Kauri Whānau Update: Term 3, Week 2
IN THIS POST:
- Passions
- Parent survey
- Maths evening
- Ski Day
- Cantamath Projects
Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all,
How lovely to see the sun this afternoon! We seem to have raced through the first 2 weeks of Term 3, and it has been great to see tamariki back at school in a positive mood, after a well-deserved break. While we have had to deal with some grotty weather after returning to school, the students have managed really well and settled into the new term nicely. Please read on for some team news, updates, and some upcoming events to put on your calendar.
Olympic Games
This term we are studying Social Sciences by learning about the Olympics and Paralympics, and more specifically the Evolution of the Olympic Movement. It has been great to launch our Paris 2024 Olympic learning site (which you can access via your tamariki's school account) on which the students can access a plethora of information and learning activities. This week we have looked briefly at the events, the countries, the mascot, and the history of the Games. We’re looking forward to learning a lot more over the next few weeks, following the progress of our athletes, and celebrating their resilience and perseverance! We love challenge, nau mai te wero.
Road Patrollers
For our Year 6's, being a member of the Road Patrol is one of the key ways they can show leadership in our senior school. It is also a wonderful way to hone time-management skills, and perform a valuable service for both our kura and the community; rain, hail or shine! It was great to have our Year 5 patrollers out completing their training with Constable Meg last week, and they are now on patrol before and after school until the end of the year. Thank you for your support in ensuring they are aware of their days on patrol.
Update on Rae, and welcome to Mikyla
As you may know, Rae Marsh is away on medical leave. After receiving a hip replacement last week, Rae is very happy to be home now and is working hard to be independent and walking again! While Rae rehabilitates, we welcome Mikyla Campbell to the teaching team. Mikyla has slotted seamlessly into our Pōhutukawa whānau and she has made some fantastic connections with the tamariki already. Please feel free to contact Mikyla at any time should you need to. She is looking forward to getting to know the tamariki and their whānau more over the coming weeks.
South Zone Basketball Tournament
Last Thursday some of our keen basketball players competed in the South Zone Basketball tournament held at Hillview Christian School. While the results didn’t go our way, it was an excellent opportunity to pit our skills against some of the best Year 5-6 basketball players in the area. The team represented our kura, school with pride and embodied our school values of We Love Challenge and We Get There Together wonderfully. Well done, team!
'Cool' Curriculum Classes
CCC classes continue with some changes for Term 3. Gayle is continuing to teach Visual Arts this term with some exciting Olympic-themed Calendar Art to look forward to - watch this space! Mikyla is covering Digital Technology and continuing with Coding. Steve is teaching Health with a look at our Wellbeing/Hauora and Social and Emotional coaching, and Megan is teaching the students financial literacy through the Banqer programme. There is always a lot of learning over the term in CCC, so we encourage you to keep chatting at home about what we cover in these courses. He taonga te ako, the treasure is learning.
Maths Family Whānau Evening
Thursday, 29th August (5:30 pm – 7:30 pm)
We invite ALL our Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto families (NE-Y8) to join us for a hands on workshop that will help you to support and extend your child with
Mathematics. This workshop will be facilitated by Rob Proffitt-White. His workshops are hands on, fun an The workshop will explore: d engaging.
• The mathematical practices all students must master
• What skills and processes are needed in high school
• Ways to help with number facts and mental computation
• Games to encourage mathematical discussions (You will get to play some of these on the night).
Please see the attached flyer for more information.
Year 7-8 Open Evening for Year 6 whānau
Head Lice
We are continuing to see cases of head lice at school. We have attached some helpful information about head lice - please read this if you are unsure of how to detect and treat headlice. Thank you for your vigilance around this.
What a fabulous start to Term 3! We have a busy term ahead.
Below are some things that are happening within our team.
We are having a focus on fractions, measurement, addition, subtraction, and multiplication.
Here's a Notice, Think, Wonder (What do you notice? What do you think? What do you wonder? Where is the maths?) picture prompt linked to fractions:
For writing this term, we begin with persuasive texts and then move into descriptive writing later in the term. Some literacy groups have been exploring persuasive picture books (I Wanna Iguana and Dear Mrs LaRue).
Parents beware, your child may write you a persuasive letter with reasons why you should get them a new pet, or allow them to extend their bedtime! We have been blown away with the creative ideas from our tamariki.
Our inquiry focus this term is Social Sciences and we are going to be researching a country of choice and making a presentation to share.
In week 9,we will be having a trip to Willowbank. This will be linked to our inquiry focus on cultures from around the world as we will be learning about different animals from around the world as part of the trip.
We are all very busy working on our beautiful calendar art pictures! This year the Kōwhai Team have decided to create Zentangle Name Art for the calendars. We can't wait for you to see them all.
This term we are continuing with our recorder lessons with Josie, these will continue until week 6 when Josie goes on maternity leave. The students have learned how to play songs that use the music notes A, B, G and E. Hot Cross Buns is a favourite!
