It’s nice to be back in the studios! There is nothing quite like being able to talk and work together in the same space. The children have shown great resilience and independence, particularly at drop off. We have been so impressed with how they have managed themselves and their belongings. Well done to all our whānau for supporting your children so well to enable this wonderful.

A big welcome to all the new whānau who have joined us at Westmere School|Te Rehu during and post lockdown. It has been fantastic to have you and all our families back on-site. 

The studios have been focusing on settling the children back into the school and routines for keeping ourselves safe. It has been very rewarding to see how well the children responded to the lessons that were delivered and how they have been referring to them since we have returned to school. Our Google Classroom is still available for the children to use at home. There are some fantastic resources such as handwriting, phonics (sounds that letters make) and guided reading that can be used. We have set out the guided reading differently from distance learning by putting them under the readers colour bands. Your child will know what colour and they are reading at school, they can also choose from the colour before and after if they would like an easier read or to challenge themselves. 

Virtual Author Visit

On Monday we had a Virtual Visit from Deano Yipadee, the singing author. Deano is the author of the Nee Naw series and many other fabulously funny picture books, including Stinkasaurus. We loved seeing Deano perform a few stories for us and he got everyone moving along with him, performing the actions. The children were delighted to learn he will be releasing a new book shortly. The teachers communicated with Deano via 'the chat', answering his questions and telling him about the wonderful engagement of our classes. You can see Deano performing Nee Naw on this link: Nee Naw on Youtube
Deano's virtual visit was a real hit with all our tamariki!

LS1

We've begun some reading and discussion around Matariki, including debate about how many stars are in the Matariki cluster. We made Matariki playdough, carefully taking turns to measure out different ingredients, adding plenty of glitter for stars. We noticed one batch was very sticky and there was a helpful suggestion to add more flour - this seems to have solved the problem. We have been watching our seedlings sprouting inside and are monitoring their growth to see when they'll be ready to plant. This has got us thinking about seeds and how they find a good spot to grow and what they need to grow. The children loved cutting up the fruit and deciding if it was sweet or sour. They also enjoyed being the waiter or waitress and offering the fruit around to others. Some children decided that they wanted flavoured water in their drink bottles and added orange or lemons and tasted the difference.
Our Maths focus this week is using our finger patterns (ie holding up five fingers on one hand and one on the other- how many do we have altogether) some children are counting them one at a time and others can recognise the pattern and quickly say the number.

LS1 Donations needed:

• Plain flour to make playdough (it would be wonderful if someone has a flour container to donate)
• Food colouring please - we'd love a range of colours including black (it makes wonderful night sky)
• Does anyone have an unused telephone at home collecting dust? The children are loving using a borrowed one in their 'office'.
• Boxes for box construction and newspaper please (our supply is very low). Please ensure they have not contained food with nuts or sesame and no egg cartons, thank you. 
• Gumboots and raincoats - if your child has outgrown any of these we would love to keep some at school so that children can use them.

LS2

Our children have really enjoyed being the big responsible ones, bringing themselves into class in the mornings. We have noticed how they have risen to this challenge and are very proud of themselves. They are raring to go by the time they come through the doors. We have noticed all the amazing work you must have done during the lockdown, the children have been very focused on their learning. It's so good to see how confident they have become. This week we were lucky enough to have an online visit from Author Deano Yipadee. The children loved his books about Nee Naw the little fire engine and were very excited to meet him. We had a discussion about the messages in his books and these are some of the great ideas the children came up with.

• Be brave
• Don't be scared
• "You cand do it"
• There's always someone to help you
• It doesn't matter how small you are, you can still help.
• It made him feel big when he helped someone
• Take one step at a time.

We will be ordering some of his books to put in the library for the children to read and take out.
Parent Reading: We are starting this up again and are looking for volunteers to listen to children read in the mornings. We need one parent each morning from Monday to Thursday. If you can't commit to a regular time, perhaps you could do alternate weeks with someone. Let us know if you are free to help out.

LS3

It has been a lovely few weeks back at school together! The children are so happy to be playing and learning with their friends again. It has been quite an adjustment as you can imagine so we have had a back to basics approach for a few weeks as we readjust to school, with a focus on daily shared books and poems. This has resulted in some wonderful writing and allowed lots of time for creative activities. Our Maths focus has been on number knowledge with lots of partner work and we have begun problem-solving again now too. 

In happy news, we have returned to the library as well! Mondays are our library day so please encourage your child to return their books after the weekend. 

Quite a few toys are being bought to school and we ask that you remind your child that they are not for school as they can get lost easily.

Donations: We would love some newspapers for Art and some cardboard boxes and tubes for construction please (none that have held peanuts thanks).

Support staff week

Last week we celebrated the wonderful support staff who work in our school. The children made cards and the teachers brought morning tea, to say a huge thank you for all that they do for us. I have included some gorgeous drawings of Rakesh, our caretaker who looks after our school, with his infamous leaf blower.

Junior School Learning Assistants move between the studios depending on the needs of the children. They work with children in small groups or larger groups on tasks and activities set by the teaching staff. We are so thankful to have these skilled staff working alongside us with our children. Our Learning Assistants are Maria, Rose and Joanne.

Book Bags

Children need to bring their book bags each day so that we can send home notices, readers, library books and artworks. Please look inside these regularly so you can take out the items we have sent home that way you won't miss any notices.

Drop off and pick up

It has been amazing seeing the children so independent during alert level 2. It would be fantastic to see this continue, it is so important for our tamariki to be allowed to practise this skill and sometimes we do too much without realising it.

Your child can:

Carry their own bag into and out of school each day

Take out their book bag each morning and put it in the correct place

Please feel free to continue dropping your child to the school gate or outside the Studios in the mornings or arrange with your child the day or days that you will come into school or the days you will drop off at the gate. You, of course, are always welcome to come in and we do encourage you to do that weekly.

Lost property

Please check at the office. Anita has a huge pile of unnamed clothing, shoes and other items. Named items are always returned to the owners. These will be donated to other homes at the end of the term if they are unclaimed.

LS1- a big shout out to Sarah who took home a box of lost socks to wash for us. We have those in our Studio for you to look through. We also have a few containers and lids.

We implore you to name your child's clothing, bags, drink bottles and lunch containers, particularly the items they are likely to take off. There are a surprising amount of children with the same or similar items of clothing and children cannot always remember what they have worn to school that week. If we find your child's clothing we can return them easily so that our teaching and learning time is not wasted.

It has been fantastic to get back into learning at school with the children. The children have enjoyed getting back into their group work and workshops (working with the teacher). When you come into the Studios ask your child to share some of the work they have been doing with you. This could be in their books or on the walls. It might also be a new game they have learnt to play. The children know where to find their books but please ask if you can't find them as the teachers may have them.