Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 1 Week 5

Posted on by
We are underway with our leadership week. Year 7 enjoyed learning about the '7 Habits of Highly Effective People' in a practical context on Monday. Jarred will be in to work with our Year 7s on Thursday and Friday, while the Year 8s are on their leadership camp. 

Parent Helper Needed:

We still need one parent to accompany us on our trip to the Airforce Museum next Thursday, from 10am until 3pm. Please email nicky.dunlop@beckenham.school.nz if you can help.

Technology:  

We are concerned by the growing number of children who are being dropped at South on a Tuesday morning. On the odd occasion when students need to be dropped at South, e.g. following an appt,  please contact Jacky in the office to let her know that this is happening.  The child must report to reception at South when they arrive.  Please contact your child's home-group teacher if you have special circumstances that require your child to go straight to South on a Tuesday. 

Year 8 Leadership Camp Final Reminders:

Our Leadership Camp for Year 8 is almost upon us. Here are some important final reminders.
Please bring food donations to school tomorrow, Wednesday. 
  • Mountains (Nicky's home-group): A packet of breakfast cereal
  • Forest (Hannah's home-group): Some baking
  • Coast (Jenny's home-group): A bag of fruit
We will be sleeping in our hub on Thursday evening, so something to sleep on and sleep in is required. The weather forecast for Thursday and Friday is cooler with some rain. A number of our activities are outside, so children need to have appropriate clothing. On Thursday come dressed in clothing suitable for physical activity. 
  • Sleeping bag, pillow and something to sleep on, e.g. sleeping mat, stretcher or lilo
  • PJs
  • Toilet gear and towel
  • A change of clothes for the next day, again suitable for physical activity
  • These things should be packed in a day pack:
  • Packed lunch and refillable drink bottle
  • Sunhat
  • Waterproof jacket
  • Warm hat (woollen or fleece)
  • Optional: camera, cell phone (these will be collected in)
Arrive at school at the normal time on Thursday. Take bedding and bag to the nook on arrival. Bring a packed lunch for the first day. We will be back at school before 3pm on Friday. If you need to contact us in an emergency, Nicky's cell is 0276229403. 

Fundraising:

Our next fundraising project is the making and selling of cheese rolls. Order forms will be coming out next week. We got great feedback about our delicious cheese rolls last year. Please spread the word far and wide so that the orders flood in!

Duathlon:

The last day for duathlon entries is tomorrow, Wednesday.  Course maps are available from our theatre.

Next week:

Monday: School duathlon in the afternoon.
Tuesday: Zone swimming sports all day.
Thursday: Trip to the Airforce Museum for writing motivation.

Photos:

One of the synergy activities the Year 7s did on Monday, was to make a container to catch water. The children were in pairs: one couldn't see and the other had lost use of their arms. There were a number of very successful containers and also a number of rather leaky ones!
 








Builders and Architects was an activity that put into action Habit 5: Seek first to understand and then be understood. Their goal was for the builder to reconstruct an identical lego model to the architect's one, through verbal instructions alone.







Koru Term 1: Week 3-4

Posted on by
Team Koru 
A Note About Home Learning It Can Be Fun!!!!
At this early stage in a child’s education, it is very important that home learning is fun, that it doesn’t take a long time and that it can be completed successfully.
Reading a book with an older person is a good way for children to practise reading strategies, and to enjoy sharing what they know.
We send a reading book home in a book bag four times a week.  A library book, for you to read to your child, will also come home once a week. Please…

  • Make reading the book a fun sharing time
  • Choose a time when your child is not tired
  • Read with your child if your child is reluctant to read to you
  • Remember that some books become favourites, and may came home more than once
  • Let us know if you have any questions or concerns. 

Spelling is important, and we want even our youngest students to learn to spell ‘high frequency’ words correctly. At school your child uses a ‘spelling notebook’ to record their words and/or word family (cat, sat, hat).
In your child’s Home Learning book you will find the Essential Spelling List words. As your child learns to spell these correctly, please just give them a tick or highlight the ones s/he knows. Children can practise on a whiteboard, paper, coloured pens and spelling/saying the words out loud.
Alphabet Knowledge and Sight Words 
For some children, teachers may send home alphabet and/or sight words for your child to learn. Please support your child as they learn the letter sound, name and identify a word which begins with the letter. Sight words are learnt by sight, they are not ‘sounded out’. 

Thank you for your help – it does make a difference!
Koru Teachers

Supporting Your Child's Independence

We are thrilled to see so many of you supporting your child towards independence. Throughout the day we encourage and support our tamariki to:
  • Carry their own school
  • Keep track of their own clothing (shoes, jersey, hat)
  • Manage the unpacking and packing of their school bag.
When your child is ready we would also encourage you to:
  • Practice saying goodbye at the hub door in the morning 
  • Meet your child outside on the playground or at an agreed place-perhaps the library veranda or on the hall steps at the end of the day. 
These are fundamental and valuable skills for successful self management and as children develop confidence doing these types of tasks for themselves they are in turn able to transfer these skills into  a learning context. We encourage you to work with your child at their pace. When your child demonstrates independence it is hugely affirming for them to hear kindness and praise for their effort and successes.

