Kia ora, e te whānau,

It has been a busy first three weeks of term in the Koru hub! We have had our Junior Park Explorers trip, our whole school Athletics day, and our tamariki have been working really hard in their Literacy and Maths groups. We are so proud of the amazing job they have all done in returning to their school day routines, and we thank you for helping to support your children in settling into their mornings, with your quick goodbyes, at least five minutes before the bell rings.

Some important dates for this term are as follows:

• Staff Only Day - Thursday, 16th November (school is closed)
• Canterbury Anniversary Day - Friday, 17th November (school is closed)
• Reports go live - Week 6
• Celebrate Diversity and Culture Dress up day - Friday, 1st December
• Tamariki meet their 2024 teacher and final day of school for the year- Tuesday, 19th December

Junior Park Explorers Trip:

On Friday, 13th October, we were fortunate enough to finally go on our Junior Park Explorers trip down at the Beckenham Ponds, after two previous postponements, due to inclement weather. Thank you once again to all the amazing parent helpers we had on the day, for dedicating your time to be with us. We couldn't have done it without your help!

We had the privilege of having educators from the Christchurch City Council, Celia and Jen, come in and talk to us about being park explorers, and teaching us some of the ways we might explore the area around the Beckenham Ponds. We learnt and experienced many new things: different bird calls; going on a bird walk, where we noticed and listened to the surrounding birdlife; how birds help the process of pollination and seed dispersal; the different insects that could be living around the pond and the use of magnifying glasses to see what insects we could find; and playing a game known as 'Tumble Tree Forest' where our tamariki were challenged to think about and come up with solutions as to what would happen for our birdlife and insects, when too many trees are cut down.

Reminders:

• Sun hats need to be brought to school every day. These will stay in your child's bag whenever the children are indoors. No hat, no play.
• If you use the sandpit at the end of the day after school, can you please make sure to put the cover back in before you leave. We really appreciate seeing that you are already helping us with this. Thank you!
• Literacy folders need to be brought back to school and unpacked from schoolbags every day, so that they can be used during our Literacy sessions.
• Library folders and poetry books need to be brought back on or before Fridays, so your child can get a new poem for their poetry books and some new books from the library. 

 Kia ora, e te whānau,

It's been a very busy couple of weeks for us all in the Koru team, as we come close to the end of Term 3. We have had new children start throughout the last couple of weeks, and they have settled in beautifully! Over the last few weeks, we have had some exciting opportunities for our Koru children, including a cricket awareness session, Keeping Ourselves Safe sessions with Constable Meg, and Te Wiki o te reo Māori (Māori Language Week). We have our Beckenham's Got Talent Show coming up on Friday Week 10, and have some of our children performing. The tamariki did an awesome job showcasing their talents at our mini Koru Talent Showcase. 

Mini Koru Talent Showcase highlights:

Three bananas performing...

The bananas escape from the ravenous dinosaur!

Why is 6 scared of 7?

Take a bow!

The 'second hand' shop joke!

Our flexible friends!

Bridges and handstands...

Tricks with hula hoops.

Great spinning skills!

Te Wiki o te reo Māori:

Last week was Māori language week. We have included some cool activities for the tamariki based on different aspects of te reo Māori. This included learning the names of colours and colouring in a rainbow, singing waiata, making bookmarks that had kowhaiwhai patterns on them, and learning new kupu. It has been an awesome week!!

Cricket:

On Thursday 7th September, each home group had an awesome 25 minute cricket awareness session with Cat, from Southern Districts Cricket Club. This was a great opportunity for our tamariki to participate in, and they all enjoyed themselves enormously. The children learnt different skills based on throwing, catching and batting. All the children were engaged and had such a great time! We will be sending out more information soon about skills sessions that are held on Saturdays at the club. 

Keeping Ourselves Safe:

This term as part of our Health Curriculum, teams are teaching the programme called Keeping Ourselves Safe, in Years 0 - 6. In the units, our Koru children have been looking at: 

- describing where they live; identifying things that make them special and explaining when they feel safe and unsafe

- learning to use the correct names for body parts and describing whether a touch is one they like, one they don’t like, or one that is confusing

- learning to say ‘no’ to touch, behaviour and words that worry or confuse them and talking about moving away and seeking help

- identifying the difference between good surprises and bad secrets

- identifying people they trust and understanding family safety rules. 

We have been working with the children these last 2 weeks on our Keeping Ourselves Safe programme and you may have noticed the children have brought home some homework sheets to complete. A reminder that these sheets can stay at home once completed. It has been really awesome to have discussions with the children about their address, their phone numbers, different feelings we may have, and what to do if they get lost. We were also lucky to have 2 sessions with Constable Meg where we discussed what a police officer is, the different body parts, and talking about good touch, bad touch and confusing touch.  If you have any questions about any of this programme, please come and chat to one of the kaiako. 

