Category Archives: Koru

Koru Team news, Term 2 Week 3

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Kia ora, e te whānau,

Koru Team: 

This year Elizabeth and Stacey are co-Team Leaders for the Koru team. We currently have two home groups, Elizabeth and Stacey share a home group and Georgia is the teacher of the other home group. You will see Elizabeth at school; Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. You will see Stacey at school; Monday, Tuesday and Friday. Sonya is the Teaching Assistant for our Koru team. You also might see Megan and Nicola teaching in Koru too.

Elizabeth              Stacey               Georgia

Sonya                Megan               Nicola

Postponement of events: 
Our tamariki have been putting so much effort into our Cross Country training and we know how much they were looking forward to showing us their dance moves at the Disco. Unfortunately, these events were postponed due to the weather and sickness at school. We will update you on new dates for our Junior Park Explorers trip and Disco as soon as we have them.  
We do know that the new Cross Country date is next Tuesday, 16th May, from 2 - 2:50pm.

Cross Country training

Nau mai te wero! We Love Challenge!

Carpark: 
To keep everyone safe when arriving and leaving school, do not walk through the carpark. This area is for staff cars, taxis and accessibility parking only. Thanks to everyone who is using the pedestrian gates onto the park, near the flagpole, on Sandwich Road by the PTA uniform room, or onto Eastern Terrace.

Sickness at school: 
We do have a few cases of Covid-19 in the school again, among staff, students and the wider whānau. We also seem to have had a number of children with tummy bugs. Please do keep children away if they are feeling unwell and do test if Covid symptoms are present. At school, we remind tamariki to cough/sneeze into their elbow and wash their hands regularly, especially after blowing their nose, coughing, sneezing and using the toilet.

Coronation tree planting: 
We have been invited by the Christchurch City Council to plant a commemorative Coronation Tree to mark the Coronation of King Charles III. We have received a kōwhai tree, which was planted by the junior playground with the help from the oldest and youngest child at Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto. You did a fabulous job planting the tree Sylvia!





House Groups: 
Our Koru children have all been allocated a 'House' to belong to: Fisher, Heathcote, Tennyson and Waimea. Children from the same family/whānau are put into the same house. Each house has its own 'chant' and tamariki learn this so they can participate in the house chant at sports and special events, and in Celebration Assemblies, it is their house that has won the House Points for that fortnight. You can find the House Chants here, and there are also videos that you can share with your child to help them learn their house chant. Mā tātou katoa te waka e hoe! We Get There Together!


Heathcote, Fisher, Waimea and Tennyson

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou,
Elizabeth, Stacey, Georgia and Sonya








Koru team news, start of Term 2

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 Kia ora, e te whānau,

We hope you are all happy and healthy and had a lovely holiday break! It was such a treat to see all of those wide and happy smiles back at school this week. We would like to give an especially warm welcome to William, Eddie, Reinhold, Sylvia and Henri, who have all started school this week. What a wonderful job they are all doing settling in!

All of our tamariki have happily returned to the routines of school, and are enthusiastically embracing their learning. They have been doing a wonderful job in their Literacy and Maths lessons, and are putting lots of energy and enthusiasm into their Learning Through Play.

A reminder about routines:

  • It's great if your child is able to independently carry their own bag into school, unpack it and put their lunch and drink bottle on the shelves
  • Your child's Literacy folder needs to be returned to school every day, and put into their group Literacy box first thing each morning (children who were at school in Term 1 will already know which container is their group's container; new children will be helped with this by one of the teachers)
  • On Fridays, your child will bring home both their poetry book and their library folder. Both these items need to be returned to school by the following Friday
  • We ask that caregivers avoid bringing children in to school through the staff carpark, rather, if entering off Sandwich Road, please come in up near the flagpole or in through the gate down near the corner.
Friendship List
  • If you would like your name and contact details to be added to our Koru Team Friendship List, please email Georgia your information by Wednesday, May 10th, and Georgia will update the list and share it on the Friday of that week
  • Here is Georgia's email address: georgia.mckenna@beckenham.school.nz
  • If your name is already on the list, please don't worry about contacting Georgia again.
Exciting Koru Team outing:
We trust that you have all received our Hero message pertaining to the outing which we have coming up on Thursday, May 11th.
Just in case any of you haven't been able to access this information, here is a copy of the content of the message:

We have a very exciting outing planned for our tamariki! 

The Christchurch City Council Education Outreach team is booked in to run their Junior Park Explorers programme with our Koru students, at our local Beckenham ponds. The session will address outcomes within the New Zealand Curriculum Science domain. We will be exploring biodiversity & ecosystems in our local area, and will be looking closely at birds, bugs and trees/plant life. 

