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.

Kia ora whānau,

Welcome to the 2020 school year. It is wonderful to see so many familiar faces and to welcome our 'newbies'.

Our focus for the first three weeks is on building relationships, establishing routines, expectations and focusing on the Kete Values, We Care and We Get There Together.

We are so incredibly proud of how our tamariki are going with these values.  They are using kind words, helping each other out, offering to share and working as a team at tidy up time.




We have been focusing on how we can fill our own buckets and those of others. We have read a book called 'Have you filled a bucket today?'. A bucket filler acts and speaks with We Care towards others and themselves. When they do these things they are filling buckets. Ask your child what filling a bucket might look and sound like.





Outside play

We are making the most of the outdoors for our learning. We are enjoying the play space, Treemendous and using sports gear.



















Maths Exploration

We have had great fun being mathematicians exploring patterns, reading and writing numbers, counting forwards and backwards, and learning to use the equipment in a variety of mathematical ways.












Ngā mihi mahana koutou,
Elizabeth and Jo

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