Category Archives: Koru

Koru News Term 3 Week 7

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Kia ora e te whanau,

What a lot of interesting and fun Learning Through Play has been taking place over the past couple of weeks!
The children continue to be reminded about why we call it Learning Through Play ("because while we're playing, we're learning") and the kinds of things we might be learning and practising during our play. This is especially as we have new children starting school, and we're noticing that many of our older children are really stepping up to model these behaviours for our 'newbies'.

Using these images, the children were asked to relate the relevant ideas below to the school values which were being displayed.

The children brainstormed these ideas about their Learning Through Play.

Learning Through Play:
For our topic this week, we have been looking at restaurants, eating out and cooking. During Learning Through Play, we have been amazed by how creative the children have been, building restaurants, 'creating' food, designing menus and taking our orders in their cafes and eateries. We will continue with this theme during this coming week, and our focus will be working as teams to create shops and restaurants, and to problem solve the variety of challenges that can arise as the children play together.

We Care

We Get There Together

We Love Learning

We Love Challenge and We Get There Together




We Get There Together

Wacky Hair Day:
We had so much fun admiring the wacky hairdos that arrived at school on Friday. What impressive effort and creativity families put in that Friday morning - we suspect that many of you were up well before the crack of dawn, judging by the impressive results that walked through the gate, between 8:30 and 8:55! Thank you to all of those who supported the child cancer society and donated a gold coin for this wonderful cause.























Wellbeing and Friendship:
We have been having a big focus on continuing to build and develop friendships in Koru. This week we introduced an activity, whereby the children needed to work together to solve a problem. Using their index fingers only, they had to solve how they could pick up and carry an object. It was great to see the children working together in pairs, communicating, problem solving, and taking on a challenge, while at the same time having fun.
Some of the objects the children tried picking up were:
A pen
A glue-stick
An eraser
A thick book
A block
A soft toyAll children displayed our kete values of We Get There Together and We Love a Challenge, as they participated with their buddies to successfully pick up each item.










Tricky! How did they manage that?

Talent Quest Auditions:
The teachers in Koru had the pleasure of auditioning the children for our Talent Show, which is going to be held on the last day of school for this term (25th of September). We were delighted to see how confident and talented our Year 0 and 1 children are. As always, it is so difficult to make a choice as we would obviously love to send all children who entered through to the finals, however we are delighted to let you know that Moana, Vienna and Joseph will be going on to the finals at the end of this term. 

Kete Awards:
As we are unable to hold our assemblies at level 2, the Koru team held a hui in Pūkaki on Friday, August 28th. Congratulations to the children below who received kete awards. We are incredibly proud of how you uphold the Beckenham te Kura o Pūroto values.


Peter Rabbit:
It was with enormous sadness that we have had to farewell Peter Rabbit, who has been a faithful and loyal friend to hundreds of children at Beckenham te Kura over the past 9 years. Peter has been cuddled and loved by children, read to, played with, taken out to the park for time on the grass, and has helped children who have been feeling sad or upset by simply allowing them to hold him, and most children at Beckenham will know him really well. Something that Peter did incredibly well was to help children who were having trouble saying goodbye to their families at the start of the school day - Peter was worth way more than his weight in gold.
Peter Rabbit died of old age last week. In human years, he would have been about 85. He will be greatly missed, and remembered by all with enormous fondness.

Peter, aged nearly 9 years.

Have a lovely week, everyone. We look forward to another wonderful week of learning with the wee ones!

Ngā mihi mahana,
Jo, Sari, Stacey, Sophie and Elizabeth

Koru News – Term 3 Week 4

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 Kia ora e te whanau,

What fun we have had learning about Vehicles over the past couple of weeks. We learnt that there are all sorts of vehicles that have various jobs and help us in so many ways.

Flight - make a paper plane and run test flights. What makes it go the greatest distance? Up high? Faster? What is the best way of throwing it?

 

What are the names of these vehicles? What can we learn about each one from a transport book?

Vehicles that operate near or in water. This play then led on to what happens if you mix chalk and water - chalk paint was the unanimous decision. 


Writing - for our writing we designed our own vehicles and explained how they work. 

We even had a special vehicle that came for a visit. The children learnt a lot about police motorbikes.





During Learning Through Play, a group experimented with flooding a river in the sandpit. They also looked at the best angles and the way gravity works to make water flow down a pipe into the river.



Building a campfire to heat water to make delicious Hot Chocolates. 

Learning how to play Barbed Wire (tag game).


Some maths groups have been working on showing what they know about doubles this week.




This week we start looking at the concept of Winter. We wonder what great ideas will be had.

At home, you might like to have a go at making ice. You could even put some animals or cars in the water before freezing. Once it is frozen, you could chip away at the ice outside or take the ice into the bath and watch what happens in warm water. 

On a frosty morning, you might like to go out and 'crunch' the grass, or feel how cold the frost is. You might like to think of describing words for frost or the cold.

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou,
Elizabeth, Sophie, Sari, Stacey and Jo

News Update from Koru, Term 3 Week 2

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Kia ora e te whanau,

What a wonderful start back to school we've all had. The children have settled beautifully into their routines and our new hub setups. 
We're really impressed with the way in which the children are saying their goodbyes, entering the learning spaces, managing their belongings and settling into their Learning Through Play. Thank you so much for your support with this. Having the children able to say goodbye at the door has certainly helped with that smooth transition and start to the day.
It's wonderful watching how independent the children are becoming with their morning jobs and developing responsibility and self-management.