Children will need to bring the following items: 
  • Gumboots (especially if wet)
  • Rain coat
  • Named water bottle
  • Shoes, spare socks and change of clothes (in school bag)
The programme will take place on Thursday, May 11th and will run from 9:30 - 11:45 a.m.

We will need 10 parent helpers on the day. If you are interested in helping, please email your child’s homegroup teacher, as soon as possible.  

Many thanks for your support.

Thank you very much to those caregivers who have already emailed us letting us know that they would like to help. We will be making contact with all those who offer to help, with more information, closer to the time.

In the meantime, we do trust that you all have a very restful and happy weekend.

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou,
The Koru Teachers: Elizabeth, Georgia, Stacey and Sonya


Koru Team news, to the end of Term 1

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 Kia ora, e te whānau,

We trust that this finds you having had a very safe, happy and relaxing Easter break, and now part way into an equally safe and happy school holiday break.

Our heartfelt thanks to you all for the amazing support you have given your children and the staff throughout the first term this year. We appreciate every offer of help and support, both small and large!

 Congratulations to the tamariki, who have had an amazing term, making impressive progress in their learning, including social and emotional as well as academic. This includes our little newbies, many of whom may have only had a few days at school, and who have all stepped into their new role as primary school learners, willingly embracing the challenges with positivity and enthusiasm. 

For those of you who would like to view (or view again!) the Literacy videos we've shared over the past term, here are those valuable links once again, including those at the Stage 2 level:

These videos will help you with understanding what our literacy stages involve and what you can be doing at home to support your child.

We also thought we'd include some links to fun Maths at Home activities and ideas. These links come from the Families and Whānau section of the NZMaths website:
...and now for our photo gallery, which includes images from our scone-making, building towers, showing persistence, outdoor fun, balance and physical challenges, art and craft activities and so much more!

Impressive focus being shown here!




"That will be $1:50, thank you."

Art and craft in the art space.

Beautiful, careful colouring!



Oh, my goodness - what's going to happen next?

At the vets.


At school, playing schools :)


Skip and Bounce will love this handwriting.

Great balancing in the next three photos.



Such wonderful focus and care being shown here.




The result of one of our Science experiments using dye and flowers... we followed the sequence: question, hypothesis, test, observe, discuss and conclude.




Playing one of Sonya's beautiful board games!

A favourite puppet.

My hand shape: traced around, coloured and trimmed.

What an amazing set up this team has created.

Animal dress up day - what a gorgeous little lion cub!

A cute little mouse showing great focus here.

A cheetah teams up with a unicorn.

Great physical skills on display!

Fun and games in the sandpit.

What a beautiful smile :)

Wonderful focus on display here.



An enthusiastic member of the jigsaw puzzle team.

We love books...

... and numbers!

All dressed up, having made a selection from the dress up box.

Scone-making photos from our final day of Term 1...















What a wonderful line up of photos of our wee ones! As we've said, their learning across all areas (including social and emotional) has been nothing short of incredible throughout Term 1. Very well done, tamariki :)

For now, we hope you continue to enjoy the school holidays, and we look forward to seeing all of those beautiful, wide smiles at the start of Term 2, on Wednesday, April 26th.

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou,
Elizabeth, Stacey, Georgia, Nicola and Sonya


Koru Team News, Term 1 Week 5

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 Kia ora, e te whānau,

We hope you have all had a lovely week. In the Koru hub, we have had a very busy week, as we continue with our small group Maths and Literacy learning. The children are doing a great job adjusting to the routines, following expectations, and trying really hard with their learning. They have been absolute superstars!

This week, we welcome Annabelle and Ariana, who started in the Koru Team in Week 4, and Archie, Alex and Violet who started in the Koru team this week. You have all settled really well into the routines and have done a great job at following instructions, making friends, and trying new things. Ka pai, tamariki!

We also welcome back Georgia and Nicola into our Koru teaching team! Nicola will be in for Stacey, generally on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, for the remainder of Term 1. Georgia has started back full-time, as more children join the Koru team and will be here Monday to Friday. 

Friendship List:

We have decided to extend our Friendship List date until Wednesday, 8th March. If you have not already, please email Georgia (georgia.mckenna@beckenham.school.nz) with your details if you wish to be on this list. This is a great way to get in contact with other whānau to arrange play dates. 

Word of the week:

The word of the week this week has been 'Respect'. In the Koru team, we have discussed what respect means, how we can show respect to others, how we can respect our classroom equipment, and why respect is really important in order to develop trust in the relationships you have with others. If you wanted to discuss our word of the week further, you could chat with your child about what showing respect might look like at home, during your weekend activities, and in different environments. 

