Kia ora, e te whānau,

What a lovely first week back at school, following the holidays! The children, as always happens after a holiday break, have loved reconnecting with teachers and friends. We warmly welcome our new children and their whānau: Ana, Asher, Ava, Aya, Charlie, Ethan, Finn, Poppy and Rome. It's wonderful to have you all at school with us, and well done to all for settling so beautifully into school life. 

A very warm welcome also to our new children, and their whānau, who joined us towards the end of last term - Finley and Freddie. It is so lovely to have these children in the hub with us as well. They too have both settled in beautifully and our 'golden oldies' have been really amazing at making everyone feel very welcome.

Nut-free lunches, please:

A reminder that in the Koru team we are nut-free. We recognise that some children may have dietary requirements which mean that nuts do need to be included in some lunchboxes, however we do ask that, as far as possible, your children's lunchboxes remain nut-free. This also includes coconut. Many thanks for your support with this.

Our school-wide 'Word of the Week':

Your children may have discussed with you that each week at Beckenham te Kura o Pūroto, throughout the school we have a 'Word of the Week', which, in the Koru team, is embraced by one and all, and guides our Learning Through Play. Our 'Word of the Week' last week was 'upstander'. An upstander is 'a person who speaks or acts in support of an individual or cause, particularly someone who intervenes on behalf of a person who may have been hurt by someone else.' An upstander is the opposite of a bystander.

Coming up, we have other such 'Words of the Week' as: honesty (which will be our focus throughout the week ahead), inclusion, respect, kindness, resilience, empathy, determination and cooperation. These concepts are so important for our wee ones, and we are always incredibly impressed with the way the children put these words into practice, as well as reflect on and discuss specific instances of their use.

Hats required:

Most children are remembering their hats each day, and are doing very well with looking after their hats when indoors. We are asking the children to keep their hats in their bags while they are inside. This way, the children should, in theory, always know where their hats are!

The week that was:

Don't you just love numbers?! Ready and awaiting their next number challenge!

On some days, the sandpit is definitely the place to be! Check out the collaborative and problem-solving skills on display in these photos.

Dolls for sale!

Practising for Athletics Day: the gumboot throw requires a fine combination of skill and style, as you will see in the photos that follow.

We look forward to seeing as many family members as possible at our Athletics Day on Wednesday. Please note that the Koru team children will be participating in their events from the start of the school day through to the morning tea break at 10:30 a.m. It's crucial that your children have sunblock applied before they arrive at school and that they have their hats and named water bottles. 

Please note that we have sunblock at school in the hubs, if, on any morning, you would like to apply more sunblock or perhaps have run out at home.

We do trust that you've all had a wonderful long weekend with your families, and we look forward to those wide smiles and sparkling eyes at school again in the morning.

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou,

Elizabeth, Georgia, Nicola, Tracey and Stacey

 Kia ora koutou,

We hope that this finds you at the end of a lovely weekend with your families, and we look forward to seeing your wee ones with their beautiful, wide smiles, tomorrow morning!

Our focus in this post is on Maths, and in particular on the Maths strand area of Probability. In the first week of the previous fortnight, we focused on developing the language of probability, introducing such terms as 'always', 'perhaps', 'certain', 'possible', 'impossible', 'will', 'might', 'won't', 'will', 'maybe', 'never', 'yes', 'no'. The context for this learning took the form of familiar stories such as Little Red Riding Hood, The Gingerbread Man, Cinderella and Maui Catches the Sun, and the children were asked such questions as 'Do you think Little Red Riding Hood will see a tree on the way to Grandma's house?' and 'Do you think Red Riding Hood will see a hedgehog in the forest?' 

Whatever the children's decisions, they were always asked to justify their thinking.

During the second week, we learnt more about probability by playing card games, such as Memory, using sets of animal cards (including various numbers of animals, at the most, ten cats, ten dogs, six mice and one pig). As we played the games, we thought about how likely it is for 'an event' to happen, for example, 'What are the chances of picking up two cats as opposed to picking up two dogs?' The children were asked to think about such questions as:

• What card do you think you will turn over next? (given the cards that have already been turned over)
• Why do you think that?
• Which cards do you think will be last?
• Which are the hardest pairs to find?
• Which are the easiest pairs to find?

