We have been doing a lot of exciting activities in the Kōwhai Hub this week.
Discovery
This term, during Discovery, a group of children have been learning to write computer programmes using Scratch. The children have been learning about concepts such as events, if statements, loops and variables. Some children have been making their own computer games while others have been programming interactive stories.
Science
We have been learning a lot during our science lessons and have been having lots of fun at the same time. Here are some photos of our crystal growing experiment.
Statistics
Next week, we will be starting a new maths topic focusing on statistical literacy and investigations. The children will be learning about fair surveys, graphs, spreadsheets and more.
Celebration Assembly
Last week, we were able to have Celebration Assembly indoors for the first time in months. It was great to be able to get together again. At the moment, half the school goes to assembly at one time to help us maintain a safe level of social distancing.
The Kahikatea tamariki (children) and kaiako (teachers) are very excited to be heading to The Christchurch Antarctic Centre on Thursday 23rd June. The purpose of this trip is to consolidate the learning that our ākonga (learners) are doing this term around animal habitats.
Katie and Emma's home groups will leave school at 9am and return at 12:15pm, and Amber and Krystal's home groups will leave school at 11:45am and return at 3pm.
The curriculum achievement objectives that we are focusing on are...
Learners will...
- recognise that all living things have certain requirements so they can stay alive.
- recognise that living things are suited to their particular habitat
During our time at The Christchurch Antarctic Centre, the children will experience...
- a guided tour through the Antarctic Attraction and Penguin Encounter
- an 'Antarctic Storm' in the Snow and Ice Room
- a walk through the interactive gallery
- meeting some huskies
In order for this trip to go ahead, we require four parent helpers to come along per home group. You will be assigned a group of four to five children to supervise during the entirety of the trip.
Please email your child's home group teacher if you are able to help.
Literacy in Kahikatea
We love literacy! Here is an example of how our timetable currently looks in regards to literacy. We will share more about maths and other learning areas in future blog posts, so check back in again soon!
We are looking forward to our VelocityKarts trips this week. Jenny and Caitlin's home groups are going on Wednesday and Nicky and Megan's on Thursday. The children leave school at 9:30 and return by 3pm.
They are to come dressed in warm activewear and closed-toe shoes.
In a daypack, they will need:
A raincoat
Lunch (nut-free for the Wednesday trip please)
Water-bottle
Inhaler for those who need one
Any medication needed should be in a ziplock bag with the child's name on it, to be handed into their home-group teacher.
Sunglasses are optional
Below is the social story about the trip that we will be going through with the children tomorrow, Tuesday. For some children, it would be good to go through this with them again at home the night before the trip.
This week is New Zealand Sign Language Week. Sign language is one of our three official languages in Aotearoa, along with Te Reo Māori and English.
Whilst none of us at Beckenham are yet proficient in Sign Language, we do take opportunities where we can to increase our knowledge and understanding of the important place that it has in our society and to understand more about it.
Below is the video of the New Zealand National Anthem that we use at school, and that we all try to follow along. Even our newest New Entrants can follow along with parts of this already!
This week we have had our first assemblies in the hall, recognising that the weather is getting cooler! To stay within our COVID guidelines, we have split the school for assemblies and will be having separate Junior and Senior Assemblies this term. This allows us to spread out a bit more, and with the doors open, even get some singing going!
It was great to see our Year 5-8 students out in force on Tuesday participating in the Year 5-8 Cross-Country. The weather held out, and we will be sending students to zone competitions again for the first time in a while.
This term we have welcomed four Speech-Language Therapy students from the University of Canterbury to our school. They will be working for two afternoons a week for 5 weeks in our Year 1/2
team with groups of students on developing specific literacy skills.
Ngā mihi nui
Sandy Hastings
Tumuaki - Principal
Term 2 Dates
Wednesday 25 May - BOT Meeting - 5.30-7.30PM in te Rūma Kaimahi (the Staff Room)
Wednesday 25 May - PTA Meeting - 7.30-9.30PM in the Green Room
August, you do a fantastic job at displaying our kete values on a daily basis. Your positive, can-do attitude demonstrates your love of learning. This, along with your kindness and great sense of humour is appreciated by everyone in the Pōhutukawa hub. Tau kē koe!
School Notices
Reminder on School Hours
A reminder that tamariki (children) should not be at school before 8.30am. If you are needing childcare before this time, please look to our onsite before and after school care facilities run by BOSCO.
