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. 

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?

Ngā mihi nui,

 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.  

• The Speech Sounds of New Zealand English
• Stage 1
• How you can help at home Stage 1

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?