Author Archives: Amy Buick

Pohutukawa Update Term 4 Week 3

Posted on by
Kia Ora Whanau

The term is already ramping up with different events happening every week. Here are a few reminders:

Calendar Art

What a great Christmas present to receive! The PTA have extended calendar art orders until tomorrow, Friday 3rd November. The office has clearfiles with the art in hard copy for you to look at and you would have been able to get a sneak preview of these during learning conferences last term. Please get the order forms to the office or teacher asap. 

Disco

The PTA are putting on their annual disco this Friday 3rd November. Disco times are as follows:
  • Years 0-3 @ 5:00 - 6:00pm
  • Years 4-6 @ 6:30 - 7:30pm
  • Years 7&8 @ 8:00 - 9:00pm
Gold coin entry. Bling, food and drink will be available to purchase while we boogie to DJ Don's tunes. Please remember that all children need to be collected by an adult, from the hall at the end of their scheduled disco. 

Beckenham Tea Towels

These have all arrived and they look great! Please pop into the office asap to pick them up if you haven't already.

Probability 

Please keep sending boxes and cardboard in for our learning around probability next week. 

Athletics 

We have been lucky enough to hold all of our athletic events with no postponement dates necessary. We are all so proud of the children for taking part in the events enthusiastically and really appreciate the support with cheering, walking groups down to Hillview and trying to win the adults Vs children relays - there's still next year! 

Gayle and Jenny are currently in the process of sorting out placings for the Zones tournament. The South Zone Athletics day is Monday 13th November at Hansen Park. More information about this will be coming out soon. 

Cycle Safe - Year 6

Thank you for the permission slips coming in promptly. Please get these in by next Tuesday 7th November so we can organise groups and equipment. 

Keeping Ourselves Safe

We are currently working through our Keeping Ourselves Safe unit and have started our lessons with Constable Ross. Thank you for working through the home learning booklet with your child, it is awesome to see how confident they are around this subject after discussions with you. These can be handed in by Week 6, Friday 24th November, when we will be finishing the unit. 

The egg-sitting has been a huge hit with some eggs even looking like they will survive the 4 day challenge. Thank you for your support with this. 

Pohutukawa Team Newsletter Term 4 Week 1

Posted on by
Kia Ora Parents / Caregivers


We are so excited to be back at Beckenham in our new hub. It is lovely to see you all again and catch up with siblings regularly throughout the day. The children have settled into routines quickly and there is a general buzz of excitement about being home.


In the mornings before the bell, we are opening the middle doors through to the Koru team and the children can spend time together doing activities, chatting or playing if they want to. We will be spending time together throughout the term as ‘buddies’ as well.


There are a few events coming up this term which will be keeping us quite busy. Below is an overview of the main points to note:

Keeping Ourselves Safe


As part of our Keeping Ourselves Safe unit that runs throughout the first 6 weeks of this term, the children are going to become chief babysitters for an egg. Yes, an egg! It will be boiled for safety.


The children will be responsible for their egg for 4 days and will have to take care of it at all times. If the children want to leave their egg, they need to arrange another person to egg-sit.


The children can name their egg and will be creating a room for it. We are requesting that children bring a shoebox to school to create a room for their egg and any other materials they may want to spruce the room up.


The aim of this activity is for children to learn to look after themselves and others - a theme that comes through the Keeping Ourselves Safe programme.


The children will hopefully get an appreciation of all the hard work you do as parents!


A Keeping Ourselves Safe Home Learning Booklet will be going home today with the children. Please spend some time going through this with your child to reinforce the messages they are learning at school.



Maths - Probability



Our focus in Week 3 for Maths this term is Probability. Part of this unit is creating a probability based game. If you have any cardboard or cardboard boxes at home, we would really appreciate using them for this learning.



