Brain Food and Play-Eat-Learn

Brain Food

This week, the Piwakawaka Team will be adding “Brain Food” to our morning routine.

At 9:45 each day, during our shared Kohanga Time, the children will need to have a healthy snack in their lunchbox each day. Small amounts of brain-healthy food helps maintain the glucose supply to the brain.

Research says this will give the students more energy to learn, enabling higher-level brain function and allowing them to experience more success with learning. It also helps develop lifelong skills around healthy eating.

Students already have regular sips of water throughout the day and we will be encouraging them to make the most of the Fonterra milk we have available before school from Monday to Thursday.  

Brain Food Ideas

Brain Foods are generally unprocessed and ensure a slow release of glucose rather than a quick fix provided by high sugar/fat filled foods.

Sandwich for mid-morning Brain Food and fruit for later

Suggestions:
• A wholegrain sandwich or bun with Marmite, Vegemite, Peanut Butter, butter, or served plain - the best for kids and the cheapest!
• A small wrap
• Plain unsalted popcorn
• A hardboiled egg
• Crackers and cheese
• Salami, chicken or other cold meats.
• Slices of cheese from a block

Play-Eat-Learn
In addition, the Piwakawaka Team are trialling moving our eating times to after the play break. This has been proven to increase student nutrition and academic performance.

Schools that have adopted this model report the students:
• eat more fruit and veggies and drink more water
• waste less food
• are calmer in teaching sessions and the playground
• feel like they have more time to eat lunch
• have worked up an appetite to eat all the major food groups
• have far less negative behaviour incidences reported by teachers

Before eating, students will be dismissed to the playground to play and when the handbell rings will go and wash their hands before sitting down with the Piwakawaka Team to eat.

The general schedule that we will be trialling is:

We hope that the “Play-Eat-Learn” schedule will promote healthy eating and improve student achievement. To prevent your child from becoming too hungry, encourage them to eat breakfast and remember to send a healthy mid-morning “Brain Food” snack.

 If you have any questions or comments about this new initiative, please pop in and chat with us. We will be seeking your feedback and suggestions early next term.

     Click on the link to find read recent Canterbury research and trial  

Swimming - Safety and Fun in the Water

Swimming is so much fun!

So far, we have had 3 swimming lessons at the Papatoetoe Centennial Pools.

We have two lessons to go: This Tuesday and next Tuesday at 1:00pm -1:30pm. Parents and whanau, come down and check out our skills in the pool if you have the time.

In the first lesson, we were divided into three groups.

The children in the Level 1 groups are learning to hold their breath under the water and to float on their backs.

The children in the Level 2 group are learning to move across the pool in a streamlined way and are working on tidy kicking and arm strokes.

The children in the Level 3 groups are learning to swim a length of the pool unaided, with correct breathing and arm strokes. They are learning to set a steady pace.

After the lessons are complete, it would be great to hear about the children going to the pools on the weekend to show their families their new skills.

Welcome to 2018

Kia ora and welcome to Y4 and the Piwakawaka Team @PCS.

We are a group of 29 children in our lovely new purpose built, ILE classroom. Our room is upstairs, on the left, with views over the Rec Grounds next door. It is the best room in the building! Come up and see us sometime.

We are looking forward to a fun-filled and action packed year of learning ahead. Pop in from time to time to see what have been up to and to find out what our latest discoveries are.

Nga mihi,

Room 27