Category Archives: Kowhai

Kowhai Newsletter Week 4

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Trip to Hillview Christian School to view JRock

This coming Monday, 29th May, we have been able to book the Hillview Christian School gym so that our amazing Year 7/8 students can share their superb JRock performance with the rest of the school. With our own hall out of action, only two classes managed to see it in dress rehearsal last week. At this stage, the forecast is clear and this will see the entire school walking down to Hillview and back leaving at 9.10am and returning by 10.30am. 


Reading- Developing Fluent Readers
In Year 3-4, our reading focus shifts from learning to read, to reading to learn. Our team reading programme is centred around developing reading fluency which will enables children to have greater comprehension of what they read, and as a result are able to use ii for learning.  
Fluency is the ability to read  a text accurately, quickly, and with expression and because fluent readers do not have to concentrate on decoding the words, they can focus their attention on what the text means. 


Fluency is a significant indicator of reading comprehension. When children can read fluently, it means that instead of using brain power for decoding (working out words), they can turn their attention to the meaning of the text. And it gets even better! When students reach higher levels of fluency, they’re able to tap into meta cognitive strategies. This means that they can visualise, question, and interpret what they are reading, and they can think about their own feelings and opinions while reading text. This is the highest level of reading comprehension.

Across our team, this term we are actively promoting reading fluency. The books that your child either brings home to read from school or is a book at home that they are reading, we want this to be able to be read fluently. In our Hubs we talk about finding a 'Good Fit Book' this is a book that is of interest and fun and easy to read so our reading sound like talking. If the reading is robotic, then the book is too hard. Reading at home should be enjoyable for both you and your child!

Buddy Writing Programme


In Hub 7,8,9 some of the children have been apart of our buddy writing programme. This is where a writing tutor helps a tutee with their writing. We have seen the children interacting so positively during writing. Some children who started off only writing ten words are now writing fifty words or even more! Our tutors are enjoying being the teacher and encouraging others to write. 





Home Learning
Thank you to all the wonderful parents who actively support this component of our class programme. As a school, we believe in the importance of developing a love of reading, being numerate and able to spell most high frequency words. We are very aware of the many families who have commitments with their children after school each day and have tried to make our home learning as simple as possible. It should only take about 15-20minutes each day to complete.
Reading - 10 minutes (fun easy read!)
Spelling - 5 minutes
MMM - 1 minute


Kowhai Trip to the City


Looking through the kaleidoscope in New Regent Street

Last Wednesday we had a wonderful trip to the city and the Margaret Mahy playground.
The aim of the trip was to learn more about our changing city, especially the transitional artworks that have become a feature since the earthquakes. We completed a scavenger hunt as we made our way through the city, visiting the Bridge of Remembrance, City mall, Cathedral Square, the Dance-o-Mat and New Regent Street, noting down many of the artworks that we saw on the way. Finally we finished our trip at the Margaret Mahy Playground where we had lunch and a great time.
Over the next few weeks we will be creating our own temporary artworks to feature around the school during the rebuild. You can find our first artwork hanging from the fences in front of the hall.

Thank you so much to all the parents who came on the trip with us. We couldn’t have done it without you!

Dancing at the Dance-o-Mat!

Margaret Mahy Playground

Margaret Mahy Playground


Toys, Pokemon cards  and Fidget Spinners
Over the past week, we have noticed a variety of 'toy' style items coming to school. Across the team, we have reminded the children that the only items that are to come to school are those that are required for learning (lunch, water, Home Learning folders and warm jackets/jerseys). Toys (including small animal soft toys), fidget spinners and Pokemon cards are not allowed at school.  If a child wants to trade Pokemon cards, this can be done after school with a parent bringing in the cards after 3pm. We would love your support with this, as these items can interfere with classroom learning. Thanks so much!


Thank You!
A huge shout out goes to the parent helpers who came with us on our exciting city trip this week. You were all absolutely amazing and we could not have gone on this trip without you.  It was great to see so many Dads on the trip too! this children had a fantastic time exploring the city and seeing the art works that have been put up to add colour and create interest for locals and visitors alike.

Have a wonderful weekend ahead!
Kowhai Teaching Team





Kowhai Team Newsletter Week 2 Term 2

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Wow! What a busy week!

Firstly, thank you all so much for coming along to our Learning Conferences this week. We were so impressed with how the children confidently shared their learning with you all. It is always so exciting to have the opportunity for us to celebrate the achievements of our tamariki and identify next steps. Having a strong home and school partnership is essential for our children to feel truly supported and able work towards their learning goals. As a team, we really appreciate being able to work with such a caring and committed parent community. So thank you!

