Team Kauri Term Three Review
Term three was yet another fantastic term for Team Kauri. We really focused in on our team writing goal with some very successful speeches and an outstanding visit from a local author John Carr. He took the time to share some inspiring ideas for writing, as well as entertaining our students with his incredible sense of humour and ability to engage the students. Our team speech finals were enlightening and our finalists had fantastic results at the school speech finals Students were also able to use their writing and oral language skills when sharing their learning during three-way conference time. We are so proud of what they have achieved and we loved that you gave them the opportunity to share that with you. We truly appreciate the time you took out to attend the conferences. Team Kauri also had a few things going on in terms of ‘The Arts’ with links to our inquiry big idea for the term, which was ‘Media is designed to communicate a message and influence a response.’ A trip to Te Tuhi lit our fire early on in the term, where each class created a 3D piece of collage related to our unit. We are also well on our way to completing our art for the upcoming ‘Art Exhibition’ in Term 4. In amongst this Year 5 and 6 have enjoyed participating in our swimming lessons at Lloyd Elsmore, Year 6 got to present some songs for Kapa Haka as we opened this years Koanga Festival and we all engaged in Life Education lessons around decision making and being safe online. Phew, onto the final term of the year.
It’s hard to believe that we are here already, Term 4! Some things that we are looking forward to this term are: ‘Art Exhibition’ in Week 4, Athletics Day in Week 2, Year 4 starting swimming, Prizegiving and some other possible trips this term. This term students will be inquiring into ‘Communities are shaped and changed by human migration.’ To support their learning in this area students may ask you some questions about your own migration journeys. We look forward to seeing some great movement and progress with our students this term after a year of hard work from all. As always, we are so grateful to all the whanau of our students who help support them and make our lives easier through great lines of communication. Thanks so much for an absolutely wonderful year so far, and we look forward to having one last opportunity to share our learning with you at our Team Kauri assembly on Friday, Week 5. Set the afternoon aside!
“Me mahi tahi tātou mō to oranga o te katoa.”
“We should work together for the wellbeing of everyone.”
Kim Timmins (Team Leader, Room 15) – kimt@pigeon-mountain.school.nz
Jason Cox (Room 13) – jasonc@pigeon-mountain.school.nz
Balvinder Kaur (Room 14) – balvinderk@pigeon-mountain.school.nz
Some photos of Team Kauri’s visit by John Carr
Team Kauri Term Two
Term two has been a super busy learning term for Team Kauri. We have all gone energy mad! Our inquiry focus for the term was around how ‘Energy may be converted, transformed and used to support human progress’ and wow we have gained so much knowledge. We have been fortunate enough to have lots of opportunities to engage in this unit through experiences such as the Science Roadshow and visits from Vector Energy and the Tread Lightly Caravan. Students were exposed to plenty of Science and hands on experiences such as science experiments and making solar cars with the energy kits we have in school. Team Kauri then had the privilege to share all this amazing knowledge with the community through their school assembly in Week 8. Thank you to all those that could make it along to celebrate their outstanding learning. We sure are proud of them. Some other special opportunities that have taken place for all the team have been: Footsteps dance, cultural lunches and Cross Country. The cultural lunch was phenomenal with all the students learning about different dishes and tasting food from such a variety of places. We think some may have tasted a few too many! Our team also represented us so well at Cross Country with a number of top place getters and it was fantastic to see them all pushing themselves to do the best they could on the day. On top of all this there has been a tonne of writing, reading and maths happening, with plenty of links made to inquiry through things like information report writing, statistical investigations around energy use at home and reading group work using texts about energy. We have developed a strong bond in Team Kauri and we can’t wait to see what else can be achieved in Term 3.
Speaking of which, there will be no slowing down in Term 3. Students will be inquiring into how ‘Media is designed to communicate a message and influence a response.’ We sent a notice out in the last week of Term 2 to see if there were any parents out there that would be willing to share some expertise in this area, please get in touch if you can help in any way. To support their learning in this area Team Kauri students will be going on a trip to Te Tuhi art gallery to do a workshop. We will be sending out a notice at the start of next term to ask for help from parents for this trip. Room 14 and 15 will be heading there on Monday 6th August, with Room 13 going on Friday 10th August. We will remain focused on our team goal around writing and we have managed to book a local author to visit our students in Week 3 to help inspire them more. The school also has Life Education coming in at the start of next term and swimming will be starting for Years 5 and 6. The opportunities for learning never stops. Thanks again for your ongoing support and we will look forward to touching base with you later in the term at the next set of three-way conferences.
“Me mahi tahi tātou mō to oranga o te katoa.”
“We should work together for the wellbeing of everyone.”
Kim Timmins (Team Leader, Room 15) – kimt@pigeon-mountain.school.nz
Jason Cox (Room 13) – jasonc@pigeon-mountain.school.nz
Balvinder Kaur (Room 14) – balvinderk@pigeon-mountain.school.nz
Some Kauri Term 2 Photos!
