Welcome to the last two weeks of the school year. Here are a few final updates from the team.


Sherrilee, who has taught Te Reo Māori and kapa haka  at Beckenham for 25 years will be farewelled at a special assembly in our courtyard on Wednesday 11th starting at 9:30am. Parents are welcome to attend. 

Inquiry
the children have made some wonderful creation suing electrical circuits. some of the circuits do not have a switch co can you keep a close eye on them so they do not get too hot!

Final Assembly
This coming Friday 13th December is our Final Celebration Assembly for the year. Feel  free to come along if you have children receiving Kete Awards or would like to farewell any of the staff that  are leaving.
Graduation Assembly is on Wednesday 16th December. 

Books
On Friday, we will be sending home the children's books and stationery from this year. This will include used and unused items. Please put any unused items in a safe place as they can be used for both Kōwhai and Pōhutukawa in 2020. 
For our Year 4 moving to Pōhutukawa next year, we do strongly recommend that your child have their own device. This will last them until they leave in Year 8 and are a great investment.
On Monday, we will send home any art work from the hub. Please send your child with an extra bag in case they need it.

Transition to Pōhutukawa
This week, we have been providing time for the Year 4s to visit the team so they can see the many similarities in our teams. The children are letting us know how many visits they need and for many they have commented that it's just like going home as this was our team hub last year.

Last Week of Fun
Friday 13th - Squirt Mania The children can bring along a water pistol, togs or change of clothes. We will be having a wacky and wet afternoon of fun!
Monday 16th - Children are able to bring along their favourite game to play as part of their 'Be a teacher for the day'.
Wednesday 18th- Squirt Mania.The children can bring along a water pistol, togs or change of clothes. We will be having a wacky and wet afternoon of fun!
Thursday 18th- Visit new home rooms and teacher. School finishes at lunchtime (12.40pm)

That's all for now
Kōwhai Teaching Team

It's hard to believe that we are now halfway through the term! Here is the latest from the Kōwhai Team.

Athletics Day

We were treated to spectacular weather at our recent School Athletics Day. The children all did their best at each of the events despite the soaring temperatures. We were really impressed with the skills they have developed over the past few weeks and the way they all showed the school values 'We Get There Together' by working collaboratively and 'We Love Learning' in the way they did their personal best.
Thank you to all the parents who were able to come down and support on the day. We know the children appreciated having you all there.

Electricity and Circuits

Over the past few weeks, the children have been learning about electricity and circuits. They have learnt how electricity moves and how to make a series and parallel circuit. Over the next couple of weeks, the children will be applying this knowledge along with their creativity to create something innovative that uses a series circuit. Your child is currently in the 'Hunting and Gathering' design phase of this process. They might want to bring items to school to help them with the construction of their innovative design. Please do not go out and purchase special things for this. We hope to share these amazing creations with you as they are finished.

CSO Big Bang Concert

We were so lucky to have the opportunity to see the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra (CSO) play at the Christchurch Town Hall last week. The children were 'blown away' with the beauty of the Town Hall and even more impressed with the performance by the CSO. We would like to express our thanks to the parents who were able to accompany us on the trip. Without your support, these events are just not possible.



Itinerant Music Tuition in 2020

Learning Through Play- Discovery Time

Our Discovery Time is seeing the children really taking ownership of their learning. Children are currently learning how to code Bee-Bots and Sphero robots  (Digital Curriculum), writing books either individually or collaboratively, learning how to prepare food. This coming week the children will learn how to make and prepare sandwiches. This will be a great help at home, no doubt! There are many children really keen on exploring the arts with 'flipping' the learning and teaching themselves how to draw or sketch. We really value this component of our programme as it provides the children with the opportunity to be deep thinkers, problem solve, collaborate and create. Here are the children in action!

Collaborative Writing

Learning To Draw

Programming the Bee-Bots

Hi everyone,

Here is the latest from the Kōwhai team.

Athletics Day

Reminder,  we have our School Athletics Day this coming Monday 4th November. We will be beginning our activities at 11.50am. The children can wear their house shirts, need their drink bottle and a sunhat for the day. Here is our programme for the morning. The children will have approximately 10 minutes at each event station with 5 minutes for them to move from one station to another. The purpose of this athletics day is to show you the pre athletic skills the children have been learning at school.

