Author Archives: Koru R

Kōwhai News Term 3 Week 10

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Kia ora e te whānau! Welcome to the Kōwhai team's week 10 blog.

Hats     

We are now starting to prepare for Term 4 and we are back to wearing hats outside at all times. Please could you ensure that your child has a named hat ready for the first day of Term 4 as they will not be able to participate in outdoor activities without it. Thank you so much for your support with this.

Willowbank

This week we have focused on our fabulous trip to Willowbank. It was a perfect sunny day and we all had a marvellous time. After arriving at Willowbank, the students had morning tea in the barn at the farmyard. We then set off on our fantastic adventure looking at all Willowbank had to offer. Everyone was very respectful of other visitors and the animals and as you can see from the photos below, there was a lot to see and enjoy.










































Athletics Day

On Thursday 24th October next term (Week 2), we will be running a whole school Athletics Day to which you are welcome to come and support your child/children. There will be more information to follow next term.


Structured Literacy Books

Finally, we are needing all the structured literacy books that have been sent home to be handed back ready for next term. Please make sure that all of them are returned as soon as you can.

Thank You

We would like to take the opportunity to thank your children for all their hard work this term. It has been a busy time but there has been a lot of fantastic learning along the way. Thank you to you as parents and caregivers for all you do to support us and your children. We get there together!


Kōwhai News Term 2 Week 8

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Kia ora Whānau, we have had another busy and fun fortnight in Kōwhai! 

Welcome to Tracey

A warm welcome to Tracey who has joined our team. Tracey will be providing CRT for our Teachers as well as using her expertise in Structured Literacy to support our team.

Kia ora koutou,
My name is Tracey Maloney and I'm very excited to be joining the Kowhai team.  I'll be filling in for Charlotte as she heads off on her new adventures in her new school. I know she will be missed but I'm grateful to be taking on her role and working with everyone in the Kowhai hub. Some of my favourite things to do are to go exploring and walking around our beautiful Christchurch spaces, like the Botanical Gardens and the Banks Peninsula. I love to cook and my favourite recipe is Spaghetti Bolognese. My husband is named Kevin and we have a fat black and white cat named DC. These days DC loves to eat biscuits and laze in the sun. I've been working as a Reliever Teacher at several different schools in the Christchurch area and am looking forward to being a part of the Beckenham team once again.
Ngā mihi
Tracey Maloney

Matariki     


We are looking forward to seeing you at our Matariki evening on Tuesday June 25th. All Kōwhai workshops will be in Tahaki. 

The students who are in the Kapa Haka performance group will be performing at 6:40 pm. They will need to be here by 6:15 pm (sharp) and meet in Pūkaki (Nick and Krystal's homegroup space).

NZ Opera in Schools Tour - The Elixir of Love

Last Thursday, the NZ Opera "Opera in Schools" tour visited us to perform Donizetti's The Elixir of Love. 

This 45-minute adaptation of Donizetti’s famous opera follows Adina, the daughter of the local fish and chip shop owner. Nemorino, who works there, is madly in love with her but is too shy to express his feelings. When a famous film star, Belcore, arrives and flirts with Adina, Nemorino must find the courage to fight for his love, possibly with the help of a magical Elixir of Love.






Cybersafety

Awareness of Online Harm

Many parents didn’t grow up with the internet, so it can be hard to imagine how tamariki may use it.

But these days, digital technology is a key part of our young people’s lives. They use it for learning,

communicating and entertainment.

Netsafe has released research that looked into parental awareness of children’s experiences of online risks and harm. The research found a mismatch between parents’ awareness and their children’s experiences of upsetting online content.

To check out the research, and other Netsafe resources, visit this link. 

Friendship Is...



Have a great weekend!

Kōwhai News Term 4 Week 9

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Kia ora e te whānau

Welcome to the Kōwhai team's week 9 blog. We are fast approaching the end of the school year and many of our students are counting down the sleeps until Christmas.

We have planned lots of fun activities to finish off the term, including 6 football sessions, and we all very much enjoyed watching Kauri's production of, 'Oh, the Places We Will Go', this week.

Football Sessions

Our tamariki have been lucky enough to have football lessons in these last two weeks of term. They have been delivered by Kōtuitui, who support bicultural and multicultural learnings through playing football and is a free program for schools. They provide outdoor football sessions for tamariki to enjoy irrespective of their football ability levels or previous experience. This is a new program as part of the FIFA Women’s 2023 World Cup legacy.

The children have all been enjoying these lessons, getting outside and having a good runaround as well as learning valuable ball skills and working together as a team. 





Science

As you will know, our students recently had a visit from Kerry, a representative from the Department of Conservation. Kerry taught the children lots of valuable information about kea. During the visit, the children participated in a tracking exercise where they used a device to locate a toy kea in the park. This hands-on experience allowed them to connect with nature and learn more about conservation work.
Students have been very busy making kea cards for Kerry as a thank you for such an exciting lesson. Below is a photo of us searching for the toy kea hidden in the trees. It was fitted with a transmitter!
There was much hilarity involved!



Kea Cards



Sketching

Over the last few weeks, we have been learning about sketching, going out into the park and to Treemendous to sketch nature. This week and next week, some of us are sketching fruit and having a little taste of all the different fruits afterwards. Yum! We have been sampling cherries, apples, pears, kiwi fruits, mandarins, strawberries, pineapples and even lemons. The children have been loving the experience! Below are some of the sketches the children created.









