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.