Pohutukawa Team Newsletter Term 3 Week 8

Kia Ora Whanau

We are rapidly nearing the end of a fantastic Term 3 and looking forward to being back at Beckenham School next term.

Ferrymead Trip 

We had two amazing trips to Ferrymead where we did lots of learning about how much change has affected our lives over the past 100 years.
   
When we arrived, we dressed up in the school uniforms children used to wear each day. Even the teachers had to wear fancy frocks! 

We explored some of Ferrymead Park before heading off to our lessons.



  

 




 





We had a lesson in the school room with Miss Black who was very strict about us lining up silently, sitting up in our seats with straight backs, following instructions without talking, reciting our timetables and doing our handwriting perfectly in ink. We also did some housework where we washed clothing on the washboards, used the wringer, made beds, cleaned tables and ironed clothing using an iron heated on the coal fire. Then we went to explore the old printing station where we used the embossing machine, stapled wee booklets and printed our own posters. We also learned a lot about how phones used to work by having a turn at connecting calls between two people, dialing the old rotary dial phones and figuring out how to hold the phones so we could listen and talk at the same time! 

Challenges 

Last term, we put out a survey asking our children about their use and understanding of our values, their learning within the curriculum areas and what they wanted more of at school. From this survey, 'Challenge' time was started earlier this term.

The challenges focussed on exploring our Key Competencies:

  • thinking
  • relating to others
  • understanding language, symbols and text
  • managing self 
  • participating and contributing

Here are some of our challenges:








 


Drama

During this term, our Arts focus has been on learning different techniques to create a performance based on a well-known story. We developed our understanding around role, action, space, expression, and voice then worked collaboratively to create and present a play to show our learning. We needed to work together as a team, listening to each others' ideas respectfully and making decisions fairly.


Here we are, learning about freeze frames and thought tracking by creating a scene in 10 seconds from The 3 Little Pigs. 

Special Achievement 

Maria arrived at Beckenham School from Brazil in May with very little English. This week, she completed her speech in English and Portuguese. She has also been learning Te Reo. The determination and persistence required to achieve this is outstanding. What an amazing achievement! 

Here is Maria's speech in both languages:  

Fast food 

Hello my name is Maria and I’m going to tell you what fast food can do to your health and the many things it can do to your body.

Quickly made, quickly served, quickly eaten. That’s fast food. Perhaps badly made, poorly served, quickly eaten is more appropriate.

But fast food can taste so good. Some people don’t stop to eat fast food and the bad thing in all this is fast food can have a lot of  fat stuff and this is not good for our health.

Fast food can be really good to eat with your friends but can make you sick with diabetes because it is not prepared properly. Some fast foods just throw things in the recipes and cook. It’s so bad for our health because they put bad ingredients in it.

So now I am going to tell you in Portuguese (my original language) what fast food can do for your health. 

Feito rápido servido rápido e comido rápido.esse é o fast food possivelmente não feito muito bem,mau servido,e comido rápido isso é mais apropriado 

Mas fast food pode ter o gosto muito bom.mas algumas pessoas não conseguem parar de comer fast food e a pior coisa nisso e que fast food pode ter muita gordura e isso não é bom  para nossa saúde. 

Fast food pode ser muito bom para comer com os amigos mas pode fazer você ficar doente com diabetes porque nao e feito apropriadamente. Alguns fast food só jogam as coisas na panela e cozinham isso não é bom para nossa saúde porque eles podem ter colocado os ingredientes errados.

Então eu acho que pessoas não podem comer muitos fast food porque pode fazer mal para nossa saúde.

End of term outing 

We are off for a visit to Wharenui Pools and Margaret Mahy Playground on Friday 29th September. We will depart from Beckenham School at Eastern Tce at 8:40am and arrive back at Beckenham School by 3:00pm. Thank you for the wonderful offers of support from our parent helpers. We are looking forward to an exciting day out! 