The children in the sprint finals which will be held after 2pm are:

Year 3: Alex, Zeke, Holly, Cammie, Jack, Lara, Justin, Rose

Year 4: Jayde, Bobbi, Cian, Isaac, Isabelle, Blake, Petal, Archie

Food Technology

This term as part of our Discovery Time, we are teaching the children basic food hygiene and preparation skills. We hope that this will enable the children to help more at home when they are in the kitchen. This week the children have all been learning how to peel and cut vegetables. They can now make wedges. This could be something that they could make for dinner one night over the next week.

Sunhats

We still seem to have many children coming to school without their sunhat. Can you help us by making sure your child has their hat at school each day? It would be an opportune time to check that the jerseys are clearly named too so we can return them to the rightful people.

Big Bang Concert

We are still in need of four parent helpers to come along to the Big Bang Concert on Wednesday 13th November. All details are in the previous post. This is a short excursion where the children will be able to see the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra playing some classical as well as some well-known tunes. We will be leaving school around 9.15am and returning at 11.30am. Please email your home group teacher if you can help.

Welcome back everyone. We have had a great first week back and loved the 'hum' in the hub as the children chatted about their holidays. We are really looking forward to this term as we know the weather will only continue to get warmer as we head towards summer.

Athletics

At the moment we are currently teaching the children some basic athletics skills including discus, shot put, high jump, long jump and running (sprints and relays) each Thursday afternoon. During this time the children are being taught safe and effective techniques as well as perseverance, resilience and sportsmanship. Our whole school athletics day is a celebration of this learning which will be held on Monday 4th of November. Kōwhai team will begin at 11:50 am.

Hats / Drink bottles / Lunch

Just a reminder that all children need their hat at school EVERY day. Please check with your child to make sure they have their hat (clearly named) in their school bag. As the weather continues to warm up, it is really important for the children to stay hydrated. We will be providing regular 'Drink to Think' times during the day for the children to have some water. We would love your support with ensuring your child has their drink bottle at school.

Lunch and morning tea
Starting next week, the children will be keeping their lunch boxes inside their school bags as they often get the sunshine on the shelves when the weather warms up. We want to make sure the children's lunches are kept hygienic. To make it easy for them to access their morning tea, it would be really helpful if this was in a separate container for the children to put into their tote tray in the hub. Thanks so much.

Inquiry

This term, we are continuing to explore the concept, 'Innovation requires Creativity and has ethical implications'. Our main curriculum focus this term is Science with the children learning about electricity and circuits. Some of the Big Ideas we aim to teach this term include:
1. Electricity is a form of energy
2. Electrical energy can be generated in a number of ways
3. For electricity to flow through a circuit it needs to be closed.
4. There are different types of circuits (series, simple, parallel)
5. Switches can turn circuits off
The children will exercise thier creativity by being innovative with applying this knowledge to a gadget or toy. We look forward to sharing this learning as the term progresses.

TORCHES
One of our lessons requires the children to investigate how a torch works. If you have any old torches that you are happy for us to dismantle to discover how they work, please send them to school on Monday or Tuesday.

Music

This term the children are lucky to be able to receive specialist music tuition. Josie is continuing to teach recorder and will provide lessons for Rowe and Paulette's home group and Roger Hamilton is teaching Nick and Kate's home group ukulele. Our lessons are every Tuesday afternoon. We hope these lessons will inspire some of the children to learn a musical instrument next year.

Literacy- Speeches

At the moment most of the children are all in the process of writing a simple speech to share with their peers. We have provided the children with agency to choose their own topic to talk about. It's been wonderful to see the children so motivated and keen to share their expertise on a specific topic. The children will share their speeches in the hub over the next couple of weeks. Some children might want to practice their speech at home, and if so, will bring their cue cards home to do so.

Basic Facts

As a team, we are having a focus this term on basic facts. We have identified areas the children need to work on and are using Study Ladder and an app that Nick has created to support this learning. You might like to ask your child what skill they are working on and give them time to practice at home.

Discovery

We understand the importance of providing the children with agency and time to develop their communication, problem solving, leadership or cooperative skills, perseverance and risk taking. This term during our Discovery Time, the children will have the opportunity to learn how to programme (code) a sphero, gain art skills, learn some basic cooking/food preparation skills, and complete engineering tasks and challenges. Here are some of the children in action this week.

Dates for the Diary

28th October- Labour Day (school closed)
4th November- School Athletics Day
8th November- Whānau Rōpū Hui
13th November- CSO Big Bang Concert (Trip to the Town Hall)
15th November - Canterbury Show Day (school closed)
20th November- Training Band Concert

That's all for now
Kōwhai Teaching Team