Rhythm Interactive

We had an amazing visit from Rhythm Interactive on Monday. Due to our hall being out of action at the moment, we took a short walk to the Methodist church hall just one block away from the school where we experienced a rhythm extravaganza. There was a drum for every child and there were 2 rhythm experts who took us through the whole experience. They taught us all sorts of different rhythms and they managed to teach us using only facial expressions and gestures - no talking. It was brilliant and the children absolutely loved it. It was a real test of their ability to watch and listen carefully and also to mirror which rhythms they were playing. The sound the children made resonated around the whole hall and everyone was into the groove. Fantastic!




Inspiration Stations
For our inspiration stations in  Hub 7/8/9 we have had a focus on living things. We have had many crafty activities involving observation drawings, collages, researching living things we are interested in, life cycles, creating pamphlets and a naming plants challenge. It has been wonderful to see the high level of interest and the questions that have been sparked because of this intriguing topic. We look forward to finding out more in our inquiry.




In Hub 5/6 we have had a focus on the children taking more ownership for their learning. Our key competency focus has been on Thinking and Self-Managing.  We have been promoting the children to:
Have their own ideas and follow through with them
Planing ahead and gathering resources Practising until success is achieved 
Make choices that provide a challenge Asking questions to extend thinking and understanding about topics Thinking creatively Making connections with previous ideas
Persisting when things are difficult

The children have been exploring the concept of patterns, where patterns are made, patterns with numbers and letters and patterns in art. The children have also actively explored their own interests into the living world, researching topics of interest and sketching still life images. We have really loved how children have supported each other with their learning and really challenged themselves to extend their thinking and understanding about these concepts. 

Trip to town- Wednesday 17th May
A huge thank you to all the parents who have kindly offered their assistance on Wednesday with our trip into the city. We will send out a reminder email the day before and if the weather looks to be wet, the postponement date will be the following Wednesday 24th May. 



On Wednesday we were very lucky to have Hugh McCarroll (Sophie M’s Grandad), who has been in the news recently for becoming a finalist in a NASA competition to invent a hands free space toilet for astronauts. He was able to teach us about the process of entering a competition like this and teach us more about space. We loved the passion Hugh showed and we hope he can come again to talk about more spacetastic topics, and answer more questions.  Check out the link below to find the article and video of Hugh.
Space Poop Challenge


That's all for this week. Have a wonderful weekend with your family!
Kowhai Teaching Team


Kowhai News Term 2 Week 1

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Welcome back to Term 2. We have really enjoyed hearing about all the fun filled activities the children have been able to experience over the holidays. What a lucky bunch!
Here are the essentials for the week ahead...


TRIP TO THE CITY AND THE MARGARET MAHY PLAYGROUND:
We are continuing to explore ideas about the concept of Identity with a particular focus this term in art. We have planned a wonderful trip to the city to investigate the transitional art that has evolved as a response to the earthquakes. We will travel to the city by bus and walk through the city, taking pictures of artworks and participating a city scavenger hunt. We will then make our way to the Margaret Mahy Playground for lunch and a play before taking a bus back to school.

The trip will take place on Wednesday 17th May. We will leave school at 9.30am and will return to school at 2.30pm. There will be a small cost of $3.50 per child to cover the buses. This amount will be added to your school account.

to enable this trip to go ahead, we do need parent helpers for this trip. If you are able to assist us, please let you child’s home group teacher know. Thank you very much.

MAD Time

We have started our first session of MAD time (Make A Difference time). The children have selected an area they are particularly interested in for the term. The different MAD projects include Woodwork with Mike, Passion Projects with Paulette, Sketching with Anna, Italian with Susan, Korean Dance with Rebekah. We also have a small group of children going to Thorrington Resthome to visit the residents.



Pizza Making- Parent Help Needed
This term, the children who receive certificates will be given the opportunity to make pizzas for lunch. This is one way that we can utilise the kitchen in our team. We will notify you either via the phone or email to let you know if your child is making pizzas. As a school, we will provide the pizza dough and sauce and your child will need to bring along the toppings they want on their pizza. We do need the lovely assistance of a parent each week to support the children with making the pizzas. This will be from 11am-12pm. If you are able to help, please add you name to the roster here.

Term 2 Inquiry Focus  
Our Inquiry focus for Term 2 sees us continuing to 'dig deeper' into the concept of Identity exploring it with a scientific lens with the children learning how environmental change can affect our identity. Over the course of this inquiry, we will be learning to make comparisons between living and non-living things, think about what living things need to survive and how changes in environment(s) can have an effect on living things. We will also be looking at roles and responsibilities in human and animal communities and what it means to be a citizen. We can wait to see what action the children want to make with their learning.

Learning Conferences 
Next week, school will close at 2pm on Tuesday 9th May and Thursday 11th May as we have Learning Conferences. As a school, we highly value this opportunity for the children to share their learning with you, celebrating their achievements and identifying their next steps. If you are yet to make a booking, please go to www.schoolinterviews.co.nz and use the code b5qec
We look forward to seeing you all next week.

