2013.11.18


Welcome to week 6 of term 4, 2014.
Mayoral Visit
We were delighted to host our Mayor, Margaret Kouvalis, and Councillor Short at our school today from 10.00 through to 12.30.  Mayor Margaret was keen to visit as she was unable to attend the opening of our 'Green Finger Zone' held last term.  The students performed several songs including our new school song. They showed our guests their whanau group areas explaining to the goals, achievements, learning and future plans. This was a great opportunity for students to share their learning and achievements and the mayor was very impressed with the school and the students. We look forward to reading her comment in her column.

Quick Reference:
November
Today - visit from our Mayor of Feilding
          - NZEI visit 2.45
           - BOT Meeting 7pm
17th - Week 6 is the last week for students learning french, german and spanish on the Virtual Learning Network
18th / 22nd - Athletics coaching with Sport Manawatu
19th - Oroua Principals Meeting at Apiti School including Novopay workshop.
21st - Junior Small Ball Day at Kiwitea - Transport required 
22nd  - Swimming at Makino Pools.  - Feilding Market Stall for all Whanau Groups Leaders
25th   - Community Planning BBQ at 6.00pm at the Apiti Hall.  All welcome!
26th - Staff meeting with Brian Coles
27th - School Photos.
29th - Oroua Athletics
December
3rd - Staff First Aid Course
9th - Oroua Leavers Dinner
10th - Reports available - Student Led Reporting Conferences available (for those who would like to make a time to have reports presented by students)
19th - Final Assembly (all welcome to come and celebrate our year and student learning through Music and Dance)
20th - Final day of school for the year
7th Feb 2014 - 1st day of term 1 2014.

Every Monday - Dance and Movement with Carly
Every Wednesday - Music with Jo B (except this Wednesday)
Every Thursday - Guitar / Ukulele with Jo E
                         - Drums with Tasha
After reviewing our blogspot recently, some people commented that they found it difficult to spot the dates in the body of our newsletter. We are therefore trialling a 'Quick Reference' list of upcoming events on the newsletter blog. We are always interested in your feedback,. Please let us know if you think this is worthwhile, and whether you are able to view the google calendar. This is updated regularly as dates change or are added.

What's been happening:
Students at Apiti are our reporters. This writing activity is an authentic reason to write, and as you can see they clearly recount their learning and actions, inform and persuade their audience and celebrate success. It is a real meaningful writing learning opportunity which empowers our students to lead their learning by developing their writing skills. They also develop skills in leadership and co-operation by taking responsibility at our school. This is one of the many positives for students at our school as Mr Menzies from Feilding High recently stated to me at the Feilding Principals meeting.

Enterprise Development
This week, all whanau groups are planning and developing their enterprises. This gives us an insight into business. We are planning the enterprise, organising pricing, manufacturing, packaging and marketing. Some groups will be cooking and have asked for help with this. We appreciate all of the parents help with this. Whanau Group Leaders will go to the market before swimming on Friday to set up and man our Apiti School Stall. All profits will go into the student bank account and will be used to purchase things and experiences as part of our learning. We would love to see you at the market! - By Zahn

