Kia ora e te whānau,
Wow, we can't believe how quickly Term 1 is going! Our tamariki have settled in beautifully to the Kōwhai routines, and have been showing our school kete values throughout the day.
Maths and Literacy Groups
Our maths and literacy groups have been established, and our tamariki are now settling into these routines and are building momentum in their learning.
For literacy, if your child is still on the Structured Literacy programme, they will be taking one book home every week to practise reading at home. Once your child has completed the Structured Literacy programme, home learning will consist of reading a chapter book or non-fiction book of their own choice each night. Some students may bring home a journal story or article that they have read in class. All students will be visiting the library each week. The days for each group are as follows:
- Tuesday: Jordan and Gayle's literacy groups
- Wednesday: Georgia and Anna's literacy groups
For writing, our tamariki have had the awesome opportunity to write to a penpal from a different school across Aotearoa New Zealand. The focus of these letters was to tell their penpal some information about themselves, as well as about their experience of Walk or Wheel to School Week, which took place last week. We are very excited to receive some letters back! For the rest of this term, we will be focusing on recount writing.
For maths, we have spent the first few weeks looking at geometry and focusing on 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional shapes and their different attributes, and looking at different types of angles that we may find within shapes. For the rest of this term, we will be focusing on number structure and operations, looking at numbers up to 1,000 and 10,000, as well as looking into addition and subtraction. Problem-solving is also completed at least once a week, opening our tamariki up to open-ended and unfamiliar questions. We have been beginning with some different rapid routines. These include activities like Notice, Think, Wonder, MoveNProve, Revisit and Retain, Which One Doesn't Belong, and some Esti-Mysteries. Have a go at this question below which was a part of our programme this week:
Scooter Skills
Next week, on Thursday 19th March, we will be having our Scooter Skills sessions. This is run by a representative from the Christchurch City Council, and will involve a 45-minute session with groups of 20 tamariki at a time.
Thank you to all the families who are willing to lend a scooter for the day. We are extremely appreciative!
A reminder for all whānau that tamariki will need to bring their own helmet on Thursday. Please make sure this is named. What an exciting event!
Kapa Haka Performance
Today our whole hub performed at our celebration assembly. Our tamariki did a fantastic job, and showed our school kete value 'We Love Challenge' by being brave and getting up the front of the whole school to pull off a magnificent performance. Ka pai tō mahi, tamariki!
Recorder Lessons Opportunity
On Thursday morning, Celia, from the Christchurch School of Music, came out to demonstrate the recorder to our Year 3s and 4s. They are offering small in-school group lessons for $97.50 a term starting in Term 2. If your child has expressed an interest please go ahead and enrol using this link: csm.org.nz/enrol-online. Someone will be in touch with you to organise lessons. They will take place on a Wednesday morning, and the children will be in small groups of 4 for a 20-minute lesson.
It is important for the children to have a good quality recorder so, if you don’t have a good one at home already, please purchase a Yamaha descant from Music Works at 569 Colombo St. They are currently on special at $14.95.
This is a great opportunity to get your child started on their musical journey and the recorder leads nicely into the band programme offered at Years 5-8.
Nut Free Zone
A reminder to all that our hub is completely nut free. This includes any spreads in sandwiches that contain nut products (nutella, peanut butter), any muesli bars containing nuts, slices or biscuits with nuts in them, and any other products that might make their way into lunch boxes that have traces of nuts within them. If you are unsure, please read the back of packets to double check the ingredients. Thank you for your support with this.
Online Safety: Gaming
Eighty percent of tamariki in New Zealand aged 8-17 have played games online. Games can have many benefits: entertainment, social opportunities, coordination development, problem-solving and multitasking skills. But, most of all, gaming is popular because it’s fun.
But games can be tough for parents and whānau to navigate. How much gaming is too much? How do I make sure my tamariki aren’t seeing inappropriate content or chatting in-game with strangers?
Today we’re sharing Netsafe’s Online Gaming Whānau Toolkit so you have all the resources you need to keep your kids safe.
YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/rPN_ev1RSDQ
We hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Ngā mihi nui,
The Kōwhai team
anna.reid@beckenham.school.nz
georgia.mckenna@beckenham.school.nz
gayle.mcnaughton@beckenham.school.nz
jordan.pollock@beckenham.school.nz
