An Afternoon of Wheels

'Twas the weeks leading up to Christmas,

Santa was finishing off the naughty and nice list.

Rudolph was bored and wanted to help.

Instead he stood on an elf. Oh what a yelp!

Even wrapping the presents was a huge disaster,

He couldn't find the tape and instead used sticking plaster.

The elves sent him out,

Even the jolly old fellow started to pout.

"Oh, I am so bored!" he cried out despondent.

"I just tried to help." And off he wandered.

Across the court and over the mountains,

Through the meadows and under the fountains,

He wandered for what seemed like an age.

Every step that he took put him more in a rage.

Eventually his legs just came to a halt.

He had realised all the chaos really was his fault.

He turned to go home, but didn't know how

He had come to be in this place he was standing in now.

"Where could I be?" he wondered out loud.

"Lost in Canada!" the mighty moose growled.

And that, my friends, is the story of how poor Rudolph came to be lost in Canada. 

In Koru Hub over the past few weeks we have been trying to help Rudolph find his way back to the North Pole. As we have been following our hub routines and treating others well Rudolph has been slowly making his way back to the North Pole and now he is almost there. To celebrate his return to the North Pole Koru Hub will be having a Wheels Afternoon. Students are invited to bring any non-motorised wheel machine - bikes, scooters, skateboards, roller skates, etc. 

The afternoon will consist of wheeling around and admiring each other's wheel machines. We'll set up a course for students to wheel around and we'll also have a wheel beauty salon where students can dress their wheel machines up.

Koru Camp 2014

Check out some of our camp photos at the wonderful Wellesley Country Park.

On Thursday we saw heaps of interesting animals at Staglands, enjoyed exploring our camp site, played cricket, AFL and roasted marshmallows. Friday begun with drizzle that got a little heavier throughout the morning. A change in plans had us going on a 'Forbidden Walk' across the 'Forbidden Bridge' and completing a camp alphabet hunt. After tidying up, packing bags and eating lunch we ended with a movie.

Thanks to all the parents who assisted us and well done to all the children for great participation.

Have a great Christmas and holiday break everyone.

From the Koru Hub Team

Amazing Writing

Check out these amazing pieces of writing by two of our Year 2 students.

Matthew Upton

Unfortunately
Dave was having a lovely  walk in the forest singing “Doo dooo I am having a good life laa laaa. I like the flowers that are growing laa! It is a good November 1o95. This forest is the best. It was a good idea to have a walk in it. Maybe I should do it next year.” Dave walked and walked and walked and walked. He was a happy boy that Dave but Dave started to miss his family because he hadn't seen them for days. He was worried about his family. He was sad about his family.

Unfortunately a humongous hungry loin ran to Dave. Fortunately Dave climbed up the tallest tree in the forest. “He he ha ha!” said Dave. The loin was trying to climb the tree but he could not climb the tree. “Roar!” said the lion and with a flash the loin went away. “Yay!” said Dave. “In your face lion!”

Unfortunately a giant blue strong snake was the tree! Dave didn't notice that. The snake opened his eyes and hissed and hissed. Dave jumped off the tree, aka the snake. When Dave got off the snake he looked behind and said “Oh my!” Fortunately Dave found a sword that was glowing. He picked up the sword. The snake was so scared of the sword that he slithered away.

Unfortunately a giant came holding a spiky weapon in his hand. He had big smelly hairy feet. Yuck! Yuck! Yuck! He had big black spiky hair. “Oh my” said Dave. Fortunately the giant was nice. “Oh what a relief” said Dave.

Ellen-Rose Calvert

My Mum

My mum is called Nicole. She has curly red hair and light skin. My mum likes her husband James and 2 girls Ellen-Rose and Emmaline. She mostly wears a top and jeans or clothes that suit the weather. My mum also wears dark clothes. I love my mum so much! She is like my guard. She is very polite and kind. She is very nice and to describe her I would say she gives me hugs and kisses. She works so hard and when I say hard I mean hard! My mum never ever lies. I think me and my sister have the best mum in the world!