Request for corflute - Real Estate Agents, Printers & Sign Makers alike look here!
Our amazing Kapa Haka teacher - Whaea Cath is all out of corflute, the white corrugated plastic sheets our kapa haka words are on. In the past, recycled corflute from printers or real estate agents has been used (think House For Sale, and advertising signs). We are hoping we might have some people with access to these amongst our Beckenham families. One clear side is all we need for our words. About ten sheets would be good. If you are able to source these please drop anything you may have to the Office. We get there together! Thanks for your help whānau.
Example of corflute in use
Naming Items - Lost Property
Please ensure all of your child's uniform and other items are clearly named. First and last name is preferable as we often have multiple children with the same first name. This helps us ensure any of their lost property is returned to them via their Home Group teacher. If any items are not named, they stay in the Lost Property - which is located on the steps of the Library during the school day. Lost property items are mentioned to ākonga (students) in the Daily Notices.
If unnamed items are still unclaimed by the end of the term, school items are donated to the 2nd Hand Uniform shop, and all other items are donated to the Salvation Army.
Please take the time to name your child's items, and encourage them to have a look in the lost property if needed.
Sports News
Year 5 - 8 Cross Country
So great to see everybody out on the field doing their best for the Year 5-8 Cross Country this week. It was great to have parents on site again to cheer tamariki on in a social distanced manner!
Congratulations to Heathcoate for winning the house cup for team spirit.
Results will be out in the next Newsletter.
PTA News
Your trusty PTA have a few things in the pipeline that we would like to share with you.
Do you like peanut butter? We will be taking orders from next week for a Fix and Fogg peanut butter fundraiser. Buy your family's nutty goodness from us!
Save the date: we are planning a fun whānau event to celebrate Matariki - Wednesday 22nd June. Look out for more news soon.
Lastly don't forget the PTA uniform room is open every Monday and Friday 2:50-3:15 after school. We have a good range of second-hand uniform items at very reasonable prices. We always welcome clean, good quality donations.
(Notices placed here are contingent on space and do not reflect the views or opinions of the school.)
Aotearoa TrailBlazers
The Trailblazers’ Programme for term 2, is a fee-free initiative that utilises the power of running and the magic of nature to help rangatahi (young people) develop self confidence, social and emotional skills, leadership, determination and resilience to stress.
They will actively participate and challenge themselves to complete events. They will gain a strong sense of belonging, develop positive relationships and experience great achievement.
It will be running on Tuesdays (Beckenham Park) and Thursdays (Victoria Park).
You can find out more about it on this facebook page:
Book your troupes in to watch the Kidsfest musical theatre production of Monty Python’s Spamalot Young@Part! The Kid-Friendly Version. Monty Python hits the local stage with their quest for the Holy Grail in an excitingly ridiculous musical specifically adapted to be performed BY children FOR children. Luminaires Charitable Trust presents an incredibly talented cast of 8-18 year olds who bring you this uproarious show. There’s audience participation, fart jokes, and remarkable singing and dancing to incredibly well known Monty Python show tunes. Afterwards your tamariki will all be singing about the Bright Side of Life - in fact we will provide you with the lyrics and tune beforehand so if you want to learn it before the show they can join in with the cast for the final song!
● Suitable for all primary aged children
This version has been adapted from the original broadway version specifically for children
● Venue Nasda Performing Arts, E-Block, Ara Institute of Technology (we will send you a map when you book)
● Pricing $15 per head, or a flat fee of $1200 if you would like to book the entire show for your group only. Our seating capacity is 85, but with the entire theatre booked for your group we may be able to accommodate 100 by arrangement. NB bookings for the public go live on 30 May, so if you would like the entire venue, please contact us before then.
● Run Time 60-70 minutes
● Contact us directly to arrange your booking (therefore no booking fees!) luminairescharitabletrust@gmail.com 021666921
Shows:
Wednesday 13 July 11am & 1pm
Thursday 14 July 11am & 1pm
Friday 15 July 11am & 1pm & 7pm
Saturday 16 July 7pm
Wednesday 20 July 11am & 1pm
Thursday 21 July 11am & 1pm & 7pm
Friday 22 July 11am & 1pm & 7pm
Saturday 23 July 7pm
Based directly on the film comedy MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL, SPAMALOT YOUNG@PART retells the legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, with singing and dancing to tunes that you’ll never get out of your head! Re-worked especially for children.
