Top quality colouring here.

What a very cool wee desk and chair set up!

Cloud dough, made from cornflour and hair conditioner - this looks very therapeutic...

What wonderful creativity and construction skills - does this character have a name?

More creative construction skills being displayed here! Does this character have a name, we wonder?

Beautiful Easter egg colouring for the window; a lovely soft toy line up for our national teddy bear hunt; and chalk-drawn games for passers-by - oh, what fun!

More creativity and construction, here combined with Science, to result in this electric car - fabulous skills!

The family night walk around the neighbourhood - what a cool idea.

An ice cream shop! Wonderful thinking...

"Oh, I'll have that delicious-looking chocolate ice cream, please!"

What an incredible amount of hard work went into this puppet show. Wouldn't we all love to know the story that goes with these characters?

Mmmmm... what could possibly be in that bowl? Yum, yum, yum.

A Mad Hatters' Tea Party - oh, what fun!

Up a ladder and helping with papier mache...

...early days in teaching the exuberant puppy to sit calmly while the cryptic crossword is underway.

Kia ora,

We hope you are all doing well in your 'bubble'. The teachers have been relaxing this week through baking, art, reading and taking walks or biking, applying the physical distance rule, around the local area.



There are some lovely autumn colours to see on the walk around the neighbourhood.




Wow! We have loved seeing the creativity and fun that has been happening during the first week of the holidays.

Thank you to our tamariki who shared a photo with us. We hope you enjoy seeing what your teammates have been up to.


We will do another post after Easter, so please, send in your favourite photo from the second week of the holiday, by Monday 13th April.

Elizabeth's email address: elizabethgail.drummond@beckenham.school.nz
Jo's email address: jo.smith@beckenham.school.nz

Kia ora, dear tamariki and whānau in the Koru team,

We wanted to check in on you all, and find out how you're doing, and what you've been up to.

We hope you all had a great first day of the holidays yesterday, albeit a day spent, no doubt, mostly indoors because of the miserable weather. Didn't that just make today's glorious weather even more so, though?!

Jo's been fitting in lots of yoga, and who's that there on either side, with their own little yoga mats set up?!

How cute is that?

Kia ora whānau,

WOW! What a fabulous trip we had to the Christchurch Botanic Gardens. The weather was perfect and there was so much to see and enjoy.

The educator form the Art Gallery taught us how to find something we wanted to paint, how to lightly sketch a very simple outline and then how to use watercolours.

We also explored some of the gardens. We saw large trees, a friendly fantail, saw flowers and plants of various colours and sizes, enjoyed the scent of the rose garden and made the most of the playground.

Thank you to the parents who were able to give their time and come with us. We couldn't have gone without you. We hope you had as much fun as we did.

We were very sun smart, so there are a lot of hats in the photos.... can you guess who is who?

This week, we have had a big focus on 'Pirates', as a result of the interests of a few of the children. The children have been building pirate ships, making hats and treasure maps, and digging for treasure in the sandpit. The play has been collaborative, creative, engaging, full of fun, enticing, and always energetic! Wonderful times 😊





Group teaching and learning:
At the beginning of this week, we began the guided teaching and learning for our writing groups, reading groups and Maths groups.
The children will be bringing their reading folders home each night, and it's most important that folders are returned with the books to school every day. Depending on your child's priority learning needs, you may find a set of sight word cards in the little back pocket of the reading folder. There will be an explanatory letter in with the word cards, outlining some different ideas for you to help your child with learning these sight words to fluency (meaning, no working out required, rather automaticity).
Some children may also need to be supported to practise and learn the letters of the alphabet. If you know that your child has some way to go in this area of learning, now would be a great time to be giving support to your child in helping with this at home.
There is a link on our school website which takes you to a folder full of great resources which you can print off (and laminate if you have access to a laminator) for use at home. Here is the link again, for ease of access.
...and here are a couple of other fun Youtube links which we have been singing along to in class:
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom ABC
Kiwikids Phonics
Jolly Phonics (unfortunately 'q' is missing, but the children may remember and be able to sing it to you!)

We have put a timetable up on the noticeboard for the parents of children who have started school this year. We would like to catch up with you for 15 minutes just to talk about your child's transition to school and some ways you might be able to help at home with learning goals. Please add your name to a suitable slot on the timetable. Many thanks for doing this, and we look forward to meeting with you. Those children who started school in Term 4 last year, will have already had this meeting with Stacey.

Our children have had two visits to the Life Education caravan, with Harold, Siobhan and Lou. We talked about everyone being unique and special, about being a good friend and about ways we might help to solve friendship issues.












We had our first House Games event last Friday. The children had enormous fun, engaging in the games that their House Captains had organised. We were very impressed with the children's level of independence throughout this activity. All were accompanied happily to the place in the park where their house group had assembled, and all participated fully in the activities. Well done, children! We're proud of you.