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Koru Team News: Term 3 Week 5

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Kia ora, e te whānau,

It's been a very busy couple of weeks for us all in the Koru team: we've been completing our Calendar Art; we've had Book Character Dress Up Day; and we've continued to have fun with our Literacy and Maths learning, all the while embracing new friends into our team.

We are very excited to have welcomed Sarah Junghen as the teacher of our third New Entrant class at the start of Week 5. Most of you will have seen Sarah this past week, in the hub, but if not, please do introduce yourselves to her. Sarah has been teaching at Beckenham te Kura o Pūroto for some years now, and we feel incredibly lucky to have her with us in the Koru team!

We also welcome the new children who have transitioned or are transitioning into the Koru team, and are in Sarah's Home Group: Iyana, Lailah, Esther, Ariella, Molly and Mason. Ngā whetu koutou katoa - you are all stars!

Calendar Art:

The children have been working incredibly hard this term on their artworks, which will eventually be available for purchase as calendars, notebooks, cards, etc. We know that you're going to absolutely love these works of art, and we do urge you to support our PTA with this fundraiser. Please keep an eye out for more information about ordering calendars, etc. We will be adding information to our daily whiteboard notices as it becomes available.

Keeping Ourselves Safe:

This term as part of our Health Curriculum, teams are teaching the programme called Keeping Ourselves Safe, in Years 0 - 6. In the units, the Koru children will be: 

- describing where they live; identifying things that make them special and explaining when they feel safe and unsafe

- learning to use the correct names for body parts and describing whether a touch is one they like, one they don’t like, or one that is confusing

- learning to say ‘no’ to touch, behaviour and words that worry or confuse them and talking about moving away and seeking help

- identifying the difference between good surprises and bad secrets

- identifying people they trust and understanding family safety rules. 

We will be starting the teaching in Week 8 (the week beginning Monday, September 4th) and over the course of the lessons we teach, there will be some information and activities which will be coming home in your child's school bag. This is for you and your child to complete at home, and does not need to be returned to school. Please keep an eye out for more information about KOS in the weeks ahead, and if you have any questions, please just ask.

Exciting outing ahead for the Koru team:

We are very excited to be letting you know that on Monday, September 18th, the Koru team children will be visiting the Christchurch Art Gallery. 

The purpose of this outing is to give the children the opportunity to engage in discovering and exploring the work of artists whose work is held by the Christchurch Public Art Gallery. Teachers will explore the Gallery with their students, discuss a range of artists’ work and explore ideas of navigation, belonging, identity and how we are connected across time and place. During the guided tour, students will use signs and symbols to create a pictorial map of their own identity and journey through the Gallery which they will then complete, using watercolours and pastels, in the Education Centre.

Please note that there will be no cost for this outing, as your school donation covers all costs involved.

We will be needing parent help, so please do email your child's Home Group teacher or teachers, if you're able to come along with us on the day. 

Elizabeth and Stacey's Home Group will be leaving school at 9:30 a.m. and arriving back at school at 12:00 noon.

Georgia and Sarah's Home groups will be leaving school at 12:00 noon and arriving back at school at 2:30 p.m.

Beckenham's Got Talent:

We are desperately seeking all budding talents out there: singers, gymnasts, dancers, ventriloquists, magicians...!

Teachers have been talking with the tamariki about this fun whole school event, being held on the last day of term in the school hall. Prior to this date (on Friday, September 8th, for us in the Koru team), each team will hold their own team event and then one 'performance' from the Koru team will be selected, to be part of the whole school show on Friday, September 22nd.

Ideas for performances might include:

  • a dance
  • a song
  • a gymnastics performance (with accompanying music)
  • a hula hooping display to music
  • a set of magical tricks
If you would like your child to participate, do let us know. 
Please note that practices will need to take place at home and if there is to be accompanying music, it would be great if you could pass a copy on to us, or let us know exactly what it is and where we can find it.
Also, please don't feel constrained by the list above. Your child may have a talent well outside of this list, and if they feel enthusiastic and confident enough, we'd love to have them participate.