Kauri Whānau Update: Term 3 Week 9

We are becoming surrounded by packing boxes as the end of term is approaching with rapid speed! Despite the approaching move back to Beckenham, interesting and exciting learning opportunities continue in our hub.

Trip to the University of Canterbury, Wednesday September 27th:

As an extension of the learning our children have been going about chemical and physical change, we will be taking our team to the University of Canterbury on Wednesday morning next week, to visit the science department. To make the most of the trip, we will also be visiting the geography dept. The morning will involve a science experiment, learning more about the periodic table, exploring career pathways, soaking in the vibe of a university and more. Many thanks to Jenni Adams and Simon Kingham for helping to put this exciting morning together for our students. We would like to have three parents join us on this trip. As we will be leaving from Beckenham and returning to Champion Street for lunch, you would need to meet us at the university. Please send an email to nicky.dunlop@beckenham.school.nz if you can join us. There will be no cost to families for this trip. For those who usually drop their children to Champion Street in the morning, please have them at Beckenham on Wednesday.

Sexuality Education:

Our Sexuality Road unit has begun, welcomed by cheers from Year 8 and slightly more caution from Year 7. It would be good to open discussions at home about what is being talked about in class. This topic will run for the rest of this term and into term 4. 

Sports News:

Congratulations to our Year 7 and 8 orienteering team who placed 1st at the Canterbury School's Orienteering Festival last weekend. The children navigated their way successfully through courses at Ferrymead and Spencer Park in the two-day festival. Tino pai, Rosie, Daisy, Mitchel, Kaia and Sadie. Many thanks to Jenni Adams for managing and coaching the team. 

Next week, Alex, Millie and Kaia travel to Timaru to complete in the Inter-Regional Cross Country Race. We wish them all the best for a successful run. Thank you, again, to Jenni Adams for managing this team.  

Good luck to our korfball team who will be competing in an all day tournament on Monday at Pioneer Stadium. 

Athletics day is coming up early next term on October 26th. If you are able to help with the running of events, please send an email to jenny.diggle@beckenham.school.nz

Passion Friday:

Once again the children have been loving their learning during passion time this term. The board game group are off to The Fab Lab to design and make game pieces using a 3D printer, this Friday. The monster softies group have been very creative and can take pride in the very cool toys they have created. A big thanks to Sue Kingham and Annette Bone who have been supporting the children with their sewing. Great gales of laughter can be heard coming from the breakout space, as the children experience theatre sports. A team has been put together for the Year 7 & 8 theatre sports competition next term. The code club continue to develop their coding skills. We are very grateful to Ivo Gorny and Bruce Peters who work with this group on projects that are personalised to each child's skill level. 

Next week passion Friday will happen on Tuesday, as our technology day has been switched to Friday, due to events at South. Our final day at Champion Street will be next Thursday.

Monster softie creations.

Speech Competition:

Well done to our speech finalists who presented last Wednesday. We were impressed by the breadth of topics, impressive writing, and confident delivery. It was definitely an entertaining afternoon. Lisa McGonigle, who has a PHD in literature, judged the speeches. She was very impressed by the quality of the speeches and the skill displayed in delivery. Congratulations to the place-getters:
Year 7: 1st Thom (why I should be king); 2nd equal, Georgina (gender equality), Sophia (animal rights) and Tilly (smoking)
Year 8: 1st Amelia (women's rights), 2nd Daisy (car free zone by school) and 3rd equal Jordan H (dad jokes) and Sadie (LGBT rights)

We were very proud of Thom and Amelia when they presented their speeches at the South Zone Rotary Speech Competition last night.



















Week 7 & 8 News





Kids in Town

Last Thursday our junior Kapa Haka groups went to the Christchurch Art Gallery for the Kids in Town event with Thorrington School. The children performed poi, haka and waiata to the huge audience of whānau and did a fantastic job. Thank you to everyone who was able to make it and a HUGE thank you to Sherrilee for all the support and guidance she provides for our tamariki.






