Kowhai Team Newsletter Week 5

Spring is in the air, and the children are loving being out at break times in the glorious sunshine!

Short Film Festival

Thanks to all the wonderful parents who came to support our trip last week to the Isaac Theatre Royal. The children had a wonderful time watching the movies. This has led us to create our own movies that we will share with you all at learning conferences! You will be in for a treat!

Spellathon

Spellathon testing took place last Friday, and now comes the business of collecting all of the sponsorship money back in. No pressure, but...! There is a prize for the whole class which has all of its sponsorship money and cards back into the office FIRST! Congratulations to all the children who have worked so hard to learn their Spellathon words.

Learning Conferences

Learning conferences are next week on Tuesday 29th August and Thursday 31st August. School will finish at 2pm on these days. Please make sure you have made a booking as the children have a wonderful array of learning they want to share with you.
To book your learning conference, please go to www.schoolinterviews.co.nz and log in with the code 'ay2w2'. Although the booking slots say 15 mins, please allow 30 mins for the conference.

Stationery

It's getting to that time of the year where pens, pencils and glue sticks generally start to deplete. Can you please talk with your child about which items they might need to stock up on and send them to school. Thank you very much.
Change of Clothes and Footwear
The park is now open and we are actively encouraging the children to use the park. However, it is very wet and muddy as the water table is still very high. If your child likes to play football or be on the grass, please send them with a spare pair of old shoes and shorts to change into.
Lunches
We are aware that the new cubbies are going to become quite hot for the children's school lunches. Over the next week, we will be creating a solution to ensure the children's lunches are kept cool. Thanks for you patience while we develop an effective system for this.
Writing

The children have been working on writing engaging texts that aim to entertain the reader by including precise vocabulary. Here are a couple of examples:

The marshmallow monster slithered through the water like a snake. He bubbled up to the surface and out of the water. Peering through the trees, his yellow eyes were watching someone. He slowly crept through the trees to the campsite like a spy. Quietly sneaking up behind the boy, he heard the boy’s marshmallow sizzle in the night light of the fire. The monster sniffed the air. He moved much closer. The boy turned around and he stared with unbelieving eyes at the monster.
By Dahlia


Swish! The waves washed up and over her feet. The girl was feeling sad as she walked along the beach. Suddenly the waves washed up a mysterious looking bottle. She opened it and hoped they would be magical bubbles. She blew a bubble and the clouds disappeared and the sun came out. “Wow!” she thought. She blew another bubble and this time she jumped on it. This made her feel happy.
She smiled as she jumped onto the other bubbles. All of a sudden, one of the bubbles went under the water. She saw two fish swimming under the sea. Then the bubble lifted her up and took her high up into the sky. She smiled as she looked down back at the beach. She spied a lonely a girl who was walking. She looked so sad. “Shall I help her? Would that be the right thing to do?”  the girl asked herself.

By Layla

Pōhutukawa Team Newsletter – Term 3, Week 4, 2017

This term, the students in Team Pōhutukawa are involved in a Science/Technology/Drama/Social Studies interchange. One of the topics that the students are learning about is chemistry.

In chemistry, the students are exploring the difference between physical and chemical change by conducting a variety of exciting science experiments.

Here are some photos of their experiments:

These students are learning how soap makes things clean.

These students are studying super-absorbent polymers that can absorb over 200 times their mass in water.

These students are conducting tests to determine which substances are acids and bases.

These students are conducting a colour change experiment.

.
These students are learning how chemistry applies in the kitchen.

Egg Cartons

If you have any spare egg containers, please send them in for one of our up and coming challenges. 

Stationery 

It's getting to that time of the year where pens, pencils and glue sticks generally start to deplete. Can you please talk with your child about which items they might need to stock up on and send them to school. Thank you very much. 



Te Whanau Koru Highlights Weeks 3 and 4

Kia ora whanau,

Spring is in the air, and the children are loving being out at break times in the glorious sunshine!

New Entrants:
A very warm welcome to our new children and their families. The children have all settled beautifully, and have made a great start to the next phase of their learning.
Parents of new children, if you feel that your child is feeling extremely tired at the end of the day/week, touch base with Gail Turner to make a temporary arrangement - you know your children and their needs best of all!

Spellathon:
Spellathon testing took place last Friday, and now comes the business of collecting all of the sponsorship money back in. No pressure, but...! There is a prize for the whole class which has all of its sponsorship money back into the office FIRST!
Congratulations to the children who have worked so hard to learn their Spellathon words.

Baby photos:
Many thanks to you for hunting out all of those very cute baby photos. They have proven to be highly valuable as we focus on our topic, Change. Check out some of the Youtube clips relating to babies and their first experiences!

Film Festival:
What a wonderful outing - the 13 short films we saw were each, both fascinating and entertaining. The fact that we were able to view them in the most splendid of venues, was the icing on the cake.



Excited anticipation...

Discovery Stations:
Hub 10 have been focusing on fairy tales, as a motivation for both Discovery Stations and writing. There was a lot of hilarity and creativity displayed as children put time, thought and effort into setting up the Three Billy Goats Gruff 'small world'. We love seeing the children follow their passions and take the lead, as they feel able. The Key Competencies exhibited throughout these sessions are wonderful, including: Thinking, Relating to Others, Managing Self and Participating and Contributing! Have a browse through the photos below. Many thanks to the parents who help to support these activities, and particularly by recording the children's discussions and contributions at the time.

Setting up the 'goats' with their horns

Creating the river...

