Author Archives: Nick Bruce

Kōwhai News Term 2 Week 9

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Kia ora whānau,

Welcome to the Kōwhai blog for Week 9!

Whānau Hui

We had lots of fun at our Whānau Hui this week. Thank you for coming along to take part in our Matariki celebration. There was lots of excitement in the air, culminating in an amazing performance given by the Kōwhai Kapa Haka group. Well done everyone! Here are some photos of what we got up to:










Waka

Over the past few weeks, our students have been engaged in building waka (Māori canoes) as part of our learning on New Zealand migration. Some children have built their waka using sticks, string and paper while others have built them in Minecraft. Here are some photos of their work:









AI Art

This term some of the children have been exploring the use of generative AI to create stunning digital portraits. Here is some of their work:

 


Reading Folders

If your child is bringing home Pip and Tim books, it is important that they bring their reading folder back to school every day. We suggest that the children always put their reading folder straight back into their bag as soon as they have finished reading at home. That way the folder will always make its way back to school safely. Thank you for your support with this.

Sickness

We are in the middle of the winter illness season. Please remember to keep your child at home if they are unwell. We are trying to minimise the spread of germs by encouraging the children to wash their hands before eating and sanitise or wash their hands as needed throughout the day.

End of Term

As the term draws to a close, we hope you have a restful and enjoyable break with your children, and we look forward to welcoming everyone back for another exciting term ahead.

Happy holidays!

From the Kōwhai team

Kōwhai News Term 1 Week 7

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Kia ora everyone,

Here is the latest news from the Kōwhai hub.

GetWise Visit

This week we learnt about financial literacy with Jeff, a guest educator from ASB Bank.

Jeff was lots of fun and used interactive activities and practical examples to teach the children about important financial concepts such as saving, budgeting, and managing money. The students were actively engaged, asked questions, and participated with great enthusiasm in the lessons.

Emma Nahna Visit

We are fortunate to have the wonderful Emma Nahna, Speech-Language Therapist and Literacy Consultant, coming to run a whānau workshop this term. Emma is extremely knowledgeable and an engaging speaker. Her mission is to support educators and parents “...to grow every child into a successful reader and writer.”

Emma will be running a whānau workshop on Thursday 23rd March at 5:30pm for our Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto whānau. The first hour and a half will cover the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of structured literacy across the school and how you can support your learner at home. The last half an hour of the session will emphasise the importance of continuing to follow a structured literacy approach into the senior levels of the school, and will delve into morphology (the study of the forms of words) and syntax (the arrangement of words to create sentences).

Photo credit: Sound Foundations for Literacy Website
https://soundfoundations.co.nz/about/

Literacy Home Learning

We recently sent home a home learning pack containing spelling booklets and information about our literacy home learning programme. An online version of this information can be found here.

If your child is bringing home Pip and Tim books then they are working through the structured literacy programme. We have recorded some videos to support your understanding of what our structured literacy stages look like and to explain what you can do to support your learner at home. You can access the videos from the links below:

Reading & Library Folders

Finally, we ask that you ensure that your child brings a reading folder to school every day so they can take their literacy books home to read. The folders help to protect our precious books from damage so that we have them in use for longer. Also, your child will need to have a library folder if they want to issue any library books as Anne, our librarian, has a strict policy of only issuing books to those who have a folder. If you are not sure which day is library day for your child, please ask your homegroup teacher.

Thank you so much for your continued support.

Have a lovely weekend. 

Ngā mihi, 

The Kōwhai Team

Kōwhai News Term 4 Week 7

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Kia ora koutou,

This term has been full of excitement! We have recently had a big focus on transitioning in preparation for 2023. The Year 4 children have had a visit to the Pōhutukawa team and the Year 3s have had Discovery with the Year 2s. All the visits have been very successful so far and enjoyed by all!

Playground

Our new junior playground opened recently and is very popular. Here are some photos of the children's favourite playground activities. 





Concert

We were privileged to enjoy two fantastic concerts last week which showcased some of our students' musical talent. Thank you to the students who performed. You were outstanding!





Kapa Haka Performance

On Wednesday, the Year 3/4 Kapa Haka group performed 5 songs at the Community Picnic and they were amazing. The children really rose to the occasion and gave it their all. Thank you to all the whānau who came to support them.




Book Return

As the school year draws to a close, we kindly ask that all Pip and Tim books are returned to school by the end of next week.

Have a great weekend!


Kōwhai News Term 3 Week 5

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Te Whare Tapa Whā

This week, we have been exploring our school's new wellbeing definition with our students. It is based on Mason Durie’s Hauora model. The students have completed a word sort to learn more about the actions and behaviour that comprise each element of the definition. We have also created role plays of how we show the definition in our own lives. 


Rākau 

The children have been designing and creating rākau (sticks) to perform traditional Māori stick games. Here is a photo of some of their rākau designs.


Book Character Day

The children had lots of fun dressing up for Book Character Day last week. Here are some of their costumes.







Amazing Dancers

Congratulations to Caoimhe, Penelope, Izzy and Poppy who performed a dance at assembly last week. They spent weeks choreographing and practising it. Their performance was outstanding.

Have a great weekend!


Kōwhai News Term 2 Week 3

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Kia ora whānau,

We have been doing a lot of exciting activities in the Kōwhai Hub this week.

Discovery

This term, during Discovery, a group of children have been learning to write computer programmes using Scratch. The children have been learning about concepts such as events, if statements, loops and variables. Some children have been making their own computer games while others have been programming interactive stories.




Science

We have been learning a lot during our science lessons and have been having lots of fun at the same time. Here are some photos of our crystal growing experiment.




Statistics

Next week, we will be starting a new maths topic focusing on statistical literacy and investigations. The children will be learning about fair surveys, graphs, spreadsheets and more.

Celebration Assembly

Last week, we were able to have Celebration Assembly indoors for the first time in months. It was great to be able to get together again. At the moment, half the school goes to assembly at one time to help us maintain a safe level of social distancing.

That's all for this week.

The Kōwhai Team