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Easy, informative current news, student work and activities from Wairakei Primary School.
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Phone (07) 374 8035 |
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| Wairakei Primary School Newsletter
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| June 29, 2021 |
| Hune 29, 2021 |
| Week 9 Term 2, 2021 |
Issue Contents:
- Featured Video
- Principal's News
- Latest News
- Upcoming Events
- Classroom Learning
- School Holiday Programme - Taupo Library
- Sponsors
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| Principal's News
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As we head into a cold snap today the thought of butter chicken for lunch on Thursday is sounding great.
The PTA’s butter chicken lunch fundraiser has been well supported and students and staff alike are looking forward to a warm treat for lunch. If you have ordered extras for dinner that night, please send along a bag for your children to bring them home in.
A number of our staff went along to watch Mama Mia on Friday night. Ben Kidd and Melissa Isaacson both had roles in this fantastic stage production. Many of our students went along to watch as well and enjoyed seeing their teachers in another light. Congratulations to them both for their amazing performances.
This Thursday, weather permitting, we will be holding a tabloid sports afternoon where students will participate in activities in their Wharenui nga tae (house groups). To encourage house spirit we ask that students wear their house colours. If you are not sure of their house colour please contact their classroom teacher. Please do not go out and buy anything for this.
Our teachers will be involved in paid union meetings on Monday July 5, 2021. We will not be closing for these meetings. Students may be working in another room during the day to enable our teachers to attend these important meetings.
Your child will be bringing home their mid-year reports on the last day of term. These reports indicate the progress your child has made since the end of 2020. It is a great idea to use this as an opportunity to discuss their learning with your child, celebrate the successes they have already had this year and to make a plan to achieve even more during the remainder of the year. If your child has started at Wairakei Primary School in the last 5 weeks, they will not be receiving a mid-year report.
We will be holding Parent-Teacher Discussions in Week 3 of next term. Bookings are now open for these discussions. To make a booking go to www.schoolinterviews.co.nz and enter the code: yrxuj.
If you wish to discuss the mid-year report with your child’s teacher before then, contact them to make an appointment for the beginning of Term 3.
We will be celebrating Matariki as a school. Students will work in their Wharenui nga tae groups next Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon to create Matariki crafts and learn about the story of Matariki.
We will be making soup and bread to share on Thursday, July 8. We would appreciate it if every child could bring along a vegetable to contribute to the soup. These can be given to the classroom teachers from next Monday. If you are able to help with the soup preparation on Wednesday afternoon please let me know.
Students across the school have been working hard all term writing and practising speeches and poems about the special people in their lives. I was lucky enough to watch the Te Huka team semi-finals last week and could see all of the hard work that has been put in by both students and teachers. It was wonderful to see the confidence that these six and seven year old students had when presenting in front of an audience.
On Thursday, July 8, we will be holding an Oral Language Festival where students from across the school will compete in the finals. We will be starting at 9.15a.m.and hope to see some of you there.
Students have started bringing toys to school again. We would appreciate it if these were left at home to avoid them being lost or broken. This also includes cards and pop-it toys. Teachers have some in class that students can access if needed.
At the end of this term we say farewell to Claire Smith. Over her recent years at Wairakei Primary School, Claire has worked with our teachers, students and whanau in her role as SENCO. We thank Claire for her work with us and wish her well on Waiheke Island where she is taking on another building project. We hope that she pops back in and visits when she is back in town.
Gwen Bowler joins us next term as Assistant Principal. Gwen joins us from Flaxmere Primary School in Hawkes Bay and is looking forward to getting to know all of our students and whanau and enjoying everything the Taupo region has to offer.
During the school holidays we will be having a working bee down in the gully. Rachel Thompson from Kids Greening Taupo will join us on Wednesday July 14, 2021 from 10.30a.m. to 12.30p.m. to clear some areas of our gully. If you are able to help out for a couple of hours that would be great. Please wear closed-in shoes and bring gardening gloves if you have them. We will have soup and sausages afterwards.
Term 2 has flown by and this is the last newsletter before our term break. We wish you all a safe and happy holiday and we will see you all back for another busy term on Monday July 26, starting with our powhiri at 9.15a.m. in the hall.
Keep warm.
Jenna Foley
Acting Principal
PTA Meeting
Our next PTA meeting will be on Monday July 5, at 3p.m. in the staffroom. Leave your children playing outside in the playground and come along to start organising the Term 3 fundraising events. If you are keen to be part of the Pet Day organising committee please come along and put your name down.
