Kia ora ki te whanau,

We have welcomed 7 new children into the Koru hub since week 1. A very warm welcome to the new children and their whanau. Our 'Golden Oldies' are enjoying making new friendships and showing our school values 'We get there together' and 'We care' to help our newbies get to know the routines and settle into the hub.

Last week all our children showed another one of our school values 'We love Challenge' when they competed in the school Cross Country. We were so proud of their efforts in running the course. They certainly displayed our school values. 

All lined up at the start.

Feeling happy to have finished our first cross country.

Rocketship numbers

Look at our amazing writing in our structured literacy group.

Working together with a buddy to solve maths problems.

We're going on a bear hunt

Reminders...

Please make sure that literacy folders are coming to school every day with the letters and heart words inside along with any books. It is important they are sent every day as teachers might need to update the letters and heart words throughout the week. For those children who are reading the decodable texts, these books are needed at group time every day.

Thank you to those parents who are waiting in the courtyard each afternoon for their children to come to them. This really does make a difference to the end of our day and easier for children to find their whanau.

For all our new families, and as a refresher as the children are bringing home new letters, here is the link to the video which demonstrates how to make the pure sound for each letter. 

Heads up...

Please keep your eyes peeled for information about our exciting Art Gallery outing on Friday, June the 4th. We'll be seeking parent help for this outing, so look out for further details!

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou,

Elizabeth, Jo, Stacey, Chelsea and Nicola

Kia ora, whanau,

We are noticing some impressive independent behaviour in many of the children at drop off and pick up times each day. Some of the things that you can do to support your children's growing independence are:

• encourage your children to help to pack their own bags at home before school
• ensure that your children carry their own bags to and from school
• give your children verbal reminders, once they're at school and unpacking their belongings, but allow them to be responsible for this part of their daily routine.

 Kia ora ki te whanau,

A very warm welcome to all of our new children and their families, and welcome back to the children and their families who started with us in Term 1. We trust that the children have all had a wonderful holiday, enjoying family time together. We are really looking forward to getting to know all of our new children and families, and seeing new friendships blossom through this next term.

The children have had a marvellous first day (back) at school, and we're looking forward to a fun first week, and term ahead.

Our focus for this week is showing care and kindness towards others (especially towards those who are new to school), and showing respect and care for our equipment and the environment.

Bears, Bears, Bears!

We're also going to have a 'bear' theme this week, with 'We're Going On a Bear Hunt' and 'Bears in the Night' providing a framework for the children's play throughout the week. 

Although most of our Term 1 children have already had a Teddy Bear Day, we are going to have another Teddy Bear Day on Friday, along with a teddy bears' picnic (which will simply be the children's own lunches!). Please send (named, with your child's name) teddy bears to school on Friday. If your child doesn't have a teddy bear, they're welcome to bring their favourite soft toy instead.

Start and End of Day routines:

It's very helpful if you are able to say goodbye to your children out on the veranda each morning. You can encourage your children to take responsibility for their belongings by reminding them to unpack their own lunchboxes, drink bottles and reading folders, and then to store them in the right places once they're indoors. Likewise, at the end of each day, it is really helpful if you wait out in the courtyard where you can easily be seen by your child's home group teacher, so that teachers are able to farewell each child once you've been sighted. You are welcome to come inside if your child has something they would like to show you, once all of the children have been farewelled. Teachers will always endeavour to come out on to the veranda to catch up with you, after all children have been collected by parents or caregivers.

A reminder:

Please ensure that, once your child's Literacy folder starts coming home (again), and you've finished practising the letter cards and heart words with your child, the folder and its contents are returned to your child's school bag and come back to school every day. 

Here are some beautiful Day 1 photos, with the children engaged in a variety of activities during Learning Through Play - how lovely to see new friendships forming so quickly!

Have a great week, everyone, and we look forward to many learning adventures together throughout the term ahead.

Ngā mihi mahana,

Jo, Nicola, Chelsea, Stacey and Elizabeth

 Kia ora ki te whanau,

Can you believe it's week 11 and the end of the first term already! Time certainly flies in the Koru team with such fun busy days. We're sure you are all looking forward to some rest and relaxation and some precious family time together over the holidays. 

This week we welcomed lots of lovely little visitors who will be starting early in Term 2. It was lovely to have our new Koru teacher, Chelsea, join us on Wednesday to meet the new children. Chelsea will be joining the Koru team from the start of Term 2.

