Kahikatea Team News T1 Week 5

Posted on 1 March, 20241 March, 2024 by Amber Donovan

Kia ora Whānau,

Wow, we are now halfway through the term! Our tamariki are truly demonstrating our school kete values as they learn new routines, get to know new friends and challenge themselves to meet new learning goals. We are so proud of everyone for all their amazing mahi, ka rawe koutou!

Word of the Week

Our word of the week is RESPECT.

Respect is an attitude of caring about people and treating them with dignity. Respect is valuing ourselves and others. We show respect by speaking and acting with courtesy. When we are respectful, we treat others as we want to be treated.

Structured Literacy

Teachers are in the process of completing literacy assessments. You may notice that your child has not yet come home with a decodable text. Once we have the most up-to-date information about your child's literacy needs we will resume sending books home.

When you have time these videos show what our literacy stages look like for our Year 1 and 2 tamariki.

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 4

Stage 4+

Stage 5

Stage 6

Stage 7.1

Stage 7.2

Stage 7.3

Stage 7.4

Learning Through Play

Our tamariki are highly motivated to play and explore new learning as independently as possible. When planning for our LTP sessions we try to provide diverse play options. We are always looking for new things to engage our tamariki, including:

Water play toys
Craft and construction (wool, boxes, buttons, lids, containers etc)
Magazines, coloured paper or card, posters, old calendars
Stickers/labels
Good dress-up costumes (including hats, accessories, shoes)
wrapping paper
ribbon or string
boxes for box construction (cereal boxes, biscuit boxes, small paper bags, egg cartons etc

Photos

Photos from... learning through play, maths, and fun with our Year 7 leaders and all things fun here in Team Kahikatea. Enjoy!

Reminders:

please name your child's belongings
please remind your child/ren they do not need to bring toys to school
hats are to be worn during break times

If you need to korero with your child's teacher please remember you can email us:

sarah.angelo@beckenham.school.nz

ella.rainbow@beckenham.school.nz

quynh.nguyen@beckenham.school.nz

amber.donovan@beckenham.school.nz

lisa.collier@beckenham.school.nz

Arohanui, from Team Kahikatea

Amber, Quynh, Lisa, Sarah, Ella & Katie

Kahikatea News Term 4 Week 7

Posted on 25 November, 202325 November, 2023 by Amber Donovan

Kia ora koutou,

Team Kahikatea has been busy this week finishing off our literacy assessments for the year and celebrating the fantastic progress each learner has made this term. We are so proud of all our beautiful tamariki!

Our learning focus turns to Fairy Tales for the next few weeks and will include a special trip to the Isaac Theatre Royal to see the Southern Ballet performance of Cinderella.

We will be learning about Fairy Tales from all around the world and celebrating the diversity of our tamariki through stories, retellings, and little performances.

If your child has a favourite Fairy Tale book they are very welcome to bring it along to kura and share it with their home group or literacy group.

Below is a YouTube video explaining What Is A Fairy Tale?

Shoes/Hats/Uniform

Thank you for clearly naming your child's school clothing. As the weather begins to warm up children take off jerseys, jumpers, socks, and shoes during the day and we really do want those items to be returned to the right person at the end of the day.

We spend more time outside at this time of the year, so we are encouraging the children to put on sunscreen before going outside.

Basket Ball Hoops & Football Sessions

New hoops have been installed on the court by the hall and our tamariki can use this area during break times. It is a shared play space so there will be Year 5 to 8 children playing there too.

Our football sessions continue to be a hit with all our tamariki. Here are some photos from this week...

Learning Through Play

Our tamariki just love the opportunity to play! Each week we run two to three sessions of Learning Through Play. We always include both inside and outside activities for our tamariki to engage in.

We often provide learning through play options that connect to our topics, so here are some gorgeous pictures of children creating and making Waka Houora...

That's all for now! Have a happy weekend!

Team Kahikatea

Kahikatea News Week 7 Term 3

Posted on 1 September, 20232 September, 2023 by Amber Donovan

Kia ora koutou,

Welcome to Spring! It has been wonderful to have warmer days and to see the sun shining this week!

Keeping Ourselves Safe

This week Kahikatea students have learned about:

Unwanted Behaviour or Touch

Students need to know that they can stop touching or behaviour that is inappropriate, that worries or confuses them, or makes them feel unsafe.
Students need to be able to say “no” confidently, move away, and report what has happened.

Secrets and Tricks

Identify the difference between good surprises and bad secrets
Identify the adults they trust about bad secrets
Explain safe practices for trick situations, including online.

