuesday for Years 1 -4 and a Wednesday for Years 5 and 6

Years 1-4:

26th of October - until the 7th of December

Tuesday Time: 4.00pm to 7.00pm

Years 5-8:

27th of October - until the 8th of December

Wednesday Time 3.30pm to 6.00pm

Registration fee for Futsal= $45 per player

CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO GO TO THE REGISTRATION FORM

You may also notice that staff do not wear masks unless in very close proximity with visitors or other adults. Schools are slightly different in this respect. Teachers are not required to wear masks when working within our school bubble, but they are an option. Most of our staff have chosen to not wear masks in front of the children as it can be intimidating for our youngest children, and can make the essential non-verbal communication, which is so vital within a classroom, quite challenging. We appreciate your understanding as we continue to work through the requirements at Level 2 with our children's needs at the forefront of our decision-making.