Category Archives: Kowhai

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

Kowhai Team News Update Week 9

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Here are the important things to know for next week...

Circle Time

Our Circle time focus this week has been about kindness. We discussed the ways that we show kindness at school, home or in our wider community. Next week, the children will be actively doing acts of kindness for others. Each child has been given a secret buddy. This is to give the children the chance to be kind to people they’re not already close friends with. We discussed ways that we can show kindness, e.g., be friendly, smile, share, give them a note or drawing, encourage them, tell them something they’re good at, give compliments, doing things without being asked etc. 




Stationery At School

At the beginning of the year, everyone purchased the required stationery for the year ahead. These items are the only stationery the children need to have at school. Special stationery is best to stay at home so it does not get damaged or lost. We want the children to have a happy time at school and sometimes these treasured items can end up getting broken, damaged or lost which can make our tamariki feel sad. We will be sending any special items home this week for safe keeping. 


Inquiry- Top Team Event

As part of our Identity Inquiry, we have decided to celebrate the way in which we live our school values. This coming week, the children will begin to plan a 'Top Team' event. We will be investigating what makes a good game, the value(s) it helps us to grow and how we can modify a game to make it original, challenging and fun. In the last week of the term, the children will run their own, 'Top Team' event with a class from Koru team. We know this will be fun for everyone involved!


Term 2 Parent Help - We Need YOU!

We would love to hear from anyone who would like to offer their services each Friday as part of our Make a Difference (M.A.D) Time. 

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.

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 now. Have a great weekend ahead!
Kowhai Teaching Team


Kowhai Team News Week 8 Term 1

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This week started off with a a highly engaging show by Elgregoe, using magic and ventriloquism to entertain and teach us how to be caring citizens. He discussed ways that we can each be a HERO at Beckenham School.
Being a HERO

H - Honesty
E - Empathy
R - Resilient
O - Opportunities

You might like to reinforce these concepts at home with your child. We will be revisiting these key ideas and relating them to our School Values here at school.



YEAR 7 LEADERS


On Friday, we were lucky to have the Year 7 students on the Beckenham site to work with children across our team. The focus for the day was to plan and teach a variety of sessions to the children in our hubs as a means of developing their personal leadership skills. We were highly impressed with their organisation and and engagement for all. 




PARENT HELP


We love having parents and caregivers in the classroom to support the children with their learning. This may include reading a book of your choice with an individual or group of children, baking, playing games to help children to learning words or numbers. All these jobs make a huge difference and are an excellent way to show the children how we really do get there together! If you have some free time on a Monday to Thursday between 9:00am and 12:30pm, and would love to get involved, please let your child's point of contact teacher know by either sending us an email or coming in and having a chat. Any help would be greatly appreciated!




GROWING INDEPENDENCE

We believe in having a strong home / school partnership and know that we are lucky to have such a supportive parent community. 
Helping each other with learning
We have been discussing the responsibilities that we all have that help to make our families a great place to be. Many children have commented on the fact that they each have different jobs to do at home, e.g., loading the dishwasher, making their bed, packing their school bag to picking up the dog poo! All of these responsibilities enable us to contribute in meaningful ways.
In Year 3/4, we know the importance of growing student self-management skills to enable children to be successful both at home and at school.  Promoting:
  • Home Learning folders coming to school everyday. We use these folders on a daily basis and it is important for them to be at school so we can monitor home learning, send notices home and set up and celebrate home learning achievements.
  • Water Bottle and Hats. Having our hat and water at school everday so we can play outside and stay hydrated for learning!
  • No Toys. Only bringing items for our learning. We will let you know if your child needs to bring along anything extra. 
Maths Ideas for Parents-  Here is a useful website to understand what we cover in Year 3 / 4 along with  useful maths website link. Make sure you check out the tabs on your bog for useful literacy and numeracy websites.
Year 3 Standards
Year 4 Standards
Maths at Home- Ideas and useful links to websites


CELEBRATING LEARNING

In Hub 5/6, the children have been working on what it means to be a 'Thinker' We decided good thinkers: Focus on what they are doing, they think about options and alternatives, they use a Growth Mindset, 'I can do it!', they use resources wisely and choose activities to extend their understanding or to grow new ideas. This week we have been constructing roller coasters using straws, solving puzzles, investigating patterns and writing poems to name a few. Here we are in action!

