Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 3 Week 5

We pride ourselves on the experiences we are able to offer our children in Year 7 & 8. Many of these things could not happen without parent support. Today is our last week of winter sport. We would like to say a huge thank you to the parents who have turned up week after week to coach teams, both during lunchtimes and at Friday games. This has been a weekly highlight for many children and it could not have happened without you.

A big congratulations to Lucy and Ben who have won leadership scholarships at Cashmere High School for 2020. It was great to see so many children applying for scholarships and several getting interviews this year.

Cantamath

Hopefully, you have been able to drop into the hall foyer sometime over the past two days to check out our Cantamath project display. Next week on Wednesday, August 28th, the hub will be busing to Horncastle to view Cantamath projects in the morning. The cost of this trip is being covered by hub fundraising. In the afternoon our Year 7 and Year 8 problem-solving teams will be competing in the Cantamath problem-solving competition. We wish Riley H, Thomas, Henry M, Amelia, Ruby M, Freddie, Kate C, Ben E, Daniel S and Gemma all the best.

Speech Preparation Home Learning

By now your child should have finished writing their speech. If they are not quite there, this should be a priority over the weekend. This is with the exception of Jenny's group who will finish their writing early next week. Hannah is creating a doc and set of instructions for the children to use to create their speech cards. Putting speech cards together is to be done at home, so we can make the most of class time to teach and practice presentation techniques. If your child needs us to print their speech at school (to glue on card at home), they need to email their home-group teacher when they are ready to print. We encourage the children to make the most of recycling card (e.g. cereal boxes) to put their speech cards together. 

As well as practicing presentation at school, this also needs to be happening at home. Speeches will be presented to home-groups in the week starting September 2nd. Any child who is experiencing considerable anxiety about presenting their speech can talk with us about an alternative presentation method. Feeling anxious about this experience is natural. Most children find the experience a satisfying challenge when they have finished their presentation.

Getting Ready for Ski Day

Many thanks to everyone who has completed the ski day form. If you are still yet to fill out the form, you can find the link here: https://forms.gle/J2dg5TWbuxtFs6yA8. We are now matching children up with gear where needed. Over the next two weeks, we will be running preparation sessions at school. These will include, dressing for the mountains, ski safety and an introduction to gear for first-timers.

Readathon

By now you should have seen your child's red Readathon card at home. Readathon is an annual school fundraising event which promotes great reading habits. If you have not seen the card, please ask your child. If they draw a blank, please email your child's homegroup teacher. All instructions are on the card - get sponsors - encourage lots of daily reading - get stuck in.

A little bit of craziness at the end of winter sport today...

Congratulations to our Ski Team.

An enthusiastic team of skiers represented our school last Sunday at the Canterbury Primary Schools Ski Competition. The team came third. Special congratulations to Winni who was second-placed female.

Some of you may be interested in taking your daughter to this...

Kauri Cantamath Projects on Display

Please drop into the hall foyer at some stage between 8:30 on Thursday morning (tomorrow) and lunchtime on Friday to see a display of our hub Cantamath projects. Hours upon hours have gone into so many of these projects and we would love you to celebrate in the children's efforts.

Work that is not going through to the Cantamath competition should be taken home on Friday afternoon.

Those with projects going through to Cantamath will have their work delivered to Horncastle next Tuesday for judging. We will all be heading to Horncastle on Wednesday morning to view the displays and check out competition results.

Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 3 Week 4

It was exciting to see so many fabulous Cantamath projects arrive at school on Tuesday. It was obvious that many children had spent hours investigating and creating as they explored the maths within their chosen topic. Our hub display was up very briefly as we needed to reclaim the space for learning. Next week we will set up a display of all Cantamath projects in the hall foyer that will be open for viewing from Thursday through until Friday late morning. You are welcome to pop in before, after or during school to take a look. We have spoken to a few children about mathematical enhancements that need to be made to their projects if they are to go through to Cantamath. These projects will need to be back at school by Wednesday.

Ski trip

We are now just three weeks away from our ski trip to Mt Hutt and it is time to get started with preparation lessons at school and ensuring everyone has access to appropriate clothing.

It is essential that everyone fills in the ski trip form. So far half of the hub have filled this out. Please complete it now if you have yet to do so.