House games:

This week, we had our first House Games. House Games involve the whole school and are when the children play different games with other children in the same house. House Games are run by the house captains and deputy house captains. There were lots of different activities that the tamariki tried, and the senior leaders did a great job at running these activities. Our tamariki showed "We Love Challenge", "We Love Learning", and "We Get There Together", through being engaged with the activities, listening to the leaders, persevering and giving the activities a great go, trying their best, and most importantly, having FUN!

Structured Literacy:

We have continued in our small groups, during Structured Literacy time, to learn new letter sounds at Stage 1. Each time a new sound is learnt, your child will be bringing home a few letter sounds to practise at home and these letter sets will be added to, as the children progress. These can be used to practise the pure sounds the letters make and then once children have learnt segmenting and blending skills, they can then use these skills to segment and blend the sounds together to form words. 

You may also notice some Heart Words in your child's sound pack. Our Heart Words are words that cannot be sounded out, simply need to be learned 'by heart' and when the children are at home, can be used to practise reading and writing. Once children are proficient in segmenting and blending the first 8 sounds together, and know the first five heart words, they will start bringing home decodable books to read with you at home. 

Here at school, we have recorded some videos to support our whānau with understanding what our literacy stages look like and what you can do to support your learner at home.

Click on the links below to access videos at Stage 1. 

Stage 1

How to Help At Home

A reminder about the Structured Literacy parent information workshop, to be held here at Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto, in our school hall, on Thursday, March 23rd, starting at 5:30 p.m. We urge you to do your best to attend this workshop. Emma Nahna is an excellent speaker and we are absolutely certain that you'll find this workshop incredibly valuable! 

Looking for treasure in the sandpit!

How exciting - our new puzzles have arrived!!

Testing out one of the new puzzles! Great work, team!

Beautiful colouring!

Lots of fun with playdough

Great fun with the vehicles!

Creating our sound of the week "M" mouse craft 

What a great session we had on Friday with Whaea Cath!

Our very first House Games!

So fast!

Wow - great work!

Moving so fast!

We love parachutes!

Beautiful colouring, team!

Awesome teamwork!

I love how carefully you are colouring in your butterfly!

Great work coding the Beebot!

Wow - awesome colouring!

Look at the beautiful collage work!

Smiling faces ready to start creating!


Some reminders:
  • Please do remember that our staff carpark is an area through which vehicles will be moving throughout the day, especially at the Hangere end of the carpark, where cars and vans are frequently either dropping off at or picking up from the Ferndale unit; we ask you to please enter and exit the school grounds through the gates at either Eastern Terrace near the public toilets, at the corner of Eastern Terrace and Sandwich Road or near our school flagpole on Sandwich Road. You might also come into our courtyard area from Beckenham Park. Thank you very much for supporting us with the safety of all around our school
  • Please ensure your child's Literacy folder comes back each day. This is extremely important, as our tamariki are adding new sounds and heart words to their sound pack so they can practise their new learning at home, and when their folder is not at school they are unable to take their new cards home
  • Please do ensure that your child's library folder and poetry book are packed and returned to school for Fridays each week. These items can be returned earlier in the week, however if they're not at school for use on Fridays, this can be disappointing for children, especially if  they're unable to get new library books out for the weekend and the week ahead.
Have a wonderful weekend, koutou, and we look forward to seeing all of those wide smiles again on Monday morning!

Ngā mihi mahana,
Georgia, Elizabeth, Stacey, Nicola and Sonya

Term 1 Koru Team news update

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Kia ora, ki ngā whānau,

What very busy days we're having in the Koru team. The children are really embracing our routines and expectations, and we have this week started adding our small group teaching into our days. The children are managing themselves incredibly well at these times, and are very much enjoying being 'called' to the jellybean table for their Literacy group lessons. Please see below for one or two links which we know you'll find very valuable, as far as the children's Literacy learning is concerned.

Friendship List:

Please email Georgia with your contact details by the end of next week (Friday, March 3rd), if you would like to share your contacts with the other families in the Koru team. This is helpful if you are wishing to organise playdates with your child's classmates.

Kapa haka:

Whaea Cath came to visit last Friday and took us for our first Kapa Haka session. We practised some waiata, including 'Ko au, ko au' as well as the actions which accompany each song. We'll endeavour to ensure that some videos are included in our Blog posts in the future, however in the meantime, you'll find a photo below.

Geometry and Patterning:

We began our Maths programme at the start of this year with a focus on the Maths strands of Geometry and Algebra (patterns and relationships). Our focus was on sorting shapes by their appearance, looking for similarities and differences, and continuing and creating sequential patterns. We loved the children's enthusiasm and engagement throughout these Maths sessions. You'll see evidence of both in the photos below.

