Fabulous Phrasing and Fluency. Our Reading Programmes

Posted on 28 July, 201728 July, 2017 by Sue Leadbetter

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

We have had a really great start to the term in our new spaces. The children have settled in and it feels as though we have been here much longer than a week.

Thank you for all your support and the positive comments we have received. Staff have worked really hard during the holidays to get the spaces ready for the new term and we appreciate your feedback.

This term, as well as the individual learning goals discussed with each child at literacy time, we are focussing on promoting reading with phrasing and fluency on every book.

Your child will bring home reading each night. The reading could include poems, reader books read with the teacher or chosen from their browsing box. This reading will be familiar and enable your child to practise successful reading strategies, reading with expression, phrasing and fluency.

Your child may bring home a book more than once. This is an important part of learning to read as it enables them to practise all their skills. Just as we, as adults, return to a favourite film, magazine or book, the children will choose books they are familiar with and give them pleasure.

You can support us by continuing to read with your child each night and praising them using phrases such as

I like the way you are reading like talking.
You made your voice sound very interesting when you read that piece.
Well done you are reading using the punctuation.
Your reading is getting more phrased and fluent (fast).

Hubs 1 to 4 have been reading lots of poetry this past week. Next week the children will bring home a poem and a book from their browsing box each night. Following this we will begin our guided groups with poetry coming home on Fridays.

Welcome to Term 3 2017

Posted on 24 July, 201724 July, 2017 by Charlotte Verity

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

We are looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow morning. Our new hub is all set and ready to go and we are feeling very excited to welcome you and the children in.

This week, the children will be able to enter the school from the Sandwich Road gate near the West Hub (our learning space). There will be 2 teachers outside at the beginning of each day to guide you to the right place and show the children their new routines. We have popped posters illustrating the routines on the entry doors so parents can help with this.

This term we are trialing not having healthy snacks in the middle of the first block, so no need to send along a separate snack box for brainfood / morning snack. Please can you ensure your child has a good breakfast each morning so they feel satisfied until Morning Teatime. This term the children will be having morning tea at 10:20 each day and then going out to play afterwards. Lunch will be at the same time and will follow the play / eat routine.

As the hubs are shoe free please can the children bring a spare pair of named socks to school in their bag.

There is a noticeboard inside the entry door with anything you may need to know about the day.

Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow.

Kind regards

Koru Hubs 1 – 4.

Week 10 in Koru Team

Posted on 11 July, 201711 July, 2017 by Sue Leadbetter

Koru Team Blog - Week 10

A great big thank you!

Thank you to all the wonderful parents who have helped us this term in so many ways.

We appreciate all your contributions including helping on trips, sorting and putting books away, laminating, culling resources and helping us with our shifting.

Week 1 Term 3 - Into our new Learning Spaces
During the holidays Hubs 10 and 11 are moving over to Hub 8 and 9. Thank you to all the parents who have offered to help Elizabeth, Rowe and Gail dismantle and pack their learning space. The morning routines for Hubs 10 and 11 will be the same.

During the last two weeks of school Hubs 1 - 4 have been visiting and spending time in their new learning spaces. We are all very excited and really looking forward to next term.

On the first day of next term when the children arrive at school, they will come straight over to the new hub. The entry and exit doors are at the front of the building.

The children will

take their bags to the front double doors of the new building and put their bag on the ground where their hub number is. We will eventually be getting cubby holes for the bags in the near future.
go to the double doors and enter, taking off their shoes and putting them on the shoe racks provided - these will also be numbered.
put their reading folder on the floor in their home space and pop their lunch boxes in the numbered bins in the kitchen area.

After doing their jobs the children will be able to go back outside to play (via the front door) or engage in our fabulous Discovery / Play-based Learning activities, just as they have been so far this year.

Shoelaces: please practise doing up laces over the holidays, as children will need to take shoes off and put back on several times a day in the new hub.

Litter Free Lunches
We are re-establishing our litter free lunch policy, to reduce our school waste. We encourage families to consider using containers or removing wrappers from lunch items. Children will be asked to take any wrappers home in their lunch boxes to dispose of. Many thanks for your support for our eco-friendly school.

Our Chair Friends

It all started from Blake's simple idea then 'went viral'!

Weeks 9 and 10 saw us creating 'chair friends'. We made them, played with them, sat with them, read to them, looked after them and even gave them a nice place to sleep and a healthy breakfast the next day!

Enjoy the pictures - what fun. You may find this becoming an activity the children take up doing at home!

Successful learning - What do our brains need?

The Science behind our brains and how they work is fascinating for children. As they learn about their brain and how they can optimise learning, our children are able to make choices about their environment and what they put into their bodies. This clip explains how our brain works and the impact we can all have on our learning.