St Kilda Saints

Thanks to the AFL (Aussie Rules) team from Australia, St Kilda Saints, for sharing your experience and coaching us today. We all had a lot of fun. 

Tune in Wednesday at 4pm to channel 69 on SKY or channel 14 on Freeview to watch a re-play of one of their games.  

The World's Highest Tower

On Monday and Tuesday, students had a great time completing a technology challenge - build the tallest tower that stands by itself and holds a pingpong ball. Students were only allowed 1 long straw, 30 normal straws, 15 pipe cleaners, 15 paper clips and 50cm of masking tape.

There was plenty of trial and error as they discovered how to construct a freestanding tower. Students also had to learn to work as a team.

Some groups began by cutting all their straws into smaller pieces. They soon realized that this was not the right idea. Others tried to put all the straws on top of each other. They also realized that this was not the best design. Most groups discovered that they needed to build a base first.

After all the trial and error, designing and re-designing, successes and frustrations, it was time for judging. Of all the teams, only one team's tower stood by itself successfully. Congratulations to Lorenzo, Levi, Tom, Alphon and Leonard.

Today was Lorenzo's beach clean up day! Last term Lorenzo's inquiry project was to address the problem of there being too much rubbish on our beaches. So he organised for the sustainable coastlines charity to come in and give a talk to the hub and for a clean up trip to Petone beach.

Johnsonville Christmas Parade - Saturday 6th December.

If you would like your child to be involved this year, please see the school blog for more information.

Lopa's Diwali Dance

On Sunday the 19th of October there were lots of people in Wellington for Diwali celebrations. I did an Indian classical dance praying to the god Ganesh. There were 4 people in the dance group performing on the stage to a big audience. Here is a video of the dance. I hope you enjoy it.

Lopa

Term 4 Update and Koru Camp 2014

   
Nǐ hǎo  

Welcome back to Koru Hub for Term 4.  It's great to see everyone again after the break and to see children settle back into routines quickly.  A big welcome to our new children who have started this term.  George, Tomas, Lucas and Ben have started school and Varsha is starting next week.  We have one more child this term - Tisha is starting in November.  This will bring us to 70 children in the hub. We have quite a few siblings in the hub now and it is lovely to see how the older children are helping the younger ones.

This email includes reminders for the term, learning programmes, events and our very exciting Koru Hub camp in December.  There is a link to a camp google form in this email.  Please complete it by next Friday so we can collect names and numbers of parents and children attending the camp.

Hub Reminders:

• Children need sunhats for outside during Term 4.  A school hat is required and can be purchased at the office.  
• As children arrive at school reading bags need to be placed in their reading teacher's grey tray.
• Shoes live on the shoe racks or lined up nicely at the door and out of the door way. 
• At the end of the day please be considerate of the organisation that is happening. We will endeavor to have children packed and ready to go by 3pm. 
• Throughout the day we encourage children to be self managing and one of the ways they can do this is by signing themselves in, hanging up their bag and packing their bags at the end of the day.  It is helpful to us to let the children do this themselves, as it makes it easier for us to check once they are on the mat ready to go home. 
•  We appreciate it when families and pre-schoolers wait quietly and leave space for us to move around.  Pre-schoolers are welcome to play in the developmental area and we appreciate it when you tidy up afterwards. 
• We recognise your kindness and generosity when you provide lollies for the hub on your child's birthday. However, there is no need to do this and is not compulsory.  If you choose to do so then please be aware it takes a long time to hand things out and we also have children with specific dietary requirements who are unable to eat lollies.   

Learning Programmes:

Our inquiry this term is based on design thinking, how things work, invention, innovation and creativity.  Thank you to those who have given us things the children can take apart.  Anymore items are welcome.  Children's writing will be based on descriptions and how things work.  The maths focus is on fractions which will lead into multiplication and division.  The focus for physical education is AFL, tennis and cricket. 

