News Filter:

Kōwhai Swimming Term 2

Posted on 9 April, 20199 April, 2019 by Paulette Newton

9th April 2019

Dear Parents/Caregivers

Swimming at Aqua Gym

The Kōwhai children are booked in to have swimming lessons at Aqua Gym next term. We have organised for the children to receive nine 30 minute lessons over two weeks. The swimming programme will run from Monday 13th May till Friday 24th May.

Aqua Gym requires ALL children to wear a swimming cap for their lessons. These are available at most sport shops for $8-10, however, The Warehouse has some caps retailing at $3. Practising putting on the swimming caps would greatly assist us at the pool too. The children will be required to wear suitable swimming costumes: either shorts or togs. Please, no bikinis.

We need the assistance of one parent at the pools each day from 9.15am - 11.30am. If you are able to help, please fill in this google survey.

At this stage, the total cost of the lessons and the transport will be $110 per child. A request for your contribution will be in the Term 2 accounts. If you want to pay this now, you can do that through internet banking or at the office.

We appreciate that this is a significant cost. We do not want any children missing out due to the cost, so please email Sandra (our finance officer) at accounts@beckenham.school.nz or call her on ph337 1404 if you want to discuss setting up a small, regular payment, or if you want to make a partial contribution to the cost.

The Kōwhai team will not have any other events next term that involve any requests for further parent contribution. We are still hopeful that we may receive a grant that will subsidise this cost.

If you want to discuss any aspect of this, please contact your child’s point of contact teacher.

Kind regards

Kowhai Teaching Team

Paulette, Nick, Kate, Rowe and Dorinda

Kōwhai News Weeks 8/9

Posted on 29 March, 20194 April, 2019 by Paulette Newton

Here is the latest updatete from our team

Supplies Wanted
We are on the hunt for some wooden pallets, old car tyres and house paint for our inquiry projects next week. Please email your home group teacher if you can help source some of these supplies.

Choir Performing
Dorinda has been working with a wonderful group of students who have been keen to create a Kōwhai Team Choir. Next Friday 12th April, theya re going to perform 2 songs at the school celebration assembly. If your child is in the choir, feel free to pop along. The assembly begins at 12.10pm. We will envevour to record the item and put in on the blog for those of you who are unabel to make it due to work committments.

Art Attack
Over the past few weeks, the children have opted into a variety of art workshops that they were interested in. It has been great to see their creativity flourish as they create unique pieces of art. We gave the children the options of paiper mache, digital art, totem poles and printmaking. Here are some pictures of the children at work.

Passions
The Green Group have had a fantastic few weeks weeding out the garden beds behind our hub, planting seeds and seedlings. Also last Friday we made porridge from scratch!

Cross Country
We are currently training for the school cross country. Each day we are working on improving our own performance by running for longer distances or running with a more positive attitude. Each day we record our efforts with the aim to be stopping less in each run and running further over time as we build our fitness up. The school cross country will be on Monday 6th May. We will send out our starting times once they have been confirmed along with the cross country route.

Swimming Lessons
Next term, as part of our annual swimming programme, we have been booked in for 9 swimming lessons at Aqua Gym. Each child will receive a 30-minute lesson in small groups. We will be travelling to and from the pools via bus and will be seeking parent help to support us without swimming programme. More detailed information will come out next week once prices have been confirmed. We noticed a huge improvement in the children's ability to swim last year due to the high-quality instruction and from having an intensive focus on swimming.

Leadership Roles
We like to grow the leadership skills of our tamariki. This term we have had some children being leaders in the Treemendous area at lunchtime and we have also established some learning buddies in our hub to help grow some of our spelling skills.

Art Gallery Trip
We had an amazing time last week when we visited the Christchurch Art Gallery. The children had a great time exploring Julia Morrison's 'Head Space' art installation. We were very impressed with the different heads that she had created. Susie, the Art Gallery teacher, took us all for a lesson where we worked with clay to create our own head. It was wonderful to see the children really exercising their creativity and demonstrating our school values, 'We care' 'We love learning' and 'We love challenge'. A HUGE thank you goes out to our incredible parent helpers who assisted us on this outing. We couldn't have gone without your assistance! Here are some examples of what the children created.