Situations vacant
Do you have an hour or so to spare?
Do you enjoy working in a positive, fulfilling and satisfying job?
Do you have a passion, interest or skill to share?

Then this opportunity is for you!

Discovery Time - Each morning from Mon-Thurs in the Koru Hubs.

We have a range of opportunities for parents to either run a Discovery station that has been already set up or share a passion, interest or skill with our children.

‘Stations’ are set up each week, with developmental activities including crafts, cooking, cultural activities, building challenges, musical instruments, interpersonal games and many more curriculum and play based areas. Discovery time allows the children to explore new or loved areas of learning, and to work with peers or independently.

Payment for this wonderful opportunity includes feelings of satisfaction, contribution to our tamariki's education, and the appreciation of our school community.

Don't delay, come in and talk to us or email your interest.






Teddy Bears Picnic

Last Friday all the children from Koru  team (and teachers!) brought their favourite teddy bear to school for the highly anticipated teddy bears picnic.  We all sat together on our picnic blankets and enjoyed time together as a whole team. We were blessed with beautiful weather and were able to enjoy our lunches with fabulous company. 







'Change' 

Inquiry Learning

This term we have been doing a lot of learning around the concept of 'change'. Recently in the year one and two hub, we have been engaged in a learning rotation to expose the children to several different areas of learning, all with the common theme of change. 

Caitlyn has taken on a science focus and has been exploring how water changes when added to a plate of skittles, forming scientific explanations and using observational skills. 


Sue and Dorinda are looking at the changes bean seeds go through to become a bean plant.  The focus is 'When scientists carry out investigations they aim to collect adequate evidence'.  The children will all bring some bean seeds in a cup and a bean diary home to complete over the next 6 weeks, ready to bring back to school in term 4 so we can see the progress the beans have made over time.

Charlotte has had a technology and science focus looking at differences in seeds and how they grow and change and technology over the ages and how this has changed. Thank you to Noah's Dad who has brought a pair of working dial phones to add to the children's experience.

Amber has been looking at changing identity using masks. The children explore different ideas for masks, decide on an alternative identity to be portrayed in their own mask and then make their masks. After making masks they all explore their new identity using drama.

Spellathon
Thank you for all your support with our Spellathon.  We have had most of the money and forms back which is great.  Hub 3 was the first to have their forms and money back in this year which meant they won the beautiful morning tea provided by the PTA.  The children in Hub 3 decided that they would like to share this wonderful feast with their friends in the learning space so, last Friday, bears by our sides, we all enjoyed a teddy bears morning tea.
Thank you very, very much to the wonderful PTA for being so generous and putting so much energy, time and love into making the morning tea.  








Our school community's support through sponsorship is very much appreciated and we are looking forward to the outdoor spaces that are being developed for our children.
  

Whole School Assembly on Monday
Next week on Monday we will be walking the children to Hillview's gym to have a whole school assembly. This is an opportunity for the whole school to reunite and celebrate our learning for term three. Unfortunately, the space does not have the correct seating so we are unable to invite all parents this time.   We are really looking forward to having our hall back in action by the end of the year.  The whole school will be attending from 9:15 - 10:30am.




Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 3 Week 8

We are on the countdown, with just two and a half weeks left at Champion Street. Everyone is feeling pretty excited about being back at Beckenham, in our beautiful new hub. Tomorrow we will travelling back to Beckenham at 12:00 to hold our speech finals in the afternoon. Parents are welcome to join us. We'll be starting at 1:30pm. 


This Thursday:


On Thursday Cashmere High School are holding their Year 8 testing morning. All those involved will have received information about this morning from Cashmere. We have been stressing to the children that these tests are just one piece of information used for class placement and that the conversation we have with staff from Cashmere early next term, plays a big part in placement decisions. Children are to wear school uniform to Cashmere. We expect to see all Year 8s back at Beckenham School by 1pm. We do not arrange transport for this morning. The Year 8 children not going to Cashmere next year are to sign in at the Beckenham office by 8:50am on Thursday. They have each been assigned a hub to work in as a leader that morning. Nicky will drive back to Beckenham at lunch time and work with the Year 8s in our new hub that afternoon. 

