Term 3 Newsletter

Wow! It is hard to believe we are halfway through the year already! It is great to be back leading Team Pohutukawa and teaching in Room 8b7! Thank you to Kerri Bullen who lead the team in my absence. A reminder that children come to school in their uniform on swimming days and get changed at the pool. Please ensure everything is named so that it is not misplaced at the pool. Thank you to those of you that are helping out with sport. We have two weeks left of the competition (this week and week 3) due to Clearview having parent teacher interviews in week 2. Please also remember to pay the $33 for swimming. A reminder that in our team we run a child directed initiative called EXPRESS time. This initiative is based on the philosophies developed in Reggio Emilia and we have modeled it on CHIL time which takes place in the junior school. We pride ourselves on making this a time where children can explore and create using the EXPRESS values and problem solving skills. The children are able to select which activities they participate in at this time. All activities are hands on and involve the children thinking for themselves in order to solve problems. The activities also encourage the children to co-operate as a team and work together to achieve common goals. We have been running EXPRESS time in our team for the last four years and it has grown and changed a lot during this time. As always we would love to have parents involved in supervising, joining in and taking groups with us during EXPRESS time. If you are available to help please email your class teacher or send a short note to let us know your availability. We would need you from 9am until 10am on a Wednesday morning but you wouldn’t need to commit to every week. You don’t need any specific skills to help we just need your enthusiasm! For up to date information about our team, links to help your child at home and examples of children’s learning please go to our blog page http://pohutukawrolly.blogspot.com We look forward to meeting you, please feel free to come in and say, ‘hello’ and let us know if you have any questions. Aimee Stewart and The Pohutukawa Team Teachers