Author Archives: Caitlyn Downing

Koru News Week 4 Term 4

Posted on by

Junior Athletics - All

This term we will be holding the Junior Athletics (Y0-4) on Wednesday 21st November out in the park with a team briefing starting at 12:00pm and finishing the day with the famous house relays at 2:30pm. Lunch will be at the usual time. Parents are welcome to come along to cheer on the children. It is going to be a fun day in the sun so please make sure your child has their sunhat, water bottle, appropriate footwear, and a big healthy lunch to keep them fueled for the day. We look forward to seeing everyone in their beautiful, bright house shirts! 


Inquiry Learning: Sustainable Materials - Y1&2

Last week we began our learning about different materials and their uses. We have been exploring them through play and were fortunate enough to have Carmel, Jacqui's Mum, come in to talk to us about her special job as an architect. A huge thank you to everyone who has donated boxes. We are now at full capacity and will not be requiring anymore. Next week we are moving on to creating miniature scales.







CCC, Art's Centre and City Day Trip - Y1&2

This term we also have a big trip to the city planned for Friday 23rd November. On this trip children will be going to the Christchurch City Council, Arts Centre and the Botanic Gardens. They will need to have a big healthy lunch, water bottle, sunhat, waterproof jacket and appropriate footwear for the day.


Hats - All


This term all children must wear a sun hat when outside. Please make sure that your child has a hat at school with their name clearly written inside in either of the styles below.
Farm Visit - NE

We have an exciting trip to a farm planned for our New Entrants on Thursday November 22nd and Friday 23rd. This is a natural extension of our Discovery theme for the past few weeks and links very well to Canterbury Show Day. They will need to have a big healthy lunch, water bottle, sunhat, waterproof jacket and appropriate footwear for the day. An email has been sent out to the parents/caregivers of all New Entrant children and this contains full details.




Fourth New Entrant Group - NE


This week we opened up our 4th NE class in Komanawa. It is great to see our older NE children stepping up to develop their leadership skills. We welcome Carter, Devin, Billy, Hannah, Misha and Skye. 

Discovery Stations

We begin each day with our Discovery session and as you can see our hubs are a vibrant and exciting place to be. We also LOVE to use our outdoor spaces.





















Term 3: Weeks 1-2

Posted on by





Learning Conferences 
Thank you so much to all the families who attended a learning conference this week. It was a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with you all and for the children to share their learning. We have a had a few families interested in what their child's day looks like in the Koru Tahaki hub. Please see our timetable for a 'typical' day.



Reading Challenge 
This term we are showing 'We Love Challenge' by encouraging the children to read as many books as they can and record this in the back of their home learning books. When a child reads 10 picture books or one chapter book they get to add a ring to their paper chain in the hub. The goal is 10 rings (100 picture books or 10 chapter books). You can support your child to reach this goal by reading with them each night and recording it in their home learning book.

Parent Help
If you are available between 9-10am on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Friday and would like to help out please email Charlotte. We always need wonderful parents to help put books away and to listen to our children read.
charlotte.verity@beckenham.school.nz

Koru Term 1: Weeks 5 & 6

Posted on by

Kia ora whanau!


Bounce and Skip
Some of you may have had the pleasure of meeting our class friends, Bounce and Skip. These two monkeys are experts at handwriting and have been teaching us how to strengthen our hands, fingers and core so that we can become neater, quicker writers. We are now experts at these exercises so please ask us to show you. The more we practice, the stronger we become! 

Writing by hand engages the brain in learning and especially activates the “reading circuits” of the brain. Using the results of modern brain imaging techniques, research suggests that writing by hand plays a substantial role in the visual recognition and learning of letters, a foundation for both reading and writing. Through studies using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to probe how the brain processes stimuli in real time, researchers have demonstrated that there is a distinct system in the human brain that is recruited during reading that is also recruited during writing. The reading network develops as a function of handwriting (printing) experience. Handwriting (printing), and not keyboarding, leads to adult-like neural processing in the visual system of the preschool child. Findings like these suggest that self-generated action, in the form of printing letters by hand, is a crucial component in setting up brain systems for reading acquisition.

One of the things Bounce and Skip has been teaching us this week is how to correctly pick up and hold a pencil. Below is a graphic we are using that we encourage to look at together at home to. Is your pencil grip up to scratch?  This way of holding the pencil is comfortable and allows children to write fast and legibly.