We hope you are all happy and healthy and had a lovely holiday break! It was such a treat to see all of those wide and happy smiles back at school this week. We would likte to give an especially warm welcome to Florence, Xavier, Daniel, Aurora, Harper, Violet, Khloe, Elijah and Jackson, who have all started school this week. What a wonderful job they are all doing settling in! We also welcome Keira who is going to be having her first day at school tomorrow. We hope you have a fantastic day (and days to come), Keira. Ka pai, tamariki!
All of our tamariki have happily returned to the routines of school, and are enthusiastically embracing their learning. They have been excelling in their Literacy and Maths lessons, and are putting lots of energy and enthusiasm into engaging with our 'obstacle course' theme. Creative thinking has been running wild with the different challenges the tamariki have been setting for one another!
Learning At Home: our Learning At Home site remains up and running, if you need or want to access this. Here is the link. There are lots of different activities that you can access, including a variety of Maths activities, a wide range of Literacy activities, a range of picture books read for the tamariki by our Koru teachers, and some fun wellbeing and Te Reo Māori activities to enjoy too.
Kete Certificates: congratulations to both Xanthe and Zac, for displaying our school values and for receiving kete certificates this week. Xanthe received her certificate for showing 'We Love Learning' and Zac received his certificate for showing 'We Make a Difference'. Ka pai, korua!!
Sustainability: This year, our school-wide focus is Sustainability. Throughout Term 1, in the Koru team, our particular focus was on making and sustaining friendships, and this focus will continue throughout the year, as new children continue to enter our team. This term, we are going to be adding to this aspect of Sustainability, and including a focus on the environment. With this in mind, we are wondering if you have items we might be able to use in our Koru 'fairy garden' bed which is in the raised box outside the school hall. For this garden, we are looking for items such as:
Little plants (flowering plants, hardy, little succulents and herbs)
Stones, painted or plain
Little hollows and tunnels
Shells
...and any other items which you think might sit well in this little garden area
Obstacle Courses: obstacle courses are great fun and the children are thoroughly enjoying the challenge of creating fun and exciting courses, using the equipment in different and interesting ways, as you will see in the photos below!
Friendship List: In our Koru hub, we have a friendship list to which you can add your contact details, so that other families and parents can contact you to organise playdates. If you would like to be on this list, or are unsure whether you actually are on this list, please email your child's Home Group teacher, including both the email and contact cellphone number you would like to have added to the list.
We trust that you will all have a lovely week ahead with your families and we cannot wait to see all those smiling faces back at school tomorrow!
Photo Gallery:
Showing We Care
Don't you just love a good book?
Nose in a book!
First visit back to the Library, Term 2 :)
Emjoying a story together
Beautiful writing
Showing lovely focus at Structured Literacy time
More lovely focus being displayed here
Enjoying kai time
A happy smile for the camera!
Another beautiful smile!
Yum, yum - what's for lunch today?
Loving kai time!
Showing We Care.
Lining up, ready for our boundaries walk.
Using some very cool equipment as part of our obstacle course.
Negotiating this challenging part of the obstacle course.
Junp, jump, jump!
Wow! Truly impressive jumping required to make it over the elastic. Well done :)
Skilful balancing needed on the balance board.
More impressive balancing.
... and yet more clever balancing.
Playing our own made up Memory game.
Now... where was that other '8'?
Playing with our new beautiful castle.
In the Family Corner, playing with the lovely new food, pots and pans.
Creative use of the high jump poles!
Great work with the magnetic numerals.
Including newbies in a game of Duck, Duck, Goose.
Our Structured Literacy group time.
Who is this character on the back of the card which has the sound, /a/?
What sound does this letter make?
It's Ally the Alligator's favourite sound!
Refreshing our memories about the first 8 letter sounds and their matching characters.
Finding out about the boundaries in the courtyard area.
What does the yellow line across the path mean and why is it here?
Exploring in Treemendous.
It's a shower of leaves!
Digitech unplugged: Kidbots (programmers sitting around the outside and the child as the 'bot' in the centre)
Creating the obstacles and then plotting the pathway.
We love our new sandpit (and how wonderful that it has a roof).
Family Corner: fun with a friend.
Are we ready, team?
Friends playing collaboratively together.
Trying our very best at handwriting time.
Working together as we learn about 'teen' numbers.
Would you like to try some?
We love Literacy!
We hope you enjoyed our photo gallery!
Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou,
The Koru Teachers: Elizabeth, Georgia, Nicola, Stacey, Jeanette and Amy.
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