Category Archives: Koru

Koru Term 3 week 2

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Welcome back to Beckenham for term 3!
We have an action-packed term ahead, and we can't wait to see where the children will take us with their learning!

A huge welcome to our new students!
Welcome to our new students in room 12. We can see you are already busy with learning and working together.
  

Spellathon lists
These have been sent home this week. Thank you for practising at home with the children. You can encourage them to read and write the words, spell the words verbally, or trace them.

Tissues
Winter is upon us and our tissue supply is dwindling. If you can donate an extra box, we would be grateful.

Our Inquiry topic this term is Cultural Celebrations, with a focus on Asia.  Talk about your family celebrations at home e.g. Christmas, birthdays, cultural events. What do you do to celebrate?
Would you like to share a celebration or event from your culture? If so, please see Amanda, Rowe, Andrea or Charlotte.

Wonderful writing


Writing letters


Write around the room

This term, we are trialling some new independent writing activities. These are helping students engage in writing, and write for a real purpose.
Examples include: writing around the room (copying labels, signs), book making, letter writing, list writing (e.g. birthday wish list, shopping list). We also enjoy 'fast words' writing as many words as we can in 5 minutes, and writing rhyming words e.g.
mat, sat, pat, cat....
run, sun, fun, bun...
Why not try some of these at home?

Oral language
Teachers were inspired at an Oral Language workshop this week!
Oral language is essential for navigating life and the curriculum.
Activities for you to try at home:

  • Say and act out a word e.g. shivering; round
  • Draw a picture to show a word meaning
  • Have a word jar for new 'wow' words you discover in your reading books
  • Encourage talk and thinking in your children by using open ended questions e.g. how would...., why...., who...., when....., where.... 


Gymnastics
We have started our gym unit, and are learning to create key movements: hop, skip, run and poses: stretch, tuck and straddle.











Maths 
We are continuing to learn about addition and subtraction. Here are some children solving a problem with penguin toys: 
' There are 5 penguins and some went missing. How many went missing? How many left? Can you write this with a buddy using maths symbols?'



Have a lovely weekend, 
Rowe, Andrea, Charlotte & Amanda

Term 2 Week 9 Newsletter

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Parent Helpers
Thank you to all of the parents who have helped out so far this year it is hugely appreciated by the teachers and children! 

Resource Request
If anyone has any large fizzy drink bottles we would really appreciate them so we can make some rockets!

Koru Leaders
Wow, a big congratulations to all children in team Koru for participating in leading assembly! A big thanks to all of the parents who came and supported this event. 


Drink Bottles
Just a friendly reminder to ensure that children are coming to school with a named water bottle. By having drink bottles available in the classroom makes it much easier and quicker for children to have a drink when they need, bringing little to no disruption to learning programmes. 

School Holidays
With the school holidays fast approaching we thought we would put together a few ideas on learning activities that could be done! The purpose of these activities is to maintain some of your child's learning and strengthen connections between home and school. 
  • Writing reflections on what you have done during the day or the yesterday.
  • Writing a list of jobs or activities that are going to be completed during the day.
  • Baking and talking about the measurements, e.g., 1cup, 1/2 cup etc.
  • Counting numbers on the letter boxes when you go for a walk.
  • Writing numbers, letter, words and stories with chalk outside.
  • Colouring in books and encourage correct pencil grip.
  • Go to the library and read lots of stories together.
  • Word or number hunt in old magazines or newspapers. 
  • Craft activities that involve using scissors to build on this skill. 
  • Discussing healthy lunch box items, you could write, draw or take photos about your ideas and share them with the class when Term 3 starts. 
Discovery Time
Gardening with the help of a parent! What a fantastic experience had by all. We look forward to watching our plants grow. 

Students developing competency with our hub pet Peach! She was falling asleep on the children's laps because she loved the attention and felt safe. 

We have been showing we care and we get there together through home play. 

Whare Time
Over the past couple of weeks during whare time we have been learning about the Maori New Year (Matariki). Older students supported the younger students to make a kite. Kites are a traditional symbol of Matariki as legends believe they connect the heavens and the earth.





Team Koru Term 2 Week 8

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Robot making during Friday discovery time

 Thanks Amy for managing this fun time! If you would like to run an occasional or term long discovery option, please see one of the Koru teachers. Discovery happens every Fri afternoon, and gives children a chance to choose their own sport, creative or science based pursuit. 

  

Cross Country 
Thanks for the fantastic attendance and encouraging the children to have a go at something new!





  



Te Reo with Sherilee
We are so lucky to have Sherilee teach as Te Reo once a week. We learn greetings, waiata and key phrases.

