Kia ora e te whānau,

Wow time is really flying by!! As we come into Week 4 of Term 3, we would like to say a massive well done to our Koru tamariki for a positive transition back into the term over these last few weeks, as well as to our new tamariki who have successfully started school! We welcome Gray and Hannah who have started during the last two weeks! We are so excited to have you and your whānau in our Koru team! 

Reminders:

• Staff Only Day: On Monday 26th August, staff will be having a Staff Only Day. School will be closed on this day. 
• Kiss and Drop: As we have more children starting in the Koru team, our hub can start to feel a little overwhelming at drop off times. Please ensure you are "kissing and dropping" your child off at the door, rather than entering the hub with them. This will help set your child up for a calm, quiet and successful transition in the morning. We also have separate doors for home groups to use when entering in the morning, as well as separate lunchbox/drink bottle shelves. Thank you for your support with this! 
• Literacy folders: We have our small Literacy group times throughout the day from Monday to Thursday. Please ensure the Literacy folders are at school for these days. We know during the week it can be a busy time, and trying to fit in Literacy practice can be tricky! We are more than happy for you to keep your child's Literacy folder over the weekend, to give your child more time to practice! Please make sure the Literacy Folders are back on the Monday, so that your child's Literacy teacher has these ready for group time. 
• Lunchboxes: Please ensure 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:

This weeks blog post is on Literacy! At Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto, we follow a Structured Literacy approach. Sounds are broken into stages, and these stages have heart words and books that align with each stage. As children move up through the stages, they will receive different letter sounds, heart words and Pip and Tim books that use the sounds currently being learnt. Below are some photos of the wonderful Literacy learning that is taking place:

How can you help your child at home?

The emphasis in teaching spelling is to focus on the sound, as opposed to the letter name. Making the phoneme (sound) - grapheme (letter shape) connection is the first step in literacy learning.

Ensure that both you and your child are saying the ‘pure’ sound without an ‘uh’ sound on the end, for example, ‘lllll’ rather than ‘luh’. Please refer to this Youtube clip, The Sounds of New Zealand English, for more information on the sound that matches each of the letters.

Here are some ideas about ways you might use the letter cards/heart words at home with your child: 

Speed Sounds: use the cards as flash cards - your child can look at each letter card and say the sound it represents. See if your child can do this at speed.

‘I Spy’: You can play games such as ‘I Spy’, using the letter sound (not the name).

Stepping Stones: Place the cards on the floor with the letter facing up, as if they are stepping stones across the river. Explain to your child that they have to cross the ‘river’ without falling in the water. Your child steps on each card and says the corresponding sound.

Fish or Memory: You could make up a matching set of letter cards, and use both sets to play Fish or Memory together, by placing both sets of cards face down on the table or floor. Each player has to be able to say the sound, if they are to keep a matching pair of cards.

Writing the graphemes: you might make the letter sound and ask your child to write the matching grapheme (support your child as much as is needed with this activity)

Cyber Safety

The HDCA for Parents and Whānau

The Harmful Digital Communications Act (or HDCA for short) is an act passed by the Government back in 2015 to help people dealing with serious or repeated harmful digital communications. It covers anything digital like text, emails or social media content.

The most useful thing for parents to understand about the HDCA is the way the 10 communication principles define what is good or bad behaviour online.

If you’re ever concerned about your young person (or you just want to brush up on your knowledge!) visit Netsafe’s Guide to the HDCA. 

It's NZ Maths Week this week!

We have a Maths Fanily Whānau Evening coming up soon. Information below:

We hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and stay warm!