Category Archives: Kowhai

Kōwhai News Week 10 Term 1

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Hi everyone, 
It's hard to believe that the term has come to an end. We have really enjoyed getting to know all our families over the past few weeks and have been impressed with the way the children are learning and working together in our hub. We hope you all have a great two-week break and an enjoyable and safe Easter. Apologies, for not handing out our school photos this afternoon. We were busy packing up the hub as our carpets are being cleaned. If you desperately want/need your photo during the holidays, please contact Paulette and she will attempt to arrange to get to you or sharing them with you.



Welcome to Dorinda
We are really lucky and excited to have Dorinda Hampton joining our team next term while Paulette is acting DP in Sandy's absence. Dorinda brings a wealth of knowledge and skill and we feel very lucky to have her teaching full time in Kōwhai. The children are looking forward to having her work with them too, especially the ones she taught last year.
Choir
Today the Kōwhai choir performed at the school Celebration Assembly. We were impressed with how well they performed as many of the children were extremely nervous with performing in front of an audience. We are aware that many of our parents work, so here are some videos of the children singing. A huge thank you to Dorinda for providing this opportunity for our tamariki. She came in especially today to conduct their performance.




Swimming
As you will have read, we have our swimming lessons next term at Aqua Gym. So far we have only had 8 responses from parents offering to assist us. We still need more parent help for our mornings at the pool to enable us to go. If you are able to assist, please use this google form to let us know what days you can help us. Thank you so much!

Passion Time
Each Friday, we offer the children the opportunity to pursue some 'Passions'. Next term the children have been offered the choices of Te Reo extension, French, German, Sport, Paper Crafts, Thorrington Rest Home and Robotics. If you would like to come along and take a small group of children for a Passion, we would love to hear from you. Next term, our Passions Time will be each Friday from 9.30am-10.30am. 

Mini ball
A HUGE thank you to Jamie Day, Dean Ingils and Nigel Easson for giving their time to coach mini ball teams this term. The children have absolutely loved this opportunity to play mini ball and it has been wonderful to see their skills grow over the course of the term. We will offer mini ball again in Term 4 so keep an eye out in Term 3 for mini ball information. 
FYI_ Please make sure you return your child's mini ball shirt to the school office next term.

Well, that's all for now.  See you all in two weeks time!
Kōwhai teaching team



Kōwhai Swimming Term 2

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9th April 2019


Dear Parents/Caregivers

Swimming at Aqua Gym

The Kōwhai children are booked in to have swimming lessons at Aqua Gym next term.  We have organised for the children to receive nine 30 minute lessons over two weeks. The swimming programme will run from Monday 13th May till Friday 24th May.

Aqua Gym requires ALL children to wear a swimming cap for their lessons. These are available at most sport shops for $8-10, however, The Warehouse has some caps retailing at $3. Practising putting on the swimming caps would greatly assist us at the pool too. The children will be required to wear suitable swimming costumes: either shorts or togs. Please, no bikinis.

We need the assistance of one parent at the pools each day from 9.15am - 11.30am. If you are able to help, please fill in this google survey.

At this stage, the total cost of the lessons and the transport will be $110 per child. A request for your contribution will be in the Term 2 accounts. If you want to pay this now, you can do that through internet banking or at the office.

We appreciate that this is a significant cost. We do not want any children missing out due to the cost, so please email Sandra (our finance officer) at accounts@beckenham.school.nz or call her on ph337 1404 if you want to discuss setting up a small, regular payment, or if you want to make a partial contribution to the cost.
The Kōwhai team will not have any other events next term that involve any requests for further parent contribution. We are still hopeful that we may receive a grant that will subsidise this cost.

If you want to discuss any aspect of this, please contact your child’s point of contact teacher.

Kind regards
Kowhai Teaching Team

Paulette, Nick, Kate, Rowe and Dorinda

Kōwhai News Weeks 8/9

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Here is the latest updatete from our team

Supplies Wanted
We are on the hunt for some wooden pallets, old car tyres and house paint for our inquiry projects next week. Please email your home group teacher if you can help source some of these supplies.

Choir Performing
Dorinda has been working with a wonderful group of students who have been keen to create a Kōwhai Team Choir. Next Friday 12th April, theya re going to perform 2 songs at the school celebration assembly. If your child is in the choir, feel free to pop along. The assembly begins at 12.10pm. We will envevour to record the item and put in on the blog for those of you who are unabel to make it due to work committments.