Literacy and Library Folders:

We have noticed, and many of you will have as well, that the children's folders, purchased when they first started school, are not 'hanging together' very well at all. We have noticed that the light blue folders, in particular, have been breaking down and deteriorating really quickly. We contacted Qizzle and sent photos to illustrate our concerns, and they immediately responded by saying that they were going to change their supplier, and asked how many folders did we need to replace those affected. Some folders (yellow ones, purple, red, orange, etc.) have not deteriorated as quickly but generally look as if they will, soon enough, so Qizzle told us that they just wanted to replace them all! We shall be sending home the replacement folders in the children's schoolbags next week. We thank Qizzle for responding so quickly and positively on our behalf.

Fun with Maths (we love numbers!):









...and one or two other items of interest for you:
  • click on these links and join in as your children sing one of their favourite songs, Sprinkle a Little Sunshine (here with the lyrics, and here, without, but with very cute images instead!)
  • for those new families to the Koru team, a link through to the National Anthem which we sing each morning - your children are doing an awesome job with this, participating and trying their very best each morning
  • clicking here will take you to a variety of links for those of you who would like to read more about The Science of Reading and Structured Literacy.
In the meantime, you do hope that you've had a lovely day today, and that it's an equally lovely weekend ahead for you all!

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



Koru Team News: Term 2 Week 9

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 Kia ora, e te whānau,

Here we are at the tail end of Term 2 and your tamariki are doing so well, as they strive to keep up the momentum with their learning! It's been a very busy fortnight, including Learning Conferences, our Matariki hui, several children having their transition to school visits and a big focus for our wee ones on the curriculum area of Science at the moment, specifically Electricity.

Firstly though, Friday was tinged with sadness for us all, as we farewelled Sonya, our teaching assistant. The children had made some beautiful cards for Sonya and these we gave to her, along with their very sweet messages about what the children were going to miss about her. Sonya has been a pillar of support in the Koru team, over the past two terms, and we will certainly miss her love, care, skill and talent, along with her creative flair and, as one of the children put it, her amazing tidiness!


We wish Sonya all the very best in the future - we know she'll be treasured by her new colleagues and the children she works with.
At the same time as farewelling Sonya, we have also been welcoming Denise, who is taking over the role that Sonya has held. We're really looking forward to having Denise with us in the Koru team, we can't wait to get to know her well and we welcome her with wide open arms into our whānau.


Junior Park Explorers:
We were really sorry to have had to postpone our Junior Park Explorers excursion on Friday, however we're all looking forward to a warmer, drier outing once we're able to set a new date some time in Term 4. We'll be looking for more parent helpers at that point! The children coped with the disappointment very well, and are to be congratulated for doing so.

Science:
We have been taking a dive into 'Electricity' last week and will continue with this focus in the week ahead. We are having great fun as we hypothesise and experiment, share our ideas and make connections with prior experiences.
Last Monday, the children discussed:
  • What is electricity?
  • Where does electricity come from?
  • Have you ever felt an electric spark from something or someone?
  • Have you ever had a power cut and not had any electricity?
  • Have you ever seen an electric car?
On Tuesday, the children learnt about what energy is and where it comes from, as well as having a look at renewable and non-renewable energy.
On Wednesday and Thursday, the children were introduced to the word 'circuit'. We looked at open and closed circuits and learned that a closed circuit is required for electricity to flow. We experimented to find out what electricity would flow through and what it wouldn't flow through. The children predicted that electricity wouldn't flow through plastic, but that it would flow through metal. Using an 'energy tube', we tested our predictions and found out that those predictions were right!
When the energy tube is 'turned on' the circuit is closed and that's when the tube flashes and makes an eerie fluttering noise. We discovered that our bodies conduct electricity, so as long as we had a hand on the metal ring at each end of the energy tube, the circuit would be closed. We even tested, if we were to sit in a big circle and all hold hands, whether the circuit would be closed and the energy tube would light up and make its eerie fluttering sounds, and ... yes, it did!!