Athletics Day



Next week, on Thursday 26th October we will have our Years 5-8 Athletics Day out in Beckenham Park. The postponement date is Monday 30th October. We will meet families out on the park to begin at 9:30am and be finished by 3:00pm. The long jump will be held at Hillview Christian School on Friday 27th October. The long-distance races will be held at Hillview Christian School on Wednesday 1st November.  


Children will need to bring a hat, comfortable sports shoes and drink bottle. It would be a good idea to apply sunscreen before school and we will have sunscreen available to apply throughout the day. Children can wear clothing that is appropriate for athletics and their house t-shirts if they have one.

Choir


Next week, on Friday 27th October the Pohutukawa Pitch Perfect Choir will be going to the Christchurch Schools’ Music Festival rehearsal at Horncastle Arena. If children are involved in long jump, they will be met by a teacher at Hillview, after the rehearsal.   



Cycle Safe Programme


In Week 7, from Tuesday 28th November - Friday 1st December our Year 6 children will be involved in the Cycle Safe Programme. A parent information and permission letter will be sent home soon.

Pohutukawa Team Newsletter Term 3 Week 8

Posted on by
Kia Ora Whanau

We are rapidly nearing the end of a fantastic Term 3 and looking forward to being back at Beckenham School next term.

Ferrymead Trip 

We had two amazing trips to Ferrymead where we did lots of learning about how much change has affected our lives over the past 100 years.
   
When we arrived, we dressed up in the school uniforms children used to wear each day. Even the teachers had to wear fancy frocks! 

We explored some of Ferrymead Park before heading off to our lessons.



  

 




 





We had a lesson in the school room with Miss Black who was very strict about us lining up silently, sitting up in our seats with straight backs, following instructions without talking, reciting our timetables and doing our handwriting perfectly in ink. We also did some housework where we washed clothing on the washboards, used the wringer, made beds, cleaned tables and ironed clothing using an iron heated on the coal fire. Then we went to explore the old printing station where we used the embossing machine, stapled wee booklets and printed our own posters. We also learned a lot about how phones used to work by having a turn at connecting calls between two people, dialing the old rotary dial phones and figuring out how to hold the phones so we could listen and talk at the same time! 

Challenges 

Last term, we put out a survey asking our children about their use and understanding of our values, their learning within the curriculum areas and what they wanted more of at school. From this survey, 'Challenge' time was started earlier this term.

The challenges focussed on exploring our Key Competencies:

  • thinking
  • relating to others
  • understanding language, symbols and text
  • managing self 
  • participating and contributing

Here are some of our challenges:








 


Drama

During this term, our Arts focus has been on learning different techniques to create a performance based on a well-known story. We developed our understanding around role, action, space, expression, and voice then worked collaboratively to create and present a play to show our learning. We needed to work together as a team, listening to each others' ideas respectfully and making decisions fairly.


Here we are, learning about freeze frames and thought tracking by creating a scene in 10 seconds from The 3 Little Pigs. 

Special Achievement 

Maria arrived at Beckenham School from Brazil in May with very little English. This week, she completed her speech in English and Portuguese. She has also been learning Te Reo. The determination and persistence required to achieve this is outstanding. What an amazing achievement! 

Here is Maria's speech in both languages:  

Fast food 

Hello my name is Maria and I’m going to tell you what fast food can do to your health and the many things it can do to your body.

Quickly made, quickly served, quickly eaten. That’s fast food. Perhaps badly made, poorly served, quickly eaten is more appropriate.

But fast food can taste so good. Some people don’t stop to eat fast food and the bad thing in all this is fast food can have a lot of  fat stuff and this is not good for our health.

Fast food can be really good to eat with your friends but can make you sick with diabetes because it is not prepared properly. Some fast foods just throw things in the recipes and cook. It’s so bad for our health because they put bad ingredients in it.

So now I am going to tell you in Portuguese (my original language) what fast food can do for your health. 

