It is official - We have changed roles permanently

As of the beginning of term four I am pleased to announce that I have been appointed Head Teacher and Lynne has been appointed as Teacher for Nayland Kindergarten.  There maybe little  noticeable change as we have been acting in these roles for the past two terms however it is now a permanent thing. I look forward to leading the Nayland team to continue to provide an exciting education for your children embracing and working alongside you and your whanau.


Lynne has been an inspirational head teacher who has taken the team, the children and the community on an amazing transformation over the past eight years and we are so lucky that she remains at Nayland to continue on this path.
Lynne on behalf of the children, their whanau, our community, teachers past and present especially myself congratulate you in your decision to change roles and thank you for all the support and inspiration you haven given and continue to give us.
 

"The task of the leader is to get people from where they are to where they have not been."         — Henry Kissinger   


 I think this quote sums up the amazing journey we have been on and will continue to build upon.
Fa'afetai Lava ( Thank you very much) Lynne from us all. 

Super Hero Plank

"Grab hold of your superhero business teams, friends and family and build this sneaky piece of inspirational community wall art for the wildly creative kids’ superhero wall.

Paint, glue, nail, screw, laser and kryptonite your favourite super hero figurines to the planks provided. Add some artistic tension by adding the arch nemesis of your superhero or heroine.!

Write the names of your favourite people superheroes on the plank, like family or friends or special people in the community or add some funky props or wild background colour/effects.Bring it along to the Play House on Sunday September 25th. A fun family day out with all donations being given to Starship Children's Hospital.

This was the brief we were given , along with a plank of wood. Rather than let commercial images of super heroes set the tone I talked with children about what a hero is and the things heroes do.Here are some of the comments of the heroes they drew "A girl hero called Mummy, she helps people". "My hero eats yellow rice bubbles and he can be anything he wants to be" " My hero helps people who are stuck in the mud" ."Heroes are strong and they help." My hero saves girl people. "Heroes can fly".

Some children drew pictures on to the plank and chose not to leave a comment at all.I thoroughly enjoyed working with small groups of children on this project, and delighted in their views about the roles of super heroes. This was also in conjunction with a fundraiser that The Playhouse was organising for Starship Children's Hospital. A container for donations will be available for the rest of term, all donations being gratefully received of behalf of this worthy cause.

Tui Garden Competition

As the garden and growing things is such a source of interest to the children, we have entered the Tui Gardening competition. After a few glitches and false starts we have finally managed to send in our first pages showing the garden so far and out lining our plans. The plan is to send in updates during September and a final update before the competition closes on October 28th.
Double click on the pages on this blog to get a better veiw of the story so far or go to www.tuigarden.co.nz to veiw our entry and others.

A visit to Nayland primary playground

This morning while half of the kindergarten were away on an excursion, the rest of us took the opportunity to visit the Nayland primary school playground. For some children this was their first visit to school and for others it was one of many opportunities they have had to become familiar with the school environment. The school play equipment offers new challenges for our children and I love to see their eagerness to give it all a go. Today we were joined by some of the junior school who had been on an excursion and returned for a late morning tea and play before heading back to the classroom.

Broadgreen students Creating challenges

We value our proximity to Broadgreen Intermediate and the opportunites our children have to be part of the older students learning. Today the Broadgreen students task was to create challenge courses appropriate for our 4 year olds.
What a great job they did. Jumping in a sack into hoops, tossing dice into a bucket, weaving through cones, jumping hurdles, crawling through tunnels and running under the parachute. It was an opportunity for our children to show off their skills. Challenges like these are important for developing listening, co operative skills, the ability to follow instructions and work as a team. The continued development of agility, coordination, body and spatial awareness, creating pathways in the brain is important for learning.

It was very special for some of our children to have their older sisters and brothers leading the session.
Lucky us we have one more session with the Intermediate students before the end of the term.