Koru Team -Term 1 Week 11

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 Kia ora ki te whanau,

Can you believe it's week 11 and the end of the first term already! Time certainly flies in the Koru team with such fun busy days. We're sure you are all looking forward to some rest and relaxation and some precious family time together over the holidays. 

This week we welcomed lots of lovely little visitors who will be starting early in Term 2. It was lovely to have our new Koru teacher, Chelsea, join us on Wednesday to meet the new children. Chelsea will be joining the Koru team from the start of Term 2.

Chelsea Carmichael 

Over the last 2 weeks we have been exploring the story of The Little Red Hen and how we can show our school values 'We get there together' and 'We make a difference' to work together as a team during our Learning Through Play. We have seen some lovely teamwork being used to create some amazing work, and we've all been practicing getting there together to tidy up after our play.


Working together with a preschool visitor.

This group were sharing equipment beautifully while working together.

'Teamwork makes the dream work'

Showing how 'We get there together' to complete a building project.

Using our segmenting and blending skills to decode a word.

Playing Jump during a structured literacy lesson.

Creating animals from The Little Red Hen story to role play with.

Playing house games on the big field with the senior leaders.

Practising some yoga after a big morning of Learning Through Play.

Wow good balancing!

Working together and sharing tools in the sandpit.

Taking turns to jump off the decking.

Showing 'We get there together' by all helping to tidy up our classroom.

Showing great teamwork by working together on a project.

Putting the ideas all together as a team.

The collaborative collage project all completed.

Term 2...
We have some very exciting events coming up in Term 2 starting with the whole school cross country in the second week of the term, on Tuesday 11th May. The event starts with the senior children completing their run first. Our run will be between 2-3 pm, and we will give you more details closer to the time. The course for our children will be a run around Beckenham Park. We will familiarise the children with the course in the first week of the term and will get some practices in each day. You may also like to get your child out for some training over the holidays.

As we head into one of our winter terms after the holidays, children will not be required to wear their hats at playtimes. Hats will not be required again until the start of Term 4.

We wish you a lovely and safe autumn holiday together. We look forward to hearing about all the holiday adventures from your little ones at the beginning of Term 2.

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou,
Elizabeth, Jo, Stacey and Nicola







Kōwhai News Term 1 Week 11

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Kia ora whānau, 

What a fantastic and busy term we have had with so many awesome activities throughout the term. Thank you to all those parents and students who came along to the student-led conferences this week. It was lovely to touch base with everyone and reflect on our learning so far this year. 

Cross Country

Our whole school cross country is coming up at the start of next term. This will be held on Tuesday, 11th of May in the afternoon. 

Seniors will have an earlier lunch and start first. The Junior students will start later in the afternoon. Timings will be confirmed during Week 1 of the term and sent out to you via the school newsletter. 

We encourage all the students to embrace our school value, "We Love Challenge" and to try their very best. While for the majority this will be participating as a runner, there will be additional ways to make sure all our tamariki are involved in the event. Teams have started our practices already and will continue during the first week of Term 2. We know that some children will enjoy practising over the holidays. Our course distance is around 1km if you would like to start training. Happy running! 

Structured Literacy 

Here is our structured literacy scope and sequence which forms the basis of our literacy programme. We check all students on their sounds and teach spelling patterns with this.  

A reminder that some students will be bringing home sound cards in their reading folders, and some will bring home books. If your child does not bring home a book, then they can choose a book to read from home. 

We also do not send books home if the student does not have their reading folder, so please help your child by reminding them to bring their reading or library folder each day. 

Learning conferences were a great opportunity to chat with you about structured literacy. Remember if you have any further questions, your child's literacy teacher is the best person to get in touch with. 

laura.williamson@beckenham.school.nz                            

rowena.barker@beckenham.school.nz

nick.bruce@beckenham.school.nz      

quynh.nguyen@beckenham.school.nz

meagan.mathers@beckenham.school.nz                              


Art 

We have been creating some amazing art over the last week. Some homegroups have focused on emotion-based art and some have been exploring the artist Piet Mondrian and making Mondrian inspired art. 

Here are some examples:












We hope you have a lovely and relaxing holidays. 

See you next term. 