Matariki song to play at home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLqEwg2jJbQ

Greeting: 
Ko wai koe? = Who are you?
Kia ora, ko (name) ahau. = I am (name)







READING TIPS  

6 Tips for home support
  1. Ready to Read Books - These books will need a lot of support from you at home because they tend to use quite a few new high interest words.I suggest you read the story to your child first or discuss the story page by page, introducing new words. This is called debugging the story and it helps children feel more confident about reading.
  2. Tell your child the names of characters in the story before reading.
  3. Pause Prompt & Praise: Give your child the time to work out words on their own (PAUSE). If they don't know a word, give them a meaning PROMPT, e.g. "Look at the picture, " or "what was the dog eating?" Reading should be driven by meaning not just "sounding out" letters. PRAISE for trying.
  4. Give children specific praise e.g. I liked the way you read that sentence again to check that word made sense.
  5. NEVER let reading become a battle. Read together if your child is unwilling to read on their own. Continue to read other books to your child, focusing on vocabulary and enjoyment.
  6. Making reading sound great helps children gain meaning from text. Model how each character's voice would sound. This makes reading come alive for children.
Having reading folders back at school every day helps our programmes run smoothly. It is good to get your child to put their reading folder in their bag straight after reading, in preparation for the school the next day. 

Rowe










Term 2 Week 6

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Kia ora!

The last fortnight has been an action-packed one!  Here is a snapshot of what we have been learning...enjoy!

Readers
What a focused group we have! It is great to see readers using our 'animal' themed reading strategies, which most of you received in your Mutukaroa home pack.  See Rowe, Charlotte or Amanda if you would like to know more. 











Have fun exploring this space website at home:  http://spaceplace.nasa.gov

Hockey
We have been so lucky to have the team from Canterbury Hockey coaching our children over the last few weeks. During this time, Emma taught the children some basic hockey skills such as dribbling the ball and hitting the ball safely to one another. Full of gusto on a chilly morning, the
children all had enormous fun playing in the hockey tournament on Wednesday. We are sure you will agree that they look very professional. Keeping our sticks down was the order of the day! Amanda,Charlotte and Rowe were proud of  you all.

Quote of the day,"Great team work everyone " (Oliver)

It was great to see our older New Entrants demonstrated our kete values of 'we care'  and 'we get there together' to the younger children.





Reversal Letter Support 

Here is a rap that the children are learning to help them remember how to form a 'b' and a 'd'.




Cross Country: REMINDER

Cross Country is on June the 16th.

Start time: 9 30 am-we suggest you arrive on the Beckenham Park (the big field) a little earlier to get a good viewing spot.

You are welcome to position yourselves anywhere around the park along the route around the park to cheer and support the children as they are running.
New Entrant girls will start first followed by New Entrant boys.
Please ensure your child is wearing suitable sports clothing, in house colours (a t shirt if you have one or loan one from a friend.) and footwear for this event.

PLEASE ENSURE YOUR CHILDREN ARE ALL WEARING SUITABLE FOOTWEAR EVERY DAY NEXT WEEK AS WE WILL BE HAVING CROSS COUNTRY PRACTICE.

Writing:
We have been talking a lot about making writing authentic for children. This means that children see that writing has a purpose related to everyday living. It is really important for children to see writing modelled in the home,

Here are some ideas to get your children interested in writing at home.

1. Diaries or journals. Even young children like to have a go!
They could include listing birthdays, names of friends,pictures and names of pets, holiday photos with a caption.

2. Letters, postcards or emails

3. Holiday maps and plans

4.Shopping lists

5.Treasure hunt clues eg 'Look on the swing'

6. Rhymes

7. Party lists

Writing with your child is a great idea too. Children just love making a little book about a personal experience.

"Writing floats on a sea of talk".
The conversations you have with your child about the world around them are very important as a foundation for writing. They give your child something to write about, support their growing understanding of sentence structure and help to expand their vocabulary.


ROCKETS



On Thursday Noah's dad Justin came in to demonstrate a plastic bottle rocket. The children watched the air being pumped into the bottle and the water being forced out when the children pulled the string. It was a great chance to practise our backwards counting from 10 as we prepared for launch! We are sure Justin was relieved when this experiment worked !

Plastic Soft Drink Bottles
We would be grateful if  you could send any empty plastic bottles to school next week so we could make our own rockets.



Newsletter Term 2 Week 4

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Parent Helpers!
A big thank you to parent helpers who have volunteered in class and organised our books. Paula Allen, Amy McDaid, Sonja, Ali, Diane, Nicola Arnott, Nicole Forster, Nicola Smythe and Olivia Grantham...we really appreciate your help!


Rereading And Improving Our Writing






Hockey 
"THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVER" - quote from Annabel as we walked out of our second hockey lesson with Canterbury Hockey! 


Cold And Wet Weather! 
Its great to see many children wearing their gumboots to school and bringing their slippers to wear in the classroom to keep feet dry and warm! 


Oral Language 
As a part of our oral language unit, we have news time which falls on a Friday. Children are encouraged to share an idea or an item they have brought in from home. In their groups, they have been learning to start with an introduction, share their news, ask questions, answer questions, listen and taking turns at speaking.