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Koru Week 7, with a focus on Structured Literacy

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Kia ora e te whanau,

We hope everything's going well for you all on the home front. We have reached the end of Week 7, and it has been a fun-filled and epic fortnight here in the Koru hub.

Here is the Learning At Home page link for those of you who might be needing it. We are adding and updating our content every so often, however you will see that there are enormous possibilities here on our Koru page. If your child completes some Learning Through Play, some Literacy activities and some Maths activities each day, then that is terrific. If, on some days, this isn't achievable for any reason, then that is absolutely fine too. You will see that in class, we start each day with our karakia, followed by the National Anthem, and this might be a good thing to do at home as well.

Today you will see that the children have brought home, in their bags, their unique Home Learning codes which will give you access to Seesaw. We will be using Seesaw for those of you who are engaging in Learning From Home.

Structured Literacy: Across the school and within our Koru hub, we use the Structured Literacy approach to teaching reading. This approach focuses on speech sounds first, then leads on to the writing and reading of these sounds in words. As our tamariki learn different sounds, they then learn to blend and segment these sounds to read and write words. We also follow another specific approach for our handwriting which is called 'Kinetic Letters', and these handwriting skills are also practised during Literacy lessons.

Scope and Sequence: There are 7 different stages within the Structured Literacy approach. Each stage has new sounds for the children to learn and requires different skill sets. As children move through the stages, new skills are learnt and these build upon previous skills that the children have learnt.

We love practising our letter sounds at home with our families.

We can make words using our letter cards, to practise our segmenting and blending skills.
 
We can use our sounds and heart words to write a sentence.

Well done! Great work at writing a sentence independently.

Reading books: With Structured Literacy, there is a great series of books that goes along with this approach to support the children with their learning. In order to read the books, our tamariki must know most of the first 8 letter sounds. They will have been practising the skills of segmenting and blending sounds to encode and decode words, which then leads to the children being given a book.

Little Learners Love Literacy: This website, “Why LLLL (Little Learners Love Literacy)? has additional information as to why we use the Little Learners Love Literacy programme.


The above video explains how to clearly and correctly pronounce each of the letter sounds and will help you support your children as they practise these with you at home.


This little video clip focuses on phonological awareness. Watch how Linda Farrell gives Autumn explicit practice in blending, segmenting, and manipulating the sounds in words.

Caroline Moffatt's Structured Literacy Parent talk: Last year, Caroline Moffatt, our Resource Teacher of Literacy, led a workshop for parents, devoted to the Structured Literacy approach to teaching reading and writing. This contains valuable information related to the Science of Reading and our approach towards Literacy here at Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto.


Here is a link to all our information regarding our Structured Literacy approach which you will find on our school website: https://www.beckenham.school.nz/index.php/learning/literacy-learning

We do hope you all have a restful and very happy weekend, everyone. We're looking forward to seeing those bright and happy wee faces next week!

Ngā mihi mahana koutou,
Elizabeth, Georgia and Stacey

Koru News: Term 1 Week 5, with a Focus on Digitech

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 Kia ora e te whanau,

We hope everything's going well for you all on the home front. Here we are at the end of Week 5 and we've had another very busy, fun and creative fortnight in the Koru team. 

Here's the link through to our Learning At Home page for those of you who might be needing it.

This week, we're going to have a focus on Digitech in our Blog post! So... first of all, what is Digitech? 

Digitech: is a way of expressing problems and formulating solutions in ways that a computer would, and can be integrated into many areas of the curriculum, including Literacy and Maths (for example, to support the learning of heart words, story telling and sequencing, number recognition and counting, etc.).

Introducing Kate...!

Kate is one of the Ōtautahi Outreach facilitators and is working with us in this area of our learning. Kate was born and raised in Ōtautahi locally, and is actually a Beckenham School old girl (the year of '99!). Her background is in ECE teaching, before she 'fell somewhat head first' into Digital Technologies. She spent 2018-2020 on Kia Takatū ā-Matihiko, the Digital Readiness Programme, and now focuses on creating fun and authentic learning experiences in classrooms. We feel incredibly lucky to have Kate working with the Koru team (both teachers and children). Kate is coming to us once a week on Thursday mornings throughout the first two terms of this year.