We were fortunate to have a group from Canterbury Cricket come and run a session with us in week 1. We had an amazing time and the children learned some cool skills. Below are some photos from the session, as well as some flyers with information about how your child can get involved in cricket outside of school.
How do random chat websites work? And what are the risks for tamariki using them?
Random chat websites, like Chatroulette, pair users randomly through text or webcam conversations. The appeal
is getting to talk to someone new that the user would never meet. But these websites are designed for adults and
often allow nudity and other inappropriate content from users.
If you’re concerned that your young person might be exposed to these sites or you want to introduce parental controls, you can find out more on Netsafe’s Random Chat Websites page.
Regards,
Kia ora e te whānau,
What a lovely two weeks back of Term 3. We have noticed that the children are positively growing in physical and social-emotional skills. We have loved seeing the smiley faces and the "Good morning!". If you have any concerns or questions, please make sure to speak with your child's homegroup teacher.
We have made some changes to the timetable this term to meet the needs of our tamariki, this means giving us more time to incorporate wellbeing activities in the morning (such as mindfulness, yoga, body percussion, etc.) without taking away learning time. The children have adjusted super quickly and smoothly to the new timetable and enjoyed having a "sneaky snack" after the fitness break in the morning. Ka mau te wehi - Awesome work!
A massive thank you to the parent helpers who supported the Hillview Cross Country event, your help made a huge difference to us. We are very proud of the children as they participated amazingly at the event.
Just a quick heads-up that we are underway with creating our Calendar Art, and you may receive an email later this term about ordering products with your child's art printed on them. More details to come.
We really appreciate the fresh fruit and vegetables that have been coming to school in the tamariki's lunchboxes. This makes a difference to their intake of nutrients essential for a healthy body.
Our maths unit in the last two weeks is called Arty Shapes, looking at shape properties such as sides, corners, etc. Check out our shape creations!
Learning Through Play
Amber- amber.donovan@beckenham.school.nz
Sarah- sarah.angelo@beckenham.school.nz
Quynh- quynh.nguyen@beckenham.school.nz
Ella- ella.rainbow@beckenham.school.nz
Lisa- lisa.collier@beckenham.school.nz
Kia ora e te Whānau,
Welcome back to Term 3! A very warm welcome to our new children who have started school in our Koru team: Leah, Parker, Elijah, Ethan, Stevie and Aubree. We look forward to lots of new children coming for visits and starting school in Term 3. We are also welcoming Nicola to join our teaching team. For the first 4 weeks of the term, Nicola will be at school in the mornings and will finish at 12:00pm. The children in Nicola's homegroup will be with Elizabeth in the afternoons. Nicola will be working fulltime from week 5 onwards this term.
Thank you so much to everyone who has noticed our 'Kiss and Drop' zone for families to say goodbye to their child at the classroom door. Our learning space has been so calm and quiet with children who are settled and happy in the mornings, a massive thank you for helping us with our morning routines!
Friendship list: if you would like your name and contact details to be added to our Koru Friendship List, please email Georgia by Wednesday 7th August. Georgia will update the list and share it with you. If your name is already on the list, please don't worry about contacting Georgia again. georgia.mckenna@beckenham.school.nz
A reminder about routines:
What are we up to in Term 3?
Maths: We are focussing on Number Knowledge: counting, ordering, numbers before and after, reading and writing numbers up to 10 and beyond. Number Strategy: we are learning different strategies to solve addition and subtraction problems using numbers up to 10 and beyond. We are also looking at number patterns, symmetry, time and sequencing events, and measurement: volume.
Literacy: We are learning to read and write the letter sounds and heart words for each literacy stage. In our writing time, we are looking at different parts of sentences and the information they give us like: who, do, where and what.
Te Reo Maori: We are learning to greet others and introduce ourselves in Te Reo Maori.
Social Sciences: Our Kura: Our School. Our schoolwide focus this year is 'Identity' and we are looking at what makes Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto special to us and our community.
The Arts: Calendar Art is a fabulous way for us to get creative and is also one our PTA's main fundraising events. All the children (in Elizabeth and Georgia's home groups) will create a piece of art for you to look at and purchase as a calendar or card (more information to come from the PTA).
Learning Through Play: this is a time when our children can explore our learning space, play with friends, be creative and have fun together. We talk a lot about our School Values (We Love Challenge, We Love Learning, We Make a Difference, We Care, We Get There Together) and the 'Word of the Week' during Learning Through Play, these help us make great choices and show ways that support us being a good friend to others.
Maths Family Whānau Evening: We are excited to offer a Maths Family Whānau Evening, Thursday the 29th of August, 5.30-7.30pm in our School Hall.
Here are some fabulous photos from our first 2 weeks back at school:
Have a wonderful weekend,
Stacey, Georgia, Elizabeth and Nicola