The learning programmes are also focusing on individual children achieving the indicators on their Reading, Writing and Maths matrix that are not yet highlighted.   Workshops and personalised timetables have been set up to support students to learn and consolidate these indicators from their matrices. 

Events:

Monday 27th October               Labour Day - school is closed

Monday 3 November                New Entrant Parent Session   9:30am

Friday 14 November                 Lorenzo's beach clean up trip

Wednesday 5 November          Community Evening  

Thursday 20 & Friday 21 Nov   Book Fair

Friday 21 November                School Production - Aladdin

Thursday 11 & Friday 12 Dec   Koru Camp

Tuesday 16 December             National Standard reports sent home

Wednesday 17 December        Prize giving

Wednesday 17 December        Last Day of School

Monday 2 February  2015        First day of Term 1, 2015

Koru Camp:

Date:           Thursday 11 December - Friday 12 December

Where:        Wellesley Park in Akatarawa Valley (2km from Staglands)

Cost:          $70 per child and $60 per adult

Who:           All koru hub children, parents are welcome, pre-schoolers are unable to attend

Thursday 11th Timetable:  

10am         Depart School  on the bus

11am         Staglands - tour and picnic lunch

2:45pm      Depart on bus to camp venue

3pm           Unload bus, set up cabins, afternoon tea

4pm           Camp activities

5:30           BBQ dinner

6pm           Evening activities

                 Bed

Friday 12th Timetable:

7am          Get up

7:30          Breakfast, teeth, tidy cabins

8:30          Camp activities

10am        Morning Tea

10:30        Camp activities

12noon     Lunch

12:30       Tidy up, pack up

1pm         Load bus

1:30         Depart camp

2:30         Arrive School

If you would prefer your child not to stay overnight that is fine.  You are more than welcome to come during the days.  You could pick them up in the evening and bring them back in the morning.  All Koru Hub teachers will be on camp therefore there is no alternative programme for any children who do not attend.

We welcome parents to come with us.  We have a number of spare bunks in the cabins, however the space is not unlimited.  There may not be room for every single parent, it will depend on how many children come on camp.  In saying that there are many available beds.  Parents who come with us will need to take a vehicle due to no spare space on the bus. There will be camp roles for all parents who come on camp.  The main one being responsible for a small group of children at Staglands. Parents will be sleeping in cabins with children and will have some responsibility with those in their cabin overnight.

Please complete this google form and indicate your permission for your child to attend camp.  On this form you can also indicate if you would like to attend as a parent help as well. Can we please have this returned by next Friday 31 October. Camp Google Form.  

Thank you for your support over the year and we look forward to another productive term with our hub students and families. 

Kind regards,

Demelza, Mike, Erica and Angela

Living with Curiosity/Living Creatively

This week we have been trying to emulate Leonardo da Vinci. He was fascinated by how objects worked. He studied machines inside and out. He noticed and wondered, observed and experimented and then used what he had learned to make his own designs or to improve current designs.

Students have been enjoying the chance to interact playfully with world through looking, touching, making, noticing and wondering. They have come up with some great noticings and wonderings, which you can check out on one of the walls in the hub.

"I'm noticing it moves when you press the button." - Lopa
"When one thing moves all the other stuff moves." - not named
"I notice that clocks work with lots of cogs." - Emma

"I wonder how a spring works." - Kaitlin
"Why are there so many wires in a machine?" - not named
"How does a pulley work?" - Ellen-Rose

See a Need, Fill a Need Fundraiser and Clean Up Afternoon

In Koru Hub this term, we have discovered that leaders are not only people who are in positions of leadership, but are also people who see a need and decide to do something about filling the need. We saw many needs in the school, the local and national community and the world, and we decided to do something about them.

Here are some pictures of students filling a need by fundraising money for charity. Between the different fundraising events students made $139, which they will give to Red Cross.

The bake sale was a real treat.