What does Digitech look like at the New Entrant level?

Digitech can be:

  • easily interwoven throughout play-based learning 
  • integrated throughout such curriculum areas as Literacy, numeracy, Science and Te Ao Māori
  • used to introduce the children to simple elements and concepts of programming, thereby  demystifying the language and terminology which children will encounter later in their learning

  • SO much fun! Believe it or not, it can include opportunities to explore messy play and can also be used outside in the natural environment 

  • used incredibly successfully to support the social competencies of collaboration, communication, well-being, Turangawaewae and problem solving 

What are some of our areas we have focused on in the first 3 weeks of our Digitech learning in the Koru team?

  • Week 3 (Kidbots): We started by introducing the grid and the characters of the 'robot' and the 'programmer' to the tamariki. You can also add a 'tester' but we played the role of the 'tester' collaboratively on this introductory day. Writing a computer program with Kidbots involved: planning what we wanted to do; coding the instructions; testing our code/programme; and debugging our code/programme.
  • Week 4 (Bluebots and Greedy Cat): This week, the focus was on writing a computer programme, with Greedy Cat as a character. The children had to: plan what they were going to do; revisit the story and go over the sequence of kai that Greedy Cat gobbles up; code the instructions, using simple 'forward' 'backwards' and 'turn' blocks to represent their code blocks; test their code/program (tamariki were encouraged to 'test' the program frequently along the way to ensure there were no 'bugs' - when each programme was tested, children were encouraged to 'read' the programme out loud together); debug their code/program (when obstacles were encountered or the code wasn't correct during testing, children 'debugged' their code and then retested). Computers only output exactly what humans input!
  • Week 5: Bluebots and Scratch Jr: This week, we introduced programming using software and bluetooth connectivity. Tamariki were encouraged to programme through the iPad app to a shape and then test and debug their code. (Scratch Jr is block based code for animations and uses visual code and colours as opposed to text, and only works on an iPad.)
Below are some images of your wee ones, hard at work programming and problem solving, using Bluebots and the Scratch Jr. app on the iPads:



















We are incredibly grateful to Kate - her expertise, patience and generosity are second to none! Our heartfelt thanks to you, Kate, for all of the hard work you're putting into working with us all in the Koru team. We appreciate you! 

We do hope you all have a restful and very happy weekend, everyone. We're looking forward to seeing those bright and happy wee faces next week!

Ngā mihi mahana koutou,
Elizabeth, Georgia and Stacey

Fun Times in the Koru team: Term 1 Week 3

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 Kia ora, e te whanau,

We have had an amazingly busy and productive fortnight - it's been SO much fun, and in amongst all of the fun, the children have very quickly shown fantastic gains in their independence and their confidence.

We have:

  • made ice cream
  • started visiting the library
  • started exploring simple 'programming' with the help of Kate, from Code Club (Kate's coming in each Thursday morning to introduce us to Digitech (or Digital Technology); this link will take you to the area in the New Zealnd Curriulum which relates to e-learning and will explain more about this aspect of Technology
  • been exploring the Maths equipment, and in particular, the shape equipment
  • been practising our phonological awareness skills (rhyming, hearing and saying the initial sound in words, hearing and saying the final sounds in words, hearing the two parts in compound words and joining them together); you'll find more about this area of the children's learning on the Koru page of Learning At Home on our school website; just click on this link to get there quickly
  • been finding out about interoception (which is to do with understanding and feeling what's going on inside our bodies, and being conscious of and learning to describe these feelings) and engaging in interoception activities
  • practised our core strength exercises and our finger strength and dexterity exercises, in preparation for the start of handwriting, with Bounce and Skip, our two soft toy monkeys
  • and... we have been making new friends, and talking about showing our school value, We Care, and what this looks like and sounds like

We Care
The children have been introduced to our Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto values - our main focus so far has been on 'We Care'. The children came up with the following ideas to describe what others would see and hear when they are displaying this value: 
  • following kaiako instructions quickly and quietly
  • sharing the equipment
  • playing nicely with others, and inviting them into our games
  • having gentle hands and feet, and looking after anyone who hurts themselves
  • and being super amazing with helping to tidy up at the end of our learning through play times and before we go home at the end of the day
  • using good manners, like 'please', 'thank you', 'excuse me' and 'I'm sorry'.
Here are some photos of tamariki showing we care.

