Kia ora whānau,

It’s hard to believe we are already six weeks into the term! It has been a very busy and positive time in our classroom. Our tamariki have settled well into routines and have been showing fantastic engagement with their learning. It has been wonderful to see growing confidence, new friendships, and lots of enthusiasm across all areas of the curriculum. 

Literacy

We are a few weeks into our literacy groups, and we are incredibly impressed with our tamariki and their enthusiasm to learn. It has been wonderful to see students building confidence as they work through their reading and literacy activities.

A quick reminder that students can only take their reading books home if they have their reading folders at school. Folders only need to be brought to school on Thursdays. On this day, students will return their previous book and receive a new one to take home. Thank you for helping support this routine!

Maths

Last week, we were learning about shapes and geometry. Our tamariki enjoyed exploring and identifying different shapes through a range of fun, hands-on activities. Take a look at some of the things we got up to!

Over the next few weeks, we will be diving into place value and grouping numbers. Students will be learning how numbers can be grouped into tens and ones, helping them better understand how numbers are made.

Ideas to try at home:

• Ask your child to group everyday objects (such as Lego, pasta, or small toys) into groups of 10.

• Practice counting collections and see how many groups of 10 you can make.

• When you see numbers around you (letterboxes, page numbers, prices), ask: How many tens? How many ones?

These small activities can really help strengthen their understanding of numbers.

Inquiry – Sustainability: Healthy Bodies and Minds

As part of our inquiry learning around sustainability, we have been exploring what it means to have healthy bodies and healthy minds. Recently, we looked at how to create a balanced plate of food and talked about 'everyday foods' and 'sometimes foods'. Students discussed what foods help give us energy, what foods help our bodies grow, and why it is important to have a variety of foods on our plates. Have a look at our balanced plates of food! 

Tuakana–Teina

Our seniors recently led some wonderful Tuakana–Teina activities as part of their leadership week. They created a range of games and activities for small groups of our tamariki.

It was a big hit! It was fantastic to see such great engagement from everyone involved. Our younger students loved working with the seniors, and it was awesome to see the older students stepping into their leadership roles. Here are some pictures of the fun!

Little Kickers

We are excited to be taking part in Little Kickers, an organisation that gives children a positive introduction to sport by teaching football skills in a friendly, pressure-free environment. The focus will be on developing ball skills.

Please talk with your child about this and reassure anyone who might feel nervous that this is for everyone, whether they have played football before or not.

Little Kickers will take place on:

• Wednesday 18th March

• Wednesday 25th March

We are looking forward to lots of fun and active learning!

Diversity Day

Wow! Everyone showed up today looking bright and colourful for Diversity Day.

Thank you to everyone who brought along a gold coin donation. These donations are going towards two fantastic charities: Rainbow Youth and The Dyslexic Foundation.

Sickness 

There is a lot of sickness going around at the moment! If your child is feeling unwell, please keep them at home. Phone 033371404 or email the office at office@beckenham.school.nz to let them know your child is unwell and will not be at school. 

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend with your whānau!

Ngā mihi, 

Amber, Sarah S, Talia and Sarah J

Kia ora whānau,

How are we already in Week 8?

It has been a very busy few weeks here in Kahikatea, and we’re excited to share some of the highlights with you.

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Colour Run

Our Beckenham School Colour Run was a huge success! Together, we raised an incredible $16,733 toward a brand-new playing turf that will be used for netball, hockey, soccer, pickleball and more. Even better, everyone had an absolute blast!
It was the perfect day for running, laughing, and getting absolutely covered in rainbow dye. It was wonderful seeing the tamariki giving it their all and finishing with big smiles, colourful shirts, bright faces and… even brighter hair!

Here are some pics from the event!

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Chicks in the Hub

With our chicks hatched, we were lucky enough to welcome 19 fluffy visitors into Kahikatea for several days. The children loved watching them, helping to care for them, and keeping the hub calm and quiet while they settled in. Many of our tamariki even had the chance to gently hold the chicks!

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Dance, Dance, Dance!

Every Tuesday this term, we’ve been lucky to have Legacy Dance Studio working with us. They’ve been teaching us a fun new routine, and we are getting pretty good!
Here are some photos of us busting our moves.

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Peer Reading

We’ve recently begun a new reading routine focused on building fluency through peer reading. Students are buddied up and take turns reading a non-fiction passage aloud before swapping. This encourages self-correction, buddy feedback, confidence, and exposure to a range of texts. We are already seeing great engagement and can’t wait to see the progress that follows!

