Category Archives: Koru

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.




Newsletter Term 2 Week 2

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Welcome Back To Term 2!
A special warm welcome to Elsie, Hatsumi, Alex, Felix, Quinn, Sharni and Xavier.

Writing This Week
Teachers have been fortunate to have professional development on writing.
We are learning new and fun ways to provide our students with:
* Clear learning intentions (e.g. saying our sounds, doing a picture plan, adding detail). We do this using icons:

* Questioning to prompt children to write more
* Using stimulus like picture books to generate great writing
* Giving students clear verbal feedback



* Offering lots of writing experience e.g. word building:
 

Parent Helpers
Thanks to all our wonderful parent helpers! We appreciate your support with the children's learning. Keeping children's progress confidential is a vital part of that. Thank-you.

Learning At Home
You can help your child with their learning by:
* Playing games with your word cards. Find great ideas here.
* Read with your child every night
* Start to notice the moon...ask questions such as
What does it look like? Why does it seem to move? What colour is it tonight? 
We have started learning about the moon and solar system in class.
* Information about current moon phase 

Science & Art Learning
Thanks for your ideas here Amy (Weaver's Mum)
This term we are exploring the Solar System and Outer Space.
As part of this we have decided to create some 3d Models, for example: planets, robots, astronauts and space monsters. Please collect the following:
*Small boxes (eg oxo's, toothpaste etc)
*Twisty ties, eg the likes of bread bags etc.
*Bottle tops and items for embellishment (eg buttons, small tags and ties)
*Old magazines for collage
*Tins (clean, no sharp pieces or labels)

Book Review - Pete The Cat

This one’s a kid-pleaser, with funny, memorable text, bright colours, visual humour, and a downloadable song to boot. For such a simple story, it’s a page-turner too - kids will be eager to see what happens next, even after many readings. They’ll giggle at Pete inadvertently stepping into a pile of blueberries, which on the page looks more like an ocean of blueberries. Each time he stains his shoes, Pete looks a bit peeved, but within a few beats he’s back in his groove, embracing the latest shade of his sneakers. This story has a strong rhythm and jazzy watercolour illustrations.


Peach The Rabbit
Peach loves being with team koru!
  



Week 11 Team Whanau Koru Blog

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We wish you all a very happy restful holiday with the little ones. No doubt  they will be more than ready for a break after one term at school.


Announcement:
We are thrilled to announce that Andrea Swanson will join Team Koru in Term 2. Rowena will be teaching 3 days a week and Andrea will release her for 2 days a week on Thursday and Friday. This is so Rowe can continue her work as Mutukaroa Co-ordinator. Andrea has many years teaching experience including teaching New Entrants last year at Beckenham. Many families will know Andrea already as she worked in Team Koru last year.



Drink Bottles
Next term it would be great if all the children remembered to bring a named drink bottle to school daily. Please encourage your children to put these in the tray provided as part of their morning routine.

Picnic
Thanks to all of you who made it to the picnic yesterday. The children had a lovely time on the adventure playground and were so excited to see you. It was a nice informal way to get together. A trip or trips out in the future are definitely on the cards.



The Three Legged Cat by Margaret Mahy
Tom the tabby cat dreamed of seeing the world, but he had only three legs. Mrs. Gimble was a boring widow that wished Tom would just sit still. Mrs. Gimble's brother Danny loves to travel the world, but his trusty hat is getting old and it isn't as warm. It is only by chance that all three get their wishes. Danny mistakes a sleeping Tom for his fuzzy hat and takes off to travel the world. His new "hat" is very warm and Mrs. Gimble's new "cat" is very still. Tom finally gets to see the world. The funny story of chance shows that anything can happen.

The visuals in the story aide the reader in making guesses as to what will happen next. The first page shows Tom all curled up sleeping. A few pages later, the reader gets to see Danny's hat, that looks a lot like Tom. When Danny visits Mrs. Gimble, he takes off his hat and there is an orange fluffy ball on the top of his chair. This makes the reader question whether or not the fuzzy item is a hat or a cat. On Danny's way out, the illustrator reveals Tom's face on Danny's head. On the following page, Tom is awake and his peg leg is showing. This type of crazy situation would make kids laugh a lot.


