Pōhutukawa Update, Term 3, Week 10

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 Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all,

We have finished the term with a lot of fun today at the Beckenham's Got Talent show. We were treated to music, comedy, dance, and even an improvised routine while the judges deliberated. A very fun finish to a busy term. We hope you all take the chance for some extra family time over the next 2 weeks, and that the tamariki can have some well-earned downtime. See you all again for Term 4! Please read on for some of the latest happenings from the team, and some information about a touch rugby competition below. Kia pai ngā rā whakatā, enjoy the break, everyone,

Touch Rugby

Touch Rugby season at Centennial Park/Pioneer starts on Thursday 17th Oct, runs for 8 weeks, with no game on Thursday Nov 14th (Anniversary Weekend). Teams can be mixed. There are 6 players on the field and ideally 1-2 subs. We currently have two full times and a mixed team in need of more players. Additional teams can be made if there are enough players and parents to help manage. Games for this grade are usually at ~ 4.30/5 p.m. or later on Thursdays for 25 minutes. Cost per player is usually ~ $15-20 for the whole term of play. Please complete this form to register your child’s interest: https://forms.gle/kKQHZZbuvSzB7kWz8 by October 6

 

Planting at Our Ponds

It was rawe, great to continue working alongside the Christchurch City Council again this year to continue the Pōhutukawa tradition of kaitiakitanga/ guardianship of our pūroto, ponds. Planting and tending to native plants such as kahikatea, koromiko, kōwhai, harakeke, ti kouka and more has become a tradition for the Pōhutukawa team and it was so good to see students again embrace their mahi, work, and plant over 100 plants along the pond's eastern edge. 

Speech Finals

The Pōhutukawa Speech Finals were held in Mapuna,  the Hall on Wednesday. 8 students were chosen to represent their home group in the finals, and it was a fantastic effort by all! The Finals were adjudicated by 3 astute, discerning, and impartial judges, which meant the home group teachers could enjoy being part of the audience with the other students. The audience conducted themselves in a fantastic manner, showing appreciation and respect to all of our finalists. We were treated to persuasive speeches on many topics. Congratulations to all of our finalists, special mention to our runners-up Art and Macie, and well done to Jensen for winning the competition with his speech on the importance of protecting our native birds. Congratulations goes out to all of our students who stepped up and presented their speech to a group. Tino pai rawa atu tō mahi, awesome work!

Koru Team News: Term 3, Week 10 (27/09/2024)

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 Kia ora e te whānau,

Wow we have reached the end of Term 3! What an awesome term it has been! We asked the tamariki what their highlights from this term have been and they said:

  • "Learning everything"
  • "Being in Kōmanawa"
  • "When you come in and the teachers say a warm welcome"
  • "Coming to school"
  • "Playing with my friends"
  • "Having lovely teachers"
  • "Everyone being kind to everyone"
  • "Bounce and Skip Handwriting"
What an insightful and caring bunch!

Over the last few weeks, we have been looking at what makes our Kura (school) special, and have been doing some activities surrounding this. It has been really special teaching and learning about our Kura and the community that surrounds us. We also celebrated Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori (Māori Language Week). The tamariki learnt a new kupu (word), and kīwaha (phrase) for each day. These have been pasted below, have a go at trying these out at home over the holidays!

Kupu (word):
  • Pukapuka - Book
  • Hoa - Friend
  • Rorohiko Pōnaho - Laptop
  • Kōrero - to speak/talk
  • Mīharo - Wonderful
Kīwaha (phrase):
  • Karawhuia - Give it heaps!
  • Wananei - Wicked!
  • Kia tau - Relax
  • Ka mau te wehi - That's amazing!
  • Nāu āno i mahi - You did it!

Here are some photos of what are tamariki have been up to lately:
































Reminders for Term 4:
  • Sunhats: In Term 4, children need their sunhats every day. If these are not brought to school, your child will stay under the veranda in the shade during Little and Big play. These will be kept in your child's bag and taken home and bought back each day. Thanks for your help with this!
  • Sunscreen: Please apply sunscreen to your child before coming to school if you wish for them to wear this. We will have a bottle in the hub for children to reapply throughout the day if needed. If your child needs their own sunscreen, this can be bought to school in a named bottle, and will be kept on the teaching station. 
  • Lunchboxes: Please ensure for next term your child is only bringing water to school (no juice or other drinks). We would also love if we can refrain from having lollies/candy in your child's lunchboxes as well. It is important to help teach your child how to open and close their lunch boxes, so they can do this independently at the start and end of eating times. It would also be amazing if you could either pre-cut or teach your child how to open packets in their lunchboxes (for example potato sticks, chip bags, twisty yoghurt pouches, muesli bars etc.) Thank you for your help in this!
  • Literacy Folders: Please bring these back every day
  • Library Folders and Poetry Books: These are needed on Fridays for our new poems, and also so that new library books can be issued. 
  • Changes to contact details - If there has been any change to your contact details, or those of the emergency person you have for your child, please advise the office so they can be updated.

We hope you all have a fabulous, safe, and relaxing school holidays, and we can't wait to see you all refreshed for a wonderful Term 4!

