Kia ora e te whānau! Welcome to the Kōwhai team's week 10 blog.
Category Archives: Kowhai
Kōwhai News Term 3 Week 8
Kia ora e te whānau! Welcome to the Kōwhai team's week 8 blog.
World Culture Inquiry
During term 3, Kōwhai students have been learning about countries from around the world. Each homegroup has looked at flags and greetings. It has been great to hear students using some of these greetings during our morning roll call! In recent weeks, students chose a country that they were particularly interested in and conducted research to learn more. They gathered this information, recorded it, and then presented it in a poster or slideshow. We are very impressed with how much effort was put into this project and it was wonderful to witness the passion and excitement for learning about different cultures!
Here are some examples of the finished posters:
Willowbank
A reminder about our upcoming Willowbank trip which is taking place on the 20/09/2025 (Week 9, Friday). This week we have shared the social story with students. If you are interested to know more about this trip or think it would be helpful to discuss this at home with your child, here is the social story.
Thank you to the parents who have volunteered to help with this trip. If you are a parent helper, your child's homegroup teacher will be in touch in the coming week.
Uniform
Over the past few weeks, we have noticed that some students have been wearing non-uniform clothes and footwear to school. While we understand that this is sometimes for a good reason, it is important that, where possible, students are following the dress code for Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto. If your child is wearing non-uniform clothes to school, please send an email or note to the homegroup teacher. For more information about school uniforms, please visit this link. Thank you for supporting your child to wear the correct uniform.
Te Wiki O Te Reo Māori
Next week Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto will be celebrating Te Wiki o te reo Māori (Māori Language Week).
Māori Language Week, Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, is a time for all New Zealanders to celebrate and encourage the use of te reo Māori in the classroom, home, workplace, community and beyond.
With over 900,000 Māori living in New Zealand and thousands more living in nearby islands and countries, te reo Māori is highly important and valued. Māori Language Week is celebrated through speaking, song, dance, cultural displays and community events. The overarching theme for the 2024 Pacific Language Weeks is sustainability.
When was Māori Language Week created?
Māori Language Week commemorates the presentation of the Māori Language Petition to parliament on 14th September 1972. Te Wiki o te Reo Māori has taken place every year since 1975. It is an opportunity to celebrate, promote and help revitalise the language across Aotearoa.
What is Te Reo Māori?
Te reo Māori is the second most widely spoken language in New Zealand. It was recognised as an official language in 1987.
Like any language, te reo Māori has a lot of interesting characteristics that make it stand out. Unlike the English Alphabet, which has 26 letters, the Māori alphabet has 15 letters or distinct sounds.
- Five vowels: a, e, i, o, u
- Eight consonants: h, k, m, n, p, r, t, w
- Two digraphs (two letters that combine to represent one sound): wh, ng
Short vowel sounds are pronounced as follows: | Long vowel sounds are pronounced as follows: |
a as in about | ā as in fast |
e as in enter | ē as in led |
i as in eat | ī as in peek |
o as in awful | ō as in worn |
u as in to | ū as in moon |
Māori Language Week gives all Kiwis an opportunity to learn some basic Māori words and phrases. It gives students who speak Māori the opportunity to further celebrate and share their knowledge in the classroom. There are also community events that take place across New Zealand to celebrate Te Wiki o te Reo Māori.
For more information about how you and your whānau (family) can support Te Wiki o te reo Māori, please visit this website.
Reference - https://www.twinkl.co.nz/event/maori-language-week-2024
Contact Details
Staying Safe Online: Scams
People in New Zealand are losing millions of dollars to scammers each year – and this is just the figures reported to Netsafe so the actual figure is likely much higher!
It’s important that you and your tamariki know what to look out for to avoid scams. Netsafe have put their best advice together to help you stay safe online and stay away from scams.
Read their scam tips here.
Kōwhai News Term 3 Week 6
Kia ora whānau,
The term is progressing rapidly and we are extremely busy with our learning. Here is an update on some of the things we have been doing.
Inquiry
For Inquiry, we are now focusing on learning about world cultures and everyone has chosen a country they are interested in to research and will then create a presentation of facts and information about that country. This may be a leaflet, a poster or a digital representation. Some of the things we have been finding out about are flags, languages, climate, population, animals and food and drink. The children are really engaged in this topic and are learning valuable research skills, looking for and locating relevant information online. Below you can see some of the children making flags from different countries using mini construction bricks.
Writing
We are focusing on descriptive writing over the next few weeks, using our five senses to describe a scene. What do we see, hear, smell, feel and taste? In this way, we can create a piece of writing with lots of rich language which creates a moment in time that we really feel part of. We started with describing ice cream which involved having a taste tester that was very much enjoyed by everyone and really helped to motivate the descriptive writers in us!
Willowbank Trip
As you will know, we are preparing to go on a trip to Willowbank on Friday 20th September as part of our inquiry on world cultures. Thank you to all the offers of parent help! We now have more than enough which is fantastic. Here is a link to our social story for this trip. Please do take your time to go through this with your child/children.
Cyber Safety
One in five young people in New Zealand have been the target of online bullying – it can happen to anyone, and
it can be hard for parents and whānau to deal with. Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto takes online bullying seriously
and would encourage you to chat to your tamariki’s teacher if you have any concerns about online bullying.
Visit Netsafe’s Online Bullying Advice for Parents to read more.
Kōwhai News Term 3 Week 4
Maths Week
Parents Maths Evening
Willowbank
Calendar Art
Kōwhai News Term 3 Week 2
Kia ora Kōwhai whānau,
What a fabulous start to Term 3! We have a busy term ahead.
Below are some things that are happening within our team.
Maths
We are having a focus on fractions, measurement, addition, subtraction, and multiplication.
Here's a Notice, Think, Wonder (What do you notice? What do you think? What do you wonder? Where is the maths?) picture prompt linked to fractions:
Writing
For writing this term, we begin with persuasive texts and then move into descriptive writing later in the term. Some literacy groups have been exploring persuasive picture books (I Wanna Iguana and Dear Mrs LaRue).
Parents beware, your child may write you a persuasive letter with reasons why you should get them a new pet, or allow them to extend their bedtime! We have been blown away with the creative ideas from our tamariki.
Inquiry Lessons
Our inquiry focus this term is Social Sciences and we are going to be researching a country of choice and making a presentation to share.
Willowbank
In week 9,we will be having a trip to Willowbank. This will be linked to our inquiry focus on cultures from around the world as we will be learning about different animals from around the world as part of the trip.
Calendar Art
We are all very busy working on our beautiful calendar art pictures! This year the Kōwhai Team have decided to create Zentangle Name Art for the calendars. We can't wait for you to see them all.
Recorder Lessons
This term we are continuing with our recorder lessons with Josie, these will continue until week 6 when Josie goes on maternity leave. The students have learned how to play songs that use the music notes A, B, G and E. Hot Cross Buns is a favourite!
Cricket
We were fortunate to have a group from Canterbury Cricket come and run a session with us in week 1. We had an amazing time and the children learned some cool skills. Below are some photos from the session, as well as some flyers with information about how your child can get involved in cricket outside of school.
Cyber Safety
How do random chat websites work? And what are the risks for tamariki using them?
Random chat websites, like Chatroulette, pair users randomly through text or webcam conversations. The appeal
is getting to talk to someone new that the user would never meet. But these websites are designed for adults and
often allow nudity and other inappropriate content from users.
If you’re concerned that your young person might be exposed to these sites or you want to introduce parental controls, you can find out more on Netsafe’s Random Chat Websites page.
Regards,