Wednesday 25 March 2020

Patiki Learning at Home

Please remember this learning will start after Easter on Wednesday 15th April. This is the start of Term 2.

Waimairi School Distance Learning Plan for Patiki

At Waimairi School we are using distance learning to:


Maintain community connections.
Promote a sense of togetherness, unity, and stability.
Share positive and authentic experiences.
Keep up our school/whānau collaborative approach to learning.
Promote the ongoing importance of physical activity and fresh air.
Engage families with fun activities together.
Provide structure, routines and stability.
Maintain foundation core skills.

In Patiki learning is all about:


Creativity.
Play.
Problem-solving.
Working with others.
Independence with their learning, with support when required.
Valuing individuality and celebrating success.
Physical Education and Wellbeing.

So you can expect distance learning with a focus on:

Creativity - Projects
e.g. singing, drama, outdoor activities/challenges, making things with materials at home

Challenges - Lego, Blocks, Cars, Barbie dolls, Beanie Boos, Scooter Challenges, skipping, physical activities... (Go Noodle, Cosmic Yoga)

Variety of Home activities - Board GAmes, jigsaw puzzles, sketching, sewing, crafts, playdough, water play, making huts, dress-ups

We will use an IT platform for Independent work and valuing individuality and celebrating success. (To be advised)

You can expect these sort of learning experiences:

We are wanting the children to mirror the learning that they have at school, at home, as much as possible.

This is what a typical day/week will look like:

There is no timeframe to complete activities. We will set up daily/weekly challenges for your child to engage in. As well as Core Learning Activities. There will be some tasks we will ask you to post on the IT platform (which is to be advised) after the School Holidays.

Note: This may change as we evolve this new way of working with you.

Note: Our main contact with you will be by our Patiki Blog.

From there we may build up use of some other websites and/or apps.

We are all living through an unusual situation and the most important thing is to take care of each other. Please know that we will still be available and providing you with learning for your child.

Kirsty and Tracy

Tuesday 24 March 2020

To All Parents and Caregivers,

Hello All,

We hope you are all looking after yourselves and your family in these 'difficult' times. Family comes first!

Thank you for all your support yesterday picking up your child in a calm manner. Please remember that children will take away from these times what you do as a family together, not what reading book they had. We know this from past experience with the earthquakes in Christchurch.

School holidays have been brought forward to Monday 30th March - Tuesday 14th April. They will run for 2 weeks and then after the Easter break we will be in contact with you regarding learning.

We will continue to use our classroom blog for all communication and other apps may be used for learning in the future.

Please lookout for a 'Distance Learning' outline as it stands at present. This will come out before Thursday 26th March.

From the 15th of April we can be contacted by email and you can ring us via the school phone number 03 352 9208. Our extension number is 607.

This weekend we are all heading into school holidays, it is important to not use the next two weeks as formal learning time. Use the next two weeks to relax and have fun. Stay in your pyjamas until 10am, make hot chocolates, draw pictures, have screen time, laugh and take walks around the block.

Take care,

Kirsty and Tracy




Monday 23 March 2020

Important - if you are not receiving emails from Mike click on the following link



If you are not receiving emails from Mike please go to this link to follow all important information that is being sent out:


https://forms.gle/WyMercY6nWKoGo368

Mike's message to our community.


Mike Anderson

16:19 (33 minutes ago)
to All
Kia ora Waimairi Whānau,

Further to today's announcement from the Prime Minister, school is now closed for at least four weeks.

The only exception to this is that we will be open to provide for children of identified essential workers tomorrow and Wednesday.

This list of essential occupations will be shared with you as soon as I get it.

Continuation of learning and our community connections.
Later this week we will be contacting you to let you know about how we are going to keep in touch with our pupils and foster connections while we are apart.

During the 2011 earthquakes we were closed for well over a month. During this time we successfully kept our Waimairi community vibe going and enjoyed lots of fun family home learning activities. So we are experienced at working in this way.

Murphy is really going to miss all of your pats.

Take care of yourself and others.

Sunday 22 March 2020

Week 8 - 23rd March

Hello All,


  • We understand everyone is under 'trying' times at the moment. Please take the time to read the detailed letter that Mike has sent out this afternoon regarding changes for the coming week.


  • Please keep your child at home if they are unwell and reinforce handwashing practices at home. At school our message is:

'Soap on hands and rub between fingers and all over hands while you sing Happy Birthday twice through, (approximately 20 seconds). Then rinse hands underwater and dry hands'.

Thank you for your support with this.

  • Another important message from Mike is: 

-We are asking parents to not engage in the traditional gatherings and chats before and after school. Please be brief and be gone. Do not linger with each other. (refer to the letter sent out to all families this afternoon)

  • Just a reminder to some families that arrive before 8:30am, could you please wait until  8:30 before entering the classroom. You may like to leave home a little later. The official school opening time has always been 8:30am. Thank you for your understanding with this.
Otherwise we are all go in Patiki with business as per usual. We welcome Tracy back on Tuesday.

Thank you,

 Kirsty

A few snapshots of our happy children:















Friday 20 March 2020

Wacky Hair Day TODAY

Hello All,

Just a friendly reminder it is Wacky Hair Day today, Friday 20th March. Children are to still come in school uniform please.

A gold coin would be appreciated to raise funds for Cancer, through the Relay for Life event.

Thanks, Kirsty

Thursday 19 March 2020

Year 1 interviews - bookings open

Hello All,

If your child is in Year 1 please remember to book an interview online to see your child's reporting teacher.

Please refer to the school newsletter and follow the link to make your booking:

Year 1, 3 and 5 Interview Bookings
Bookings are now open for reporting interviews for parents of children in Years 1, 3 and 5.
To book go to www.schoolinterviews.co.nz and use the code wd6sf
or visit or phone the school office between 8:30am and 3:30pm.

