Kauri Whanau: Term 2 Week 9

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The end of term is in sight, however we are still full steam ahead in the Year 7 & 8 hub.

Cheese Rolls:

Orders have closed and we now have 300 dozen cheese rolls to make and package over two separate days. This will be a great learning experience for the children. They will be working in 45 minute shifts, with classroom learning and PE happening in their off shifts. Our first making day is this Thursday and the second is next Wednesday. It would be helpful if the children could bring an apron on these days, if they have one. We are also in need of used supermarket bags to help with the distribution of orders. Please send what you can spare along to school tomorrow. If you have volunteered to help, could you please arrive at Champion Street by 8:45am, with your apron and a set of measuring spoons.

Showcase:

We are expecting all Year 7 & 8 children to be at our Yr 5-8 Showcase evening on Thursday July 6th, starting at 7pm in the Hillview gym on Wilsons Rd. This will be a chance for us to share our J-Rock performance. The choir, some of the band and Te Whanau Mahi Tahi will also perform. This will also be an opportunity to present citizen of the week certificates, Gold leadership awards and a very special leadership award. We need a team of adults to help set up and put away carpet tiles and seats. If you are able to help with this, please click this link to fill in the quick form.


Showcase

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Kia Ora Whanau

RE: Showcase

We welcome you to attend our Pohutukawa and Kauri Team Showcase on Thursday 6th July 2017 at 7:00 pm - 8:15 pm. This event will be held at Hillview Christian School, in their hall (150 Wilsons Road, St Martins, Christchurch).

The following items will be presented during this evening:

  • Pohutukawa Kapa Haka
  • J-Rock Performance
  • Pohutukawa Team Jump Jam Dances
  • Pohutukawa and Kauri Team Citizen of the Week certificates
  • Year 7/8 Choir
  • Band (a group will be decided upon this week)
  • Leadership awards 
  • Intermediate Hub video 
  • Te Whanau Mahi Tahi 

All of our children have been involved in learning a Jump Jam dance throughout this term to share. We are encouraging them to wear:
  • a black, red or white t-shirt or long sleeved top
  • dark shorts or pants 
  • a hat and/or sunglasses (optional). 
It is fine if this outfit is the school uniform. 

If you are available to help set the hall up and pack down, please let your child's teacher know. We will meet at Hillview Christian School at 3:15 for set up and pack down after the showcase. It will involve putting mats and seats out and then putting them away and ensuring the gym is tidy afterwards. 

We look forward to seeing you there. 

KORU (Hubs 1,2,3,4 and 10,11) HIGHLIGHTS Weeks 7-8

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 Upcoming Events - Help Needed Please  

Week 9 Friday the 30th of June

 We are going to relocate our Junior readers to the new building on Friday the 30th of June. If you are able to help us by carrying boxes of books from the upstairs resource room to the new block from  9:00 that morning please email Amber.
amber.donovan@beckenham.school.nz

Week 10 Friday the 7th of July

On the last day of term we will be shifting Hubs 1 to 4 into our new learning spaces. We would really appreciate parents, grandparents and friends of the school coming along to help move our classroom tables, chairs and resources to the new space. If you like sorting we could also use some help combining and sorting some resources. We will begin shifting from 9:00am.
If you are able to help please contact Sue.
sue.leadbetter@beckenham.school.nz



Our Fabulous New Space

  • Thank you to all the parents and extended family who have visited our new building this week.  The learning spaces were officially opened on Wednesday and it has been lovely to see everyone exploring and admiring them.
  • We will be trialing a "shoes off" policy in the new buildings.  Please can you check your child can put on and off their shoes, tie their laces or fasten velcro independently.  Many thanks.
  • Litter-Free Lunches - we are encouraging our children to reduce the amount of rubbish in our environment so the children will bring their lunch waste / and packets home from term 3 on.
  • We will continue to compost any organic material. This is part if a school-wide approach to reduce waste.
We LOVED going into our new learning space this week and are excited about what comes next. 
Hubs 1,2,3 and 4 all fit so nicely in the 'amphitheater'.  As a school we will be naming the special learning spaces all ready for next term.






Growth Mindset

This term we have been talking about developing a growth mindset.  We can say things to ourselves to help us focus on our learning and encourage ourselves to keep going.
I can do it.
I will keep trying.
I learn from my mistakes.
I believe in myself.
Learning can be hard and I can push through the struggle.
I love learning.
I will try my best.
Bring on the  challenges!

Carol Dweck researches “growth mindset” — the idea that we can grow our brain's capacity to learn and to solve problems. In this talk below, she describes two ways to think about a problem that’s slightly too hard for you to solve. Are you not smart enough to solve it … or have you just not solved it yet?

https://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve

Thank you for all your help and support.Kindest regards

Koru Team.
Elizabeth, Rowe and Gail - Hub 10 and 11
Charlotte, Dorinda and Amber - Hub 1 and 2
Sue and Caitlyn - Hub 3 and 4.

 

Pohutukawa Newsletter – Term 2 Week 8

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Kia Ora Whānau

Hub Opening
We had a high level of excitement around our new hub opening yesterday. Here are some of the comments from our students:

James - "I've never seen anything as awesome as this before!"
Brayden - "The inside was amazing!"
Winni - "There were lots of good cubby holes to hide in and it was good because there was a place where you could be noisy and places to be quiet."
Hayley - "You could have fun there and there were heaps of places where we could do work and it was soundproof. I'm really excited about going there."
Nina - "I liked the heated floors."
Angus - "I liked the big stage with the steps where we could sit on. I like the bathrooms. They were so clean! I'm ready to get into it."
Grace - "The kitchen is nice and big and we can cook and bake there easily."

