Author Archives: Amber Donovan

Kahikatea Year 1-3 Newsletter Term 3 Week 2

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Welcome Back!
We are back into our school routines and are loving the support you are providing to your child/children during drop off and pick up times. We will continue to have one of our teachers at the main entrance on Sandwich Road to meet you and your child/children every morning. 
Teachers are in meetings 4x a week and these generally start at 3.15pm. If you do need to share information or catch up with your child/children's teacher do email them and you can make a time to meet if needed. 
katie.mcfarlane@beckenham.school.nz
charlotte.verity@beckenham.school.nz
jules.may@beckenham.school.nz
amber.donovan@beckenham.school.nz
lisa.griffith@beckenham.school.nz

Sydenham Cricket Club Visit
On Thursday 30th July our friends from Sydenham Cricket came to give our tamariki the opportunity to learn some batting and fielding skills. Information has been sent home should your child wish to learn more or join a team. 










Ukelele & Recorder for Year 3 Students in Kahikatea
On Tuesday our Year 3 children are joining the Year 3/4 students in Kowhai to learn recorder or ukulele (they will have the opportunity to learn both). Thanks to the Kowhai teachers for supporting our tamariki at this time. If your child would like to bring their own recorder, then you can find these for about $13-$15 dollars from the music store Rockshop, or you could have a look at The Warehouse as well.
If you do choose to bring your own recorder in, please make sure it is clearly named.





Discovery/Learning Through Play
We are still very grateful to receive donations of boxes. Our discovery time is now in the afternoon and our students are encouraged to explore new learning independently or in collaboration with their peers or with a teacher. 
We are looking for: 
Any old jars (jam, relish or otherwise!) anyone cares to donate...sturdy plastic containers like vegemite jars are also great. 












Readathon
This Friday your child/children will be bringing home their Readathon card. The final return date for this is 21st August, NOT 14th August. Apologies for this error. 
Thank you for you support of this important event. 


Hillview Cross Country 
During Level 3 the decision was made that our school was not going to attend the inter-school event. We have now been informed that they are going ahead with the event on the 4th of August. Our tamariki will not be attending, but if you would like your child to attend as an individual then please contact your child's teacher and they will pass the relevant information on to you.  You will need to make your own arrangements if your decide to attend.  










Team Kahikatea: Reminders Week 11

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PTA Disco Friday 26th June 2020 


Our amazing PTA is running a disco this week! The theme is Rainbow and your child/children will need a gold coin for entry. 
BRING your own NAMED drink bottle. 

Our YEAR 3 STUDENTS have the option of joining the NE to Year 3 disco from 4.30pm to 5.00pm OR Year 3 to 6 disco from 6pm to 7pm. 
Teachers from team Kahikatea will be at both disco's. 

Learning Conferences Tuesday 30th AND Thursday 2nd July 

Please remember, we have an earlier finish on both days. 
Your children can be collected at 2pm. 
Conferences start at 2.15.  We are looking forward to seeing you all! 

Kapa Haka 


Our YEAR 3 STUDENTS have Kapa Haka every Friday for 30 minutes with our new Kaiako Kath from 11am. 


THANK YOU!

We appreciate all of your donations (requested in our last blog). Please keep them coming. 

Welcome Back Everyone! 15/5/20

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ESSENTIAL VIEWING:  

NEW DROP OFF AND COLLECTION PROCESS: please watch this. If you have any questions please email your child's home group teacher. 

PLEASE MAKE TIME TO WATCH THIS THROUGH AND TALK WITH YOUR TAMARIKI. many families will watch it two or three times or re-watch parts of it to ensure their child/children feel confident about their return to school.


Students Personal Belongings

At the end of each day, we will be returning all your child's/children's personal belongings, including sunhats (these can stay at home), jerseys, jackets, lunch boxes, and drink bottles. 
NO one can use the drinking fountains at school. 


Hygiene

We will have rigorous handwashing and sanitation routines throughout the day. Please let your child's teacher know if your child has a sensitivity to any of these products. 

Drop off and Pick-up Routines

Teachers will take groups of students over to the flag pole at 2.45pm for you to collect. At 3pm older siblings can meet their younger siblings at the entry to our hub. Please let your child's teacher know if you want them to wait in the hub until 3pm OR if they are attending BOSCO. 


Bubble Celebrations 

We'd love to see some pictures and hear about your bubble time! If you have any gems to share please email them to your teacher or we can find them on Seesaw.


Community Calendar

We have had to postpone and/or cancel some of our events for the rest of the term. The community calendar has been updated accordingly. 





Kahikatea Term 2 Newsletter

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Warm Autumn Greetings from our Bubble to Yours

Firstly, our team would like to express how incredibly grateful we are for the amazing support you are giving to this new model of learning.
It is an absolute pleasure to see tamariki and their whānau engaging with the daily challenges on our Kahikatea Learning@Home webpage and Seesaw.
These platforms are dynamic and change each day. We love getting your feedback on the types of tasks and activities. Your feedback is incredibly helpful, so thank you. 
Many of you have developed your daily routines to include a balance of 'school learning' and other activities.
If you need any support or guidance with this please make contact with your child's homegroup teacher, we are here to help.

ZOOM Meetings (OPTIONAL)

Our team is very familiar with the video conferencing app Zoom.
If you and your child/children are feeling the need for some face to face time with your teacher via a zoom (video) meeting we are really happy for that to happen. You may want to simply say hi, or to ask questions or get clarification on some of the tasks. 
Please email your child's homegroup teacher to let them know you'd like to do this and let them know what times you can't zoom.
Your teachers can email the invite to you once a time is arranged. (You will need to have Zoom App set up on your device).  
We will continue to maintain regular contact with families via email and/or phone calls. 

