Author Archives: Stacey

Koru Team News: Term 3 Week 1

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Kia ora, e te whānau,

It was so wonderful to see all our Koru children and their wonderful smiles, back at school after the holidays. We have had a brilliant first week back filled with excitement, learning and fun times. A warm welcome to Elias and Aelara who started school this week! What a wonderful job they are both doing settling in!

This term you will see Elizabeth at school; Monday, Thursday and Friday. You will see Stacey at school; Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

We have an exciting term ahead of us including Calendar Art, Keeping Ourselves Safe programme, Firewise, book character dress-up day and a trip to the Art Gallery!

Upcoming events: 

  • Whole school PTA Readathon 25 July - 11 August (forms and information will come home)
  • PTA meeting Wednesday 26th July 7.30-9.30pm in the Green Room (next to the Hall foyer), all are welcome, this can be a great way to meet other parents and support our children and school.
  • Disco, Friday 4th August. Koru disco is 2.00-2.45pm (during our school day)
  • Book character dress up day: Friday 11th August
  • End of term 3 trip to the Christchurch Art Gallery
PTA mid-winter breakfast:
A huge thank you to the PTA and Student Council for organising and making breakfast for everyone to enjoy in the Hall before school on Wednesday. Thank you to everyone who brought in a can of food, to donate to the City Mission Food Bank Collection. 'We Make a Difference'. It was also wonderful to see the children come to school in non-uniform clothes, pyjamas, dressing gowns and onesies!

Stacey and Georgia in their pyjamas!

Enjoying breakfast

Georgia and her Home Group

Stacey and Elizabeth's Home Group

Friendship list
  • If you would like your name and contact details to be added to our Koru Team Friendship List, please email your information to Georgia: georgia.mckenna@beckenham.school.nz
A reminder about routines:
  • It's great if your child is able to independently carry their own bag into school, unpack it and put their lunch and drink bottle on the shelves
  • Your child's Literacy folder needs to be returned to school every day and put into their group Literacy box every morning
  • On Fridays, your child will bring home their poetry book and library folder. Poetry books and library folders will need to be returned to school by the following Friday
  • We ask that caregivers avoid bringing children into school through the staff car park, rather, if entering off Sandwich Road, please come in up near the flagpole, or in through the gate down near the corner of Easter Tce/Sandwich Road
Gumboots and slippers
We hope you are managing to keep warm and dry this weekend. Gumboots (named) will be welcomed as footwear at school tomorrow, with extra socks and slippers or shoes in school bags. 

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou,
The Koru teachers, Elizabeth, Stacey, Georgia and Denise

elizabethgail.drummond@beckenham.school.nz
stacey.mclachlan@beckenham.school.nz
georgia.mckenna@beckenham.school.nz


Koru Team news, Term 2 Week 7

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Kia ora, e te whānau,

Important dates:

Learning Conferences. Learning Conferences are this Wednesday 14th and Thursday 15th of June, and school finishes at 2pm. Please complete THIS FORM to let us know what you want to happen for your child at 2pm. Every family needs to complete the form, thanks.

Junior Park Explorers: Friday 23 June. This is our new date as we had to postpone earlier in the term due to the weather. 

Matariki Evening and Kapa Haka Performance: Wednesday 21st June. We would like to celebrate with you and your whānau from 5pm onwards. 5pm welcome in the Hall, 5.20pm activities in Hubs, 6.20pm performance in the Hall by Year 3-6 children, and 6.45pm pre-ordered Hāngi available to collect. 

Fun Run:

On Friday, 2nd of June, we had 10 Koru children participate in a student council-organised Fun Run to raise money for Trees for Canterbury. 'We Love Challenge!' Awesome effort everyone!






Learning Through Play
During each school day, our tamariki are involved in Learning Through Play activities incorporating different social competencies, all while the children are engaged in play. Learning Through Play is all about our children choosing and directing their own play, and our job as teachers are to support, nurture and extend them through this journey. 
This can involve:
  • improving social skills, such as turn-taking, sharing, negotiating, and ensuring that things remain fair
  • being aware of; and the use of our school kete values in the classroom environment
  • learning how to work together with others and practise the skills needed to work collaboratively and to be a team player
  • noticing and commenting on how our tamariki are demonstrating the skills we focus on as our 'word of the week' eg. resilience, friendship, kindness, respect, co-operation, and inclusion.













Fun in our sandpit


Sorting shapes together

Working together to hold the hoop steady!

