Kia ora, e te whānau,

What a wonderful start to the year it has been in the Koru team! The tamariki are doing a great job at independently completing their morning jobs of putting their lunchbox and drink bottle on the shelf, sliding their name up on the board and settling into a quiet activity before the bell, learning our school routines, and getting used to school life. Over the last two weeks we have been very busy! We have learnt some of our new Milo the Monkey sounds and characters (Little Learners Love Literacy), explored some different areas of Mathematics, completed different types of artworks, played with a range of equipment within our hub, and have started creating relationships with others in our hub. Our tamariki have settled in beautifully and we are so proud of the progress they have made already in the first few weeks of school. Some photos of what we have been up to:

What our year will look like: In the Koru team, we learn lots of amazing new things. Here is an overview of some of the things we will learn in our different learning areas:

Literacy: We will learn about our sounds, how to use these sounds to make words by segmenting and blending, and using our skills to read Sam, Pip and Tim books. We will also read different picture books and big books, and will look further at the different elements these stories have (sentence structure, vocabulary, grammar, big and exciting words, punctuation etc.)

Maths: In Maths this year, we will be looking at a wide range of elements within mathematics. We will explore problem solving, rapid routines, addition and subtraction, equal sharing strategies, counting, statistics, measurement, patterns, time and sequencing and much more. We will also practising writing our numbers.

Kinetic Letters: For handwriting, we follow the Kinetic Letters Handwriting Programme. We teach the children about different movements, strong body positions, and letter families. The letter families contain different letters that have similar movements, to help support the child in writing these. Once the children have learnt the different letters in lowercase, they then go on to learning uppercase.

The Arts:  We will be looking at a range of aspects of the Arts this year such as Visual Art, Dance, Drama and Music. In Visual Arts, we will look at different styles of Art such as painting, collage, pastel and crayon work, drawing, and will use one of these styles for our Calendar Art. In Dance, we will look at different ways to move our bodies in the time to a musical beat. In Drama, we will look at story telling and role play and this will be incorporated into our Learning through Play. In Music, we will explore different rhythm patterns, and finding different ways we can make sound using different objects/things. 

Te reo Māori: We will explore different aspects of Te reo Māori including learning our mihi, the words for colours, body parts, numbers, days of the week and months of the year, different instructions, and lots of waiata. 

Wellbeing/Health and PE: In Wellbeing/Health, we will learn about Hauora through Te Whare Tapa Whā, exploring the physical, emotional, spiritual, and whānau aspects of our wellbeing. We will also be taking part in Life Education this year. In P.E, we will learn different movement skills through games, ball skills, and fitness. We will also be partaking in our whole school Cross Country and Athletics.

Science: In Science, we will be looking at Planet Earth and Beyond and will learn about our Solar System, our Earth Systems and will explore their natural features and resources. 

Social Sciences: In Social Sciences, we will be looking into our school wide concept of Identity. This will be interlinked through our other curriculum areas, as well as learning about Matariki, who we are, and our stories. 

Technology/Digitech: Later on in the year, we will be exploring different concepts of Digitech. We will learn about coding, looking at what it is and how we can explore it through using unplugged and plugged resources. 

Friday Waiata sessions: We are so lucky to spend some time with Whaea Cath on Friday's singing waiata and learning some te reo Māori. It was such an awesome session, we can't wait for Whaea Cath to come back!

Friday Buddies: On Friday afternoons, we are very fortunate to be able to have 4 big buddies from the Kauri team come down and hang out with us. We have had two sessions with our big buddies so far which have been awesome! We have created some butterfly art, read lots of stories, played with the vehicles, and built really all towers with our Duplo. We had so much fun, we can't wait until next Friday!

Library: On Fridays during the middle block, the Koru tamariki get to go down to our school library and have a look at the different books there are on offer. In our team, we get to choose 2 books to take home that have a yellow dot in the top right hand corner. We get to keep these stories until the following Friday, where we can bring them back in to swap them for 2 more new ones. If we forget to bring our books back, that's okay, we just keep them for another week. If the Library books are forgotten a couple of times in a row, we will get an email from Anne to say these books are overdue and we need to bring them back. Here are some photos of what our Library looks like, the types of books we can get out, how we wait in the line to get our books issued from Anne, and where we wait with our folders once they have been issued. 

This box is where your child will put their Library Folder when they bring them back

Some Reminders:

Friendship List: On Friday 9th February, Georgia sent out the Koru Whānau friendship list to all families who wished to be on it. This will be updated every term as new tamariki start school. If you have not received this yet, please check your spam/junk folder as sometimes these emails end up there. Any questions, don't hesitate to email or ask.

Lunchboxes: A few reminders about your child's lunchboxes:

• Please ensure your child is only bringing water to school in their lunchboxes/drink bottles (no juice or other drinks). 
• It is also important to help teach your child how to open and close their lunchboxes, so they can do this independently at the start and end of eating times. 
• It would be great if you could also either precut or teach your child how to open packets in their lunchboxes (for example potato sticks, chip bags, twisty yoghurt pouches, muesli bars etc.)

