WORKING BEE - 3rd April 2011.

Once again the Nayland Kindergarten community came out in force for our working bee and those who couldn't help on the day provided a yummy morning tea for the ground force which was enjoyed by all. Te Whaariki our Early Childhood Curriculum states; families of all children should feel that they belong and are able to participate in the education programme and in decision making. In our philosophy statement we say "we want children, teachers, parents and the community to be active participants in high quality, challenging and stimulating environments" Here it is in action.

The Penguin Group Meet Gill the Librarian

Today we went to the School library where Gill the librarian met us and told us the Library rules. She showed us where we could choose books from and where we would choose them from when we first started school. Then we got to look at the books that interested us and see the wall displays before Gill called us back into a group to show us how to find out how to put a book back in the right place. You look down the spine of the book to find a letter and then you match it to the one on the book shelf. Soon it was time for us to make our way back to kindergarten for lunch but not before Gill read us a story which we all helped with.

Nayland School Assembly

Today an eager bunch of children and adults set off to Nayland Primary School’s full assembly. We were warmly greeted by Mrs Hall and sat amongst the classes. It was wonderful to see that some of ex Nayland Kindergarten children were being recognized for their outstanding attitudes towards learning. Sophie’s big brother Connor won the school award much to the delight of his little sister.

Fit & Healthy

Over the past two terms there have been lots of small group excursions heading off to explore different areas of the community and follow up on children's interests. Two excursions over the past week have been organised in response to our physical programme and encouraging children to attempt new challenges. Two Fridays ago a group of ten went on a bike ride along the railway reserve to the playground down near Carpet Court. There we had morning kai and a play on the equipment before biking back to Kindergarten. The children amazed me (not to mention some of the parents) with their stamina especially on the ride home when it was all slightly uphill.

Then just last Wednesday a group of 8 children, 4 parents, 2 younger siblings and 1 family dog joined me for a walk up to the Centre of NZ. I wanted the children to have the opportunity to explore the wider community and enjoy some of Nelson's beautiful natural environment. Again, the children were awesome! We had a picnic first at the Botanics and then we headed up the "mountan", as the children called it. What amazing hikers they were and again, I know that there was one mother in particular that was blown away by the efforts of her son. And the view up there was well worth it. As one child kept saying, "Wow, it's amazing!"

Monarch Butterfly

It has been with much wonderment and excitement that we have all been following the life cycle of the monarch caterpillar. It was last month that we first noticed the little eggs that the butterflies had laid on the leaves of our swan plant. Over the weeks we watched as the tiniest of caterpillars hatched and grew bigger and bigger. They started to run out of food so more swan plant was brought in as well as a huge number of caterpillars. So the process continued and children and teachers alike were totally transfixed by the magical transformation of caterpillar to chrysallis which we managed to capture on video. And just over this past week we have watched so many beautiful butterflies emerge from their fragile cases, flapping their wings to dry them before teachers have removed them to the safety of the garden. Purehua tino atāhua!

Stoke Fire Station.

Because we believe that children learn through relationships with people , places and things, we make a point of ensuring the wider world and community are an integral part of the learning experiences we make available to children. With this in mind we plan excursions to follow up on children's interests and if possible making links for them between their kindergarten and the larger world in which they live.And if these links are family links it makes it even more exciting and relevant.

Fire Fighter play has been a major feature of the playground recently and Luba (Student teacher - Canterbury University) wanted to follow up on this. Two of the boys have several family members who are part of Stoke Voluntary Fire Brigade and so we were able to organise a visit to the Fire Station.
We set off walking along the reserve , stopping for morning tea along the way. Once we got to the Fire Station everyone became excited. we talked first with Amanda and met James and Issac. They took us into the locker room where we saw the uniforms and some of us tried it on. One of the firefighter kindly donned his uniform, and even put on the breathing apparatus.
From here we got to climb inside the firetruck, and then head into the control room and learn about what fire fighter do when a call out comes in. After this we all went outside and watched how they put a ladder up on top of a building (and believe me it is not as easy at it looks on TV.
The of course we had the moment we had all been looking forward to. The fire hose!! All the children got a turn and of course I simply couldn't resist......and I tried so hard to resist the temptation of squirting everyone.
Thanks so much to Sonia for setting up the trip, to Luba for helping me organise it, to Manda, Matt and James for being brilliant role models and patiently answering all our questions.And of course thanks to the parents who came iwth us and to the children for being an awesome bunch to go out with,

SPCA Visit Kindergarten.

Karman and Ian the SPCA educators brought Tammy the Maltese Dog (kuri) who lives at the SPCA and some of the other rescued animals to kindergarten this morning. The children had the opportunity to handle the baby rabbits (rāpeti) that were just eight weeks old and the little kitten (punua ngeru) that was found abandoned at Countdown in Stoke.This is a wonderful example of children experiencing an environment where connections with the wider community are affirmed and extended. The children are learning to cope with changes to the daily routines with the support of the teachers and in a familiar environment. For some children this may also be the first time that they have handled some of the animals that came.

Don't forget to check out Lynne's blog....

On the right hand side of the page a little further down you will see a tab with "Lynne's adventures" as we travel around the UAE and hopefully the mediterranean.
At present we are still at Sara's enjoying wee Milan, the weather is getting really hot now and some days it is too hot for outside time.  Never mind we had joined one of the local hotel complexes and have been lazing by the pool and sunbathing.  Hard work I know.

Milan was only 5lb born but is now racing to 8lb and she has already worked out how to make the most of life and her likes and dislikes.  She particularly loves going to sleep on grand dad... and an afternoon at the intercontinental lazing under the umbrellas.

And Nana does too - spot the swimmer, I should say floater, just lazing out like Milan.
Grand dad is busy doing his laps of the big pool - too much like hard work.