Hōpara 2021

Kia ora e te whānau Once again the week has just flown by! This week we have spent a lot of time working with our groups and tightening up on a few systems.  Reading log -  Each day for independent reading the students are now required to log how much they have read, a peer will then sign that they witness them consistently reading. This reading log will now be added to their fortnightly learning journals.  Science-  Yesterday Hōpara constructed canister rockets, these rockets were fuelled by the reaction of an acid and a base forming CO2. The CO2 built-up pressure which eventually causes the top to pop off and send the rocket flying. Our investigation was to find out the ideal amount of acid (vinegar) to make the rocket fly and the results were very interesting. Next week Ashley will be out of the classroom and Linda will replace her (thank you Linda). Ashley will still be available via email if you need to contact her. Winter sport -  Today is our first round...

Kia ora e te whānau  On Monday evening Ashley was lucky enough to be able to witness the Show Quest performance live. Congratulations to all Hōpara students who were brave and gave it their best shot! We thank Paula for providing this opportunity for our team.  Wednesday saw our annual Cross Country event take place at the Pony Club. Well done to all students who entered into the competitive section and placed - some of you will now go on to the zones competition. For the first time we had a "family fun run",  it was fantastic to see so many families get involved and enjoy this outdoor experience.  Coding - This week our class had the opportunity to show off our amazing coding skills in front of a  visiting  teacher. They were tasked with a debugging activity and the class smashed it out of the park.  Any parent that wants to try this weeks debugging task is welcome. There will be a prize for anyone who can complete it!  https://scratch.mit.edu/pr...

Kia ora e te whānau  We began the week with an amazing African drumming session in the MPF. All students had the opportunity to play an African drum, dance to an African song and sing proudly (below we have attached a photo and there is a video already posted on Seesaw). At the end of the day we had a whole school concert where all teams performed a piece they had learn't - the vibe was incredible!!  On Tuesday (gosh it was hot!) we walked down to the Pony Club and guided students through the Cross Country coarse. We are looking forward to the actual Cross Country next week...especially the addition of the "Fun run"!  In the next week you will get a notification for the first Learning Journal of the term, please see the below marking system for these this term. Your child will now be given a number that corresponds to a comment, both Nick and myself firmly believe that 1 on 1 conferences and direct feedback daily is far more powerful for our students.  SHOWQUEST...

Kia ora e te Whānau  It was great seeing the children of Hōpara return to school on Monday - it sounds like everyone had an adventurous holiday which was awesome to hear!  Core-learning has kicked off straight away this week with many new groups being formed. We imagine that some of your children may have come home and mentioned this. P4C has once again been a big component of the weekly timetable, this week we have explored questions like...What is art? How is something defined as art? It has been exciting to witness the development in oral language due to this way of discussing deep concepts and questioning.  We have also begun reading a new shared story, it is called Number the Starts. Below is a summary of the story to give you an idea of the topics that are covered.  Lowry's  Number the Stars  is a simple yet poignant  novel  about a young girl's contribution to the resistance movement in Denmark during World War 11. Annemarie Johansen, a 10-...