Reminders:

• A reminder that we are a water bottle school, and prefer it if the children drink water throughout the day, rather than flavoured milk or juice.
• Next week is the last week of Term 3. 
• Calendar Art: We have sent home the information sheets with the code you need to use if you wish to order your child's calendar art. This is only for Elizabeth, Stacey and Georgia's home groups. Please check the photos on the windows to see the awesome work your child has done. 

• Click on these links and join in as your children sing one of their favourite songs, Sprinkle a Little Sunshine (here with the lyrics, and here, without, but with very cute images instead!)
• For those new families to the Koru team, a link through to the National Anthem which we sing each morning - your children are doing an awesome job with this, participating and trying their very best each morning
• Clicking here will take you to a variety of links for those of you who would like to read more about The Science of Reading and Structured Literacy.

 Kia ora, e te whānau,

Wow! What an incredible first few weeks of the term we have had! There has been a lot happening in our hub, across all areas of school life. We have had different themes for our Learning Through Play, such as transport and vehicles, and cafes and restaurants. The children's imaginations have been running wild with these ideas and this is evident in the games they have been playing with each other, and the creations they have made.

Our tamariki are becoming very knowledgeable about the different school-wide "Words of the Week" we have had. We have talked a lot about the first three words we have had this term:

• Upstander: Standing up for others in situations that aren't right, and supporting others who may need your help
• Honesty: Being truthful in what we say and do 
• Inclusion: Making others feel a part of something and including others in your activities/games. 

 Kia ora, e te whānau,

Yoga!

Digitech - practising our coding!

Outside play!

 Kia ora, e te whānau,

We hope you have all had a lovely week. In the Koru hub, we have had a very busy week, as we continue with our small group Maths and Literacy learning. The children are doing a great job adjusting to the routines, following expectations, and trying really hard with their learning. They have been absolute superstars!

This week, we welcome Annabelle and Ariana, who started in the Koru Team in Week 4, and Archie, Alex and Violet who started in the Koru team this week. You have all settled really well into the routines and have done a great job at following instructions, making friends, and trying new things. Ka pai, tamariki!

We also welcome back Georgia and Nicola into our Koru teaching team! Nicola will be in for Stacey, generally on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, for the remainder of Term 1. Georgia has started back full-time, as more children join the Koru team and will be here Monday to Friday. 

Friendship List:

We have decided to extend our Friendship List date until Wednesday, 8th March. If you have not already, please email Georgia (georgia.mckenna@beckenham.school.nz) with your details if you wish to be on this list. This is a great way to get in contact with other whānau to arrange play dates. 

Word of the week:

The word of the week this week has been 'Respect'. In the Koru team, we have discussed what respect means, how we can show respect to others, how we can respect our classroom equipment, and why respect is really important in order to develop trust in the relationships you have with others. If you wanted to discuss our word of the week further, you could chat with your child about what showing respect might look like at home, during your weekend activities, and in different environments. 

House games:

This week, we had our first House Games. House Games involve the whole school and are when the children play different games with other children in the same house. House Games are run by the house captains and deputy house captains. There were lots of different activities that the tamariki tried, and the senior leaders did a great job at running these activities. Our tamariki showed "We Love Challenge", "We Love Learning", and "We Get There Together", through being engaged with the activities, listening to the leaders, persevering and giving the activities a great go, trying their best, and most importantly, having FUN!

Structured Literacy:

We have continued in our small groups, during Structured Literacy time, to learn new letter sounds at Stage 1. Each time a new sound is learnt, your child will be bringing home a few letter sounds to practise at home and these letter sets will be added to, as the children progress. These can be used to practise the pure sounds the letters make and then once children have learnt segmenting and blending skills, they can then use these skills to segment and blend the sounds together to form words. 

You may also notice some Heart Words in your child's sound pack. Our Heart Words are words that cannot be sounded out, simply need to be learned 'by heart' and when the children are at home, can be used to practise reading and writing. Once children are proficient in segmenting and blending the first 8 sounds together, and know the first five heart words, they will start bringing home decodable books to read with you at home. 

Here at school, we have recorded some videos to support our whānau with understanding what our literacy stages look like and what you can do to support your learner at home.

Click on the links below to access videos at Stage 1. 

Stage 1

How to Help At Home

Looking for treasure in the sandpit!

How exciting - our new puzzles have arrived!!

Testing out one of the new puzzles! Great work, team!

Beautiful colouring!

Lots of fun with playdough

Great fun with the vehicles!

Creating our sound of the week "M" mouse craft 

What a great session we had on Friday with Whaea Cath!

Our very first House Games!

So fast!

Wow - great work!

Moving so fast!

We love parachutes!

Beautiful colouring, team!

Awesome teamwork!

I love how carefully you are colouring in your butterfly!

Great work coding the Beebot!

Wow - awesome colouring!

Look at the beautiful collage work!

Smiling faces ready to start creating!