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.

Kia ora e te Whanau,

The weeks are flying by in the Koru Team with such busy days!

Over the last 3 weeks we have...

• made delicious Gingerbread People
• had lots of fun playing with Spheros in the hall
• learnt how to play some courtyard games outside
• built constructions using the big cardboard bricks
• explored our outdoor play space
• solved maths problems and explored maths equipment
• created mud pies and pipe pathways from our new mud kitchen to the sandpit
• begun our literacy programme in the mornings
• made scrumptious porridge mini muffins.

Using the big cardboard bricks to construct.

Learning about alphabet letter sounds at the jelly bean table.

Baking mini porridge muffins with Stacey. We think Goldilocks would love these!

Kia ora, e te whanau,

We have had an amazingly busy and productive fortnight - it's been SO much fun, and in amongst all of the fun, the children have very quickly shown fantastic gains in their independence and their confidence.

We have:

• made ice cream
• started visiting the library
• started exploring simple programming using the Beebots
• made tiger handprints
• been exploring the Maths equipment
• made tiger masks
• worked with the Year 7 students, participating in activities planned and organised by the older children
• set up a tank for our tadpoles 
• practised our core strength exercises, in preparation for the start of our handwriting programme.

Carefully pouring the first ingredient for the ice cream (cream itself).

Stirring in the second ingredient (condensed milk).

Whipping the cream.

Sprinkling in the chocolate.

Stirring in the chocolate.

Eating the ice cream.

Mmmmmmm!

Yum...

yum...

YUM!!

Learning about the library.

Programming the Beebots to move through a maze.

Working together to problem solve.

Will this Beebot make it safely to the other end of the maze?

Oopsy daisy!

We take very good care of the Beebots.

Decorating a tiger cupcake with the help of a Year 7 friend.

Decorating a Rainbow Fish with the help of a Year 7 friend.

Listening to The Rainbow Fish.

We really enjoyed this story!

Working together with a Year 7 buddy to create a set up involving the castle and the blocks.

Painting with our Year 7 buddies.

Adding the stripes to a tiger handprint.

Exploring with Oobleck.

Learning how to make a leaf rubbing.

An expert at 'planking' - working on developing core strength.

Keeping a VERY close eye on our new tadpoles, and making sure they're safe and happy in their new home.

Parents, a request ... are you able to help us out, please? We are searching for the following items for our Learning Through Play:

• any old baking equipment you no longer need (suitable for a 'mud' kitchen) 
• baby clothes ('prem' size best) to fit 41 cm. dolls
• old bits of downpipe or other plumbing 'parts'
• old sandpit toys (preferably in quite good condition), including dump trucks and diggers, as well as buckets and spades
• an old children's size pop up tent
• old toy cars to add to our somewhat depleted collection

 Kia ora koutou,

We have had such a great first morning at school! 'Goodbyes' to our whanau were positive, and we quickly did our morning jobs and started our Learning Through Play. We have sung songs, listened to stories, eaten our morning tea and had break time on the playground.

We went on a walk around the school, to look at all the places we need to know about. We took the time to learn the boundaries and practise stopping at the yellow lines. Knowing about the boundaries helps to keep us safe at school.

We met Sandy, our Principal, when we were out on our walk. We even had a look to see where we can find Jo when she is out of the Hub and in the office.

Learning Through Play is lots of fun, and we are making new friends and getting to know our teachers.

A reminder that Welcome Assembly will be at 9.15 a.m. tomorrow morning in the school hall.

We look forward to telling you all about our day when we see you after school.

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou,

Koru tamariki, Elizabeth, Nicola and Jo