We Love Challenge

'We Get There Together'


Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou,
Elizabeth, Stacey, Georgia and Sonya


Koru Team news, Term 2 Week 3

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Kia ora, e te whānau,

Koru Team: 

This year Elizabeth and Stacey are co-Team Leaders for the Koru team. We currently have two home groups, Elizabeth and Stacey share a home group and Georgia is the teacher of the other home group. You will see Elizabeth at school; Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. You will see Stacey at school; Monday, Tuesday and Friday. Sonya is the Teaching Assistant for our Koru team. You also might see Megan and Nicola teaching in Koru too.

Elizabeth              Stacey               Georgia

Sonya                Megan               Nicola

Postponement of events: 
Our tamariki have been putting so much effort into our Cross Country training and we know how much they were looking forward to showing us their dance moves at the Disco. Unfortunately, these events were postponed due to the weather and sickness at school. We will update you on new dates for our Junior Park Explorers trip and Disco as soon as we have them.  
We do know that the new Cross Country date is next Tuesday, 16th May, from 2 - 2:50pm.

Cross Country training

Nau mai te wero! We Love Challenge!

Carpark: 
To keep everyone safe when arriving and leaving school, do not walk through the carpark. This area is for staff cars, taxis and accessibility parking only. Thanks to everyone who is using the pedestrian gates onto the park, near the flagpole, on Sandwich Road by the PTA uniform room, or onto Eastern Terrace.

Sickness at school: 
We do have a few cases of Covid-19 in the school again, among staff, students and the wider whānau. We also seem to have had a number of children with tummy bugs. Please do keep children away if they are feeling unwell and do test if Covid symptoms are present. At school, we remind tamariki to cough/sneeze into their elbow and wash their hands regularly, especially after blowing their nose, coughing, sneezing and using the toilet.

Coronation tree planting: 
We have been invited by the Christchurch City Council to plant a commemorative Coronation Tree to mark the Coronation of King Charles III. We have received a kōwhai tree, which was planted by the junior playground with the help from the oldest and youngest child at Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto. You did a fabulous job planting the tree Sylvia!





House Groups: 
Our Koru children have all been allocated a 'House' to belong to: Fisher, Heathcote, Tennyson and Waimea. Children from the same family/whānau are put into the same house. Each house has its own 'chant' and tamariki learn this so they can participate in the house chant at sports and special events, and in Celebration Assemblies, it is their house that has won the House Points for that fortnight. You can find the House Chants here, and there are also videos that you can share with your child to help them learn their house chant. Mā tātou katoa te waka e hoe! We Get There Together!


Heathcote, Fisher, Waimea and Tennyson

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou,
Elizabeth, Stacey, Georgia and Sonya








Term 4 Week 4

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Kia ora Whānau,

Athletics

Our Athletics Day on Monday was fantastic! The sun was shining, our tamariki were smiling, and it was so lovely to see the whole school out on the field showing, 'We Love Challenge' together by participating in all of the athletics events.

A massive 'thank you' to all the parents, caregivers, grandparents, whānau, and friends, who came to cheer on and support the children while they were participating in the athletics events. In our Koru team, the children got to have a go at running races, bean bag throw, high jump, and the gumboot throw.

It was wonderful to see the children demonstrating 'We Get There Together', by supporting and encouraging each other.

Aiming and throwing bean bags

 On your marks! Get set! GO!!


Ready to jump over the high jump!


One! Two! Three! Throw those gumboots!

 We even got to sit and relax in the shade, at the end of the day, to support and cheer on the children, teachers, and parents in the sprint finals and House Team relays.


Ngā mihi mahana kia koutou
Elizabeth, Jo, Kristika, Noelene and Stacey

Term 3 Week 2

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Kia ora koutou,
Welcome to Term 3

Bounce and Skip
Kinetic Letters is a handwriting program that teaches us about the formation of letters and numbers. There are four main threads: making bodies stronger, holding the pencil, learning the letters, and flow and fluency.


Holding the pencil
1. Point the pencil at my tummy
2. Pick it up with my Holding Fingers
3. Tip it back to lay across my hand and pop my Pillow Finger underneath


We do our Bounce and Skip handwriting lying on our tummies, resting our elbows with our legs out straight.


 



When the children learn to form letters, they hear stories about Brave Monkey and Scared Monkey who help them to know where to start their letters. We use special whiteboards to give the children a prompt to remember this.

The 'Jumper Family' all start with a down movement and then back up and over; r, p, n, and m begin at Scared Monkey, h and b begin at Brave Monkey.


The 'Abracadabra Family' all start with a 'c' shape before going 'up like a helicopter' and back down; c, o, a, g, q, and s begin at Scared Monkey, d goes 'up like a helicopter' to Brave Monkey.
 


Ngā mihi mahana,
Stacey, Kristika, Elizabeth and Jo