Kia ora, e te whānau,

This term continues to fly past at an incredible rate! Here we are at the end of Week 7, and we've had another week filled with new and exciting learning opportunities!

Art Gallery Visit

On Monday we visited the Christchurch Art Gallery. For many of our tamariki, this was their very first experience in this lovely building. They waited so patiently for the bus to arrive and Bianca, the Gallery Educator, welcomed us inside when we arrived. She helped everyone find a cubby for their bags and then proceeded to guide us around the gallery. We stopped and listened carefully while she asked questions and explained about the interesting and beautiful exhibit displays. After our tour, we returned to the art classroom, and Bianca showed us how to create our very own clay masterpiece. We would love to give a huge shout out to all of the wonderful parent helpers who came along to support our tamariki on the bus and throughout the gallery. Thank you so very much. Without your support, our Art Gallery experience would not have been possible.

Water Play has continued to be a popular theme throughout the past fortnight, with the children conducting investigations using a wide range of items. Will they sink or float? This theme has also 'filtered' into the sandpit, the children working in teams to create some impressive structures and water way systems.  

Whānau Picnic

It was wonderful to see so many of our Beckenham whānau at the school picnic event on Wednesday.  Many children enjoyed the fabulous new playground equipment.   Kapa Haka performances were enjoyed by enthusiastic audiences and the Student Council organised an awesome range of games such as the Disc Drop, Nerf Challenge and Balloon Pop.

Please remember to continue searching for wayward reading books which may have found their way down the back of the couch or under the backseat of your car! We will continue with our literacy groups next week, but a reminder that books are no longer going home. You will find some games and activities in your child's Literacy folder instead  

Transition visits to Kahikatea 

This week and next week all of our Koru children are taking time in the afternoons to visit the Kahikatea hub. These visits provide a fantastic opportunity for our tamariki to make connections with next year's teachers and become familiar with their new learning spaces.

Holiday fun:

Please note that there will be one final Blog post sent out prior to the final day of school this year, and in that post, we hope to be able to include a variety of links, which you might find fun and helpful over the summer holidays. We'll have some Literacy links, some Maths links, and perhaps a few links to the teachers reading favourite picture books for the children to enjoy!

Reminders:

Kia ora whanau, 
Here we are in Week 8, and the last two and a bit weeks have been just full to bursting with fun and exciting events. 

Kete Certificates

We love seeing our tamariki being celebrated at assembly for their successes with our Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto values. In these past two weeks, kete certificates for our Beckenham Te Kura values of We Love Learning, We Make a Difference and We Get There Together have been awarded. Congratulations, and well done to our wonderful tamariki on their achievements!

                 

A Very Special Visitor

On Thursday, we were treated to a very special visit in the form of a cute and very sociable 3 month old Miniature Schnauzer puppy named Biscuit. She was so very cute and well-behaved, showing off her ability to sit, stand and drop on command. What a very clever puppy! The children were super excited before her visit and brainstormed a list of many very interesting and clever questions to ask her owner, Jan. This is just a tiny selection of the questions they prepared for Jan:

• How fast can she run?

• Does Biscuit like biscuits?

• Can Biscuit shake hands?

Book Character Day

Last Friday, 3rd December, was our gold coin dress-up day. Children chose to dress as their favourite book character, or dress in colours of the rainbow to support LGBT and diversity. We were totally blown away by the range of fabulous and creative costumes. 

Learning Through Play 

Our learning focus has been on the warm and sunny season of Summer, (although the weather has other ideas). The children have been taking advantage of the warmer weather to include some outside play alongside other Learning Through Play activities indoors.

We have been reading lots of stories and sharing ideas together about the many fun and enjoyable activities we can enjoy in the summertime. Camping and toasting marshmallows, building sandcastles at the beach, eating ice-creams and picnics in the park are just a very few of the popular things our children love to do!  

Being SunSafe and Sunsmart is also super important at this time.

Follow this link Sunsmart-Level 1 sponsored by the Cancer Foundation, to find some fun and informative videos you can watch with your tamariki in order to encourage them to stay safe in the sun this summer. Remember to slip on a shirt, slop on some sunscreen and slap on a hat to stay safe when playing out in the summer sun.

Structured Literacy 

The children just love literacy times and enjoy showing the results of their awesome efforts and fantastic progress.

Teddy Bears' Picnic - Next week, Monday 13th December, the children are invited to bring a Teddy from home for our end of year Koru celebration. From 1.30pm, the Koru tamariki will be heading out to the big field for a picnic lunch and some fun activities with their Teddy Bear friends. Please note this change of date, as the weather isn't looking so flash for tomorrow, which was our original date.

Learning conferences.
We would like to extend a huge thank you to all the families who booked a time to come and have a chat with us at our recent learning conferences. These learning conferences provide a wonderful opportunity to have valuable conversations about the rich learning journey, and next steps, for our tamariki.

A short reminder
Please send a named bag to school with your child tomorrow. It will be very useful for your tamariki to be able to take home items belonging to them, such Literacy and Numeracy books. Any unused pages in these books may be useful at school next year, or they could be great be for some fun activities and writing practice at home over the school holidays.

We're looking forward to some fun final days of the school year! Thank you for all your support on the home front. We really appreciate this.

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou,

The Koru teachers: Tracey, Nicola, Chelsea, Elizabeth and Stacey