Monthly Archives: July 2016

Kowhai Team Newsletter Term 3 Week 1

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Kia Ora Whanau,

We hope that you and your family have had a great break over the past two weeks. We have been very spoilt with the weather and it is hard to believe that we are in the midst of winter. Let's hope this wonderful weather continues. It was great to see the children so happy and refreshed after their break. We all had a wonderful first day back.
This term will no doubt be another busy one, especially as it is only 9 weeks long. One of the main focuses this term is on, 'The Arts' with the children creating their calendar art and working towards a performance at the end of the term.


Parent Help
We would love to have continued support in our key areas of Reading, Writing and Maths during this term. The parent helpers last term proved to be invaluable with the work they did with individual students. It has been wonderful to see the children excited about working with parents and the progress they are making as a result.
Our Parent Tutor Reading is one of our success stories with the children making wonderful progress in developing their reading fluency. This has been as simple as parents listening to children as they read! If you would be keen to offer your support, we would welcome you with open arms! Please let your hub teachers know if you are free to parent help. Anytime, any day!


Stationery
There are some children who need to replenish their stationery, mainly pencils, pens and whiteboard markers. This week your hub teacher will send home a list of items if your child needs any.

Home Learning
This term, home learning will continue to include reading (15mins each night), maths (MMM) and spelling (6 words to be tested each night). Your support with these basics is essential. Home learning has came home today.

M.A.D. Time
We have been fortunate to be able to offer more options this term in M.A.D. Time. We have had parents keen to offer their skills and time to support this part of our programme. We are after some items for these new options: socks for sock puppets, bottle tops, buttons and newspapers. Please send them into school if you have any at home that you are happy to donate.


PE and Sport
Our main P.E. focus this term is learning about gymnastics. During this unit, the children will explore different static and locomotor movements, rotations, balances and landings. Sport will continue each Friday. The children have selected a sport they wish to pursue from the following choices: basketball, football, touch rugby and netball. During these lessons the children are learning the required skills for the game, the rules and how to work as a team.


Inquiry
This term our inquiry focus is centred on  answering the following questions:
What does it take to be an Olympian and can we all be 'Olympians' in our own right?

What is the impact on people, places and the environment when the Olympics are on and how do people cope with these changes?
During this inquiry, the children will learn about different countries in our 'Australasian neighbourhood' and identify similarities and differences. We will explore the challenges faced by Rio citizens and how people cope with these changes. At the end of this term, we are going to put on a performance in the hall that will show case this learning.


Reading
Good readers are active readers. When your child has a hard time understanding what she reads, instruction can help. For the first two weeks of the term, we will be having a focus on developing the reading strategies of:

QUESTIONING
This strategy involves readers asking themselves questions throughout the reading of a text. The ability of readers to ask themselves relevant questions as they read is especially valuable in helping them  identify main ideas, and summarise information. Asking the right questions allows good readers to focus on the most important information in a text.
You can help at home by asking:
"What is this story about?"
"What does the main character want?"
"Will he/she get it?" "If so, how?"
Even after reading, engaged readers still ask questions:
"What is the meaning of what I have read?"
"Why did the author end the paragraph (or chapter, or book) in this way?"
"What was the author's purpose in writing this?"
MAKING CONNECTIONS
Children make personal connections with the text by using their schema. There are three main types of connections we can make during reading:
Text-to-Self: Refers to connections made between the text and the reader's personal experience.
Text-to-Text: Refers to connections made between a text being read to a text that was previously read.
Text-to-World: Refers to connections made between a text being read and something that occurs in the world.
You can help at home by:
1. Helping your child to make text-to-self connections. As them how they feel about a situation in the book or wha they would do if they were a character in the book.
2. Help them to make text-to-text connections. For example,ask them: What other stories have you read that talk about going on a trip?

That's all for now. We hope you all have a wonderful week ahead.
Kowhai Teaching Team

Amazing Asia

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We have started our Inquiry into Amazing Asia by encouraging the children to generate questions on aspects of Asian culture that they would like to know more about. Here are some of the questions they came up with:


  • How do you count to 100 in Japanese?
  • What does their writing look like?
  • How many countries are in Asia?
  • Are there any things that are similar to what we do in New Zealand?
  • What is the population of Asia?
  • What do they eat?
  • What and how do they celebrate?
  • What does their music sound like?
  • What do their boats look like?
Amazing questions tamariki ma!

We will start our inquiry by looking into our own cultures before looking specifically at Asia. We will then be focusing our inquiry to line up with our 'Make a difference' school value by asking how can we make a positive difference to people who move to Aotearoa from other countries? 

If you have any knowledge or expertise that could support our children in their inquiry, we would love for you to share with us! 

Hillview Cross Country Challenge

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On Tuesday, a group of children from Kahikatea represented Beckenham School at the Hillview Cross Country Challenge. The children who went did our school and community proud in the way they demonstrated good sportsmanship throughout the trip. There were 10 schools at the event and the standard of running was high. Never the less, our kids did extremely well and all deserve to be very proud of their achievements.

