Kowhai News Term 4 Week 4

Dear parents and caregivers,

This week we celebrated some more amazing students at our team hui who have been applying the school values to their everyday learning. We are so proud of their hard work. Goal setting, self-management and persistence were a common theme this week. These lucky children will be baking pizzas on Friday.
Inquiry
Hub 8/9 and 7 have been learning all about different habitats. We are investigating where animals live, and how different animals are suited to their habitat. We are exploring what would happen if animals had to swap habitats. Could they survive? What adaptations would they have to make? We can't wait  to create our own diorama of a habitat to showcase our learning. 
Hub 5/6 have been investigating the characteristics of various animals that enable them to live in a particular habitat. We have applied this knowledge to invent a new animal and have identified the key attributes they need to surivive in a particualr habitat. This coming week, we will be exploring how changes to an environment can impact on animals and what they need to do to adapt to these changes in order to survive.

Home Learning Folders
Each week the children have the opportunity to go to the library. We have noticed that many of the children are not bringing their Home Learning folders to school each day. We would really love your support with this, as having these at school each day helps the children to be organised for their learning. Inside the Home Learning folder they need to keep their reading book (school book or library book), home learning book and their spelling notebook. Anne also requires the children to have a bag to enable them to issue books at school. This protects them as they travel to and from school. If your child has lost their folder, any type of bag will suffice to keep the items they need at school together. Thanks!

S.T.E.M Challenges
Make an animal out of lego
Race cars without touching them
The children in Hub 5/6 have been participating in a variety of S.T.E.M (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) challenges each week. The focus on these activities have been for the children to be creative and active problems solvers who can work together whilst maintaining a growth mindset. Here are some of the challenges so far. This coming week the children will be creating a paper plate pinball track. We can't wait to see their results!

M.A.D (Make A Difference) Time
This term the children have been given the options of:
Photography - Learning how to use the ipad to take photos, how to take a variety of photos, editing and creating photo frames.
Stop Motion Animation- Learning how to make an animated story using lego.
Drama- Learning drama  skills and applying these to create a short performance.
Thorrington Resthome- Visiting our local resthome to make connections with the elderly residents. The children read stories, chat and sing them songs.
Sewing- The children are learning a variety of sewing skills as they create a monster pillow.
Christmas Crafts and Cards- We are lucky enough to have the assistance of Nicola Arnott who is teaching the children how to make various Christmas crafts and cards.


Pizza Making
The children have been having a fantastic time with the kind assistance of Melissa Reid, making and baking pizzas each Friday. We feel very fortunate to have the use of a kitchen in our team. We would love to extend our kitchen use across the team by providing each of the hubs the opportunity to use the kitchen to learn more about food technology. We would love to hear from any keen parents who would like to take a small group of children for fun kitchen lesssons from 9am-10.30am. We only need the help of 1-2 parents for each hub. If this sounds like you, please contact your hub teacher.


PTA Tip Top Fundraiser
The PTA are working hard to try and fill all the shifts for the Tip Top Ice Cream sales fundraiser at the A&P Show in November. Please click on this link to find more information and book a slot: Tip Top A&P Show Fundraiser
Hats
Please remember - to keep our children safe during the summer months, we ask that all children wear a brimmed sunhat while outside during learning or play time. This is now compulsory throughout Term 4, and again at the start of each year in Term 1. Children who do not have a sunhat will be asked to play in the shade during break times. Please support your child in remembering to bring their sunhat every day.

Important Dates (for your diary)
Mufti Day - Friday 4th November - gold coin donation to raise money for House Flags

Celebration Assembly - Kowhai leading Thursday 10th November 2.30pm- 3pm
Run Jump Throw Athletics Afternoon - Wednesday 30th November 1.45pm-3pm

That's all for this week
Kowhai Teaching Team

Beckenham School Newsletter 28th October 2016

Principal's Patch

Kia ora koutou

Another week of the term has gone by and we are settling in to our new 'normal', both at the Beckenham and the Champion St sites.

