Letter from Mrs Turner

Dear parents,

Wow, can you believe that the children of E/Learning have just completed their first year of school. Its been a very special one for all, its my fourth year as a New Entrant/ Year one teacher, and for most of you, your first child beginning their educational journey . I am honored that I have been able to be one of their first teachers on the start of their schooling journey.

I wanted to personally thank you for making my year teaching your child truly special, its been really incredible being part of our “ school” family and watching each child develop into individuals, learning to read, write, count, make friends and navigate themselves around the grounds at Arahoe. Which is a feat in itself!

I am so proud of each of the students of E/L. They are all incredible "little people" which bring so much joy, zest, enthusiasm and determination to every task they set their minds too. Its been delightful watching their personalities develop into leaders, facilitators,  performers, carers, historians, sporting stars and architects.  I know that where ever their learning journey takes them they will go on to achieve great things.

Jaimee and I are so grateful for all the support and assistance you and your families have offered to us. The stronger the family support base allows the children and parent teacher relationships to thrive, which in turn leads to the most rewarding outcome for all. 

The blog will stay active for the next 6 months, to give you time to copy over the photos and videos you may like. Its been a great tool to connect with all of you and to show you what the " life of a five year old is at school". 

I wish you all a very happy holiday season with your family. If you would like to touch base, and  or keep me in the loop of how your child is going please email me. Its really lovely to know how they are going teachingmrsturner@gmail.com

Once again thank you for making this year a fantastic one, I really valued all the aroha you showed me especially over the last week, saying good bye. The chats, thoughtful cards and gifts have been heart warming. 

With so much love,

Dana Turner

Our picnic

The sun came out and we all came together with a lovely bunch of parents for our class picnic. Thank you for the generous and thoughtful food platters. The children had a really lovely afternoon.  The secret Santa presents  were also a hit! 

Athletics Day Awards

Athletics Day

Two weeks ago we had our Junior School Athletics Day. The children had an incredible experience, and this afternoon we had an awards ceremony for the students that came first, second or third in their age group division for the sports day. A huge congratulations to one of our students who came first for the 5 year old girls for sprints, long jump, high jump, gumboot throwing, egg and spoon race.  What an achievement.

Reminder

Hello parents,

A reminder that tomorrow we are doing the following things with the children and would appreciate your help

1. Christmas themed hair styles for school
2. Secret Santa presents, please bring in a secret santa present to the value of $2 for the student who is written in your child's note book. We encourage home made gifts
3. Please bring in a small plate of what is listed in your child's notebook for the class afternoon tea picnic.
4. We are swimming tomorrow, please bring togs

We are having the afternoon tea picnic at 2pm. Please meet outside our classroom and we will all walk together to our picnic spot.

If you would like to come you are more than welcome to join us. If you have any picnic rugs you are able to bring along that would be greatly appreciated. Following the picnic the children will be playing games on the playground and climbing trees.

Last day of term - EARLY FINISH TIME 1.30pm

On Friday, it is our last day at school. School will finish at 1.30pm. Please be at school to collect your child outside our classroom at 1.30pm.

Reading Week 10

Each day the students will be bringing home a different poem in their poem books, please let your child read their poem to you and make sure they return their poem books each morning.

Our buddy class

This year the students in e learning have a year 3/4 class that is their buddy class. We meet with out buddy class each week to read to each other, play games and today we each shared our Christmas cards with our buddies. 

Reports

Good afternoon parents,

We are just notifying you that the children have their school reports inside their book bags. Inside the report is also their class placement for next year. Any questions, please email us on danat@Arahoe.school.nz

Thursday the 17th of December

Good afternoon parents,

Next Thursday we have planned a very exciting day that we would like your help with. Please check your child's notebook for additional information.

We will be having an afternoon tea picnic at 2pm, and have asked each child to bring a small plate of either sweet, savory, fruit or paper plates. Please bring the item that is highlighted on the notice. We are having the afternoon tea picnic to celebrate the children finishing their first year at school, saying farewell to Miss Pollock and  Mrs Turner who are moving to another school for 2016 and to a student who is moving to Napier. We have not notified the children that we are both leaving the school, but we will explain it to them next week.

We have also arranged a secret Santa gift exchange, please bring the named wrapped present to the value of $2 to class before Thursday. On the notice in your child's notebooks we have written down the student who you are required to bring a secret santa gift for. We encourage home-made gifts.

Lastly, we would like the children to have Christmas themed hair styles for Thursday, such as reindeer ears, santa hats, ribbons.

Any questions, please let us know.

Dana and Jaimee

Parent Interviews

Hi parents 

A reminder parent interviews are next week on Monday and Tuesday. These are for parents who have not seen us this term and would like to do so. To book please visit the Arahoe School website. 

