Look at all our mahi!

Spooners Tunnel at Kindergarten

The Spooners tunnel created lots of opportunities for discussion this week. A number of you shared those special places that you love to bike as a family, please send photos to naylandkindy1@ts.co.nz and I will put them up on the wall beside the tunnel. It is great to share those special places so other families can visit them too.
Check out Escher's fabulous picture of the BMX track, which is a great place for a family outing. A small group of children visited there a couple of weeks ago and we intend to return to practice some more.
I checked out the new velodrome with the grandchildren and the inside roading system is a cool place to practice road safety. You go to the gate inside the Saxton Field complex and don't be put off by the closed gate, just walk through the rocks and down to the velodrome. Suits all ages, as older children can ride the Velodrome too.

During the week the tunnel became a glow worm cave, a house, a hiding place, a race car track and a place for friends to gather. Did you have any other ideas for its use??? What did your child say about it??

Mud pit fun with all the rain!

Balancing Fun

End of year celebration - May the force be with you!

Our gardens are laden with fruit!

It is exciting to see our trees fruiting, the worm farm so healthy (thanks to our families for bringing in their vegetable waste) and the vegetable gardens growing well.  Children experience what it means to care for our gardens, be sustainable, to recycle food waste and reuse our own paper waste to keep the worm farm healthy.

 The children are loving 'harvest time', picking the apples has been long awaited.

 It has taken us a couple of years to perfect the right conditions for our worms and it must be perfect right as it is alive with millions of the white baby worms and many big tiger worms too.

 We are caring for our grafted pear tree taken from our 75 year old pear tree below, which is presently laden in pears.  There has been the smell of pear pickle/chutney inside and outside as it cooks.

We visit Birchwood School.

What a wonderful morning out we had at Birchwood School.  Ailia ably lead the way to her new school, taking us first into the office to sign in.  Then she showed us to her classroom where we were warmly welcomed by Mrs H, Miss Fitchett and the children. Everyone enjoyed listening to a story and then having time to explore and enjoy the learning spaces.  It was very exciting to discover an environment that was very like kindergarten.

Once we had our morning tea we headed back to kindergarten but not before stopping at Broadgreen gardens. It was fun checking out the gold fish, the stunning roses and the mystery secret tree.  And of course we had time to play our old time favourite game of “Duck, Duck, Goose.”

At Nayland Kindergarten we understand the changes that transition bring and so this is one of there reasons we plan excursions such as this.  A great way for the child heading off to school to share their new spaces and places with us and also a great way for teachers and friends to become more familiar with this child’s new place of learning. 

Te Whāriki  Goal 1 “Children and their families experience an environment where connecting links with the family and the wider world are affirmed and extended.”

Preparing our playground for the 50th celebrations

Ka pai koutou mahi, great work everyone.  Bryce (Kyra's dad) kindly came into chop some branches down at kindergarten.  The tamariki showed us great perseverance and worked together to fill the Can Plan bin on the second day with all the branches and leaves on the ground from all that chopping and sawing.  The kaiako were very impressed with all your mahi (work) everybody, thank you.   The plants are in, and the trees are trimmed preparing for our 50th celebrations on the 9th March!

Nayland Kindergarten 50 years... the celebrations are in March!

It is always exciting to look back and look forward to really understand the history of our place.  Our beautiful pear tree has been here for over 75 years and it has welcomed every child and family during that time...if only it could tell us the stories.

Looking back...

To NOW!

We are very thankful to the wonderful teachers, families and children who had the insight to plant the grounds with beautiful trees which now give us natural shade and fun places to play.

Our gardens have been refreshed, watered and replanted... looking fabulous.

Our goal was to have a pickable plot this time and lots of edible flowers too.  

A mountain of a morning...

A glimpse of today... this morning a group of children walked to the summit of the centre of NZ, (Mt Everest actually). We couldn't organise snow so we had a flurry of bubbles (they were amazing and we entertained many tourists), Sir Ed planted his flag and the children all deposited their rocks (personally designed) around it to ensure it stood proudly and strong on the mountain.  
We were then ready to descend so we skyped kindergarten to show them our great efforts and with a last look at the view we ran all the way down the mountain, feeling very proud of our efforts. Great job everyone.

WE HAD CONQUERED OUR MOUNTAIN... NOW IT WAS TIME TO RETURN TO BASECAMP.

Spreading Christmas Cheer.

We were invited once again to take a group of children to the Stoke Senior Citizens Group to perform for their members.  Together we chose a selection of songs and practiced until we were ready.   On the day we stopped off at Livi's to eat our lunch and play on her trampoline and swing.  From there we headed to our performance.  The people gathered loved every moment of the children's singing , the applause was enthusiastic indeed.   On the way back to kindy we called into visit my parents so we could share our songs once more.  My Dad is turning 90 soon and he loved it when the children sung Happy Birthday to him too.  Both our audiences loved the singing and particularly were impressed with the children who were brave enough to stand and sing a solo.
Manaakitanga - is about caring for others so this was another way for children to practice giving and sharing to others.  Many thanks to the parents who were able to come along iwth us and to Margot , Steve and Livi for your hospitality.

Being the Kaitiaki of the environment just like Rongo and Tane

Children at Nayland Kindergarten are always active in the design of their environment and also the constructing and the care of it.
This includes the gardens, construction of the mud pit and things such as the carpentry house and bike track.
At Nayland kaiako believe in an evolving environment that responds to children's planning and teachers planning to extend learning for all.
Here are a few examples of this work over the past term.

Preparing our gardens for summer garden.

 

 

Children went on a hikoi to choose what plants we needed for our garden and then planted them out.

Harvesting our crops.

The broad beans are ready for picking and tasting of course!

The mud pit needs more mud!

The truck came and delivered four scoops of sand and soil over two days and children worked hard to transport it from the driveway into the pit. 

 

We are all ready for playing again!

“If we want children to flourish, to become truly empowered, then let us allow them to love the earth before we ask them to save it.”

-David Sobel, Beyond Ecophobia