That's all for now!
Kōwhai Teaching Team

Up and Coming Events

Term 2
Cross Country- Monday 6th May
Swimming lessons- 13th May-24th May (Aqua Gym)

Kōwhai Team Newsletter Week 6

Posted on 14 March, 201918 March, 2019 by Paulette Newton

Hi everyone,

After the event on Friday, we hope you have all managed to have a safe and calm weekend with your family. We were highly impressed with the way the children coped with the lockdown on Friday. As a teaching team, our sole focus was to ensure the wellbeing of all our tamariki by keeping the children happy and calm. This included giving no information about the events that were unfolding across the city. Thank you for being so supportive and patient in this situation as we understand how challenging it must have been for you all.

Here is the latest news and fantastic learning from Kōwhai team

Trip to the Art Gallery

Julia Morison Headcase, 21 2015. Glazed stoneware, paint, tacks. Courtesy of the artist Â

In Week 8 of this term, all home groups in Kōwhai are going to be participating in an art lesson run by the gallery educator from Te Puna o Waiwhetu. The lesson is entitled Head Case. In this lesson, the children will Discover Julia Morison’s fantastic collection of 100 clay heads. In the Education Centre, students will learn how to manipulate and control clay as they make an alter ego of their own. This lesson will challenge your students to think creatively and explore the properties of clay and will take approx 90minutes.

Home groups are booked in for their lessons as follows:

Kate and Rowe’s hub departing school at 9:15 a.m and returning to school by 2.45 p.m on Monday 25th March
Nick and Paulette's hub departing school at 9.15 a.m and returning to school by 2:45 p.m on Tuesday 26th March

All children will need to bring the following:

School bag - Packed lunch, drink bottle, sun hat, polar fleece and a lightweight rain jacket.

Hydrating (Drink to Think)

While we have always encouraged the students to drink plenty of water throughout the day as a team we have decided to make drinking water regularly throughout the day a focus for all students. During each transition time (when we swap from one learning activity to the next - discovery to maths, writing to reading), we are going to ask the students to have a 'drink to think'. We have talked about the benefits of drinking lots of water, from hydrating our brain and muscles to flushing out any toxins, so the students understand the importance of drinking water. Hopefully, you will notice your child's water bottle returning home empty, or having been refilled during the day!

Literacy (Reading Support) Help Needed

We would still love the assistance of 2 parents who would be able to listen to individual children read on either a Wednesday or Thursday. Reading 1:1 daily, has huge benefits for the development and acquisition of both reading and writing skills. We have a small group of children that we would like to support to accelerate their current literacy skills. As a tutor reader, all you need to do is listen to a child read and praise and prompt their efforts made. We are open to ANY times that parents or grandparents are able to help on these days. Please let your homeroom teacher know if you can help.

Kōwhai Choir

Some of our tamariki may be coming home excitedly talking about being in our amazing choir. We are currently running this on Wednesday mornings during Discovery time as a choice children can opt into.

This past week, we had about 35 wonderful voices joining together. Children who attend these sessions with passion and frequency could be asked to perform to an audience. The children have been given a choir booklet to practice the lyrics of our performance songs and some children may take these home to practice. These booklets need to be brought back to school daily in case we have a spontaneous practice, therefore just store these in their reading folders. They should also have a plastic sleeve to protect the covers.

We will let you know of any 'gigs' we have. Our first performance will more than likely be during an Assembly at school. Here is a link to the slideshow of songs.

Please do not hesitate to contact Dorinda or Rowe with any Choir Questions you may have.

Top Team

We had an amazing time on Tuesday at our team Top Team event. The children really impressed us with their ability to work together in their teams to complete a variety of challenges. It was great to see them actively problem solving and encouraging each other to do their best. A huge thanks you goes out to our wonderful parents who gave their time to support this event.

Writing

This week we gave students a writing motivation so they would be able to write a successful recount. In Rowe and Paulette's literacy group, they gave the children some cupcakes and told them they had a mystery ingredient. We focussed on using descriptive language and personal voice to help, 'paint a picture' for the reader. Here are some samples (not the whole piece) of their incredible recount writing.