Developing Communities of Inquiry in Maths (DCIM)
Massey University: DCIM
NZ Maths Website information
As mentioned in an earlier school newsletter, teachers are using a problem-based approach to Maths this year. This model requires children to work in pairs or small groups to solve Maths problems based on the key Mathematical ideas in the NZ Curriculum.
Working together allows the students to develop their mathematical reasoning, their mathematical language and to explain their thinking and strategies to others. The teacher facilitates and ensures that students have the skills they need to develop deeper understandings of  the key mathematical ideas at hand



For example, a recent launch problem was: 
'There were 6 ducks in the pond and 4 more came along. How many ducks are there in the pond now?'
Key Mathematical Ideas 
* Abstract units that can be partitioned and recombined (level 2) * Numbers can be re-arranged and added to reach the same idea (commutative property) * Subtraction is the inverse of addition * Numbers can be counted by one or counted all (Level 1) * Compensation from known facts: For example, to solve 7 + 6; 6 + 6 = 12, so 7 + 6 = 13. (level 2)
This is a great resource with lots of simple, fun dance and relaxation routines. All of these are connected to learning. Try the science category (water cycle is a great one!) or the mindfulness categories.
Library
We are so lucky to have the library back up and running in its beautiful new home. It is open at morning tea and lunchtime and students will need their library folders if  they want to issue on the day when their class is not scheduled to visit.
Each home group also has an allocated library time:
Charlotte: Thursday
Dorinda: Thursday
Kristika: Tuesday
Caitlyn: Monday
NE Year 1: please check with your child teacher(s).
Community Change Inquiry Project : would you like to help? 
We have been approached by a local engineer who will work with Charlotte and around 15 Koru students on a community inquiry project. If you would like to help students over this three day project, please contact Charlotte at charlotte.verity@beckenham.school.nz. Helpers will be required only for the afternoons of Tues 12th - Thurs 14th March (pending weather). Thank you.

Kōwhai News Week 4 Term 1

Posted on by
Discovery Time
The children have really been enjoying starting the day with Discovery time. They have been given the chance to explore and play both outside and inside. Outside, they have been using skipping ropes, hula hoops, balls and balance boards and inside, they have been doing lots of different art activities including collage and ferocious animals. They have also been dressing up and doing plays, building complex constructions with lego and learning the skills needed to play board games. Sometimes the children have come up with their own activities which we actively encourage. All of this has contributed to setting the children up for a successful day!





Kowhai Kid of the Week
Each week, we will have five children who have consistently displayed our school values to be a Kowhai Kid of the Week. These children will be able to make pizzas for their lunch on Friday. They will need to bring their pizza toppings to school and we will make the dough here. We need the wonderful assistance of a parent to help the children create their pizzas and clean up the kitchen. If you are keen to help, please see your home group teacher and let them know.


Home Learning
Next week we will begin our home learning for the term. To begin with, this will involve the children reading each night to develop their fluency. Therefore, books they read should not be hard but promote a love of reading. We will also send home some spelling words for the children to learn. In our hub, we will follow the process of look, say, sound, cover, write to learn the words. These words will be taken from their writing.

Problem Solving in Maths
Our problem solving groups in mathematics are up and running and we are all learning together. We are developing the strategies we need to work together and ensure that everyone in the group understands what is happening. This means that we need to check in with each other and we also need to be able to ask for help if we do not understand something.

Here is an example of a problem we have been working on:

Four friends are earning money for a school trip by doing jobs.

James earns $4.00 an hour delivering pamphlets.
Ella earns $3.50 an hour weeding gardens.
Billy earns $5.00 an hour cleaning windows.
Maisie earns $2.50 an hour walking dogs.

All of them work for 20 hours. How much have they earnt altogether?

Literacy

We have started our literacy programme where the children are in five learning groups across the team. Starting next week it will be expected that children will complete their reading log each night and record nightly reading in their home learning reading log. 
Please enjoy a letter to the Lorax.


Dear Lorax
Image result for loraxI am Bobbi. I have heard your story and it is pretty cool. I am very disappointed in the Once-ler. I am writing to you because, thanks to your story, we have started thinking about sustainability. Me and my class thought about some ways we could help the environment: 
  • Saving the rivers and oceans
  • Stop cutting down the trees
  • Trying not to pollute the air
To do this I will need to write to the council. In my letter to the council, I will say that we can't let factories pollute the air. Here are some reasons why we need to look after our planet:
  • To save the marine life
  • To save the trees for oxygen
  • To keep animals from dying
I'll try my best.
From Bobbi

Week 4 in Pōhutukawa

Posted on by
We have had a mixed bag of weather over the last two weeks, with the rain coming at inopportune times!