Today we saw the large oak tree adjacent to Hub 11 get felled. Several of the classes were able to stand on the park and watch. Whilst it is always very sad to see a mature specimen tree go, it wasn't very healthy due to its roots being significantly compromised over the years of being too close to a building and paving. We are very thankful for the shade that it has provide our children for many years. We have ensured that the large logs are retained to be used in landscaping.
You can watch it below:

Planning for 2017

As we get closer to the end of 2016, we are busy preparing for 2017. This week we have been conducting interviews for full-time teaching staff, and will be able to share that information with you very soon.
We are also working on learning groups for next year. If you have any considerations for your child's placement in a learning group for 2017 that you think will assist us, and that we won't necessarily be aware of, please email me principal@beckenham.school.nz by next Wednesday 2nd November. We will add your considerations to the picture we already have, and work out the best way to put together learning groups that are going to be successful for all children.

Digital safety
It's important to remember that children need to be taught to be safe and responsible users of digital communication and devices. There are lots of online tools available for parents who might be wondering how to navigate this territory, especially when it can feel that the children are one step ahead of the adults in terms of their knowledge of the digital environment. Just because a child can navigate their way confidently around the internet and numerous apps, it doesn't mean that they have the maturity and skills to be able to use the applications safely and responsibly, or that they will know how to recognise, or what to do, if this environment starts to become dangerous or unsafe in any way.
Vodafone, NetSafe & The Parenting Place have joined together to develop a set of resources they have called "Digi-Parenting: A one-stop shop of advice to help families make technology decisions". I encourage you to make a visit to this site, and have a look at what might be relevant for where you and your family are at with this important topic.

Have a great weekend - we are looking forward to having all of our students on site together at Beckenham for the day on Monday as the Year 5-8 students have their Athletic Sports day on Beckenham Park.

Ngā mihi
Sandy Hastings
Principal - Tumuaki

Important Dates

Upcoming Events

Mon 31 Oct
PTA Uniform room open 2:45-3:15pm
Years 5-8 Athletics day at Beckenham School Park
(Champion St site will be closed for the day)

Thu 3 Nov
Yr 5 & 6 Visit to Rapaki Marae.  9am-3pm
Hub 4 Kahikatea - visit to Art Gallery & Museum
Yr 7/8 day in town "Art in the Palm of your Hand"

Fri 4 Nov
Hub 3 Kahikatea - visit to Art Gallery & Museum

Wed 9 Nov
Zone Athletics at Hansen Park.  9am-3pm

Thu 10 Nov
Yr 7 & 8 Visit to Rapaki Marae.  9am-3pm.

Fri 11 Nov
Show Day - school is closed.

Term Dates
Click here to view the 2016 and 2017 term dates.

Citizen of the Week

Rohith Thony - Year 6

Rohith, you are a superstar in our hub. You are a self-motivated learner who can always be relied upon to do the right thing. You are a thoughtful and caring role model and are an excellent friend to others. Well done for always putting 100% into your learning. We are so proud of you! Tino pai.

Sharing our Learning

Kauri Whānau

Year 7 & 8 are loving the learning at our new school environment on Champion Street. The layout of our hub and having a breakout space, creates an even better learning space than we previously had at Beckenham. With a number of different areas making up the outdoor space, there are lots of options for play, including full sized hoops on the basketball court.


One of our weekly highlights in Kauri is Passion Friday. This term we are cooking; learning how to knit, crochet and make felt; and creating a vegetable garden. The gardening group are having a lovely time digging over the raised garden beds, preparing plants and creating wooden tags to label the garden areas. When we arrived, a rather saggy and tired looking scarecrow was watching over the shabby garden. One of the gardening team’s project will be to give him a makeover. We look forward to watching the garden flourish as the term progresses.





Part of the attraction of being based at Champion Street is the lovely new furniture that we are trial
ing courtesy of Class Furniture. This was one of the aspects that we shared in the video that the media team put together for our first celebration assembly this term. Click on this link and ‘Daniel Attenborough’ will take you on an adventure through the Champion Street environment.


Sports News

Year 5-8 Athletics Day on Monday 31 October

The weather forecast for Monday 31 October is sunny with a high of 15 degrees. Perfect athletics weather!
The Year 5-8 students will not be travelling to Champion St on Monday, as they will be remaining at school to participate in the Athletics Sports day on Beckenham Park. There is no need for the students to arrive at Beckenham School early, as we will be meeting in the hall at 8:55am, when the bell rings.
To be prepared for this day of athletics, the children must be wearing their school hat (to be popped in their bag to take home on Friday). They are allowed to wear sports clothes, such as sports shorts, running shoes and a shirt of their house colour or their school top. Due to expending so much energy, packing an extra big lunch would be great, and having a named water bottle is essential. Sun block will be available at school, however it would be a sensible idea to coat your child before they leave home in the morning, and to pop a bottle of sun block in their bag.