Report from Supa Small Blacks - PE shed
Last week we sorted out the PE shed again, hopefully for the last time this year. We hope that it stays clean and gear is put back where it was, and not left out. Everyone needs to help us through the week and through the weekend as some Mondays when we go into the PE shed it is messy again. So if you come in the weekend and use the PE gear, please put it back how it was and make sure it is clean. This gear is for all students to use, so please put the PE gear back neatly.
Ramps
If you are coming to Apiti School in the weekend or during the week, please leave the ramps where they are because the more they are moved the more broken they get and eventually we will not be able to fix them. The board of trustees are awaiting on a quote to fix them now as they are in need of repair.                         Our short term goal
Our short term goal is to get the sheds sorted so they can be used to store equipment neatly and we can easily find things. We need to get the sheds ready for the new mower next year. Thank you to those people who helped us do this at the recent working bee.
Swimming
Our swimming lessons are going really well. We are all improving massively with our swimming skills and getting better at what we found hard last year.  Our last swiming lesson is this Friday the 22nd.
Our awesome new gear
We got some awesome new gear from Rangiwahia School. We really appreciate it. We have got: ...
A sports Trolley, sports gear like rugby balls, cricket pads, a vortex and much much more.
Our person of the week
Last week the leaders were asked to choose someone who listened, who did things as a good team member and was responsible. It was hard to choose someone ... it came down to Travis, Nikki and James. Then I asked one final thing. James just went and did it so I chose him as the person the week for the Super Small Blacks.
Report from Community Creators
Our long term goal is to get the library finished and restock it with books.
We are proud to be getting the library well under way. What we have been up to...
Sorting out the Whanau Group enterprise, getting the library tidied and easier to use.
We have added a shelf with the 'Super Series'. We have some great new books from Rangiwahia to add to this, such as 'The Hunger Games'. This is an area we are looking to develop further so that people have choices and up to date books to read for a range of genres and age levels. When you read a series you can read the first one. If you like it you have a whole range of new books to go on with. If a series is good, you just want to spend time reading it!
We want the library to be the centre of the school and a cool place that everyone likes to be in.
This term our short term goal is also to get our Whanau Group enterprise ready. We are making pesto to sell at the Feilding Market.
Our next steps with our enterprise is to get all ingredients and complete the cooking.
Thanks to Mrs McCarroll and Mrs Fielder for offering to help us with our enterprise.
Team players of the week:- Damian and Lacey ... because they both listened really well this week and were working as a team.
Report Hydro Rangers
We have been doing the hydroponics and making the glass house look beautiful ... for example taking dead leaves out/off. In the glass house we are growing strawberries, cheery tomatoes, lettuce and marigolds.The marigolds keep the bugs away. The marigolds are not there to look good. They are there to eat, produce and sell.
Our veggie garden is doing very well. Derek and Joanne water them every day. We are growing lettuce, chives, cabbage, leak and marigolds. We check for diseased and dead leaves regularly and remove them. The potatoes are doing really well.
The raspberry and blueberry plants are flowering and are healthy. When they are ripe we plan to eat them.
On Tuesday, Sarah and Joanne are planting basil seeds with Mrs Lowe.
On the 22nd we are going to the Feilding Farmers Market to sell walnut crackle. We would love some help to make the walnut crackle this week. Please let Charlotte know if you can help.
Our team player was Derek. He was working well all the time and when he had finished one job he went on to another.

Report from Waste Busters
We have been working on our presentation for getting a community recycling centre.
Feilding Mayor, Margret Kouvalis, is visiting our school on Monday the 18th of November. My whanau group is going to do a presentation to her.
We have achieved writing most of our speech for her. We have just got to do some editing to it.
We have been starting to do our power point for when Brooke and Hannah go to the council to present the proposal. We are needing to collect some more milk bottles because Hannah is going to the Friday market and selling some worm wee for our group.
We have been deciding a player of the week for each whanau group.
Our last two weeks most helpful people have been Brooke and Chloe.

Our group is in charge of the worm farm. We have been using milk bottles to collect our worm wee.
We are running low on bottles at the moment so if anyone has a few that they could donate that would be great.  You could drop them off to Hannah at Apiti School, thanks very much. - From the Waste Busters

Community Survey
Anna Stephenson, our Parent / Community Survey co-ordinator, will send through her report on her findings of the survey in the very near future. This report will be sent out to the parents/community as soon as we receive it.

School Song
Recently we decided to write a school song about Apiti School.  The whole school had a brain-storm and then Huntah, Hannah, Lacey and Brooke compiled the final edition.  Today we had our first public performance in front of Mayor Margaret K and Councillor Short.  We will also sing our song at the final assembly on Friday the 19th of December. Thanks to Jo for her help with the music.  -  By Brooke.

Library Visits
It is great to see so many of our students making regular visits to the Feilding Library. It is a fantastic facility and widens our student choice and motivation to read. Thank you for your support in this area. When choosing books students use 'I PICK' to ensure it is a good fit for them :
I - I choose the book
P- What it the Purpose?
- Does it Interest me?
C- Do I Comprehend what I am reading?
K- Do I Know the words?

Working Bee
A huge thanks to those who helped at the working bee last week. Many hands make light work. There are still a few jobs to be completed such as the spouting needing to be cleaned out. Please contact Ben, or Mary if you were unable to help on the day and are unsure of what is left to do.

Traction Engine Visit
As the bus was rolling down the road we saw a steam tractor slowly going past.  When we arrived at
school we heard that we were going to see the steam tractors.  I felt really excited because it was my first time to see a real steam tractor.
As we went across the road to the tavern we saw the first steam tractor. It was jerking as it was still on. So we looked over to the hall and saw ' Dirty girl'. We slowly walked over to her.  It was really steamy. We were allowed to look at the fire that keeps the steam engine going. Then we went around the front.  He showed us the chamber that had all the smoke in it to help the steam tractor to move.  He taught us about steam tractors and how to make the steam by using hot water. I really enjoyed learning about the steam engines.  It was exciting. - By Travis
Digi Awards Evening
Last Monday a group of us and the finalists went to the digi awards. It was a great night. There were a lot of great pieces of digital art design and movies. One of the girls in the finalist won 3 AWARDS AND TROPHIES! One of her pictures was amazing. It was a photo essay showing the lifecycle of a butterfly. It was a picture on one branch with a cocoon and it was getting higher on the branch and got closer then there was a butterfly. I got some really good ideas for my next photo and photo essay. There were a lot of music videos. There were some really good ones. Also our Coconut Dancers from Apiti were in that final! I was glad I went because I got some really good ideas for next time!  -  By Hannah
Well done to James, Lauren, Chloe, Sarah and Zahn who reached the finals (out of 990 entries!!).

