Term 2 Week 6 in Pōhutukawa

Bbbbrrrrr.....thank goodness for underfloor heating. While it is freezing outside, it is toasty warm in our hub. With more wet and cold weather forecasted, encouraging your child to bring along a pair of slippers to wear inside is a really good idea. We have also been asking the children to make sure that their bags are securely tucked up in the cubby hole they select at the beginning of the day. When the cubby holes were checked by Sandy this morning, she found bags/parts of bags hanging out of them. This means these bags are may get wet. If your child brings home a wet bag today, a reminder about tucking completely into the cubby hole may be in order!

This week each class has been attending an ASB GetWise financial literacy session. The session gets to the heart of inspiring Year 5 and 6 students to start being much more creative and entrepreneurial with their earnings, saving and spending. Students explore the opportunity to start saving now and the power of interest while helping set-up and reach their very own CASH goals.
Concepts covered include:

• Setting up a savings goal.
• Different ways to earn.
• Establishing a small business.
• Earning interest.
• Using a CASH goal (or basic budget) to get the things you want.

The students are finding the session very engaging and interesting. Don't be surprised if there are talks around the dinner table about wanting to begin a dog walking business or questions about how much interest you earn on your account.

We are still in need of magazines and newspaper for our art activities. Your child will be handsomely rewarded for bringing in these items!

Our sleep inquiry is ongoing. Hopefully by now your child has filled in three sleep slips. These need to be returned to school tomorrow so that sleep goals can be decided upon. 

Our new writing topic was launched today. This piece of writing is going to be an argument. The writing motivation the teachers chose to initiate thinking for this was a debate on whether Beau should be allowed to come to school or not. There were sound arguments from both sides, but in the end the kind hearted students were swayed to vote for the affirmative side, indicating that indeed, Beau should be allowed to come to school. Discussion around what things people are passionate about and believe in would be helpful. We are asking the students to choose something they are passionate about, then to write an argument about this, with at least four points, persuading us to agree with their point of view. Planning for this begin in the next day or so. Verbal discussions around this topic will greatly help your child launch into their writing.

We have a very exciting couple of days next Friday (15) and Saturday (16 June), with the Treemendous Makeover happening on the Saturday, preceeded by a Treemendous Build-up Day with Ruud Kleinpaste (The Bug Man) and Riley Elliott (The Shark Man) on site at school all day. We have 800 trees to plant on the Saturday, with a sausage sizzle for all around noon.

Keep dry and warm everyone.

Tracy, Gayle, Nick and Katie