Teachers are learners here to

Working with children to explore creativity is the best job in the world.  It is very empowering for teachers trying out new art mediums alongside children for the very first time.  It is often the children that are the teachers and the teachers that are the learners, so together we build a community of artists.
Art is always a magnet drawing other children into trying out something new, and at times they are lining up for the next turn.  So my challenge is to always keep it small and manageable, not branch out into something that resembles a railway station.  I had a success with the printmaking as they children were keen to have a turn and wrote their names on the list to ensure they had a turn the next day.

Working with Clay

Working with natural resources such as clay is very satisfying.
Early exploration has involved discovering the way clay responds to kneading, rolling, shaping and patterning. We used fingers, palms, fists and tools to pattern the surface.
We have provided shells, cones, sticks to use with the clay.
Children have made sailboats, pots, butterfly, caterpillars, beds, monkeys and beads.
Another technique that has been explored is using a slab of clay as a canvas to draw pictures on. We have used some wonderful metallic paints to paint beads and we will add colour to the drawings and other creations now they are dry.
There have been opportunities for story telling, exploring language for shape texture pattern, sharing ideas and knowledge.

Recycling.

This week Sarah Langi from Small Planet came to talk with us about recycling. Sarah talked about what happens to the rubbish in land fill and how it just sits there and takes hundreds of years to break down. If we want to be people who care for our environment we need to think of some other ways of disposing of rubbish was her main message.
We had collected lots of rubbish from lunches, a collection of food scraps and other things and Sarah asked the children to decide where to put each item. The children had to decide whether it was paper and card, plastic, tin or compost or worm farm. We were very proud of the way they answered quickly and with such knowledgeable answers.
And I learnt a new thing this week......did you know that Kathmandu fleeces are made from recycled plastic bottles so drink up!

New Paints

Thursday 6th May

This afternoon the children enjoyed working with the new metallic paints. I set up small pieces of paper, paint trays and cotton buds on a table outside with the help of two of the children who were very keen to try out the "beautiful colours". Many of the children throughout the afternoon came to explore the resources and lots of wonderful paintings were created, all with a style of their own.

Hula Hoop Huts

Wednesday 5th May


This morning we got busy building hula hoop huts, one of the activities used in Lee's sessions to promote children's spatial awareness. Using six hoops a hut is built and the children then have to crawl through it very carefully so that it does not fall down. They have to think carefully about where their head is, their arms, their bottom and their feet. I had lots of children keen to join in when they saw the fun that the others were having. Another challenge was to see how many children we could fit inside one hut without it falling down. We managed three which led me to introducing the story of "The Three Little Pigs", with the three huts representing the pigs' houses that they built. So what started as a physical development activity turned into wonderful dramatic play for a large group of children, and we were still playing when the tidy-up time music came on. Oh dear, we will just have to play it again next week!

Learning about other ways of caring for the world.

One morning some of the children asked about the worm farm, so we got some rubber gloves and checked it out. Did you know that human skin burns the worms so it's important to wear gloves to keep the worms safe. We were all delighted to find heaps of worms eating their way through all the scraps.










Some of the conversations we have been having this week have been about "what happens to our rubbish" so today we tried an experiment. We collected a sample of rubbish, food scraps, glad wrap,tinfoil and yogurt pottles and buried them in the garden. We talked about what might happen to the rubbish and next month we will dig it up to make some discoveries. Some children buried the rubbish and some others made markers to show remind us of what's beneath the soil.

This week we have been collecting the leaves that are falling around the playground so we can make some leaf mulch. Some of the children helped sweep up the leaves and then tip them into the area we had made.

Excursion to Guyton's

Wednesday 26th April

It was a very excited group of boys that set off to visit Guyton’s fish shop. This trip had been organised as a follow up from last term’s excursion to the Aquarium and the continuing interest in fish and sea creatures that several of these boys have. We travelled by car, with mums and dads helping out with transport and supervision. We drove along Rocks Road, children recognising familiar places like the Lion’s Playground. “Where’s Mr. Whippy?” one wanted to know! Another knew a little about Fifeshire Rock. “Silly rock. A boat crashed into it.” Once at the wharf there was lots to see both out on the water, with tugs boats heading out to bring in a big container ship, and inside the shop, where they not only saw all the kai moana for sale but could see the guys filleting the fish through the viewing window. Favourites were the big crayfish and the moonfish. Before leaving we bought some hoki and once back at Kindergarten we cooked up some fish and chips for lunch. Yummy!

After observing a strong interest amongst some of the children around animals and horses, we arranged for a visit to Whakatu RDA for a small group of children.
Thanks to Pam and her helpers and horses Comet, Cherry and Dinkie we had a wonderful morning. For some, riding a horse was a familiar sensation while for others it was a new experience.
The childrens observations included "whats that smell" and
"Comet was itchy, he kept itching his leg with his mouth.
They felt soft and warm.
Comet was wobbly to ride but fun. It was funny seeing the poos!"
We found out that horses birthdays are all August 1st.

Kia ora koutou. Thank you all so much for the warm welcome to Nayland Kindergarten and for your patience while I learn the ropes and learn everyone's names. If I haven't met you properly yet, please come up and introduce yourself. Being here has provided me with many new challenges especially in the area of I.C.T, but progress is possible and here I am making my first blog post.

Thank you also for the way you have welcomed the children from Nelson South Kindergarten who are with us for the time being until a replacement building can be found for them. They have coped very well with the change and it has been great to watch them fitting right in here at Nayland. The highlight for them this week was probably the visit to the WOW museum, and I am sure they will be putting it on their wishlist for excursions when they return to Nelson South Kindergarten.

The children have spent the first week settling back in to kindergarten and they have been really enjoying the outdoors.  When Lester arrived with the frame work for the new house (or rocketship) they were very excited when he started to construct it with them.  They were lining up for hammers and working elbow to elbow both inside and outside the house frame.  The boys were keen builders, listening to Lester and banging in lots of nails to make it strong.  The boys had no longer finished than the girls came along to finish the job.  Thanks Lester for sharing your building skills with our children.

Juice Making

17th March 2010

This morning we decided to make fruit juice because we had so much fruit sitting in our fruit basket. A large group of children helped to cut up the fruit, take turns to put it through the juicing machine and then one child helped to crush up the ice to make fluffies.....yummy!! It was exciting to watch the juice coming out of the machine, especially when it kept changing colour dependent on what fruit was going in. Then the best bit came at the end when we got to taste the juice. The verdict.....very yummy and very cold!

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.