School Fair Art Auction Pieces

Dorinda's Home base has been enjoying creating our piece for the School Fair Art Auction - we love wondering who will be successful in buying it! Here is our writing about our butterflies.


  • My butterfly is really cool and I love the colours. It has cool wings. HETTIE
  • My butterfly is colourful. It is going to be on a canvas. How much do you want it to be? It is going to be beautiful. I love my colours of my butterflies. It even has mixed colours. FINN
  • My butterfly is a Monarch. The money is going to be $10. My Mum is going to buy it and I will make a magic potion so it can be real. QUINN
  • We painted our butterflies for the School Fair because the school wants to make money. My butterfly has black spots. He is really colourful. I like my butterfly. OLLIE
  • Our Butterflies. My butterfly is blue. It's got silver and green and black and it's pretty. ARCHIE
  • My butterfly is a rainbow colour. I like that it is really colourful. GEORGIA 
  • I love how my butterfly is coloured and I really like the colour of the canvas. I really like the book pages at the bottom. KJ
  • The butterflies like playing with their friends. JONTAI
  • I want my butterfly to fly off the page. ZEKE
  • i made this butterfly. I love my colours. They are blue, pink and silver. I love Bounce and Skip too because they are cute. CAMMIE
  • I am a butterfly and I can fly. JAKE
  • I like my butterfly and I want it to fly off the sky. KARDA
  • We painted our butterflies for the School Fair. My butterfly is black and red. I did it those colours because red is for Christmas and black is for Halloween and I love both of them. BREE
  • This is my butterfly. He is a Monarch. He has black rain drops on his wings and he is blue and red. He has a big smile. Annabelle
  • Our butterflies are awesome. I love our butterflies. They are super. STELLA
  • I made a butterfly. It has flashes on it and it has cool patterns on it. I love it. It is a Monarch. I think it is nice. It has blue around the edges. JACK
  • Do you know why I like butterflies? It is because they can fly and my butterfly's colours are black, red and blue. CORTANA
  • Our butterflies are lovely and we like the butterflies so much. We like to see them. GABRIELLA
  • I like butterflies. My butterfly has black and dark blue on the wings and black spots and red on the head. KAWA
  • We did class butterflies for our School Fair. Mine has some gold, blue and red and orange colours with black dots. I feel great about my butterfly. AYLA
  • My butterfly is like candy. She needs water to drink. Her name is Twinkerbelle. I like butterflies because they are really beautiful. IRIA-MARIA
  • I love my butterfly. it is black and golden, blue, pink, light blue and a tiny bit of white. I love the colours. CHELSEA

Kristika's home base tamariki developed their pride and sense of belonging through creating their own piece of Koru art.  These were all put together like a puzzle and 'mod podged' into place.
We discussed the meaning of what is 'koru' and how we as team Koru are the like the young koru of Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto school. 


Discovery - Play Based Learning

Koru have been inspired by our Year 7 leaders in making obstacle courses all week. Some great ideas, co-operation and leadership came out of our sessions. We also had child-led art workshops, maze drawing and lego construction Enjoy these photos. 














Junior Athletics

Posted on by
Kia ora whānau,

 Next week on Wednesday (22nd November) the Junior Athletics will be held on the park from 11:15am. We encourage children to wear their house shirts to school. These are still available to purchase from Jacky, at the office, if you haven't got one yet. Please ensure your child brings a water bottle, hat and appropriate footwear. Please can you also make sure to apply sunscreen on your child in the morning before school.  We are all looking forward to a fun afternoon celebrating participation and 'We Love Challenge'!


Events
11:15-11:25
11:30-11:40
11:45-11:55
12:00-12:30
12:30-1:10
1:30-1:40
1:45-1:55
2:00-2:10
2:15-2:25
2:30-2:40
2:45-2:55
Long Jump
Charlotte & Alex
Hub 2
Hub 3
Hub 4
B
L
Hub G
Hub E
Hub R
Hub K
Hub 1
House
Hurdles
Amber & Mitchell
Hub 3
Hub 4
Hub G
A
U
Hub E
Hub R
Hub K
Hub 1
Hub 2
R
High Jump
Sue / Dorinda & Joe
Hub 4
Hub G
Hub E
N
N
Hub R
Hub K
Hub 1
Hub 2
Hub 3
E
Relays
Caitlyn & Rosie
Hub G
Hub E
Hub R
D
C
Hub K
Hub 1
Hub 2
Hub 3
Hub 4
L
Sack Races
Gail & Luke
Hub E
Hub R
Hub K

