Dear Parents,

The latest newsletter has been uploaded to Skoolloop. 

We look forward to seeing you and your family rested, recuperated, and ready for another awesome term of learning beginning on the 20th April. 

Have a great Easter break,

Daniel

Piwakawaka Class have had a busy month filled with focused learning. We have been trucking along with our structured literacy concepts, building confidence, fluency, and using a range of reading strategies in our daily learning.

Maths has become an area of great enjoyment for the children. Their enthusiasm has been fantastic to see, and we have even shuffled our timetable slightly so that Maths is in the morning on a couple of days, allowing us to make the most of our energy and engagement.

A group of six Piwakawaka students also enjoyed attending the recent Enviro Hui, where they learned about microplastics and their impact on our environment. We have also been lucky to take part in two fantastic sessions with Hockey Southland, developing our skills and having plenty of fun along the way.

We had a fantastic time at our recent school camp. We enjoyed a super walk at Dunsdale Reserve, although we didn’t manage to catch any eels this time! Sleeping over in the classroom with our friends was a real highlight, and there was lots of laughter and excitement throughout the experience.

After such a busy and fun-filled time, we are well and truly ready for a super holiday. We hope everyone has a safe and relaxing break! ????⛺????

It has been a very exciting, busy week in Kererū. We have finished our class novel of Roald Dahl’s ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’.

As part of our literacy learning this term, we have been comparing and contrasting our novel and the films. This learning is intentionally designed to align with the refreshed New Zealand Curriculum. Through this, students have been working towards achievement expectations that involve:

Making meaning from texts by identifying key ideas, characters, and themes
Comparing and evaluating texts across different forms (e.g. written and visual)
Understanding how authors and creators shape meaning, including through language, images, and sound
Expressing ideas and opinions clearly, using evidence from the text to support their thinking
By comparing the novel with two different film adaptations, students have explored how the same story can be interpreted in different ways. They have noticed what has been changed, added, or left out, and discussed how these choices affect the audience’s understanding and enjoyment. We have also discussed why the screenwriters adapt some of the original text.  The students have engaged in rich discussions, sharing their thinking, and completing follow-up tasks that involve explaining and justifying their ideas—key skills within the updated curriculum.

You can support your child by:

asking them about the differences between the book and the movies
encouraging them to explain why they prefer one version over another
discussing characters and how they are portrayed differently
This learning helps students to become critical thinkers, confident communicators, and thoughtful readers, while also making learning engaging and meaningful.

Hi All, 

Please find the final camp notice for camp that went home with children at the end of the day today. 

Final-Camp-Notice.pdf

Packing-List-Camp.pdf

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

As we finish off the term, we would like to share an update on our current learning focus in the classroom.

In spelling, we have been revising a range of spelling patterns that have been covered throughout the term. This revision is helping to strengthen students’ understanding and confidence in applying these patterns in their writing.

In mathematics, we are continuing to build our skills with written algorithms, with a particular focus on multiplication and division. Students are developing their accuracy and understanding of these processes through regular practice and application.

Our writing focus has been on adding extra detail and information to make our writing more interesting and engaging for the reader. Students are learning how to expand their ideas and include descriptive elements to enhance their work.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Kind regards,
Jess