Wairakei Primary School Newsletter

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June 30, 2020

Hune 30, 2020

Week 12 Term 2, 2020

Issue Contents:

Principal's News
Latest News
- PTA Annual General Meeting
- Wairakei Primary School Uniform - Beanie
- Sustainability Course Assessment
- Subway Lunch Orders
Upcoming Events
- Zoom Assembly
- Term Dates
- Powhiri
- Matariki Week
- PTA Annual General Meeting
Room 7 Learning - SOLO Challenges
Sponsors

Principal's News

Dear Parents and Caregivers

We have started our new classrooms. We have waited for such a long time for this to happen and finally, it has started. The elephant house has come down, a blessing has been held and the work has started. The school came out into the build area to start the building process. Its been a while since we have all been together like that. I felt such a high level of pride in the school and in the work of the board and staff who have waited for these classrooms to arrive.

Teachers and students have put up with the oldest and coldest rooms. Student's work has been displayed in areas where no teacher should have to put work. They have moved classrooms many times to allow for ongoing work to happen. Our students have looked upon the drip of water from the ceiling as an adventure. So now we are full-on in work mode getting the new classrooms built and set up with decks and furnishings.

I would imagine you are all wondering how we will cope without a hard court. Good news on that front. We are getting a brand new hard court to replace our old court. This will be installed when the new classrooms are finished and ready to go in about 12 weeks.

Over the term break, the roof on Rooms 1 to 4 will be replaced. This will stop the adventures of drips from the ceiling. This is stage one of a bigger plan to renovate the whole block with new lights, breakout spaces, and new furnishings. These rooms will be very warm and dry to learn in. The double glazing we put in at the start of the year was just the beginning.

The rain has had an impact on our school grounds. A number of students felt the need to jump in the puddles. Unless it is an accident, we are unable to change students into dry clothes. We only have clothes for different kinds of accidents. The office does not want to bother you at work. We try to save that for when your child is unwell. If you know your child is one of those who is ultra-attracted to puddles, please put in spare clothes at the bottom of their bag.

The Board of Trustees has approached Brandfuel for a school beanie to wear on those cold days. The beanie is navy blue like our school shirts and has our school logo on it. A navy blue beanie can be worn without the logo. Beanies are to be worn outside the classroom and not inside. Students will be asked to remove them and put them away during class time.

I have also been asked about students wearing jackets. Of course, students can wear a jacket in the playground when they are cold, and the weather is unpleasant. They also need to remove the jacket when they go back to class and put it on their hook or in their bag. Jackets do not replace the school sweatshirt or hoodie. It is also not the teacher’s role to continuously remind students to take their jackets off. That is a self-managing skill our students can manage.

You will have or be receiving a phone call from your classroom teacher before the end of the term. This is a touch base phone call and should not take more than about ten minutes. This phone call supports the report on your child’s achievement going home at the end of the week.

Thank you to Room 5 for sharing their art with the community.

It is great to see a range of learning occurring inside the classrooms. Also, check out the recent blog posts on learning

Room 10 Fractions https://wairakeitaupo.school.nz/blog/room-10-fractions/
Room 9 3D Bubbles https://wairakeitaupo.school.nz/blog/new-blog-post-65/
Room 14 Pyramids https://www.wairakei.school.nz/blog/i-wonder-how-the-pyramids-were-built/

Calendar art is also being produced at the moment. These are bright and attractive pieces. All the calendar art will be on sale in Term 3. We will be sending you an order form and a sample of the artwork after the term break.

We have a Community Calendar for you for the start of Term 3. It starts with our Powhiri on Monday, July 20, 2020, at 9.15a.m. Everyone is welcome. We would really like to be able to welcome our new families with as many members of the community as possible.

The first whole school assembly will be in Week 3.

The staff and I are looking forward to the term break. We know our students are ready for some time out and with a number of bugs around, some time for rest and relaxation. Enjoy your family time. I intend to and I am encouraging all the teachers and support staff to do the same.

