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.

Stoke Vetinary Clinic

On Tuesday 15^th March 2011 a small group of us left kindergarten making our way through the centre of Stoke and onto Stoke’s Vetenary Clinic. We were delighted to meet people we knew along the way and had fun sitting in the brass hand statue. Amy one of the vetenary nurses met us and we spent the next hour totally enthralled and mesmerized. For many of us we experienced aspects of animal welfare that we had not experienced before. Looking through a microscope and seeing a flea was a highlight of some while others were delighted seeing a dog having an operation. We had hands on experiences to feel the weight of titanium plates and screws that some animals receive to help repair bones, looked at x-rays, hold a huge hair ball that Amy had clipped from a Burmese cat who hadn’t been groomed properly and see some cats and a dog who were in the animal hospital recovering from their operations and were on the road to recovery. What an amazing morning we had, it was in walking distance and people from our community were enriching the learning opportunities of our tamariki in meaningful and real life situations

Making Paper Bricks

This week we have introduced paper brick making into our programme. This is one way we can extend on our zero waste and sustainability goals. Recycling materials in a useful way has high impact with children. Sorting through the paper recycling bins, bringing used paper waste from home, practicing ripping the paper into small pieces and soaking it in the bowl is fun. The process of making a paper brick takes time and the children can contribute at any time during the process. Certainly the squeezing and pressing of the brick is the highlight for many. The children who have so far taken a keen interest have taken on the role of teacher and it is great to see some parents staying to contribute to our ever growing pile of bricks.