Kia ora, whānau,

It's hard to believe that the end of the year is almost upon us, and yet there is still a great deal to be squeezed in over the final week and a half!

A plea:
Please, would you send a strong bag (large enough to hold your children's books and belongings) in to school this week? We will be gathering the children's many workbooks, as well as their works of art and other items, to send home with them in the final week of school.
Also, if any parents have the time (and inclination), we would love some help in learning spaces as we begin the job of sorting, tidying and cleaning. Please see your child's Home Group teacher if you are able to help out at all.

Transitions:
At the start of this week, to support those of our children who are going to be transitioning through to Kahikatea in 2020, we are all going to be making visits over to the Kahikatea team's learning spaces, to become familiar with the settings and areas in which those children will be learning next year. The teachers from Kahikatea have also been over visiting us, in both Pūkaki and Kōmanawa, at various times over the past two weeks. A letter will be sent home with your child, at the end of the school year, to inform you as to which team (Koru or Kahikatea) they will be in, and who their Home Group teacher will be, in 2020.

Next year's New Entrants have also been visiting us in the Koru team during Discovery Times over the past fortnight and will be again on tomorrow (Tuesday), to familiarise themselves with the spaces and their teachers for next year.






Our farm trip:
What fantastic days we all had the week before last, visiting the Frei family farm. Our sincere thanks go out to so many people:

• firstly, to Amanda Frei and Ernst Frei, for being so generous and accommodating in allowing us all to visit, and for ensuring that we all had such a memorable time
• to all of the parents who supported us on the days of our visits - without you, an outing such as this would not be possible, so thank you so much
• to Jo, for doing such a great job of ensuring that our organisation on each day was perfect
• to Nigel, for accompanying the Wednesday group, and for doing such a great job of supervising the flying fox
• and to Paul, 'sausage sizzler' extraordinaire!

 And now... so many photos - so difficult to choose!

































Discovery:













DMIC:
Our Maths problem solving has taken a farm-related theme over the past couple of weeks, and continues to go from strength to strength, as the children work with buddies to solve challenging number problems...




Pebbles:
Our hearts have been touched, and in some cases, melted (!), by visits from little Pebbles, who is looking set, once old enough, to become a new Beckenham te Kura bunny, most likely based in the Kōwhai team from the start of next year. Pebbles was found, aged 4 weeks, in a garden, and despite best efforts, her owner has not been found. She spent a day with us in the Koru team, and very bravely met up with Peter and Ben, both many times her size!





Thank you:
As this is our final blog post for 2019, we would like to convey our sincere thanks to you all for your unstinting support for your children, and us, throughout this year of learning. You have all helped in so many different ways, from small, but nevertheless meaningful comments, through to weekly parent help in the learning spaces, including the commitment shown, by one or two, to putting our team's reading books away for us each week! We truly appreciate you all. We trust we will see you at the coffee and croissants 'breakfast' event for helpers tomorrow (Tuesday) at 8:30 a.m.

We have all had a wonderful, wonderful year of teaching and learning, and teachers will miss the wee ones and their families over the long summer break. We look forward to seeing your children growing and developing throughout their years at Beckenham te Kura.

All best to you all for a very happy, relaxing and safe summer holiday.
Jo, Elizabeth, Kristika and Stacey

Kia ora koutou,

What a busy couple of weeks we have had!

We Love Reading

Reading is a great way to relax, use your imagination, learn something new and explore new worlds. It's fun to read with a buddy.






Reading 'Inside the Maize Maze' inspired some children to create marble mazes and draw a maze outside.





We Love Digital Technologies

Over the past couple of weeks we have had a chance to start coding using Beebots. We learnt a lot about inputting commands, testing, adapting the code and retesting. We had great fun working with a buddy.













We Love Watching Hail Storms

What a lot of interesting questions and discussions were generated by the hail, thunder and lightning last week.




We are excited about the our trip to a farm this week. We will make sure to take lots of photos.

Ngā mihi,
Stacey, Jo, Elizabeth and Kristika

Kia ora Whānau,

Athletics

Our Athletics Day on Monday was fantastic! The sun was shining, our tamariki were smiling, and it was so lovely to see the whole school out on the field showing, 'We Love Challenge' together by participating in all of the athletics events.

A massive 'thank you' to all the parents, caregivers, grandparents, whānau, and friends, who came to cheer on and support the children while they were participating in the athletics events. In our Koru team, the children got to have a go at running races, bean bag throw, high jump, and the gumboot throw.

It was wonderful to see the children demonstrating 'We Get There Together', by supporting and encouraging each other.



 We even got to sit and relax in the shade, at the end of the day, to support and cheer on the children, teachers, and parents in the sprint finals and House Team relays.


Ngā mihi mahana kia koutou
Elizabeth, Jo, Kristika, Noelene and Stacey

Kia ora, whānau,

Welcome to term four and to an exciting, busy one at that!

Our Discovery provocations, relating to nature and the environment, have been welcomed with keen interest and creativity. During week one we introduced 'Creepy Crawlies,' followed by 'Habitats,' in week two. If only there was more time in the day to research and explore, as it is proving to be a very strong interest for many.  Building bug hotels, bumblebee sketching and creating a variety of other little critters, are just a few of the recent 'Learning Through Play,' activities.

'Bring a soft toy to school' has been a hit this week! Thank you for the variety of boxes that were brought in. There were beds, houses, vehicles (some fancy enough to have TV screens), and other comforts, imagined and created. Measuring and comparing each toy created a fun way to strengthen mathematical knowledge. In the Junior years, measuring length is introduced by measuring in units (such as cubes) versus centimeters, so for the larger toys that was a lot of counting!



































Tino pai, tamariki. It has been a fun two weeks!

Thank you,

 Elizabeth, Jo, Kristika and Stacey

Tēnā koutou katoa,

Another couple of weeks of fun and learning in the Koru team!

Kōmanawa's fourth space is up and running, with Stacey's Home Group finding a home space. Welcome to our newest tamariki and their whānau. We also welcome Noelene who will be in for Stacey on Thursdays.



Spring

Spring means daffodils and blossoms! We carried out some observational drawing and painting of the daffodils.  There was also an experiment to see if you can change the colour of the flower by using dye in the water. A group of children decided that the tree in Kōmanawa needed blossoms - it's looking beautiful.








Which angle is the best?

Testing was carried out to see which angle made for the fastest ramp and the greatest distance. Various ramps around the school were tried.




It was determined that the greater the angle the faster and more distance you could travel. Some ramps weren't steep enough and the trolley would go only some of the way. The Tahaki ramp was the most successful, followed by the dirt pile. The dirt pile was the most fun!

Construction

There have been a variety of constructions over the past couple of weeks. With plenty of questions to answer.
What makes them the most stable so they can go high?
How can cars best be housed?
What design makes the best palace for fancy marbles?







What other buildings do you find in a town?


What is the best way to secure a tarp? How can the roof be made high enough so that movement is easy? What will add comfort to the hut?



We are looking forward to what fun and learning the next two weeks bring.

Ngā mihi mahana kia koutou,
Elizabeth, Stacey, Kristika, Noelene and Jo