Building Update 13 April 2017

Posted on 14 June, 201714 June, 2017 by Sandy Hastings, Principal, Beckenham School

Building update

(from the school newsletter, 13 April, 2017)
Today has seen the office move to the Minor Room , where it will be for Term 2. The hall, hall foyer and office reception will be part of the building site now, until the end of Term 3. The hall is being partially reclad (at the park end) where it is a leaky building. The foyer is getting a new front - windows and double doors to create a more welcoming entrance to the hall, and a new roof across the foyer and office reception area (which is being retained as an additional multi-purpose space).

The bike stands area will be relocated during the holidays to the Sandwich Road side of Rooms 1-4. Eventually we will put new fencing around this area. For Term 2, it will have temporary fencing.

The staffroom has been relocated from the hall foyer to Room 13 (behind Tony's garage).

For those of you watching the progress on the new buildings, you will have noticed the the West Hub (next to the Toy Library) is looking very smart with windows and doors now in, including the lovely red and yellow windows. The internal work happening in this building is massive with numerous different tradesmen (yes - sadly there haven't been any female tradies on site yet) working on their various trades at the same time. The East Hub has made a major transformational leap this week, going from a concrete pad on Monday morning, to a building with a roof by lunchtime today.

During the holidays, the diggers will be digging a stormwater pit in the junior grass area. This will be filled with a special stormwater retention system, and then reseeded. We do anticipate that this area will be partially fenced off for most of Term 2 whilst the grass is regrown.

Pōhutukawa Team Newsletter – Term 2, Week 6, 2017

Posted on 13 June, 201713 June, 2017 by Gayle McNaughton

Dance

The children have begun practicing their dance routines in groups, with the help of our Jump Jamp team leaders. Enthusiasm has been high with many children also practicing at home. The routines are looking sharp, with high involvement and lots of smiles all round.

Writing

We are continuing with our descriptive writing. This week, children have selected two animals and combined them to produce a hybrid animal with a unique new name. The children have been focusing on using paragraphs correctly and including figurative language to add interest to their writing. Here are some examples.

Cheamouse Hybrid

The Cheamouse is a cheetah and a mouse, all mixed up together. The Cheamouse is a part of the Caouse family, which means big vicious cats and tiny little mice are all mixed up together like slime, mixed up in your hair. The cheeky little Cheamouse has heaps of relatives like the pumping Puamouse, the terrifying Tiamouse and the leaping Lynamouse.

The Cheamouse loves to pounce on beautiful butterflies and loves to eat lovely luscious red cheesy meat from the best deli’s in Tokyo and the greenest caterpillars.

The Cheamouse is very spotty like a lady bug and is the size of the sweetest, medium sized, babies’ fist. The Cheamouse makes the sound “meack”, a squeak and a tiny meow, mixed up together like a cake in a mixer.

The enemies of the Cheamouse are little rock-crawling crabs, birds and chickens. They are from the deep, deep South of Hawaii.

I am really glad that they aren’t so big, or we would probably all be dead by them violently smashing everything in its path.

By Hebe Butland.

The terrifying Chragon

A Chragon is a ferocious creature that lurks in the shadows of the African savannahs. It is rarely seen, but they are usually found in the rocky mountains where they sometimes live. They are a breed of dragon and cheetah.

They have deadly and dangerous abilities like their poison tipped tails and saliva. They are flying creatures with enormous wings making them powerful fliers. They are as fast as lightning in the midnight sky, but unlike their relative, the cheetah, they can go for hours on end without tiring.

They have light sand coloured scales with black spots and splashes of colour on them help to blend with the soft sand and grizzly grasslands. They usually have hazel brown or yellow eyes but can have any colour. They also have thick spikes down their backs, necks and tails and they have spots that glow like lightning in a midnight sky.

They like rocky mountain caves and cracks, boiling African plains and grasslands.

Now you have learnt about these terrifying creatures. Would you want to go looking for them?

Probably not!

By Kate Dunstan.

The year 5 & 6 Basketball team

The year 5/6 backetball team have been playing on Thursday nights at Pioneer Stadium. As a newly formed team they are really working very well together and have had some fantastic break aways and baskets. What a team! The Pioneer Basketball club are offering a July School Holidays clinic for boys and girls aged 6-13. The focus will be on shooting and footwork. Please see the link below for more information.

http://www.sporty.co.nz/pioneerbasketballclub/July-Holiday-Clinics-for-Y2-Y9/HOLIDAY-CLINIC-INFO

Kauri Whanau: Term 2 Week 7 Update

Posted on 13 June, 201713 June, 2017 by Nicky Dunlop

What are we up to in the Intermediate Hub?

Since the start of this term we have been exploring diversity through lots of rich discussion, videos and a guest speaker. Next week we will introduce the children to their inquiry options. The children will select an aspect of diversity: cultural, gender or disability, to focus their inquiry on.

In the meantime, we are having a focus on visual art this week. The children have opted for one of the following: mixed media mini canvas, cartoon drawing or lego based portraits. We are looking forward to seeing what they produce by the end of Thursday.

We finished our hockey unit with a festival last Wednesday. From tomorrow we will be focusing on football skills, every Wednesday for 45 mins.

Last week we started writing stories based on a world record attempt. We will come back to these next week. Some children will need to spend time at home working on these this week.

Year 8 girls will be starting self defence classes with Lynda Maindonald from Self Defence NZ next Monday afternoon. They will have 5 sessions. We have worked with Lynda for several years now and the girls in the past have found these sessions very empowering, and fun.

