Fun with Lee Corlett

Thursday 11th March 2010

Lee is a regular visitor to both morning and afternoon sessions at Nayland Kindergarten as part of our physical development programme. The children just love it when he walks through the door. They know that they are in for a half hour of fun! Last Thursday it was the afternoon children's turn. Lee was focusing on developing the pincer grip, necessary if a child is to hold a pencil/pen successfully. So we had lots of fun attaching clothes pegs to our clothes and eventually making a wall by attaching the scarves together. Lee always starts with some warm-up exercises and finishes with a warm-down and three big breaths. And with every session there is a huge focus on listening and following through on instructions as Lee clearly articulates each step or exercise to the children. It was great to see so many of the children on task today. To finish up with Lee had the bubble machine going, great for hand/eye tracking.

Weaving Harakeke
23rd Feb - 15th March 2010

We have had a student teacher Rachel in the kindergarten for the past four weeks and she brought with her the skills of weaving. Rachel introduced the children to weaving harakeke (flax)in a variety of ways and also to the tikanga (cultural rules) that this encompasses such as how to cut the flax.



The children were drawn to the quiet times of sitting under the tree weaving their creations and parents joined in to learn also. Weaving will now be a part of kindergarten programme and teachers along with children look forward to learning more of these skills as the year goes on. Rachel has made the kindergarten as resource book outlining information and ideas for weaving. You will find this in the library.


Watch this space as we begin to weave around the pear tree making a visual barrier for children. Our tree is very old so as much fun as it would be to climb it we wish to protect it and have it as part of our environment for a very long time yet.

Farewell, Haere Ra Gaye.
8th -12th March 2010
We spent a special week saying goodbye to our friend Kaiako Gaye.

We will miss her passion, laughter, fun, dedication and of course her speed! The children and community as a whole spent time sharing a meal and there was also lots of presents and of course there were water
balloons and gunge! PINK! and lots of it.




We wish Gaye all the best at Grove Street Kindergarten and she will always be an important part of the Nayland Kindergarten community. Love that dress!

Excursion to Mapua's Touch the Sea Aquarium

3rd March 2010

As there had been a lot of interest and discussion from the children about fish, sea life and fishing it was decided that a trip to the aquarium would extend their understandings and experiences. So a very excited group of children and adults boarded the bus last Wednesday morning, headed for Mapua. Once we got there the children were split into two groups to make it more manageable, the first group going into the aquarium while the other group had morning tea out on the grass. Then after half an hour or so we swapped around. A half hour was plenty of time for the children to watch and talk about all the bigger fish in the main aquarium, explore the touch pools and spend time observing all the other creatures in the individual tanks.
Then later on, while taking a toilet break for a group of boys, we came across two fishermen. As we were standing there one of them caught a snapper. I think that was as exciting as anything for this group of children as these guys commenced to reel the fish in, measure it and then offered to gut it for the children. "Yeah," said one who shall remain nameless, "Cut it's eye out!" He didn't oblige but he did gut the fish and it was of great interest for us to see what was inside, including a piece of green vegetation. "It's lettuce!" said one of the boys. So we decided that this fish had salad for breakfast....or not. Maybe some seaweed!

At 11:00 we boarded the bus again, heading into Richmond where we stopped and visited our friends at Waverley Street Kindergarten and had a picnic lunch out on the playing fields. Then it was really time to get back to our own Kindy where lots of parents were waiting to take tired children home.

A visit from school

We really love it when our school friends come to kindergarten to play.  It is a time to catch up with friends who have just gone off to school and time to share our songs and stories at mat time.  They really enjoyed our song about 'getting up in the morning' and our story about 'Wonky Donkey.

It is also a time for our school friends to revisit their favourite places to play, like the swings, monkey bars, computers and carpentry.

We hope to visit the new entrant classroom at school this term to join in with their morning, and the following term there will be another new entrant room to visit too.

What have we found in our playground?

Goal 4 of the exploration strand of our early childhood curriculum Te whariki states that children will experience an environment where they develop working theories for making sense of the natural, social, physical and material worlds.
Summer time with its abundance of insect, animal and plant life offers many opportunities for children to notice and develop working theories about the living world, to develop a sense of responsibility for the well being of the living environment and knowledge of how to care for it.
On these hot sunny days we have appreciated the shelter and cooling effect of our wonderful large trees in the playground.
We have had opportunity to observe and discuss native bees that have made their homes in the sand pit, centipedes living under the stones in the garden and pavers in the playground.
Swan plant has been planted, nurtured and the caterpillars have appeared.
We have discovered and marveled over the many praying mantis and
shiny blue lady birds in the playground and cicada shells from our gardens.
Inside, the children have had the opportunity to observe the transformation of wriggling tadpoles into tiny frogs. The children have been busy with butterfly nets, catching the flies needed to feed them.
Children have shared their observations of sunsets and strong ocean currents.
So many opportunities for conversations, questions, investigation and discovery.