We hope you have a lovely weekend ahead, and we will see you on Monday ready to go for another fantastic week!

Ngā mihi mahana,

Georgia and Stacey

Kia ora e te whānau,

We have had the most amazing first day in Koru today! Our team is called 'Koru' and our hub/building is called 'Hangare'. We are so proud of how the children independently unpacked their bags and said their goodbyes today!

Our day has been filled with lots of fun, excitement, getting to know each other and our learning space. We have spent lots of time together on the mat talking about what we do at school, how we do things and where things are. You could ask your child what they do if they need to go to the toilet, or where they go when the bell rings at the end of Little Play and Big Play?

We have gone on lots of adventures to explore around the school and where we can play; like Treemendous and the Junior Playground. We also visited Jacky in the office and looked in the Hall to see where the Welcome Assembly will be tomorrow morning.

We always have a teacher available before school to greet you and support the children in settling into the hub. We appreciate your support in having quick and quiet goodbyes and then we can help the children find something to play with. This is really helpful in creating a quiet and calm space for children to begin their day, especially as more children start school and our hub gets busier. 

We are super excited for our year ahead in the Koru team!

Ngā mihi nui,

Stacey, Georgia and Paul

stacey.mclachlan@beckenham.school.nz

georgia.mckenna@beckenham.school.nz

 Kia ora e te whānau,

It feels very hard to believe that here we all are, at the very end of the 2023 school year. Your children have all settled so beautifully into life at school this year, and their learning has been impressive, to say the least. 

It's been very exciting for us as teachers, and you too, we're sure, to witness the social, emotional and physical progress, as well as the progress in academic learning that the children have all made since starting at school. What a wonderful group of tamariki they are! We're going to miss them terribly over the long summer holiday, and will be looking forward to seeing them back again (mostly as members of the Kahikatea team), with their beautiful smiles at the start of next year.

Thank you all so much for the unstinting support you have given both your children and the teachers this year. Their progress would not have been such as it is, without your backup on the home front. You can be absolutely certain that we have appreciated this enormously!

Final two days:

Please do ensure that you check that you have all of your child's belongings, before leaving on Tuesday:

• all clothing, including sunhat, polar fleece and socks 
• their lunchbox and drink bottle (there are often drink bottles left behind on the last day!)
• and any other personal items belonging to your child.

 Kia ora, e te whānau,

As our year is coming to an end, we have some exciting things coming up! We have lots of fun things planned for our last week and a bit! A reminder that on the final day of school, Tuesday, 19th December, our tamariki will meet their 2024 Home Group teacher and school will finish at 12:30p.m. 

Teddy Bears' Picnic:

On Monday, December 18th, we are planning to hold a fun Teddy Bears' picnic, followed by games, out in Beckenham Park.

At 1:20 p.m., children will wash their hands, put their hats on, collect their lunches, drink bottles and soft toys, and we'll head out to have lunch under the big trees near the Big Adventure playground. 

Once they have finished eating, children will be able to choose from a variety of games options: parachute games, Duck, Duck, Goose or playing on the Big Adventure playground. Games will be organised by some of our Year 7 students.

Please ensure that your child has the following items on Monday, December 18th:

• their lunchbox (it would be better not to order lunch for your child that day)
• their drink bottle
• their hat
• their favourite soft toy (teddy bear or other).

We're looking forward to a lovely, fun afternoon on the second to last day of the school year! 

Kapa Haka performance:

On Friday of Week 9, our children put on a performance to showcase some waiata we have been learning with Whaea Cath. Below are some photos of the wonderful afternoon showcase. Thank you to all those who attended!

 Kia ora, e te whānau,

Some important dates:

• Celebrate Diversity and Culture Dress Up day: Friday 1st December
• House Games: Monday 4th December, you can wear your house top if you wish
• Koru Kapa Haka performance: Friday 8th December 2.45pm at Hangere (our classroom)
• Tamariki meet their 2024 teacher and final day for the school year: Tuesday 19th December (school finishes 12.30pm)

End of Year Reports 

The end of year summary reports are now available through the Hero portal for children who are in Georgia, Elizabeth and Stacey's Home Groups. The end of year report reflects aspects of your child's learning for the second part of the year. Please take the time to sit with your child and share their report with them, celebrating their learning. 

To find your child's report; open Hero, click on their name, then click '2023 report'. If you need any help accessing the report through Hero, please contact your child's Home Group teacher.

Koru Waiata performance for families

We would like to invite our Koru families and Whānau to come and watch our Koru tamariki (children) perform the waiata we have been learning with Whaea Cath. 

• Friday 8th of December, 2.45pm; outside our classroom (Hangere)

Our word of the week is: Determination. Determination is never giving up, no matter what! A determined person decides to do something, and then does it! How have you shown determination today by trying again and again? 

Here are some photos of Koru children showing their determination when learning new things!

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou,