Kia ora, e te whānau,

It has been a busy first three weeks of term in the Koru hub! We have had our Junior Park Explorers trip, our whole school Athletics day, and our tamariki have been working really hard in their Literacy and Maths groups. We are so proud of the amazing job they have all done in returning to their school day routines, and we thank you for helping to support your children in settling into their mornings, with your quick goodbyes, at least five minutes before the bell rings.

Some important dates for this term are as follows:

• Staff Only Day - Thursday, 16th November (school is closed)
• Canterbury Anniversary Day - Friday, 17th November (school is closed)
• Reports go live - Week 6
• Celebrate Diversity and Culture Dress up day - Friday, 1st December
• Tamariki meet their 2024 teacher and final day of school for the year- Tuesday, 19th December

Junior Park Explorers Trip:

On Friday, 13th October, we were fortunate enough to finally go on our Junior Park Explorers trip down at the Beckenham Ponds, after two previous postponements, due to inclement weather. Thank you once again to all the amazing parent helpers we had on the day, for dedicating your time to be with us. We couldn't have done it without your help!

We had the privilege of having educators from the Christchurch City Council, Celia and Jen, come in and talk to us about being park explorers, and teaching us some of the ways we might explore the area around the Beckenham Ponds. We learnt and experienced many new things: different bird calls; going on a bird walk, where we noticed and listened to the surrounding birdlife; how birds help the process of pollination and seed dispersal; the different insects that could be living around the pond and the use of magnifying glasses to see what insects we could find; and playing a game known as 'Tumble Tree Forest' where our tamariki were challenged to think about and come up with solutions as to what would happen for our birdlife and insects, when too many trees are cut down.

Reminders:

• Sun hats need to be brought to school every day. These will stay in your child's bag whenever the children are indoors. No hat, no play.
• If you use the sandpit at the end of the day after school, can you please make sure to put the cover back in before you leave. We really appreciate seeing that you are already helping us with this. Thank you!
• Literacy folders need to be brought back to school and unpacked from schoolbags every day, so that they can be used during our Literacy sessions.
• Library folders and poetry books need to be brought back on or before Fridays, so your child can get a new poem for their poetry books and some new books from the library. 

Kia ora e te whānau,

How is the holiday break going for you all? We do trust that everyone is having a wonderful, relaxing time, and finding plenty of opportunities to recharge and re-energise for the final term of the year!

We wanted to be in touch in advance of next week, with a few reminders and notices for the term ahead:

• Hats - firstly, a very important reminder for all, that sunhats are to be worn every day throughout Term 4, whenever the children are outside at school, so now is the time to ensure that your child's named sunhat is packed in their school bag, ready to go on Monday.
• Library books - we realise that there are a great many overdue library books at homes around the Beckenham area, and would like to urge you to hunt out any library books which might be at your place and pack them into your child's schoolbag now, ready to be returned to school on Monday (we'll be asking children to put their library folders into the library container first thing on Monday morning, if they're not there already!)
• Friendship List - once again, our Friendship List will be updated at the start of this term, so if you would like your name and contact details added to this list, please email Georgia (georgia.mckenna@beckenham.school.nz) by the end of the first week and she will send the new list out in Week 2; if your name is already on the Friendship List, please don't worry about emailing again.
• Stacey and Elizabeth's days in Term 4 - throughout Term 4, Stacey will be teaching on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays and Elizabeth will be teaching on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays; occasionally there may be an adjustment made, and if you do need to double check to know for sure on any particular day, a good idea is to look at the whiteboard when you arrive at school, as the photos of the adults who are going to be at school that day will always appear there!
• Sarah's Home Group: throughout Term 4, the children in Sarah's Home Group are going to be starting and finishing the school day in Kōmanawa which is the building facing the courtyard and closer to the park; these children will still leave their bags in the blue cubbies, and will need to unpack their Literacy folders and leave them in the usual Literacy folder containers, and take their lunchboxes and drink bottles over to the set of shelves just to the left inside the door into Kōmanawa; these children will be leaving from Kōmanawa at 3:00 p.m. each day
• Junior Park Explorers: you will have received information through Hero about this outing which is taking place on the Friday of the first week back (Friday, October 13th), and thank you so much to those parents who have already emailed to say that they can parent help with this; we still need several more helpers (some for each of the 3 Home Groups) so please do email your child's Home Group teacher if you're able to come along and support on this day (a reminder that the times are as follows: Elizabeth and Stacey's HG - 9:00 - 11:00 a.m.; Sarah's HG - 10:45 a.m. - 12:45 p.m.; and Georgia's HG - 12:30 - 2:30 p.m.) 

 Kia ora, e te whānau,

Once again, our grateful thanks to those parents who were able to join us on this outing and support the tamariki as they engaged with particular art works and then participated in the lesson which Jackie and Julie, the Gallery Educators, ran for us.

Please see below, some photo highlights of our time at the Gallery:

For now, though, all that remains is to wish you all a very safe and happy holiday ahead, as we sail through towards Friday.

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou,

Elizabeth, Stacey, Georgia and Sarah

 Kia ora, e te whānau,

It's been a very busy couple of weeks for us all in the Koru team, as we come close to the end of Term 3. We have had new children start throughout the last couple of weeks, and they have settled in beautifully! Over the last few weeks, we have had some exciting opportunities for our Koru children, including a cricket awareness session, Keeping Ourselves Safe sessions with Constable Meg, and Te Wiki o te reo Māori (Māori Language Week). We have our Beckenham's Got Talent Show coming up on Friday Week 10, and have some of our children performing. The tamariki did an awesome job showcasing their talents at our mini Koru Talent Showcase. 

Mini Koru Talent Showcase highlights:

Three bananas performing...

The bananas escape from the ravenous dinosaur!

Why is 6 scared of 7?

Take a bow!

The 'second hand' shop joke!

Our flexible friends!

Bridges and handstands...

Tricks with hula hoops.

Great spinning skills!

Te Wiki o te reo Māori:

Last week was Māori language week. We have included some cool activities for the tamariki based on different aspects of te reo Māori. This included learning the names of colours and colouring in a rainbow, singing waiata, making bookmarks that had kowhaiwhai patterns on them, and learning new kupu. It has been an awesome week!!

Cricket:

On Thursday 7th September, each home group had an awesome 25 minute cricket awareness session with Cat, from Southern Districts Cricket Club. This was a great opportunity for our tamariki to participate in, and they all enjoyed themselves enormously. The children learnt different skills based on throwing, catching and batting. All the children were engaged and had such a great time! We will be sending out more information soon about skills sessions that are held on Saturdays at the club. 

Keeping Ourselves Safe:

This term as part of our Health Curriculum, teams are teaching the programme called Keeping Ourselves Safe, in Years 0 - 6. In the units, our Koru children have been looking at: 

- describing where they live; identifying things that make them special and explaining when they feel safe and unsafe

- learning to use the correct names for body parts and describing whether a touch is one they like, one they don’t like, or one that is confusing

- learning to say ‘no’ to touch, behaviour and words that worry or confuse them and talking about moving away and seeking help

- identifying the difference between good surprises and bad secrets

- identifying people they trust and understanding family safety rules. 

We have been working with the children these last 2 weeks on our Keeping Ourselves Safe programme and you may have noticed the children have brought home some homework sheets to complete. A reminder that these sheets can stay at home once completed. It has been really awesome to have discussions with the children about their address, their phone numbers, different feelings we may have, and what to do if they get lost. We were also lucky to have 2 sessions with Constable Meg where we discussed what a police officer is, the different body parts, and talking about good touch, bad touch and confusing touch.  If you have any questions about any of this programme, please come and chat to one of the kaiako. 

Reminders:

• A reminder that we are a water bottle school, and prefer it if the children drink water throughout the day, rather than flavoured milk or juice.
• Next week is the last week of Term 3. 
• Calendar Art: We have sent home the information sheets with the code you need to use if you wish to order your child's calendar art. This is only for Elizabeth, Stacey and Georgia's home groups. Please check the photos on the windows to see the awesome work your child has done. 

• Click on these links and join in as your children sing one of their favourite songs, Sprinkle a Little Sunshine (here with the lyrics, and here, without, but with very cute images instead!)
• For those new families to the Koru team, a link through to the National Anthem which we sing each morning - your children are doing an awesome job with this, participating and trying their very best each morning
• Clicking here will take you to a variety of links for those of you who would like to read more about The Science of Reading and Structured Literacy.

Kia ora, e te whānau,

It's been a very busy couple of weeks for us all in the Koru team: we've been completing our Calendar Art; we've had Book Character Dress Up Day; and we've continued to have fun with our Literacy and Maths learning, all the while embracing new friends into our team.

