Team Kahikatea has been busy this week finishing off our literacy assessments for the year and celebrating the fantastic progress each learner has made this term. We are so proud of all our beautiful tamariki!
Our learning focus turns to Fairy Tales for the next few weeks and will include a special trip to the Isaac Theatre Royal to see the Southern Ballet performance of Cinderella.
We will be learning about Fairy Tales from all around the world and celebrating the diversity of our tamariki through stories, retellings, and little performances.
If your child has a favourite Fairy Tale book they are very welcome to bring it along to kura and share it with their home group or literacy group.
Below is a YouTube video explaining What Is A Fairy Tale?
Shoes/Hats/Uniform
Thank you for clearly naming your child's school clothing. As the weather begins to warm up children take off jerseys, jumpers, socks, and shoes during the day and we really do want those items to be returned to the right person at the end of the day.
We spend more time outside at this time of the year, so we are encouraging the children to put on sunscreen before going outside.
Basket Ball Hoops & Football Sessions
New hoops have been installed on the court by the hall and our tamariki can use this area during break times. It is a shared play space so there will be Year 5 to 8 children playing there too.
Our football sessions continue to be a hit with all our tamariki. Here are some photos from this week...
Learning Through Play
Our tamariki just love the opportunity to play! Each week we run two to three sessions of Learning Through Play. We always include both inside and outside activities for our tamariki to engage in.
We often provide learning through play options that connect to our topics, so here are some gorgeous pictures of children creating and making Waka Houora...
It has been wonderful to see the weather starting to warm up! A reminder that all students are required to wear a sunhat for outside play/activities in Term 4. These are kept in hat tubs at school. Students are responsible for ensuring that they look after their own hats and place them back into their homegroup hat tub after break times.
We are also asking that students keep their shoes on at all times (especially outside) unless they are extremely wet/dirty. This helps keep our feet safe and minimises the chance of missing shoes and socks.
Aotearoa NZ Histories
As part of our Aotearoa NZ Histories Curriculum, the Kahikatea learners have been learning about the first people of Aotearoa and the journey that they undertook to get here. We have been learning about tāngata whenua, Kupe's journey and the waka hourua.
It has been exciting watching this knowledge in our learners develop.
House Games
Students across the school have been participating in House Games each Monday. It has been a wonderful opportunity for the learners to build team spirit, work with others, and have a great time.
Cashmere Technical Football
We have been fortunate to have some football skills sessions run by Cashmere Technical Football Club. These have been happening on Tuesday (Krystal's & Amber's Homegroups), and Thursday (Katie's & Lisa/Quynh Homegroups) afternoon.
Bounce and Skip
The Bounce and Skip monkeys have been having some amazing adventures with our tamariki! We all enjoy seeing what adventures they get up to. We are proud of the wonderful writing efforts of our learners who have taken them home.
When the monkeys come for a visit to your house, please remember to bring them back so they can go on as many adventures as possible.
It has been a lovely week back after the long weekend. We have been enjoying the lovely Spring weather!
Athletics
A highlight of our week was athletics day. Kahikatea children showed 'We Love Challenge' and 'We Get There Together' as they participated in long jump, hurdles, shotput, and relays. Here are some photos taken during our training and on the day.
Toys
A quick reminder that toys are not allowed at school. If you have any questions, please let your child's homegroup teacher know.
That's all for this week. We hope that you are having a fabulous weekend!
Welcome to Term 4! We have a busy term ahead, with lots of engaging learning experiences planned.
Weeks 1 - 3: Athletics practice (hurdles, shotput, relays, and long jump).
Weeks 3 - 6: Navigators/Waka Hourua - Tamariki will learn about the journey of the first people to live in Aotearoa/New Zealand.
Weeks 4 - 9: Cashmere Technical Football Club - Football in Schools programme (two sessions per week)
Weeks 7-10: Fairy tales - Children will learn that a fairy tale is a fictional story, often passed down through generations. We are very keen to incorporate fairy tales from all cultural backgrounds within our team. Please, if you have a fairy tale you wish to share, please let your child's home group teacher know. This unit will conclude with a trip to the Isaac Theatre Royal, where we will watch a performance of Cinderella by the Southern Ballet Company.