Hockey
Next week we are lucky to have coaches from Canterbury Hockey coming to school to teach the children basic field hockey skills. The programme is called Small Stix and will consist of 4 skill based sessions and will culminate in a hockey festival to celebrate the children's learning on the 6th of June. 


Rhythm Interactive


On Monday, we are are very fortunate to be experiencing Rhythm Interactive at Beckenham School. Due to the hall being out of action, the Methodist Church on Malcolm Ave are kindly hosting the whole event. The children will not only be listening to the percussive skills of the Rhythm Interactive team as they get banging and beating on their drums, but they will also get stuck in themselves, filling the hall with their own rhythmic sounds. It is so exciting! If you want to know more about it, have look at the following YouTube clip from a previous visit to Beckenham School: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ziyo8Zk4eOg.


That's all for now. Have a wonderful weekend with your whanau!
Kowhai Teaching Team

End of Term Class Parties

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Hi,
Just a reminder that tomorrow (Thursday 13th April) we are having our class parties across the team. Your child is able to wear mufti and needs to bring along a piece of fruit to help make some yummy fruit kebabs.
We have all worked really hard in our Hubs to get to have our class party!
Don't forget the PTA are also having their hot cross bun fundraiser tomorrow. $2 for a delicious hot cross bun. All money made will go to our outdoor spaces fund.

Kowahi Teaching Team

Kowhai News Week 10 Term 1

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Hi everyone,

What a wet week we have had. The children impressed us all this week by demonstrating wonderful manners even though they had to spend most of the week inside. We are all pleased to see the sun shining once again!

PTA Hot Cross Buns THURSDAY 13th April
On Thursday, the PTA are selling hot cross buns as a fundraiser for the outdoor spaces. Hot crossed buns will be $2. 


Circle Time

Circle Time is one of the many things we do to promote well being amongst the students at Beckenham School. Each week for 30minutes, we provide the children with the opportunity to discuss and share how things are going and to provide the time to create solutions to any problems. This week our focus has been around compliments. We discussed how giving and receiving compliments makes you feel. Over the next week we will be continuing to demonstrate kindness to each other and compliment one another when we see great things happening! Hopefully your home will be filled with compliments too!



Class Parties
Each Hub has been working towards individual hub parties this term. The time has finally arrived for them to take place, so here are the details! The parties are all on THURSDAY and the children across our team can wear mufti and bring along a toy and a piece of fruit to make fruit kebabs with. 


Team Learning 
Hub 5/6 were invited to join the children in Hub 3/4 to talk about the future of our Beckenham school playground. The younger children had designed their ultimate playground and written descriptions. We got into buddy groups to share the learning and the Year 3/4 children gave feedback on their work. This was a fantastic opportunity for us to be big buddies and show some leadership. All of the children thoroughly enjoyed the experience. 





Kowhai Top Team Planning
This week we have been working in collaborative groups, planning and designing a Top Team styled event for the children in team Koru. Working collaboratively has provided the children with the opportunity to develop some skills that are necessary for being 21st century learners. 
The children have had to articulate their ideas, listen to each other, acknowledge group contributions, problem solve, give compliments and synthesise ideas. Wow! 
Next week they will implement their game by running a mini Top Team event. At this time, the children will be learning how to be effective communicators, organised, well planned and give positive feedback to the children in team Koru as they participate in their game. We are sure they will do an amazing job!
Group discussion and sharing of ideas
Hub 5/6 Inspiration Stations
This week in Hub 5/6, the children have had the opportunity to make pom pom pets, replicate one of our new learning spaces using lego, design and create marble runs, paint buddy rocks, make certificates for our buddies, creating comic strips to name a few. These activities provide the children with the opportunity to become effective communicators as they discuss their learning, problem solve, share ideas and take on the roles of tutor and tutee. The discussions this week have been incredible. They children have demonstrated deep thinking and a natural willingness to support and help each other. 



Parent Help - We Need YOU!

We would love to hear from anyone who would like to offer their services to help support our Hub programmes. Putting away books, reading with children, playing games are some of the ways you can help. We love having parents in our Hubs and this partnership enables us to add more to our programme to help support our young learners!

THORRINGTON RESTHOME
We have a close relationship with Thorrington Resthome and would love to continue this again this year. We need one parent who would be willing to take 10 children to Thorrington Resthome as a M.A.D Time option each Friday. We are happy for this to be on a roster basis too!

PIZZA MAKING
Each Friday next term, we would love to provide the children with the opportunity to bake pizzas at school. This would involve helping the children in the kitchen to make the pizza bases, create their pizzas and clean up. If this sounds like you, please contact: paulette.newton@beckenham.school.nz

That's all for this week
Kowhai Teaching Team