The environment speaks a language that children understand

The environment plays an important part in the programme, inviting children in to investigate, problem solve, to engage with and to stimulate thinking.  The teacher’s research over the last 3 years has highlighted the importance of providing a high quality and engaging indoor and outdoor environment, one  that draws children in, invites them to spend time, and allows time for them to be able to touch, smell, and look at things.  These areas promote independent play and co-operative play, so that children can choose to engage on their own or with others.  They can return to these areas again and again, to explore further, to question and to share their new knowledge and understanding with others.

 Creating an environment together means that teachers, children and families have an opportunity to share their ideas, passions, skills and knowledge with each other.  Be a part of our environment by sharing your ideas.

You will have noticed that we have enhanced some of the outdoor areas with material to create defined spaces to beautify and invite children into play.  These areas will change over time in response to what is happening for children and teachers.

Welcome back to a new year -2010

We will keep this blog going for another year, so that you can revisit all the happenings of 2009 with your child and family.  This is also a great opportunity for our new families to find out about the programme and what happens at Nayland Kindergarten.
So welcome back and we look forward to your comments, if you have any problems leaving comments please let us know, we would love to help out.

A Play Day at Playdaz - 26th November 2009

Today the afternoon session went on an adventure to Playdaz at the Action Sports Centre, Beach Road Richmond.

The fun began with a bus ride out to the centre and then there was fun galore on bouncy castles, slides, ride on cars, see saws, balls and lots lots more. It was so exciting for the teachers to see such group of confident and enthusiastic children having such fun together. The children ran around for an entire hour only stopping to refuel for water.
There will be learning stories in the children's profile books soon about this adventure.

Lee's session with the morning children - Nov 18th

Lee was trialling a new session for the very first time with our children. Kindergarten children working together in pairs to practice the skills, co-ordination and motivation to be physically active.
















First of all - the game of warm up - if the wolf[child] touched you, you had to squat down on the circle. That was the tricky part - the wolf and children could only move around the roped area by jumping from spot to spot.
Next came working in pairs, holding hands to rotate arms and shoulders together. Then as one child stood still and upright on a frisbee, their partner held their hand and ran around in circles as they rotated their friend on the frisbee!
Again, in pairs, children held their noodles and linked them together as a chain and then with a stable and strong stance - pulled. Honestly, hardly any children fell over - their grip and arm strength was strong!
To finish the session, a big ball was kicked around the circle - we noticed the anticipation as children waited for the ball to come and then kick the ball - future All Whites - you just never know!

Lee's session with the afternoon children - November 19th

Lee's session - the focus was fun and laughter with fine motor skills and hand-eye co-ordination.
A dome, scarves and fingers to poke through, look for and listen to the scarves?, and then at the end - pop the bubbles with clapping hands.

A visit to Noah's farm

October 30th - a sunny afternoon for a small group of afternoon children to visit Noah's farm to see his animals on his farm. We saw some lambs and Noah told us that their names were, "lambs." We fed them some bread and then we went inside to see Ethan the cockatoo and the chickens. The chickens are still growing and that is why they are inside. As a teacher, I stood back and watched the brave and curious children holding the chickens - hmmm they are most certainly braver than their teacher!
Noah's farm continued to have surprises as we walked past 'Billy' the goat and headed into the forest. Well, just a little part of the forest - we gathered pinecones, had a rest and then went back through the long wavy grass to our cars. A big thank you to Noah and his family for the invitation to visit your farm - we had a great time!

Broadgreen Chickens come to Nayland Kindergarten

Just before the end of Term 3, a group Of Broadgreen Intermediate children and their teacher came to read stories, about chickens! The children at Broadgreen had hatched the chickens and continued to look after them as they grew and from all of these experiences, stories were written and published and then read to our children. Then, as the stories were about real chickens, we were able to use our 'gentle hands' and gently stroke the chickens. We gave a big thank you to the Broadgreen Intermediate children for sharing their stories and chickens with us.

A drumming we will go!

We were lucky to visit the media suite at Broadgreen Intermediate


with 20 children, to check out the drum set. We all had a turn on the drums and drumming has now become a craze at kindergarten, along with song and dance.
There has been a huge amount of interest in music, dance and shows, and I have a sneaky suspicion it has something to do with the parents/teachers musical show soon  to be performed by Nayland Primary, called Mile High Mania.  (WOW! what a show, I loved every minute of it)
Drumming is for everyone, and anything goes, if it makes a noise you can drum it, even concrete, monkey bars, the tunnel, the wooden structures and plastic containers out of the sandpit.
We are watching to see what might happen next, as the singers, dancers and drummer seem to be doing gigs together now.

We really love the feedback we are getting in our profile books and communication books,  it tell us what is happening for children and families and also what is important to families. 
We all have different ways of communicating- if you want to email feedback, then send it to -naylandkindy@ts.co.nz, or make a comment on the blog, or of course tell us face to face, or write in the profile book or communication book.  Which ever way you feel most comfortable as we know that families are really busy too, is fine by us.
We are looking forward to some of your comments about the many many happenings on the blog.