Kahikatea Newsletter Term 4 Week 6

Kia ora koutou,

We have had a fun-filled fortnight of learning in the Kahikatea team. 


Rāpaki Marae Trip

The sun shone for us last Wednesday, as we ventured off to Rāpaki Marae. We hopped on board the buses at the start of the day and traveled through the tunnel and around the bays to Rāpaki. We walked down a long, steep driveway, and were in awe of the beauty before us. We were greeted with a pōwhiri, followed by stories from Maui, who explained the history of the area and of the marae. 

We had a fabulous time down at the beach, exploring and searching for items on our scavenger hunt. 

A very special thank you to all of the parent helpers who came along to support us!







































ESOL Group

This week the students had the opportunity to harvest produce from their garden to make a colourful vegetable salad to enjoy.











Billy the Magpie

This morning, we had the privilege of meeting Alex's new friend, Billy the Magpie. Billy had an injured leg, and Alex's family have been looking after her. She has decided that she quite likes it at Alex's house! 




Upcoming Events

Wednesday 9th December - Junior Athletic Sports from 1:30pm
Thursday 10th December - Kahikatea Pool and Picnic Day at Waltham Pool
Friday 11th December - Final Celebration Assembly 9:15am
Wednesday 16th December - School finishes for the year at 12:30pm







Kahikatea Newsletter Term 3 Week 6

 Kia ora koutou,

We have had two fun and busy weeks since our last blog post. The Kahikatea children have been actively engaged in the various programmes on offer, and it has been wonderful to see everyone living our values of 'We Love Learning' and 'We Love Challenge' every day.

It has been fabulous to end the week with the sun shining! It really feels like Spring is just around the corner...hooray!

We miss seeing you in the mornings and afternoons, so we thought it would be nice to share a typical day in the life of a Kahikatea kid to give you insight into what we do each day.

8:55 - The bell rings and the children meet their homegroup teacher in their home space. During this time, the teacher does the roll and shares the daily notices. Sometimes we do a mindfulness activity to get our brains ready for learning. We do the Mystery Bag at this time too. The children are very good at asking open-ended questions to narrow down what could be inside the bag.

9:10 - Reading. We begin reading with a shared Big Book. During this time, teachers models what a good reader sounds like. The teacher prompts children to think about the structure of the text, the language used, the function of the surface features, and together we enjoy a shared story. After this, the teachers read with children in small groups, and when they are not with a teacher they are doing activities that link to the Big Book, practise spelling, select texts from their group boxes to read, and do other literacy-related activities.




10:00 - Handwriting. Our handwriting programme sees some children writing on whiteboards, while some write in books. Bounce and Skip pay careful attention during this time to spot children with great body posture, pencil grip, the correct formation of letters and their concentration and effort. 




10:20 - Morning Tea Snack

10:30 - Morning Tea Play

10:50 - The bell rings, and children return to their homespaces for phonics. Following this, we begin writing. This often involves shared writing, in which the teacher and the children co-construct a text. The teacher also records key words and ideas on the whiteboard for children to refer to. All children do a picture plan in their book to get them thinking about their story. Many children use alphabet, word and blend cards to support them in the crafting of their writing.


11:40 - Maths. We teach Maths collaboratively (Amber & Lisa / Katie & Charlotte). We begin each maths session with a warm-up/hot-spot to switch our brain into maths mode. Two days per week see children involved in small group instruction with a teacher and independent activities that support children with their next steps in mathematics. We have two inquiry days, where children work with a maths buddy to solve open-ended inquiry maths questions. We have a concept day once a week, where we focus in on one particular aspect of mathematics, for example, subtraction or fractions and do a range of activities related to this.

12:20 - Brain Break. This is a chance to move, drink, have a toilet stop and have a snack. Teachers usually read a novel or picture book to the children during this time.

12:40 - Lunch Play

1:20 - The bell rings and children line up to wash their hands with soap and water. They then meet their homegroup teacher in their home space to do the roll and have some quiet, supervised eating time together. After this, we collect our bags from the cubbies and pack our lunchboxes, drink bottles, jerseys and reading folders. 

2:00 - We meet in the pathway to hear our Discovery options for the afternoon. Popular choices often include construction, drawing, making, outside play, craft, drama, quiet reading and board games. This is a lovely time of the day for children to connect with their friends across the hub and spend time working together and immersing themselves in learning through play.















Dates to Note

Monday 31st August - Staff Only Day

Friday 4th September - Wacky Hair Day. This is to support the Child Cancer Foundation. Children can come to school in mufti and wear a wig, hat, or have wacky hair.

Looking Ahead: TERM 4

Next term we have three significant events booked: whole school athletics, water safety lessons and a trip to Rapaki Marae. At level 2 these events can take place, although our wholes school athletics at Level 2 would not include spectators.  

Sandy is planning to send out a parent/caregivers survey regarding these and other events (eg Year 5/6 camp) very soon. Please do look out for it. 









Kahikatea News Term 2 Week 8

Growing

For the past couple of weeks, our learning in the middle part of the day has been around the theme 'Growing'. This has seen children involved in learning challenges and experiences involving nature, construction, and understanding how our bodies work.
















Library Days

It has been great to get back into the school library and issue new books. Each home group now has an allocated day for returning and issuing. Please support your child to remember their library folder when it is their day.
Amber: Tuesday
Katie: Wednesday
Jules: Thursday
Charlotte: Friday

New Playground

Wow! What a fantastic time we have had this week exploring the new playground! It has been a very popular place during break times, and we feel very fortunate to have it immediately outside our hub.



Kahikatea Week 6-7 Term 1 News

Kia ora koutou,

We have centered much of our learning this week around the construction that is happening outside of our hub. It has been very exciting to see the landscape change over the past six weeks.

Maths
Children worked with their learning buddies to discuss the story, choose a strategy, and use materials to solve the problem together.

Writing


We have been writing about the playground construction site. Here are some photo's of our brainstorming...





At school there is a construction site. I can't wait until it is finished because it will be such fun to play in. The workers are doing a good job. I love it!

By Hannah





Plea for materials

One of the most popular choices during Discovery Time is 'making'. For this, we require a range of recyclable materials. At the moment we need...


  • milk bottle tops
  • cardboard boxes (small, e.g., cereal or muesli bar boxes)
  • tubes 
  • newspaper (for painting and art)
Board games provide opportunities for tamariki to practice taking turns and working together. If you have any board games or puzzles that you no longer require, we would gratefully receive these, particularly as we are heading into the cooler months.

That's all for now!
Amber, Charlotte, Jules, Lisa and Katie

Parent Help for Waltham Pool Trip

Tena koutou,

We will be going on a trip to Waltham Pool on Tuesday 18th December. We will be leaving school at 11:00 and returning at 3:00.

This is to celebrate a very successful year in the Pohutukawa team.

We require eight parent helpers to walk with us there and back and to help supervise children. Please email your child's home room teacher if you are able to help.

Kind regards,

The Pohutukawa teaching team

tracy.inwood@beckenham.school.nz
gayle.mcnaughton@beckenham.school.nz
nick.bruce@beckenham.school.nz
katie.mcfarlane@beckenham.school.nz