Teaching Assistants
This term, we welcome two new teaching assistants to the Kahikatea team. Laura and Karen, we are looking forward to working with you!
Laura
Karen
Sunhats
Sunhats are compulsory in Term 4. No hat, no play. We find it best to leave sunhats at school each day to ensure that children always have a hat at school. Each home group has a bucket in which these are stored. Please make sure that your child's hat is clearly named.
Little Learners Texts
We encourage children to bring their literacy folder to school at the start of each week with their previous week's text inside. This way, we have enough texts to use in our teaching for the following week. If you have any Little Learners texts lying around at home, please send them our way!
Word of The Week
This week's word of the week is 'upstander'. An upstander will use their words and/or actions to help someone who is being mistreated. The following video has been shared with your child/ren this week.
Library
Please note that Krystal and Katie's home groups have changed library days this term.
Library days are:
Tuesday: Lisa/Quynh & Katie's home groups
Thursday: Amber & Krystal's home groups
Please support your child to have their folder at school on their library day.
We can't believe there's only one more week of Term 3 left. We have been really enjoying the warmer weather and far fewer wet days indoors. This is a good reminder to dig out those sunhats ready for term 4.
Well done to our learners who auditioned for the talent quest which is being held next week. We loved seeing the joy you had in performing. Thanks for sharing your talents with us!
Cricket Awareness Skills Sessions
Last week we were lucky to experience cricket sessions with Southern Districts & South East Ōtautahi Cricket Club. Each home group had time over at the hall, learning new skills, such as batting and bowling. If your child came home buzzing, check out the brochure and information below, with how to access further cricket lessons.
"At Beckenham Park, we not only deliver cricket for all ages, but a quality, engaging sport and physical activity program that we deliver through play, using our natural environment and varied equipment. We aim to improve the physical literacy of our community and encourage them to stay physically active. We would love to see more of our Beckenham whānau join us for a summer of cricket.
We have teams from Friday afternoon Smashies, Year 1-2 Cricket through to Year 6 Hardball, and then for our female only players we have teams from Year 3-4 through to Year 8-10." - Cat Quinn, Kids in Action Christchurch
Beckenham's Got Talent
Auditions for team Kahikatea were held on Wednesday afternoon. We were so impressed by the confidence shown, the range of talents, and the willingness to give it a go. Ka pai everyone, Nau Mai te Wero!
Mathematics
This task sparked lots of discussion and thinking. In Lisa and Quynh's homegroup, we voted using tally marks, on which dog was the odd one out. Then we were set the challenge to find a second answer. Most people thought that the top right dog was the odd one out. Here are some of our reasons.
Top left: "That dog is facing the other way."
Top right: "It is the only one with spots. It must be a dalmation!"
Bottom left: "It's smaller than the others."
Bottom right: "It is long and flat, like a sausage dog!"
We have been enjoying exploring fractions as well as using materials to understand place value.
Te Wiki o te Reo Māori
We have been celebrating Māori language this week, through a range of activities and waiata.
Here are some waiata you might want to enjoy with your tamariki at home:
Here are some phrases your whānau may want to learn together:
Here are some images from our wiki:
Literacy
We have noticed so much progress in our handwriting over the course of the year. Bounce and Skip, the monkeys, have had many fantastic adventures with our learners and we have loved seeing all of the pictures of what they've been up to.
Handwriting is such an important part of our literacy programme. Check out this video discussing the research and evidence surrounding the impact of handwriting fluency.
Learning to use the conjunctions 'because', 'but', 'so':
Some of our eager writers and illustrators enjoyed sharing their books with Sandy on Friday:
We have really been enjoying the sandpit in this lovely weather. Sometimes our water and sand play can get a little messy, so please provide a change of clothes for your child if they are a keen sandpit adventurer!
Over the holidays we will be moving homegroup spaces. Quynh and Lisa's homegroup will move to the breakout space, Krystal's HG to the Nook, Amber's HG to the theatre, and Katie's HG to the atrium.
Our last day of the term is Friday 22nd of September (the same day that calendar art orders are due).
Have a wonderful holiday break and we look forward to seeing you all back on Monday 9th October.
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