Roller Coaster Construction


Solving Addition and Subtraction Problems using Imaging (in our heads)


Completing Design Challenges using Lego

The children in Hubs 7,8,9 have been busy with a poetry competition which was shared with other classrooms. We have written some lovely poems about ourselves. The post cards we have published have created a lovely message.


Putting the Postcard Puzzle Together- Team Work
Problem Solving
Working Together to Solve Addition and Subtraction Maths Problems

Team Newsletter Week 6 Term 1

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Kowhai Whanau

Top Team 

Wow! What a busy week we have been having. Across our team the children have been working really hard on developing their self-management skills throughout all areas of learning as our key programmes take shape.
The Key competencies of: Thinking, Relating to Others, Managing Self and Participating and Contributing were strongly demonstrated throughout our Top Team Challenge. The children displayed many effective team work skills as they solved problems and worked together on challenges. A huge thank you to all the wonderful parents who supported us by running stations. We couldn't have done it without you! We will continue to have team work as a focus over the next few weeks to continue to develop the necessary skills to communicate when working in group situations. 


Future Ferns Netball Coach(s)
We would love to provide the opportunity for children in our team to play netball at Hagley Park in Term 2 and 3. To enable us to do this, we require the willing assistance of some FANTASTIC parents who would like to coach the team. This would involve taking a practise at school during the week (lunchtime or before/after school) and attend games and attend a pre game skill session. If this sounds like you, please contact Anna Reid as soon as possible.  anna.reid@beckenham.school.nz

Head lice
We have had a few cases of head lice being reported across our team. This is a timely reminder to take a moment you check your child's head to ensure there are no unwelcome visitors!

PTA Lego Movie Fundraiser
The PTA are about to start their fundraising campaign to raise $115,000 by March 2018 which will go towards developing our outdoor spaces.
Their first fundraiser is an advanced screening of the Lego Batman Movie. This is only $12.50 per person and will be a great opportunity for your child see the movie before it is launched to the public. Grab your ticket NOW! The children will take home a flyer about this on Monday.












What 3-7 year old needs to learn
A fantastic parent evening has been organised for parents to learn more about child development for children aged of 3-7 years. It will be a worthwhile event to attend.

Elgregoe Show 
On Monday 20th March, the children will be treated to an anti bullying show presented by Elgregoe. The focus of this show if to provide the children to 'Have the Power' to say no to bullying. Please remember come in and see your child's point of contact teacher if your child ever experiences difficulties at school, especially if there are issues in the playground. It is essential for all children to feel happy and safe at school as without them, learning cannot be maximised!


Student Librarians
Anne Chin has trained four students from our team to be student librarians. These librarians assist with issuing, returning books, repairing books and helping children to choose books. Next term we will train other children to help assist Anne.





Celebrating Kowhai Learning


In Hub 6, we have been focusing on writing detailed descriptions of a setting. For our writing to be successful we thought carefully about our word choice to describe what the setting: looks, feels, smells, tastes and sounds like. Our aim is to transport the reader to that moment in time. Here are some snippets of our writing...

I look out to the deep blue watery mass once again. I see dolphins leaping in front of the boat like they want to guide us to land.  They have heard the creaking floor boards of my old boat moaning for help.  Ilia

The water laps over the side of the railings and soaks into my shoes as it tries to lure me into the deep, dark ocean depths. I feel scared. Caitlin

Out of nowhere the sea suddenly became a wild animal. Justine

I feel scared as my old wooden boat creaks like an old woman's bones after working hard for eighty years. My boat starts to creak and I feel cold and hungry. "When are we going to get to land?" I ask. Laya

I am by myself on a pirate ship. I hear the loud sound of music playing  telling me we are finally near land. Sophie

Self Portraits
These incredible self portraits will be up on display in the school foyer next week. Make sure you check them out!

Mystery Boxes
Earlier this term, we all created mystery boxes to let people know some special things about ourselves. They were so much fun to make! We decorated them and filled them with interesting and special artefacts. In Hub 7/8/9 we had a special sharing time last Friday. It was so interesting seeing all the boxes - every single one was different - and what a lot of interesting things we learnt about each other!

Baby Photos
Throughout the team we have been collecting some incredibly cute baby photos and we have put them up in our hubs. We are holding a 'Guess Who The Baby Is?' competition to find out if we really do know each other that well. It is not too late to join the competition so please do keep those baby photos coming in. The more there are, the trickier it's going to be for us to guess and we do love a challenge in the Kowhai team!


Have a great week ahead.
Kowhai Teaching Team