In this game, Feeding Greedy Cat, which cat will get the most fish, the blue cat or the red cat?

Was there a lucky colour in your game?

In this game, was it better to be in the team collecting the same cards or the team collecting the different cards?

Which card do you think you'll turn up next? And why do you think that?

Is it certain, possible or impossible for Cinderella to see a hot air balloon on her way to the palace?

Will the gingerbread man always, possibly or never see a tractor on his way to the river?

What are the chances that the first card you turn over is a dog? Why do you think that?

Which card will you choose to turn over next?

Which are the hardest pairs to find? Which are the easiest pairs to find?

Are you collecting pairs that are the same or pairs that are different? Is it better to collect pairs that are the same or pairs that are different?

Which coloured cat is going to get the most fish?

Is there a 'lucky' colour? Was the same colour 'lucky' every time you played the game? Our Probability focus gave the children an in-depth look at uncertainty and chance, in a variety of situations. They were given the opportunity to acknowledge and anticipate possible outcomes, always justifying their thinking each step of the way. What a lot of fun we had in Maths throughout this last fortnight! ...and one final message - many thanks to you for the continuing support you are giving your children with their learning, by helping them to practise their heart words, their sound cards and their reading at home with you. The difference this makes is invaluable and we certainly appreciate it enormously. All best for the week ahead! Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou, Elizabeth, Georgia, Nicola, Stacey and Jeanette

Kia ora, e te whanau,

What a lovely first week back at school following the holidays, this despite some very inclement weather! The children have loved reconnecting with teachers and friends. We warmly welcome our new children and their whānau: Kura, Theo, Ciaran, Arlo, Jessica and Mia Rose. It's wonderful to have you all at school with us, and well done to all for settling so beautifully into school life. 

A very warm welcome also to our new children, and their whanau, who joined us towards the end of last term - Julia, Amani, Beau, Sailor, and Harriet. It is so lovely to have these children in the hub with us as well. They too have all settled in beautifully and our 'golden oldies' have been wonderful in making everyone feel very welcome.

It became apparent, and you will have read this in a recent Hero message from Sandy, that we have experienced a glitch in Hero which has meant that some of our communications have failed to reach you. We are therefore resending this Blog post, as it contains many gorgeous photos and lots of news about what the children were up to towards the end of last term.

Elizabeth and Nicola's home groups were lucky to be able to rebook their Junior Park Explorers outing to the ponds, after their initial trip was postponed. This visit took place in the second half of Term 2. Our educator, Pete, did a fabulous job of being both captivating and informative with our group. We learnt lots about our native birds, the role trees play in our ecosystem, and where bugs like to live.

We had to be really quiet on our bird search. When we spotted a bird we used this signal to point it out.
In this activity, we lay down, breathed in and scrunched our toes, then breathed out and relaxed our toes.

We are aware that in the Koru team we have a student with an all-nut allergy. Therefore we are asking that if nuts/nut-based products aren't necessary for your child's lunchbox, please consider not including them.

The team is also aware that some children have other dietary requirements and that their diet may need to be nut-based, so will need nut products to be included in their lunch box.

The teachers will continue to remind the children that at school we eat our own food rather than share with others, along with reminders about handwashing and putting food wrappings in lunch boxes to take home. These reminders will also include asking children to wash their hands after eating nuts, in order to remove any potential residue. 

Kia ora e te whanau,

We hope you are all happy and healthy, and that everything is going well for you all on the home front. We have officially reached the end of our first term here at school! It has been an incredibly busy term, and we are very proud of the resilience and perseverance our tamariki have shown, along with their ability to incorporate all aspects of our school values into their daily lives. Very well done, koutou!

Here is the Learning At Home page link for those of you who might be wanting to access this throughout the school holidays. You will see that there are enormous possibilities here on our Koru team page, from a range of extra Maths activities, a wide variety of Literacy activities, through to many picture books which have been read by the teachers and uploaded so that the wee ones can enjoy a quiet moment listening to a good story.

As we said, it has been a very busy term full of exciting activities and impressive progress throughout, including:

• having the wonderful Kate in to teach our tamariki about different aspects of Digitech, 
• having the lovely Sue in to help with some baking on Fridays, 
• children making wonderful progress in their Structured Literacy groups, and
• tamariki learning lots of new concepts, knowledge and strategies in the Maths area.

