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Oh What A Find!!

While searching for some historical information on the Stoke/Nayland area I came upon this amazing article.  Check out Nayland Kindergarten when it was first built, and I was super impressed to see a camera being used in 1967, I am wondering though if it had film or not?  Maybe someone attending the kindergarten at that time could tell us.  Looking forward to some feedback.

 

 

A Visit to Kaz's Farm 1st June 2012

This scrapbook personalized with Smilebox

Up close and personal with a .....Mako Shark!! Louie's Granddad Wally and Nana Barbara brought another visitor to kindergarten .As soon as they came through the gate excitement mounted as children remembered the Marlin from a week or two back.We called the children to mat time and they sat there rather spell bound, taking in it's size and especially the TEETH.Wally was a fabulous teacher and led the children in a discussion about what sharks eat, where they live and where they sleep.We were all given the chance to go up close to the shark and touch the teeth! Thrilling for some, daunting for others. Once again Wally and Barbara thanks so much for sharing your passion with us. The children have continued to talk about the mako, have a go at drawing it, and also I have noticed quite a few games about sharks and sea life in general.We do look forward to whatever "taonga - treasure" you bring next time.

A marching we will go....

Hi ho the dairy oh, a marching we will go.  Having families share their skills and interests is a huge part of our programme, so when Archie's Mum and sister Amelia and her friend came to share their marching skills we all joined in.  

We were very impressed with their marching routines and the huge amount of dance moves they had to learn to move in time to the music.

The children marched for  30 minutes afterwards, really enjoying the strong beat of the music and marching in a line with others.  The sense of enjoyment and the sense togetherness was very evident. 

We marched out the door, around the playground and back into the kindergarten, following behind Amelia as she led the way.

Emily marches as well, so joining in to show her kindergarten friends and teachers her marching skills was a very important thing to do.   There is alot of skill needed to marched, especially listening and moving in time, so Emily showed us how it was done. 
Thanks Emily you were superb.


A big thanks to Sonya, Amelia, and her friend, Archie and Emily for sharing your time and your marching skills.  We will continue to march to the music and hopefully when your marching group recruits this year you may have some more followers.

Biking Adventures

What a huge fish!

There was huge excitement last Wednesday when the grandfather of one of our Kindergarten children brought in a true to scale model of a striped marlin. For many of us it was one of those real "wow" moments as he carried it in and set it up on the especially made trestles. It was huge! The children listened attentively as he shared lots of interesting information about the marlin (e.g. the significance of the colours, what they eat, what they use their sword for, the importance of the different fins, the tail etc) and then invited questions from the children. They also had the opportunity to go up and look more closely at the fish and to touch it. Before they went off for lunch our guest asked the children if they would like him to bring in another fish for them to see. "Yes," they replied. "What sort of fish would you like to see?" he asked. "A shark!" was the unanimous reply. "One with really big sharp teeth?" he asked. "Yes!" they all called out excitedly. So that is the plan and I can't wait to see the children's reactions when that big mako shark comes in for a visit!

The next day several children joined me at the art table when I invited them to come and draw a picture of the marlin. I had a photo there as a discussion focus and I was impressed with the recall the children had of some of the facts that had been shared with them the previous day. My laptop also provided more pictures and information about the striped marlin and a very cool YouTube clip of marlin fishing off the Californian coast which got the children very excited and invited even more discussion. And the drawings that the children created were fantastic. Ka rawe, tamariki! Thank you , Wally!

A lunch to remember

We had been talking about making healthy choices for our lunch boxes with the children throughout the week, (just as we always do) but the highlight was bringing their empty lunch box on Friday, with the anticipation of choosing food that families had kindly donated.  We had gone on an excursion to the local supermarket as well to buy a few extra supplies and to find other foods of interest.

We had a fabulous morning with children and families exploring our options.

Thanks to our amazing children, families and whanau for making this happen.

Rippa Rugby - Bring It ON!!

A child's view of autumn

A child's voice - "It was beautiful when I took a picture".
Our outdoor playground is a maze of colours as our autumn leaves fall, what an inviting place to play and discover.
Looking through the lens of the camera activates children's eyes to the beauty and detail around them.

Children see what we fail to see sometimes. 

Places and spaces that were not visible before are now more visible and detailed.

