Kōwhai News Week 5

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Hi everyone,

Here is the latest news from the Kōwhai team.

Arrival time at school

We have noticed some children arriving at school very early and children are only able to enter the hubs at 8.30am. Before this, teachers are often in meetings or setting up for the day head. Any children who arrive early are unsupervised until they can enter the school buildings. BOSCO is available for before school care if you have to go to work early in the morning.

Photos for the whānau tree

If you haven't yet sent in your photo for the whānau tree, we would love you to email us a picture/photo for us to print so we can add it to our tree.

Collaborative Art

We are all busily co-constructing our collaborative artworks for the school fair on Friday, March 20th. It has been great to see the children enjoying working together to create a unique piece of art and we hope to have these completed by Friday. The PTA is after parents to assist on the stalls at the fair. This is a great fundraising event for the school and every bit of time that parents can offer makes a HUGE difference to the success of the event. There are sign up sheets at the front of the library each morning along with boxes for donations of clothing, toys/games, books etc.

Kōwhai Choir - School Fair

The children in our team will be performing 4-5 songs at the school fair. We are have been really impressed with the singing skills of our children and are looking forward to providing an energetic and fun-filled performance for you all. Our performance time is yet to be confirmed and when we know this, we will let you know where to bring you child(ren) on Friday 20th March.


Book Folders

We have noticed many children are forgetting to bring their folders to school each day. These are a key component of our literacy programme as they are required not only to transport the readers to and from school but also help us to see who is reading daily. Please help us by making sure your child has their folder and home book in their bag each morning. Thanks

Netball

We are about to offer the children in our team the opportunity to play netball during Terms 2 and 3. At this stage, we will only be able to enter one team into the competition as we only have one parent who has offered to coach. If you are keen to coach/manage a team, please contact Rowena as she is coordinating this on behalf of the team.

Life Education

We have a great time visiting the Life Education van last week. The children learnt the importance of looking after their body and how they are unique. We had a lesson on empathy and the importance of putting ourselves into others shoes. These will be building on this knowledge over the next few weeks as part of our inquiry into IDENTITY. We will learn about the importance of sleep, how our body functions, how it learns and what we need to do to keep ourselves healthy.



Up and Coming Events

9th April - Wacky Hair or Wig Day- School Council Fundraiser for Child Cancer


PTA Twilight Fair News #Two Weeks to go

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Twilight Fair News #Two Weeks to go



Fair HQ Update

Two weeks to go until the best Twilight Fair of 2020!  Hopefully by now you have seen us at school at Fair HQ, and know that we are on the lookout for fair helpers. We need over 100 volunteers on the night, to serve food, run the games or sell items on our stalls. The night is split into two shifts, so if you sign up you will have plenty of time to relax and have fun too. Follow this link to our google form to sign up here.

Thanks for all the wonderful donations of clothes and toys - the container is starting to fill up, but we still need more, and there is only 1 week left to bring your items as donations close on the 13th March after school, so bring it down before or after school and we will sort you out.

While you are at Fair HQ there are other fun things to sign up for (or just click the link):

Dunk a Dad or Mum (Waiting List)

Glamour cakes (Tick the cake in the Helper Form)


Pumpkin competition (You can buy a pumpkin and enter the best decorated or carved pumpkin category)

Mystery Bottle


In the past we have asked for children to donate a can of food for the food stall, however, this year the only grocery item we are asking for is a bottle for the mystery bottle stall. So please put a bottle in your shop this week, think: cordial, sauce, vinegar, oil, toiletries - just no alcohol thanks as it is a family event. Last year it was a huge hit and we sold out super fast, so we are really keen to make it even better and bigger this year!

Food


Make sure you don't plan to cook on Friday the 20th, as we will have a beautiful menu of food for you to enjoy. As well as delicious chips and BBQ food, we will have other hot meals, including a beautiful vegetarian curry from Sai Touch of Spice and a delicious Beef Massam from Zaffron. We love our loyal local sponsors, so please support them!


Baby Photo competition

Do you know who this beautiful baby is? At the fair there will be heaps of games and competitions including the return of the ever popular Teacher Baby photo competition.

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Performing at the 2020 Twilight fair.

We have a variety of acts from choirs, dancing groups, a CSM band, the Ukulele group and Te whanau, children performing from the 3/4 hub to the 7/8Hub. It's going to be great seeing our Tamariki on stage. Come along and show your support for our talented kids.


Thanks again for all your continued and amazing support!

See you at Fair HQ, Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto PTA

Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 1 Week 5

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Last weekend we gave final feedback for the 'My Whakapapa' writing assignment. Lots of beautiful sentiments and some interesting stories were shared. Please remind your child to email a photo of the person they wrote about to themselves, so that it can be added to their final presentation tomorrow, Wednesday.

Key reminders for Year 8 Leadership Camp: this Thursday and Friday, March 5th and 6th


  • Bring bedding (including something to sleep on) and change of clothes for next day. All bags go into the Nook upon arrival on Thursday.
  • In a daypack, lunch for Thursday, drink bottle, sunscreen sunhat and waterproof coat.
  • Have $2.40 in change or Metro card for the bus
  • Have paid $25 at the office or online (reference Leadership Camp)
  • Bring food donations (cereal for Nicky's home-group, fruit for Megan's home-group and baking for Hannah and Jenny's home-groups). We'd love these by Wednesday if possible.
  • If your child's health profile form is not back at school yet, we need this urgently.
  • Any mediation in a named ziplock bag to be handed to home-group teacher first thing on Thursday.
  • If you need to contact us urgently outside school hours or on Friday when we are at Spencer Park, call Nicky on 0276229403

Cheese Roll Fundraiser

Our orders have nearly hit the target of 400 dozen! If you have yet to order, please get this done by Thursday. Remember that if you are ordering for several people, one single payment would be appreciated. We are really grateful to those who have gone out and sought multiple orders. Next Thursday is our big making day. I have emailed the people who offered to help with further details. 