Our performance

Did you take any photos of the class performing? We would love it if you could email them to us, we are so proud of all the children getting up there and performing they were fabulous! 

Athletics day

A reminder its athletics day tomorrow children wear mufti that is appropriate for running in, running shoes, Sunhat and a big lunch and drink bottle.

Tarzan and Jane creative writing and plays

 

Script of first play

Once upon a time Tarzan found a cave, he ate breakfast. The sun came up. How does Tarzan swing from trees?

 

For writing this week all the children in E.L are learning how to write creative stories that will captivate an audience. The class choose three of these stories to turn into a play. We hope you enjoy watching the plays as much as we enjoyed making them. The author of the stories are the narrators and they choose the actors for their plays.


Script of second play.
Once upon a time Jane saw Tarzan and screamed and screamed. Tarzan saw Jane and screamed. Tarzan picked up a tiger. Jane picked up a tiger. Tarzan and Jane then went and ate a snake.

 

Script of third story

Tarzan makes a funny noise and Jane runs away back to the tree house. One day, Tarzan saw a panther and attacks it.

Notice about our performance

As you are aware we are performing at the schools family night on Wednesday at  6.30pm. Very exciting. Please sign the notice in your child's notebook to confirm your child will be attending. This assists us in knowing numbers for the dance. Children need to meet at 6.15 outside e learning to get into their costumes. Those students who already have an Indian clothing to wear can meet at e learning at 6.20. The performance is 6.30. 

Swimming

We are performing at family night

Hello parents,

Next Wednesday from 5.30pm until 7.30pm it is family night at Arhoe School. Exciting news that E.Learning has been asked to perform their dance from Diwali. We are performing at 6.30pm. If you will be attending family night please let us know by Monday ( so we know numbers for the dance) . We will be getting the children ready at 6.00pm into their costumes in our classroom. We are very excited.


Family night is a night for all the students, families, teachers and community to come together and enjoy the end of the year. There are performances, food, drink and we are performing too!!

Please sign the notice in your childs notebook to confirm that you will be attending the performance. This allows us to know how many numbers we will have for each dance. Its very important you let us know. Those children who have indian clothing to wear, you can arrive at family night at 6.20pm.

You would have this notice in your book bags today

Swimming

A reminder that we are swimming tomorrow.

Our art gallery trip

A sculpture by New Zealand Artist, Bill Culbert, an artist that uses recycled products to create art work with a heavy light influence. Looking at this piece of art inspired the parents and children to want to make their own piece of art work from "rubbish" unwanted items from their home. 

A group of children learning about the story of Rama, with the help from one of our parent helpers. 

In the studio session, the children worked with the art teacher to make a piece of shape art using different shapes and dye. These pieces of art will be on display in the classroom. 

A room in the art gallery that is all about the children, the exploration centre, this room the children got to let loose, and as one child said excitedly " we are allowed to touch things in here?"

Our second gallery exploration time with our Art Educator Jackson. We went into different parts of the gallery and carefully looked at the paintings and sculptures. We had to act out home characters in the paintings were feeling and had discussions about how the art made us feel. 

In the New Zealand art wing of the gallery this particular piece took the children's fancy, they could not believe it was a real birds head attached to a wet suit. The children were very interested that " art" can take many different forms. The art was called " Wetsuit"

What an exciting and action packed day full of learning we had at the Auckland art gallery. We spent the morning with gallery educators, recreating art work through dance, drama and objects, a art making session using shapes and dye and then had a self guided time looking at the Story of Rama, light exhibition and the exploration centre. The children had an incrrdiable time looking at all the different types of art, fantastic discussions and a lot of "I wonder" questions were asked. A huge thank you to our Indian community of parent helpers who came and shared their expertises telling us about the story of Rama as we were looking at the display. We would highly recommend a trip to the gallery to see the Story of Rama and the other exhibitions, it was a rewarding experience for all.

We also looked at the shapes we can see in some of the pieces of art, and made art using cut out shapes to replicate a woven art piece we saw in the gallery.

Here we are using our bodies to make the different shapes we can see in the paintings. 

Art Trip

Art trip tomorrow, we are leaving promptly at 9am  so please make sure you are not late. We can only wait for 5 minutes.

The children do not need school bags, just their lunch in a named plastic bag. Full school uniform and closed shoes are required. If your one of our parent helpers please come and see us for a group list and then we will direct you go to assembly hall to be briefed about the day, our team leader will be there. See you all in the morning. We are all excited about the class trip. 

Assembly

Today E-Learning was awarded a certificate for the best class in folding milk cartons! 

And a big well done to two students who received certificates for being excellent an role model and for always being a kind friend. 

Planting Seeds

We have been learning about different types of seeds and what seeds need to grow. Today we planted our own seeds. First we got dirt from the garden and then we chose either bean, capsicum or kale seeds. We are going to watch them grow!