Koru Term 3 Week 3 – Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto

Kia ora koutou,

What a great start to Term 3 we have had in the Koru Hub. Our busy days are providing many learning opportunities for our tamariki and we are enjoying seeing the progress they are making.

It is so lovely to hear about all the practice the children are doing at home with their sound cards and heart words. It really does make a difference to their progress at school. Once they have secured the sounds, they can use the sound cards to make small words and put the words together, in conjunction with their heart words, to make simple sentences. If they need extra letters, they can make their own on paper. Children can also practise writing the words they make. They will be able to show you their 3 friends pen hold and how they pick the pen up with their holding fingers which they pinch together to pick the pen up correctly. Once they are able to decode words by sounding out the individual sounds, their next step is to blend the sounds together as they read them. This will help them to become fluent readers and make sure they are understanding what they are reading.

We have been offered the use of one of the planter boxes, that are in front of the hall, to plant up and look after for the rest of the year. This week we have been learning about planting seeds and how to take care of them. We wrote some instructions for planting seeds and have begun to plant some pea and bean seeds in class. We are very excited about looking after them and watching their growth progress.

During our Learning Through Play, we have been focusing on the learning that is taking place. We spent some time last week discussing exactly why we call it Learning Through Play. It was great to hear children explaining that it's "because we are learning as we play." This week we have been identifying the ways in which what we do during Learning Through Play also relate to our school values.

We Get There Together

We Love Learning

We Get There Together

We Care

We Make a Difference

We Love Learning

We Get There Together and We Love Challenge

We Care

Using the cloud dough to make heart words - We Love Challenge and We Love Learning

Our shared book this week was about a gardener who created a maze out of hedge plants. During Learning Through Play we had a go at making and drawing our own mazes.

Creating a maze out of painted stones

Drawing mazes on paper

Using a whiteboard to draw a maze

We have begun our Keeping Ourselves Safe lessons in class. We have been talking about what makes us unique, along with the important information children need to know as part of keeping themselves safe. We have noticed that most children do not yet know their address or a contact telephone number. This would be a great time to have a practice with your child at home so they know how to contact you in an emergency. They will be bringing home a copy of the sheet they filled out, with support, at school to practise with you at home. Next week, we begin our lessons with Constable Ross.

We hope you have been enjoying participating in the school readathon. There is one more week to get those 'reading' minutes up. We will celebrate the end of the readathon next Friday with a Book Character Dress Up day, so get those creative hats on!

Have a lovely relaxing weekend together.

Ngā mihi mahana,

The Koru Team: Elizabeth, Tracey, Nicola, Chelsea and Stacey