Kia ora,

We hope you are all doing well in your 'bubble'. The teachers have been relaxing this week through baking, art, reading and taking walks or biking, applying the physical distance rule, around the local area.



There are some lovely autumn colours to see on the walk around the neighbourhood.




Wow! We have loved seeing the creativity and fun that has been happening during the first week of the holidays.

Thank you to our tamariki who shared a photo with us. We hope you enjoy seeing what your teammates have been up to.


We will do another post after Easter, so please, send in your favourite photo from the second week of the holiday, by Monday 13th April.

Elizabeth's email address: elizabethgail.drummond@beckenham.school.nz
Jo's email address: jo.smith@beckenham.school.nz

Kia ora whānau,

WOW! What a fabulous trip we had to the Christchurch Botanic Gardens. The weather was perfect and there was so much to see and enjoy.

The educator form the Art Gallery taught us how to find something we wanted to paint, how to lightly sketch a very simple outline and then how to use watercolours.

We also explored some of the gardens. We saw large trees, a friendly fantail, saw flowers and plants of various colours and sizes, enjoyed the scent of the rose garden and made the most of the playground.

Thank you to the parents who were able to give their time and come with us. We couldn't have gone without you. We hope you had as much fun as we did.

We were very sun smart, so there are a lot of hats in the photos.... can you guess who is who?

Kia ora whānau,

Welcome to the 2020 school year. It is wonderful to see so many familiar faces and to welcome our 'newbies'.

Our focus for the first three weeks is on building relationships, establishing routines, expectations and focusing on the Kete Values, We Care and We Get There Together.

We are so incredibly proud of how our tamariki are going with these values.  They are using kind words, helping each other out, offering to share and working as a team at tidy up time.




We have been focusing on how we can fill our own buckets and those of others. We have read a book called 'Have you filled a bucket today?'. A bucket filler acts and speaks with We Care towards others and themselves. When they do these things they are filling buckets. Ask your child what filling a bucket might look and sound like.





Outside play

We are making the most of the outdoors for our learning. We are enjoying the play space, Treemendous and using sports gear.



















Maths Exploration

We have had great fun being mathematicians exploring patterns, reading and writing numbers, counting forwards and backwards, and learning to use the equipment in a variety of mathematical ways.












Ngā mihi mahana koutou,
Elizabeth and Jo

Kia ora koutou,

What a busy couple of weeks we have had!

We Love Reading

Reading is a great way to relax, use your imagination, learn something new and explore new worlds. It's fun to read with a buddy.






Reading 'Inside the Maize Maze' inspired some children to create marble mazes and draw a maze outside.





We Love Digital Technologies

Over the past couple of weeks we have had a chance to start coding using Beebots. We learnt a lot about inputting commands, testing, adapting the code and retesting. We had great fun working with a buddy.













We Love Watching Hail Storms

What a lot of interesting questions and discussions were generated by the hail, thunder and lightning last week.




We are excited about the our trip to a farm this week. We will make sure to take lots of photos.

Ngā mihi,
Stacey, Jo, Elizabeth and Kristika

Tēnā koutou katoa,

Another couple of weeks of fun and learning in the Koru team!

Kōmanawa's fourth space is up and running, with Stacey's Home Group finding a home space. Welcome to our newest tamariki and their whānau. We also welcome Noelene who will be in for Stacey on Thursdays.



Spring

Spring means daffodils and blossoms! We carried out some observational drawing and painting of the daffodils.  There was also an experiment to see if you can change the colour of the flower by using dye in the water. A group of children decided that the tree in Kōmanawa needed blossoms - it's looking beautiful.








Which angle is the best?

Testing was carried out to see which angle made for the fastest ramp and the greatest distance. Various ramps around the school were tried.




It was determined that the greater the angle the faster and more distance you could travel. Some ramps weren't steep enough and the trolley would go only some of the way. The Tahaki ramp was the most successful, followed by the dirt pile. The dirt pile was the most fun!

Construction

There have been a variety of constructions over the past couple of weeks. With plenty of questions to answer.
What makes them the most stable so they can go high?
How can cars best be housed?
What design makes the best palace for fancy marbles?







What other buildings do you find in a town?


What is the best way to secure a tarp? How can the roof be made high enough so that movement is easy? What will add comfort to the hut?



We are looking forward to what fun and learning the next two weeks bring.

Ngā mihi mahana kia koutou,
Elizabeth, Stacey, Kristika, Noelene and Jo