Category Archives: Kowhai

Kōwhai News Term 3 Week 8

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 Dear Kōwhai whanau, 

Another busy few weeks in the Kōwhai hub. 

Talent Quest
We have some talented kids in Kōwhai! The students have worked so hard this term, especially showing our school values of "We Love Challenge" and  "We Get there Together" to get ready for auditions. Last week, Rowe and Laura had the tough job of picking only four acts to go through to the whole school talent show. We are having a Kōwhai talent performance this Friday to showcase all the amazing acts. 

Football on Wednesdays
We have been lucky enough to have one of the footballers from Cashmere Technical Football Club come and take some lessons with students who choose to attend on a Wednesday afternoon. We will have this until the end of the term. 


Next term is a busy one! In the first few weeks of Term 4, we have the following events coming up: 

Visit to the Museum 
We will be learning more about the moon and our cultural practices in New Zealand. This is currently planned for Thursday and Friday of Week 2. If we continue to stay at Level 2 then unfortunately this trip will not happen. We will send out a letter with more information in the next week.

Kahikatea & Kowhai Water Skills for Life 
Our tamariki will be participating in a program of learning at Pioneer Pool. These lessons are based on the principles of water skills and do not replace or replicate the swimming lessons your child may already be engaged in. This is an opportunity to learn water safety.  Our students will have eight lessons starting in late October.

Athletics Day 
Athletics Day is on the community calendar for Friday the 30th of October. More information about this will come closer to the time. We would appreciate you sending your children in appropriate footwear to practice in to school and remind them to bring their drink bottles. We will be practicing for this in the first few weeks of next term.  

Pencils
We are still running short on HB pencils. It would be greatly appreciated if you could send some in with your child. Thank you so much to the people who have already sent some in. 

Have a lovely weekend.
Nga mihi, 
The Kowhai Team - Laura, Tracey, Nick and Rowe. 

Kōwhai News Term 3 Week 6

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 Kia ora Kōwhai whanau, 

It's hard to believe we are almost halfway through Term 3. Time sure does fly when you are having fun! 

We have started exploring our Planet Earth and Beyond Inquiry topic over the last two weeks. We started this learning with an ignition of a space ship crash in the hall and then the students had to hunt for the different parts of the ship in teams around the school - it was a great way to get us excited about the learning ahead. 












Kete Awards
As we are at Level 2 we are giving out our Kete awards during our Team Hui. This week the following children received Kete awards:
Maggie Zhou - We Get There Together- for helping tidy up our school and encouraging others to do the same. 
Alicia Colquhoun - We Love Learning - for always putting your best effort into maths.
Eadie Jenkins - We Love Learning - for having a lightbulb moment when working hard on your division.
Madeleine Dougherty  - We Get There Together - for being a fantastic role model and tidying up the hub without being asked.

Pencils Needed
We have been doing so much writing in Kōwhai that we are starting to run out of our supply of pencils. We would love some donations of some HB pencils so that we can keep up the great writing. Send them in with your child to pass onto the classroom teacher. Thank you so much in advance. 

Wacky Hair Day 
Next Friday the 4th of September is Wacky Hair/Wig and Mufti Day in support of the Child Cancer Foundation. Please help your child come to school in mufti with the wackiest hair or wig they would like.  Please bring a gold coin to support the Child Cancer Foundation as well. 

Looking ahead
At the moment we have a trip planned to the museum to visit the moon exhibit in the 2nd week of Term 4. We will send more details out about this closer to the time and ask for any parent volunteers. We will only be able to go on this trip if we are moved back down to Level 1 by then, so will keep you updated on that closer to the time. 

We have also started to think about our visit to the Rāpaki Marae towards the end of Term 4. Sandy will soon be sending out a survey for you to share your thoughts around this so keep an eye out for that in your emails. 

Have a lovely weekend!
Ngā mihi
The Kōwhai Team - Laura, Tracey, Nick and Rowe 

Kōwhai News Term 3 Week 4

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 Kia ora Kōwhai whanau, 

It's been another busy week in our Kōwhai hub. 

Level 2 in Kōwhai Hub. 

Thank you for keeping up with all the information being sent at short notice to your inbox. It is a rapidly changing situation so we appreciate that you remain aware of the information the school is sharing at this time. The school Facebook page is an excellent way to keep up to date. 

Our hand washing, sanitizing and surface cleaning routines will be stepped back up to the gold standard again immediately.We have lots of sanitizer around the school, but if your child needs their own sanitizer, please send it into school with them and let their teacher know. 

Unless it is an emergency, we are asking everyone who are not staff, itinerant teachers or students to stay off site - this means a return to dropping off and picking up at the gate. We will have teachers at the gates to support children to transition into school.

If you do have to come on site for any reason, please visit the office FIRST and sign in using either our digital sign-in register or the paper register. Please ALSO use the national COVID Tracer App to register by scanning a QR code on one of our entry doors.

If your child is unwell, please keep them at home.

Assembly will be cancelled, however BOOK CHARACTER DAY on Friday will still go ahead. We look forward to seeing all the children dressed up as a character from a book in the hub tomorrow. 

If you have a meeting booked with a member of staff, they will be in contact with you to either reschedule this, or book it via a ZOOM.

