Me mahi tahi tātou mo te oranga o te katoa - We should work together for the wellbeing of everyone. Nau mai ki te Tūī Hapori - Welcome to the Middle Syndicate!

An especially warm welcome to our new families at Kaikorai. We have enjoyed a great start to the year and have begun our regular routines for learning. We look forward to supporting your children in their learning journey this year. Our classrooms are looking brighter with pieces of work being displayed. If you were unable to attend our Meet the Teacher evening, you are always welcome to pop in at the beginning or end of the day to share with your child some of their completed pieces of work.

Rūma Rua

We have been really busy getting to know each other, and sharing aspects of our life with each other, through small objects that we can fit into an envelope! We are now more familiar with our classroom and are beginning to use our brand-new stationery. We are also learning about each other by using statistics to collect and record data. We each have our own personal writing goals and are working towards improving our writing skills. PE and fitness are part of our daily life and we have been going over old games and learning new games to practise our ball skills and have lots of fun at the same time.

Rūma Toru

What a busy few weeks we have had in Rūma Toru, it has been so great getting to know each student, and they have all come back to school - ready to learn. We have been creating a few special pieces of art to make our classroom feel like theirs. In maths, we have been busy looking at statistics and we are currently in the middle of a statistical investigation about birthday parties. We have already done some awesome writing in our books and we are looking at using more exciting words.

Rūma Whā

We dove into the new school year with a burst of creativity and inspiration. We have been busy exploring our KAIK values through engaging picture books that illustrate these principles in action, while also delving into the Zones of Regulation to enhance emotional awareness and self-regulation skills. We have also been busy crafting imaginative cork creatures, with children adding their unique flair to their creations. To tell the story of our summer holidays, children worked on capturing the sights, sounds, and sensations of the season. We’ve also been enjoying some time outside making use of the playground markings for some fun fitness and math activities.

Project-Based Learning (PBL)

Our PBL for this term will be based on the driving question: How can we celebrate and share the beautiful tapestry of cultures in our school community? Our first milestone for this PBL will be to find out about the different cultures we have in our school community. A big part of our projects is having experts talk to our students in groups, as a class, or as a syndicate. Please let us know if you would be interested in sharing any aspect of your culture (language, clothing, food) with us.

Looking Ahead

Later in the term, each class in Tūī Hapori will be taking part in a golf session with Melanie Harper. This is always a great opportunity to take part in a skills session that’s a little bit different.

Last year we surveyed parents about our swimming lessons with JC Swim School. We had many parents who were very happy with these lessons, and we are currently booked in for 8 lessons at the end of the term. The cost for this is still being finalised but will be about $80. In our survey, we also had a couple of requests for a change to Moana Pool for our lessons. We are currently looking into what this would look like for our students and the likely costs. Once we have some comparative information, we will look at what this means for our final swimming block in Term 4.

Heoi anō tāku mō nāianei (that's all for now)

Amy McBeath, Jill Kumar, and Emma Anderson

Student Writers

Summer is …

Summer is the sight of people playing at the beach in the sea.

Summer is the feeling of the hot sun shining on your body.

Summer is the taste of ice cream melting on your mouth.

Summer is the sound of birds screeching in the air.

Summer is the smell of the salty sea.

By Maggie Gowing

Summer is …

Summer is when you can see people jumping up and down on the biscuit.

Summer is when you can smell sausages sizzling on the barbecue.

Summer is when I can feel the sizzling sand between my toes.

Summer is the sound of the waves crashing on the sand.

Summer is the taste of hotdogs.

By Layla Thomas

Summer is …

Summer is the sight of waves crashing on the beach.

Summer is the sound of people laughing happily.

Summer is the feel of the waves splashing over your toes.

Summer is the taste of watermelon.

Summer is the smell of the salty spray.

By Isaac Murphy