Kia ora koutou. Our year has gone off with a flying start and it has been wonderful to see the children enjoying the hot sunny days! For the past two weeks, we have completed a lot of learning in our home groups to help settle the children into our daily routines. we all very much appreciate you arriving at school in plenty of time to allow the children time to settle into the day. Thank you for all naming your hats and clothing as this has made returning items very easy!
Maths
Last week, the children all received a Sumdog login and were taught how to assess this online programme with Nick. From this week on, your child will be able to play the maths games as part of their home learning.
We will be beginning our maths DMIC (Developing Mathematical Inquiring Communities) this week. Our maths sessions involve them in a variety of maths learning. They will all have time to work on developing their maths basics facts through playing games (board and online), time to practise skills they want to develop (worksheets and each child will working with a learning buddy to solve a worded problem guided by the teacher in DMIC.
Literacy
This week, we are buddy teaching in Literacy (Rowe and Kate working together and Paulette and Nick partnering up. Last week, we began to set up our routines for REading and writing. Our focus this week is to begin to teach some of the independent options so the children can have some agency with their learning. We aim to start our guided reading programme next week.
Each home groups will go to the library beginning this week. In our team we really like to promote the love of reading books and encourage the children to select a 'chapter' book (al their level) for them to read for school and home learning.
Inquiry
This coming week the children will be learning about their brain and how we learn. The children will have workshops across the hub to discover what the brain is, learning styles, and how we need to think about how we manage ourselves both online to keep us safe as well as in the hub to ensure we are respectful towards others so they can learn.
Adult Help
If you are keen to help in the hub we would LOVE to hear from you! There are many ways that you can support our team and the children from returning reading books, to listening to children read or playing games to help develop skills. Come and see your home group teacher if you can assist. Its really Fun working with the children!
Sport Tops
There are many sports tops that were issued last year that have not been returned yet. Please have a check to ensure that you do not have a Beckenham Sports Uniform lurking at the back or a draw or elsewhere and return to the Kauri hub ASAP. This is much appreciated.
Art - Self-PortraitsWe have been completing some Picasso style self-portraits. Here are Row and Kate's home groups drafts. we used whiteboards so the children could easily make changes to their drawings. Most of the finished products are up on display in the hub!
Hanmer 4 Hour Mountain Bike Race
Beckenham School would like to promote an upcoming mountain biking event in Hanmer Springs that may be of interest to you: The Hanmer 4 and 8 Hour This event has been a fantastic day out and enjoyed by many in the past.
The Hanmer 4 Hour, run by Hanmer Events, is a super fun event, suitable for children looking to get into competitive mountain biking. Competitors work as part of a team with the aim of completing as many laps of a set course as they can over four hours. The course this year is a mixture of forest trail and non-technical single track. 12-year-olds may compete as an individual in the under 17 category. There is a separate course for Super Junior Teams (aged 8 - 11 years) that uses tracks in the Heritage Forest. These children need their own Tail End Charlie (an adult to keep up with them) for each lap they do. While these tracks are suitable for children, competitors should be confident riders, who are capable of controlling their speed and direction on the single track.
Teams of 3 or 4 are ideal, depending on how many laps the children want to do. Each lap would typically take 20 to 30 mins depending on your speed. More information can be found on the Hanmer Events website (www.hanmerevents.co.nz).
While Beckenham School encourages participation in this event, children will remain the responsibility of their parents for the entire duration of the event. Please let me know if you plan to enter an individual or team or if you would like support in connecting with possible team members.
Please email Jenny with details of your team, if you are looking for people to make up a team or have any questions.
That's all for now
Have a great week ahead
Kōwhai Teaching Team