Art Attack
Over the past few weeks, the children have opted into a variety of art workshops that they were interested in. It has been great to see their creativity flourish as they create unique pieces of art. We gave the children the options of paiper mache, digital art, totem poles and printmaking. Here are some pictures of the children at work.





Passions
The Green Group have had a fantastic few weeks weeding out the garden beds behind our hub, planting seeds and seedlings. Also last Friday we made porridge from scratch!

Cross Country
We are currently training for the school cross country. Each day we are working on improving our own performance by running for longer distances or running with a more positive attitude. Each day we record our efforts with the aim to be stopping less in each run and running further over time as we build our fitness up. The school cross country will be on Monday 6th May. We will send out our starting times once they have been confirmed along with the cross country route.

Swimming Lessons
Next term, as part of our annual swimming programme, we have been booked in for 9 swimming lessons at Aqua Gym. Each child will receive a 30-minute lesson in small groups. We will be travelling to and from the pools via bus and will be seeking parent help to support us without swimming programme. More detailed information will come out next week once prices have been confirmed. We noticed a huge improvement in the children's ability to swim last year due to the high-quality instruction and from having an intensive focus on swimming.


Leadership Roles
We like to grow the leadership skills of our tamariki. This term we have had some children being leaders in the Treemendous area at lunchtime and we have also established some learning buddies in our hub to help grow some of our spelling skills.
Art Gallery Trip
We had an amazing time last week when we visited the Christchurch Art Gallery. The children had a great time exploring Julia Morrison's 'Head Space' art installation. We were very impressed with the different heads that she had created. Susie, the Art Gallery teacher, took us all for a lesson where we worked with clay to create our own head. It was wonderful to see the children really exercising their creativity and demonstrating our school values, 'We care' 'We love learning' and 'We love challenge'. A HUGE thank you goes out to our incredible parent helpers who assisted us on this outing. We couldn't have gone without your assistance! Here  are some examples of what the children created.





That's all for now!
Kōwhai Teaching Team


Up and Coming Events

Term 2
Cross Country- Monday 6th May
Swimming lessons- 13th May-24th May (Aqua Gym)

Kōwhai Team Newsletter Week 6

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Hi everyone, 

After the event on Friday, we hope you have all managed to have a safe and calm weekend with your family. We were highly impressed with the way the children coped with the lockdown on Friday. As a teaching team, our sole focus was to ensure the wellbeing of all our tamariki by keeping the children happy and calm. This included giving no information about the events that were unfolding across the city. Thank you for being so supportive and patient in this situation as we understand how challenging it must have been for you all.

 Here is the latest news and fantastic learning from Kōwhai team


 Trip to the Art Gallery

Julia Morison Headcase, 21 2015. Glazed stoneware, paint, tacks. Courtesy of the artist  In Week  8 of this term, all home groups in Kōwhai are going to be participating in an art lesson run by the gallery educator from Te Puna o Waiwhetu. The lesson is entitled Head Case. In this lesson, the children will Discover Julia Morison’s fantastic collection of 100 clay heads. In the Education Centre, students will learn how to manipulate and control clay as they make an alter ego of their own. This lesson will challenge your students to think creatively and explore the properties of clay and will take approx 90minutes.
Home groups are booked in for their lessons as follows:
  • Kate and Rowe’s hub departing school at 9:15 a.m and returning to school by 2.45 p.m on Monday 25th March
  • Nick and Paulette's hub departing school at 9.15 a.m and returning to school by 2:45 p.m on Tuesday 26th March    
All children will need to bring the following:

School bag - Packed lunch, drink bottle, sun hat, polar fleece and a lightweight rain jacket.

Hydrating (Drink to Think)

While we have always encouraged the students to drink plenty of water throughout the day as a team we have decided to make drinking water regularly throughout the day a focus for all students. During each transition time (when we swap from one learning activity to the next - discovery to maths, writing to reading), we are going to ask the students to have a 'drink to think'. We have talked about the benefits of drinking lots of water, from hydrating our brain and muscles to flushing out any toxins, so the students understand the importance of drinking water. Hopefully, you will notice your child's water bottle returning home empty, or having been refilled during the day!


