Guess who visited us today.....

Today we were ever so excited to welcome a special someone to kindergarten......Santa Claus!!!

The children sang Jingle Bells, Pop bang Crack, Pohutukawa seed, Red Red Coat and 

we wish you a merry Christmas. Santa was very impressed!!!!!

Thank you to all  our wonderful families and whanau who joined us for the morning, we love having you and hope you have a wonderful christmas and holiday with your families.

Ngā mihi nui mō to Kirihimete!!!

Wishing you a very happy christmas!!

Newsletter

Let's be sunsmart!

A huge thank you to Orrs Pharmacy Ruakaka!!

On friday we were very lucky to welcome Emma Hales from Orrs Pharmacy Ruakaka into the kindergarten. Emma spoke with the children about the importance of being San Smart and making sure that they Slip, Slop, Slap and Wrap.

SLIP - on a hat

SLOP - on sunscreen

SLAP - on clothing

WRAP- on sunglasses

As well as promoting the Sun Smart message to our tamariki, Orrs Pharmacy Ruakaka gave each of our children a Sun Smart pack which included information about being sunsmart, an SPF 30 sun protection lip balm, three small sunscreens and a voucher to bring into the pharmacy to choose a FREE pair of sunglasses. 

A huge thank you to Orrs Pharmacy Ruakaka and to all our wonderful parents and whanau who came along and shared the day with us.

November newsletter

Marshmallows

Today the children extended their interest in bonfires....we made REAL marshmallows!

We thought we better share the recipe in case there are requests for more at home.

This is a swing that Jack and Gracie wanted to make so that they could share a seat with their friends.  We put a plank between two swings and made one swing.  This swing fitted 5 people on it.  We made sure that we were holding onto the rope when we were swinging.

Petrina from Sport Northland is coming in to work with the children for this term.  She is teaching us some new movement skills we can use with the children.  It is lots of fun and today she brought in her hoops and the children made a train with her.  What an awesome time we had.

Checking out Blakes logging truck.  Awesome fun!

Today we had a visit from Blake's Dad who brought in his fully laiden logging truck.  We all got to go out and have a look, some of us were lucky if we wanted to we got to sit in the truck.

Newsletter

Light!!

Today we bought out an overhead projector...yes a very big old box that shines light on the wall or ceiling. The tamariki were intrigued...what could it be? 

The children gathered around and explored it together. We explored coloured beads and people on the projector. Shortly after we began the children noticed that the light was shining up onto the ceiling. They moved the colours and shapes around the surface of the overhead and watched them move around the ceiling. 

  

 "Playing with light and dark creates magical                         experiences for all of us."  Thornton & Brunton (2009)

Today's light and dark experience offered our tamariki the opportunity to appreciate and explore the awe and wonder of the world around them. This light experience was a new experience for many of the children. It was a truly rich environment for the children to explore and develop their natural curiosity.

Opportunities such as these allow all of us, children and adults, to engage in sustained shared thinking while developing relationships where joy and fears are open for discussion (Thorton & Brunton, 2009).

This light experience held the children's attention for a long period of time. It was lovely to observe the children's language as they shared the experience together, appreciating the beauty of the light and the additional dimensions it gave to their normal day and play. 

Ka rawe tamariki - Awesome!!!



Making the Most of Light and Mirrors, Linda Thornton & Pat Brunton (2009) Featherstone Education
Young Children’s Personal, Social and Emotional Development, 3rd Edition, Marion Dowling (2009) SAGE.

Newsletter October 2012

Our new garden...  Yummy we can't wait for the produce.

Today we all worked hard and moved the fish garden to a new spot. Our new garden is going to produce some yummy things for us to eat.

Healthy Heart Award

 

We are extremely proud to announce that we are the recipients of the GOLD healthy Heart Award.

Rona Mahy - Willis came and presented us with our award and celebrating with us by making Sushi.

Thank you to Roimata from the NKA who came and shared some tips and knowldge for our whanau about fundamental movement skills and of course...a big and wonderful thank you to all our kindergarten whanau who came and stayed to join in the celebrations with us!!! 

Tau ke Koe - Your awesome!!

 

 

 

 

 

Cooper you did a fabulous job doing screen printing.  Wow look at the end product.

Screen Printing.

Sammy look at you getting involved in a spot of screen printing today.  Well done Sammy.

Wow Liam and Riley, you looked like you were having so much fun this morning speeding around the playground.  Levi and Cooper did a great job they pushed you for ages and didn't even seem to get tired.I'm glad you remembered to hold on tight.

