Newsletter March 19th 15

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169 Fitzherbert East Road, Aokautere, RD1, Palmerston North. Tel: 06 3574611 Fax: 06 3574116 www.aokautereschool.net
School Newsletter – 19th March 2015
Important Dates For Your Diaries:
N.B. School Assemblies are held fortnightly on Fridays at 2.15pm in 2015. •
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Wednesday 25th March: The Weetbix Tryathlon
Thursday 26th March: Cluster Touch Tournament at Coronation Park
Friday 27th March: School Assembly – R1 hosts us
Thursday 2nd April: School visits the Marae at Rangiotu
o N.B. This is the last day of Term 1. Happy Easter!
Monday 20th April: Term 2 begins with our ‘Gathering’ at 8.45am
Tuesday 21st April: Flu Jabs for adults. (See my blurb below.)
o School Banking: gets underway today. Bankers will collect the banking from classes.
Thursday 23rd April: R7 and R4 go to the Regent Theatre for ‘Kiwi Moon’.
Monday 27th April: We take the ANZAC Day holiday (ANZAC Day = Saturday 25th April)
Friday 1st May: Room 1 hosts our School Assembly.
Dear Parents, Caregivers and Friends of the School,
TENA KOUTOU TE WHANAU O TE KURA AOKAUTERE,
A Big Aokautere Welcome Back To Laiken Corlett who has returned to us as a Year 4
student. Laiken has already picked up with some of his old classmates and friends so he should
feel quite comfortable here. Please make him feel welcome.
“I Tried The Tri” Series: The school was buzzing with excited students wearing their
medals from the Tri series. The medal wearers had participated in at least 4 of the 5 evening
races. Congratulations to these children. We had so many winners and a few commented that they
had improved their places over the series and had met goals that they pushed themselves to
achieve.
Touch Rugby: Shelley Karatau told us about the entries and team numbers at our Gathering
today. We have the entry forms back and enough parent coach/managers for the day. Thanks to
the parents who have offered their time. We are so grateful for this help. Shelley Karatau will coach
the children on Wednesday lunchtimes.
W inter Sports Entries: Shelley also told us that our school is responsible for signing up:
Netball, Basketball and Hockey players and that outside clubs look after soccer and rugby. She
has asked that all permission forms must be in to her by this Wednesday (the 11th March). – Don’t
miss out! I know there is a lot on but we need some more Winter hockey players.
Don’t let the flu get you : For the past few years we have arranged for Annette
Newbery, an Occupational Health Nurse, to come to school to give interested adults a flu jab.
Some of the teachers take part and in the past we have had quite a few parents. The flu jab costs
you $17. Annette will be in the Boardroom at school on Tuesday 21st April around your drop–off
time to provide this service. The vaccine had not been released in New Zealand when Annette was
booked, so the time we see her is early Term 2. It is important to let the Office ladies know if you
are interested, so nearer the time, the right number of vaccines can be ordered for us.
Contact with the flu virus is almost unavoidable, and while contact does not mean infection, it does
mean that you are never far from the possibility of catching the flu. By immunizing against
influenza you can protect yourself and lessen the chance of passing it on to your family, friends or
workmates.
Influenza is different from a cold virus, which only affects the nose, throat and upper chest and
lasts a few days. Influenza can be a serious illness that affects the whole body and can last up to a
week or more. Immunisation helps prepare your immune system to fight the flu. You cannot get
influenza from the vaccine as it does not contain any live viruses. Some people may experience a
few muscle aches, or a headache soon after the immunization. This is a normal reaction.
W hat do w e collect and give House Points for : These promoters offer us
sports gear in exchange for evidence that we use their products:
Ø Colgate = we collect colgate cartons, Jayne flat packages them, sends them off by the due
date and orders the P.E. gear we need.
Ø Yummy Stickers: these can be found on fresh fruit and fruit packaging. We can order Junior
or Senior packs and some of our gear is used during House challenges.
Ø Old cellphones – Starship has these refurbished and sent off to different countries.
Please hand these to our Office ladies and your House will be credited with House Points. The
winning House is awarded the Aokautere School House Shield at Prizegiving.