Meanwhile the Year 7s will have a morning at Champion Street with the Year 6s, as a taster for 2018. Year 7 will have normal Champion Street bus arrangements on Thursday. 


Vaccination:


Those who are getting their HPV Vaccination through school will receive their second  dose next week, on Thursday 21st September.


Sexuality Road: 


This unit of learning will begin next Monday. The parent evening has been cancelled, due to only one parent signing up for this.


Speeches:

We have been very impressed with the standard of speeches that have been shared over the past three days. Well done to all of those who had the confidence to stand up and speak in front of their peers.  Tomorrow, Wednesday, we will be holding our Kauri Speech Competition in our new hub at Beckenham. We congratulate the following speakers who will present their speeches tomorrow.
Year 7: Tilly, Hannah W, Thom B, Sophia, Felix, Georgina, Chris, Fynn, Santi
Year 8: Jordan H, Isaac, Amelia Ca, Joe, Daisy, Juliette, Kaia, Sadie, Jamie

To our finalists, keep practising tonight. Watch your speed; not too fast. Make use of gesture and pauses for effect. Depending on your topic, some of you need to ramp up your expression. Best of luck.

This was a very difficult list to create. We would like at acknowledge the following people who really impressed us, but didn't quite make the finalists:
Joel, Marlonique, Maddi, Rosie, Alex, Isla and Ruby.

To everyone else who presented their speech, a huge well done. We were entertained and educated over the past few days. You displayed that you love challenge by facing one of the greatest fears known to man: public speaking. 


Sport:


Winter sport has wrapped up for the year and last week our basketball season finished on a high, with both teams having convincing wins. Many thanks to those parents who have been there game after game to support the children. Your cheering from the sideline makes a big difference. 


Beckenham Ballers 
Beckenham Bulls

Our next sporting competition is a korfball competition on Monday September 25th at Pioneer Stadium. The team is: George, Alex, Fergus, Joe, Caleb, Nathan, Isaac, Millie, Olivia, Shakira, Kaia, Hannah S, Ruby, and Bella. Jarred is sending home a paper notice about this tournament today.




From Canterbury Young Writers:
Book for the Spring into Writing Workshops 
These Spring holidays we will be running two workshop days. You can book for one or two sessions per day.
Cost: $15 per session or $25 for two sessions on the same day.
Where: The Writers’ Block, Hagley Community College. Entry via Waller Terrace ( map)
WORKSHOP OPTION A: Pick-a-Path extravaganza! Borrowing all the best bits from our favourite stories, we’ll kick off a story together as a class, then split off into smaller groups, taking the story in different directions, and everyone will get to write their own ending – be it romantic, gruesome, spectacular, tragic, victorious or heart-breaking. Choose your own adventure!
WORKSHOP OPTION B:  Poetry with Pictures: Have you heard it said that a picture is worth a thousand words? Bring your artistic skills — draw a picture and then write a poem about it! Stick drawings work just as well as great art! And then learn how to write another kind of poem — a concrete poem. Turn your words into pictures by changing the shape of them. You will make great poetry by writing in images, about images and with imagery!
Monday October 2  Year 4 to 6
10.00 – 12.00 Both workshops are on offer ( Poetry with Pictures and Pick-a-Path)
Lunch: supervised. Children need to bring their own lunch if staying for both workshops.
12.30 – 2.30 Both workshops are on offer ( Poetry with Pictures and Pick-a-Path)
Tuesday October 3 Year 7 to 8
10.00 – 12.00  Poetry with Pictures workshop only
Lunch: supervised. Children need to bring their own lunch if staying for both workshops.

12.30 – 2.30  Pick-a-Path workshop only