Powhiri at Nayland College

Wow - Look at our new furniture, Thank you Grocare.

A huge big thank you to Kurt, Sarah and Jaeda for the very generous donations of play equipment from their family and Grocare. 
The cafe is a hot favourite at the moment with a steady stream of keen sellers and buyers and lots of innovative items are being added to the sales itinerary e.g. cars, wood, and food items. There are some great negotiations going on as children are selling items from about $1 to $100. 
The teachers have been seen lining up for coffees. 
The block shelf has added huge value to the block area as it makes the resources easily accessible and looks great. 
We are loving our new tables as it allows children to gather in smaller groups to work together. The new blue chairs blend perfectly into our environment. 
The book trolley is very useful out by the sofa under the verandah as we now have a space to gather books and pens, paper and other items. 
The shelf in the bag area has enhanced the new design of this area. 
There is also a carpentry shelf and fridge to come as well. 
So once again, a huge big thank you to Kurt, Sarah, Jaeda and Grocare - we feel blessed by your generosity.

Boomerang Bags

Boomerang Bags 
With the aim of not using plastic bags at kindergarten, the children and kaiako have been busy sewing 'boomerang bags', fabric bags to be used and then reused. With a number of 'boomerang bags' now completed by our enthusiastic sewing team, we have started using them instead of plastic bags. 
Bags will be sent home with your child's wet clothing (if they don't already have their own re-useable bag). 
When they are bought home, your child's name will be written up on the board, next to the number (the same number is on the bag). 
Please wash the bag, and return it to kindergarten to be reused by other children. 
We thank you for your support.

Working with Nayland College Textiles Class

Thank you Cushla (Escher's Mum) for inviting us over to talk with your textile students at Nayland College about the items they are designing for the children at Nayland Kindergarten. Their ideas and respect for our children was wonderful to watch, as they all listened and acknowledged the feedback our 4-5 year olds shared with them. 
I stood back and watched the interactions and felt so incredibly proud of the children as they so confidently chatted with your students about their work, ideas and possible changes. I am sure after today we will have children back at kindergarten in planning mode next week and of course entrepreneurs in the future. 
Escher did a fabulous job of being our leader for the morning and he very confidently thanked the group for having us to visit. 
The photos show the wonderful interactions the children and students were having during this time.

Face Painting Galore!

Mix new face paints, some creativity and lots of confidence and what do you get???

Flash Hairstyles for all

A new way to do marbling.

A cool art idea for home.
This week we tried out another version of marbling, using shaving cream and dye. All we did was squirt dye onto the shaving foam randomly and then push our card down into it and then lifted it out and scraped the excess foam off the top. It was trial and error but we ended up with some very interesting colour patterns and unique art pieces.
The foamy pile of colourful foam left over looked so inviting it was all hands in and time to become green monsters chasing the teachers around the playground.

Hike to the Centre of New Zealand

We conquered the mountain. An amazing morning out climbing to the top of the Centre of NZ with a group of 20 children and many adults. Thanks to the adults who came you made the trip very special by supporting children to get the most out of it.
The weather forecast yesterday said sunny and 11 degrees when infact it was cloudy and 7 degrees. It was perfect weather for climbing mountains.
Teamwork was the order of the day and everyone looked after each other. The children brought along their 'I can do attitude' and they walked up and down carrying their bags and chatting to their friends all the way.
Great effort team - YOU ROCK!!
For those families who haven't done it yet - it is a long weekend this weekend with Queens Birthday holiday on Monday, a great opportunity to walk with family and friends and have a snack at the top while you enjoy the amazing views.

A busy week for visitors

Today a group of Broadgreen Intermediate students came to read to our tamariki. What was especially special was that a couple of them had attended Nayland Kindergarten as 3 and 4 year olds and it looked like they hadn't forgotten how to play either, as they played with our children. 
Thanks for your great reading and please come back and do it again.

Physical Fun

This term our physical focus is going to be 'running', as the children have been running tracks inside the kindergarten gate so we are extending it to running on the fields up the back. This tied in with the Winter Wonderland walk with families too.
We also purchased some medicine balls (from Kmart) they weigh 3kgs and are a perfect size for the children to manage. Last week we set up relay teams, you could run or walk and then we added challenge by putting them up above your head. Great finger, hand and arm strengthening and develops core strength with it above their heads.
Modelling relay to 3 and 4 year olds was heaps of fun but once they had figured out the flow they really enjoyed it.
There is a big interest in frisbee throwing too so we have had sessions out the back of the kindergarten on the courts as frisbees definitely need space. If anyone wants to come along and give us a few throwing tips we would appreciate it.

What's been happening

Experimenting with fractions

Maths, Maths and more Maths!

We are often asked how maths happens in the early years, so thought it was time to share some examples from the indoor environment. Next week I will put up some examples of maths in the outdoor environment. Of course these are only a small snapshot of the maths experiences happening everyday.
(Will attach document too incase it is a bit blurry)

 

Visitors enrich our programme.

This morning a group of students (big kids infact) from Learning Place came to share 4 different games with us, we worked in small groups and they had colour matched their decorations.
Not only did they play Simon Says, Red light green light, Duck duck goose and Dancing Statues but they brought yummy popcorn and platters of fruit to share after they read us a story about a Dinosaur at the Supermarket.
Their generosity didn't stop there, they then gave out gift backs to every child.
What a wonderful bunch of young people and they were so respectful and full of fun.
Please leave us some comments below about what your child told you about it, as these students would really appreciate some feedback to add to their learning reflections on what our children enjoyed and how their plans worked.