What a very busy week we have had to finish off the term. We are also very happy to welcome Zoё to Papatūānuku, it is great to have you with us Zoё.

School Photos certainly kept us on our toes on Tuesday and Wednesday. We would like to thank Edith, Jannah and Richard for making this an enjoyable experience for our tamariki. Edith will be in touch once the photos are ready for viewing and we will send families a digital link to these.

This week we will be farewelling our two excellent University of Otago College of Education final year students Emily and Hannah. Both Emily and Hannah have been with us for more than a year and we would like to congratulate them on completing their qualifications, and wish them well as they start their own teaching journeys. Our children have been very fortunate to have you both with us.

You will no doubt have been told, or noticed the final piece of DCC playground equipment arriving in the school this week, the very flash hamster wheel. We are told that this will be ready to be played on by the end of the week, and just in time for you to enjoy over the holiday period. We encourage families to utilise the grounds over the break as the more visible we are, the less likely it is to see any less desirable behaviours from those outside of the school. Over the break, the two prefab blocks will be covered in scaffolding over the holidays in preparation for painting. Please do be aware of this if sending your children to play as we really do not want any children putting themselves in harms way by exploring the cordoned off areas. Thank you in advance for your support here.

Nga mihi,

Gareth Swete

This week we welcome Zoë Hastings to Papatūānuku.

We’ve enjoyed finishing off our clay penguins by painting them. Hopefully they all made it home in one piece! I am so impressed with the development of the tamariki’s drawing skills. We combined our drawing and story skills together this week, as we chose our favourite bug or insect to draw. We then painted the backgrounds with coloured dye. We used our imagination to create a story about an adventure that our bug or insect went on, focusing on a beginning, middle and end. We are publishing these and they’ll be up on the walls for you to see as soon as Level 1 arrives.

We are excited for the events in the last few days of Term 3 - Firstly Wig Thursday, showcasing the wigs we have made at school, raising awareness of the Child Cancer Foundation. Then the Mini Olympics on Friday. It’s going to be a fun end to the term. I hope you all have a restful and fun term break and I look forward to seeing you all back in Term 4!

Report From Mrs Campbell

This week has been super busy in Tāwhirimātea. We have now finished our instructional writing and have shared our games with the rest of the class. Creativity has been flying round the class this week as we create the components for our stop motion animation films to show how to play our game using an alternative medium, which will be super exciting to see when they are finished.

This week some new and exciting playground equipment got delivered down on the lower field. Some members of Tāwhirimātea wrote about this on Tuesday when it was being dropped off by the crane. Check out Liam Hurrings story and see if you can guess what it is.

“Yesterday we got new playground equipment. Can you guess what it is? It’s a cylinder, it’s new, it’s HUGE, it’s outside, it’s red, it’s perfect, it’s heavy, it's scary, there was a truck crane delivering it. You can go inside it and run in it.”

This is my last week in Tāwhrirmātea. A huge thank you to Mrs Swete and the students in Tāwhirimātea who have been the most wonderful class to learn from, I wish you a wonderful school holidays and term 4.

Report by Miss Sims

Hi Ranginui Whanau

Well we have got there! It’s the end of term 3 and we have all been kind and caring and supported each other throughout the ups and downs of this term. The Ranginui children have continued their learning and have had fun along the way. In reflection to this term, the children have completed huge tasks; Inquiry based on the olympics- made lego movies (which will be entered into a New Zealand school lego competition), gained a wealth of knowledge and environment thinking about bees and their influence on our lives, become nosy reporters and wrote ‘local’ news items, continued to gain knowledge of basic facts, learnt about symmetry… and continually bonding as a great team. GO RANGINUI!!! I hope you all have a relaxing time over the school break and wishes that we get to greet each other in the classroom next term.

Report From Miss Ruzsa

The Local GOSSIP according to Ranginui by Nina and Beth

The Mysterious Smell

This morning at a local primary school there was a smell. It seems that it has been rotting fish. The smell has been more pigmented out the front of a classroom called Ranginui. The children of that classroom are wondering what the smell is.

Liam R has smelt it and thinks that it is rotten fish sticks but Miss Ruzsa on the other hand has not smelt it, although she was away sick yesterday and may not be able to smell. Kenzie thinks that a salmon truck may have driven past and that is the smell.

The questions at the end of the day are what was the smell, why was the smell there and who brought the smell here?

Nina Tanner Reporter

SBS news

After spending three weeks away from school the students in Ranginui are glad to be back. Beth Chapman spent her time doing gymnastics and school work. She said her favourite was prodigy. It is reported that the first day back was great. All the kids happily played and started a new topic. Ranginui started bees. NZ was not in lockdown for long but Auckland is in alert level 3.

Whats going on at SBS

There is a mysterious slab of concrete and Beth Chapman has some questions like how popular is the swing and seesaw and where is this equipment? Who is seen on the equipment the most? When did you find this out? When did you find this out? What do you think will happen to the slab of concrete? Beth Chapman has interviewed Pyper Swete she said that the swing was very popular and the equipment is in the senior grounds. Pyper also said Hunter Swete is seen at the swing every day but Tane Mahuta is on school camp now Ranginui is seen most. SBS got new equipment because Mr Swete asked the council for playground and the council said yes. Pyper thinks the slab of concrete will be a hamster wheel. Will she be right?

Beth Reporter

And, like that it is the end of Term 3! We have completed our Joan Miro inspired sculptures and they look fantastic. The children have also done a great job writing about their sculptures, explaining clearly what 2D and 3D shapes they have used and the attributes of each shape. You can check out some of our sculptures in these photos! Challenge yourselves, what shapes can you spy and name? I hope you all have a happy holiday break (the children have definitely earned it!) and we will see you in a couple of weeks for Term 4.

Report From Miss Laing

Post camp and we have been busy bees in Tane Mahuta heading towards the end of the term! It has been a fun time this week trying to get our learning completed. Part of this learning has been some ‘Mini Olympic Presentations’. This involved the students researching an olympian of their choice, putting together a set of Google Slides with key information about that olympian and then presenting it to the class. So far we have heard about a range of interesting athletes! Do you know the sport the Bob Mathias competed in? Athletics! Finn told us all about him. How about how amazing Simone Biles is at gymnastics? Just ask Chloe! It will be great to see the rest of these presentations before the week is out. Ka pai kids!

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.