Looking for parent or grandparent help

We are looking for someone who could regularly help out with a very small group of learners on a Monday and Wednesday between 9:15 and 10am. Please email Nicky if you could help us out.


Year 7 Leadership Day

Monday was an action packed day for the Year 7s, as they put their learning about the 'seven habits of highly effective people' into action. Below are pictures from the builders and architects activity, when the children were applying habit 5 'seek first to understand and then be understood'.







Swimming Sports

We are really proud of all the tamariki who embraced challenge in our school swimming sports last Thursday. For some, success was achieved through the satisfaction of participation or swimming faster and with more competence than before, while others had qualifying for zone level competition firmly in their sights. The race of the day had to be the House Relay with Heathcote securing a very convincing win. 




Leadership Guest Speakers

Over the next few weeks we have a number of guest speakers coming to share their leadership experiences with the children. Last week Tamati Cunningham, who is one of four head students at Cashmere High School and an ex-Beckenham student, shared his journey with our tamariki. He left us with lots of gems to think about, including:
  • Listen to listen, don’t listen to respond.
  • You can achieve greatness, you just need to ask for help.
  • My successes are the mistakes I learn from.

Koru News Term 1 Week 4

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Kia ora, e te whanau,

We've had a very busy fortnight since our first Blog post for the year, so there's a great deal to report on! And thankfully, the weather continues to be beautiful, allowing for plenty of outdoor play, experimentation and exploration.

Learning Through Play:
We've had a wonderful couple of weeks, with the children's interests leading and informing the play. In Week 3, we received a large amount of brand new outdoor 'sports' equipment, and the children have been having a marvellous time cooperating with each other to create and develop games using the various items.
This week, we have had a big focus on 'Pirates', as a result of the interests of a few of the children. The children have been building pirate ships, making hats and treasure maps, and digging for treasure in the sandpit. The play has been collaborative, creative, engaging, full of fun, enticing, and always energetic! Wonderful times 😊







Group teaching and learning:
At the beginning of this week, we began the guided teaching and learning for our writing groups, reading groups and Maths groups.
The children will be bringing their reading folders home each night, and it's most important that folders are returned with the books to school every day. Depending on your child's priority learning needs, you may find a set of sight word cards in the little back pocket of the reading folder. There will be an explanatory letter in with the word cards, outlining some different ideas for you to help your child with learning these sight words to fluency (meaning, no working out required, rather automaticity).
Some children may also need to be supported to practise and learn the letters of the alphabet. If you know that your child has some way to go in this area of learning, now would be a great time to be giving support to your child in helping with this at home.
There is a link on our school website which takes you to a folder full of great resources which you can print off (and laminate if you have access to a laminator) for use at home. Here is the link again, for ease of access.
...and here are a couple of other fun Youtube links which we have been singing along to in class:
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom ABC
Kiwikids Phonics
Jolly Phonics (unfortunately 'q' is missing, but the children may remember and be able to sing it to you!)

Meetings to be arranged:
We have put a timetable up on the noticeboard for the parents of children who have started school this year. We would like to catch up with you for 15 minutes just to talk about your child's transition to school and some ways you might be able to help at home with learning goals. Please add your name to a suitable slot on the timetable. Many thanks for doing this, and we look forward to meeting with you. Those children who started school in Term 4 last year, will have already had this meeting with Stacey.

Life Education:
Our children have had two visits to the Life Education caravan, with Harold, Siobhan and Lou. We talked about everyone being unique and special, about being a good friend and about ways we might help to solve friendship issues.










Vito's visit to school:

A couple of Fridays ago, Elizabeth's 3-month-old puppy, Vito, came in for a school visit. He met some of the children, who were very calm and quiet for him. The children learnt that when you first meet a puppy, you should avert your gaze (rather than look the puppy straight in the eye) and put your hand down for the puppy to sniff (rather than try to pat the puppy on the head or on its face). Some of the children were able to give Vito a little puppy treat when he followed the instructions, 'Sit' and 'Down'.



House Games:
We had our first House Games event last Friday. The children had enormous fun, engaging in the games that their House Captains had organised. We were very impressed with the children's level of independence throughout this activity. All were accompanied happily to the place in the park where their house group had assembled, and all participated fully in the activities. Well done, children! We're proud of you.









Children's folders and poetry books:
A wee reminder that reading folders need to be returned to school every day, as they form a crucial part of the reading routine each day. Library folders just need to be returned to school on Friday mornings, however, if they are back at school a day or two earlier, that is absolutely fine.
It is best if the children's poetry books are returned to school each Monday morning.

All the best for a wonderful fortnight ahead!
Ngā mihi mahana,

Elizabeth, Jo and Stacey


Kahikatea Blog Term 1 Week 4-5, 2020

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Kia ora whanau,

Our Discovery time runs daily from 9.20 each day. We love this time, and use it to pursue our passions, such as lego or playing schools, as well as try new things. We also enjoy getting to know new friends. We are learning to: 
* make eye contact 
* invite others to join our play 
* take turns
* share ideas
* work co-operatively on puzzles, games and constructions
* reflect on and make adaptations to our creations










































Maths Time
Our students are enjoying partnered problem solving as well as independent maths time, where they can choose a variety of maths games and activities. We are working on identifying numbers and addition. We add by counting materials and by counting on from the largest number. 







Life Education & Haoura Time 
We all enjoyed time with Life Education this month. Harold the Giraffe was hilarious! We learnt about being healthy and thought about what makes us special. You might like to talk about what makes you special at home.