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| POWER Award Recipients |
Congratulations to the following students who received an award for Week 8.
Week 8
Room 1 Lily
Room 2 Sadie
Room 3 Indigo
Room 4 Chloe
Room 5 Max
Room 7 Jordan
Room 8 Piper
Room 9 Madeleine
Room 10 Harry
Room 11 Caleb
Room 12 Grayson
Room 13 Rocco
Room 14 - Riley
Room 15 Elijah
Room 16 Max
Penny - Briez Room 5
Week 9
Room 1 Eli
Room 2 Gnapika
Room 3 Mila
Room 4 Zoe
Room 5 Kian
Room 7 Jordyn-Lee
Room 8 Emily
Room 9 Erica-May
Room 10 Alun
Room 11 Evie
Room 12 Declan
Room 13 Aria
Room 14 Kaylah
Room 15 Lucy
Room 16 Tomas
Penny - Taylor Room 10 |
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| Poems and Games Morning |
Kia Ora Whanau,
We would like to invite you to a fun morning of poems and games.Our New Entrant students have been writing poems for our ‘In Your Own Words’ inquiry. We would like to share these with you. We will then head outside to play some games on our field (or play inside the classroom if it is wet). Preschoolers are welcome.
Date: Tuesday, July 6, 2021
Time: 9:30a.m. to 11:00a.m.
Where: Rooms 15 and 16
We will have coffee and tea for our visitors.
Kind regards,
Fiona Griffin, Kylie Parkes and Susan Green.
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| Yoga holiday Programme |
| Would your children like to explore the basics of yoga in a purpose built studio over the holidays? The 2 hour session will include breath work, movement, play with balance and shapes, calming the mind and meditation. Following this we will take a snack break and explore the art of mandala drawing. Some students may prefer mandala colouring, some may like to learn how to draw their very own mandala. Limited spaces, contact Debi if you'd like to put your child's name down, 021 946 502, debi@loveyogataupo.co.nz $30 per child, per session. 10.30a.m. - 12.30p.m. Tuesday/Thursday 20th/22nd July (second week of the school holidays). |
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| Upcoming Events
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Wednesday June 30, 2021
1.45p.m. to 2.45p.m. in Room 15 |
| Steaming Into School |
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Tuesday July 6, 2021
9.30a.m. to 11a.m. in Rooms 15 and 16 |
| Poems and Games Morning |
Rooms 9, 15 and 16.
Parents welcome. |
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Thursday July 8, 2021
9a.m. to 12.45p.m. |
| Celebration of Learning |
| Parents/Caregivers welcome. |
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Friday July 9, 2021
9a.m. to 3p.m. |
| Last Day of Term 2 |
| Have a good holiday break. |
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| Friday July 9, 2021 |
| Reports Home to Parents |
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Monday July 26, 2021
9a.m to 3p.m. |
| First Day of Term 3 |
| Welcome back. |
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View our upcoming calendar events
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| This issue Room 7 presents |
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| Technology Challenge 1 |
How do we get Mrs Isaacson safely through an obstacle course of objects?
This was our challenge. Our focus this term in Room 7 is participating in a variety of activities that will promote our oral language skills. One task to help with this was giving directions and we linked this into technology = computational thinking.
First, we brainstormed in groups, all the words we thought we might need to use when giving directions. We were allowed to draw symbols as well.
Then Mrs Isaacson created an area on the mat with obstacles in the way. Our challenge was to write the directions (creating an algorithm) by using our brainstormed words to get Mrs Isaacson from a starting point to a finishing point without crashing into any objects. Once we had our directions we were able to have a quick practice with our group before trying it out on Mrs Isaacson.
Next it was Mrs Isaacons's turn. Zavier and Mac read their instructions out first.
“It was funny watching Mrs Isaacson jump over the rubbish bin." Poppy
“We realised that we didn’t have enough directions to get Mrs Isaacosn to the end, so we had to make some up.” Mac
“Our directions were clear because Mrs Isaacson got through the obstacle course without banging into anything.” Zavier.
After Mrs Isaacson had made it through the first obstacle course, other groups were able to read their directions out for her.
Room 7’s next steps:
To refine our directions and change them if we found things that didn’t work.
To try the obstacle course blindfolded.
To omit some directions when reading them out.
Keywords: technology, algorithms, directions, oral language
Contributions: Room 7, supported by Mrs Isaacson
Curriculum areas: Technology, English
Key Competencies: Thinking, Participating and Contributing, Relating to Others, Using Language, Texts and Symbols
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