The characters in this book are very realistic. Mrs. Gimble is a grumpy lady who enjoys the comfort of her home and cares very much about what others think of her. Danny on the other hand is a wanderer. He loves to travel and has no permanent address. The illustrator makes the differences in their personalities very clear through their clothing. Mrs. Gimble wears conservative pink clothing that blends in with the rest of her house, which is also pink. The similarity of her clothing choices and house decorations show her narrow-mindedness. Danny's clothes contrast Mrs. Gimbles house well, with bold colours like red, black and blue. His vest and choice of hat show his love for travel as they look like they belong in a different culture. This story uses funny characters to introduce different types of people to children in an appropriate way.




Koru Newsletter, Term 1 Week 10, 2016

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Koru Picnic on Thursday
Join us for our Koru picnic on Thursday 14th at 12.00.  We will have a play on the adventure playground in the park and then eat on picnic rugs. If raining, we will have an inside picnic, fun activities and story session. Parents, Grandparents or other whānau are welcome. BYO packed lunch. Children can bring normal lunch-box lunches.

We Get There Together!
Over the last fortnight, we have been more collaborative across both classes. As well as our daily Maths sessions, we work together in reading too. Students have been showing great self-management as they move to different rooms to work with different teachers. The collaboration means that children get to work at their exact point of learning. They are getting to know and make friends with different children too!

In our wellbeing sessions, we talk about our key Kete values of 'getting there together' and 'showing we care'. We've practised this by pairing children from room 10 and 11, and working on our phonics pictures and songs. 

  

Reading next week
On Wednesday and Thursday, we will be working through letter sound and word assessments with the children. On these days, your child will bring home a book they have read previously. Enjoy reading this with them. You may also like to practise reading your first 30 words and letter sounds (flash cards provided by Rowena during Mutukaroa interviews).

Parent Helpers
We are looking for parent helpers who can assist with putting reading books away, making resources and games. If you are able to help out, please talk to Amanda, Rowena or Charlotte. Thanks to those who have already volunteered to parent help!

Have Fun Reading with Dr Suess!

“If you never did you should.
These things are fun and fun is good”
~ Dr. Seuss
One sunny day, while swimming in a pool, my husband and I overheard a lady proclaiming to the world that Dr. Seuss’ books were absurd and should not be read to children. Her reason: incorrect use of the English language. Oh lady, you’ve really missed the whole point, haven’t you?! Here are five reasons you should love Dr. Seuss, including his absurdity:
1. Great for Beginning Readers and Mastering Phonics
A child who is learning to read is learning to connect the sounds that go with letters so that he can then put them together to make words … which then become sentences. Repeating sounds frequently, help a child master this skill. Dr. Seuss is the master of repetitive sounds and engaging stories, while using limited vocabulary—an ideal combination for a beginning reader. A good example: Hop on Pop.
2. Great Read-Aloud Books
Thanks to his clever rhyming, Dr. Seuss’ books sound great when they are read aloud. Did you know that reading to an infant helps with brain development, speech skills, and bonding between parent and child? There are a lot of Dr. Seuss books available in board book format (Bright and Early, Board Books), which are the perfect size and durability for little hands and curious mouths. Example: Put me in the Zoo
3. Great for Reluctant Readers
Sometimes the hardest part of reading is getting your child to read. I think you would be hard pressed to find a child that would not be entertained by the sheer absurdity of Dr. Seuss’s wacky plots and zany characters. Example: I Wish that I Had Duck Feet. Sometimes a little fun and excitement is all that is needed to get kids reading.
4. Great for Teaching Life’s Lessons
With enchanting worlds and wonderful creatures, both familiar and unfamiliar, Dr. Seuss teaches readers many admirable life lessons. Example: The Lorax is a great book for teaching children the importance of taking responsibility for the earth.

By Bianca Schulze