One final thing:
A plea from Jossi's family - might Jossi's polar fleece have gone home in the wrong bag, by chance? It's been missing for several days now. Would you please check the names on your child's polar fleeces, just to be sure that you don't also have Jossi's by mistake. Many thanks :)

We hope you are all having a wonderful weekend with your whānau - stay warm, dry and cosy, and we look forward to seeing those beautiful, wide smiles again tomorrow morning!

Ngā mihi mahana,
Elizabeth, Stacey and Georgia


Koru team news, start of Term 2

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 Kia ora, e te whānau,

We hope you are all happy and healthy and had a lovely holiday break! It was such a treat to see all of those wide and happy smiles back at school this week. We would like to give an especially warm welcome to William, Eddie, Reinhold, Sylvia and Henri, who have all started school this week. What a wonderful job they are all doing settling in!

All of our tamariki have happily returned to the routines of school, and are enthusiastically embracing their learning. They have been doing a wonderful job in their Literacy and Maths lessons, and are putting lots of energy and enthusiasm into their Learning Through Play.

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 first thing each morning (children who were at school in Term 1 will already know which container is their group's container; new children will be helped with this by one of the teachers)
  • On Fridays, your child will bring home both their poetry book and their library folder. Both these items need to be returned to school by the following Friday
  • We ask that caregivers avoid bringing children in to school through the staff carpark, rather, if entering off Sandwich Road, please come in up near the flagpole or in through the gate down near the corner.
Friendship List
  • If you would like your name and contact details to be added to our Koru Team Friendship List, please email Georgia your information by Wednesday, May 10th, and Georgia will update the list and share it on the Friday of that week
  • Here is Georgia's email address: georgia.mckenna@beckenham.school.nz
  • If your name is already on the list, please don't worry about contacting Georgia again.
Exciting Koru Team outing:
We trust that you have all received our Hero message pertaining to the outing which we have coming up on Thursday, May 11th.
Just in case any of you haven't been able to access this information, here is a copy of the content of the message:

We have a very exciting outing planned for our tamariki! 

The Christchurch City Council Education Outreach team is booked in to run their Junior Park Explorers programme with our Koru students, at our local Beckenham ponds. The session will address outcomes within the New Zealand Curriculum Science domain. We will be exploring biodiversity & ecosystems in our local area, and will be looking closely at birds, bugs and trees/plant life. 

Children will need to bring the following items: 
  • Gumboots (especially if wet)
  • Rain coat
  • Named water bottle
  • Shoes, spare socks and change of clothes (in school bag)
The programme will take place on Thursday, May 11th and will run from 9:30 - 11:45 a.m.

We will need 10 parent helpers on the day. If you are interested in helping, please email your child’s homegroup teacher, as soon as possible.  

Many thanks for your support.

Thank you very much to those caregivers who have already emailed us letting us know that they would like to help. We will be making contact with all those who offer to help, with more information, closer to the time.

In the meantime, we do trust that you all have a very restful and happy weekend.

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou,
The Koru Teachers: Elizabeth, Georgia, Stacey and Sonya


Koru Team news, to the end of Term 1

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 Kia ora, e te whānau,

We trust that this finds you having had a very safe, happy and relaxing Easter break, and now part way into an equally safe and happy school holiday break.

Our heartfelt thanks to you all for the amazing support you have given your children and the staff throughout the first term this year. We appreciate every offer of help and support, both small and large!

 Congratulations to the tamariki, who have had an amazing term, making impressive progress in their learning, including social and emotional as well as academic. This includes our little newbies, many of whom may have only had a few days at school, and who have all stepped into their new role as primary school learners, willingly embracing the challenges with positivity and enthusiasm. 