Paula Farquhar
Principal

Latest News

PTA Annual General Meeting

The Wairakei Primary School PTA will be holding their Annual General Meeting to b held On Wednesday, July 22, 2020 at 3.30p.m. in the Hall.
All welcome to attend.

Wairakei Primary School Uniform - Beanie

The Board of Trustees have decided to add a beanie to our school uniform. These are available from Brandfuel for $10 each which are navy blue with the school logo on them. A navy blue beanie can be worn without the logo. No other beanies are to be worn.

Subway Lunch Orders

Subway lunch orders will commence on Tuesday July 28, 2020. 6 inch $4.50 each for ham or beef plus a cookie. Orders taken at the office by 9a.m.
Thank you.

Sustainability Course Assessment

I am Emily Jones, a year 12 student at Tauhara College in town. One of the courses I am doing this year is a sustainability course. An assessment I am doing for this course is creating an action plan and then implementing it. The plan I have created is a recycling challenge on Instagram. I have set up an account called green_gal20 on this platform. On the account, I will be regularly posting hints and tips on how to reduce people's waste. To make it all more exciting I have a challenge running at the moment.The winner of the challenge will get a gift basket full of products from shops around Taupo. Thank you.

Upcoming Events

Friday July 3, 2020
9.15a.m.

Zoom Assembly

Friday July 3, 2020
9a.m. to 3p.m.

Last Day of Term 2

Enjoy your holiday break.

Monday July 20, 2020
9a.m. to 3p.m.

School Powhiri - 9.15a.m.

Welcome back for Term 3.

Monday July 20 to Friday July 24, 2020

Matariki Week

Wednesday July 22, 2020
3.30p.m. in Staffroom

PTA Annual General Meeting

Parents/Caregivers welcome.

View our upcoming calendar events

This issue Room 7 presents

SOLO Challenges

‘List, compare, contrast, explain, the sequence’.

These are some of the SOLO verbs that we have been learning about in our classroom programme.

Mrs Isaacson has been helping us learn about SOLO in a fun and challenging way. First we had to go through the words so we understood what they meant. Then we applied the words to a learning task. Mrs Isaacson set up stations around the room and we were able to choose which one we wanted to work at. We had a go at the activity at the station and then we had to discuss the questions on the cards.

Sometimes we used questions to stimulate curiosity as well.

Kritnesh made a turtle out of some maths equipment. Then Mrs Isaacson challenged him with - “Is it possible to build another turtle, similar size but a different shape?” He completed this challenge very quickly.

“I like to create turtles, they are very easy to make." Kritnesh

Kritnesh was using the SOLO word, create, when talking about his turtle. Well done Kritnesh.

Drawing Station
"I drew Tigry from Roblox Piggy. I like drawing these types of characters because I like shading and making them look realistic." Jovarn

"I only like drawing things that don’t have 4 legs because I can’t get the scale right. But I am practicing." Daisy

Lego Station
"Keanu and I were comparing how well our cars would drift around the track." Cole
"We had different cars and they would drift differently around the track." Keanu

Let's Get Physical Station
"This exercise is good for your core muscles." Ahnika
"This exercise is good for your balance and thighs, which helps you get stronger so you can do other things better." Ciana

"This exercise helped make my muscles stronger so then I can be better at motocross." Maz
"This exercise builds strength and helps with your core muscles. It builds muscles in your shoulders too. You have to really focus." Sol

Next steps: To use some of the other SOLO verbs in creative challenges. To invent some challenges of our own.

Keywords: SOLO, challenges, lego, drawing, physical.
Attributed to: Mrs I and Room 7, 2020, Term 2.
Curriculum links: SOLO, Art, Health and Physical Education
Key competencies: Managing self, Thinking, Participating and Contributing, Relating to others, Using language, symbols and texts.