Week 1 NEWSLETTER

From the Principal

It would be great to be having these conversations at home as well. What is your culture, where do you hail from, what traditions are important in your family and what other cultures do you know about?

Student Inquiry - Habitats and Adaptations

Term 3 sees the start of a new student inquiry cycle, this term looking into Habitats and Adaptations. This is a great follow on from the Environmental focus of the DPS Kid last term. We learnt to care, respect and act for the environment, now let’s look deeper at what these environments are and how various animals adapt to these. The term will end with students creating habitats and a ‘new’ animal to exist in these. This application of the knowledge they have learnt, the ‘doing’ and ‘making’ is very powerful for learning. Reminded me of a clip I had seen, an Indian man who has replanted over 1000 acres of forest, his local habitat. This taking of action, of doing...so much more powerful than just ‘knowing stuff’

Tararua Challenge Sports Exchange - Russell Street School

Good luck to our Kahikatea students off on the annual Tararua Challenge sports exchange next week to Russell Street School. This fixture has become something the kids and adults all look forward to...not just the competition on the sports fields, but the meeting of new friends, reconnecting with RSS staff and students and an opportunity to show the skills we have developed. Currently Russell Street are in possession of the ‘flag’, beating us when they came here in 2017. In the 3 years it has been running the ‘visitors’ have always come away with the win, so fingers crossed for next week! Go well teams, I can’t wait to see you in action.

Also another thank you to our FoDPS group. These guys are stumping up for the cost of the buses to get over to Palmy and back...not cheap. It is through their efforts, their extra work and their dedication that things like this can happen (and happen cheaply). Cheers FoDPS!

Poi Porotiti

Another great opportunity for some of our kids! We have been a part of the Nga Tama Toa (boys) programme for awhile now, and this group is the girls equivalent. The final workshop for the year will be at the Marae at Te Papa, what an amazing experience that will be. Check them out in action below:

Board of Trustees

Minute Secretary Vacancy

The Board of Trustees has a vacancy for a Minute Secretary and would ideally like to recruit someone from the parent community. The role includes taking, compiling and distributing the minutes for the BOT’s nine meetings per year, with approximately 3-4 hours of time required per meeting.

Meetings are usually held between 7:00 pm-9:00pm on a Tuesday evening.

It is essential to be competent with MS Word and/or Google Docs and an advantage to be familiar with minute taking.

$20 per hour

Please contact the BOT Chairperson, Brett Cockeram via bot@douglaspark.school.nz

All images can:

• Be in colour or black and white.
• Be cropped but they cannot be digitally altered in any other way.

DPS learners can enter as many photographs/Photography Essays as they wish and teachers will select which 10 for each age group will represent the school.

Entries close Tuesday 18th September.

If you need assistance with getting your images to us you can bring your camera/memory card into school, or email the photos to Miss West or Mr Harkness.

awest@douglaspark.school.nz

sharkness@douglaspark.school.nz

Cook Island Language week

Uniform Shop

We have a good selection of 2nd hand uniform at the moment, sizes 6 and up. Open on Wednesdays 8-9am and 2.15-3pm for cash sales only.

Lucky Books at DPS!

Please have any orders back to school by Thursday 9th August.

writing

Mrs Williams Literacy Class

Check out our descriptions about the Gruffalo!

He has purple spikes as scary as a shark swimming towards you in the open water…

His knees are like soggy concrete and they look and smell like rotten potatoes too…

His claws are as sharp as a chainsaw and his fur looks like overcooked brownie…

The spikes on his back are a trap to kill his unsuspecting prey…

The Gruffalo has a long tail like a ringmasters whip and the two curved horns on his head are to charge through structures…

His tongue is as slimy as an eel…

His big teeth are blunt and yellow, but the fangs make up for it…

The Gruffalo is a beast with orange sunset eyes that light up the dark with red bloodshot lines…

His black tongue is like the night with no stars or moon...

We will be creating habitats for our Gruffalo next!

COMMUNITY NEWS

ATHLETICS TRAINING

This programme is designed for kids of all abilities from year 2 until year 6 who are looking for a little help to run jump or throw faster longer and further and considered the basis for many sports. The aim is to improve running, jumping, throwing techniques, move faster, Increase distance, get fit, lose weight or add some variety to your current fitness programme, while having fun. The programme for term three is:

Term 3 23 July – 28 September

Monday and Wednesday 3.45pm – 4.30pm General Run Jump Throw Training

Venues = Colin Pugh Sportsbowl, Masterton

Costs on Application

Please contact Mark Harris to book your spot on +64 21 300 380, mark@maharris.co.nz or refer to www.maharris.co.nz

Click here to see what's on in our community.