It was disappointing to have to miss out on our beach clean up trip to New Brighton this week. Thank you so much to the adult helpers who planned to help us on Monday. With the rain lingering, and knowing that everything would have been sodden, the children (and staff) were warmer and drier inside at school, if a little sad. Thank you also to Mitre 10 Beckenham, who kindly supplied us with latex gloves and black rubbish bags for our clean up. The teachers had planned to use this trip as motivation for writing. Showing Kiwi ingenuity, we set the children the challenge of building sand sculptures in the junior sandpit at school on Tuesday. Amid the cold and slightly damp sand, the students worked collaboratively, showing creativity and grit. Not quite as nice as working with the sand at New Brighton, but a close second, I’m sure!











As the weather gets a little cooler and a bit wetter, we strongly encourage children to bring along indoor shoes/slippers to wear inside. Presently they do not have to take their shoes off to come inside the buildings, however this will change when it is wet outside.

Next Thursday sees us off to visit Rapaki Marae on Thursday 8 March. Thank you to these adult helpers for volunteering to accompany us on this excursion: Angela du Rand, Terrance Broughton, Amanda Clancey, Kerryn Allan, Andrea Cairns, Judy Dalrymple. We will be leaving school at 9:30am, and returning before 3pm. The children will need a packed lunch, a drink bottle, their school hat and a rain jacket. We have been working with Sherrilee on the process when visiting a marae, and we are confident we will represent our school admirably during the powhiri and the visit generally.





 

Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 1 Week 4

Posted on by
We are currently in the middle of our art week, with a daily dose of visual art. There are three collaborative art pieces being created, which will be auctioned off at the school fair.

Camp Fundraising:

Many thanks to those who offered to help with fundraising projects later this term, particularly our comedy evening on Saturday April 7th. If you are keen to help and have yet to complete the form, click here.  This week we are selling banana berry smoothies at lunch time for $2. Year 7 & 8's day is Friday.


Many thanks for the team who manned the sausage sizzle last weekend. We made over $800 towards our Dunedin Camp. A big thanks to Countdown for providing all the food and equipment.


Writing Motivation Trip:

On Thursday March 15 we are off to the Airforce Museum for a writing motivation trip. The only cost is the bus fare and we will let you know that cost as soon as the quote comes through. We would like to take three parents with us for the day. Please email your home-group teacher if you are able to join us.

Duathlon:

Entry forms for the Year 5-8 Duathlon are now available. Children can pick up a form from the box in the theatre. Entries need to have signed parental permission. The hand in box is also in the theatre. The event is on Monday March 12th in the afternoon. A course map will be available by the end of the week. We encourage children to enter as a personal challenge, however they need to have a reasonable level of fitness.

Leadership Week:

Tama from Attitude.inc got us thinking about personal leadership in his presentation on Monday. He will be back to deliver workshops as part of Leadership Week.

Next week is our leadership week - exciting! Please read either the Year 7 or Year 8 information below, as the two groups have different programmes.

Year 7:

Year 7 have a leadership day on Monday. They can wear mufti to school on this day. We have introduced the 7 habits of highly effective people to the children, however on this day we look at the habits through a series of practical activities. Later in the week the Year 7s will work in pairs to plan an activity to deliver to a small group of younger children.

Year 8:

Year 8 have a leadership camp on Thursday and Friday, March 8 and 9. We will be based at school on the Thursday, venturing out after dinner for some physical activity. We sleep overnight in the hub. On the Friday we head off to Spencer Park at 9:30 and return by 2:30 - 3:00. Children need to bring their lunch on the Thursday. We ask for a donation of $25 to cover the cost of food and bus fares. To keep the price down we ask parents to donate the following:

  • Mountains (Nicky's home-group): A packet of breakfast cereal
  • Forest (Hannah's home-group): Some baking
  • Coast (Jenny's home-group): A bag of fruit
  • Please send these food items along next week.


Year 8 leadership camp gear list: Your child needs to come to school on Thursday dressed in clothes suitable for physical activity, i.e. track pants or shorts, t-shirt, polypro if cold, a warm top and sports shoes, suitable for running. The following needs to be packed in an overnight bag:

  • Sleeping bag, pillow and something to sleep on, e.g. sleeping mat, stretcher or lilo
  • PJs
  • Toilet gear and towel
  • A change of clothes for the next day, again suitable for physical activity
  • These things should be packed in a day pack:
  • Packed lunch and refillable drink bottle
  • Sunhat
  • Waterproof jacket
  • Optional: camera, cell phone (these will be collected in)


Tomorrow we will be sending home a health profile and medical consent form, with all Year 8 children. Please complete this and return it to school by the end of this week.
If you have any questions about leadership week, please send us an email:
nicky.dunlop@beckenham.school.nz
hannah.elliott@beckenham.school.nz
jenny.diggle@beckenham.school.nz


Our children are being challenged with rich problems to solve in maths. 

Rich discussion and questioning is creating deeper understanding of concepts.