Kahikatea Team News: Term 1, week 7

 We have had some wonderful learning happening over the past two weeks. The tamariki are really engaged and motivated in all areas of the curriculum. We are seeing a lot of progress already, which is amazing. Students' are now familiar with our routines, and the hub is humming along nicely.


Mathematics:

In Math this week we have been looking at measurement and have been using the context of the story of The Gingerbread Man for ordering and comparing length and height. Below are some pictures of some wonderful learning happening.



















How you can help at home:

Ask your child to make comparisons with toys; e.g., can they line up all of their soft toys in order from shortest to tallest?

Or sort dinosaurs or plastic animals? Can you line your family members up in height order?

Can you learn the Te Reo words for tallest, taller, shortest, and shorter?

Students could draw pictures to bring back to class to share next week!


Literacy:

We are currently assessing, adjusting, and reworking our groups. We are thrilled with the amount of progress students have made in such a short time.






Reminders:

It is school photos next week on Wednesday, 19th March. please ensure students are in the correct school uniform for this.

A reminder to please keep toys at home, unless you have an arrangement with your child's teacher. They can be a big distraction for others during learning time and can often get lost or become damaged.

We have House Games on Tuesday afternoon, children are encouraged to wear their house colour tee-shirts.

Kahikatea Team News


Term 1 Week 5 

Nga mihi kia  koutou, 

Our little Kahikatea team is settling in nicely and we have maths and literacy programs underway. We have welcomed one of the Kowhai homegroups into the atrium space so you and your child need to use our East-side entry doors in the mornings. Bags can continue to be placed in either the green or blue cubbies.  

Professional Development Days 

Sarah and Amber are attending a two-day Literacy PD on Monday and Tuesday next week. 

Michelle Bradley will be relieving for Amber. 

Ellie Galletly will be relieving for Sarah. 


Walk and Wheel Week 

Next week our annual walk and wheel week is happening! Check out the Daily themes and Walk or Wheel website. 

Literacy 

Each child has their own literacy folder and if their teacher gives them a decodable book to read it must be placed inside their folder and then put into their school bag. If you can't see it please come into the hub and look in one of the three blue literacy boxes in the pathway. 

Please return the literacy folder each Friday. Thank you! If you have any questions, please ask your child's literacy teacher. 

Naming Items 

Thank you for clearly naming all your child's personal belongings, these include uniform items (hats, jerseys, shirts, school bag), and their drink bottle and lunchbox. 

Maths

Dear family and whānau, at school this week we are completing a maths unit on native frogs in ponds. This unit is all about how numbers are made up of other, smaller numbers, an essential concept underlying addition and subtraction. The unit helps develop two ideas: 

  • there are a finite number of number pairs for a given number (for example 5 can be thought of as 0 and 5, 1 and 4, 2 and 3 and no other pairs can be found) 
  •  numbers are uniquely paired (if 2 is one of the parts of 5, the other part must be 3). 

Children need to investigate these relationships many times. Once children believe that 2 and 3 is always 5 they see a real reason to remember it. 

At home this week please help your child to solve the inside and outside the house problem below. Encourage them to record the numbers and draw pictures to show people inside and outside. Toys could be used to show these number relationships. Discuss these in your home language also if you wish to. 

______________people live in my house. 

If there are 2 people inside my house then___________people are outside. 

If there are___________inside my house then__________people are outside. 

If there are____________inside my house then__________people are outside. 

If there are______inside my house then______________people are outside. 



Check out some very cool mathematicians!






























Kahikatea Change Health Unit 

We are learning about the concept of change and our focus this term is on the physical and emotional changes in ourselves. We would love for each child to please have a colour photo of them as babies sent to school for some learning we will be doing next week. You are welcome to email a copy to your child's teacher if that is easier for you.



Library Days 

Talia and Amber go to the library on Tuesday afternoon 

Sarah goes to the library on Thursday afternoon.





Thank you for your ongoing support and helpful feedback, we are really enjoying getting to know you and your children! 
If you have any queries or wondering, please email your child's homegroup teacher or pop in to speak to one of us. 

amber.donovan@beckenham.school.nz
talia.garrick@beckenham.school.nz
sarah.junghenn@beckenham.school.nz


Have a lovely weekend everyone! 
Team Kahikatea 





Kahikatea Whānau Update: Term 1 Week 3

  • Welcome back!
  • Drop offs
  • Library times
  • Kapa Haka
  • Garden Club
  • Literacy
  • Cyber Safety

Welcome back to school!
We have been absolutely loving getting to know our new tamariki, everyone has made such a positive start to school. The Kahikatea hub has been very busy with participating in literacy, maths, sports, learning through play, getting to know each other, inquiry and kapa haka. Below are some pictures of the fun we have had over the past two weeks:





























Drop Offs:
Please remember to use either the Sandwich Road or Park entrance to enter the school. The entrance behind our building is for BOSCO families to use. We are encouraging our children to unpack their own bags in the morning. Thank you for your support with this, we have noticed many of you standing back and allowing your children to put their lunchboxes, reading folders, and bags away themselves. 