R.E. – Religious Education Starts up again this Friday: The program
offered is a Christian Religious Education (CRE) program delivered by local volunteers
working under the umbrella of the Churches Education Commission (CEC). The CEC National Trust
Board is an elected Board and represents 16 major church denominations in N.Z. The volunteer CRE
teachers are trained and police vetted every three years, receive on-going professional development,
and are provided with up-to-date resources to teach the programme. More details on CEC and the
religious education programme they offer can be obtained from CEC’s website www.cec.org.nz.
At Aokautere School, the program takes place at 8.45 - 9.15am on Friday mornings, from
March – November. The school is officially closed at this time.
If your child is not participating in this program they have two choices: arrive at school before
8.45am and take work or a book with them to R4 or an area we set aside for them or they must
be at school ready for class at 9.15am. School will get underway then, so we need all classes
to be ready for work promptly. This minimizes disruptions to the classes when school gets underway.
School Banking: The ANZ Branch at Massey Campus is the local bank we use for School
Banking. We have been providing this service for 2-3 years now. I met with the Manager, Deb Webb this
morning to set up forms, and to organize a training date for the Student Bank Officers.
Many of you will remember the School Banking from your time at school and may remember the
excitement you felt when your bank book was updated and the funds grew. You got a sense of being
able to manage this. We were encouraged to work for the money doing odd jobs (in addition to the jobs
we were expected to do as part of being in a family). We felt the money had been ‘earnt’ rather than
dished out to us.
Deb said that the children will learn the value of money over time. When they get to High School and
their friends have cash cards, they should be able to use their cash card wisely. If children get a
‘savings habit’ now it may be easier to save when they grow up. ANZ helps them with the School
Banking start and will help them if they go to Varsity and of course they will help them when they invest
in their first home. ANZ are hoping for the long haul by building a banking relationship with the
community.
Debs has entered the school in their ANZ Olympic School Programme and earning awards. They
encourage schools to tell family members or friends who are looking to take a home loan, or to increase
their current home loan by over $50k to speak with their local ANZ branch. If you choose to drawdown
your home loan with ANZ and identify Aokautere School we will receive some ANZ credits to spend on
items like sports gear for the school.
However, for us the plan is to encourage our children to learn the value of money and to save a little on
a regular basis. Our bankers will be taught how to bank, will visit the branch and will be expected to be
professional – keeping confidential anything that they do or see – so our students can have confidence
in the process.
I will let you know when the banking forms are available to go home for parents to view and if they agree
to allow their child to join in they can start on Tuesday 21st April.
Curriculum Focus – Number Part 4: My aim is to give you some quick and simple ideas
on how to enhance your child’s understanding of numbers and how our number system works. Use
the same ideas but make them harder for older children.
Adding fun: Adding opportunities will arise in many of your everyday activities – cooking, reading
books, planting seedlings, playing games. Be aware of these opportunities and make them explicit
to your child.
Tip: - Don’t ask your child to do a sum if the answer is too big for your child to count to easily.
Ø How many yellow butterflies is in the picture? How many would there be if two more came
along?
Ø How many toy cars are in the row? Ask them to put 4 more cars in the row. How many are
there altogether?
Ø Draw or paint two people. Put three buttons on their shirts. How many buttons are there
altogether?
Ø How many wheels are on the blue car? How many wheels are on the green truck? How
many wheels altogether? Check your answers.
Ø Sing counting rhymes:
o ‘1,2,3,4,5 once I caught a fish alive
6,7,8,9,10 but I let it go again
Why did you let it go?
Because it bit my finger so’.
‘One, two, buckle my shoe
Three, four, knock at the door – etc.
Take-away problems: The terms ‘subtraction’, ‘the difference between’ ‘minus’ and takeaway’ are
all terms used to mean the same thing.
Ø Counting backwards by one is the first step towards your child understanding take-away.
Practice counting down from 10 with your child.
Ø Try starting at different numbers. – e.g. I’ll start counting backwards starting at 8. Now you
have a turn…
Ø Put 6 raisins on a plate and ask your child to eat 2. Then ask them how many are left.