"What's in the black tray that is perched on Paulette's lap?" At that very moment, Paulette ripped off the tea towel dramatically and there in the tray was a pile a green cupcake with blue frosting. I was unsure if I wanted to eat them or not. Then... By Haile

"Is it cookies? Is it candy? What is in the tray resting on Paulette's lap. The tray was an enormous, dark and mysterious tray. Just like a wizard, she whipped off the striped tea towel hiding the mysterious items which were waiting to be discovered. There inside the tray, were many sparkling, emerald coloured alien looking cupcakes. Max

It was Monday morning and Paulette had a mystery tray on her lap with a tea towel covering it. "I've got a mystery item from Ballantynes. What do you think it is?"
The children looked in surprise as Paulette revealed tiny green cupcakes. They were as green as aliens from Mars and as spongy as Sponge Bob floating under the ocean. Jamie

Wheels in the School Grounds

As a school, we have noticed an increase in children (school and preschoolers) riding wheels in the school grounds before and after school. This can be problematic and has at times caused injuries that could have been prevented. We would love your assistance with this. The children have been asked to park their bikes in the bike storage area and to keep their bikes locked. If you have preschoolers on wheels, can you please make sure they are walking their wheels when they enter the school grounds. This will help to keep everyone safe. Thanks!

That's all for now
Kōwhai teaching team

Kōwhai News Week 4 Term 1

Posted on 4 March, 20194 March, 2019 by Paulette Newton

Welcome to week 4! It is hard to believe that we are nearly halfwayay through the term already.
Here is the latest news from Kōwhai team.

TOP TEAM EVENT- PARENT HELP STILL NEEDED

On Tuesday 12th March, Sport Canterbury is coming to school to run a Top Team Event with the children in our team.

Thank you to those parents who have already offered your assistance on for this morning event (9-11am). We still need the help of another 6-8 parents to enable this event to happen. If you are able to help please let your home group teacher know by Wednesday 6th March.

READING

This past week has seen us beginning or formal reading programme. We have worked in pairs for this which currently has Kate and Rowe's home groups working together and Paulette and Nick's home groups teaming up. This is enabling us to target the needs of the children much more effectively.

If your child is reading Level 21 (gold) or below, then they should be bringing a reading book home each day to read. This book will be one they already know, with the aim to develop their reading fluency.
Library Each teacher is taking their reading group to the library each week and we are encouraging the children to issue a chapter book to read at school or home.

WRITING

During literacy, we have had a focus on using figurative language to 'show' not 'tell' the reader. We designed our own 'wild self' using this website and the children wrote character descriptions to vividly describe the character they created. We were highly impressed with the quality of the language the children were using.
This week, we have focused on writing poems using our senses to describe an emotion. Some of these will be displayed in the hub for your viewing. We will try and post some to the blog for you to see they types of poems the children have created too. This coming week, we are carrying on with our exploration in the use of figurative language by describing an unusual food.

DMIC- Maths

We have been working in our DMIC maths groups over the past to weeks. Our focus has been around having robust discussions and challenging people's thinking when they are solving a problem by asking questions like: "How do you know this is the correct answer?" "Is there another way you can solve this problem" "How did you get this number?" We have been working hard to establish our norms on how we can effectively and collaboratively solve a maths problem.

The children have been working in pairs to solve number problems that involve adding. It has been great to see the children asking for more challenging problems! Here is an example of the types of problems that we have been solving.

Levi is making a lego ship. He needs 237 red lego bricks for the ship and 37 pieces of black lego for the cannons and 84 white bricks for the control room. How many pieces would have been used in total?

PASSIONS

To enable our children in Kōwhai team to have agency with their learning, each Friday they have been able to select a passion to pursue. This term the children have been given these options:
French
Hungarian
Green Thumbs
Coding
Thorrington Resthome
Origami

Our Passions Time, runs from 11am-12pm each Friday. It was great to see the children on Friday having fun in their first session.

Gardening Gloves and Newspapers Wanted

Kate would love for the children in her group to bring along some gardening gloves for her sessions with the children. If you have any gardening gloves that you would like to donate to her Green Thumbs group she would love to hear from you! Also if they have any spare seedlings or pots, they are very much welcomed too.