Puppy visit:

The children showed wonderful care and kindness when little Paco, Elizabeth's 14 week old whippet puppy, came to visit. They were incredibly gentle and considerate, and all followed the instruction to present a fist for Paco to sniff, so that he would feel safe and secure with them.


Words of the Week (so far): 

Each week at Beckenham Te Kura, throughout our school, we have a focus Word of the Week, which we bring into every element of our programme throughout each day. Our Words of the Week so far this year have been inclusion, honesty and kindness. We have discussed with the children the meaning of each of these words and what we might see and hear when these values and qualities are being displayed. 

Inclusion means to make other people feel welcome. It is about accepting others for who they are.

Honesty means that we are truthful in what we say and do. When we are honest, the people in our lives know that they can trust us. Trust is a very important part of positive relationships with our family, friends and teachers.

Kindness is the quality of being friendly, generous and considerate.

These are great qualities to discuss with your children at home. You could ask them to give you examples of what each of these qualities might look like and sound like at school, and then think of examples together for what they might look like and sound like at home.

Structured Literacy:

You will by now have seen that your child's Literacy folder has started coming home in their schoolbag each day (Monday to Thursday). We keep the folder at school on Fridays, and this is often when teachers get the chance to add to the resources in the folder, or, once books start coming home, collect the books back in.

We do trust that you'll follow the links below, which we think you'll find very helpful:

  • as background information about Structured Literacy (a link to the Literacy page on our school website and a link to a short video of Caroline Moffat, our Resource Teacher of Literacy, presenting to a parent workshop on the subjects of The Science of Reading and Structured Literacy)
  • as you start working with your children on practising their letter sounds (The Speech Sounds of New Zealand English)
We'd also like to alert you to a Structured Literacy parent information workshop, to be held here at Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto in our school hall, on Thursday, March 23rd, starting at 5:30 p.m. We urge you to do your best to attend this workshop - Emma Nahna is an excellent speaker and we are absolutely certain that you'll find this workshop incredibly valuable! Please click here to find out further details.

Some reminders:
  • Please do remember that our staff carpark is an area through which vehicles will be moving throughout the day, especially at the Hangere end of the carpark, where cars and vans are frequently either dropping off at or picking up from the Ferndale unit; we ask you to please enter and exit the school grounds through the gates at either Eastern Terrace near the public toilets, at the corner of Eastern Terrace and Sandwich Road or near our school flagpole on Sandwich Road. You might also come into our courtyard area from Beckenham Park. Thank you very much for supporting us with the safety of all around our school
  • Please do ensure that your child's library folder and poetry book are packed and returned to school for Fridays each week. These items can be returned earlier in the week, however if they're not at school for use on Fridays, this can be disappointing for children, especially if  they're unable to get new library books out for the weekend and the week ahead.

We do hope you enjoy the photos which follow - a snapshot of some of the activities the children have been engaging in recently. Enjoy!

One of our first Structured Literacy lessons - mīharo, tamariki. Brilliant!

Sorting shapes according to their attributes

Beautiful name collage work

...and more!

Creating 3-D models using magnetic shapes

Puppy Paco visits

Showing a closed fist for Paco to sniff

Having a big stretch

So gentle!

Well done, children - everyone is showing 'We Care'

Home base!

What a long dog!


"On your mat. Sit! Good boy, Paco!"

Singing 'Mrs Bunny'

Our first Celebration Assembly, and just look at our sitting!

Puppet time...

... and oh, what fun!

Sequential patterning, using the penguins

Focusing beautifully at poetry time

Playing one of Sonya's board games

Another one of Sonya's board games - so much fun!!

Looking at te tinana - lying perfectly still for the body outline!

What a cosy little nest you've created there!

Another perfect pattern - and what colour would come next to continue the pattern?

Well done - a perfect pattern using two colours... and what will be next in this pattern?

A zebra-like pattern here!

What impressive focus as we learn about the sound the letter 'a' makes

And how might this pattern be continued?

...and this one?

More work on the sound, /a/

Working on our poem 'Ten Little Apples'

We loved our visit from Whaea Cath!

How would you continue this pattern?

...and this pattern?

...and this one?

...and what about this pattern?

A VERY complex pattern here, created collaboratively - what colour always comes after ... (pick a colour and check)?

Another complex pattern - can you say out loud what the pattern is?

Using three different colours to create this sequential pattern

Wow - can you work this pattern out?

...and this one?

What about this one?

As you will see, we're having lots of fun at school and the tamariki are all thoroughly engaged. Their ability to participate and contribute is second to none!
Enjoy the final part of this week, and we wish you all a wonderful and relaxing weekend.

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou,
Elizabeth, Georgia and Sonya