Junior Small Ball Day – Thursday 21st November
This event will be held this Thursday the 21st of November at Kiwitea School for all junior room students.  We will need to leave Apiti School at 9.00 sharp to be at Kiwitea by 9.25.  Students are asked to wear their school uniform, take a good packed lunch and a drink, take a sunhat and sunscreen.  There will be sausages and drinks available for lunch at $2.00 per item.  We will need transport to and from Kiwitea please.  Please let Mary know as soon as possible if you can help.  We will be back in time for the school bus.

School Photos
School photos will be taken on Wednesday the 27th of November by Svendsen Photography from Feilding at 9.30.

Oroua Schools Athletics - 29th November
This event happens on Friday the 29th of November at Timona Park in Feilding.  Students need to be at Timona Park in time to assemble at 9.45.  
Please make sure your child/ren have plenty to drink, a sun-hat, plenty of sunscreen (adults as well), warm clothing, as well as a good packed lunch and they also must wear their school uniform.  You need to arrange your own transport to and from this event.
Please make yourself available to help out Mary and Nicki at their stations at some stage during the day (ideally while your child is participating in that particular activity).
For the senior students (age 8 upwards), lunch will be at 12.05 with a 40 minute break and then the day will conclude after the relays and prize giving- about 2ish. If parents leave the grounds, please make sure you return no later than 1.45 for pick-up.

For the junior students (age 5 - 7), the day will conclude after their morning circuits have been completed at about 11.30 followed by lunch.  Students then become the responsibility of their parents, caregivers or teachers. 
The Playground and river is out of bounds at all times on this day. 

Reading 
We have been researching widely about reading and I thought that you would find this interesting, it is from the Daily 5 CAFE site.

Something to Ponder

Children who have been read to for 30 minutes a day from birth through age five receive over 900 hours of brain food.
Children who have been read to for 30 minutes a week from birth through age five receive 130 hours of brain food….which is great….but a 770 hour deficit when compared to the first group.
Children who are read to less than 30 minutes weekly enter kindergarten with less than 60 hours of the same brain food. Fewer nursery rhymes, fairy tales, stories, etc. Even the most gifted teacher cannot bridge the gap that exists between the cognitively undernourished and the young minds which have been saturated with literacy. (Iowa Literacy Link Volume 1 Number 8, April 2007)
The good news is that reading to your child is powerful, no matter what age they are. Experts recommend that parents read to their children through high school. It is never too late to read to your child, no matter what age they are. So grab the comics, the newspaper, or a really great novel, curl up on the couch…and read!

Sports News
Moa Marathon
Last Saturday almost half of our school went into Feilding to finish our Moa Marathon. We did great as
nearly everyone in Apiti came in the top ten. We won the 150 dollar voucher for bringing the highest percentage of our school to the event. The school decided that the people who went get to have a say in what we buy from Rebel Sport. So we will keep you updated. Thank you to everyone who came and supported us and THANK YOU to the parents who brought transport! - By Jaycee.

Hockey
Last Wednesday we  played Hockey. We played the AOK Green sticks. We lost 2-1. It was a really good and hard game. It was really tough. This week our team was better at support. We followed the ball. We tried different positions. I played in all the positions except centre. I liked playing right wing best. - By Tyler.
Charlotte and Hannah's team ,the Oroua Otters, played the A.O.K green sticks. We won 5-2. We played well together and tackled for the ball. This week we played Tiritia and they were a good team. The score ended up being 2-1 to us. I was proud that we worked well together. Our team is going well this season. We have won most of our games.  -  By Charlotte.

Weet-Bix Kids Tryathlon
This event is being held in Palmerston North on the 26th of March 2014. For all details, please visit their website at www.weetbix.co.nz.  If you are interested in attending, just enter online.

NZ Association for Gifted Children - 2014 Conference
21st 22nd March at Massey University, P.N.  Student workshops.  Adult workshops. Tickets $30 per person.  To register, email admin@giftedchildren.org.nz