Kōwhai News Term 3 Week 1

Kia ora Kōwhai whānau,

Welcome back to Term 3! We have been getting straight into our learning and the children have settled in very quickly.

New Literacy Groups

This term, we have created new literacy groups which means that your child may have a different teacher for reading and writing. We have been delighted by the way the children have slotted into the new groupings so quickly and easily. For writing, our focus is now on recounts so the children are currently writing a recount about an event they have experienced. Feel free to ask them about it!

Calendar Art

Over the next few weeks, our afternoon focus is on creating Calendar Art. This year, we are looking at the artist, Piet Mondrian, learning about his life and his work as an artist. We have been learning about his transition into abstract art and that his particular style of using geometric shapes is called neoplasticism! This week, the children have been experimenting with drawing horizontal and vertical lines in order to create different geometric shapes. They have then been colouring these shapes, using only primary colours and black, leaving some of their shapes white. Below is an example of Mondrian's work:

Below is a photo of some of the children practising their art skills and also some of their practice examples:

Discovery

In Discovery, the children continue to work on their Stop Motion animations and they are also enjoying working with the Sphero balls, using an iPad to control the ball's movements. This week, we have also introduced a new activity, using the writing app, Little Story Creator. This involves writing a story on an iPad and creating your own pictures to go with it. The children have been learning how to use the app by trying it out and experimenting with the different features. Otherwise, the children continue to do construction, create their own top trump cards, make huts and also make up games to play outside (when the weather allows!).

Masks

We continue to encourage the children to wear masks so if your child has their own mask at home, please feel free to bring it to school. 

Welcome Assembly

Today we had a Junior Welcome Assembly as we are still not able to hold full school assemblies. Congratulations to the Kete certificate recipients!

Magazines

Finally, we are in need of lots of magazines as we are going to be making rākau for te reo Māori this term. If you have any old magazines lying around, we would love to have them. Thank you!

Have a wonderful weekend!

From the Kòwhai team