H
Hub 1
Hub 2
Hub 3
Hub 4
Hub G
A
Shot Put
Elizabeth & Shakira
Hub R
Hub K
Hub 1


Hub 2
Hub 3
Hub 4
Hub G
Hub E
Y
Egg & Spoon
Rowe & Fergus
Hub K
Hub 1
Hub 2


Hub 3
Hub 4
Hub G
Hub E
Hub R
S
Stretching
Kristika & Hannah
Hub 1
Hub 2
Hub 3


Hub 4
Hub G
Hub E
Hub R
Hub K

Week 7 & 8 News

Posted on by




Kids in Town

Last Thursday our junior Kapa Haka groups went to the Christchurch Art Gallery for the Kids in Town event with Thorrington School. The children performed poi, haka and waiata to the huge audience of whānau and did a fantastic job. Thank you to everyone who was able to make it and a HUGE thank you to Sherrilee for all the support and guidance she provides for our tamariki.




Situations vacant
Do you have an hour or so to spare?
Do you enjoy working in a positive, fulfilling and satisfying job?
Do you have a passion, interest or skill to share?

Then this opportunity is for you!

Discovery Time - Each morning from Mon-Thurs in the Koru Hubs.

We have a range of opportunities for parents to either run a Discovery station that has been already set up or share a passion, interest or skill with our children.

‘Stations’ are set up each week, with developmental activities including crafts, cooking, cultural activities, building challenges, musical instruments, interpersonal games and many more curriculum and play based areas. Discovery time allows the children to explore new or loved areas of learning, and to work with peers or independently.

Payment for this wonderful opportunity includes feelings of satisfaction, contribution to our tamariki's education, and the appreciation of our school community.

Don't delay, come in and talk to us or email your interest.




Teddy Bears Picnic

Last Friday all the children from Koru  team (and teachers!) brought their favourite teddy bear to school for the highly anticipated teddy bears picnic.  We all sat together on our picnic blankets and enjoyed time together as a whole team. We were blessed with beautiful weather and were able to enjoy our lunches with fabulous company. 





'Change' 

Inquiry Learning

This term we have been doing a lot of learning around the concept of 'change'. Recently in the year one and two hub, we have been engaged in a learning rotation to expose the children to several different areas of learning, all with the common theme of change. 

 Caitlyn has taken on a science focus and has been exploring how water changes when added to a plate of skittles, forming scientific explanations and using observational skills. 
Sue and Dorinda are looking at the changes bean seeds go through to become a bean plant.  The focus is 'When scientists carry out investigations they aim to collect adequate evidence'.  The children will all bring some bean seeds in a cup and a bean diary home to complete over the next 6 weeks, ready to bring back to school in term 4 so we can see the progress the beans have made over time.

 Charlotte has had a technology and science focus looking at differences in seeds and how they grow and change and technology over the ages and how this has changed. Thank you to Noah's Dad who has brought a pair of working dial phones to add to the children's experience.

Amber has been looking at changing identity using masks. The children explore different ideas for masks, decide on an alternative identity to be portrayed in their own mask and then make their masks. After making masks they all explore their new identity using drama.

 Spellathon
Thank you for all your support with our Spellathon.  We have had most of the money and forms back which is great.  Hub 3 was the first to have their forms and money back in this year which meant they won the beautiful morning tea provided by the PTA.  The children in Hub 3 decided that they would like to share this wonderful feast with their friends in the learning space so, last Friday, bears by our sides, we all enjoyed a teddy bears morning tea.
Thank you very, very much to the wonderful PTA for being so generous and putting so much energy, time and love into making the morning tea.  








Our school community's support through sponsorship is very much appreciated and we are looking forward to the outdoor spaces that are being developed for our children.
  

 Whole School Assembly on Monday
Next week on Monday we will be walking the children to Hillview's gym to have a whole school assembly. This is an opportunity for the whole school to reunite and celebrate our learning for term three. Unfortunately, the space does not have the correct seating so we are unable to invite all parents this time.   We are really looking forward to having our hall back in action by the end of the year.  The whole school will be attending from 9:15 - 10:30am.