This Brian and Bobby video has been a really helpful resource for our tamariki.

Last week during our lessons with Constable Meg we all watched this video about Consent (link). We encourage you to watch this too when you have time.

Word of the Week: Friendship

This week we have been learning about friendships and practicing being a good friend. Good friends have several common character traits. By intentionally practicing these qualities, you can help your child learn to be a better friend.

Here are some friendly character traits you can work on:

Taking turns
Offering encouragement
Sharing
Being patient
Including others

Mathematics

This week teachers have been completing the JAM test (Junior Asssessment for Maths) so classes have been combined. Some of the topics we have covered during this time include Skip Counting, Time, and Mathematical Art.

Here are some photos of our tamariki enjoying some different maths this week:

Chess Fun!

Every morning a group of Kahikatea students gather in the nook to play games of chess. Anyone is welcome to play and we encourage those of you whose children like to play or would like to learn how to play chess to check out this cool link: ChessPlus

We hope you are having an enjoyable weekend.

Team Kahikatea

Kahikatea News Term 1 Week 7

Posted on 17 March, 202318 March, 2023 by Amber Donovan

Ferrymead Social Story

We encourage you to read through this Social Story before our trip next Friday.

Toys/Bag Toys and Lanyards

We have noticed a proliferation of bag toys, toys on lanyards and soft toys generally. Please remind your child/children that toys like these do not need to come to school. When they go missing children can become very upset and it can impact their ability to focus on their school day.

Thank you for supporting us with this request.

Learning Through Play

Our learning through play sessions are held on Monday and Wednesday afternoons and after morning tea on Fridays.

The amazing tamariki in team Kahiaktea have been demonstrating:

Friendliness

Resilience

Respect

Wall Displays in Team Kahikatea

Here are some of the display in our hub - come on in and check them out the next time you are at school!

Arohanui,

Team Kahikatea

Kahikatea News Week 3 Term 3

Posted on 12 August, 202212 August, 2022 by Amber Donovan

Kia ora whanau,

Welcome to Term 3. We hope you were able to have some quality time with your tamariki during the school break and that you are all keeping well.

Our literacy and maths programs are well underway again now. Katie and Amber are working together during maths time and Krystal and Emma are working together during maths time.

Katie now has her homegroup in the Nook, Amber is in the Breakout Room and Krystal is in the Atrium.

New Library Days

Tuesday- Amber and Katie

Thursday- Krystal and Emma

Introducing...

Jan Malcolm

In team Kahiaktea we have so many wonderful teachers and staff who work with our tamariki.

Each week the lovely Jan Malcolm works with Amber's Home Group. Sometimes she is here for the whole day or part of the day. Jan works in other teams across the school too, including Kowhai and Pohutukawa.

⭐Welcome Jan!⭐

Kauri Buddies

Every afternoon on Friday/Rapare our team welcomes students from the Kauri hub (Year 7/8). These children are self-selected, they opt into buddies. They love working with younger tamariki and sharing their skills with them. It is all about building that tuakana-teina relationship. They gain a lot from this experience - organisation skills, communication, greater understanding of group dynamics and being a leader. There is also a lot of gain for the younger children - forming bonds with older children, having an older friend to recognise in the playground.

Playground Time

Train Construction

Monkey Bars

Play Dough Fun

Showing Respect

This week we have had a focus on understanding what Respect looks like, feels like and sounds like:

Respect is an attitude of caring about people and treating them with dignity.

Respect is valuing ourselves and others.

We show respect by speaking and acting with courtesy.

When we are respectful we treat others as we want to be treated.

Respect includes honouring the rules of our family or school,

which make life more orderly and peaceful.

Congratulations! You are practising Respect when you...

Treat others as you want to be treated
Speak courteously to everyone
Take special care of other people’s belongings
Respect the rules of your family, school and nation
Expect respect for your body and your rights

Healthy Lunches

School is a busy place to be and there are a lot of different activities and learning tasks that required our students to be ready for learning and ready to participate and contribute.

Feeding your child a healthy, filling lunch helps our tamariki to get through a busy school day.

During these colder winter days we know children are wanting a bit more kai in their lunchboxes.

Tips for a fabulous lunchbox:

wraps, sandwiches, scrolls, filled rolls or buns,croissants, pizza bread, pizza,scones, yoghurt, hummus, olives, fruit (sliced and ready to eat), proteins (vegetarian and meat), crackers, cheese, pasta, rice, egg (boiled or in a sandwich). Treat foods like chocolate should be included very occasionally.

For more ideas you can check out Nutrition Foundation NZ or Kidspot NZ