Remember if your child is in Year 2 they will have an interview in Term 2.

Have a good evening,

Kirsty and Tracy

Monday 16 March 2020

Week 7

Hi All

Week 7 and the school pool closes on Friday 20 March so that always feels like summer has well and truly ended.

Mrs Campbell away
As you maybe aware my daughter is getting married this Saturday (21 March) so I will be away Wednesday to Friday this week and Monday and Tuesday next week. Sonya Nuku, who does my River Leader release on a Wednesday, will be relieving in my absence except for Thursday when Nicole McMahon will be in the classroom. Both teachers are very familiar with our programme so there will be no change to our normal routines.

Table Cleaning
Our tables will now be cleaned by our cleaners so in the meantime we do not require the cleaning table roster. Thank you to those who have been cleaning our tables and those who put their name on the roster.

Headlice
It's been reported to us that a child in our class has headlice. The is being dealt with appropriately but please check your child's hair.

Boxes
Thanks for the boxes that have been coming in. Please keep them coming BUT not large boxes. Cereal boxes, toothpaste boxes, the cardboard centre of glad wrap, soap boxes are perfect.

Hope you all have a great week. As you can imagine I'm just a small bit excited!!

Tracy (and Kirsty of course)

Wednesday 11 March 2020

BOX REQUESTS

The children are up and running with their projects and so we are fast running out of boxes to support their creative ideas! Can you please save us your empty boxes of cereal, muesli bars, fruit boxes, shoe boxes. Any old boxes will do! No bigger than shoe boxes please.
Thanks so much.
Tracy and Kirsty

Monday 9 March 2020

Classroom Connectors - Patiki Families

Hi there,

As part of helping make connections with other students and their families this year, each class has two or three Classroom Connectors who have volunteered to organise events to help people meet and get to know each other. A good way for this information to be communicated about these events is via email and we are using the current friendship list emails for this. If your email address is not on there or you have not already received an email from Lisa Andersen about the planned events for this term can you please contact her on mrs.lisa.andersen@gmail.com and she will add you to the class email list. There is, of course, no obligation to attend the organised events each term.

Lisa Andersen

Sunday 8 March 2020

Week 6

Week 6 this week and wasn't it a funny old week last week with a weekend day in the middle. Thank you for your support ...building a new school was never going to be straight forward.

Swimming

Please keep sending swimming togs on Tuesdays and Fridays until further notice.

Reading Books

Reading books are kept in the children's reading folders for the week so that children can reread these books. These books are at their instructional level and the more times they engage with the text the better. The previous weeks books are taken out of their folders on Mondays ready for the next week.

Hand Hygiene

We are promoting hand hygiene prior to the winter season. The children are being told to wash their hands with soap before eating and after going to the toilet and to sing Happy Birthday twice through so that they are cleaning their hands for 20 seconds. We tried saying 'Mississippi one Mississippi two'...was far too hard so we went with Happy Birthday! We will also be insisting that they cough into the elbow fold on their arms and if at all possible to sneeze there as well or move their head away when sneezing. Please reinforce this at home as it then has a real impact.

Creativity

There is always lots of creative thinking and doing going on in Patiki. The children are really making connections with the concept of quality.










Hope you all have a wonderful week.
Tracy and Kirsty

Wednesday 4 March 2020

Voluntary 'stay at home day' for children due to sewer problems.

Kia ora,

We have a sewer issue at school which has reduced the number of toilets which we can use tomorrow.

This has emerged late in the afternoon today.

While further investigations and repairs are sorted out, we need to shut down the toilet facilities which are used by the following classes.

Ngā Puna (Lynley and Tina)
Patiki (Kirsty and Mrs Campbell)
Kanuka (Ms Lunn and Miss T)
Patiki 22 (Sue Howard)

For tomorrow we will ask for a voluntary 'stay at home day' for children in these classes.

If childcare is an issue for you, please do still send your child to school. Their teachers will be there to look after them for the day.

If you can keep your own children at home tomorrow, consider reaching out to friends and neighbours to provide some childcare at your place tomorrow.

We appreciate that this is a sudden imposition on your family, but we need to ensure we have the required number of toilets and hand-washing basins in operation to keep everyone healthy and safe at school.

We will be at school early in the morning tomorrow, with contractors to get things sorted for a regular day at school on Friday. Expect an update during the day tomorrow.

Monday 2 March 2020

Alphabet, List Words and Spelling Words

Hello All,

Over the next few weeks, the children will be bringing home words/letters to learn.

If the words are list words please practise reading them.

If your child has brought home spelling words they need to practise writing them.

Thank you for your support with this,

Kirsty and Tracy

Sunday 1 March 2020

Week 5 - March already!!

Hello All,

We hope you have had a restful weekend.

Thank you to those parents who are able to clean our tables and/or put away reading books. Your help is HUGELY appreciated.

Here are a few snapshots of our busy Patiki children:

Tikva, Alex H and Grace were very proud of their finished masterpiece. Great teamwork!

The Block Challenge was a Marae, haven't they done an amazing job! 
(Thomas, Harry, Jack, Joseph and Kyron)

Artists in the making; Kaden and Alex.

Angus and Claire on the ukeleles.

The ukelele band; Claire, Lizzie and Meadow.

Skyla playing with the babies.

Look at the detail and quality.

Water fun play on hot days.

We are super lucky to have Kirsty's Mum 'Anne' helping children to sew each Wednesday.

Elise working hard on her Elephant sewing project.

Lincoln has been solving tricky math problems.

Zavier is very proud of his airport.

Teamwork between Jack and Oliver.

Look at our finished pieces, Georgia and Claire.