Koru News: 10/05/2024 Term 2 Week 2

Kia ora e te Whānau,

Welcome back to Term 2! We would also like to warmly welcome Korra, Hailey, Vincent, Archie, Elsa, Sadie, Manaia, Aurora, Marnie, Angus and Alma who have started school this term. We have got a busy term ahead of us with lots of exciting things to look forward to. Below are lots of dates and events for Term 2, there will be more information closer to the time for these.

Term 2:
  • Cross Country; Tuesday 14th May, the junior races start from 2.15pm on the field. Children will need suitable shoes, a water bottle, and they can wear House Tops.
  • Readathon PTA Fundraiser; 6-17th June
  • Book Character dress up day; Friday 24th May
  • Staff Only Day (school closed); Friday 31st May
  • King's Birthday (school closed); Monday 3rd June
  • School Disco; 2:00-2:45pm Friday 7th June
  • Learning Conferences; Tuesday 11th and Wednesday 12th June
  • NZ Opera; whole school performance in our Hall; Thursday 13th June
  • Koru trip to the Christchurch Art Gallery; Monday 24th June  
  • Matariki Evening at school; Tuesday 25th June 5:30-7:00pm
  • Matariki (school closed); Friday 28th June
Morning routines:
We are so proud to see the children showing We Love Challenge by carrying their own bags; putting their lunch box and drink bottles on the shelves; putting their Literacy folders in the group boxes and then settling down quietly into a game or activity each morning! 
We thank all the Whānau for the quick and calm 'good byes' in the morning. As we get more children starting school, sometimes we notice it feeling very overwhelming and busy with so many people in the Hub before school, it is really helpful when you say goodbye and leave your child with us, leaving them to have some fun with their new school friends.

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, if it is their house that has won the House Points for that fortnight! You can find the House Chants here, and other 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!

Some Reminders:

Friendship List: If you would like your name and contact details to be added to our Koru Team Friendship List, please email Georgia by Wednesday the 15th of May. Georgia will update the list and share it with you. If your name is already on the list, please don't worry about contacting Georgia again.
georgia.mckenna@beckenham.school.nz

Lunchboxes: A few reminders about your child's lunchboxes:
  • Please ensure your child is only bringing water to school (no juice or other drinks)
  • It is also important to help teach your child how to open and close their lunch boxes, so they can do this independently at the start and end of eating times
  • It would be great if you could also either pre-cut or teach your child how to open packets in their lunchboxes (for example potato sticks, chip bags, twisty yoghurt pouches, muesli bars etc.)
Thank you for your help and co-operation with this!

Science: 
On Wednesday, we had Ben Kennedy, a volcano expert, come and talk to the tamariki in the Koru team. Ben works at the University of Canterbury and is absolutely passionate about his chosen subject! He showed us his 'pet' rock collection, which represented the lava from various types of volcanic eruptions. We passed the rocks around and were able to see and feel many differences between each of them. Ben taught the children about words such as magma, lava, extinct, dormant and active. 



We then all went outside where Ben's student, Jonathan, set up two different experiments for us: one to demonstrate the slow progress that lava makes as it flows down a mountainside and the second, to demonstrate what happens when there is more gas present and lava 'bombs' are created and then shoot up and out of the volcano, often landing some distance from the volcano itself. 





Our first two weeks:
Here are some pictures to show what we have been up to for our first couple of weeks this term, during Learning Through Play and Kinetic Letters with Bounce and Skip.











We hope you have a fabulous weekend and look forward to seeing you all on Monday.

Ngā mihi nui,
Stacey, Georgia, and Elizabeth


Koru News: Term 1 Week 11 10/04/2024

Kia ora e te whānau,

Wow, what a term it has been! Our Koru children have completed their first term at school - what an awesome achievement! There has been so much learning take place throughout this term, and we have noticed all our tamariki making great progress. We have learnt about: our Solar System, our sounds and how to decode to read words, counting and equations, problem solving in Maths, different cultures and traditions within our hub, waiata during our Kapa Haka sessions, and exploring different aspects of Art. Our tamariki have also learnt about our school-wide "Word of the Week", our daily routines, our expectations at school, and have continued to grow their social skills both within our hub and throughout the school. We are so proud of our tamariki!

We are also very excited to welcome Elizabeth back to the Koru team in term 2! She will be taking the second class. 

Word of the Week:

Over the last two weeks, we have had a focus on the words RESPONSIBILITY and KINDNESS. We have some ideas to korero to your your tamariki about over the holidays: How can we show responsibility and kindness both at home and at school? What are some examples of showing responsibility? What are some examples of showing kindness? How can we show responsibility and kindness in the school holidays?

Maths: Notice, Think, Wonder

A challenge over the holidays: What do you notice? What do you think? What do you Wonder?

Reminders:

  • Literacy folders are staying at school over the holidays and will be handed back out next term. 
  • If library books are at home over the holidays, please make sure these come back in the first week of term 2 so your child can get new ones. 
  • Our tamariki won't be needing hats for Term 2 and 3 so these can stay at home, ready to be brought back for Term 4.
  • The school term finishes at the end of this week and Term 2 will begin on Monday 29th April.
  • Lunchboxes next term: Can you please ensure your children have minimal wrappers in their lunchboxes. This makes it more accessible for your child and easier for them to eat. If there are wrappers or yoghurt pouches, could these please be slightly cut/ripped so your child can independently open these. Thanks for all your support with this. 

