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:

Kia ora whanau, 
Here we are in Week 8, and the last two and a bit weeks have been just full to bursting with fun and exciting events. 

Kete Certificates

We love seeing our tamariki being celebrated at assembly for their successes with our Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto values. In these past two weeks, kete certificates for our Beckenham Te Kura values of We Love Learning, We Make a Difference and We Get There Together have been awarded. Congratulations, and well done to our wonderful tamariki on their achievements!

                 

A Very Special Visitor

On Thursday, we were treated to a very special visit in the form of a cute and very sociable 3 month old Miniature Schnauzer puppy named Biscuit. She was so very cute and well-behaved, showing off her ability to sit, stand and drop on command. What a very clever puppy! The children were super excited before her visit and brainstormed a list of many very interesting and clever questions to ask her owner, Jan. This is just a tiny selection of the questions they prepared for Jan:

• How fast can she run?

• Does Biscuit like biscuits?

• Can Biscuit shake hands?

Book Character Day

Last Friday, 3rd December, was our gold coin dress-up day. Children chose to dress as their favourite book character, or dress in colours of the rainbow to support LGBT and diversity. We were totally blown away by the range of fabulous and creative costumes. 

Learning Through Play 

Our learning focus has been on the warm and sunny season of Summer, (although the weather has other ideas). The children have been taking advantage of the warmer weather to include some outside play alongside other Learning Through Play activities indoors.

We have been reading lots of stories and sharing ideas together about the many fun and enjoyable activities we can enjoy in the summertime. Camping and toasting marshmallows, building sandcastles at the beach, eating ice-creams and picnics in the park are just a very few of the popular things our children love to do!  

Being SunSafe and Sunsmart is also super important at this time.

Follow this link Sunsmart-Level 1 sponsored by the Cancer Foundation, to find some fun and informative videos you can watch with your tamariki in order to encourage them to stay safe in the sun this summer. Remember to slip on a shirt, slop on some sunscreen and slap on a hat to stay safe when playing out in the summer sun.

Structured Literacy 

The children just love literacy times and enjoy showing the results of their awesome efforts and fantastic progress.

Teddy Bears' Picnic - Next week, Monday 13th December, the children are invited to bring a Teddy from home for our end of year Koru celebration. From 1.30pm, the Koru tamariki will be heading out to the big field for a picnic lunch and some fun activities with their Teddy Bear friends. Please note this change of date, as the weather isn't looking so flash for tomorrow, which was our original date.

Learning conferences.
We would like to extend a huge thank you to all the families who booked a time to come and have a chat with us at our recent learning conferences. These learning conferences provide a wonderful opportunity to have valuable conversations about the rich learning journey, and next steps, for our tamariki.

A short reminder
Please send a named bag to school with your child tomorrow. It will be very useful for your tamariki to be able to take home items belonging to them, such Literacy and Numeracy books. Any unused pages in these books may be useful at school next year, or they could be great be for some fun activities and writing practice at home over the school holidays.

We're looking forward to some fun final days of the school year! Thank you for all your support on the home front. We really appreciate this.

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou,

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

Kia ora whanau, 

It is hard to believe it is already Week 5 of Term 4! We have had a very eventful couple of weeks and we love seeing the children bursting into school with big smiles, energy and enthusiasm. 

We are so proud that every child participated in the Junior Athletics Day recently. This involved competing in the sprints, the high jump, the gumboot throw and the bean bag toss. The children demonstrated eagerness, dedication and a wide variety of techniques! They were also incredibly calm and patient, as evidenced when there was an unexpected fire drill halfway through their events. 

Here, we have captured some of the action and some of those magical moments:

'Bears in the Night' and 'We're going on a Bear Hunt' have been the focus for shared reading this past week. The children have explored a range of vocabulary, including prepositions, e.g., The bears go out their window, down a tree, over a wall, under a bridge, around a lake, through the woods, and up a hill, where they are spooked by an owl. 

The children have enjoyed actively joining in with the stories and predicting what happens next. They have been practising retelling the story in their own words and then sequencing the events. 

During Learning Through Play, the focus has been obstacle courses and some children have represented parts of the bear stories and the vocabulary involved. It is wonderful to see the children taking risks with their ideas and working collaboratively on their creations. 

Over these final few weeks, the children will be introduced to their new learning spaces for 2022. We will be visiting the Kahikatea team teachers on several occasions for introductions and some little activities with the teachers.

We look forward to catching up with you all next week. 

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou, 

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

Kia ora whanau,

This week we started practising for our athletics day coming up next Thursday, 11th November. The children have been learning the techniques involved in competing in high jump, sprints, the gumboot throw and the bean bag toss. The children have been really enjoying trying something new. At this stage, because we are still at Level 2, unfortunately parents are unable to attend the event. We will endeavour to take lots of photos of your gorgeous children embracing 'We Love Challenge' to share with you following the event.

This week our shared reading focus has been 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'. Children have joined in reading parts of the story, retold the story and thought of different words to describe how the caterpillar was feeling. They have made many beautiful caterpillar and butterfly crafts. They have also been involved in class role plays and hot-seating in order to spark their thinking beyond the story.  Hot-seating is a drama strategy in which a character or characters, played by the teacher or a child, are interviewed by the rest of the group. It invites children to recount a specific event, explore motivation and multiple perspectives/experiences related to a theme, topic, event, or an idea within a story.

We have also been busy exploring numbers in our play this week.

Reminders:

School Photos - Chelsea and Tracey's home groups will be having their class and individual photos taken on Wednesday morning.

Athletics Day - Thursday, 11th November. Children can wear their house tops if they wish. Sorry, no spectators allowed for this event.

Hats - In Terms 1 & 4 hats are compulsory for outdoor play. Please ensure your child has a named plain red or black hat to bring to school each day.

Sunscreen - As the days get warmer we will be reapplying sunscreen before lunch playtime each day.

Calendar Art - Have you checked out your child's gorgeous colourful artwork yet online. Their artwork can be made into calendars, mousepads, cards, notebooks or more. These make perfect Christmas gifts! Orders close 9 a.m. on Monday, 8th November.

PTA Salami fundraiser - Hopefully these order forms have made it home! You can drop your order form and money to the collectors before or after school outside the Sandwich Rd entrance every day. Online orders and payments can also be made to the PTA. Orders close 11 November. Salamis will be ready for collection on the 9th and 10th December (after school or evening options), just in time for the holiday season or Christmas presents.

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou,

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

 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