She is also on the hunt for any old newspapers from home. If you have any spares please feel free to send them to school.

Up and Coming Dates:

12th March - Top Team Event (9-11am, at school)

25th March - Art gallery trip (9am-2.30pm, Kate and Rowe's home Group)
26th March - Art gallery Trip (9am-2.30pm, Paulette and Nick's Home Group)

That's all for now
Kōwhai teaching team

Kōwhai News Term 1 Week 2

Posted on 17 February, 201918 February, 2019 by Paulette Newton

Kia ora koutou. Our year has gone off with a flying start and it has been wonderful to see the children enjoying the hot sunny days! For the past two weeks, we have completed a lot of learning in our home groups to help settle the children into our daily routines. we all very much appreciate you arriving at school in plenty of time to allow the children time to settle into the day. Thank you for all naming your hats and clothing as this has made returning items very easy!

Maths

Last week, the children all received a Sumdog login and were taught how to assess this online programme with Nick. From this week on, your child will be able to play the maths games as part of their home learning.

We will be beginning our maths DMIC (Developing Mathematical Inquiring Communities) this week. Our maths sessions involve them in a variety of maths learning. They will all have time to work on developing their maths basics facts through playing games (board and online), time to practise skills they want to develop (worksheets and each child will working with a learning buddy to solve a worded problem guided by the teacher in DMIC.

Literacy

This week, we are buddy teaching in Literacy (Rowe and Kate working together and Paulette and Nick partnering up. Last week, we began to set up our routines for REading and writing. Our focus this week is to begin to teach some of the independent options so the children can have some agency with their learning. We aim to start our guided reading programme next week.

Each home groups will go to the library beginning this week. In our team we really like to promote the love of reading books and encourage the children to select a 'chapter' book (al their level) for them to read for school and home learning.

Inquiry

This coming week the children will be learning about their brain and how we learn. The children will have workshops across the hub to discover what the brain is, learning styles, and how we need to think about how we manage ourselves both online to keep us safe as well as in the hub to ensure we are respectful towards others so they can learn.

Adult Help

If you are keen to help in the hub we would LOVE to hear from you! There are many ways that you can support our team and the children from returning reading books, to listening to children read or playing games to help develop skills. Come and see your home group teacher if you can assist. Its really Fun working with the children!

Sport Tops

There are many sports tops that were issued last year that have not been returned yet. Please have a check to ensure that you do not have a Beckenham Sports Uniform lurking at the back or a draw or elsewhere and return to the Kauri hub ASAP. This is much appreciated.

Art - Self-Portraits
We have been completing some Picasso style self-portraits. Here are Row and Kate's home groups drafts. we used whiteboards so the children could easily make changes to their drawings. Most of the finished products are up on display in the hub!

Hanmer 4 Hour Mountain Bike Race

Beckenham School would like to promote an upcoming mountain biking event in Hanmer Springs that may be of interest to you: The Hanmer 4 and 8 Hour This event has been a fantastic day out and enjoyed by many in the past.

The Hanmer 4 Hour, run by Hanmer Events, is a super fun event, suitable for children looking to get into competitive mountain biking. Competitors work as part of a team with the aim of completing as many laps of a set course as they can over four hours. The course this year is a mixture of forest trail and non-technical single track. 12-year-olds may compete as an individual in the under 17 category. There is a separate course for Super Junior Teams (aged 8 - 11 years) that uses tracks in the Heritage Forest. These children need their own Tail End Charlie (an adult to keep up with them) for each lap they do. While these tracks are suitable for children, competitors should be confident riders, who are capable of controlling their speed and direction on the single track.

Teams of 3 or 4 are ideal, depending on how many laps the children want to do. Each lap would typically take 20 to 30 mins depending on your speed. More information can be found on the Hanmer Events website (www.hanmerevents.co.nz).

While Beckenham School encourages participation in this event, children will remain the responsibility of their parents for the entire duration of the event. Please let me know if you plan to enter an individual or team or if you would like support in connecting with possible team members.

Please email Jenny with details of your team, if you are looking for people to make up a team or have any questions.

That's all for now

Have a great week ahead

Kōwhai Teaching Team