Washing our hands thoroughly before kai, showing that we care about being clean when eating

Look how careful we are to ensure that our hands are completely clean

Good job, tamariki!

Working together and helping each other to complete a huge and challenging jigsaw puzzle

More helpful team work with this jigsaw puzzle

Using our new sandpit equipment respectfully and carefully

Forming new friendships


Teamwork: listening to each other and working towards a shared goal (building a home for Bounce and Skip)

Welcoming others into the building team

Keeping the area round the sandpit clean and tidy, thereby showing care for others' health and safety...

...and ensuring that the sand isn't wasted



Core Strength exercises, in preparation for handwriting with Skip and Bounce:

Planking

The Stone Lion





Structured Literacy:
Your children's Literacy folders will be coming home in their school bags this week. There will be a letter to parents included in the folder and this will provide an explanation of our Structured Literacy programme for you. Please note that at the start of the children's literacy learning, there will be letter cards in their folders, and perhaps some heart word cards too, but no book necessarily for the first few weeks. Please click on this link to listen to exactly how we are teaching the children to make the 'pure' sound for each of the letters of the alphabet. This will help you enormously at home, when you are supporting your children with their learning.

Greedy Cat:
In Week 2, we read the shared book 'The New Cat' which is the first story in the Greedy Cat series, and tells the story of how Katie, the little girl in the stories, first received her new kitten for her birthday, and also tells how Greedy Cat got his name! Following on from this, some of our tamariki created Greedy Cat paintings. The children learned how to hold a paintbrush, how to dip their brush into primary colours in order to create the secondary colour they wanted, and to then paint their Greedy Cat image. Once the paint had dried, the children then drew on various features including the eyes, the nose, the mouth, the whiskers, and the claws, using black pastel. These paintings are on display in the hub and we have added a photo here, so that you can see the beautiful display we now have!


Ice-cream:
In Week 3, our Koru tamariki made some delicious banana and chocolate chip ice-cream with Aunty Ali, who comes in and helps support the Learning Through Play during the first session on Wednesday mornings. The children followed a simple recipe, which included whipped cream, condensed milk, mashed banana and chocolate pieces. Different groups of children all had a go at adding in the various ingredients to help create the ice-cream. We all waited very patiently for the ice-cream to freeze! This took all of Wednesday night and most of Thursday, and the icecream was then able to be enjoyed on Thursday afternoon. Please note that one or two children weren't at school on 'ice cream day' and we do have some icecream left over for when these children are back at school. Here are some photos of the ice-cream-making process and also of some of our tamariki enjoying the delicious result! Keep scrolling down! We simply couldn't leave any of these photos out :)






























Maths:
Our focus for Maths throughout Weeks 2 and 3 has been Geometry, looking at shapes and the different attributes they have. We have been exploring shapes by sorting, based on the different attributes the shapes have, going on shape walks to work out how many sides and corners a shape has, playing shape hopscotch and following shape patterns, making different patterns using our wooden shapes, and creating our own pictures by cutting and gluing different shapes such as squares, triangles, circles and rectangles. Below are photos of some of our tamariki involved in the game we call Shape Hopscotch.








Library:
Our Library time has now been confirmed as being on Fridays, and you will have noticed your child's library folder in your child's bag the last two Fridays. Library books can be kept at home until Friday each week, but need to be returned by then, if your child is to have new books issued.
You will also have noticed that your child's poetry book is coming home too. Please read the new poem, as well as the previous weeks' poems, with your child. Any colouring that hasn't been completed can be finished off at home. Your child could also colour in the title page at the front of their book. Please ensure that your child's poetry book is returned to their school bag and comes back to school each Monday.

Friendship List:
We are hoping to put together a contact list to make it easier for you all to set up playdates for your children. Please let Georgia or Elizabeth know if you are willing to have your contact details (cellphone number and/or email address) included on the Friendship List, and we'll get this together as soon as possible. We'd like to do this soon, so please email us by the end of this week (Friday, 25th February).