The day runs as follows:
9:15          House relays
9:30         Event 1 (Events are high jump, shot put, discus, sprints heats, fun relays)
10:15 - 10:35 Morning tea
10:35 - 11:20 Event 2
11:20 - 12:05 Event 3
12:05 - 12:45 Lunch (please avoid ordering Lunch Online due to the alternative timing of lunch)
12:45 - 1:30 Event 4
1:30 - 2:15 Event 5
2:15 - 2:55 Sprints finals


Depending on how smoothly the day runs, we may finish earlier than expected. If you are at the park, supporting your child, you may take them home when the sprints finals have concluded. Please check in with either Susan Walsh (Year 7 & 8 students ) or Kat Cotter (Year 5 & 6 students) to sign out your child.
We encourage you to pop down to the park to support and encourage our children during this fun sporting day. If you are available to help out at an event, please contact Tracy on tracy.inwood@beckenham.school.nz

School Notices

Wanted:We would like to develop a composting system at Champion Street and are proposing to use packing pallets....5 of them.  If you have access to these can you please contact Jacky at the office 3371404, office@beckenham.school.nz

PTA News

Community Notices

(Notices placed here are contingent on space and do not reflect the views or opinions of the school.)

RUDOLPH STEINER SCHOOL FAIR

Saturday November 19th
Come and join us for an old fashioned spring time fair!
Indulge in scrumptious food for lunch from a diverse range of delicious options,
stock up on plants and beautiful handcrafts for Christmas,
or just enjoy the fun and games at the sideshows.
-- Stunning handcrafts
-- Organic food - with plenty of vegetarian options
-- Secondhand clothing, books and a huge White Elephant stall
-- Farmers market with organic veges, honey, flowers, plants and more
-- Fairyland - including a cafe and a craft stall full of child sized goodies at child sized prices
-- Carnival games, pony rides

New Brighton Surf Lifesaving Club:

New Brighton surf lifesaving opens its doors to the community nd members to celebrate ther start of this summer's season.  Juniors start at 10am with an intro to surf and first training of  summer.  At 12pm we have the officil opening of the season. Anybody that is interested in finding out about surf lifesaving at New Brighton is very welcome to come down and find out more about us.  www.newbrightonslsc.org.nz, info@newbrightonslsc.org.nz

Hororata Highland Games


5th November.  Toss the caber, Stone Putt, Farmers Walk, Highland Dancing, Pipe bands plus much more.  Visit www.hororatahighlandgames.org.nz for more details.

Kahikatea Team Newsletter Term 4 Week 3

Kia Ora whanau

This term is already zooming by and we can't believe it's the end of the third week already! It is certainly an action packed and exciting term.

Art Gallery and Botanic Gardens 


Hub 1&2 had a fantastic time at the Art Gallery and Botanic Gardens today learning about different types of art and the message they portray. Then we made our own 'Clay Beasts'. We are so proud of the children! They represented Beckenham School brilliantly and we even had some people walking past ask what school we are from as the children are so well behaved. Certainly an excellent example of living our school values.

Here are some snippets of what we did:










"My favourite part in the trip was when we made the clay animals because we got to shape the animals and use tools." Maggie.

"My favourite part was when we got to climb the tree because it was super hard but I managed to do it. I'm showing that 'I love challenge'." Hari.

"When we did the clay beasts we got to learn how to do art and try out new things." Briar.

"When we made the clay beasts we made mistakes and then we could make them into different things." Sophie M.

"My favourite part about the trip was that we got to see all different paintings and we got to answer questions." Cayla.

"I liked every part!" Lola T.

"My favourite bit was when we made the clay beasts because my Mum helped me make a clay turtle and it was really hard. I had to mould it into the right shape." Lauren.

"I liked making the clay beasts because it was fun and it was hard to do." Sophie C.






Demolition Writing

Here are some more pieces of writing from our impressive author's:

School Rebuild

It is big! It is loud! It's a digger... with a claw! That claw is like a tyrannosaurus-rex mouth - teeth! The claw went smash, bash, crash! The boom swung around like a dinosaurs neck!

