Koru Reading and Writing

Learning to read is lots of fun! Our reading programme includes reading to children, reading with children and reading by children.

It is wonderful that reading folders are coming to school every day and the children are doing a great job putting them in the correct group box before school. Having your reading folder at school every day also ensures children can read their books both at school and home. Rereading familiar texts provides children with reading 'mileage', and helps enormously in the development of fluency, phrasing and expression.

Our guided reading groups enjoy their books together most days. This provides opportunities for children to learn the skills of what good readers do, like learning to decode unknown words, learning letter sounds and blends, making predictions about what might happen next, having great discussions about the books and asking questions.

In writing, we start with shared writing. This is when we plan and construct writing together. The teacher models and talks through the process of constructing a text. The children contribute their own ideas throughout this process. This provides a supportive setting to model the process of writing, focus on letters, words, and letter-sound relationships, model strategies for checking and improving and demonstrate the use of a range of forms and structures in written language.

There are opportunities in a guided writing group for children to try writing independently, to learn to write high frequency words, and to play literacy games together.















Our Koru Whānau

Kia ora to our families,

We have had a wonderful start to the 2019 school year. We warmly welcome families that are new to Beckenham te Kura o Pūroto, and welcome back to those families who have been part of our community for some time now.

Next week, we welcome Kristika Burridge, full-time, into the Koru team. Kristika is going to be the Home Group teacher for our third New Entrant group of children.

Our Reading Programme:
  • We hope you're all enjoying the reading books that have been coming home this week. This is a great opportunity to share time together with your child and celebrate reading (remember, it's of great value to reread the texts which are still in the folders and which have come home earlier in the week)
  • Also remember: Praise, Praise, Praise!
  • In class each week we have a shared book which we read and discuss together several times throughout the week. Sometimes a small copy of this book may come home in your child's reading folder. This book may be at a more advanced level than usual and will possibly need more support from you, as you read the book together with your child
  • It's important that the children pack their reading folders into their bags, and return them to school every day.

The children are loving our Discovery sessions each morning, and are displaying creativity, initiative and cooperation throughout this first part of each day. Discovery Time really supports the development of our school values: We Care, We Love Learning, We Get There Together, We Love Challenge and We Make a Difference. We see each of these values being displayed in a great many ways throughout this time devoted to learning through play.
Working together outdoors to make a ball challenge

Test flying our helicopters

Playing with the animals and magnetic shapes


Team work to create an obstacle course
Testing the obstacle course

Playing the cat game

Long rope skipping

Railway workers building together

Exploring patterns







Koru News Term 4 Week 8/9, 2018

REMINDER

Look in your bags, reading folders under the bed, in the kennel and bring back all your reading books as soon as possible please.
If you can help to put these away, please do check with your child's teacher. Your help is greatly appreciated.

Koru Year 1 and 2 Choir Trip

Wow - we had a fabulous time on Monday 10th December performing to the Cracroft Mens Friendship Group. They really enjoyed the singing from some passionate Year one and Two children. A big thank you to the parent helpers who came to help them walk to and from the event.



Koru Year 1 and 2 City Trip - Building Focus

We had a fabulous time on our recent trip into town, visiting the Christchurch City Council, Arts Centre including Rutherford's Den and the Botanic Gardens.
Enjoy the photos...



















Building our Knowledge:  Parent Talks & Discovery Play with Koru Year 1 & 2

Thank you to all the parents who came in to talk about their work to do with building. We certainly have learned a lot about Sustainable Building!!!!








 










Koru News Week 6 Term 4 2018

Kia Ora Whanau
What an action packed week it has been! Enjoy seeing the smiles on the photos below!


Junior Athletics
A HUGE thank-you to parents, friends and whanau for coming to our event, and cheering all the children on. It was wonderful to see everyone having fun and having a go at all events. 

A big thanks to Caitlyn for organising it, class teachers and teacher aides, and to our senior student house captains, who walked and encouraged the children. 













News from the New Entrant Team 

We Care Day
For 'We Care' Day Koru New Entrants talked about how we can care for ourselves, others and our environment. We made We Care posters to show three ways of caring. some of these posters are on display in the office.

Discovery
Discovery continues to be a time filled with wondering, experimenting, creativity and seeing how things work. It's also wonderful to be able to discover outside!









News from the Year 1-2 Team 
Koru Hub 1-4 students preparing for our City Trip this Friday - acting out how we will walk, bus etiquette and creating architectural sketches and plans:





  

...and working collaboratively with maths buddies, on sharing (division) problems:




Koru News Week 4 Term 4


Junior Athletics - All

This term we will be holding the Junior Athletics (Y0-4) on Wednesday 21st November out in the park with a team briefing starting at 12:00pm and finishing the day with the famous house relays at 2:30pm. Lunch will be at the usual time. Parents are welcome to come along to cheer on the children. It is going to be a fun day in the sun so please make sure your child has their sunhat, water bottle, appropriate footwear, and a big healthy lunch to keep them fueled for the day. We look forward to seeing everyone in their beautiful, bright house shirts! 


Inquiry Learning: Sustainable Materials - Y1&2

Last week we began our learning about different materials and their uses. We have been exploring them through play and were fortunate enough to have Carmel, Jacqui's Mum, come in to talk to us about her special job as an architect. A huge thank you to everyone who has donated boxes. We are now at full capacity and will not be requiring anymore. Next week we are moving on to creating miniature scales.







CCC, Art's Centre and City Day Trip - Y1&2

This term we also have a big trip to the city planned for Friday 23rd November. On this trip children will be going to the Christchurch City Council, Arts Centre and the Botanic Gardens. They will need to have a big healthy lunch, water bottle, sunhat, waterproof jacket and appropriate footwear for the day.


Hats - All


This term all children must wear a sun hat when outside. Please make sure that your child has a hat at school with their name clearly written inside in either of the styles below.
Farm Visit - NE

We have an exciting trip to a farm planned for our New Entrants on Thursday November 22nd and Friday 23rd. This is a natural extension of our Discovery theme for the past few weeks and links very well to Canterbury Show Day. They will need to have a big healthy lunch, water bottle, sunhat, waterproof jacket and appropriate footwear for the day. An email has been sent out to the parents/caregivers of all New Entrant children and this contains full details.




Fourth New Entrant Group - NE


This week we opened up our 4th NE class in Komanawa. It is great to see our older NE children stepping up to develop their leadership skills. We welcome Carter, Devin, Billy, Hannah, Misha and Skye. 

Discovery Stations

We begin each day with our Discovery session and as you can see our hubs are a vibrant and exciting place to be. We also LOVE to use our outdoor spaces.