Kia ora e te whānau,

Your children have made an absolutely amazing start to school! We have been so proud of the way they are independently unpacking their bags so beautifully and organising their lunches and drink bottles, and then saying their goodbyes (sometimes with a wee bit of support, which is absolutely to be expected). 

On our first day, after calling the register, singing the National Anthem and saying our karakia, we played a 'getting to know you' circle game, in which we introduced ourselves and told everyone what our favourite colours are and then, the second time around, what our favourite foods are.

Later on, we went on a boundaries walk and talked about the places where the New Entrant children can play at break times, and then the children all practised washing their hands properly before having their morning kai. Perhaps they might give you a little demonstration of how they are able to wash their hands - they're absolute experts!!

After little play, the children then joined up into little groups with each other and explored some of the spaces, equipment and toys that we have, including the jigsaw puzzles, the vehicles, the family corner, the Sylvanians and other small world characters, the train set, and the castle and castle characters.

We also managed to fit in some art work, with some of the children decorating their names using beautiful collage materials. This art work will form part of our 'Welcome' wall display eventually. This week, the children are going to draw self portraits, which will also be added to this display, along with some of the photos that we're taking during the day.

We also visited the library, after the Welcome Assembly on Friday. We hope you enjoy reading together, the two library books which your children have brought home. Please ensure that the library books remain in the library folder at home during the week while not being used, in order to keep them safe, and then make sure that they are returned to school on Friday this week. Two library books will come home each week, as long as your child has returned the previously borrowed books.

What follows is a selection of the photos that were taken last week:

Visiting the wharepaku and learning how to wash our hands thoroughly.

Walking around the areas we're able to play in.

Learning what the yellow line means.

Walking from Hangere to the library, office area and junior playground.

Having a chat with Sandy, who we bumped into as we were walking through the courtyard.

After exploring the library, posing for a group photo in the library nook.

Learning about what the yellow spot on the picture books means.

Showing teamwork as we complete the Rapunzel jigsaw puzzle!

Nearly there...

Practising our drawing and writing skills.

Sharing and working together while playing with the cars and trucks.

Exploring numbers and shape using the Numicon.

Showing persistence to fill the 10 by 10 grid.

Taking time to have a quiet read.

Working on the alphabet puzzle.

Observing and listening carefully to instructions, prior to beginning our name collage activity.

Playing with the small world characters.

Working closely together, while playing with the small world characters.

Talking together about the ongoing story which underpins the play.

Working together, while sharing and playing with the vehicles.

That car carrier certainly is completely loaded up!

Playing with some of the aeroplanes.

Team work required here, to complete this challenging jigsaw puzzle.

Discussing strategy.

The jigsaw team, very pleased with the finished product (what a shame to find that one piece was missing though, although all credit to the team for feeling neither frustrated nor too disappointed!). We trust that this finds you at the end of a wonderful long weekend, and Waitangi Day in particular. We're looking forward to seeing all those gorgeous smiling faces back at school in the morning, all ready for the week ahead! Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou, Elizabeth, Stacey, Georgia and Sonya

Kia ora e te whānau,

It feels very hard to believe that here we all are, at the very end of the 2022 school year. Your children have all settled so beautifully into life at school this year, and their learning has been impressive, to say the least. 

It's been very exciting for us as teachers, and you too, we're sure, on the home front, to witness the social, emotional and physical progress, as well as the academic learning that the children have all made since starting at school. What a wonderful group of tamariki they are! We're going to miss them terribly over the long summer holiday, and will be looking forward to seeing them back again (mostly as members of the Kahikatea team), with their beautiful smiles at the start of next year.

Several of you have requested support with your children's continued learning over the summer holiday, and although the Learning At Home site is no longer accessible through the Beckenham te Kura website, we have found a way of providing you with the link to the site which you were able to access throughout the Red and Orange Traffic Light settings. We do hope that you find this helpful with its range of links, from Phonological Awareness activities to Structured Literacy activities, from Maths to waiata, and there's also an area on the dropdown menu called 'Stories' where your child is able to choose a picture book read by one of the Koru teachers!

Here is the link which takes you directly to the Koru Learning At Home site. We really hope that you find this valuable, as well as lots of fun too!

Final few days:

Many thanks to those parents who have offered to help with some of the cleaning, sorting and tidying tasks that we have listed on the whiteboard outside Hangere this week. We really appreciate your support at this very busy time of the year! There are still a few jobs we'd love some help with:

• cleaning and packaging our Skip and Bouce whiteboard sets
• sorting, tidying and cleaning the games and equipment shelves in both Hangere and Kōmanawa
• sorting, tidying and cleaning in the kitchen area (tote trays, cupboards and drawers, etc.)
• sorting the Lego table and the Duplo container
• cleaning and sorting the sandpit toys
• sweeping, cleaning, sorting and tidying in the shed

Please do ensure that you check that you have all of your child's belongings, before leaving on Thursday:

• all clothing, including sunhat, polar fleece and socks (we have several pairs and single socks, as well as T-shirts and polar fleeces)
• their lunchbox and drink bottle (there are often drink bottles left behind on the last day)
• your child's folders, which will include their books and art works from throughout the year.