Literacy (Reading Support) Help Needed

Image result for helpWe would still love the assistance of 2 parents who would be able to listen to individual children read on either a Wednesday or Thursday. Reading 1:1 daily, has huge benefits for the development and acquisition of both reading and writing skills. We have a small group of children that we would like to support to accelerate their current literacy skills. As a tutor reader, all you need to do is listen to a child read and praise and prompt their efforts made. We are open to ANY times that parents or grandparents are able to help on these days. Please let your homeroom teacher know if you can help.
Kōwhai Choir

Some of our tamariki may be coming home excitedly talking about being in our amazing choir. We are currently running this on Wednesday mornings during Discovery time as a choice children can opt into. 
This past week,  we had about 35 wonderful voices joining together. Children who attend these sessions with passion and frequency could be asked to perform to an audience. The children have been given a choir booklet to practice the lyrics of our performance songs and some children may take these home to practice. These booklets need to be brought back to school daily in case we have a spontaneous practice, therefore just store these in their reading folders. They should also have a plastic sleeve to protect the covers.
We will let you know of any 'gigs' we have. Our first performance will more than likely be during an Assembly at school. Here is a link to the slideshow of songs.

Please do not hesitate to contact Dorinda or Rowe with any Choir Questions you may have.

Top Team

We had an amazing time on Tuesday at our team Top Team event. The children really impressed us with their ability to work together in their teams to complete a variety of challenges. It was great to see them actively problem solving and encouraging each other to do their best. A huge thanks you goes out to our wonderful parents who gave their time to support this event.











Writing

This week we gave students a writing motivation so they would be able to write a successful recount. In Rowe and Paulette's literacy group, they gave the children some cupcakes and told them they had a mystery ingredient. We focussed on using descriptive language and personal voice to help, 'paint a picture' for the reader. Here are some samples (not the whole piece) of their incredible recount writing.

 "What's in the black tray that is perched on Paulette's lap?" At that very moment, Paulette ripped off the tea towel dramatically and there in the tray was a pile a green cupcake with blue frosting. I was unsure if I wanted to eat them or not. Then... By Haile

 "Is it cookies? Is it candy? What is in the tray resting on Paulette's lap. The tray was an enormous, dark and mysterious tray. Just like a wizard, she whipped off the striped tea towel hiding the mysterious items which were waiting to be discovered. There inside the tray, were many sparkling, emerald coloured alien looking cupcakes. Max

It was Monday morning and Paulette had a mystery tray on her lap with a tea towel covering it. "I've got a mystery item from Ballantynes. What do you think it is?"
The children looked in surprise as Paulette revealed tiny green cupcakes. They were as green as aliens from Mars and as spongy as Sponge Bob floating under the ocean. Jamie

Wheels in the School Grounds

As a school, we have noticed an increase in children (school and preschoolers) riding wheels in the school grounds before and after school. This can be problematic and has at times caused injuries that could have been prevented. We would love your assistance with this. The children have been asked to park their bikes in the bike storage area and to keep their bikes locked. If you have preschoolers on wheels, can you please make sure they are walking their wheels when they enter the school grounds. This will help to keep everyone safe. Thanks!

 That's all for now
Kōwhai teaching team





Upcoming School Trip to the Christchurch Art Gallery – parent help wanted

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Dear Whanau,
In Week 8 of this term, all home groups in Kōwhai are going to be participating in an art lesson run by the gallery educator from Te Puna o Waiwhetu. The lesson is entitled Head Case. Sounds exciting, doesn’t it?
Home groups are booked in for their lessons as follows:
  • 25th March - Kate and Rowe’s hub departing school at 9:15 a.m and returning to school by 2.45 p.m on Monday 25th March
  • 26th March Nick and Paulette's hub departing school at 9.15 a.m and returning to school by 2:45 p.m on Tuesday 26th March
This is full day event from 9.00 am  to 2.45 pm.

 All children will need to bring the following:
School bag, morning tea, packed lunch, drink bottle, appropriate walking shoes, sun hat, school polar fleece and lightweight rain jacket.
The cost of this trip is $7.00  per child and a request for your contribution to help cover the cost of this event will be added to your account.
.
PARENT HELP:
Please email your home group teacher by Monday 18th March if you are able to parent help.
Kind regards,
Kōwhai teaching team