Choir:

Tomorrow, the choir meet by the ponds at 8:30. From there they will walk to Hillview for a massed choir rehearsal. This will happen again next Tuesday morning. Both mornings, they will be back at Champion Street by 11:45. Booking forms for tickets to see the choir perform next Tuesday and Wednesday evening need to be returned to the office by this Friday. Jarred has spare copies if needed.

Cheese Rolls:

Our Passion Friday cheese roll business group, EeezyCheezyInc, have been very busy planning, testing, designing and organising systems. Order forms went on-line in the weekend and paper forms went home today. We will be having two cheese roll making days. The first will be on Thursday June 29th, for Year 1-4 orders. The second will be on Wednesday July 5th for Year 5-8 orders. We would appreciate as much parent help as possible on these days. Please fill in this form if are able to help at some stage.

EeezyCheezyInc.

From Rangi Ruru:

Personalising Your Daughter’s Learning is for parents wanting to know more about our individual plans for each Rangi student, our approach to the curriculum, learning support and extension, and our GATE programme.
Thursday, 15 June 5.30pm - 7.00pm

To register interest http://bit.ly/InsightIntoRangi

An awesome family outing:

From the Christchurch Maths Association: We warmly invite you to discover the maths behind craft and the craft behind maths at Christchurch’s first Maths Craft Day, Sunday June 18 in The Great Hall at The Arts Centre. Our all-day event is free, and suitable for adults and children alike, and we would love to see you there. The Christchurch Maths Craft Day will feature seven craft creation stations as well as public talks by mathematician crafters, and the day-long celebration of maths promises to engage people of all ages. Make a Möbius strip, crochet a hyperbolic plane, build a fractal sculpture, fold an origami octahedron, and listen to talks about the connections between maths and crafts. Explore the newly opened Teece Museum at the Arts Centre and discover the ancient relationship between mathematics and craftsmanship. Open to everyone: experts and amateurs, maths-fans and maths-phobes, the crafty and the curious.

Beckenham Cheese Roll Fundraiser

Posted on 11 June, 201711 June, 2017 by Nicky Dunlop

An enthusiastic team of Year 7 & 8 children have been busy setting up a small business: EezyCheezyInc. They have tested cheese roll recipes, sought feedback, sourced ingredients, created ordering and advertising material and are ready to launch their business. Advertising will go on-line and on display this week, and paper order forms will go home.

The first $600 they make will go towards our J-Rock expenses. All the rest will go towards the outdoor spaces fundraising project. If you would like to order your cheese rolls on-line, please click this link.

Many thanks for your support.

KORU HIGHLIGHTS Term 2 Week 6-7

Posted on 10 June, 201710 June, 2017 by Charlotte Verity

Kia ora!
What an action packed fortnight we have had! Enjoy reading about the highlights below:

Reminders/Notices
* If your child needs more stationery, we will send a note home regarding what and how to purchase this.

* Please check jerseys to make sure your child is bringing home their jersey. Several jerseys have been lost recently. Thanks also for sending your child to school in uniform black shoes.

* A big thank you for waiting until 8:30 to enter classrooms.

* Junior School Cross Country is on Thursday 22 June from 1.30pm. The postponement date for this event is Thursday, June 29th. If you would like to help, please email Caitlyn. If your child has spare trainers, please pop these in their bags over the next fortnight as we will be running practises, and the route can be muddy at times.

Gallery & Botanic Gardens
We enjoyed a trip to the gallery and botanic gardens, many thanks to Elizabeth (Gail) and fabulous parent helpers...many thanks to each of you.

At the gallery, we had a personal tour in small groups, and looked closely at some of the art on display. An animal themed exhibition was a hit with the children, particularly one stuffed sloth! The children each thought about what is important to them and completed our own Waka drawing.

Maths

We have been learning about measurement over the last weeks, as well as computation and practising number knowledge. The children have loved the hands-on nature of measuring things...and each other!

Key concepts covered:

* Length, height, width, capacity, volume

* Using informal measurements e.g. blocks or popsicle sticks to measure length

* Start and end point

* Placing our measurement tool (e.g. blocks) end to end.

Why not try measuring books, a self, a person or something else at home?

Circle Time

Each Hub continues to have a weekly Circle Time. Students are encouraged to share 'what's on top' for them, and to celebrate successes or resolve challenges collaboratively, with teacher support. Circle Time relies on honesty and acceptance - each person's view is valued. Each Hub has also been exploring different aspects of social-emotional learning, such as change, conflict resolution, mind-set and how it can impact learning (learn more here - Carol Dwek's research), respect and giving/receiving compliments.

Arts Programme
The teachers have created a collaborative movement/sound arts programme for Monday afternoons. Children get to enjoy a different activity each week, from Zumba with Caitlyn, to percussion with Charlotte and mindful movement with Amber. Choir with Dorinda is also on offer for our eager singers - the children are learning vocal exercises and an entertaining selection of songs.

Kapa haka:
Our children spend time with our kaiako Maori, Sherrilee, each week, and participate in these lessons with impressive energy and enthusiasm! These photos tell the story beautifully, and include children who have had only very little time at school yet, as well as one who is yet to start, but was visiting school last Thursday. Thank you, Sherrilee, for all you give to the youngest of our Beckenham School students.

Working with poi ...

Just visiting, but so beautifully confident!

Adding actions to the waiata

Sherrilee loved these kapa haka moves

Love this poi work

Day 3 at school at look at this confidence!

Beautiful!

Also beautiful!

...and again ... beautiful!

Discovery Stations:
Discovery Station continue to be a highly motivating time of each day. The children practise their Key Competency skills: Thinking; Relating to Others; Understanding Language, Symbols and Texts; Managing Self; and Participating and Contributing. They also show amazing skill at being able to intertwine their learning in the areas of Literacy and Numeracy, as the following photos demonstrate.