Kahikatea News Term 4 Week 9

Kia ora e te whānau,

What a wonderful and action-packed couple of weeks we have had!

Transition Visits

With 2024 around the corner, we had the first of our transition visits this week. Our year 2s visited Kōwhai, and our year 1s made new connections with our Koru visitors in the Kahikatea hub. There were lots of creative activities on offer and many smiles seen.










Cinderella

An absolute highlight of our week was seeing the Southern Ballet performance, 'Cinderella'. What a fantastic experience. We went on the bus to the beautiful Isaac Theatre Royal, were shown to our seats by the ushers, and watched an amazing range of dances.

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photos of the performance, but following are some pictures of our adventure, and words about our favourite parts.


















What was your favourite part of the Cinderella performance?

"All the gowns!" - Maya
"The drama of the stepsisters!" - Sandi
"Cinderella!" - Alexa
"When Cinderella was dancing with the prince." - Mia-Grace
"The part at the end and all of the cool ballet moves." - Nellie
"They had a lot of dances. The finale!" - Casey
"The bit at the end when they gathered around and did lots of cool stuff." - Reuben
"Cinderella was pretty!" - Ivy
"When she was cleaning the floor." - Freddie
"When Cinderella danced with the prince." - Maeve
"When they went up the stairs." - Maeve
"The dancer with the white tights - they had great moves!" - Jackson
"The acting!" - Henry
"When there was the ending - the last song was nice." - James
"All of it!" - Aya
"The dance with the tassels." - Ethan
"The black costume dance." - Florence
"The start because it was funny." - June
"When the boy and girl danced together." - Ellie and Heidi

Notices/ Reminders
  • This was the last week of the year for decodable books to be sent home for the year. Please send any books (including library books) back to school
  • Please send your learner along to school with a reusable bag so that we can start sending workbooks home next week
  • You are most welcome to attend our final Celebration Assembly for the year. This is at 9:45 on the 15th December
  • Our last day of the year is Tuesday 19th December- finishing at 12:30

What a pleasure it has been to work with our amazing Kahikatea tamariki this year. We have really appreciated all of our whānau support too. Have a wonderful summer break, and we look forward to seeing all of our fabulous Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto learners back in 2024!

-Team Kahikatea
Katie, Krystal, Amber, Quynh and Lisa

Kahikatea News Term 4 Week 7

Kia ora koutou,

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... 








That's all for now! Have a happy weekend!

Team Kahikatea

Kahikatea News Term 4 Week 5

 Kia ora koutou,


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.



Ka kite,

Team Kahikatea

Katie, Krystal, Amber, Lisa, Quynh


Kahikatea News Term 4 Week 3

Kia ora e te whānau,

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!

Team Kahikatea
quynh.nguyen@beckenham.school.nz
katie.mcfarlane@beckenham.school.nz
amber.donovan@beckenham.school.nz
lisa.collier@beckenham.school.nz
krystal.hunt@beckenham.school.nz


Kahikatea News Term 4 Week 1

Kia ora e te whānau,


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.


That's all for now!

Team Kahikatea
katie.mcfarlane@beckenham.school.nz
amber.donovan@beckenham.school.nz
lisa.collier@beckenham.school.nz
krystal.hunt@beckenham.school.nz
quynh.nguyen@beckenham.school.nz