Koru Term 1: Weeks 5 & 6

Posted on 19 March, 201819 March, 2018 by Caitlyn Downing

Kia ora whanau!

Bounce and Skip

Some of you may have had the pleasure of meeting our class friends, Bounce and Skip. These two monkeys are experts at handwriting and have been teaching us how to strengthen our hands, fingers and core so that we can become neater, quicker writers. We are now experts at these exercises so please ask us to show you. The more we practice, the stronger we become!

Writing by hand engages the brain in learning and especially activates the “reading circuits” of the brain. Using the results of modern brain imaging techniques, research suggests that writing by hand plays a substantial role in the visual recognition and learning of letters, a foundation for both reading and writing. Through studies using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to probe how the brain processes stimuli in real time, researchers have demonstrated that there is a distinct system in the human brain that is recruited during reading that is also recruited during writing. The reading network develops as a function of handwriting (printing) experience. Handwriting (printing), and not keyboarding, leads to adult-like neural processing in the visual system of the preschool child. Findings like these suggest that self-generated action, in the form of printing letters by hand, is a crucial component in setting up brain systems for reading acquisition.

One of the things Bounce and Skip has been teaching us this week is how to correctly pick up and hold a pencil. Below is a graphic we are using that we encourage to look at together at home to. Is your pencil grip up to scratch? This way of holding the pencil is comfortable and allows children to write fast and legibly.

School Fair Art Auction Pieces

Dorinda's Home base has been enjoying creating our piece for the School Fair Art Auction - we love wondering who will be successful in buying it! Here is our writing about our butterflies.

My butterfly is really cool and I love the colours. It has cool wings. HETTIE
My butterfly is colourful. It is going to be on a canvas. How much do you want it to be? It is going to be beautiful. I love my colours of my butterflies. It even has mixed colours. FINN
My butterfly is a Monarch. The money is going to be $10. My Mum is going to buy it and I will make a magic potion so it can be real. QUINN
We painted our butterflies for the School Fair because the school wants to make money. My butterfly has black spots. He is really colourful. I like my butterfly. OLLIE
Our Butterflies. My butterfly is blue. It's got silver and green and black and it's pretty. ARCHIE
My butterfly is a rainbow colour. I like that it is really colourful. GEORGIA
I love how my butterfly is coloured and I really like the colour of the canvas. I really like the book pages at the bottom. KJ
The butterflies like playing with their friends. JONTAI
I want my butterfly to fly off the page. ZEKE
i made this butterfly. I love my colours. They are blue, pink and silver. I love Bounce and Skip too because they are cute. CAMMIE
I am a butterfly and I can fly. JAKE
I like my butterfly and I want it to fly off the sky. KARDA
We painted our butterflies for the School Fair. My butterfly is black and red. I did it those colours because red is for Christmas and black is for Halloween and I love both of them. BREE
This is my butterfly. He is a Monarch. He has black rain drops on his wings and he is blue and red. He has a big smile. Annabelle
Our butterflies are awesome. I love our butterflies. They are super. STELLA
I made a butterfly. It has flashes on it and it has cool patterns on it. I love it. It is a Monarch. I think it is nice. It has blue around the edges. JACK
Do you know why I like butterflies? It is because they can fly and my butterfly's colours are black, red and blue. CORTANA
Our butterflies are lovely and we like the butterflies so much. We like to see them. GABRIELLA
I like butterflies. My butterfly has black and dark blue on the wings and black spots and red on the head. KAWA
We did class butterflies for our School Fair. Mine has some gold, blue and red and orange colours with black dots. I feel great about my butterfly. AYLA
My butterfly is like candy. She needs water to drink. Her name is Twinkerbelle. I like butterflies because they are really beautiful. IRIA-MARIA
I love my butterfly. it is black and golden, blue, pink, light blue and a tiny bit of white. I love the colours. CHELSEA

Kristika's home base tamariki developed their pride and sense of belonging through creating their own piece of Koru art. These were all put together like a puzzle and 'mod podged' into place.

We discussed the meaning of what is 'koru' and how we as team Koru are the like the young koru of Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto school.

Discovery - Play Based Learning

Koru have been inspired by our Year 7 leaders in making obstacle courses all week. Some great ideas, co-operation and leadership came out of our sessions. We also had child-led art workshops, maze drawing and lego construction Enjoy these photos.

Kowhai News Week 6 Term 1

Posted on 19 March, 201828 March, 2018 by Paulette Newton

Kowhai News Week 6 Term 1

TWIGHLIGHT FAIR

On the night of the Twilight Fair, the children in Kōwhai team are going to be performing a medley of 3 songs that we know and love. Please bring your child to the admin block at 5:10pm ready for them to perform at 5:20pm.

We know our team choir will be spectacular and the children will love singing to the crowd!

TINNED TOMATOES and MYSTERY BOTTLES- Keep these coming in for the fair. Thanks to all those who have already bought these items in. The PTA really appreciate it!

HELP - The PTA still need parents to help run stalls on the night of the fair. Please contact the PTA to let them know your availability.