Kia ora, e te whānau,

This term continues to fly past at an incredible rate! Here we are at the end of Week 7, and we've had another week filled with new and exciting learning opportunities!

Art Gallery Visit

On Monday we visited the Christchurch Art Gallery. For many of our tamariki, this was their very first experience in this lovely building. They waited so patiently for the bus to arrive and Bianca, the Gallery Educator, welcomed us inside when we arrived. She helped everyone find a cubby for their bags and then proceeded to guide us around the gallery. We stopped and listened carefully while she asked questions and explained about the interesting and beautiful exhibit displays. After our tour, we returned to the art classroom, and Bianca showed us how to create our very own clay masterpiece. We would love to give a huge shout out to all of the wonderful parent helpers who came along to support our tamariki on the bus and throughout the gallery. Thank you so very much. Without your support, our Art Gallery experience would not have been possible.

Water Play has continued to be a popular theme throughout the past fortnight, with the children conducting investigations using a wide range of items. Will they sink or float? This theme has also 'filtered' into the sandpit, the children working in teams to create some impressive structures and water way systems.  

Whānau Picnic

It was wonderful to see so many of our Beckenham whānau at the school picnic event on Wednesday.  Many children enjoyed the fabulous new playground equipment.   Kapa Haka performances were enjoyed by enthusiastic audiences and the Student Council organised an awesome range of games such as the Disc Drop, Nerf Challenge and Balloon Pop.

Please remember to continue searching for wayward reading books which may have found their way down the back of the couch or under the backseat of your car! We will continue with our literacy groups next week, but a reminder that books are no longer going home. You will find some games and activities in your child's Literacy folder instead  

Transition visits to Kahikatea 

This week and next week all of our Koru children are taking time in the afternoons to visit the Kahikatea hub. These visits provide a fantastic opportunity for our tamariki to make connections with next year's teachers and become familiar with their new learning spaces.

Holiday fun:

Please note that there will be one final Blog post sent out prior to the final day of school this year, and in that post, we hope to be able to include a variety of links, which you might find fun and helpful over the summer holidays. We'll have some Literacy links, some Maths links, and perhaps a few links to the teachers reading favourite picture books for the children to enjoy!

Reminders:

 Kia ora, e te whānau,

It has been a busy first 5 weeks of Term 4, a term which is flying by incredibly quickly! These five weeks have been filled with so much fun, novel experiences, and new learning. We experienced our first house games which were so exciting, and we also spent time using a 'House of Science' kit, during which we investigated many aspects of recycling. Photos from this investigation can be found in the previous Koru Team news post. 

Bug Hotels

During Week 4, we looked into the making of 'bug hotels', and discussed just how useful these can be for insects in the environment around us, the types of materials we might need to make these, and how we might use our school value, 'We Get There Together', by working with others to make our 'bug hotels'. Below are some photos of the awesome process our tamariki went through to produce these mini environments for some of the bugs close to our learning spaces!

During this week, we have been engaging in water play, and conducting experiments to see if we can make boats that actually do float. Our tamariki have loved creating their boats! Below are photos of our children showing 'We Get There Together', 'We Love Challenge', and 'We Love Learning', by working together in groups to make the best boats they can, with the ultimate goal of the boats being able to float. We will be testing the children's boats this coming week (Week 6). 

During Week 3, we had the amazing opportunity to perform our Kapa Haka waiata at our Celebration hui. Below are the links to our performances. Our tamariki did such an awesome job and we are all so proud of them! Ka pai, koutou. 

This is their performance of 'Motoka'...

...and this is their performance of 'A E I O U'

Reminders:

We would like to thank you for your ongoing support as your children learn and continue to practise being able to independently unpack their bags and complete their morning routines. 

• Just a reminder that Literacy folders need to come back each day, because we use what is sent home in our sessions during school time
• Library day is on Fridays, so thank you for reminding your child to bring their Library folders in either during the week or on Friday to change their books 
• Your child needs a named hat at school each day
• When arriving and leaving school each day, we ask that you do not walk your child through the car park area. Many thanks for your support with this
• Please send your child to school with sunscreen on, and we will help the children to reapply more sunscreen before their big playtime
• In Week 7, we will be having a trip to the Art Gallery. Information about this can be found on Hero from a post sent out on Tuesday. Further information about this outing will be coming out later in the week ahead
• The children have been enjoying using the very cool water pump in our sandpit, especially in this beautiful weather we have been having. Having a change of clothes in their bags would be useful for those days when the water is flowing!

We hope you have had a safe and happy weekend, and we can't wait to see your tamariki back at school tomorrow for another awesome week!!

Ngā mihi mahana,

Georgia, Elizabeth, Nicola, Tracey and Stacey