Thanks to everyone who have visited our blog posts, we have decided that we will finish contributing to this blog today. If you are still interested in what is happening at Tuakau Kindergarten you will be able to find us at our new face book page.

National Children's Day

National Children's Day was celebrated at Dr Lightbody Reserve in Tuakau on Sunday March 1st. This was a good opportunity to strengthen our links within the wider community. We had a fun science experiments stall for the children to explore chemical reactions.

 

Experiments included psychedelic milk, erupting volcanos and ice excavations.

 

 

 

'Guess the lollies in the jar' attracted people of all ages. This was won by Armani who guessed 286 lollies, just one off the actual amount of 287.  

 

 

A great day celebrating the wonderful tamariki among us.

 

Written by Donna  

 

 

Megan's Maori Potatoes

 Last year we were invited by Megan from the community garden to plant some Maori Potatoes she had been given by a friend. So on a visit to the garden we thought we should check on their progress. We discovered that they were ready to be harvested and after a little digging our tamariki discovered the most beautiful purple potatoes buried under the soil. It was exciting to watch with anticipation to see how many potatoes would be revealed with each lift of soil.

 

We had many helpers collecting handfuls of potaoes and putting them into our baskets ready for the next step back at kindergarten. Dianne asked the children how they like to eat potatoes and many replied chips, so it was decided that when we returned to kindergarten we would make purple potato chips. The children helped cut the potatoes into wedges ready for the oven. Once they were cooked we all agreed that purple chips are delicious!

Written by Cassandra



Nature Discovery here we come!

Since starting Nature Discovery it has become a tradition that at the start of the year when our numbers are low to take all the children on a trip to Nature Discovery.

 

It gives our experienced Nature Discovery children the opportunity to share their knowledge and skills with some of their friends. And those children who were new to this experience embraced all the challenges the day had to offer.

Jasper and Liam had a great go on the ropes and even though they are some of our smaller children we could see their determination to try and succeed at the goal they set for themselves. 

It was also an opportunity for some of our Nature Discovery children to explore the other Nature Discovery location. Armani usually attends Nature Discovery at La Valla, she particularly liked the large swing by the camp at the Sharda centre.

 

It was also a time for some of our tamariki to try something new, to take risks (sometimes scary risks) to feel fear and achievement along side their friends. Natasha did a great job at pushing through her fear to climb up and over a tall fallen branch, it was great to hear the other children supporting her and cheering her on 'way to go Natacha, way to go'.  

 

We had such a great day and it was so nice to see Nanny Ayla again welcoming us back to her special place and feeling the aroha we she has for us and we have for her. Our tamariki are so lucky to have such a beautiful place to be surrounded in nature...thank you Sharda.

Written by Cassandra

 



Welcome back to Kindergarten

We had a great start to our new term with lots of tamariki sharing their holiday stories with us. A number of our tamariki remained on holiday during the first two weeks of term (lucky them!), this enabled us to do a couple of trips with everyone at kindergarten.

We were able to do a walk to the Library and on our way our tamariki were able to practice watching for sneaky drives and greeting people we came across. Once at the library we were warmly welcomed by the librarian, she said she had missed seeing us during the holidays. We were able to check out books with a sea theme as many of our tamariki had spent time at the beach during the holidays.

 

 

 

Our tamariki enjoyed reconnecting with our local park, revisiting favourite areas like the flying fox and the huge spiders web.

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Taylor challenged herself to reach the top of the spiders web.

Jake, Louise and Tyler had great fun trying to stay on the spinning disk!

We are already looking forward to our next visit.

 

 Written by Cassandra

 

 

 

 

 

 

End of Year Party

It's hard to believe that another year has come to an end, here at Kindergarten we like to finish off the year with a party at the community garden. This complements our on going commitment to strengthening links with our wider community and also our commitment to the enviro schools programme by reducing our impact on our planet.

The weather was looking touch and go but ranginui held off just long enough for our celebration.

Two years ago we started a new tradition for our Kindergarten, instead of getting in entertainment which was often disappointing the teachers decided to be the 'entertainment"!

This year we performed Will Bee the bumble bee with the help of our support staff and a couple of parents. As you can see Dianne made an awesome Will Bee (even though she struggled controlling those curls!)

Our flowers were Tarn, Charlene, Victoria,  Rachel and

Tracey, Cassandra was in full flight as Monica.

Emma made a great Mum and Donna was Spider Steve. The response from our tamariki was priceless when poor little Will Bee flashed the whole world his bum!

We finished off our celebration with a delicious sausage sizzle, fruit platters and a yummy ice block.

 The children were mesmerised!

Brianna, Isabella and Adriana tried on some of the costumes. 

What a great way to end the day, cooling off with your friends.

To all our friends and families we wish you a safe and happy festive season and look forward to seeing you all in 2015.

Written by Cassandra



Craig Smith Comes to Visit

We were very excited and  privileged to have author/songwriter Craig Smith visit last week. Craig was joined by his partner Margaret who used actions for

us to follow as Craig played the guitar and sang his much loved stories. The children were in awe and took a little bit of time to warm up and become involved.

                                     

It was a special day for Ava being her 5th birthday so it was great that she had the opportunity to help out with the puppets along with Lakhan, Armani, Adriana and Aaliyah. 

 

There was a special guest appearance by Kaha the Kea, who received lots of hugs and high fives from the children.

 

 

                  We all then had some quiet time while Craig sang a lullaby.


 

Finally we gathered together for a photo with Craig in front of the children's interpretation of "My Daddy Ate an Apple" We look forward to Craig visiting again during his next tour and await with anticipation to hear any new songs/stories. 

                                              Written by Dianne