Unplugged programming, using individual paper mazes, and weaving play-based learning into Digitech, by choosing a character to act as a robot programmer and using kinetic sand as barriers and obstacles.

Vocalising the code, using the simple code blocks of 'forward', 'turn' and 'backwards'.

Guiding Bingo through the maze, by giving him a 'superpower' and adding 'jump' to the code blocks.

Unplugged coding refers to learning coding skills, without the use of technology!

Incorporating our Sustainability theme into Digitech.

The tamariki talked about the impact of pollution and rubbish on underwater life.

They then 'taught' AI (the iPad app they were using) to tell the difference between a fish and rubbish, then, using the iPad to control a bluebot, children then set about cleaning up the ocean so that the sea creatures could be safe, happy and thrive!

Structured Literacy: 

Although your children haven't brought their literacy folders home over the holidays, this doesn't mean that their Literacy learning and practice must stop for the time being. You will find, in our Koru Learning at Home Literacy area, links to the letter sound cards (you could make your own copies for home, if you have a printer), their heart words, and several other aspects of phonemic awareness. In the phonics section, there is a link through to YouTube which gives lots of opportunities for the children to practise a variety of phonemic awareness activities. 

Maths: 

The children have been working hard to increase their knowledge of bigger numbers and the concepts like place value which are involved in this learning. They have been:

• using tens frames to show the make up of 'teen' numbers (10 + ? = the particular teen number)
• learning about how the teen numbers are represented by words in te Reo Māori
• counting forwards to 20, and then on to 100
• counting backwards from 10, and then backwards from 20
• learning to read numbers to 20, 100 and beyond (up to any 3-digit number), and working towards understanding the concept of place value required when, for example, zero is a place holder, as in 702
• solving fun Maths problems using a variety of strategies 
• learning new maths games (like Traffic Light, Move and Prove and various versions of Memory which involve matching a number, for example, 14, with its matching tens frame pattern) 
• making patterns and pictures, using the shape equipment

We love these Maths activities which require the children to justify their thinking, and which also allow for a wide variety of 'answers'.

Again, impressive thinking here, and a growing ability in tamariki to justify their thinking.

Excellent explanations and problem-solving here!

Learning about 'teen' numbers.

Learning that 'teen' means ten.

The children's drawings are representations of what they actually did, using popsicle sticks and hair ties, to form bundles of ten with some 'ones' left over (please note, the line through the ten 'sticks' is the hair tie!)

And aren't the tamariki amazing to be learning how to write equations in this way?

• socio-dramatic role play where they began by building a bridge, then found all sorts of animals to represent the three billy goats and another animal (often a wild cat, such a s a tiger) to play the part of the troll, before retelling the story using those characters
• creating a small world, where they used the skills of recalling what happens in the story to retell it to their peers using characters they had made 
• a whole class bridge building competition, using such equipment as Duplo, wooden building blocks, Lego, boxes, small bricks, and a variety of classroom furniture. 

Two trolls (one large and pink; the other a small grey elephant) up to mischief in this retelling!

Watch out, little goats...

Oh, no - what is going to happen next?

... a bad day for one of the trolls.

...and a very bad day for the other!

More creative use of a variety of animals (including dinosaurs) in this retelling.

Another troll about to get his comeuppance!

And a creative variation on the Three Billy Goats Gruff theme, incorporating the use of the train set, some Lego and some shells!

Kete Certificates: 

Congratulations to Neasa, Kit, Jos Luke, and Nellie, for showing our school kete values and recently receiving certificates in the areas of:

• We Care
• We Love Learning and
• We Make a Difference

Ka pai, tamariki!

We trust that you all have a wonderfully safe and happy Easter break and school holiday to follow. 

Thank you so much for the support which you have all provided for us here at school throughout this term. It is always greatly appreciated. Your children have shown wonderful levels of participation and contribution throughout this first term and will all, no doubt, be very tired. We trust you all have the chance to relax and recharge ready for an exciting Term 2 ahead.

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou,

Elizabeth, Georgia, Stacey and Amy