Students showed their amazing dance moves at the disco.

A few students braved the wind to compete in the fun run obstacle course.

Another group of students decided to fill a need by planning a clean up afternoon. We managed to pick up quite a lot of rubbish.

Term 4 Inquiry - Can you help us?

We are very excited about the new inquiry for this term - Living with Curiosity/Living Creatively. This inquiry is all about pulling things apart and exploring how they work and creating or re-creating to make our own inventions.

During the first couple of weeks of the inquiry students will be tinkering with lots of different objects and pulling them apart to find out how they work. We will be learning about simple machines and some physics concepts. If you have any old machines or bits and pieces that you don't mind being pulled apart and possibly not put back together again, we would really appreciate you bringing them into Koru Hub. Please just give them to one of the Koru Hub teachers.

Also, if you have tools at home, particularly screw drivers, and you do not mind them being used by students, please name the tools and give them to one of the Koru Hub teachers. We will return all tools at the end of the inquiry.

We look forward to seeing you all in Term 4. Enjoy the rest of your holidays.

Amesbury School Clean Up Day and Fundraiser

Kia ora koutou,

For the last few weeks we have been very busy in Koru Hub with our See a Need, Fill a Need Projects. Most students have been looking at global needs such as rubbish, poverty, war, the destruction of habitats and the extinction of animals. Some students have also been looking at local/New Zealand needs, such as the damage from the Christchurch earthquakes. Finally, a group of students have been looking at school needs, such as friendships.

Each group has come up with a way that they can fill the need, or at least begin to fill the need. For a number of students they decided that they could begin to fill the need by fundraising for an organisation which is already doing some great stuff.

These children would like to raise money for:

• Red Cross
• Child Fund
• SPCA
• Salvation Army
• World Vision
• Habitat for Humanity

We will be having this fundraising event, along with a clean up afternoon, on Tuesday, 16 September from 1-3pm.

During lunch time there will be a fun run on the courts and a disco in the hall. Each will be a gold coin donation to enter. There will also be some delicious biscuits and cupcakes for sale in Koru Hub.

After lunch there will be a rubbish clean up around the school as a part of the Keeping New Zealand Beautiful clean up week. Families are welcome to come and join us for the clean up, as well as the lunchtime activities.

Super Science!

This term, we have been doing lots of interesting experiments for our science rotation on Thursdays.  We have also been learning about the science investigation process.  We know that when you do an experiment you go through this process:

Question (What you want to find out)

Prediction/Hypothesis (What you think might happen)

Materials (Gather the equipment and things that you need)

Method (Do the experiment)

Results (Observe what happened)

Conclusion (Think about why the results happened - what is the science?)

Here are the links to the science experiments we have done so far this term if you want to try them at home.  

Vinegar Volcano

Lava in a cup

Floating paper clip

Sink or Swim

Crazy Pepper!

Magic Milk

Liquid Layers

Float or Sink?

Have fun!

Some Super Scientists at Work

 

 

 

FRENZY Junior Cross Country Relay

On Saturday three boys from Koru Hub raced in a beach/road relay. The weather was brilliant and the course was a lot of fun  All three boys ran exceptionally well and had a wonderful time doing so. Leo, Jayden and Echelon, we are very proud of your efforts. Congratulations!

Life Education

Today we had our first visit with Harold the Giraffe and Bec. We learned about living together joyfully. Harold entertained us with his jokes and amazing knowledge. Bec introduced us to a connecting and including game. We're looking forward to more learning in the truck-classroom tomorrow. I hope we get to see the stars.

Swimming Week 2

Despite the wind and wetness, students still managed to have a great time playing before and after their swimming lessons. The warmth inside the pool building was very welcome indeed.

Leo in Sydney

Here is an update sent to us from Leo.

This is me and the elephants at the zoo.

​This is Max and Levi playing with a water ball at the Botanical Gardens.

This is the submarine​ that I went on.

Thi​s is us climbing at the Botanical Gardens.