Monthly Archives: March 2017

Kauri Whanau Update: Term 1 Week 7

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What a fabulous week of learning opportunities we are in the midst of! On Monday we were inspired by Ben Atkinson of 'Fill Your Lunch Box', a fabulous leader in our city. Today we spent the afternoon with Zara from Attitude.inc learning about having integrity when using technology devices. Zara will be back next week running workshops to delve deeper into how we can be responsible leaders in the cyber world. The children are responding with enthusiasm and impressive questioning to our guest speakers. Next week, as well as Zara, we have another inspiring leader visiting on Tuesday afternoon.


Important messages for next week:

Monday: Year 7s are to wear mufti as this is our Year 7 leadership day. Year 8 wear uniform as usual.

Tuesday: A normal day, with our guest speaker in the afternoon.

Wednesday: Class photos at Beckenham. No children to be dropped off at Champion street this morning. Be at school by 8:30 and meet in the hall. We will be busing to Champion Street soon after 9am.
Year 8s please bring food donations for leadership camp. Mountains: breakfast cereal. Coast: baking. Forest: a bag of fruit.

Thursday: Year 7 have a normal day at school, with Tracy teaching. Year 8s arrive at school in mufti with gear for next two days. A gear list will be emailed later today and be sent home on paper tomorrow. Year 8 will be sleeping over at school, you will see them again at 3pm on Friday.

Friday: Year 7 meet Michelle in the hall at 8:50am. They will be spending the day at Beckenham, as leaders in junior classes.


Action from the past week:

The Year 5 - 8 Duathlon last Friday was a great opportunity for the children to embrace challenge. Well done to everyone to took part and a big thanks to the parents who helped out. We were also very impressed with the support and enthusiasm offered by those students who were marshals on the course. They did a fabulous job.





After Ben Atkinson visited we spent time reflecting on what he taught us about leadership. Here is Olivia's reflection:
Ben Atkinson is very inspirational, he shows that he cares so much about these kids’ situation. I’m so glad that I got to hear him speak and share what his take on this amazing inspiring project was. Someone asked yesterday “Are you proud?” and his response was “I am proud of my employees but I think we can do alot more.” What I think he is achieving is amazing for our society. 28% of children in New Zealand live in poverty! It’s so sad to think these kids are as old as me and some younger.

The questions people asked yesterday were very deep and formal. He was open about his up bringing.He said that his family were not the richest. That maybe inspired him to come up with this project and succeed.

He currently has his kitchen at the Odyssey House. Volunteering are ex-prisoners. I think what the ex-prisoners are doing is an fantastic thing. One of the values Ben successfully reached is be proactive, he saw on TV that there was in issue in our society. He did not  just sit there and do nothing about it, instead he did something, that’s inspirational.

Ben Atkinson he is amazing role model. He makes our community better, he shows he cares, that’s what really stood out to me. We need more Ben Atkinson’s in this world to make life better.

We had our final session of korfball instruction today...




Zara's presentation about being responsible cyber citizens had us thinking, sharing and laughing.




Mufti Day Tomorrow

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Dear Parents/Caregivers, 


Tomorrow, Beckenham School is having a fluorescent mufti-day! The children have been asked to bring a gold coin donation, and wear their fluorescent (or bright) clothing! The donations will go towards the Selwyn District Volunteer Fire Fighters, who were among our heroes fighting the Port Hills fire in February.

Kind regards

Sadie, Juliette and Jordan
(Student council exec.)

Pōhutukawa Team Newsletter – Term 1, Week 6, 2017

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Home Learning

For part of their home learning this week, the students will be completing a special one-off activity where they will create a diagram of their family tree. As part of this, please talk to your children about any interesting events in your family's history or about any interesting relatives/ancestors.

In the coming weeks, the children will be using the information they learn about their family as a starting point for a personal inquiry into a topic related to their family's history (e.g. early settlers, a famous relative, life in New Zealand in the 1990s etc.).

Paint Shirts

For art, the children will soon be working on creating and painting clay models. We ask that all children bring a large, old shirt to protect their uniform from any accidental paint splashes. We also have a small selection of shirts for any children that are unable to bring a paint shirt.

Word Art

As part of our identity inquiry, the children have been enthusiastically creating word clouds to express the personal qualities that make them special. Check out some of our work:


Baby Photos

Thanks for sending in all of the baby photos. The children have been having a lot of fun looking at them and trying to guess who is who!




KORU HIGHLIGHTS TERM 1 WEEK 5-6

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Upcoming Events / Happenings

  • WEEK 7        THURSDAY - FLUORO MUFTI DAY - come dressed in your fabulous bright                             clothes along with a gold coin - raising thank you fund for our Emergency                                   Services
  • WEEK 10       KORU hosting our School Assembly - we are learning a song from the movie                             Moana to share with the school. Feel free to join in and practice this at home.
LIBRARY DAYS
Bring in your Library Folder these days ready to exchange.

Hub 1 - Thursday
Hub 2 - Friday
Hub 3/4 - Monday
Hub 10/11 - Friday & Monday

HOME LEARNING
Remember to fill in your Reading Logs at the back of the Home Learning Books and complete a Mad Maths Challenge every night - glued into the front.

FRIENDSHIP LIST
Hub 1 and 2 are collating a friendship list of contact numbers so children can connect with each other after school and in the holidays. If you DO NOT wish to be part of this list then please email Charlotte or Amber by Thursday 16th.

USEFUL LINKS
Here are some links to help you and your children with their learning...



PARENT HELPERS
A notice went out on Wednesday asking for volunteers to help during the school day. We really appreciate any help offered and have a range of things you can do with the children and to help the teachers. Alternatively you can email the teacher you are able to help.

Celebrating our Learning

We have enjoyed learning about our Identity. Our 'Me Bags' have generated fantastic sharing opportunities and are a great way to celebrate our individuality. Here are just a few from Hub 2.







We have also been reading the Book 'Best Part of Me' by Wendy Ewald. Hub 2 has created their own spin on this - adding writing to some black and white photography. The full range is on display in Hub 2.

Blake - My Hands

I can write stuff and feel stuff with my hands. I can pick up stuff and build things with my hands.


Jack - My Legs
I chose my legs because they walk everywhere and they can run fast. Sometimes when I race my Dad I am faster than him. I can kick with them when I am doing swimming.


Ruby - My Eyes

My eyes are special to me because they are important to fit my glasses on. My glasses help me to see otherwise my eyes get blurry and I couldn’t see or learn. I can’t read without my glasses. I like my eyes because they are very lovely.



Stella - My Neck

My neck is special because I want to wear necklaces. I like to feel my hair on my neck, it feels fluffy and soft.



Sharing Our News
We love to share our news with our friends.



Parent Helpers

We appreciate learning alongside our community - parent helpers are such a wonderful way to make connections and learn together - thank you to all that dedicate their time and efforts during the school day.

Maths Learning - Patterns

We are also learning this Term about Patterns - feel free to talk at home about the many patterns you see.



Learning through Construction

We learn to take risks and work together to create some very elaborate buildings.















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