...and a bridge which would hold the three goats

More work on the river

Ta da!! Horns for one of the goats



And finally, a stable bridge, complete with festive tinsel!
We Love Numbers!!
Michelle loves dropping in to visit, and the children take great delight in explaining to her, their learning and how it relates to numbers.
As we look around the room, we are always amazed at the levels of self-management, engagement, and enjoyment that the children are showing. It's gorgeous to see even the very young children so highly engaged and motivated, and at the same time, directing their own learning. Well done, Hub 10 children! Every day, you display the Beckenham value of We Love Learning.

Guess how many teddies will fit on the sofa and in the bed!

And how many teddies will fit in this big bed?

Can you count?

Ollie the Orca and his little penguin friend need to learn their tens frame patterns!

8 + 3 = ?

Making up equations using dominoes, number tiles and unifix cubes

Dots plus spaces equals ten

More equations to show our learning about addition

The apple tree playdough mats

Writing addition equations by throwing the 'dice within the dice' (each large dice has a smaller dice within)

More dots plus spaces


Skip counting in twos

Let's make the tallest tower we can



Wow - how many gems are there sitting on this big octopus?

'The animals went in two by two...'

Skip count in twos to work out how many animals altogether on these blocks

Practising writing addition equations

I know the groupings with numbers up to 10

Addition equations using the dominoes, the number tiles and the unifix cubes

...and more!

Addition equations up to 10 and doubles up to 20

Give Your Friend a Massage!

At the end of the day ...






... aaaahhhhh!







Click on this link - we love it!
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Have a wonderful Week 5, everyone!

Ski Day Rescheduled

We have rebooked our ski day for Wednesday August 30th. Many thanks to the parents who have quickly made themselves available to help with transport and support on the ski-field.

Unfortunately Mt Hutt did not have any days left this term with lessons at 10:30am. Therefore our lesson time will be 9am. This means we will need to depart school by 6:30am! (... and the kids were complaining about 7am) Set the alarms early that day, as we will need everyone on Eastern Tce by 6:20am.

If you have any questions, please flick us an email.


Kauri Whānau Update: Term 3 Week 4

Ski Day, this Thursday:

While the heavens opened and dumped lots of lovely snow on Mt Hutt over the last couple of days, unfortunately the forecast for Thursday is for strong winds. Please check https://www.nzski.com/mt-hutt/mt-hutt-weather-report after 6am on Thursday to check if the ski field is open. If open, we will be going, if not, it will be a normal school day. In the case of a closed day, we will reschedule the trip.

Key reminders:

  • Be at school, Eastern Tce, by 7am
  • Come dressed is: thermal top and long-johns, long woollen socks, warm top, weather-proof pants and ski jacket. We can take off layers in the bus / car.
  • In a day pack: gloves, goggles or glasses, large bottle or water, large lunch and inhaler / medication as required.
  • In jacket pocket: some energy food for snacking on the slopes.
  • Optional: activity for bus / car trip, camera, $5 to spend at cafe.
  • All children will be provided with a helmet, skis, boots and poles.
  • We will return to Eastern Tce by 6pm.

Cantamath, next Wednesday: 

Next Wednesday, August 23rd, we will be taking all of Year 7 & 8 to Horncastle Arena at 8:40, to view the Cantamath project display. We will be back at Champion Street by 10am. A $3.50 transportation contribution will be added to your next account.

We were blown away by the high standard of work that the children produced for their Cantamath projects. Many thanks to the parents who helped with ideas, encouragement and support. Congratulations to the following people whose work has been selected to go through to the Cantamath competition:

  • Publicity Motif: Jessie, Caleb, Joel
  • Games and Puzzles: Alex
  • Static Model: Georgie, Tilly, Rosie, Fynn, Santiago, Saraya, Constantin, Marlonique, Isla, Miriélle
  • Dynamic Model: Kaia
  • Written Project: Sadie, Adam, Daisy, Isaac, George, Gabriel, Hannah W, Luke, Christopher, Bonnie
  • Photography: Juliette

Next Wednesday our Cantamath teams will compete against the best mathematical talent in Canterbury, in the problem solving competition. Best of luck to:
Year 7: Santi, Adam, Gabriel and Tom, with Hannah as reserve.
Year 8: Isaac, Rosie, Alex and Kaia, with Amelia as reserve.

Congratulations:

Three of our Year 8 students were interviewed for scholarships at Cashmere High School earlier this week. We were very excited to hear that Jordan H has won a leadership scholarship. Tino pai Jordan!

Inquiry Learning:

The children are currently completing their inquiry resource project to conclude our learning about diversity. These should be completed by the end of this week. If your child is not finished by the end of the week, we will let you know, as this will need to be completed at home.

Speeches:

We start speech writing season next week. On Monday we be looking at what makes a great speech and will start brainstorming topics. This year all children need to write and deliver a persuasive speech on some aspect of change. This topic is very broad. The speech is to be 3-4 minutes in length. We will be writing these at school. Discussion about possible topics, at home, would be extremely helpful. The speeches will be presented to home groups on Monday and Tuesday of week 8, 12 and 13 of September. Our hub final will take place on the afternoon of Wednesday Sept 14, in our new hub at Beckenham.

Te Whānau Mahi Tahi:

Last night, Te Whānau Mahi Tahi opened this year's cultural festival. They were stunning! They exuded power and mana on stage. From the moment they stepped on stage till when the last poi exited, our performers gave of their very best. Beckenham supporters in the audience were very proud. Tu Meke Te Whānau Mahi Tahi!