Drawing - a tool for thinking

Children use drawing as a tool for for thinking and making meaning. Today drawing became central to children's shared investigation.
Every now and again we discover a cockroach in the bark in the playground. There was great excitement this morning as one was found climbing the sandpit curtains.
It was caught and a container found to stop it scuttling away. A magnifying sheet was found and we had turns observing it. "Does it eat raisins" someone asked and popped one into the container. As we watched the insect began to nibble away on the raisin. We talked about what we could see, colour, number of legs, shape of his body, and the antenae on his head. Shall we draw some pictures, I suggested. The answer was yes so this is what was created as we looked, thought and drew.

Artists at Work

Over the week we have been revisiting screen printing using underpainted sheets of paper as our base. This has proved an excellent way to recycle unnamed paintings and other pieces of paper. The children draw a picture and cut it out for their template. Then they place it on a piece of paper and place the screen over it. The final step is applying the paint over the screen to produce the print. They have also discovered that they can reuse their template over and over again, so producing multiple pictures of the same print but with different shadings. Another discovery they are learning about is the detail that they put into their drawing may not appear on their print unless they cut some of these out of the template. Some of the children have become very skilled in how to cut out eyes, mouth, legs and other such features.

Garden Harvest

We have watched the seedlings we planted in the kindergarten garden grow over the last two terms until they are finally ready to harvest.
This morning the children picked spring onions, pok choy, broccolli, and silverbeet. Once washed they set to work to chop and dice them ready to be stir fried. We included some mushrooms and a couple of carrots as well. While the chopping was underway we had a cup and a half of rice on the stove cooking.
Next step. Heat oil in our electric fry pan. Everyone had turns putting the veges in the pan and giving them a stir. What a lot of steam! Where did it come from. What made it happen. The children had their own ideas about that. Everyone was careful not to touch the sides of the hot pan.
A delicious smell started to fill the kindergarten.
We added the cooked rice. Why was it soft now? Where did the water go that we put in to cook it?
Stir the rice in the veges, add Tamari (wheat free soy sauce) and taste. Just in time for morning tea. YUMMY!

Will the birds like our apples?

Its always good to see the bird life in the trees around the kindergarten.
With an excess of apples in the fridge I thought I would try out an idea to feed the birds. I had help from children to make a hole through some apples. You needed to be quite strong to do this.
With everyone having a turn we were finally successful. Then it was time to thread some cord through and hang them from the trees. How would the birds know they were there. Did they like apples. How many birds would come. Would we be able to get some photos? So many Questions.

Hip Hop

Can we have the rock n roll music on?
This has been a regular request from our energetic dancers.
The rock and roll music is crazy frog techno music.
The T shirts come off ( very important ) and its all on.
We watch in awe as the dancers move their bodies standing on hands, knees, heads, backs and tummies. They spin, twist, kick and twirl.
To follow this interest with the children we invited Darney Takao who runs hip hop classes for children locally to visit us, to teach the children some new moves. We enjoyed the session with him and the children were able to impress him with their own dance moves.

The afternoon children and Lee Corlett

This week Lee brought along some planks, they were narrow and close to the ground. The children had to walk along them frontwards , sideways and backwards. To add another challenge Lee got us to crawl along the planks, this was a much more difficult task ( I know because I tried). The reason it is more difficult is because our centre of gravity changes. This is a great way keep your brain active. Lee also took the children through some challenges with hurdles, using the monkey bars and the climbing wall. Having Lee in kindergarten always leaves us a new challenge and is fun too.If you wondering just what we get up to with Lee we invite you to stay and join in sometime. Keep an eye on the noticeboard for when he will be with us again.

Mary had a little Lamb"

It's true, I did and this week at kindergarten we all got to have a little lamb for a while, when one of our families brought in a one day old lamb for us all to enjoy. Some children got turns to feed her with a bottle and everyone who wanted to got a chance to pet "Honey Lamb". We were all amused by her antics and it was fantastic watching children practice using gentle hands and voices around her. For some of the children this was a first time experience, being up so close to a lamb which made them feel a little unsure but as they took time to sit and watch a while first they soon were coming up close for a chance to pat "Honey Lamb". We all hope "Honey Lamb " comes back for a visit soon.