Wheels & Breakfast

Many thanks to all those who helped out with our Wheels and Breakfast morning last week of term. Whether you came along on the walk/ride with us or stayed back and helped prepare the wonderful breakfast, your efforts were much appreciated.

Over the term bike riding has been a huge focal point for many of the children with several smaller biking excursions taking place. On the last Wednesday of term all the children were invited to bring their bikes or scooters for a ride along the railway reserve. And for those that did not have either there was the option of walking and some fun games out on the Broadgreen playing fields. Then once we all met up on the field, bikers and walkers, it was back to Kindergarten for a scrummy, healthy breakfast of toast and fresh fruit, also joined by our school friends from Room 12. As part of the process of renewing our Healthy Heart award, we  regularly talk to children about "everyday foods", "occasional" or "treat foods", and the importance of having breakfast. Sharing breakfast was another great opportunity for children to experience healthy food choices in action.

At Nayland we believe in children being physically active, with lots of opportunity for new challenges. Bike riding has certainly provided lots of active exploration, new challenges and learning for many children. And to make it more accessible to more of our children we have purchased three new bike helmets and two new running bikes are on order, thanks to the generous anonymous donation from someone in our local community. Let's get biking again next term!

Beach Excursion Day

Kindergarten Long Lunch

Thousands of people across New Zealand sharing lunch - celebrating children, kindergarten and community…

The Kindergarten Long Lunch was on Sunday, 4 March 2012, International Children’s Day in New Zealand.A fantastic event and a wonderful way to celebrate children, our communities, and raise awareness of the benefits of high-quality early childhood education provided by hundreds of kindergartens throughout the country. Sharing sandwiches at kindergarten, a picnic in the park or by the beach, a street party big or small - kindergarten communities celebrating in different ways.

Because this date was going to be busy in Nelson due to Relay for life and Kiwikids Tryathlon already being organised it was decided that Nelson/Tasman Kindergartens would celebrate in different ways.
On Friday we walked down to Broadgreen Rose Gardens to meet Stoke and Birchwood kindergartens for a picnic morning tea and to listen to Kath Bee. Nayland kindergarten wore red, Stoke was yellow and Birchwood was blue, which made it very easy to spot just where children belonged. It was a busy morning at kindergarten with two fifth birthdays to celebrate as well , but we managed to fit it all in.
Thanks for the parents who came with us.

Rainy Days

22nd February

What do we do when it is raining but the children want to get outside and play? We put on our raincoats, get out the umbrellas and off we go to the playground. And if the children don't have an umbrella? We have now purchased 15 Kindy raincoats so that we can get outside no matter what the weather. So it looked like we had lots of little orange gnomes out in the playground that morning!

Who needs a hose to turn the slide into a water slide when it has been raining? The
children soon discovered how fast they could come down when they pulled their coats down so that they were sitting on them or if they laid on their tummies. What fun we all had!

Did you know

What a surprise we got when we started to dig up our carrots which had grown enormous green tops over the summer holidays.
First carrot out of the ground was white, then another white carrot, then a yellow one. What was going on here. Did we plant parsnips by mistake?
As we dug we were pleased to see one or two orange ones among our harvest. There was even a reddish one with and orange centre.
There were theories offered by children and adults. The garden was too shady. We had multi coloured seed.
I was curious so had to investigate. I discovered that 'Carrots originated in Middle Asia, with some historians believing that they were known as far back as Ancient Egypt over 5,000 years ago. It is not clear if they were actually cultivated at this time, however by the 10th century in Afghanistan, they were being grown in the colours purple or yellow.
These weren’t the only colours around, however. In addition to purple and white, carrots were grown in red, yellow and even black.
It has been said that in the 16th century some Dutch farmers succeeded in growing the first orange carrots in honour of the House of Orange.
This may or may not be true but it makes a good story.
Looking in the Kings seed catalouge I see that you can by seed for these carrots of many colours.
Why grow only orange carrots, I say.
The children agreed that whatever the colour, carrots fresh out of the garden make good munching and crunching.

The wonder of nature

A big thanks to Margaret and Jake for bringing in the baby canary so that the children could have the unique experience of seeing a 15 day old chick in action.  Jake's family raise many different birds at home and Margaret had discovered this chick cold and not very responsive that morning.
The good news was that when she took it home from kindergarten and put it back into the nest, the adult birds took over its care again.