Category Archives: Kahikatea

Kahikatea Team News T1 Week 5

Posted on by

Kia ora Whānau, 

Wow, we are now halfway through the term! Our tamariki are truly demonstrating our school kete values as they learn new routines, get to know new friends and challenge themselves to meet new learning goals. We are so proud of everyone for all their amazing mahi, ka rawe koutou! 


Word of the Week

Our word of the week is RESPECT. 

Respect is an attitude of caring about people and treating them with dignity. Respect is valuing ourselves and others. We show respect by speaking and acting with courtesy. When we are respectful, we treat others as we want to be treated. 


Structured Literacy 

Teachers are in the process of completing literacy assessments. You may notice that your child has not yet come home with a decodable text. Once we have the most up-to-date information about your child's literacy needs we will resume sending books home. 

When you have time these videos show what our literacy stages look like for our Year 1 and 2 tamariki. 


Learning Through Play 

Our tamariki are highly motivated to play and explore new learning as independently as possible. When planning for our LTP sessions we try to provide diverse play options.  We are always looking for new things to engage our tamariki, including: 
  • Water play toys
  • Craft and construction (wool, boxes, buttons, lids, containers etc) 
  • Magazines, coloured paper or card, posters, old calendars
  • Stickers/labels 
  • Good dress-up costumes (including hats, accessories, shoes) 
  • wrapping paper
  • ribbon or string
  • boxes for box construction (cereal boxes, biscuit boxes, small paper bags, egg cartons etc


Photos

Photos from... learning through play, maths, and fun with our Year 7 leaders and all things fun here in Team Kahikatea. Enjoy! 





















Reminders: 

  • please name your child's belongings
  • please remind your child/ren they do not need to bring toys to school
  • hats are to be worn during break times

If you need to korero with your child's teacher please remember you can email us: 

sarah.angelo@beckenham.school.nz
ella.rainbow@beckenham.school.nz
quynh.nguyen@beckenham.school.nz
amber.donovan@beckenham.school.nz
lisa.collier@beckenham.school.nz

Arohanui, from Team Kahikatea 

Amber, Quynh, Lisa, Sarah, Ella & Katie 



Kahikatea News Term 1 Week 3

Posted on by

Kia ora e te whānau,

We have had a wonderful start to the year in the Kahikatea team. Time has flown! We have loved seeing tamariki settling in so well and coming to school with smiles on their faces.


Learning Through Play Highlights

We love Learning Through Play in the Kahikatea team!

"I like putting in water for water play!" - Jacob

"I like being outside and water play!" - Emily

"My favourite activity is dress-up." - Maryam

"I like being on the swing." - Henri

"I love playing outside." - Archie

"We love playing with the Duplo." - Kura and Mia










Learning Through Play Resources

Kahikatea is on the lookout for toys and resources for Learning Through Play. If you have toys, games, puzzles, or dress-ups that your family no longer needs or uses, we would happily take them off your hands! He waka eke noa, we get there together.


House Games

We will be having House Games on Mondays during weeks 4 (19/2/24), 6 (4/3/24), and 8 (18/3/24) this term. Your child is welcome to wear their house shirt.


Library

We will begin our weekly library visits next week (Week 4). The library is also open during morning tea and lunch play times - children are welcome to go to the library to return books, issue new ones, or browse books during this time.

Library Days

Tuesdays - Amber and Ella's home groups

Thursdays - Quynh and Sarah's home groups


Literacy

We began working with our literacy teachers this week. It has been lovely to see children showing 'We Love Learning' during literacy time. Your child's literacy folder tub is kept in the pathway. We encourage children to bring their literacy folder to each literacy lesson.


Whānau Photo Wall

One of our kaiako, Sarah, had a wonderful idea of putting whānau photos up on the wall in Kahikatea. If you have photos of your family that you would like to contribute to this, please feel free to email Sarah (sarah.angelo@beckenham.school.nz) or your child's home group teacher.


Netball Sessions

The Kahikatea team is really looking forward to our upcoming introduction to netball sessions. We have coaches from Cashmere Netball Club coming to run four sessions per homegroup, beginning in Week 5. Sarah and Quynh's home groups will have their sessions on Tuesdays, and Amber and Ella's home groups will have their sessions on Thursdays. Thank you Cashmere Netball Club!
That's all for now,
Team Kahikatea

quynh.nguyen@beckenham.school.nz
amber.donovan@beckenham.school.nz
sarah.angelo@beckenham.school.nz
ella.rainbow@beckenham.school.nz
lisa.collier@beckenham.school.nz
katie.mcfarlane@beckenham.school.nz

Kahikatea News Term 4 Week 9

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

 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