Nature

Wendy bought some rabbits and guinea pigs in today. Everyone had cuddles and some of the animals even had a run in the garden and the cheeky thing helped himself to some of our fresh vegetables!

World Famous in Bream Bay

You may have seen Levi's photo in the latest copy of the Bream Bay News.
Yes we are world famous in Bream Bay!!!




















In case you can't read the print it says...
" This may look like something left behind by a drain layer but it is Bream Bay Kindergarten's latest outdoor play facility - a mud pit.Teacher Mandy Taylor said, " As you can see it's a fabulous opportunity for our tamariki to explore. Our mud pit is particularly appealing to the boys but our girls love to have a go too. The tamariki love it - learning through play, it involves all their senses and provides a rich environment for language development as well as explorations of math and science concepts."Asked if the children need to bring along a change of clothes, Mandy said the kindergarten has special mud play suits they need to put on if they want to go into the pit.

Healthy Heart Award!!

E Rere taku poi waiata

Puppetry Play - Two little birds, a pig and the big bad wolf

Lizzie the lizard

Sometimes we have the greatest moments when children share their world with us...

" Hey Rowan, I have a lizard called Lizzie.

My dad find it, it’s like a mud pit yeah and it’s where we catch the lizards it’s a lizard pond and we got it and it has grass.

The lizard then he’s holds onto my little finger,  and he’s getting like getting used to me, getting used to me and um he on he’s getting used to me, the lizards are getting used to me.”

I asked how many lizards Harlee Jay has and he told me…

“I got heaps of them. Cause I call the rock pond the lizard pond yeah funny. And dad puts his motorbike in the lizard pond. I have heaps of lizards at my house. I named all the other ones yeah all the other lizards I named one softie I’ve seen softie and um goodie yeah goodie and um lizzie and goodie and lovely and then and then grassie and ah sandy and that’s all of them. And then this one called tree-ie,  the little ones are all called tree-ie and the big ones are all called Lizzie.

And my dad he just catch all of them, he must be a lizard too, cause he’s faster than a lizard.”

Gingerbread Men

Our children continue to enjoy the Gingerbread man story so today we shared the story at mat time and then.....

we made Gingerbread men!!!     

The children all gathered around the table and together we took turns to pour, stir and mix the ingredients together.

Some of the children remembered what ingredients we needed for our recipe, just like the little old lady in the story.

"Flour, sugar, ginger, butter and milk"

Although we were a little surprised by the smell of the ginger. We passed it around the table so that we could all have a smell....

"It's smells like Tiger ginger" Lua said.

"Yeah like Lion ginger" said Kiani. 

It was lovely to see everyone taking turns and sharing. Everyone was considerate of others as they all waited for a mix or an opportunity to add an ingredient.

After the ingredients had all been added we began to roll out our dough... this was a big job, in fact it was a very sticky job!

Then we pressed out our shapes so that we had rows and rows of gingerbread men.

"Children learn to appreciate their traditions, the importance of meaningful work and the joy of sharing the fruits of their labours with others." Cohen 2008

    

Feeling scared

 

June Newsletter

Ben's video to England

Ben has just moved from England to New Zealand.  He is missing his family and friends in England, and when I asked if he would like to make a video message for them all, Ben was very keen!

To ringa ki roto

Another great waiata to sing with the tamariki!

Big body play

What's happening here...

Developing social and emotional competency
The children are willing participants in a game of rough and tumble.  It's a load of fun!  At times it can get a bit boisterous...however these times provide opportunities where children are able to practice their conflict resolution and social skills.

Healthy heart
This vigorous big body physical activity is just the ticket to develop a fit body and mind.

Great article on rough and tumble play 101

Power to the people

Levi wanted to add to our kindergarten rules.  We encouraged him to share his idea at our ‘coming together’ mat time.  The other children were very  receptive to his idea, and we put it to the vote with very interesting results.

19 to 2 voted in favour of the new rule worded ‘When you’ve finished, clean your mess’.  However, two voters weren’t happy with the wording...proposed changes read as ‘When you’ve finished, pick up your toys and put them in the box’.

   

Literacy lunch!

Today we made alphabet soup!
It was very exciting to see all the little alphabet letters swell into a delicious yummy soup for a cold winter's day.

Once it was ready we all sat around our kai table and shared a cup of soup each.
The children loved hunting out their letters...

"It's my number" said Ben as he found a number 4.

 What better way to recognise letters and numbers than in our soup!

All the children had opportunities to communicate their ideas and listen to each others offerings.

The children enjoyed it so much there was NO leftovers!!!

                                                                     

This was a very fun experience for the children to be involved in
recognising their letters in print (edible print at that!).

"I found a T for Tyler"