Farewell to Roger

Last week, we said farewell to Roger, our ukulele and guitar teacher who is leaving at the end of the year. We enticed him over to the hub where we sang him a song and presented him with a card from the children. He has been teaching the tamariki ukulele for most of the year and we will really miss him next year. Thank you, Roger, for all your hard work and dedication!



Farewell to Kathryn

We are also farewelling Kathryn, our literacy and maths teacher, who has been working hard with all our tamariki since term 2. We thank you so much, Kathryn, for your dedication to the children and we wish you all the best in your future pursuits!


Finally, we would like to thank you for all your support throughout the year. We couldn't do this without you! We have had an action-packed and fun-filled year with your tamariki and look forward to being reunited with some of you next year. We wish the year 4's all the best on their future adventures in Pōhutukawa and wish you all a wonderful and restful summer holiday.

Ka kite ano,

From the Kōwhai team

Kōwhai News Term 1 Week 3

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Kia ora Kōwhai whānau, 

We have had a great Week 3 in the Kōwhai Hub - our first full five-day week! We have been very busy establishing routines, engaging in learning activities and having lots of fun along the way. We have also started going to kapa haka with whaea Cath. Every homegroup will be given the opportunity to try kapa haka this term. Anna R, Rowe and Nick's homegroups are going to kapa haka from weeks 2-5 and Charlotte and Anna M's homegroups are going in weeks 6-9.

Home Learning

Our literacy groups are well under way. We will be sending a letter home soon informing you of how our home learning programme works. It is separated into two parts, depending on whether or not your child takes home a structured literacy reading book.

  1. Once your child has completed the Structured Literacy programme, home learning will consist of reading a chapter book or non-fiction book of their own choice each night. Some students will bring home a journal story or article that they have read in class. All students visit the library once a week.
  2. Optional spelling activities are also outlined.

Library days are as follows:

  • Rowe and Nick's literacy groups on Mondays
  • Anna M and Anna R's literacy groups on Tuesdays
  • Charlotte's literacy group on Wednesdays

Geometry

Currently, our students are enjoying lessons and activities based on the geometry strand of mathematics. These activities are based on learning 2D and 3D shapes and their properties. The students are being introduced to vocabulary associated with these properties, e.g., faces, edges and vertices.

There is a Geometry section in Mathematics Games on the intranet which they can use as well. Try getting the children to identify the names of common household shapes or send them on a scavenger hunt to locate shapes. 






Butterflies

We were very fortunate last week when we were given 2 monarch chrysalises for us to observe. The students were spellbound, waiting and watching as the monarchs emerged from their chrysalises. Many rich discussions about the process of metamorphosis took place. The children also discussed the process of monarch butterflies drying off their wings before they could fly. 

Art

The focus this week for Art has been creating a self-portrait. The children have been following the rules of facial proportion and have achieved some outstanding results.

Have a lovely weekend. 

Ngā mihi, 

The Kōwhai Team - Anna R, Anna M, Nick, Charlotte, Rowe and Megan.


Kōwhai News Term 1 Week 3

Posted on by

Kia ora Kōwhai whānau, 

We have had a great Week 3 in the Kōwhai Hub - our first full five-day week! We have been very busy establishing routines, engaging in learning activities and having lots of fun along the way. We have also started going to kapa haka with whaea Cath. Every homegroup will be given the opportunity to try kapa haka this term. Anna R, Rowe and Nick's homegroups are going to kapa haka from weeks 2-5 and Charlotte and Anna M's homegroups are going in weeks 6-9.

Home Learning

Our literacy groups are well under way. We will be sending a letter home soon informing you of how our home learning programme works. It is separated into two parts, depending on whether or not your child takes home a structured literacy reading book.

  1. Once your child has completed the Structured Literacy programme, home learning will consist of reading a chapter book or non-fiction book of their own choice each night. Some students will bring home a journal story or article that they have read in class. All students visit the library once a week.
  2. Optional spelling activities are also outlined.

Library days are as follows:

  • Rowe and Nick's literacy groups on Mondays
  • Anna M and Anna R's literacy groups on Tuesdays
  • Charlotte's literacy group on Wednesdays

Geometry

Currently, our students are enjoying lessons and activities based on the geometry strand of mathematics. These activities are based on learning 2D and 3D shapes and their properties. The students are being introduced to vocabulary associated with these properties, e.g., faces, edges and vertices.

There is a Geometry section in Mathematics Games on the intranet which they can use as well. Try getting the children to identify the names of common household shapes or send them on a scavenger hunt to locate shapes. 






Butterflies

We were very fortunate last week when we were given 2 monarch chrysalises for us to observe. The students were spellbound, waiting and watching as the monarchs emerged from their chrysalises. Many rich discussions about the process of metamorphosis took place. The children also discussed the process of monarch butterflies drying off their wings before they could fly. 

Art

The focus this week for Art has been creating a self-portrait. The children have been following the rules of facial proportion and have achieved some outstanding results.

Have a lovely weekend. 

Ngā mihi, 

The Kōwhai Team - Anna R, Anna M, Nick, Charlotte, Rowe and Megan.