Circle time 

Every Friday we have circle time, where we discuss a wide range of topics that impact well-being. Last week and this week we have been looking at happiness. This video has been very thought-provoking.

BYOD

Part of the BYOD agreement is that students bring their device, fully charged, every day. If your child has a BYOD please remind them to bring them.

Home-Learning

• A few children will need to do some work on their speech writing over the weekend. The main group need to have their introduction and first 'filling' paragraphs completed by Monday. Jenny's group need their introductory paragraph and their three topic sentences completed.
• The other home learning focus is Maths-Whizz. A minimum of three progressions should have been achieved for the week.

Photo Gallery

A couple of learning highlights in the past week have been programming our Bee-Bots as part of our inquiry into self-driven cars and starting our next PE focus on both yoga and learning how to play korfball.

Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 3 Week 3

The children have been enjoying the starting phases of our inquiry learning for this term on self-driven cars. Earlier in the week we viewed and discussed this TED Talk, and thought you might like to check it out.

Ski Trip

Thank you to the 25 families who have filled out the ski info form. Just waiting for the other 87 families to do this. Please click here if you are one of them. 

Our focus on completing work on time.

We have been impressed with how the children have stepped up to ensure they are completing work within set timeframes. That said, we do not want to place undue stress on children who have absent with illness and are happy to adjust expectations to suit circumstances.  Today, Friday, static images (including explanation) and speech planning should be complete.

Maths

A reminder that Cantamath projects are due in on Tuesday, August 13th. We are looking forward to these being brought to school before the children head off to technology on Tuesday. It has been exciting to hear about how the children are exploring their passions through a maths context.

This week we wrapped up our class Cantamath projects maths and enjoyed our annual Becamath problem-solving competition. We have designed playgrounds and bike jumps, operated a small business and created a mural on a series of painted panels. Along the way we have learned about profit and loss, Pythagoras's theorem, enlargement and angles and the mathematical thinking that goes into design, as well as solving lots of context-rich mathematical problems.

Special congratulations to our winning Becamath teams: Riley, Kate, Max and Arabella in Year 7 and Freddie, Amber, Matilda and Charlotte T in Year 8.   

A reminder that Monday is a staff-only day. The perfect opportunity to put finishing touches onto individual Cantamath projects!

Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 3 Week 2-3

Two weeks down and things are humming along nicely in our intermediate hub. Megan was swamped with hugs and words of welcome when she had her first day back today, following getting sorted after losing her house. It was exciting to see so many children presented with leadership awards in assembly today. A big congratulations to our gold recipients:
Term 2: Lucy, Gemma
Term 3: Ben, Charlotte Grey, Charlie, Ella C, Emily E, Kate, Maddi, Maria, Matilda, Meg, Morvern, Olivia K, Roxy, Ruby, Sophia and Vienna

Meeting Deadlines

One of our key foci in the hub at the moment is completing work within set time-frames. On Monday children will be expected to have calendar art, speech research and static images (for Jenny and Megan's reading groups) completed. If this is not done, children will spend 30 minutes of their own time getting these finished. This will be at the same time as the Ki O rahi trial for Koru Games. If the work is not done, the child will not be able to trial.

Cantamath individual projects should be well underway at home. These are due on Tuesday, August 13th, which is the day after our teacher only day.

Ski Day

We are off on our annual ski day to Mt Hutt on Friday, September 6th. Please click on this link to read more about this trip and fill in the form.

Technology

Christchurch South Intermediate has requested that children are not dropped off at technology, rather they catch our bus that leaves Beckenham at 8:30 each Tuesday. If you must drop your child off directly at South, please wait with them until our bus arrives.

Becamath

We have our annual Becamath competition in the hall on Tuesday, August 6th, afternoon. Children will be working in mixed ability groups to solve maths problems, in an action-packed competition.

Bakery Day 2 for those who missed out.

The Year 7 & 8 small business group bakery was inundated with customers today. So much so that we ran out of goodies to sell! For those who missed out, we will be opening the bakery doors again tomorrow, this time at interval. Please note this is only for those who missed out today. $1 each.

Many thanks to the Year 7 & 8 whānau who have offered to go back to their kitchens tonight to produce more cupcakes, cookies, rice-bubble slice and donuts to sell.