We are very excited to have welcomed Sarah Junghen as the teacher of our third New Entrant class at the start of Week 5. Most of you will have seen Sarah this past week, in the hub, but if not, please do introduce yourselves to her. Sarah has been teaching at Beckenham te Kura o Pūroto for some years now, and we feel incredibly lucky to have her with us in the Koru team!

We also welcome the new children who have transitioned or are transitioning into the Koru team, and are in Sarah's Home Group: Iyana, Lailah, Esther, Ariella, Molly and Mason. Ngā whetu koutou katoa - you are all stars!

Calendar Art:

The children have been working incredibly hard this term on their artworks, which will eventually be available for purchase as calendars, notebooks, cards, etc. We know that you're going to absolutely love these works of art, and we do urge you to support our PTA with this fundraiser. Please keep an eye out for more information about ordering calendars, etc. We will be adding information to our daily whiteboard notices as it becomes available.

Keeping Ourselves Safe:

This term as part of our Health Curriculum, teams are teaching the programme called Keeping Ourselves Safe, in Years 0 - 6. In the units, the Koru children will be: 

- describing where they live; identifying things that make them special and explaining when they feel safe and unsafe

- learning to use the correct names for body parts and describing whether a touch is one they like, one they don’t like, or one that is confusing

- learning to say ‘no’ to touch, behaviour and words that worry or confuse them and talking about moving away and seeking help

- identifying the difference between good surprises and bad secrets

- identifying people they trust and understanding family safety rules. 

We will be starting the teaching in Week 8 (the week beginning Monday, September 4th) and over the course of the lessons we teach, there will be some information and activities which will be coming home in your child's school bag. This is for you and your child to complete at home, and does not need to be returned to school. Please keep an eye out for more information about KOS in the weeks ahead, and if you have any questions, please just ask.

Exciting outing ahead for the Koru team:

We are very excited to be letting you know that on Monday, September 18th, the Koru team children will be visiting the Christchurch Art Gallery. 

The purpose of this outing is to give the children the opportunity to engage in discovering and exploring the work of artists whose work is held by the Christchurch Public Art Gallery. Teachers will explore the Gallery with their students, discuss a range of artists’ work and explore ideas of navigation, belonging, identity and how we are connected across time and place. During the guided tour, students will use signs and symbols to create a pictorial map of their own identity and journey through the Gallery which they will then complete, using watercolours and pastels, in the Education Centre.

Please note that there will be no cost for this outing, as your school donation covers all costs involved.

We will be needing parent help, so please do email your child's Home Group teacher or teachers, if you're able to come along with us on the day. 

Elizabeth and Stacey's Home Group will be leaving school at 9:30 a.m. and arriving back at school at 12:00 noon.

Georgia and Sarah's Home groups will be leaving school at 12:00 noon and arriving back at school at 2:30 p.m.

We are desperately seeking all budding talents out there: singers, gymnasts, dancers, ventriloquists, magicians...!

Teachers have been talking with the tamariki about this fun whole school event, being held on the last day of term in the school hall. Prior to this date (on Friday, September 8th, for us in the Koru team), each team will hold their own team event and then one 'performance' from the Koru team will be selected, to be part of the whole school show on Friday, September 22nd.

Ideas for performances might include:

• a dance
• a song
• a gymnastics performance (with accompanying music)
• a hula hooping display to music
• a set of magical tricks

We have noticed, and many of you will have as well, that the children's folders, purchased when they first started school, are not 'hanging together' very well at all. We have noticed that the light blue folders, in particular, have been breaking down and deteriorating really quickly. We contacted Qizzle and sent photos to illustrate our concerns, and they immediately responded by saying that they were going to change their supplier, and asked how many folders did we need to replace those affected. Some folders (yellow ones, purple, red, orange, etc.) have not deteriorated as quickly but generally look as if they will, soon enough, so Qizzle told us that they just wanted to replace them all! We shall be sending home the replacement folders in the children's schoolbags next week. We thank Qizzle for responding so quickly and positively on our behalf.

Fun with Maths (we love numbers!):

• click on these links and join in as your children sing one of their favourite songs, Sprinkle a Little Sunshine (here with the lyrics, and here, without, but with very cute images instead!)
• for those new families to the Koru team, a link through to the National Anthem which we sing each morning - your children are doing an awesome job with this, participating and trying their very best each morning
• clicking here will take you to a variety of links for those of you who would like to read more about The Science of Reading and Structured Literacy.