21st November 2019Dear Parents/Caregivers & Community,BP Cluster Athletics will be hosted at LRS and in the Awa-iti Domain next Monday 25 th . A 9.15 am start in the domain court area. Please remind your child to wear their school polo and appropriate footwear. They will need a hat, water bottle, good lunch and sunscreen applied. Swimming Season 2019-2020 Begins.A big thanks to Kath and Duane for their work to prepare our school pool for another swimming season.We opened for daily swimming lessons for each class on Monday this week and the season will flow through to next March 13th 2020. Keys are available for sale, $80.00 each. A form needs to be signed and the key paid prior to issue. Please contact our school office for your own pool key, a must have over summer! Environment for Learning – update.This is the Board’s project for improving our landscape, following on from our recent property renewal works.

A full site survey has been completed, with mapping that will sustain future projects.

The BOT have contracted a Landscape Architect to develop plans from our ideas into a visual layout. Version 1 - is up for view on our staffroom window.

The City Council is moving ahead with a plan to connect the school to the village with a footpath.

New shade sails are to be installed over the sandpit and amphitheatre area.

Alex’s SCAPE Art Sculpture (right) – ‘We Are One’ will be purchased and installed in our school.

CLASSROOM REPORTS: As is always the case in Term 4, there is an amazing array of extra-to-the-ordinary activities occupying our days at LRS. We have made use of our student journalists to relay to you a few of their ‘findings’ …. The purrfect pet day in little river! Fri 1 Nov – “It was a peaceful morning in Little River. The sun was shining on the grass but then kids trampled in. Midway through the morning peace was gone and children of all ages found places to sit with friends. We started doing veggies, sand saucer creations etc. At around 11.30 we had to walk over to the hall to place our creations.

Pet Day is the best day of the year. Why? Because you can bring animals to school (but not calves and cows atm). It’s a mini zoo except without the lions, zebras and giraffes. It's more of a barn

zoo! Pet Day began and the first animal I saw was a rough collie called Hazel. I walked around with my best friend (Modesty) and the best animal was … the CATS in my opinion.” By Mikayla Ford

John Parsons Cyber Safety, Thurs 31 Oct – “John Parsons is all about cybersafety and that cyberbullying is the same as normal bullying.One of his examplanments* was … “one day there were two boys and one of the boys was saying mean words over and over again to the other and he cried. Then the next day the boy that was getting bullied was on the playground and the bully was inside and he was sending more and more mean things and the same thing happened.” So cyber bullying is the same type of bullying.John said that when he was little something happened to his parents so at lunch time he ran away. Two years later, when he was 14, a little 8 year old girl came up to him and asked what the matter was and John said, “I am hungry”. The little girl walked away and then she came back with her brother’s old sneakers and a t shirt, then the little girl’s mum came and got him back at school. It was great because he had personal experience and he showed us even kids can help.” By Will Manson and Harry Johnstone*(Note from Editor: I know this isn’t correct but I thought it was such a great word I had to leave it in!)

Kids4Kids - changing lives, Mon 4 Nov – “An early start for our Little River School choir, as we were attending Canterbury's finest concert in history, Kids4Kids! Everyone trundled into Horncastle Arena preparing for our one and only 3 hour rehearsal; yet Tracy had us in our seats in no time. And our three soloists - Lily, Sophie and Evie sat in the hot seats waiting nervously for their audition!!After singing, grooving and learning some funky actions it was time for the big moment and our three soloists conquered the nerves and aced the auditions. Evie and Sophie waltzed up on stage and sang their hearts out and loved all 3 minutes of it and couldn’t wait for the big night ahead. 7:30 pm - now was the time, lights, camera, action! Jackie and Nathan paraded on stage, the music blared, the audience clapped, cheered, then what seemed to be a million nervous minutes, Sophie and my name were called. We filed nervously yet so excitedly onto stage, tinkered with our microphones, breathed deeply and it was on - we were singing in front of 1500 people. My hands were near shaking the whole time, it was an amazing experience for both me and Sophie. An amazing experience for our whole choir was the song ‘light surrounding you’.” By Belle Fowler and Evie HarcourtHealthy Streams, Thurs 7 Nov – “While the Kapa Haka group was away on Parihaka Day, the rest of us had the opportunity to be scientists for the afternoon and do stream sampling! The teachers collected water samples from the Okana behind our school. Using our Nature Agents kit

we then poured the samples into our special observation trays and searched for all the invertebrate life we could find. In small groups we used the specialized brushes and suction tubes to carefully sort the creatures we found into categories. We were amazed to find that we had so many medium and high sensitivity invertebrates in our stream water! We got a chance to use the microscopes to look at things more closely. We also used the clarity tube to check the clarity of the water. Afterwards we carefully returned all the creatures and water to the stream.”

“My favourite thing was looking at slides of insect parts through the microscope.” – Finn Leslie “I loved sketching the invertebrates I found.” – Fiona Matheson-Grant “The Dobsonfly nymph was the coolest, it was huge!” – Charlie Harcourt “I liked picking out and identifying the insects.” – Brendon Walker “I liked seeing how clean the water was.” – Xavier Millichamp “I loved looking at all the bugs with my friends.” – Selma Tuckwell (Matai)Lincoln Zone Athletics, Fri 8 Nov - a bunch of amazing students from Little River went to Nga Puna Wai in Halswell for LZ athletics, competing in a variety of different athletic sports and trying to qualify for Canterbury Zones. Some of us got through and some of us didn’t. My personal highlight was watching all my friends compete. It was great that we could use the new track Nga Puna Wai, it was great that we could use an actual athletics course. It was great to see year 5 newbys getting into Canterbury zones. Little River really took it home this year. By Louisa Fitch and Wendy Walker. CONGRATULATIONS to our large team of students who competed at the Lincoln Zone Athletics recently. The first and second place getters will compete at the Canterbury Primary Schools’ athletics championships on 4th December, as follows:Year 7 girls: Louisa Fitch – 1st 1200 m / Evie Harcourt – 2nd 60 m

Kei Roffey – 1st shotputYear 5 boys: Xavier Millichamp – 1st 60 m and 2nd HJJono Smith– 1st shotput / Charlie Harcourt– 2nd LJ / Jim Foley –2nd1000 mFUN FRIDAYS – HELPERS NEEDED PLEASE!This year we will be holding ‘Fun Fridays’ on two afternoons – 29 November and 6 th December . This is a time for all children to enjoy a variety of activities, such as Art, Craft, Cooking, and Sports etc. If you, or anyone you know would like to take a small group for an activity (costs reimbursed), please contact Ruth Pannett, mailto:ruth.pannett@littleriver.school.nz

Summer offerings are out now, for programme connecting children to the bush, in Purau, Orton Bradley and Little River.  Please check our website, https://www.bushfarmschool.com/holiday-programme-bookingsCommunity Christmas Carols – Wednesday 11 th December , 7 pm at the Wairewa Marae. A combined Little River Churches event. Come along with your friends and family and bring a plate to share for supper.

Little River SchoolNEWSLETTERto the Community

http://www.littleriver.school.nz

Nevaeh Hannah

DATE: 21st November 2019 Issue No. Six

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