By Ben Scallan

Demolition

Ahhhhhh! Beckenham School is being demolished by a dinosaur (the digger). He has sharp teeth and ferocious eyes. Thud went the couch into the yellow container. It was soo amazing! I thought it was going to come out but luckily the fence was there to keep us safe. 

By Cayla Digan

Wearable Art


We have launched into our exciting Arts topic this term, focussing around seasons and wearable art. We are starting to learn dances related to the seasons and will be starting to design wearable art costumes to perform to you all in. The team of Kahikatea teachers will be making a visit to Creative Junk to find some costuming items. It would be fantastic if you started talking with your child about what they would like their costume to look like, which season they are focussing on and what they need to consider when designing it to dance in. Please feel free to send costume items from home as well. We will let you know when we will be calling for resources. This is just the planning stage for now. 
We will be having our performance in Week 9 this term - more details to follow. 


Kauri Whanau Update: Term 4, Week 3

Week three and things are humming in the Intermediate Hub at Champion Street. The children have adapted really well to the new normal.


This Week:

Writing:

Most of the children have made a great start to their 'Tale with a Twist' writing. During Wednesday and Thursday they will have a 15 min workshop and 60 mins of writing. By the end of Thursday their writing should be finished. Please ask your child to show you their writing and encourage them to work at home, if needed, to meet the deadline.

Next Week:

Athletic Sports: 

At the moment the long range forecast is looking good for our sports day next Monday, Oct 31st. A reminder that we stay at Beckenham all day for this event.

Big Day Out:

On Thursday Nov 3rd we are off to the city for the day. The children will be rotating around three activities in their home-groups: Medal Art at the museum, Quake City and the botanical gardens. We will send out a message with more specific details early next week. At this stage we are looking for two parents to accompany each home-group. Please fill in this form if you can help. We will be leaving from Beckenham at 9am and will return by 3pm.

Maths home-learning:

Due in on Friday Nov 4th.

Future Events: 

We will send home a paper planner for your fridge with these dates.

Wednesday November 9: Zone athletics at Hansen Park

Thursday November 10: Rapaki Marae trip - all day

Wednesday November 16: Summer tournament for slow pitch and kiwi tag teams

Thursday November 17: Year 7 doing 'People Savers' first aid course at school

Thursday December 1: Year 8 doing 'People Savers' first aid course at school

Friday December 2: Top Team competition at Beckenham in the afternoon (parent help required)

Monday December 5: 'A very Kauri Christmas' matinee performance for school

Tuesday December 6: 'A very Kauri Christmas' evening performance at 7pm. All children involved.

Wednesday December 7: Canterbury athletics

Friday December 9: Walk from school to Victoria Park - all day (parent help required)

Monday December 12: Year 8 pool and pizza part at Tracy's from 4-6pm

Tuesday December 13: Corsair Bay trip - from 10:30 - 3:00 (parent help required)

Thursday December 15: Leavers' assembly and lunch. Year 8 may arrive at Beckenham at 10:30am. Year 8 finish school for the year after the shared lunch.

Friday December 16: Last day for Year 1- 7, finishing at 12:30


Hub 5/6 Reading Karate Challenge

This week Paulette and Mike have set up a, Reading Karate Challenge for the children in Hub 5/6 to promote reading. To achieve the various reading belts, your child will need to complete a variety of reading challenges (books). 

Each child in the hub has been given their first challenge to achieve the white belt. To receive the white belt, your child will need to read two picture books. This will take two nights to complete as you can only read one book per night. Once your child has read the two picture books, you need to sign that they have done so and they then need to complete the reading response sheet- "My favourite book." 
This is in their Home Learning book.
Your child can then show this to either Paulette and Mike and they will sign it off and give your child their first karate belt.

The aim of Reading Karate is for the children to read a variety of books of differing genres, and the home reading (chapter book or school book) is for personal reading and enjoyment. Today the children all took out a chapter book from the school library that will be their nightly reading this week. Your child still needs to read for 10-15mins per night. Please continue to fill in the reading log at the front of their Home Learning book. 

The children were really excited about beginning the Reading Karate programme and many have already set the goal to be readying EVERY night! It counts to read on the weekends too! 

Happy reading everyone!