Artists at Work

Over the week we have been revisiting screen printing using underpainted sheets of paper as our base. This has proved an excellent way to recycle unnamed paintings and other pieces of paper. The children draw a picture and cut it out for their template. Then they place it on a piece of paper and place the screen over it. The final step is applying the paint over the screen to produce the print. They have also discovered that they can reuse their template over and over again, so producing multiple pictures of the same print but with different shadings. Another discovery they are learning about is the detail that they put into their drawing may not appear on their print unless they cut some of these out of the template. Some of the children have become very skilled in how to cut out eyes, mouth, legs and other such features.

Garden Harvest

We have watched the seedlings we planted in the kindergarten garden grow over the last two terms until they are finally ready to harvest.
This morning the children picked spring onions, pok choy, broccolli, and silverbeet. Once washed they set to work to chop and dice them ready to be stir fried. We included some mushrooms and a couple of carrots as well. While the chopping was underway we had a cup and a half of rice on the stove cooking.
Next step. Heat oil in our electric fry pan. Everyone had turns putting the veges in the pan and giving them a stir. What a lot of steam! Where did it come from. What made it happen. The children had their own ideas about that. Everyone was careful not to touch the sides of the hot pan.
A delicious smell started to fill the kindergarten.
We added the cooked rice. Why was it soft now? Where did the water go that we put in to cook it?
Stir the rice in the veges, add Tamari (wheat free soy sauce) and taste. Just in time for morning tea. YUMMY!

Will the birds like our apples?

Its always good to see the bird life in the trees around the kindergarten.
With an excess of apples in the fridge I thought I would try out an idea to feed the birds. I had help from children to make a hole through some apples. You needed to be quite strong to do this.
With everyone having a turn we were finally successful. Then it was time to thread some cord through and hang them from the trees. How would the birds know they were there. Did they like apples. How many birds would come. Would we be able to get some photos? So many Questions.

Hip Hop

Can we have the rock n roll music on?
This has been a regular request from our energetic dancers.
The rock and roll music is crazy frog techno music.
The T shirts come off ( very important ) and its all on.
We watch in awe as the dancers move their bodies standing on hands, knees, heads, backs and tummies. They spin, twist, kick and twirl.
To follow this interest with the children we invited Darney Takao who runs hip hop classes for children locally to visit us, to teach the children some new moves. We enjoyed the session with him and the children were able to impress him with their own dance moves.