As we did at Alert Level 2 last time, the CSM Outreach music lessons and band program will continue at school, with distancing as required.

Readathon

We have so many keen readers in Kōwhai - it is great to see! The Readathon forms and money are due back at school next Friday on the 21st of August. 

Maths 

We have started to focus again on Multiplication this week in Maths. Here is a picture of some different ways we are learning to solve Multiplication questions. In the next few weeks we will begin to use our multiplication knowledge to start learning more about Division. 


Beckenham's Got Talent

We have some students who have shown "We love Challenge" by putting themselves forward to audition in a variety of acts for Beckenham's Got Talent. We have been practicing during Discovery time and next week will start some break time practices as well. Auditions will be held in Week 7.

Planet Earth and Beyond

Next week we are starting a new topic focused around Planet Earth and Beyond. We will be learning about Earth and our Solar System. If you or someone you know has a particular interest in this, please contact your child's teacher as we would love you to come into the hub and share some of your expertise. 

We will be ending this area of learning with a visit to the museum "Our Moon' exhibit in early Term 4. More details will come at a later date. 

Nga mihi, 

The Kōwhai Team - Nick, Rowe, Tracey and Laura. 



Kōwhai News Term 3 Week 2

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Kia ora whānau,

We have had a great start to Term 3. The children (and teachers) have all come back refreshed and excited for the term.

We are continuing to have one of our teachers at the flagpole in the morning to greet students and parents as well as teachers being in the hub in the mornings. Teachers have meetings 3-4 days a week which start at 3:15. If you do need to share information or catch up with your child's teacher for a meeting then please email them to arrange a time. 


In Class Music 
This term we are starting our music teaching for the year. Nick and Rowe's class will be taking ukulele lessons on a Tuesday afternoon  with Roger and Laura and Tracey's will be taking recorder lessons with Josie. We will swap these around in Week 7 of this term and continue till the middle of Term 4. We are making sure the recorders are cleaned in a hot dishwasher after each session.

If your child would like to bring their own recorder, then you can find these for about $13-$15 dollars from the music store Rockshop, or you could have a look at The Warehouse as well.
If you do choose to bring your own recorder in, please make sure it is clearly named.

We will not bring in our own ukulele as these need to be individually tuned each week by our ukulele teacher Roger.

Reading
We have such fabulous readers in Kōwhai! Please help remind your child to bring in their reading folder every day, and write in their reading log all the books they read. We have some children who are up to 50 books already which is amazing. Your child can choose to bring their own book to school to read during our independent reading times if they would like. 

We are also still looking for some parents to help us with reading with students and putting books away so please contact Laura laura.williamson@beckenham.school.nz if you would like to do this. 

Readathon
This Friday your child/children will be bringing home their Readathon card. The final return date for this is 21st August, NOT 14th August. Apologies for this error. 
Thank you for you support of this important event. 

Headphones
A reminder that if your child would like to bring in their own headphones then please do. They will need to be named and it will be the students responsibility to look after them. 

Hillview Cross Country
During Level 3 the decision was made that our school was not going to attend the Hillview Cross Country inter-school event this year. We have now been informed that they are going ahead with the event on the 4th of August. Our tamariki will not be attending, but if you would like your child to take attend as an individual then please contact your class teacher and they will pass the relevant information they have onto you. You will need to make your own arrangements if you decide to attend. 

Maths Focus 
We have been focusing on addition and subtraction recently in our Mathematics learning. Below are some examples of how students may solve these problems. To solve these problems children need a good base knowledge of basic facts i.e adding to 10. Please continue to practice basic facts at home to support this. 




Discovery Learning 
This week we have introduced woodwork and gardening into our Discovery Learning. The children have enjoyed learning how to make their own watering can and how to use the woodwork tools in a safe way. 








Have a great weekend! 
The Kōwhai Team - Laura, Nick, Tracey and Rowe




Kowhai News Term 2 Week 11

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Kia ora Kōwhai whānau,

We have had a busy week in Kōwhai this week. The students  have all been working very hard on our information reports about various different topics. We have also started learning more about Matariki during our Inquiry time and Kapa Haka.

The Rainbow School Disco 
We have our school Disco on Friday. Year 3 students can choose whether they attend the 4:30-5:30 disco or the 6-7pm disco. They cannot attend both discos. Year 4 students will attend the 6-7pm disco. We look forward to seeing everyone in their rainbow clothes.

Learning Conferences -  Tuesday 30th June  and Thursday 2nd July (next week)
Please remember that school finishes at 2pm on these days. We look forward to seeing you there.

Headphones
A reminder that your child is able to bring headphones in to use with a device during our learning times. Please make sure they are named. They will live in their tote tray and are the students responsibility to look after.

Parents Volunteers
If anyone would like to volunteer to help the teachers with reading to students or putting reading books away, please email Laura - laura.williamson@beckenham.school.nz

Discovery Time
Hatsumi and Elsie have created a "Rock Hunt" which they are going to advertise to the students next week and see who can find their rocks around the school.


We had great fun at our Pyjama and PTA breakfast day last Friday.





We hope you have a great weekend!
From the Kōwhai Team
Rowe, Tracey, Nick and Laura