The Three Little Pigs:
Our Learning Through Play 'theme' for the past two weeks has been The Three Little Pigs. The children have been very creative: building, performing, retelling (with a twist!), writing and puppet-making. Here are just a few photos of some of the activities they have been engaged in.

Demonstrating cooperation and teamwork: We Get There Together

Showing creativity and imagination by working collaboratively on our challenge

Heading from the house of sticks to the house of bricks...

...safe at last!

Problem solving and collaboration, in order to extend the project.
.


Next week, our Learning Through Play focus is going to be Vehicles. It would be great if you were to talk with your child about the different types of transportation that there are, and what they're for. You might like to have a go at constructing a vehicle together. It might be fun to discuss and design some sort of magical, mysterious, fun, wacky, creative vehicle together!

Measurement - Maths and The Gingerbread Man:
We read The Gingerbread Man together and used the ideas in the story to develop our thinking in relation to Measurement. Some of the words we used are: long, longer, short, shorter, tall, taller.
Some of the activities we:
  • we cut and ordered by height a gingerbread family of five
  • we used mathematical language to describe their heights in order
  • we designed, planned, built and modified our bridges in order to rescue the gingerbread man from his fate in the fairy tale
  • we described our bridges again using mathematical language
  • we collected objects from around our learning spaces to estimate and compare the height of each item against the gingerbread man
  • we discussed the importance of measuring from a baseline in order to accurately measure the heights of the gingerbread man and these items.
We each worked together with a buddy to meet a challenge.
















Readathon:
The Readathon is coming up. This is a chance for your child to work on their reading mileage. Please see the school newsletter for details. Your child's Readathon card has come home in their school bag today.

We hope you all have a lovely relaxing weekend and we look forward to seeing the children back, bright and perky, next week!

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou,
Jo, Sophie, Sari, Stacey and Elizabeth









Term 2 Week 11 Koru News

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Kia ora e te whanau, Welcome to all our new children and their whānau. The children have settled into school life quickly and with confidence. Ka pai! What a fun couple of weeks we have had! The learning happening through the play has been varied and full of wonderful ideas, and inquisitive questioning and wondering.
Fun with boxes
 
 
 
 
 
Literacy fun
 
 
 
 
Sandpit fun
 
 
 
Pyjama fun
 
 
 
 
PTA Rainbow School Disco
A reminder that the school disco is tomorrow, Friday 26th June, 4.30 - 5.30pm in the school hall. Bring a gold coin donation for entry, named water bottle and extra gold coins if you want to purchase popcorn or other snacks.
Learning Conferences
A reminder that these are on next week, Tuesday 30th June and Thursday 2nd July, from 2pm. School closes at 2pm both of these days.
Term 2 ends Friday 3rd July
As this is the last Koru Blog Post for the term we would like to take the opportunity to wish all the tamariki a safe and restful holiday break. We will see them back at school Tuesday 21st July.
Ngā mihi mahana,
Elizabeth, Sophie, Stacey and Jo

Term 2 Week 9 update from the Koru team

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Kia ora e te whanau,

A very warm welcome to those families whose children have started school over the last few weeks. The children are to be congratulated for the very happy and smooth way that they have transitioned (back) into school life. Congratulations to all for showing such amazing resilience and independence!

Learning Conferences
Please note that we will be holding Learning Conferences here at school in Week 12 of this term. In the Koru team:
  • for those children who started school prior to and including March 6th, parents please make a Learning Conference booking (at which time we will be discussing your child's literacy and numeracy goals in particular)
  • for those children who started school on or after March 9th, parents please also book a Learning Conference time, and this time will be used for a transition to school meeting with your child's teacher (at which time we will discuss your child's transition, also getting your perspective, along with initial goals)
  • please note that children attend these meetings with you.
For more information and instructions on how to book a time with your child's Home Group teacher, please refer back to last Friday's school newsletter.

Morning Routine
You will have all read Sandy's newsletter about Level 1 at school and the morning routine. We continue to be so very proud of the tamariki, in how they are starting each day at school. They are confidently walking from the gate to the hub and are independently unpacking their bags and sorting out their belongings, ready for the day. They are spending that first part of the day before the bell, connecting with their teachers and classmates, and settling calmly into the school day. Over the coming days, we shall continue to have a teacher at the gate to welcome the tamariki and support the drop off. Please feel free to pass on any messages to the person at the gate, and they will then pass the message on to your child's Home Group teacher.

Just a reminder that reading folders need to be returned with the reading books every day, while library folders and poetry books need to be returned by the following Friday morning, as Friday is the day we visit the school library and focus on poetry during our Literacy time.

Learning Through Play
Our current Learning Through Play 'theme' is Space, and this theme the children are finding highly motivating. This theme also ties in with what the children have been writing about last week, and again this week.

















Sight Word and Alphabet Practice
It is really valuable to put regular time aside to support your child with their alphabet and sight word practice. For our new children, parents please check this link which will take you to some resources on our school website: New Entrant Resource Pack. Please print off the alphabet and number resources which will be of most value for your child. Feel free to contact your child's Home Group teacher if you are unable to access a printer. We hope you have fun with your child as they learn, using these resources. And remember... praise, praise, praise. It's crucial that these learning times are kept positive.

Have a wonderful week, everyone, and keep warm!
Ngā mihi mahana,
Jo, Stacey, Sophie and Elizabeth