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

stacey.mclachlan@beckenham.school.nz
georgia.mckenna@beckenham.school.nz
elizabethgail.drummond@beckenham.school.nz
nicola.reddecliffe@beckenham.school.nz

Kōwhai News Term 3 Week 10

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Kia ora e te whānau! Welcome to the Kōwhai team's week 10 blog.

Hats     

We are now starting to prepare for Term 4 and we are back to wearing hats outside at all times. Please could you ensure that your child has a named hat ready for the first day of Term 4 as they will not be able to participate in outdoor activities without it. Thank you so much for your support with this.

Willowbank

This week we have focused on our fabulous trip to Willowbank. It was a perfect sunny day and we all had a marvellous time. After arriving at Willowbank, the students had morning tea in the barn at the farmyard. We then set off on our fantastic adventure looking at all Willowbank had to offer. Everyone was very respectful of other visitors and the animals and as you can see from the photos below, there was a lot to see and enjoy.










































Athletics Day

On Thursday 24th October next term (Week 2), we will be running a whole school Athletics Day to which you are welcome to come and support your child/children. There will be more information to follow next term.


Structured Literacy Books

Finally, we are needing all the structured literacy books that have been sent home to be handed back ready for next term. Please make sure that all of them are returned as soon as you can.

Thank You

We would like to take the opportunity to thank your children for all their hard work this term. It has been a busy time but there has been a lot of fantastic learning along the way. Thank you to you as parents and caregivers for all you do to support us and your children. We get there together!


Kahikatea News Term 3 Week 10

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Kia ora e te whānau,

Wow, we can hardly believe that it is the end of term 3! It has been lovely to enjoy the warmer days of spring and we are looking forward to an even warmer term 4. Remember to hunt out those sun hats ready for the beginning of next term.

In thinking about our move from winter to spring, Quynh/ Lisa's homegroup collaborated to create a poem called 'Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring'


They then created some illustrations to go with it:


Maths

We Love Learning at Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto! Before school last week, Ruby was hard at work tipping felt pens out of the container, and grouping them into colours. She was then recording the number of pens of each colour. As soon as the bell went to start the day, we talked about Ruby's findings and recorded the information on a bar graph. We found out that there were so many more green pens than other colours and wondered why. Some of our thoughts were:
-Green is such a popular colour because of using it for grass in pictures, maybe they supply more of those pens?
-Maybe greens have been gathered from other containers?
-Actually, there are two different shades of green, so should they have been counted separately?


We were really keen to work out the total number of pens, but there were a lot to add. We spoke about ways we could make the adding easier, for example, we could find numbers that added to ten, or other tidy numbers.


 


We then went on to explore some further maths problem solving, where we looked at rows of stamps and linked these arrays to forming a multiplication number sentence.

























Imagination Station

We had a blast with a Lego session by Imagination Station yesterday. We put in so much effort to work together in teams with amazing cooperation.



















Learning Through Play

One of our most popular Learning Through Play experiences, is using the hot glue gun! Here are some of our creative learners, constructing.


We have also had some lovely play in our Kahikatea cafe! The learners have really taken on their roles in acting out taking customer orders, and preparing their meals. There has been some lovely language and literacy experiences.



What a wonderful te wiki o te reo Māori we had! During Learning Through Play, one of the activities we explored was making poi. We had to work on our value or 'We Love Challenge' and really appreciated our big buddies help too.













Some of our learners also enjoyed the waiata 'Porowhita Māori Shapes' and explored a number of different shapes in Māori and English.





You will find your learners calendar art order forms in their bag. They have put so much work into their creations. These make great Christmas presents!

We hope you all have a wonderful holiday break with whānau, and enjoy some lovely weather. We look forward to seeing you again on Monday 14th October!

Ngā mihi nui,
The Kahikatea Team

Amber Donovan | amber.donovan@beckenham.school.nz
Ella Rainbow | ella.rainbow@beckenham.school.nz
Quynh Nguyen | quynh.nguyen@beckenham.school.nz
Sarah Angelo | sarah.angelo@beckenham.school.nz
Lisa Collier | lisa.collier@beckenham.school.nz







Kauri Whanau Update: Term 3, Week 10

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  • Inter-school Speech Competition
  • Koru Games
  • CPR Training
  • Happy Holidays!


Interschool Speech Competition:
Well done to Harriet Parawa (Y8) and Oscar Wood (Y7) who represented our Kura at the Inter-school speech comp held at St Martin's school last week.
A special congratulations to Oscar who won the Year 7 category, coming 1st place!



Koru Games:
What a wonderful three days half of our hub has had at Koru games. This year we entered teams in Basketball, Ultimate Frisbee, Hockey, Touch, and Kiorahi!
Thank you to the parents who were able to help out and support our kids doing what they love!







CPR Training:
A huge thanks to our Junior Neighbourhood support leaders Hayzel and Letta who organised CPR training for all of our Year 7 and 8 students. It was super fun and very informative.


















Happy Holidays!
Finally, we wish everyone a safe and happy break. What a term! Full of wonderful learning experiences both in and outside of the classroom, also full of bugs and it is the longest term this year. We made it! Have a restful and well-deserved bit of family time and we look forward to seeing you back refreshed and rearing to go for Term 4.