Pōhutukawa News - Week 4, Term 1, 2021

 Ngā mihi e te whānau, warm greetings to you all.

Week 4 was another busy week, here are some of the highlights!

Canterbury Earthquake Commemorations

Last Monday 22nd February, Pōhutukawa joined the other teams at Beckenham te Kura o Pūroto in commemorating the 10 year anniversary of the Canterbury Earthquakes by filling our footpaths with images and messages of aroha and togetherness. We Care, Arohaina te tangata me te taiao.

Swimming Sports

It was great to see many whānau at our annual school swimming sports on Thursday. The event is always a lot of fun and the nervous energy on the bus on the way to the pool was palpable! We Love Challenge at Beckenham, and it was fantastic to see the tamariki literally leap out of their comfort zones with a splash. Nau mai te wero! Here is a message from Jenny Diggle to the competitors:

"Congratulations to all our swimmers who competed in the school swimming sports.

You embraced an opportunity to get involved and challenge yourself in friendly competition. Wharenui Pool wanted me to pass on how impressed they were with how clean you left the bleacher area. When I did a check after you had all left there was not one bit of rubbish and there was no lost property left behind in the changing rooms. These seemingly small things do make a difference. Thank you!"

Maths Groups

Our maths groups started this week. The tamariki have all started to engage in independent activities and think about goals they want to achieve for the term. It's wonderful to see many children wanting to improve on their basic fact knowledge. All the groups spent some group time engaging in activities that require justifying their answers and reasoning by using mathematical language. One example of the questions that were used to promote this mathematical reasoning was the following question in a "Move and Prove" activity:

 I am 9 hundreds and 100 ones. Am I 900, 999, 1000, or 9100? Be prepared to justify your answer. 

We Love Learning. He taonga te ako. Why not ask your child/children to justify their answer to you?