Author Archives: Katie McFarlane

Kahikatea News Term 1 Week 3

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Kia ora e te whānau mā,

It has been lovely to see our children continuing to settle into the new school year! 'We Love Learning' has been a value that the teachers have noticed in action, with children enthusiastically approaching their learning. Nau mai te wero, bring on the challenge!

Hats

Students are required to wear hats outside in Terms 1 and 4. Please make sure that your child has a clearly named wide-brimmed or bucket hat. We recommend leaving hats at school in your child's home group hat tub. This helps minimise the possibility of losing or forgetting hats and it supports us in ensuring smooth transitions to breaks during the day. 

Toys at School

We have noticed that some children are bringing toys (including soft toys) from home to school. We have reminded tamariki that their toys need to stay at home. We find that if children bring a toy from home it can become a distraction during learning, and sometimes these special items become lost or broken during the day. If your child needs extra support with settling into school, please speak to your child's home group teacher, and together, we will come up with a plan.

Celebration Assembly and Team Hui

We had the first Celebration Assembly and Team Hui of the year last Friday with many parents/caregivers joining us. Congratulations to Kahikatea children who received a Kete award or a certificate for showing our school values.



Sharing our Learning

We had some special visitors in the Kahikatea hub this week! It is butterfly season, so we were thrilled to get the chance to learn about the life cycle of butterflies this week when a learner brought their chrysalises in to share. Even more exciting were the obvious changes in the chrysalises throughout the day and then the appearance of butterflies.




Literacy at home


Your child's literacy teacher will send home resources to support your child's structured literacy learning at home by the end of this week. These resources align with your child's current structured literacy stage. As your child moves through the stages, these resources will be updated. Please keep an eye out for them in your child's reading folder and let your child's teacher know if you have any questions.

Maths

In Kahikatea so far this term, we have been working on an NZ Maths unit called ‘All about us’. We have explored:

  • Different ways to count groups of objects

  • Creating and interpreting picture graphs

  • Features of 2D shapes

  • The language of position

  • Ordering objects by mass (weight)

  • Creating sequential patterns


Here are some photos of some of the fabulous mathematical thinking that our tamariki have displayed...
























That's all for now! 
Team Kahikatea

quynh.nguyen@beckenham.school.nz
lisa.collier@beckenham.school.nz
krystal.hunt@beckenham.school.nz
amber.donovan@beckenham.school.nz
katie.mcfarlane@beckenham.school.nz

Kahikatea News Term 4 Week 9

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Kia ora e te whānau,

One final post for the year to say a huge thank you to you all for your support this year. We have had a wonderful year of learning in the Kahikatea Team. We have been honoured to work with your tamariki as they fill their kete for the journey ahead. 

Bubble Fun & Ice Blocks!

We had a fabulous time celebrating a successful year on Wednesday. We surprised the children with an afternoon of bubble fun and ice blocks. The delight on the children's faces and the squeals of glee were priceless. A common phrase we heard around us was, "This is the best day of school ever!"






















Wishing you all a happy and safe holiday break! 

Katie, Krystal, Lisa, Emma, and Megan 










Kahikatea News Term 4 Week 1

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Kia ora e te whānau,

We have had a wonderful start to Term 4! This blog contains a lot of important information about the next few weeks of Term 4.

Thank you for sending your child to school with a hat this week. We find it helpful for your child to keep their hat at school as this ensures that your child always has one!


Literacy

We have launched straight back into our literacy and maths learning this week. Some children are with a different literacy group this term. At the conclusion of each term, we run a series of assessments to ensure that children are working at their correct instructional stage. It has been exciting to see the ongoing progress of our literacy learners!

If you have any Little Learners texts at home, please send them back to school. We are giving out one house point per book returned. 


Maths

Our maths focus for the first four weeks of this term is Time. We have started this with learning the days of the week (reading, writing, counting forward and back the days, and sequencing), and next week we move into learning about the months of the year and reading a calendar. We will also touch on telling the time on digital and analogue clocks in the coming weeks. Please feel free to have a chat with your child/ren about what they are learning, and reinforce this at home.


Library

Please note that library days have changed for some. Emma and Katie's home groups go to the library on Tuesday, and Krystal and Megan's home groups go to the library on Thursday. Please ensure that your child has their library folder on their library day.


Athletics

We are really looking forward to our school athletics day next Wednesday, the 26th of October. You are welcome to come along and support your child. We will be running our event from 11:00 until 11:50. You will find us in the park in front of the hall.
 
Here is the social story that we have shared with the children in preparation for the day.







Kahikatea Swimming

Swimming begins on Monday of Week 3. Tamariki will have nine sessions in total. The dates are as follows: 

Monday 31st October
Tuesday 1st November
Wednesday 2nd November
Thursday 3rd November
Friday 4th November
Monday 7th November
Tuesday 8th November
Wednesday 9th November
Thursday 10th November

Thank you so much to the parents who have offered to help. We now have enough helpers.

Please go through the following social story with your child to support us in setting them up for success...




















Learning in action...

Here are some photos of what our tamariki have been up to this week:


















































Thank you for taking the time to read through this week's blog. If you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch with your child's home group teacher.

Have a lovely long weekend!

Katie, Emma, Krystal, Megan, and Lisa

katie.mcfarlane@beckenham.school.nz
emma.hayes-smith@beckenham.school.nz
krystal.hunt@beckenham.school.nz
megan.harris@beckenham.school.nz
lisa.collier@beckenham.school.nz



Kahikatea Athletics

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Kia ora whānau,

We made the most of the lovely weather today and got outside to practice our four athletics stations. The tamariki were amazing - so focused, motivated, and energised! 

We are really looking forward to our whole-school athletics event on Wednesday 26th October. Kahikatea's events are from 11:00 - 12:40. We would love to see you there if you can make it!

Training for this event will continue in Week 1 of Term 4, so please ensure that your child wears appropriate footwear to school each day.

Here are some photos of our children in action today...



















Kahikatea News Term 3 Week 7

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 Kahikatea Team News - Term 3 Week 7

Kia ora koutou,

It has been a busy couple of weeks in the Kahikatea team! Read on to find out more about what we have been up to.

Kete Focus: We Love Challenge!

The student council organised a fun STEM activity during 'We Love Challenge' week. We were given a selection of materials and had to design a bridge that could hold a tin can. We made changes as we went when we realised that something didn't quite work, and persevered when it was tricky. We did so well!










Learning Through Play

It is always a joy to watch our children interact, discover, negotiate, and problem-solve during Learning Through Play. Here are some recent photos of us in action!


















Te Whare Tapa Wha

During our home group time, we are learning all about how we can support our wellbeing (hauora) using the Te Whare Tapa Wha model. We have a fabulous new poster that illustrates how important it is to take care of all of the different aspects of our lives to support our wellbeing. 






That's all for now!
Team Kahikatea