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Reading Books

A friendly reminder to please keep returning reading books to school. These may include Little Learners Love Literacy, Ready to Read Phonics Plus, or Junior Journals.

Next week will be the final week for reading books. On Thursday, your child will bring home a book if they have their folder. In Week 10, they will bring this book back but will not take a new one home.
We’ve noticed a drop in the number of reading folders coming to school on Thursdays. Please help your child remember, as repeated reading practice is so important!

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Dress-Ups Wanted!

At the end of the year, we will be doing a refresh of our dress-ups, as they are very well-loved and used very regularly! Over the holidays, if you come across any dress-ups your child no longer uses, we would be grateful to add them to our collection.

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As we head toward the end of the year, tiredness definitely starts to set in. Enjoy the sunshine, take time to rest when you can, and have a wonderful weekend.

Ngā mihi nui,

The Kahikatea Team — Amber, Kendall, Sarah and Talia 

Kia ora whānau, 

Wow, this term is flying by. Can you believe it’s already Week 8? Kahikatea has been full of learning, creativity, and new experiences these past couple of weeks. Here’s a snapshot of what we’ve been up to:

Keeping Ourselves Safe (KOS)

Constable Meg visited us to teach important lessons about how we can keep ourselves safe. Our learning has included:

• How to identify Police officers and understand that their job is to keep us safe.
  
  

• What to do if we get lost, and how to recognise adults we can trust.
  
  

• Learning the correct names for body parts.
  
  

• Marching and saluting.
  
  

• Understanding what consent means and practising role-plays where we confidently say no.
  
  

Here’s a short video to continue these conversations at home: Consent for kids

Clay Art

Our clay skills are growing every week! Nicky has been showing us how to make and shape pots, which has been both fun and challenging. This project has been a wonderful way to live our school value: We Love Challenge.

Here are some photos of our process, from shaping to painting our unique clay pots! 

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Maths – Statistics and Graphing

In Maths, we’ve been learning how to use tally charts and collect data. Next week, we’ll take the next step by exploring graphs – learning how to read them and create our own based on the data we’ve gathered.

You can support this learning at home by encouraging your child to collect data on something that interests them (e.g. favourite fruit in the family, colours of cars passing by, or types of toys they have). They can then organise their results in a tally chart and even try creating a simple graph to show what they found.

Trees for Survival

We are excited to share that Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto has been chosen as the first urban school in the South Island to take part in the Trees for Survival programme! 🌱

Trees for survival is a Charitable Trust started by Rotary​ and works in partnership with Regional Councils,​ schools, sponsors and volunteers. I​t is an environmental programme which works with school students to grow​ and then plant​ native trees on sites such as wetlands, hillsides, stream edges, to increase​ biodiversity, stabilise soil and help improve water quality. 

This week, our ākonga planted our very first seedlings. We learned how to care for the seedlings properly and keep ourselves safe while working with potting mix. We are super excited to watch these grow and continue looking after our seedlings!

Find out more about Trees for Survival here: https://www.tfsnz.org.nz/

Kia ora e te whānau,

Over the past few weeks, our tamariki have been busy with some incredible learning experiences, and there are lots of exciting updates to share from the Kahikatea Hub!

One of the highlights was our trip to Ferrymead. Our ākonga had an absolute blast exploring toys and stepping back in time. We know many of you are eager to see what they got up to! 

Reminder - Staff Only day

On Friday, the 30th of May, the school is closed.

A Fantastic Day at Ferrymead!

We had an amazing day exploring Ferrymead, and our tamariki absolutely loved the hands-on learning experiences. Our ākonga were split into small groups and rotated through five exciting stations, each highlighting a different aspect of life and play in the past. These included:

• The Science Behind Toys – Exploring the mechanics and physics that make toys work.
  
  

• Puppets – Learning how puppets were used for storytelling and play.
  
  

• Indoor and Outdoor Games – A chance to try out traditional games from the past.
  
  

• Exploring an Old Classroom – Our tamariki stepped back in time and even created their own thaumatrope – a simple optical illusion toy from the 1800s! (Want to try it at home? Check out this video: How to Make a Thaumatrope)
  
  

• Wandering the Ferrymead Township – A chance to explore the buildings, vehicles, and streets of Ferrymead.
  
  

The trip was not only fun but also a great learning opportunity. Our ākonga discovered how toys and games have changed over time, the perfect lead-in to the next phase of our inquiry: designing and creating our very own toys!

We can’t wait to see the creativity that comes next!