Feito rápido servido rápido e comido rápido.esse é o fast food possivelmente não feito muito bem,mau servido,e comido rápido isso é mais apropriado 

Mas fast food pode ter o gosto muito bom.mas algumas pessoas não conseguem parar de comer fast food e a pior coisa nisso e que fast food pode ter muita gordura e isso não é bom  para nossa saúde. 

Fast food pode ser muito bom para comer com os amigos mas pode fazer você ficar doente com diabetes porque nao e feito apropriadamente. Alguns fast food só jogam as coisas na panela e cozinham isso não é bom para nossa saúde porque eles podem ter colocado os ingredientes errados.

Então eu acho que pessoas não podem comer muitos fast food porque pode fazer mal para nossa saúde.

End of term outing 

We are off for a visit to Wharenui Pools and Margaret Mahy Playground on Friday 29th September. We will depart from Beckenham School at Eastern Tce at 8:40am and arrive back at Beckenham School by 3:00pm. Thank you for the wonderful offers of support from our parent helpers. We are looking forward to an exciting day out! 

Pohutukawa Team Newsletter Term 3 Week 1

Posted on by
Kia ora whānau!

We got off to an exciting start to the new term on Tuesday with an awesome science experience. The whole hub was quietly settling into the day when all of a sudden alarms sounded and the screens around the hub announced that a biohazard had been detected. How exciting!


A top secret transmission then came in, in which we were told that there had been a number of biohazards found around Champion Street.


All of the special agents rushed outside and searched in the areas highlighted on the map. 


Once all of the substances had been found, they were brought inside and Agent X (Nick) explained how to conduct experiments to identify the substances. Each group got a beaker or flask filled with a blue substance. Next, children carefully placed dry ice into their vessel. The reactions were amazing!








Learning about Change

 Our conceptual unit this term is 'Change'. Children will be learning about change in a range of forms across the curriculum areas of Social Sciences, Science, Technology and Drama. When learning about Social Sciences, children will learn about the way inventions have shaped the way that we live and made improvements to our lives.


They will be following the Inquiry process to ask questions, gather information, analyse to understand this new knowledge and then present their learning. So far, topics range from anaesthetic, air travel and elevators, to internet and the first PC.


Maths - Geometry

Our maths focus for the first few weeks of this term is Geometry, with a focus on identifying and classifying 2D and 3D shapes, and representing objects with drawings and models.


Coffee Cup Collection

One of our weekly challenges this term will involve the use of a coffee cup - just the cup. If possible, can the children each bring a clean, coffee cup to school next week (it can be used). We have spares if needed. 

Grass Seed

One of our other challenges this term involves grass seed. If anyone has any available can you please let Amy know - amy.buick@beckenham.school.nz . We are aiming for approximately 240 tablespoons.  


Kind regards,
Amy, Gayle, Nick, Katie and Kat




Kauri & Pohutukawa – Showcase Rehearsal and Final Details

Posted on by
Kia Ora Whanau


RE: Showcase Rehearsal and Final Details 


Next Monday 3rd July, we will be walking down to Hillview Christian School Hall to have our rehearsal. We will be leaving from Beckenham School, down by the buses, at 8:40 am to walk down. The buses will take us all back to Champion Street at 11:00 am.

On Thursday evening (6th July), we have asked all of the students to arrive at Hillview Christian School Hall at 6:40 pm to get ready for starting at 7:00 pm. Sherrilee will provide further details to Kapa Haka and Te Whanau.

During the evening presentations, we will also be including sporting event certificates.

We are still very keen to enlist some help with hall set up and pack down, as we have had no offers so far. Please let your child's teacher know if you are able to help with either of these. We will meet at Hillview Christian School at 3:15 pm for setting up and pack down after the showcase.


Main points: 

  • Monday 3rd July - Leaving from Beckenham School at 8:40 am
  • Thursday 6th July - Arriving at Hillview Christian School Hall at 6:40 pm
  • Help is still required for setting up and packing down of the hall. 


We look forward to seeing you there.