Your children's photos:
Kate, from Code Club (mentioned above), has asked if I would check to see whether parents would be willing to have their children's photos included in any funding applications she might have to make to the Ministry of Education. Kate endeavours to ensure that photos include the backs of children's heads. Please let Elizabeth know if you would prefer that your child's image NOT appear in Kate's proposals.
Below, you'll see some of the photos taken on Thursday when Kate taught the children how to play the Kidbot challenge. So much fun was had by all!!












...and a final few Learning Through Play photos:

Dancing to The Nutcracker Suite

The Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy

What treats are being created here, we wonder?

Don't you just love a good book?

These good friends definitely do!

The Family Corner


Someone else who loves a good book


...and who could this possibly be?!

Hats:
A reminder to please ensure your child is bringing a named hat to school each and every day.

Well... what a lot of great times we've been having in our first weeks at school!

Your children are doing a fantastic job, as they settle (back, for some of the children who started with us last year) into the Koru team and learn about the routines at school, and the different activities and ideas for play and learning that are on offer. We hope you all have a wonderful and warm week ahead, and we look forward to seeing all of those happy, smiling, little faces back at school tomorrow.

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

Koru team start of 2022 school year

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Kia ora koutou,

A very warm welcome to you all to the start of the 2022 school year, in the Koru team. We are really looking forward to meeting with you all via Zoom, either tomorrow or on Thursday.

Please find below links to some valuable information, to help you and your children as you transition back to life at school:

 

In the meantime, we wish you all the best for a very happy and fulfilling year ahead together!

Ngā mihi mahana,
Elizabeth, Georgia and Stacey

Koru News Term 4 Week 1

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 Kia ora whanau,

Welcome to the fourth term of the year, and what a busy one it looks as if it's going to be! It was such a treat to see all of those wide and happy smiles back at the school gate this week. We give an especially warm welcome to Hunter, Millie and James who all had their first day at school on Monday. What a wonderful job they're all doing of settling in beautifully at school. Mīharo, tamariki!

All children have returned to the school routines very happily, and are enthusiastically embracing their learning, including those crucial areas of learning like showing 'We Care', embracing challenge, helping each other out when the need arises and making a difference by keeping the learning spaces tidy and well-organised.

A huge thank you goes out to the parents who have created the absolutely gorgeous fairy houses for the Koru team's raised garden area. The children are loving the play in this area, and have been having some great ideas for the things that they could make or bring in from home to decorate the garden even further. Some of their ideas include:

  • little plants (flowers, little succulents and herbs)
  • tiny terracotta pots
  • little beds for the fairies to sleep in
  • decorations for the houses
  • stones, painted or plain
  • a little lake!
  • little hollows and tunnels
If you have any of the above items at home, or perhaps resources which could be put together to create any of the above, all contributions will be gratefully received. Next week, we're going to have a go at making our own little fairies out of old-fashioned wooden pegs. If you have any fabric which would be suitable for clothes or wings, any little buttons, tiny fake flowers, or any other items which you think might be useful, we'd love it if you were to send them along to school. Thank you so much, in anticipation!

Learning Through Play:
The children have jumped back into their Learning Through Play with energy and enthusiasm. They have had some special Koru time in Treemendous, and there are also several little schools in operation, both indoors and outdoors (see below).























We love the examples of our school kete values being evidenced in the children's play in the photos above. You could ask your children to describe the values they can see in action in these photos!

Structured Literacy:
Both teachers and children are loving getting back into Structured Literacy lessons! The children are showing wonderful focus and engagement, and are feeling very proud of the progress that they're making. Please ensure that your children are practising reading their heart words fluently and confidently, as well as writing them. Practising writing the heart words at home will help your child enormously with their confidence in Literacy groups at school. They can also be putting their letter cards together to form simple 2 or 3 letter words, or for those children who have been at school for a longer time, they can be putting their heart words and letter cards together to form sentences, which they can then read to you.






Great work, tamariki! What fantastic spelling and writing.

Handwashing:
We're back into the routine of washing our hands regularly at school, along with using hand sanitiser. We thought you might like to see an example of how diligent the children are when it comes to handwashing. They are experts!







Hats:
A reminder, please, to ensure that your child brings their named hat to school every day. 

We trust that you all have an absolutely wonderful long weekend, and please remember that Tuesday is a Staff Only Day, so we'll see the children back at school, bright-eyed and with wide smiles, on Wednesday next week!

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou,

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