Library:
Students are able to issue two books from the library each week, they are able to renew books as needed. Students' with overdue books will not be able to borrow new books.

Our library days are as follows:
Tuesdays-Talia and Ambers' homegroups
Thursdays-Sarah's homegroup
Kapa Haka:
We are fortunate to have the amazing Whaia Cath running our Kapa Haka sessions again this year. This term, Sarah and Amber's class will get a 20-minute session each week on a Thursday. Talia and Amber's homegroup in Term 2, Sarah and Talia's in Term 3. In Term 4, we will all work our way to a Christmas performance.

Garden Club:
Thanks to everyone who brought produce this week and gave a koha! We made $38 for our Garden Club which is run by our wonderful Teaching assistant, Lucy. The kids are very excited to be able to put this money towards winter crops!
Thanks to our wonderful sellers, Ryland, Theo and Jak.

Literacy:
We are moving into Literacy groups next week on Monday. There will be a chart up in the hub above the reading folder buckets which says which teacher students are working with for Literacy. The hub will have a hui and line students up and send them off with their teachers for the first few days to ensure everyone gets to the right place.
Students' will start to bring home letter cards, heart word cards, and books over the next few weeks.

Cyber Safety:

All You Need to Know About TikTok


Tiktok is one of the fastest-growing social media apps. It’s a platform for creating, sharing and discovering short videos—and many young people love it! From new dance crazes to funny clips to animal videos, Tiktok can inspire creativity and bring joy.


But it’s important that parents and whānau help their tamariki navigate Tiktok safely. Today we’re sharing the Netsafe Tiktok Family Safety Toolkit so you can help guide your whānau to a fun and safe digital experience.










Thank You!

 Kia ora whanau, 

Our heartfelt THANKS to all of you and your beautiful tamariki for helping to make a magic year here in Team Kahikatea. We appreciate all your support, help and aroha, and we couldn't have done it without you. 

Have a lovely Christmas and holiday time, and stay safe and well; we look forward to seeing many of you again in the new year. 


For those of you who couldn't make it to our Global Groove End-of-Year Performance, here are some photos of your super kids...












































Class Placements 2025

Teachers will give out the class placement letters before the children meet their new teacher and home group friends. These letters will be put into your child's school bags. 

If your child was not here on the last day to receive their letter Jacky can arrange to email those letters to be emailed on WEDNESDAY. 


Have a safe and happy holiday everyone! 

Amber, Quynh, Ella, Sarah, Megan and Lisa 💜

Kahikatea News Term 4 Week 8

 Kia ora all, 

Can you believe there is only full week of school left?! Term 4 has flown by. The tamariki have worked so hard this year and we are incredibly proud of all the children's mahi. 

Upcoming Events: 

  • Kahikatea Global Grove End-of-Year Performance Dress Rehearsal (for the school) Thursday, 12 December⋅09:30 – 10:30

  • Kahikatea Global Grove End-of-Year Performance ( for Whanau) Thursday, 12 December⋅13:00 – 16:00

  • Final Celebration Assembly Friday, 13 December⋅09:05 – 09:50

  • Meet 2025 Teacher Tuesday, 17 December⋅10:00 – 10:30
  • School finishes Tuesday, 17 December at 12:30pm 

Global Groove 

The Kahikatea production of 'Global Groove' is well underway. The children have been working hard practising lines, making props, singing songs and learning dance moves. Your child's homegroup teacher will have emailed out costume letters. If you have not received a costume letter, please speak to your child's teacher as soon as possible. We are asking that the costumes be at school by the 10th of December at the latest. This will give us time to practise a dress rehearsal, before the whānau performance on Thursday 12th December at 2pm. We hope you can make it!

Assemblies

Friday's final celebration assembly will take place at 9.05am.

End-of-year transitions

There will be lots of opportunities for the children to get familiar with new learning spaces/new peers, during our transition sessions next week. 

Monday 9th December - Koru children will be visiting Kahikatea and getting to know the hub and Year 1s.
Wednesday 11th December am - Year 2s will have a visit to the Kōwhai hub. 
Wednesday 12th December pm - Koru children will be visiting Kahikatea and getting to know the hub and Year 1s.


Kapa Haka

It has been a lot of fun using poi during our Kapa Haka sessions. 






Maths - Fractions Focus 





Our Planet and Beyond: Learning about Space








Transition Visits 


On Wednesday morning our amazing Year 2 tamariki had their first whole group transition visit to Kowhai! Anna welcomed us and we talked about some of the things that we noticed about the Kowhai hub, and we got to spend time with our new soon-to-be Year 4 friends! 
We have another visit next Wednesday morning. Here are some photos of our time in Kowhai....