We hope you have an awesome, safe and restful holiday break, and we look forward to seeing our tamariki back refreshed and ready for Term 2. 

Ngā mihi nui,
Georgia, Stacey and Paul

georgia.mckenna@beckenham.school.nz
stacey.mclachlan@beckenham.school.nz

Koru News: 27/03/2024 Term 1 Week 9

Kia ora, e te whānau,

Reminders:

Our kura/school will be closed on Friday 29th March, Monday 1st April and Tuesday 2nd April. We will see you all again on Wednesday 3rd April. Our last day of Term 1 is Friday 12th April.

Word of the week:

Our word of the week last week was DETERMINATION. Are you a determined person? In what ways do you show determination? How are determination and resilience the same/different? Determination means the ability to continue trying to do something, although it is very difficult.

Our word of the week this week is COOPERATION. Cooperation means working together to get things done. To be good at cooperating with others, you need to be a good TEAM MEMBER. 

Learning Through Play

We are learning to show determination and cooperation during our learning through play time. Have a look at the photos, how do you think the children might be showing determination and/or cooperating?







Maths: Notice, Think, Wonder

What do you notice? What do you think? What do you wonder? Here are all the ideas our children noticed when looking at this picture in Maths. What else do you notice, think and wonder?



Ngā mihi nui,
Stacey, Georgia and Paul
stacey.mclachlan@beckenham.school.nz
georgia.mckenna@beckenham.school.nz



Koru News: 15/03/2024 Term 1 Week 7

 Kia ora, e te whānau,

Wowzas! We are already at week 7! We have been very busy with all of our learning. Thank you to those who met with Georgia for your child's 6 week transition meetings this week. It has been so lovely to catch up and chat about your child's start to school. 

Parent Playground Helpers

Last year, we had a wonderful group of parents and caregivers who came along to school during lunch play to support our tamariki in the junior playground. We will be restarting this again from the beginning of Term 2. The benefits of being on the parent playground roster include being involved in the school day, and getting to know other parents and your child's friends. Please email Katie if you would like to offer your help for Term 2. 

katie.mcfarlane@beckenham.school.nz

Literacy

This week's Blog is about our Literacy learning. 

At Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto, we follow a Structured Literacy approach. Sounds are broken into stages, and these stages have heart words and books that align with each stage. In our Literacy learning at the moment, we have been focusing on learning our stage 1 sounds and characters. We have been working on learning the characters' names and the sounds that go with them, as well as learning some heart words. 

Below are some Literacy videos, which will be really valuable to have a look at to help with your tamariki Literacy learning at home. The Speech Sounds of New Zealand English is a great video to watch and listen to how we pronounce our sounds. The Stage 1 video was created by a kaiako from school, Lisa, and talks about how we teach our sounds and heart words for Stage 1. The last video is about activities you can do at home to help support your child.  

Here are some photos of our Literacy learning:

Move it, say it boards

Practicing our letter formation

"What sound matches this character?"

Heart Word writing practice

Heart Word writing practice

Heart Words

If you have any questions about our Structured Literacy approach, please let us know.

We hope you have a wonderful weekend, see you Monday!

Ngā mihi nui,
Georgia, Stacey and Paul












Koru News 1/03/2024 Term 1 Week 5

Kia ora whānau,

Wow! We have been having so much fun in Koru and made it through the first 5 weeks of this term! 

Maths:

We are starting to learn some Rapid Routines to begin our maths lessons. This term, we have been learning about 'Notice, Think, Wonder' tasks. A photo is shown to the children and they are asked the questions: "What do you notice? What do you think? What do you wonder?" These tasks provide a visual stimulus for tamariki to discuss, notice, think, and wonder about. This could include graphs, puzzles, pictures or graphics. We are learning to act like Mathematicians, which means the children are learning to look for patterns; take a risk and explain their thinking. 

Here is the image looked at, and all the ideas the children thought about. 

  • I notice a big diamond in the middle
  • there is a pattern with the diamonds, they are red and white
  • the triangles go together to make a diamond
  • there are squares
  • the triangles fit into the pattern
  • the shapes are all joined together
  • I think it is a floor
  • I wonder if they are tiles?

What other ideas do you notice, think and wonder about at home when looking at this image? We would love to hear your ideas!
What do you notice?
What do you think?
What do you wonder?

We can find numbers everywhere around us. At the end of Little Play and Big Play, the bell goes and the tamariki come back to Hangare (this is the name of our classroom) and stand on a number. I wonder what numbers you can see? 






Our mornings:
Georgia and Stacey are so impressed with all the children unpacking their bags each morning independently. When the bell goes, the children leave what they are doing and come and sit on the mat. We talk about 'showing 5' when we are doing 'super school sitting!' Legs are crossed; hands are resting; eyes are looking at the front; ears are listening; and mouths are quiet (maybe even with a beautiful smile!) Each morning say good morning and check who is at school, begin with our karakia and sing our National Anthem. Then we look at our Daily Notices, where we find out what flag is flying on the flagpole each day, look at the word of the week and any other notices. 

On Mondays, our first block of learning is Learning Through Play. Then, after morning tea and Little Play, in our middle block, we have whole class and small group Literacy lessons. After Big Play and lunch eating, we have Maths, Kinetic Letters with Bounce and Skip (handwriting), and finish with a shared story. 


We hope you have a wonderful and restful weekend. See you all on Monday.
Stacey, Georgia and Paul

stacey.mclachlan@beckenham.school.nz
georgia.mckenna@beckenham.school.nz