Kia ora, e te whānau,
A very warm welcome to Fin and Greyson who have both joined our team recently. You've made a wonderful start to school, tamariki - well done!
It's been a very busy time for Koru team members, as we spread out to include our new learning space, Kōmanawa. Elizabeth's Home Group is starting and finishing the day there, and some Literacy groups are also being taught in Kōmanawa. The tamariki have fully embraced our new space, and are treating it with great care and respect. Welcome to Finlay and Greyson, who have started school and joined our Koru team.
- Boxes, please - a request from us to, please, save any boxes you might normally put out in your recycling bin and send them into school instead - the children are loving creating and decorating in the Maker Space in Hangere and we find that we're always in need of boxes, generally small to medium in size, although shoe boxes and even those slightly bigger can also be turned into homes for fairies, dioramas and so on. We'd also love any little bits and bobs such as ribbon, lace, buttons, small pieces of fabric, feathers, etc., for decorative purposes. Many thanks if you're able to help out with any of these items.
- Beckenham's Got Talent - your children may have been talking with you about the Beckenham Talent Show which is traditionally held at the end of Term 3. A member of our School Council will be coming to the Koru team soon to explain what is involved. There will be more information coming out shortly however, in the meantime, if your child has a particular 'talent' (for example, it might involve singing, dancing, gymnastics, hula hooping, telling jokes, performing magic tricks, etc.) they could be practising at home, in readiness for the Koru team show which will take place prior to the whole school Talent Show. One 'performance' from the Koru team will be selected to be performed at the whole school show. Children are welcome to join up with some friends and enter the Talent Show as a team. Please note, there will be more information to come very soon.
Maths Whānau Evening:
What a fabulous and enlightening evening this was. Rob Profitt-White has been working with kaiako (teachers) here at Beckenham Te Kura over several years now and how fortunate we were to have been able to have him presenting to whānau last night! It was great to see so many of our Koru team families present and we do hope that you found the evening enormously valuable.
An update on Maths in the Koru Team:
In the Koru team, as you know, we just LOVE Maths! Here is a reminder about aspects of Maths and the different forms Maths takes in our programme:
- a weekly problem-solving session
- Hot Spot warm ups, with a focus throughout each week on developing number knowledge, Move and Prove and Notice, Think, Wonder (see below for descriptions of these activities)
- small group lessons, during which the children are taught to use their number knowledge in order to strategise to solve number problems
- at times throughout each term, a focus on other Maths strands (aspects of Algebra, Geometry and Measurement and Statistics)
- a Maths game lesson
- and once a week on Fridays our handwriting lesson is devoted to specifically learning and practising the correct numeral formation.
20 Koru children brought their pets to school for Pet Day at school.
There were 4 different types of pets; dogs, lambs, calves and cats.
How many of each animal might there be?