Monthly Archives: March 2018

Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 1 Week 7

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We have spent the last week and a half learning about  WW1 ANZACs. In the process we have been developing our research skills, using a variety of websites including Cenotaph and Papers Past. Our trip to the Airforce Museum built on this knowledge, including a very good session on Gallipoli. The children are about to start a letter writing task that uses the knowledge they have gained from their research. This ties in with our focus for this term: 'We must act to sustain what is valued'.

Dunedin Camp:

It is just over two weeks until we are off to Dunedin. Tomorrow we will be talking with the children about camp. They will bring home a paper notice that will include a gear list. I will also send you an electronic copy of this notice. The first evening meal will be a pasta bake. We would like these to be prepared before we go. Please click here if you would be happy to prepare a pasta bake for 8 people. We will provide ingredients, including a foil baking dish.

Cheese Rolls:

We have exceeded expectations with cheese roll orders. The only things we now need are a parent to help on Wednesday afternoon and three electric knives. Please click this link if you can help us out.
There has been some discussion around packaging and we have decided that one option will be to provide your own packaging. On Monday and Tuesday we will put a tub outside the hall to gather labelled (child, hub and number of orders) containers. For those who don't provide containers, we will use the same packaging we used last year.

Congratulations and good luck:

A big well done to all of those who competed in the Hanmer 4 Hour mountain biking event last weekend. Beckenham had 6 teams entered and took out two 2nd places and two 3rd places. Congratulations to Boyd, Winni, Paolo, Sam, Tamryn and Charlie from our team.

Next week we have children competing in the Canterbury Duathlon on Monday and the Police Competency Test on Tuesday. We know you will do us proud and give of your very best.

School Fair Tomorrow:

There is lots of excitement about the fair tomorrow. We have a number of children who have volunteered to help setup, cleanup or help on game stalls. The hall is the meeting place for these children. If you have yet to send your can of coconut milk or your mystery bottle to the fair HQ, please send these in tomorrow morning, along with your plate of home baking.

Below is the collaborative art produced by your children. Wouldn't one of these artworks look great on your wall? Make sure you place your bid at the fair.




St Andrew's College Open Day:



Last chance to order cheese rolls.

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A huge thanks to all those who are supporting Year 7 & 8 camp fundraising by purchasing cheese rolls. There is only one day left to order your tasty cheese rolls. Orders close tomorrow, Thursday. Cheese rolls will be sent home with your child on either the Wednesday (Koru and Kowhai) or Thursday (Pōhutukawa and Kauri) before Easter. $8 for one dozen or $30 for 4 dozen.

Click here to order your cheese rolls now.



Koru Term 1: Weeks 5 & 6

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Kia ora whanau!


Bounce and Skip
Some of you may have had the pleasure of meeting our class friends, Bounce and Skip. These two monkeys are experts at handwriting and have been teaching us how to strengthen our hands, fingers and core so that we can become neater, quicker writers. We are now experts at these exercises so please ask us to show you. The more we practice, the stronger we become! 

Writing by hand engages the brain in learning and especially activates the “reading circuits” of the brain. Using the results of modern brain imaging techniques, research suggests that writing by hand plays a substantial role in the visual recognition and learning of letters, a foundation for both reading and writing. Through studies using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to probe how the brain processes stimuli in real time, researchers have demonstrated that there is a distinct system in the human brain that is recruited during reading that is also recruited during writing. The reading network develops as a function of handwriting (printing) experience. Handwriting (printing), and not keyboarding, leads to adult-like neural processing in the visual system of the preschool child. Findings like these suggest that self-generated action, in the form of printing letters by hand, is a crucial component in setting up brain systems for reading acquisition.

One of the things Bounce and Skip has been teaching us this week is how to correctly pick up and hold a pencil. Below is a graphic we are using that we encourage to look at together at home to. Is your pencil grip up to scratch?  This way of holding the pencil is comfortable and allows children to write fast and legibly.




School Fair Art Auction Pieces

Dorinda's Home base has been enjoying creating our piece for the School Fair Art Auction - we love wondering who will be successful in buying it! Here is our writing about our butterflies.