Team celebration day 

We are planning an end of term celebration afternoon on Wed 5th July. Children are invited to bring board games, card games, devices, toys or crafts. These will be locked away in the staff office for safety until our celebration starts.  If they would like to wear a onesie, they can bring it along to get into after lunch.

Lost Property 

We have had a number of school polar fleeces go missing in the last couple of weeks. Can you please help your child check their name tags and ensure all items are labeled. We check our lost property boxes and and return named items daily so items may have been returned to the Beckenham site lost property box outside the office.

Writing

We have been writing collaboratively, motivated by hybrid animals. Part of our writing process was to choose a hybrid and a text type. Here are some examples of our animal hybrid writing:

The EliFly

I can’t help but stare at the deep, bold, teal greeny and golden colours of its elephant ear shaped wings.. flapping like a flightless bird. It puts its long snake like snout into the water for a drink. Splash! The water gets sucked up from the ground like getting taken from a UFO! Slurp!
He must have heard me!

At this moment as his eyes connect with mine and blind me, as bright blue and red rays burst from them, shining directly towards me."'Ahh” I scream. The creature races away from me in fright and as it turns I can see its shimmering golden tail swinging from side to side catching and reflecting the sun's rays. It starts running faster as I chase it deeper into the South Korean jungle. We end up running into a cave.

Just then I see flashes of eyes in the pitch black cave. It’s the elephants pack! I dash off like Usain Bolt, never coming back again.

By Joel and Connor

Kowhai Team Update Week 8

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Hi everyone,
It is hard to believe we are in the final weeks of the term! This week has been particularly exciting with the first of our team having the opportunity to be working in our new learning spaces and the exciting cross country event yesterday.

New Learning Spaces
Our whole team visiting the new building.
Hub 5/6 moved over to the new building on Thursday and will be based here until the end of the term. As a team, we are really excited to be able to work in this space. So, over the next two weeks, everyone will have time to work in this space to give our tamariki a 'taste' of what will will be like next term when we move into our new building.
As part of our circle time discussions across the team, we have been talking about the concept of change in preparation for the move. We have discussed our thoughts and feelings when we experience change and how many things continue to remain the same. With that in mind, although the space will be different, all our routines will continue as they currently are. These circle time sessions will continue to provide the children with the opportunity to ask any questions they have about our new learning spaces. As a teaching team, we are really excited about the opportunities that working together will provide and having a team of teachers supporting and caring for each of our students is really exciting!

Learner Agency
Sewing spare bags for the library.
As a school, we believe that the most powerful learning occurs when it is driven by students. This is often referred to as self -directed learning or student agency. Student Agency is about the student being the "agent" (or "person with an active role" in learning) rather than the teacher. When students connect to their passions and interests, they have a greater stake in what they are doing as they are creating, doing, sharing, collaborating, and publishing their learning in ways that are meaningful to them.
We promote agency in many different ways across our team and this, like our learners, can look different as we all have differing learning styles, skills and knowledge. At the Year 3-4 level, our role is to discuss learning steps related to our observations and assessments and encourage our students to make choices about how they can work on new learning goals.
Here are some children demonstrating agency by completing a variety of learning tasks:
Working independently
Working collaboratively in a group.
Creating our own art that communicates a school value.

Agency in Literacy - In Hub 5/6, four reading groups have been trialing a 'Literacy' time. In this learning block the children have been reading articles related to our inquiry around the environment and how environmental change occurs. The groups have then been encouraged to produce writing based on their reading. The children are being encouraged to decide what type or genre of writing they want to produce and then given scaffolding and support to create their work.




Agency in Maths - Having agency in maths is about children taking charge of their learning and having a growth mindset. This means that they have the skills to persevere with new learning and are able to ask questions and try different ways to solve a problem. We never say, "We can't do do that." Instead we say, "We can't do that yet!"
We encourage each other to be successful in maths by talking through different strategies to solve problems and choosing the ones that work best for us.



Inquiry Update
In Inquiry, we have been learning about the plants and animals in our environment and about how plants and animals adapt to their changing environment. We have also been thinking about how our environment helps to shape our identity. The children have been coming up with deeper questions that they want to research related to this topic. They are currently preparing to answer these questions and any more that may arise. Their next step is to think about how they want to make a difference with their newfound knowledge. This will be up to the children as to what they want to do. It gives the children the perfect opportunity to take their Inquiry in their own direction and have a richer and more meaningful learning experience.





Agency in MAD Time

MAD time (Make A Difference time) has been a great success! The children have selected an area they are passionate about for the term and wow, they have been doing a lot of learning around their projects.  Woodwork,  Passion Projects, Sketching,  Italian, Korean Dance and Visiting Thorrington Resthome residents have all allowed the children to take ownership of their learning and have a great time seeing how they can make a difference to others and work through their own challenges. Check out our awesome photos of our K Pop dances we have perfected. The children have had a blast learning about Korean culture and dance.

S.P.C.A Donations Urgently Needed
A group of MAD Time students are currently needing donations of blankets and cat/kitten food for the SPCA. If you have any items that you are able to donate, these girls and the SPCA would be most grateful! Donations can be made by either dropping food into the school office or to the girls who are collecting items each morning BEFORE school by the flag pole. Thanks for helping this very worthwhile cause!

Cross Country
Due to the weather last week, the cross country will now be held this coming Thursday 29th June.  The times are as follows:
1:50pm - NE race begins / Y1 warm up
2:00pm - Y1 race begins / Y2 warm up
2:10pm - Y2 race begins / Y3 warm up
2:20pm - Y3 race begins / Y4 warm up
2:30pm - Y4 race begins

Cheese Rolls
Delivery of these yummy cheese rolls will be on Thursday 29th June. Make sure you have put your order in as they are delicious!

That's all for this week.
Kowhai Teaching Team