Newsletter Week 2 Term 4
Sawyers Bay School 28th October 2021
PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE
I hope that you all enjoyed the long weekend. It was certainly nice to have some sunny weather to enjoy.
I also hope that you were able to find the live stream link to our Polyfest Kapa haka kids last Friday. We were so very proud of their performance. A big thank you to Miss Laing, Mrs Campbell and Mrs Swete. A special mention to Ngaki and Chloe who were interviewed after the performance and made us so proud once again with their manner and confidence in being put on the spot, Ka rawe! A big congratulations to Ange (Ngaki's mum) for helping to coordinate such a great event despite COVID challenges this year.
The very cute Sawyers Bay Playcentre were great too and we were very lucky to be right beside them. Well done to Kenneth and Luisa for a great interview as well.
Another highlight for us on Friday after celebrating such a great cultural event, was a chance to also celebrate our children's academic achievements. A little further down the newsletter you will see a photo of the many children's in our school who opted to take part in the University of Canterbury National Exams. We had a huge haul of achievements and amazing results, well done to all of our smart cookies for really giving the exams your best.
I would like to say thank you to our sporting families for your patience over the last two weeks. We were thoroughly disappointed to find out that we had to abandon our Year 1 and 2 futsal teams, limit spectators for the other futsal teams, and juggle entrants who for some reason did not have their entry on the Google Registration form enter. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we worked to ensure we get the very best out of the situations we were given for our children.
On a positive note to end with, Lara and Tom (Emerson's mum and dad, have kindly offered to help out the Year 1 and 2 children who missed out on being part of the futsal competition this year. They will be running a futsal session at the school for any Year 1 and 2 children who would like to take part on a Monday afternoon at the school, and at around 3pm. Please note that any children who would like to be involved will need to be accompanied by their own adult, and it would be really helpful if you could let us know in advance. Thanks Lara and Tom, we really appreciate it.
Nga mihi,
Gareth Swete
Upcoming Events
- School Swimming - Monday 8th Nov- 19th Nov
- Final Assembly for 2021 - 10th December 2pm
- Last Day of Term - Wednesday 15th December, 1pm
Congratulations to our University of Canterbury Exam award winners!
Papatūānuku
This week, we welcome Miss Ella Flannery to our classroom. Ella is a 2nd Year University College of Education student and will be in our class for three weeks.
Well it’s been a short week already, but we’ve managed to fit in lots of fun learning activities.
We always start the week sharing with the class, our weekend highlight. Remember, if your child does something that you’ve taken a photo of, just email it to me as the children love sharing things of importance with the class, on the big screen. We then write about the same weekend highlight. We are really noticing a huge step up in confidence and ability, now that so many of the children know lots of alphabet sounds and can use this knowledge when sounding out words for their independent writing.
We read the story called Jack and the Beanstalk. Then we drew a story map. All of the children did so well, drawing pictures to represent parts of the story, and retelling the story in order. We have now started some art work along the same theme. Each child has chosen their own character or object from the story, drawn it and then we are hoping to make crayon rubbings of these pictures once our PVA glue dries! In Maths, we are learning all about teen numbers. How to write them, how they are made up, showing teen numbers in a variety of ways, learning about place value, and extending that place value knowledge for some children to numbers higher than the teens.
Report by Mrs. Campbell
Hine-Rau-Whārangi
In Hine Rau Wharangi this week we have started our Oceans Topic and have been writing down our wonderings to investigate each day. We have certainly been finding out lots of cool facts about volcanoes under the Ocean this week. Did you know that volcanoes under the Ocean are called submarine volcanoes? We are looking forward to finding out more about our Ocean Topic because we have lots of questions.
In Maths we have been practicing our skip counting in 5s by playing the game of Buzz and working on our subitizing with sets of numbers.
We also welcomed Miss Culbert to our class this week. She will be here for the next two and a half weeks observing how our classroom works and will be teaching us some dance and music.
We have also shared a couple of photos of students doing some of our new Jigsaw puzzles.
Report by Mrs. Brewer
Tāwhirimātea
What do you call a dinosaur in crackers covered in cream?
A dino-smore!
This was one of many very funny jokes which the Tāwhirimātea children shared for news last Friday. It was our turn to share in assembly so we decided we would share some of our jokes with the school alongside some of the very interesting dinosaur facts we have been researching. This week we continue to research our dinosaurs of choice in preparation for writing a report on them. We are beginning to paper mache a model of our chosen dinosaurs as well. It was lovely and warm on Tuesday so we decided to take our paper mache outside (the odd wind gust had us running around collecting bits of escaping paper but this added to the fun and excitement). Our maths this week has moved onto measurement. We are measuring and ordering dinosaurs, looking at centimeters and millimeters. Once we have measured our dinosaurs we will then use their measurements to create enclosures for them which has the correct area needed for their sizes. We looked at some rugby skills for Kelly Sport this week and will continue to build on these skills over the next few weeks while learning to play Ripper Rugby.
Report by Mrs Swete
Check out these awesome hoodies on Tawhirimateas' very own bike gang.
Ranginui
Kia Ora Whanau
Ranginui have been getting into nature and have repotted our sunflowers, planted our magic beans, and used our scientist observations on a selection of seeds that sprout quickly and the best part is that we can eat them! (alfalfa, chickpea, radish, broccoli)
For math we have looked at line graphs and have begun to record the daily growth of our sunflowers. A huge thank you for help with larger pots. We will need a few more when our beans need to be repotted.
We have welcomed Molly (student teacher) to Ranginui. Molly is getting to know our class and our routines.
We have written amazing descriptions about our friends, mystery objects and we are so excited to be writing about a favourite book character- Gangster Granny.
Under level 2 we can not send reading books home but I would like you to know that our reading programme allows us to read so much throughout the day and through the ‘literacy’ programme.
It is so nice to meet you after school even though it’s still at our designated area.
Report by Mrs. Ruzsa
Hinemoana
A short week, but a busy week all the same! We are well underway with our topic - The Human Body. We have learnt about our skeletal system and can now name lots of bones in our bodies and locate where they are. Did you know the smallest bone in your body is in your ear? It’s called the scapes and it helps us to hear. We were also blown away to discover that when we are born our skull is in separate pieces. When our body knows are brain has finished growing, our skull bones fuse together to protect it. Our bodies really are amazing! We are now beginning to learn about our organs, where these are in our body and what they do for us. Last week, on Friday children from across the school performed at Polyfest (if you haven’t yet watched our performance jump online to the Otago Polyfest Facebook page or YouTube) and they did an INCREDIBLE job! Well done to all our Kapa Haka tamariki - I am super proud of you all!
Report From Miss Laing
Tāne Mahuta
Report by Miss Tenci
Sports News
This Weeks results:
Touch Rugby
Team Awesome 9-1W POD - Everyone
SBS Incredible 2-4 L POD - Dylan
Team Touchdown 11-0W POD - Hunter
Futsal
Year 3/4 0-1 L POD - Freddie
Year 5/6 1-3 L POD - Stevie
Community Notices
School Photo orders - LAST DAY FOR ORDERS TODAY!
Kia ora Sawyers Bay School families
Your school photos (of ALL the gorgeous children) are ready to view and order.
Click here to go to the online gallery (the password is love).
Please note: Orders are due in by Thursday 28 October.
Contact Us
Email: office@sawyersbay.school.nz
Website: https://sawyersbay.school.nz/
Location: Sawyers Bay School 99 Stevenson Ave, Sawyers Bay, Dunedin 9023, New Zealand
Phone: 03 472 8981