  • My butterfly is really cool and I love the colours. It has cool wings. HETTIE
  • My butterfly is colourful. It is going to be on a canvas. How much do you want it to be? It is going to be beautiful. I love my colours of my butterflies. It even has mixed colours. FINN
  • My butterfly is a Monarch. The money is going to be $10. My Mum is going to buy it and I will make a magic potion so it can be real. QUINN
  • We painted our butterflies for the School Fair because the school wants to make money. My butterfly has black spots. He is really colourful. I like my butterfly. OLLIE
  • Our Butterflies. My butterfly is blue. It's got silver and green and black and it's pretty. ARCHIE
  • My butterfly is a rainbow colour. I like that it is really colourful. GEORGIA 
  • I love how my butterfly is coloured and I really like the colour of the canvas. I really like the book pages at the bottom. KJ
  • The butterflies like playing with their friends. JONTAI
  • I want my butterfly to fly off the page. ZEKE
  • i made this butterfly. I love my colours. They are blue, pink and silver. I love Bounce and Skip too because they are cute. CAMMIE
  • I am a butterfly and I can fly. JAKE
  • I like my butterfly and I want it to fly off the sky. KARDA
  • We painted our butterflies for the School Fair. My butterfly is black and red. I did it those colours because red is for Christmas and black is for Halloween and I love both of them. BREE
  • This is my butterfly. He is a Monarch. He has black rain drops on his wings and he is blue and red. He has a big smile. Annabelle
  • Our butterflies are awesome. I love our butterflies. They are super. STELLA
  • I made a butterfly. It has flashes on it and it has cool patterns on it. I love it. It is a Monarch. I think it is nice. It has blue around the edges. JACK
  • Do you know why I like butterflies? It is because they can fly and my butterfly's colours are black, red and blue. CORTANA
  • Our butterflies are lovely and we like the butterflies so much. We like to see them. GABRIELLA
  • I like butterflies. My butterfly has black and dark blue on the wings and black spots and red on the head. KAWA
  • We did class butterflies for our School Fair. Mine has some gold, blue and red and orange colours with black dots. I feel great about my butterfly. AYLA
  • My butterfly is like candy. She needs water to drink. Her name is Twinkerbelle. I like butterflies because they are really beautiful. IRIA-MARIA
  • I love my butterfly. it is black and golden, blue, pink, light blue and a tiny bit of white. I love the colours. CHELSEA

Kristika's home base tamariki developed their pride and sense of belonging through creating their own piece of Koru art.  These were all put together like a puzzle and 'mod podged' into place.
We discussed the meaning of what is 'koru' and how we as team Koru are the like the young koru of Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto school. 


Discovery - Play Based Learning

Koru have been inspired by our Year 7 leaders in making obstacle courses all week. Some great ideas, co-operation and leadership came out of our sessions. We also had child-led art workshops, maze drawing and lego construction Enjoy these photos. 














Kowhai News Week 6 Term 1

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Kowhai News Week 6 Term 1

TWIGHLIGHT FAIR

On the night of the Twilight Fair, the children in Kōwhai team are going to be performing a medley of 3 songs that we know and love. Please bring your child to the admin block at 5:10pm ready for them to perform at 5:20pm.
We know our team choir will be spectacular and the children will love singing to the crowd!

TINNED TOMATOES and MYSTERY BOTTLES- Keep these coming in for the fair. Thanks to all those who have already bought these items in. The PTA really appreciate it!
HELP - The PTA still need parents to help run stalls on the night of the fair. Please contact the PTA to let them know your availability.

Here are some of the stunning artworks that our team have created for the auction. The children are incredibly proud of their efforts! We are too.




ADULT HELP



We know we have an incredible group of parents and caregivers in our team and we would really love some adult help to come in to support some of our current programmes.

Ways you can help:
Maths- helping children with their counting, writing/reading numbers
Reading- Listening to children read
Writing- Supporting children during a writing session
Baking- Coming in to bake with a small group of children
Woodwork/Craft- Helping children develop some skills by making and creating items of interest and use.
If you are able to assist us, please email or come in and see your home group teacher. We are open to any of your offers and know you help will greatly benefit the children in our team!


TOP TEAM

We would like to express our gratitude to all the amazing parents who came along to support our Top Team event. Without your wonderful help, this would not have been possible! The children had an amazing time and this was evident by the HUGE smiles on their faces. As part of our afternoon inquiry, the children will be planning their own, 'Top Team' event to run with children in Koru team.

HOME LEARNING.  


Image result for Home Learning clip artEach student has a Home Learning book which they keep in their Home Learning Folder. It is really important they bring this to and home from school each day.  Each Monday they will organise their new insert and write their weekly spelling words on the sheet.  A teacher must check and sign their spelling list. If there is no signature it has not been handed in or checked by a teacher.
This week we have added in the maths component to our Home Learning. each week your child will have a MMM sheet pasted into their book for them to learn. If this is new learning, your child can just work through the skill. If it is a skill that your child is able to do, then the focus will be on completing the MMM with speed with the aim of completing this within 1 minute.

That's all for now!
Kowhai Teaching Team










Anne Kaye’s Visit

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Image result for tui street tales

On Friday morning, we were entertained and inspired by Anne Kayes who is a part of the Storylines Festival. Anne is an award-winning NZ author who won the 2016 Storylines Tom Fitzgibbon Award. Anne talked about her novel, 'Tui Street Tales' which is about children in a street where the ordinary everyday life becomes strange and are based on a fairytale theme. 

The children were captivated by the story that Anne told and asked many wonderful questions to help them learn more about being an author. It was wonderful to see so many children expressing an interest in reading this book for themselves. 
So thank you Storylines Festival for our wonderful end of the week.