A visit to Chevelle's.

Chevelle, and her Mum and Grand dad invited us to come visit. Chevelle chose 9 friends to come to her place to play. What an exciting morning out it was. We arrived in time to have morning tea and then a play with all Chevelle's awesome toys. Thanks Chevelle for sharing with us. After a break for kai and a drink( did I mention the wonderful coffee?)Grand dad Steve took us on a hikoi to visit some of his friends .We fed apples to horses( Kentucky and Andy) and then walked a little further and called the calves in for a drink. The horses were very big and some of us felt a little bit timid but everyone managed to get close. Some of the children bravely fed apples to the horses and others were happy just to pat them. We had to call loudly for Zorro and Ginga and eventully they came running down the hill. We had the water trough ready for them as they were thirsty. A new experience for many of us was letting the calves suck on our fingers....tickly and a bit ouchy seemed to be the general consensus.Thanks Steve, Hayley and Chevelle for being such awesome hosts.How amazing to have a country experience and only be a short drive from kindergarten. Thanks also Alan, Sue, Catherine and Abby for helping out.

A slide, a hose, some water = LOTS OF FUN

Another hot sunny Nelson day and we were looking for a way to cool down.

Children were keen to turn the hoses on, so we asked if they would like the water on the slide... of course they did.  An hour of fun, laughter, lots of turn taking, loads of courage and lots of encouragement for others to give it a go, meant fun for all. 

It never looses it fascination -OOBLECK

Oobleck never loses it unique qualities, every time it comes out children flock to explore the soluble and insoluble properties of this wonderful medium.  Actually not just children but teachers and parents alike.
When you squeeze it, it is hard then it melts in your hands and runs through your fingers like slime.  Your first touch is often with trepidation, then the fascination and changing shape of the oobleck grabs both your imagination, your total concentration and wonderment.

An opportunity to explore colour mixing as the children explored the yellow and blue in seperate bowls as they brought them together to see what happens next.  It looks like a swirley mass then a large lollipop then a merging mass of green.

Small price to pay for green hands, green bowls, green ground, green clothes......

Gangman style comes to kindergarten

Gangman style comes to kindergarten, children are playing it on the ipads and the minute they hear the music they flock for a mini flash mob dance session.  Interesting moves and some great dancing and singing, and it plays again and again and again.

A busy afternoon session to start off 2013

The afternoon children have arrived back refreshed and ready to engage in the programme.
The outdoor spaces always invite children to engage in caring for the environment and of course water exploration.  How can we water the lawns and the children??  They work it out.

 The worm food is ready to be sorted to make sure we check that they eat it all.

 Time to dig the potatoes and cook them for afternoon tea.

The indoor environment was busy too, with house construction, animal play and meeting and settling new children.

 A number of mathematical concepts being explored.

 Maths and dramatic role playing side by side.

Architectural design of a bears house, with bedrooms, a roof and a sandpit.

We are back and busy in morning session 2013

The children, teachers and whanau are back refreshed and ready to get busy, there has been a busy buzz as children reconnect with friends, explore the environment which the teachers have changed over the first couple of weeks and challenge themselves to some new learning.
The art area has been a very busy space as children have been keen to engage in screen printing and mixed media collage.  The new indoor design has ignited a new interest as materials, resources and tools for children are more accessible, and children "as teachers" has been evident from day one as "our screenprinting experts" have been modelling the process to many new children.
The results have been stunning.

The resources have been used in diverse ways and screenprinting has created their awareness of the materials available, which has lead to further thinking and creating.

This is only week 1 with all the children back I can't wait to see where this depth of creating and thinking takes us.

A visit to Nayland school library

A visit from Julie the Stoke librarian

Gaining children's perspectives

It is always a good to check in with children when you are making playground alterations, so when we wanted to add an outside sink we checked in and one of the children drew up his plan in much more detail than I had thought of.

Play is serious work, and children thinking about their thinking is evident here.  A number of words come to mind, Planner, Designer, Organiser, Manager and more importantly Creator.  

A 3 year old perspective

Just being in the moment and enabling the time and space for 3 year old creativity to flow results in magical seas where children can swim with the sea creatures and create unique jungles.

The jungle is through the eyes of three 3 year old children all working together with such precision and design to create a unique jungle.   There are places and spaces for creatures to hid and find alleviation to  see through the jungle, while others stay on the jungle floor.  Ephemeral art in action but captured by the lens over a period of 1 hour.

What a wonderful opportunity to explore the depths of the sea by tip toeing around the fierce monsters that might come out to eat you.  You better be careful as you dive down, down down into the darkness.
The children came up with the storyline as they dived in to bring sea creatures back to the surface, while at the same time being aware of the large fish that might try to eat them.
What a fun afternoon, and a great reminder of staying in the moment with children. 

Swim Magic Comes to Nayland

20th September 2012

I knew that the team from Swim Magic had arrived at Kindergarten when I saw the children pointing excitedly at the gate. After all, it's not every day that a giant blue penguin comes through our gates! Our thanks to Shirlene and Kori, the penguin, for coming in and sharing with us the important lessons about safety around water through talking to the tamariki, asking questions, sharing a story and learning some new songs...all timely messages as the summer season fast approaches. Let's stay safe this summer!

A vist to the Stoke Library.

Maria, who has been a student teacher with us for the past five weeks wanted to take a small group to the Stoke Library. So we planned a trip and of course we were all pleased to see that the rain had stopped so we could walk .The children were delighted to see a familiar place and that huge hand was of course of interest. Sarah , one of the librarians met us and welcomed us to her place. We sat on the mat and sung a welcome song and then Sarah read us three stories.We were able to browse though the book shelves and bring some back to kindergarten to share . I think one of the highlights for many of the children was being able to have a stamp on their hands. A practice that Nelson Libraries have been offering children for a very long time, but one that never fails to delight. Thanks Meg and Kris for coming along to help and thanks to Maria for organising the trip.We all had a wonderful morning out exploring another part of our local community.

Bird Pudding

The trees are looking bare and the weather is wet and cold, it was time to think about making bird pudding for the hungry birds.

I asked who would like to help me and I soon had lots of willing helpers. 

The children chopped our left over fruit and mixed the bird seed and peanut butter in the bowl.

We started mixing with the spoons and before long we were exploring it with our hands,  then the yummy fruit and peanut butter smells began to fill the air.  Yum this looked good enough to eat.

We added some silverbeet at the last minute, as those cheeky birds had been eating all our plants in the garden, so we added some greens.

We moulded the mixture into balls and then found some recycled netting to make up the holders to hang them in the trees.

We will watch with interest now to see if the birds come to eat our delicious bird pudding.

We are wondering what sort of birds will eat our tasty bird pudding?  

Apple Muffins and Gingerbread Men

Thanks to our Sponsors

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