The school holidays came at just the right time! We hope you have all enjoyed the well-deserved break and recovered from all of the sickness that we were faced with at the end of term 1. Term 2 is action-packed so please be sure to read our weekly Hail notice as this will keep you well informed for the Term ahead.

A new term brings new faces into our Pekapeka environment! We warmly welcome George Vink, Olson Nurse, Cam Hickey, Florence Staton-Pugh, August Glass, Hugo Pendleton, Hunter Waghorn, Theo McIndoe, Lola Carelise, Sophie Yannuzzi, Kaia Dhillion, and Katia Champion. These tamariki will be starting their transition visits and official start dates within the first couple of weeks. We know our awesome tuakana will be there ready to support our new tamariki into Te Kura o Manga Kawari (Pegasus Bay School). 

Term 2 is action-packed and full of learning and fun events. Please read on to see what we have planned for learning and when these events are and mark them on your calendar. For week 1 we are having a bit of an ANZAC and Autumn focus. If your child could please bring a photo of any whānau who perhaps went to war or war memorabilia to share. This will help our tamariki make a personal connection as we explain in detail what ANZAC day represents. The letter of the week is Bb and this will be carried on into Week 2 since it is a short week. 

MNP: We continue to work through our MNP book A where we are learning about basic number knowledge and foundational Maths concepts. The learning objectives are to be able to represent the numbers 1–5 in different ways. In Week 1 we are introducing the idea of part-whole, by looking at the different ways that we can represent the numbers up to five. The commutative property of addition will also be introduced. Children can explore this by separating the whole into two parts or by joining two parts to make a whole.

Structured Literacy: Most of our tamariki are moving onto Stage 2 or higher which is really exciting. Thank you to all of our whānau who have been practising the Stage 1 words and sentences during the holidays to build fluency and confidence with their reading. Please continue to do this to ensure the tamariki are storing these words in their long-term memory. One of our mottos here in Pekapeka is "the more we practise, the better we get" so reinforce this with your tamariki at home. Our new tamariki will start off in Stage 1 where they will spend the term learning their Stage 1 sounds, building their Phonemic awareness and fine motor skills and learning how to read, write and spell their first words.

PE: We start by practicing for our Cross country which is in Week 4. We will be running around the block each day with our big buddies. Here the aim is to build stamina, strength, and confidence to gain a perception that we CAN do it! Cross country is such a memorable event from our own childhood and is a wonderful opportunity to display grit! We are yet to confirm what our Cross country will look like as we are doing Waiswim in Week 4 but we will be able to let you know at the end of Week 2 if we are in fact running with the school in the annual event or if we are holding our own event. In week 4 we start Waiswim for 2 weeks. Please fill in the form below if you haven't already given your permission for your child to attend and indicate their swimming ability. 

For the rest of the term, we are focusing on Striking and Fielding skills from Week 6. 

Inquiry: This term in Inquiry we are carrying out the topic Navigating the Journey. For the first 3 weeks, we have a health focus that has been shared in the previous newsletter. From week 6 we are then looking at extinction as a concept. We will then look at how we can adapt this concept to our own living world and how we can preserve various species within their natural habitats. We are hoping to gain some expertise from our whānau community for this, so if you have some passion in this area please email Sally: sallypatterson@pegasusbay.school.nz

Quick reminders:

Hot kai: Children can bring food wrapped in tinfoil with their name clearly on it for lunch. Please remember this is food for heating only, not cooking.

Pōtae: Hats are not compulsory this term, however, ākonga can still wear these on sunny days if they wish.

Cross Country: More details to follow in the Week 2 Newsletter. But please ensure your children are wearing suitable footwear each day for training.

WaiSwim: Please fill out the permission doc here: Waiswim Permission slip

Library: The library is on Fridays. Please ensure your child returns all of their library books each week in order to get new books issued. 

Poetry: Poetry is always on Fridays as well. Please ensure your child's poetry book is in their bag each Friday so they can take their Poem home to share. 

Have a wonderful weekend.

Nga mihi, 

Penny, Juanita, Ella, Alison, Lynda, Ruth, and Sally.