Welcome to week 5, this term is flying by!

It was lovely to see so many of you on Tuesday evening for our family picnic and to launch our new wellbeing and learning model.

We talked at the parent evening about how we have been running the last few weeks in our team and how important it is to have spent this time to set up and scaffold how our team will work. From next week the website will be updated and you will see reading books and spelling notebook coming home.

What you need to know:

• Please we ask that no toys or cards come to school as this hard for the teachers to manage as the often they get lost or the children swap them
• A notebook will come home daily with the weeks spelling words and an area for you to log your child's reading
• We encourage you to send an extra piece of fruit or a vegetable, each day, for a food break-time in the morning
• Please can you check that all items of clothing that come to school are named, we are having a few mix ups with clothing, especially at swimming time
• We ask that if your child is not swimming that they bring a note explaining why

We have a lot of our students play fighting in the playground and the team space. We have talked about the fact that other students don't see this as playing and it can lead to students taking it too far. Please can you have a chat with your child about this to support us and them.

What is coming up next week:

• Assembly Friday 9.10am 

Check out also some of the other things we have been up to, like our pompom making:

In literacy we have been creating a class book based on Dr. Seuss, 'My Many Coloured Days'.

A notice from the PTA

The Clarkville School Twilight Gala is now 2 weeks away and the PTA needs your help! Please have a read of the Gala information that was sent home on the school app last week keep an eye out for all other Gala correspondence. You can get in touch with Kristy Pritchard on newhaven72@gmail.com to let her know how you can help.

There are many jobs to be done so please don't be shy - the PTA needs as many helpers as they can get to make the Gala happen and if you are new to the community this is a great way to get to know people.

Please also make sure you come in and put your name on the Bake list.

Ngā mihi nui

Paula, Holly and Lynn

WEEK FOUR, LEARNING GALOUR!

This week in Tūhura we have put a lot of thought into how our maths and literacy programs are going to look this term. Because of the nature of our team and the boy to girl ratio we have made it our goal to provide the students with engaging, stimulating, hands on activities. We believe this will also help to support our year three children to transition from play based learning into a more structured learning environment. The students have responded well to this style of learning and we see a lot of enjoyment while students are completing their work. 

This week we have also observed the students working and tested them to make sure they are in the correct learning groups. This means that we will be able to make the learning suited to your child's needs and provide them with interesting and challenging work.

During our literacy time we will run learning stations where students rotate around literacy activities. This allows us to take our smaller reading groups and give your child that one on one time. In week five your children will be sent home reading books. Our numeracy plan will also look similar to this. Below are some photos of our literacy stations on action.

This year the children have decided to display their class treaty in the classroom by each selecting a sea creature which they have decorated to be stuck on the wall. The main ideas that the children wanted to focus on in the treaty are; 

We will also extended this further into the concept of Kaitiakitanga which means guardianship and protection.

IN WEEK 4:

• Wednesday: Sushi (order this through Kindo)
• Friday: Sausage sizzle?
• Please bring swimming togs each day
• Please bring in an empty jar for students to store their tokens in
• Please name all sun-hats and uniform. We already have a number of unnamed clothes that we cannot return to their owner.

PLEASE WE ASK THAT NO CHILDREN BRING POKE'MAN CARDS TO SCHOOL.

Our cancelled Parents even is now going ahead this coming Tuesday.

Ngā mihi nui

Paula, Holly and Lynn

Kia ora, bring on week three!

This week in Tūhura we have had a blast getting to know your children and understanding how their characteristics and uniqueness will shape our class culture this year. It has been our goal this week to start creating those strong relationships with your children so we can begin to understand how we can best cater the curriculum to meet their individual learning needs. 

In week two we have focused on doing lots of team bonding games and activities to ease the children back into school and to help them become accustom to some of the expectations and routines of being in our team. This is something we will continue work on over the next few weeks as we finish off our class treaty and begin to get into some maths and literacy.

Over the last week we have also tested the children on some basics facts number knowledge and formed maths groups based on this information as well as last years data. These groups will remain flexible as we start our maths lessons on number knowledge next week. Along with this we have also formed flexible literacy groups based on past data. During this week we will be reading with the students in class and testing them to make sure they are in reading groups at the correct level. We are aiming to send students home with reading books in the 4th week.

In week 2 we have completed two art projects which we would love you to come in and see any time. There are also some photos of these posted below:

In week Three:

• Tuesday: Family picnic 5 - 7pm (info on school app), our team will be presenting at 6:15pm
• Wednesday: Sushi (order this through Kindo)
• Friday: Assembly 9.10 and Kapahaka starts for all students
• Please bring swimming togs each day
• Please name all sun-hats and uniform. We already have a number of unnamed clothes that we cannot return to their owner.

Ngā mihi nui

Paula, Holly and Lynn

Welcome to week two

 Welcome to week two, we hope you all have a great long weekend!

Thank you all for your time on Wednesday at our Goal Setting day. Your time and conversations have really helped us to understand your child and your family and this is key for our teaching. Please remember that this is a partnership and we value and encourage your support. Please read the information that we send out and contact us if you are in more need of clarification. We are really excited for the year ahead and we have loved the last two days of sharing and connecting together in the team.

                    Here are some photos from our first few days in Tūhura:

What's happening this week:

• Monday is Waitangi Day, school is closed
• Our Thursday programme starts this week. We have Whea Su taking Art and Mrs Collinson taking PE. Tūhura's time for this programme is between 11-12:30pm

Please read the information that has come out today in the newsletter about a deal for buying devices.

Please remember your sunhat, drink bottle and togs each day.

Nga mihi nui

Paula, Miss G and Lynn