Hub 1-4 Inquiry
Next week we are beginning our inquiry Sustainable Building. We will begin our inquiry by exploring materials and constructing and experimenting with shapes and designs.
Please send us your empty boxes - such as, toothbrush boxes, cereal boxes, egg boxes etc.

If you are interested in sharing your knowledge of building, design and materials with our tamariki please send an email to your child's teacher. We are looking forward to hearing from some of our builders, architects,planners, drafts people, joiners and engineers!

News from the Koru New Entrants

Pirate Day on the final day of Term 3 -
We had SO much fun 'yo-ho-hoing' and 'pieces-of-eighting' at the end of last term! Our Pirate theme ended with us all making treasure chest biscuits on the last Thursday of term (our thanks to the parents who helped out on that day), and then we all dressed up, in line with the pirate theme, on the final Friday of term. Alfie's Mum 'knocked together' a splendid pirate ship, complete with plank, canons, and skull and crossbones flag. We were also treated to a show performed by the Natural Magic pirates - we were totally entranced, and all very grateful. How lucky we were!

The pirates in action

Everyone joining in with the fun

We were all totally captivated...

Big pirates, little pirates - we all had a ball!

Beckenham's Got Talent:
Our hearty congratulations to Poppy Holton who made it through to the finals of the Beckenham Talent Quest, which was held on the afternoon of the last day of Term 3. We were SO proud of you, Poppy! What a star you are.

Discovery Stations:
We continue to have loads of fun and learn so much at Discovery Stations time (teachers and children alike!). The children practise the Key Competencies of Relating To Others, Managing Themselves, and Participating and Contributing during these play-based learning sessions. This week and next, we are going to be hosting two small groups of local preschool teachers, who would like to observe our Discovery Stations, and then our Literacy time between 10:50 and 12:40. Enjoy these photos from the last fortnight:

How many penguins altogether, we wonder.

Playing 'schools' at school!

Some clever engineering and sign-writing here.

What can you see through the window, Peter?

Reading's fine at any time, is what we say!!

We absolutely love our new Lego table - thank you, Cath.

Hut construction.

Reading a story to Peter Rabbit.

Now that's a very clever construction!

More clever constructing going on here.

Working together.

We were given a set of cuisenaire rods by a Beckenham family from some years ago and the children are thoroughly enjoying using them especially to form patterns, but also to help solve Maths problems.

More clever pattern-making.

We love writing, and take any opportunity to have fun practising!





And, of course, we LOVE numbers! Generally the children work in pairs (sometimes, in threes) to solve Maths problems. These problems are usually related to a theme, or an area of interest, which is highly motivating for the children on that day or during that week.

If seven mother sheep each had two lambs, how many lambs would there be altogether?

If Old MacDonald had five horses in one paddock and six horses in another paddock, how many horses would he have altogether?

If you put your hand up nine times and each time you received two pingpong balls in a jar, how many pingpong balls would you have altogether?

In Koru New Entrants, We Love Learning!

Koru's pillows

Welcome to Term 4
A warm greeting to all our new entrants, new students and families who have joined us this term. It is a pleasure getting to know you and your children.

Warm sunny days mean our students must be wearing a named sunhat when they are outside for break times and when they are doing fitness or sport with their hub.

Home Learning routines should be up and running by now and children are encouraged to read every night. Great readers become great by reading, so thank you for supporting your child/children as they develop and grow as learners.

We are loving the way you are all supporting your children's independence, encouraging them do things for themselves and by themselves when they can. A bit of modelling and praise will always help.

Firewise
This week we have been engaged in leaning about safe behaviors around fire. This is valuable learning and the knowledge and skills students are learning are very important. Do take some time to talk with your child/children about what they are learning and talk about your fire plan.

Inquiry Topic
The Koru hub 1-4 students will begin their inquiry in Week 3 with our theme around building design, construction, materials and sustainability. Keep a look out for more details about this in upcoming blogs and newsletters.

Kia Ora Koutou
We are all enjoying the warm spring weather now, so do collect your child/children's' slippers and socks from the shoe racks and take them home. As the weather improves our children are taking off their jackets and leaving them around the hub. It is much easier to return a jumper or jacket when it is named. Thank you for ensuring everything is clearly labeled.
Hub Home Base
Next week hub teachers will move into new home bases. This is where the morning roll will be done and where your child/children will be farewell from at the end of the day.
Reading 
Please return all reading books this week. During Week 10 students will stay with their hub teacher for poetry and shared reading. Your child/-ren will bring their poetry home to read at night. Please return the poetry book each day.
Supporting Your Child's Independence 
We are encouraged to see many of you supporting your child/children to be independent as they complete daily routines such as unpacking their school bags and taking care to keep track of their clothing and personal items. It's also great to see families giving each other happy goodbyes at the hub door or fare- welling children from the library steps and allowing them to walk into the hub independently.
The morning routine is an important time for teachers to help settle children connect and communicate about the day ahead. Our hubs are increasingly busy in the mornings and we appreciate that some of you may wish to share important information and/or private information with teachers. Making a time to talk after school or sending an email is always a good way to keep in touch too.

Learning Conferences
Thank you for making the time to attend your child's learning conference. We loved meeting with you and sharing our students' successes. We value your feedback feedback to assist us with our ongoing evaluation and to help us to continuously improvement. 
Please share your thoughts here



Thank you 
...to parent helpers in reading (9-10.30am) and those who put away books. If you would like to assist with our reading and discovery time, or helping to organise resources, please see one of the Koru teachers.




Readathon 
Children are enjoying our Reading Challenge. Congratulations to Robin Reid for reading 10 chapter books!

The whole school Read-a-thon is also happening NOW. Your child will have a green card in their reading folder for collecting sponsors. Please see a teacher if you have any questions.


New Library Days 
Please bring library folders on Wednesday and Thursday from next week. 
Thank-you.
Website with spoken books for children: https://www.uniteforliteracy.com
Healthy Kids Website, with healthy movement and eating ideas, and a downloadable reward chart