For those of you who would like to view (or view again!) the Literacy videos we've shared over the past term, here are those valuable links once again, including those at the Stage 2 level:

These videos will help you with understanding what our literacy stages involve and what you can be doing at home to support your child.

We also thought we'd include some links to fun Maths at Home activities and ideas. These links come from the Families and Whānau section of the NZMaths website:
...and now for our photo gallery, which includes images from our scone-making, building towers, showing persistence, outdoor fun, balance and physical challenges, art and craft activities and so much more!

Impressive focus being shown here!




"That will be $1:50, thank you."

Art and craft in the art space.

Beautiful, careful colouring!



Oh, my goodness - what's going to happen next?

At the vets.


At school, playing schools :)


Skip and Bounce will love this handwriting.

Great balancing in the next three photos.



Such wonderful focus and care being shown here.




The result of one of our Science experiments using dye and flowers... we followed the sequence: question, hypothesis, test, observe, discuss and conclude.




Playing one of Sonya's beautiful board games!

A favourite puppet.

My hand shape: traced around, coloured and trimmed.

What an amazing set up this team has created.

Animal dress up day - what a gorgeous little lion cub!

A cute little mouse showing great focus here.

A cheetah teams up with a unicorn.

Great physical skills on display!

Fun and games in the sandpit.

What a beautiful smile :)

Wonderful focus on display here.



An enthusiastic member of the jigsaw puzzle team.

We love books...

... and numbers!

All dressed up, having made a selection from the dress up box.

Scone-making photos from our final day of Term 1...















What a wonderful line up of photos of our wee ones! As we've said, their learning across all areas (including social and emotional) has been nothing short of incredible throughout Term 1. Very well done, tamariki :)

For now, we hope you continue to enjoy the school holidays, and we look forward to seeing all of those beautiful, wide smiles at the start of Term 2, on Wednesday, April 26th.

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


Term 1 Koru Team news update

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Kia ora, ki ngā whānau,

What very busy days we're having in the Koru team. The children are really embracing our routines and expectations, and we have this week started adding our small group teaching into our days. The children are managing themselves incredibly well at these times, and are very much enjoying being 'called' to the jellybean table for their Literacy group lessons. Please see below for one or two links which we know you'll find very valuable, as far as the children's Literacy learning is concerned.

Friendship List:

Please email Georgia with your contact details by the end of next week (Friday, March 3rd), if you would like to share your contacts with the other families in the Koru team. This is helpful if you are wishing to organise playdates with your child's classmates.

Kapa haka:

Whaea Cath came to visit last Friday and took us for our first Kapa Haka session. We practised some waiata, including 'Ko au, ko au' as well as the actions which accompany each song. We'll endeavour to ensure that some videos are included in our Blog posts in the future, however in the meantime, you'll find a photo below.

Geometry and Patterning:

We began our Maths programme at the start of this year with a focus on the Maths strands of Geometry and Algebra (patterns and relationships). Our focus was on sorting shapes by their appearance, looking for similarities and differences, and continuing and creating sequential patterns. We loved the children's enthusiasm and engagement throughout these Maths sessions. You'll see evidence of both in the photos below.

Puppy visit:

The children showed wonderful care and kindness when little Paco, Elizabeth's 14 week old whippet puppy, came to visit. They were incredibly gentle and considerate, and all followed the instruction to present a fist for Paco to sniff, so that he would feel safe and secure with them.


Words of the Week (so far): 

Each week at Beckenham Te Kura, throughout our school, we have a focus Word of the Week, which we bring into every element of our programme throughout each day. Our Words of the Week so far this year have been inclusion, honesty and kindness. We have discussed with the children the meaning of each of these words and what we might see and hear when these values and qualities are being displayed. 

Inclusion means to make other people feel welcome. It is about accepting others for who they are.

Honesty means that we are truthful in what we say and do. When we are honest, the people in our lives know that they can trust us. Trust is a very important part of positive relationships with our family, friends and teachers.