Here are some of the stunning artworks that our team have created for the auction. The children are incredibly proud of their efforts! We are too.

ADULT HELP

We know we have an incredible group of parents and caregivers in our team and we would really love some adult help to come in to support some of our current programmes.

Ways you can help:
Maths- helping children with their counting, writing/reading numbers
Reading- Listening to children read
Writing- Supporting children during a writing session
Baking- Coming in to bake with a small group of children
Woodwork/Craft- Helping children develop some skills by making and creating items of interest and use.
If you are able to assist us, please email or come in and see your home group teacher. We are open to any of your offers and know you help will greatly benefit the children in our team!

TOP TEAM

We would like to express our gratitude to all the amazing parents who came along to support our Top Team event. Without your wonderful help, this would not have been possible! The children had an amazing time and this was evident by the HUGE smiles on their faces. As part of our afternoon inquiry, the children will be planning their own, 'Top Team' event to run with children in Koru team.

HOME LEARNING.

Each student has a Home Learning book which they keep in their Home Learning Folder. It is really important they bring this to and home from school each day. Each Monday they will organise their new insert and write their weekly spelling words on the sheet. A teacher must check and sign their spelling list. If there is no signature it has not been handed in or checked by a teacher.

This week we have added in the maths component to our Home Learning. each week your child will have a MMM sheet pasted into their book for them to learn. If this is new learning, your child can just work through the skill. If it is a skill that your child is able to do, then the focus will be on completing the MMM with speed with the aim of completing this within 1 minute.

That's all for now!

Kowhai Teaching Team

Anne Kaye’s Visit

Posted on 19 March, 201819 March, 2018 by Paulette Newton

On Friday morning, we were entertained and inspired by Anne Kayes who is a part of the Storylines Festival. Anne is an award-winning NZ author who won the 2016 Storylines Tom Fitzgibbon Award. Anne talked about her novel, 'Tui Street Tales' which is about children in a street where the ordinary everyday life becomes strange and are based on a fairytale theme.

The children were captivated by the story that Anne told and asked many wonderful questions to help them learn more about being an author. It was wonderful to see so many children expressing an interest in reading this book for themselves.

So thank you Storylines Festival for our wonderful end of the week.

Time to order your Cheese Rolls

Posted on 18 March, 201818 March, 2018 by Nicky Dunlop

There are only five days left to order your tasty cheese rolls. Orders close this coming Thursday. Cheese rolls will be sent home with your child on either the Wednesday (Koru and Kowhai) or Thursday (Pōhutukawa and Kauri) before Easter. $8 for one dozen or $30 for 4 dozen.

Many thanks for supporting Kauri Whānau with our Dunedin camp fundraising.

Click here to order your cheese rolls now.

Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 1 Week 6

Posted on 14 March, 201814 March, 2018 by Nicky Dunlop

We have had another very busy week, with leadership, duathlon and zone swimming sports. A special well done to those children who have stepped up to show they love challenge. It was heartening to see the number of children giving their all during the duathlon on Monday. We are now settling back into routine. Please check out the important messages below.

Leadership Week:

Last week was filled with lots of learning, laughter and leadership experiences. We have had such good feedback about the Year 7s, from their day leading in the junior classes. The Year 8s really made the most of the opportunities on their two day camp. See the photos at the end of this post. A big thanks to Simon, Cory and Nicola, who helped out over the two days. Also thanks to Sandy and Jarred for stepping in when my voice disappeared!

World War One Inquiry:

This week we have leapt into our inquiry: 'Walking with an ANZAC'. The children have each been given an artefact that links to a New Zealand soldier. This artefact is linked to a website which will guide the children on a journey to research their soldier. There was lots of excitement today when the artefacts were handed out. Tomorrow, Thursday, we are off to the Airforce Museum to learn more about World War One.

Cheese roll fundraising:

Have you ordered your cheese rolls yet? A big thanks to the 13 families from our hub who have. We are aiming for 300 dozen and so far have orders for 95 dozen. Please click here to place your order.

Our cheese roll making days are two weeks away on Wednesday March 28 and Thursday March 29. We need parent help with supplying equipment and supervisory manpower. Please click here to indicate if you can help.

Comedy Night Fundraiser:

Make sure you have marked Saturday April 7th in your diary. This is the evening of our comedy night fundraiser. Jenny will be contacting the parents who offered to help soon, to get the organisation for this evening underway. We have the comedians booked and the alcohol licence sorted, so we are well on the way.

Dunedin Camp $$:

The exciting news of the week came when we heard that The Southern Trust agreed to grant us money towards our transport and accomodation costs for camp. We have set a target to raise $2000 from our cheese roll fundraiser and another $2000 from the comedy evening. When all the sums are done, the cost of five days of awesome learning experiences in Dunedin, including accomodation, food and transport, comes out at $160 per child. We are thrilled to be able to get this camp to such a reasonable price. A huge thanks to the Southern Trust and those supporting our fundraising projects.