Photo Gallery from the Cross Country

Photo Gallery from the Zones Cross Country

KORU (Hubs 1,2,3,4 and 10,11) HIGHLIGHTS Weeks 7-8

Posted on 23 June, 201725 June, 2017 by Dorinda Hampton

Upcoming Events - Help Needed Please

Week 9 Friday the 30th of June

We are going to relocate our Junior readers to the new building on Friday the 30th of June. If you are able to help us by carrying boxes of books from the upstairs resource room to the new block from 9:00 that morning please email Amber.
amber.donovan@beckenham.school.nz

Week 10 Friday the 7th of July

On the last day of term we will be shifting Hubs 1 to 4 into our new learning spaces. We would really appreciate parents, grandparents and friends of the school coming along to help move our classroom tables, chairs and resources to the new space. If you like sorting we could also use some help combining and sorting some resources. We will begin shifting from 9:00am.
If you are able to help please contact Sue.
sue.leadbetter@beckenham.school.nz

Our Fabulous New Space

Thank you to all the parents and extended family who have visited our new building this week. The learning spaces were officially opened on Wednesday and it has been lovely to see everyone exploring and admiring them.
We will be trialing a "shoes off" policy in the new buildings. Please can you check your child can put on and off their shoes, tie their laces or fasten velcro independently. Many thanks.
Litter-Free Lunches - we are encouraging our children to reduce the amount of rubbish in our environment so the children will bring their lunch waste / and packets home from term 3 on.
We will continue to compost any organic material. This is part if a school-wide approach to reduce waste.

We LOVED going into our new learning space this week and are excited about what comes next.

Hubs 1,2,3 and 4 all fit so nicely in the 'amphitheater'. As a school we will be naming the special learning spaces all ready for next term.

Growth Mindset

This term we have been talking about developing a growth mindset. We can say things to ourselves to help us focus on our learning and encourage ourselves to keep going.

I can do it.

I will keep trying.

I learn from my mistakes.
I believe in myself.
Learning can be hard and I can push through the struggle.
I love learning.
I will try my best.
Bring on the challenges!

Carol Dweck researches “growth mindset” — the idea that we can grow our brain's capacity to learn and to solve problems. In this talk below, she describes two ways to think about a problem that’s slightly too hard for you to solve. Are you not smart enough to solve it … or have you just not solved it yet?

https://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve

Thank you for all your help and support.Kindest regards

Koru Team.
Elizabeth, Rowe and Gail - Hub 10 and 11
Charlotte, Dorinda and Amber - Hub 1 and 2
Sue and Caitlyn - Hub 3 and 4.

KORU HIGHLIGHTS Term 2 Week 6-7

Posted on 10 June, 201710 June, 2017 by Charlotte Verity

Kia ora!
What an action packed fortnight we have had! Enjoy reading about the highlights below:

Reminders/Notices
* If your child needs more stationery, we will send a note home regarding what and how to purchase this.

* Please check jerseys to make sure your child is bringing home their jersey. Several jerseys have been lost recently. Thanks also for sending your child to school in uniform black shoes.

* A big thank you for waiting until 8:30 to enter classrooms.

* Junior School Cross Country is on Thursday 22 June from 1.30pm. The postponement date for this event is Thursday, June 29th. If you would like to help, please email Caitlyn. If your child has spare trainers, please pop these in their bags over the next fortnight as we will be running practises, and the route can be muddy at times.

Gallery & Botanic Gardens
We enjoyed a trip to the gallery and botanic gardens, many thanks to Elizabeth (Gail) and fabulous parent helpers...many thanks to each of you.

At the gallery, we had a personal tour in small groups, and looked closely at some of the art on display. An animal themed exhibition was a hit with the children, particularly one stuffed sloth! The children each thought about what is important to them and completed our own Waka drawing.

Maths

We have been learning about measurement over the last weeks, as well as computation and practising number knowledge. The children have loved the hands-on nature of measuring things...and each other!

Key concepts covered:

* Length, height, width, capacity, volume

* Using informal measurements e.g. blocks or popsicle sticks to measure length

* Start and end point

* Placing our measurement tool (e.g. blocks) end to end.

Why not try measuring books, a self, a person or something else at home?

Circle Time

Each Hub continues to have a weekly Circle Time. Students are encouraged to share 'what's on top' for them, and to celebrate successes or resolve challenges collaboratively, with teacher support. Circle Time relies on honesty and acceptance - each person's view is valued. Each Hub has also been exploring different aspects of social-emotional learning, such as change, conflict resolution, mind-set and how it can impact learning (learn more here - Carol Dwek's research), respect and giving/receiving compliments.

Arts Programme
The teachers have created a collaborative movement/sound arts programme for Monday afternoons. Children get to enjoy a different activity each week, from Zumba with Caitlyn, to percussion with Charlotte and mindful movement with Amber. Choir with Dorinda is also on offer for our eager singers - the children are learning vocal exercises and an entertaining selection of songs.

Kapa haka:
Our children spend time with our kaiako Maori, Sherrilee, each week, and participate in these lessons with impressive energy and enthusiasm! These photos tell the story beautifully, and include children who have had only very little time at school yet, as well as one who is yet to start, but was visiting school last Thursday. Thank you, Sherrilee, for all you give to the youngest of our Beckenham School students.

Working with poi ...

Just visiting, but so beautifully confident!

Adding actions to the waiata

Sherrilee loved these kapa haka moves

Love this poi work

Day 3 at school at look at this confidence!

Beautiful!

Also beautiful!

...and again ... beautiful!

Discovery Stations:
Discovery Station continue to be a highly motivating time of each day. The children practise their Key Competency skills: Thinking; Relating to Others; Understanding Language, Symbols and Texts; Managing Self; and Participating and Contributing. They also show amazing skill at being able to intertwine their learning in the areas of Literacy and Numeracy, as the following photos demonstrate.