The official results are as follows:

Year 1 Boys
Isaac 15th
Jamie 20th
Cian 21st

Year 1 Girls
Jayde 1st
Isabelle 5th

Year 2 Boys
Quinn 6th
Fergus 18th

Year 2 Girls
Vida 4th
Caitlin 7th
Maisie 9th
Lola 11th
Freya 13th


A huge thank you to all the parents who helped out, supported and cheered on our runners. We could not have offered this opportunity without you. If anyone has any photos from the event, please email them through, as it would be great for the children to share these with the rest of the Hubs.

Kowhai Newsletter Term 2 Week 10

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Dear parents and caregivers,

It is hard to believe that we have only one week before the holidays. This term seems to have flown by so fast. Here are the essentials that you need to know for the last week of term.

Scooters at School
We are aware there are some children who have wanted to 'work' on scooters at school. As a school, we do not support or encourage this. From next week on, children who bring a scooter to school are encouraged to bring along a lock so it is secure and to only ride their school in the set areas during break times. If you have any concerns related to scooters, please let your home room teacher know. The safety of children and their belongings is essential. Many thanks.

Art Gallery Trips
All classes in the Kowhai Team are going to the Art Gallery next week. It has been wonderful to have so many parents offering to assist us on these trips. We really appreciate you giving us your time to support this aspect of our learning programme. Here are the details that you need to know:
Tuesday 5th July 
9.30-12pm - Hub 5 and Hub 6 and 7 cross country runners
12pm-2.30pm - Hub 6 and 7

Thursday 7th July
9.30am-12pm - Hub 8
12-2.30pm - Hub 9

Please make sure your child has a morning or afternoon snack to eat while at the Art Gallery and all children need to bring a jacket to wear to and from the gallery.

Science and Technology Fair
On Monday, we have the grand opening of the 2016 Beckenham School Science and Technology Fair.  The opening will be on Monday 4th July from 5.30-7pm. We highly recommend you coming to school to see the exhibits from all hubs across the school. Our team exhibit is our exploration into weather and the impact and problems that changing weather has on our environment and animals. We have followed the technology process to identify a potential problem and create a solution for it.

Zones Cross Country at Hillview Year 0-4
We wish all our runners the best as they race against ten other schools on Tuesday. We know they will put their best effort in. Thanks to Mike and Paul Norton at Hillview School for organising this event for our students. We will put a note in the school newsletter and the team blog to let you know the results.

Spelling and Reading
Next week, as part of our Spelling programme, we are testing the children across the team on their current spelling level. This is to ensure we have all children working at the appropriate spelling level for Term 3.
For reading, we will be focusing on plays. We will be teaching the children some basic drama skills to develop their understanding of their parts (you might like to practise this at home with your child). This will include the exploration into expression, movement and gesture. On Thursday or Friday, these children will perform their plays. All children will be expected to still continue their nightly reading for 15 minutes. Each day, the children will be given the opportunity to take home a browsing box book for reading fluency or to read a chapter book that they have at home.

Stationery
There are many students that need some stationery items to be updated for Term 3. We will send home a small note to let you know if your child requires more writing stationery next week. We know the children have been working really hard on managing their belongings and are demonstrating the school value 'We Care' by returning their pens and pencils to the rightful place. This is such an important lifelong skill and it is so pleasing to see many children managing this aspect of their learning.

MAD Time
Anna's Envirogroup finally finished their bird houses and bird feeders this week and hung them up in the trees behind Hub 8 and 9. They are awesome. Well done everyone!





Well that's it for now. We hope you all have a wonderfully relaxing weekend ahead.
Kind regards
Kowhai Teaching Team





Term 2 Week 9 Newsletter

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Parent Helpers
Thank you to all of the parents who have helped out so far this year it is hugely appreciated by the teachers and children! 

Resource Request
If anyone has any large fizzy drink bottles we would really appreciate them so we can make some rockets!

Koru Leaders
Wow, a big congratulations to all children in team Koru for participating in leading assembly! A big thanks to all of the parents who came and supported this event. 


Drink Bottles
Just a friendly reminder to ensure that children are coming to school with a named water bottle. By having drink bottles available in the classroom makes it much easier and quicker for children to have a drink when they need, bringing little to no disruption to learning programmes. 

School Holidays
With the school holidays fast approaching we thought we would put together a few ideas on learning activities that could be done! The purpose of these activities is to maintain some of your child's learning and strengthen connections between home and school. 
  • Writing reflections on what you have done during the day or the yesterday.
  • Writing a list of jobs or activities that are going to be completed during the day.
  • Baking and talking about the measurements, e.g., 1cup, 1/2 cup etc.
  • Counting numbers on the letter boxes when you go for a walk.
  • Writing numbers, letter, words and stories with chalk outside.
  • Colouring in books and encourage correct pencil grip.
  • Go to the library and read lots of stories together.
  • Word or number hunt in old magazines or newspapers. 
  • Craft activities that involve using scissors to build on this skill. 
  • Discussing healthy lunch box items, you could write, draw or take photos about your ideas and share them with the class when Term 3 starts. 
Discovery Time
Gardening with the help of a parent! What a fantastic experience had by all. We look forward to watching our plants grow. 

Students developing competency with our hub pet Peach! She was falling asleep on the children's laps because she loved the attention and felt safe. 

We have been showing we care and we get there together through home play. 

Whare Time
Over the past couple of weeks during whare time we have been learning about the Maori New Year (Matariki). Older students supported the younger students to make a kite. Kites are a traditional symbol of Matariki as legends believe they connect the heavens and the earth.