What have the teachers been up to?

Lynne, Margie, Sue, Mary and Sue have been involved in alot of professional development throughout the year. More recently we ran a very successful Web 2 workshop (on a Saturday), for teachers from other kindergartens and other early childhood centres in Nelson, Blenheim and even one from Australia (she was here visiting).

What have we done - an evening at the Nelson Museum with the Nayland Primary teachers on the Treaty of Waitangi,
-a workshop with a visiting music and movement teacher,
-Margie is going to present to a group of 2nd year student teachers
 - we are all attending a team workshop on the “Art of Facilitation”, which will be followed up by visits from the instructors, to observe us in action.
-We are also organising a “Creativity Conference” for our Nelson Kindergarten Association and hope to have 120 people attending in September.
-We will be attending Ulearn 2010 in October during the term break.  Margie and Lynne will be presenting a workshop to other teachers from right across the education sectors, and Sue, Mary and Sue tell us that they will cook the tea. (Well, we have got news for them!)

Fish, Fish and More Fish!

Over the past couple of weeks children have been making fish for the wall, giving them more ownership of Fish philosophy and bringing it to the fore again. Some wonderful fish were made using colourful dyes, children referring to a book for ideas about what type of fish they would like to make. This led to lots of thinking and discussion about shape, size, colour, and the various features of the fish. This week more fish were created using sheets of under-painted paper and black felts. Some children were content just to help with the under-painting of the paper while others explored both that process and the drawing of fish and other creatures. So do check out the fish wall in the blue room. And if your child comes home with a special fish it means that they have been a kind friend and made someone's day.

Gluten free baking.

Having previously had unsuccessful experiments of using gluten free flour to bake with, I was very interested this week when a Mum arrived with all the ingredients to make gluten free scones.And as always soon a group of children gathered all very keen to have a turn to mix , stir and pour .Gluten free flour feels a little like corn flour in texture so it is quite different to work with and so I was relieved to have an expert in our midst.As i took photos I listened to children comment on the texture and saying things like " it feels so soft"
Very soon the children had completed the task and a tray of scones were ready to go into the oven. We are lucky indeed to have family and whanau who are prepared to come and share time and skills with us, our tamariki always benefit.Please if you have something you think the children would enjoy or a new skill they might like to try come and talk to one of us.

caring for our worm farm.

Here at kindergarten we want children to have first hand practical experiences while learning to care for the environment. The worm farm sits right out by the garden , in a obvious spot where children can interact with it whenever they choose and this is exactly what happened this week. One child came and asked me if we could look at the worms, So off I went to get some gloves. When I came back he had competently dismantled the farm and was busy exploring.Another child came to join us and soon we discovered that a generous amount of liquid had been collected in the bottom of the farm. This is also known as "worm wees" and is a perfect fertiliser for the garden.We poured it into a bucket, diluted it with water and used it on the garden. Ka pai tou mahi korua(Great work you two)

Let's Make Lunch!

Wednesday 21st July

I had a keen group of willing helpers when it was suggested that we could make something for the teachers for lunch. "Can I help too?" was the much asked question. I had brought along the recipe for 'Poor Man's Souffle', a quick and easy savoury dish to make with young children. It involves buttering and cutting bread, grating cheese, cracking eggs (always a challenge for little hands!), and using the electric beater as well as mathematical concepts as they measure and pour ingredients. And the end result was a great looking and tasty dish that the teachers did devour for lunch. Next time I have promised that we will make it for the children to eat. Meanwhile, here is the recipe. Some of you might like to make it at home with your children. I doubled the recipe which made heaps.





Poor Man's Cheese Souffle

6 slices buttered bread cut into fingers
3 eggs
1 bowl grated cheese
2 1/2 cups (500 mls) milk
salt & pepper

Put half the bread fingers on bottom of souffle or casserole dish. Cover with half the cheese then another layer of bread and then remainder of cheese. Beat milk, eggs and seasonings together and pour over the bread and cheese. Cook at 180 degrees for approx. 45 mins and it is golden brown and well risen. Enjoy!