Koru Team News: Term 2 Week 4

 Kia ora e te whānau,

We hope this finds you all well and managing to stay clear of the winter bugs which are starting to circulate. We'd like to officially welcome Callia and her family to Beckenham to Kura o Pūroto. Callia started school with us on Monday this week. A warm welcome also goes out to Ehsan who is going to be starting with us on Monday next week. Ehsan has a big sister in the Kōwhai team, so we welcome Ehsan's family back to the Koru team!

We've had a very busy couple of weeks since our last Blog post. Activities have included:

• Pink Shirt Day last Friday (emphasising the value of 'kindness')
• the school Cross Country on Tuesday last week
• learning how to play charades
• learning some new waiata and playing Te Reo (emotions) Bingo
• Book Character Dress Up Day today...
• ... and of course lots of lovely Learning Through Play, with 'Inclusion' and 'Kindness' being our Words of the Week, and therefore a big area of focus for us all.

Cross Country:

Leading up to the school Cross Country, the tamariki, with the help of their kaiako, set themselves goals, which day by day they worked hard to achieve. They talked about 'pacing themselves', stamina and doing their best to have enough energy to continue to the end of the run. The children all worked very hard towards achieving their daily goals and we feel very proud of the effort they all put in on the day.

Well done, children, and hopefully, families, you have all seen the Cross Country participation certificates which the children brought home this week.

Literacy:

Your children are doing so well in their Literacy learning. We just love the eager and excited attitude which they bring to their small group learning each day!

Please follow these links for information about what we are focusing on at Stages 1 and 2 in our Structured Literacy programme, and also learn about ways in which you are able to help at home, at each of these stages:

• Stage 1 Graphemes and Heart Words
• Stage 1 - How to Help at Home
• Stage 2 learning
• Stage 2 - How to Help at Home

How can you help your child at home?

The emphasis in teaching spelling is to focus on the sound, as opposed to the letter name. Making the phoneme (sound) - grapheme (letter shape) connection is the first step in literacy learning.

Ensure that both you and your child are saying the ‘pure’ sound without an ‘uh’ sound on the end, for example, ‘lllll’ rather than ‘luh’. Please refer to this Youtube clip, The Sounds of New Zealand English, for more information on the sound that matches each of the letters.

Here are some ideas about ways you might use the letter cards at home with your child: 

Speed Sounds: use the cards as flash cards - your child can look at each letter card and say the sound it represents. See if your child can do this at speed.

‘I Spy’: You can play games such as ‘I Spy’, using the letter sound (not the name).

Stepping Stones: Place the cards on the floor with the letter facing up, as if they are stepping stones across the river. Explain to your child that they have to cross the ‘river’ without falling in the water. Your child steps on each card and says the corresponding sound.

Fish or Memory: You could make up a matching set of letter cards, and use both sets to play Fish or Memory together, by placing both sets of cards face down on the table or floor. Each player has to be able to say the sound, if they are to keep a matching pair of cards.

Writing the graphemes: you might make the letter sound and ask your child to write the matching grapheme (support your child as much as is needed with this activity)

Some of the above ideas can also be used with the heart words that your child either is, or will be, bringing home in their literacy folder.

Look out for more information about our Structured Literacy programme in future Blog posts.

...and now just a few more fun photos from the past fortnight!

Cyber Safety Information for Whānau:

Staying Safe Online...

As our tamariki spend more time online, it’s important parents and whānau help them stay safe. Now is a great time to talk to them about how we use the internet and digital technology.

Netsafe has created an Online Safety Parent Toolkit so parents, families and whānau have all the information they need to talk about online safety.

If you or anyone in your whānau needs support, you can contact Netsafe.

All You Need to Know About TikTok:

Tiktok is one of the fastest growing social media apps. It’s a platform for creating, sharing and discovering short videos – and many young people love it! From new dance crazes to funny clips to animal videos, Tiktok can inspire creativity and bring joy.

But it’s important that parents and whānau help their tamariki navigate Tiktok safely. Today we’re sharing the Netsafe Tiktok Family Safety Toolkit so you can help guide your whānau to a fun and safe digital experience.

We wish you all the best for a lovely weekend, everyone, and we look forward to seeing all of those beautiful, wide smiles at school again on Monday.

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou,

Elizabeth, Stacey and Georgia