Kindness is the quality of being friendly, generous and considerate.

These are great qualities to discuss with your children at home. You could ask them to give you examples of what each of these qualities might look like and sound like at school, and then think of examples together for what they might look like and sound like at home.

Structured Literacy:

You will by now have seen that your child's Literacy folder has started coming home in their schoolbag each day (Monday to Thursday). We keep the folder at school on Fridays, and this is often when teachers get the chance to add to the resources in the folder, or, once books start coming home, collect the books back in.

We do trust that you'll follow the links below, which we think you'll find very helpful:

  • as background information about Structured Literacy (a link to the Literacy page on our school website and a link to a short video of Caroline Moffat, our Resource Teacher of Literacy, presenting to a parent workshop on the subjects of The Science of Reading and Structured Literacy)
  • as you start working with your children on practising their letter sounds (The Speech Sounds of New Zealand English)
We'd also like to alert you to a Structured Literacy parent information workshop, to be held here at Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto in our school hall, on Thursday, March 23rd, starting at 5:30 p.m. We urge you to do your best to attend this workshop - Emma Nahna is an excellent speaker and we are absolutely certain that you'll find this workshop incredibly valuable! Please click here to find out further details.

Some reminders:
  • Please do remember that our staff carpark is an area through which vehicles will be moving throughout the day, especially at the Hangere end of the carpark, where cars and vans are frequently either dropping off at or picking up from the Ferndale unit; we ask you to please enter and exit the school grounds through the gates at either Eastern Terrace near the public toilets, at the corner of Eastern Terrace and Sandwich Road or near our school flagpole on Sandwich Road. You might also come into our courtyard area from Beckenham Park. Thank you very much for supporting us with the safety of all around our school
  • Please do ensure that your child's library folder and poetry book are packed and returned to school for Fridays each week. These items can be returned earlier in the week, however if they're not at school for use on Fridays, this can be disappointing for children, especially if  they're unable to get new library books out for the weekend and the week ahead.

We do hope you enjoy the photos which follow - a snapshot of some of the activities the children have been engaging in recently. Enjoy!

One of our first Structured Literacy lessons - mīharo, tamariki. Brilliant!

Sorting shapes according to their attributes

Beautiful name collage work

...and more!

Creating 3-D models using magnetic shapes

Puppy Paco visits

Showing a closed fist for Paco to sniff

Having a big stretch

So gentle!

Well done, children - everyone is showing 'We Care'

Home base!

What a long dog!


"On your mat. Sit! Good boy, Paco!"

Singing 'Mrs Bunny'

Our first Celebration Assembly, and just look at our sitting!

Puppet time...

... and oh, what fun!

Sequential patterning, using the penguins

Focusing beautifully at poetry time

Playing one of Sonya's board games

Another one of Sonya's board games - so much fun!!

Looking at te tinana - lying perfectly still for the body outline!

What a cosy little nest you've created there!

Another perfect pattern - and what colour would come next to continue the pattern?

Well done - a perfect pattern using two colours... and what will be next in this pattern?

A zebra-like pattern here!

What impressive focus as we learn about the sound the letter 'a' makes

And how might this pattern be continued?

...and this one?

More work on the sound, /a/

Working on our poem 'Ten Little Apples'

We loved our visit from Whaea Cath!

How would you continue this pattern?

...and this pattern?

...and this one?

...and what about this pattern?

A VERY complex pattern here, created collaboratively - what colour always comes after ... (pick a colour and check)?

Another complex pattern - can you say out loud what the pattern is?

Using three different colours to create this sequential pattern

Wow - can you work this pattern out?

...and this one?

What about this one?

As you will see, we're having lots of fun at school and the tamariki are all thoroughly engaged. Their ability to participate and contribute is second to none!
Enjoy the final part of this week, and we wish you all a wonderful and relaxing weekend.

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