Over the last 2 weeks we have been exploring the story of The Little Red Hen and how we can show our school values 'We get there together' and 'We make a difference' to work together as a team during our Learning Through Play. We have seen some lovely teamwork being used to create some amazing work, and we've all been practicing getting there together to tidy up after our play.

This group were sharing equipment beautifully while working together.

'Teamwork makes the dream work'

Showing how 'We get there together' to complete a building project.

Using our segmenting and blending skills to decode a word.

Playing Jump during a structured literacy lesson.

Showing 'We get there together' by all helping to tidy up our classroom.

Showing great teamwork by working together on a project.

Putting the ideas all together as a team.

The collaborative collage project all completed.

Term 2...

We have some very exciting events coming up in Term 2 starting with the whole school cross country in the second week of the term, on Tuesday 11th May. The event starts with the senior children completing their run first. Our run will be between 2-3 pm, and we will give you more details closer to the time. The course for our children will be a run around Beckenham Park. We will familiarise the children with the course in the first week of the term and will get some practices in each day. You may also like to get your child out for some training over the holidays.

As we head into one of our winter terms after the holidays, children will not be required to wear their hats at playtimes. Hats will not be required again until the start of Term 4.

We wish you a lovely and safe autumn holiday together. We look forward to hearing about all the holiday adventures from your little ones at the beginning of Term 2.

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou,

Elizabeth, Jo, Stacey and Nicola

 Kia ora whānau,

We trust this finds you all having had a wonderful and relaxing Easter break, whether it be at home or away.

It was wonderful that so many of you were able to attend the Structured Literacy meetings for parents last week, run by our Resource Teacher of Literacy, Caroline Morritt. It's great to see that, hopefully, this meeting may be repeated early next term, for those families who weren't able to attend last Tuesday. It will be well worth attending if you haven't yet done so.

Our weeks in the Koru team have continued to be very busy indeed, with wonderful learning taking place in some many different areas: Literacy and Numeracy, as well as many other curriculum areas, during our Learning Through Play. Learning Through Play naturally supports the practising of our school kete values of 'We Care', 'We Get There Together', 'We Love Learning', 'We Love Challenge' and 'We Make a Difference'.

Over the last few weeks, we:

• have continued our focus on learning the first 8 letter sounds, along with learning to blend and segment using these sounds
• have been focusing on teamwork during our Learning Through Play
• have also been focusing on construction with our 'Three Billy Goats Gruff' and 'Three Little Pigs' Learning Through Play themes
• have been working on our Skip and Bounce pen and pencil grip
• have been spending time with our big buddies from the Kauri team on Friday afternoons
• have attended our first whole school House Games for this year.

Playing schools: a Structured Literacy lesson in progress!

Practising how to pick up a pen correctly (the Skip and Bounce way!)

"Pinch, pinch, pinch, pick it up, lay it back."

"Is there space for Curly Caterpillar to creep up between my pinching fingers?"

"Is my 'pillow finger' in the right place? Are my 'resting fingers' tucked away?"

Building a secret hideaway for the teddies.

Joining a house of bricks to the hut in the distance: what persistence!

Teamwork - well done, boys. You worked very well together on this project.

What a great construction, complete with bedroom and bathroom.

The teamwork continues...

A stairway up to the railway tracks.

An animal wonderland!

Fun with Digitech.

A carefully-balanced bridge, complete with 'water' flowing below.

A variety of resources needed here for this 'set up'.

More fun with Digitech, with some of our preschool visitors.

Another amazing construction, and... could that be you, Skip or Bounce, carefully balancing aloft?

Oh, it's you, Skip!

What a fantastic construction, using the magnetic shapes.

Another wonderful example of teamwork - very well done, team!

The beebot's perspective.

Great balancing skills here!

Well done!

Uh-oh!!

Playing a game of 'Jump', using the letter sounds, following a Structured Literacy lesson.

Practising correct letter formation.

Playing 'Jump' as a team.

Beautiful letter formation.

More beautiful letter formation!

Counting words in a sentence.

Segmenting and blending consonant, vowel, consonant words.

More letter formation practice.

What amazing focus!

More fantastic focus.

And still more - what wonderful concentration!

We love Structured Literacy!

Our Kauri team buddies reading to us.

Reading a library book to Skip and Bounce.

Playing Octopus at House Games last Thursday.

Will this runner be tagged?

Stretch out wide!

We had loads of fun playing games with the other children who are in the same house at school.