A fun Friday Zoom team meeting


Here is our Welcome Assembly for Term 2 




Junior Neighbourhood Support Challenge


Sharing Our Learning 

         
Zach's Jam Sandwich Writing      Sandwich Making - Yum!


Cyber Safety (when using school Google Logins)

As you may be aware from the school cyber safety agreement, Beckenham te Kura o Pūroto has various cyber safety systems in place in order to keep students safe. We have one system called “Highlights” that we would like you to be particularly mindful of during lockdown. 

This system allows teachers to see Chromebook screens and/or Chrome browser tabs whenever that device or browser is signed into a school Google account during school hours. This is an important tool that teachers use to keep students safe and to offer support while students are learning. It also has privacy implications and is one of the main reasons we always ask and remind students to only use their school account for learning purposes. If you want your child to use their personal device/browser for other purposes or without the school cyber safety systems in place, then it is important that students sign out of their school account and sign into a personal account created by you. If your child has borrowed a school Chromebook, they should only be using this with their school login and for learning purposes.

We also utilise a specialised web filtering system to help keep our students safe online. This filter automatically alerts staff whenever a student account is potentially being used to access unsafe content on the internet. Like Highlights, this filter system is active whenever a student is signed into their school account, even if they are at home. If we receive a concerning filter alert during lockdown, we will contact you via email.

It is important to note that teachers never rely on just the filtering system. We work hard to actively monitor students’ screens and always ask students to work in a place where their screens are visible. We strongly encourage you to adopt a similar approach at home by making sure children only use devices in a family area where they can be easily seen. We also encourage you to actively check that your child/children are using the device in a safe and positive manner.


Team Kahikatea Holiday Update March 31 2020

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Kia ora whanau, 

We hope you are all doing well in your 'bubble'. Our team wanted to let you know what we are up to and how we are all doing.
We wish you all a safe and happy bubble holiday!

From Amber: 
Hello everyone!
I'm staying home in my bubble with my daughter Lilian-Lhamo, my husband Gyaltsen, and our dog Bodhi. We have been enjoying some time in our garden, going for little walks and bike rides, baking, tidying and keeping in touch with friends and family. I am looking forward to planting my spring bulbs and gettings some jobs around the house done these holidays. 



From Lisa:
Kia ora everyone! 
I am staying at home in my 'bubble' with my husband Darren, our three kids, Jade, Jordan and Luke and our dog, Ormeau. We have some of our teddies at the front door for anyone who walks past to see. Have you seen any teddies if you have been out for a walk or bike ride?

We have been for a few bike rides and enjoyed some exercise provided by Les Mills on TV1 and TV2.  Check it out if you haven't already, at 3pm on channel 2, it's quite fun!  

We are currently working on a puzzle, which is quite tricky. I am looking forward to doing some more sorting around the house and playing games with my children these holidays. 



From Charlotte:
Kia Ora!
I've been having lots of fun with online gym classes...and creating my own funky dance routines to pop songs! I've been setting challenges for myself too...I can now cancan for 3mins and do 40 star jumps without stopping. How many can you do? GoNoodle is a great free website for fun brain breaks inside. 
I've also been phoning friends and looking out for my gorgeous cat Tuppence. It turns out a new cat in the neighbourhood, who looks just like Scarface McClaw from Hairy McClary, has been coming into MY garden and spooking MY cat. I am NOT happy about that and grateful that I'm here to help my Tupps get confident outside again. 
I've loved time in the garden and have planted bulbs and peas for Winter, and gathered seeds to save. I hope you're enjoying the holidays with your family at home :-)  Aroha, Charlotte

            



From Katie:
Kia ora, gorgeous children! 
I hope that you are all enjoying your bubbles! I have been busy doing my holiday project for the past few days - painting Toby's bedroom. One more coat of paint and I should be finished! Our dog, Buzz, has been enjoying having us around and is LOVING his many, many walks. Isla and Toby have had a great time rediscovering toys that they hadn't played with for a long time. They have also enjoyed spending more time in their PJs! We have played Battleships, Uno and Twister. I have kept in touch with my mum and dad on FaceTime. Have you been using Skype or FaceTime to keep in touch with people too? 
Arohanui, Katie




From Jules:
Kia ora I te whānau
Jessica, Leo and I are home and have a couple of extras in our Bubble - Bounce and Skip!  They are getting used to their new temporary home and are currently holding residence in our kitchen window as part of our community's Bear Hunt.  
We are lucky to be able to do our regular walks down to the beach and back but stay out of the playground.  We have challenged ourselves to do a puzzle a day, a bit of gardening each day for fresh air (even in the cold) and Jessica is working her way through a cookbook she was given for Christmas so we are eating well - maybe a bit too well.  
We have made 1 day a week a 'P' day - Pyjamas and Popcorn in front of a movie, and Leo is loving having people home with him during the day for extra cuddles and attention.  He is not so fussed on Bounce and Skip wanting to play with him though.  
We are using Facetime, Skype and Hangouts to keep in touch with our whānau and friends in between doing some catch-up jobs around the house, and Bounce told me the windows are overdue for a clean - isn't he cheeky!  I have also been challenging Jessica to daily brain teaser challenges and have put one below for you to try.  Your challenge is to draw just the house.  Kia kaha I te whānau.  











From Paul:
I'm home in my "bubble" playing a card game called Bridge (online) and spending time on this lovely treadmill.