Re-word what happened: There were 6 sultanas take-away the 2 that you ate and there
are 4 left. Your child can then ask you a ‘sultana take-away’.
Ø Put out a set of objects. –e.g. five blocks. Ask your child to close their eyes. Take away a
certain number. Ask your child to open their eyes and work out how many blocks are gone.
Sometimes take away the whole set of objects.
Ø Put out 10 toys. Ask the child to choose four. Ask how many are left? Talk about what
happened. There were 10 toys. You took 4 away. How many are left?
Ø Sing counting rhymes: -e.g.
o ‘There were 10 in the bed and the little one said “Roll over, roll over”
So they all rolled over and one fell out.
There were nine in the bed…’
o ‘10 green bottles sitting on a wall,
10 green bottles sitting on a wall,
and if 1 green bottle should accidently fall,
there’d be 9 green bottles sitting on the wall,’ -etc.
o
Games using dice: Playing games with your child is one of the best ways to learn. Your child will
recognise numerals, count with 1-1 correspondence, simple addition, automatic response and
understanding number families.
Ø Games such as ‘Snakes and Ladders’ is a great example of the above.
Ø Take turns to roll a numeral dice with your child to see what number comes up. This helps
your child to quickly recognise numbers.
Ø Use dice with dots. Your child will need to count the dots to see what the number is.
Ø Use two die and count the number of dots rolled. –e.g. You counted 3 dots plus another 5
dots and you got a total of 8 dots.
Ø Who has rolled the most? Each of you can roll one die. See who gets the highest number.
Ø Use dice to begin to understand ‘number families’. Throw 2 dice and talk about the
numbers rolled and the total. –e.g. 3+3=6. Do this until you are sure your child
understands. Now you can talk about other ways you can get a total of 6. –e.g.: 1+5=6,
2+4=6, 3+3=6, 4+2=6, 5+1=6.
Tip: - When buying dice, ensure that they have the numbers and/or dots clearly marked on them.
Try buying larger dice so that your child can easily see the figures or dots.
The aim is for the child to enjoy this number time. Remember all children learn at
different rates and will take different lengths of time to understand various
mathematical ideas.
I’ll be continuing these ideas next week…
AOKAUTERE SCHOOL SUPERSTARS
Ø Our ‘Try the Tri’ folk who completed the series and were awarded their medals.
Ø Room 4 students for welcoming Ben Dickson on his first school visit. Ben was so excited
to meet them. He can’t wait to start school.
Ø Payton Bamfield for his confidence in his ability to lead. We had a leadership meeting to
train our Year 6 Class Councillors and House Captains and Payton impressed me with his
thoughtful comments.
Ø Jessie Coxon: She was placed 1st in the under 11 years with 362.21 points for the
Manawatu Triathlon short course in the summer series and 2nd female overall. She also
came 4th in the girls under 11 year Manawatu Triathlon Champs last weekend with a time
of 26:14 which was a 4:22 improvement from the start of the series. Jessie will be a star of
the future if she pursues her love of running. Jessie also participated in Junior Surf Life
Saving and is awaiting her results of this.
Other Notices:
Alliance Francaise – Square Edge, 1st floor. Offers French Lessons for Beginners: check the
website: www.french.org.nz or phone: 06 5600749 or 0212670114 for more information.
School Holiday Programme: “The Buzz” – April 7-17 - Games, crafts, challenges at St Albans
Church, 339 Albert Street. (o6) 3579411 - the buzz@stalbans.org.nz
Facebook: facebook.com/TheBuzzHolidayClub
Ø 8.30 – 3pm - $27 per day (Includes food)
Ø 8.30 – 4pm - $30 per day (Includes food)
Manawatu Principals’ Association PRESENTS...
A FREE workshop for parents. 5:30 - 7:00 pm
Thursday 26th March@ Ross Intermediate School L
Lee Chisholm is the Operations Manager at NetSafe. She will talk about the things you can do to
keep your child safe on the internet. From practical advice, to resources, to what to look out for, Lee
will answer any questions or concerns you have about the internet.
I welcome your feedback and invite you to email me: vferry@aokautere.school.nz
Thank you for your support and encouragement.
Val Ferry