The Kōwhai team - Laura, Nick, Rowe, Meagan and Quynh

Showquest Important Information for Everyone

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Showquest

ShowQuest rehearsals are in full swing and the children are responding really positively to the challenge. Below is information about purchasing tickets to the show and important costuming information. Our performance date is Monday May17th. On this day the children will be at the Town Hall from 10am until after their performance in the evening. 

Tickets

Please visit Ticketech to order your tickets. If you can't make the show, there will be a video.


Show Quest Costumes


We are asking each child to source their own costume, with your help. The children know which dance they are in. If you don't have anything suitable, we encourage you to check out op shops and recommend ... If you have items that would be suitable for a dance that your child is not performing in, please contact us so we can match children up with whatever you have. If you get stuck, please get in touch with us early on.

All dancers are bare feet.

20’s - Flapper Dance

  • Knee-length dress (plain colour)
  • Dark trousers or shirt
  • Accessorise with beads/ boa/ bow tie/ headband
  • Plain colours, blacks, greys or pale colours

30’s - Singing in the rain

  • Dark trousers or leggings
  • Shirt and tie or raincoat
  • Bowler hat
  • Long umbrella
  • Dark colours

50’s - Jail House Rock


  • Hooped skirt (we have a number of these)
  • Plain coloured T-shirt
  • Dark jeans and denim jacket with plain or striped T-Shirt
  • Plain/ stripped or checkered

60’s - Lets Twist Again (longer skirts)

AND

60’s Dancing in the Street (more of a hippy vibe)


  • Short skirt/dress
  • Trousers
  • Variety of prints and colours or plain

70’s - You Should Be Dancing

  • Short dress
  • Flared trousers would be amazing (not essential)
  • Bright shirt
  • Bright patterns and colours, shiny material and sparkles are ideal.

80’s - What a Feeling

  • Leggings
  • Leg warmers
  • Off-shoulder t-shirt (bright and bold are best, could have a graphic or slogan, can be an old shirt with the neck cut out).
  • Accessorise with headbands, 80’s style jewellery
  • Bright and loud!

90’s - Everybody Dance Now

  • Blue jeans (on the bigger side is preferable) with cuffs turned up or denim dungarees
  • Bright, plain T-Shirt or sweatshirt
  • Denim jacket or shell suit jacket (optional)

  • Baseball cap worn sideways or backwards
  • Demin combined with bright colours


Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 1 Week 10

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  • Rubix Cubes
  • Learning Conferences
  • Wainui Camp Book
  • Cheese rolls, done and dusted!

Rubix Cubes

This is one of those crazes that is highly appealing for a small number of our children and it is having an impact on focus during learning time. Children are to leave their cubes at home and not bring them to school. If your child is a 'cuber' please ensure they leave their cube(s) at home. 

Learning Conferences

It is great to see the high number of bookings for learning conferences on Monday and Wednesday next week. A reminder that classes finish at 2pm on those afternoons. Kauri learning conferences run a little differently from the rest of the school. 
  • Please come into the hub as soon as you arrive.
  • The children collect any books and a device to share their learning with you.
  • Settle down somewhere in the Pathway and your child will start sharing their learning with you.
  • There will be a list of what to share on the whiteboard to prompt them if needed.
  • Your child's literacy teacher and maths teacher will come and join you to share progress and next steps.
  • Your child's homegroup teacher will talk through a self-management reflection with you and your child.
  • You will be given a datasheet to take home. This sheet will have curriculum levels and next steps.
  • So that we can manage multiple teachers touching base with you, we ask that you allow 30 minutes for your conference.

Wainui Camp Photo Book

We have put together a photo book as a keepsake of our wonderful week spent at Wainui earlier this term. The book is a hardcover, A4-sized, 20-page book packed with photos and captions written by the children. The cost of the books is $30. If you would like to order a copy, please click here.




Cheese Rolls

A big thanks to the wonderful parent team who supported us with cheese roll making. Most of the children loved the experience of being part of the production line and they worked like trojans to achieve our goal of 735 dozen in one day. A Beckenham record! Any cheese rolls that are yet to be collected have been put in the freezer. Please come and collect these ASAP.  If you loaned us equipment, we will have it on the spotty table in the hub for you to collect early next week. We will let you know the profit once all the bills have been paid and the maths has been done.