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

 

 

 

 

Tuakau Kindergarten celebrates 25 years!

Back in May 1989 Tuakau kindergarten opened its doors for the first time. To celebrate the kindergartens 25th anniversary we had an open week and a family fun day. Entertainment included a bouncy castle, pony rides, face painting and live music (thanks to Taylors Dad Nick). 

We commissioned a past father, Urenuku, to create a kaitiaki that represented our kindergarten community. The unveiling of this beautiful taonga coincided with our anniversary celebration. We were very grateful that Urenuku could bless the taonga for us and also give our tamariki and whanau an explanation of its meaning.

Next up were the speeches. Dianne talked us through the history of Tuakau kindergarten and then we presented Dianne with some flowers and a gift from the team in recognition of the 25 years Dianne has put in to the kindergarten.

Before we blessed the kai, Lynn and her granddaughter Isobel cut the lovely anniversary cake Lynn had made. Lynn is a founding member of the kindergarten, both her son and daughter and granddaughter attended the centre. 

It was so nice catching up with past teachers, tamariki and whanau. A great day was had by all.

Written by Donna, November 2014

Farewell Karren

It has been a difficult week for some of us at Kindergarten, our dear friend and neighbour Karren Neate passed away on Tuesday. Karen has been part of our Kindergarten family since she moved next door twelve years ago, we taught her grand children and she has always been a loyal supporter and our eyes and ears at kindergarten while we are away. And we kept a watchful eye on her.

 

She was so generous to us gifting us beautiful fruit trees for our orchard at the front of our kindergarten, a BBQ for when we have functions. She was a staunch kindergarten rooster supporter and would hand delicious fruit over the fence for the teachers lunches and always had time for a cheerful chat. I never once saw her down.

 

When Karren was diagnosed in June we were devastated at the news she shared with us, but in her usual way she said to me "The news is not good for me lovey but Im doing Ok"

 

 We became a guardian of Karen in our own special way, regularly taking Karren baking and eggs from our chickens, the children loved visiting her and she loved seeing us.

So it is with great sadness and a heavy heart that we say Ka kite to Karren.

Karren thank you for enriching our lives.

Written with aroha by Cassandra



Visiting our friends at Tuakau Playcentre

On Tuesday we were invited to visit our friends at Tuakau Playcentre, we were excited to be once again getting out and about in our local community. These walking adventures we go on also help our tamariki become more aware of traffic, sneaky driveways and road crossings.



 The start of our journey took us through Tuakau Primary where we said hello to a group of Nanas arriving at school to help tamariki with their reading. They were excited to see us and gave us all a cheery hello. We then bumped into Armani's family who were busy shifting, we were all excited to be able to see Amarni's new home and have a chat to her whanau.

 

The walk was a bit longer than usual today but once got to the fire station we new we weren't far from our destination, every one was on the look out for the blue Playcentre building.

 

Our children were eager to begin playing as soon as we got in the gate and pleased to see their kindergarten friends Emmett, Grayson and Selby there. The parents were so welcoming of us into their special place it really did feel like a home away from home.

 

Our tamariki enjoyed all the different equipment that was on offer giving everything a go, the tramp was so popular and Georgina did a great job singing to each child who was jumping asking them to show us their moves.

 Ava and Kobie had a go at making paper bricks out of shredded paper, Grayson was able to demonstrate to his friends what to do, this was a real hit and we will look into trying to get a press for kindergarten, what a fantastic way to reuse paper.

 

Near the end of our visit we were shown playcentres pet weta Willy, he was hiding tucked up in his weta hotel and looked so big and healthy.

 

All too quickly it was time to say good bye, we were farewelled in style with a waiata and aroha and also a gift of a paper brick to try on our fire at Nature Discovery.

Tuakau Playcentre this was a special visit for me as I have been wanting to see your great centre for quite sometime, I had heard wonderful things about your special place from Georgina. Thank you for sharing your ideas, vision, passion and dreams with us and for welcoming us with open arms. We are looking forward to seeing you all at kindergarten really soon and hope this new friendship is the start of something great. 

Written by Cassandra

Playcentre visits Nature Discovery

Tuakau Playcentre came along to Nature Discovery for a visit today. This was a great opportunity to share our amazing programme with another early childhood service in the community. 

We gathered up by the cars to meet and greet everyone. The Playcentre children where all geared up in gumboots and coats ready for the day. 

Once the campfire was set up we joined together for morning tea and a korero about our safety rules. We were then ready to begin exploring.

Our children decided to take the Playcentre group down to the climbing trees so off we set down the track. With the recent rain we have had there was still quite a lot of water around. This was great fun jumping in the puddles and mud.

Before long it was time for the Playcentre group to leave. It was such a nice visit, we hope Playcentre visits again. 

Written by Donna 04.11.14

 

Fun on the School Field

We have purchased two new balance bikes and as was to be expected everyone wanted to have a turn!! To reduce the angst of waiting for a turn and as it was a nice day we decided to take a variety of equipment out onto the school field.

This group of girls followed each other one by one over one of the jumps that had been made.

 

 Both Hudson's Mum and Dad joined us pulling children around in the trolleys. It was hard work on the grass but fun for the children having the ride!

 

   

Felix had a great time demonstrating his eye hand co-ordination skills hitting the peg ball.

Adriana and Taylor enjoyed the freedom to run with the wind socks, feeling tawhirimatea on their faces and blowing their hair.
There were many hot, thirsty and invigorated children when we headed back through the gate to kindergarten.
We feel privileged to have the school field next door, that allows the children the freedom to run and play in such a big open space.

A visit to Toni's house

Last week we were invited by Toni to come and visit her new playground. Toni's Dad had built it for Toni and her sister Bonnie for Christmas, so we had heard lots about it.

Toni's house is just a short walk down the road so we were able to practice our safe road crossings and watched for sneaky driveways along the way.

As you can see Toni's playground is amazing, and we were all so excited that she wanted to share it with us.

                               We met Toni's uncle who looks just like her dad.



 

Tyler and Jasper had a great time jumping on the huge trampoline.

The slide was super fast and we went shooting off the end!

Dianne had a go on everything...such fun.

The flying fox was so popular, Tyler was up for the challenge.

Alex and Charlotte pulled themselves up the cargo net.

What a great morning we had, Tracey Toni's mum provided us with delicious snacks and we had made yummy bread cases at kindergarten before we left, it was such a feast. We are already looking forward to our next visit, Thanks Tracey and Toni you are awesome!

 Written by Cassandra

 

 

 

 

 

 

A new swing at LaValla



Today I thought we could create a new swing at Nature Discovery so on our way to Lavalla we stopped off at Profarm to purchase some rope. The children were excited to be doing something a little different on our journey and were excited to help Leah and I measure the rope.

We looked at all the different trees around where we have our other two swings and discovered a nice thick branch that looked sturdy enough to support the swing. Then we had to look for a seat, Ava and her mum found the perfect piece of wood, long enough to tie the rope on each end. Ava offered to do the test run, which I thought was very brave as we are never too sure how the swings will perform! We all agreed it was best to stat off with little pushes, which slowly developed into bigger ones. Everyone enjoyed taking turns to either push or be pushed it was great to see our tamariki negotiating the order of the turn taking.

 Hauiti noticed that Tyler was having a little trouble getting onto the swing, he just couldn't quite jump high enough to get on the seat.

So Hauiti showed Tyler how to jump...so Tyler tried again a few times,

but still had no luck...

So Hauiti showed Tyler how to jump and pull himself up onto the swing, so Tyler tried again...but still had no luck...

So Hauiti offered to hold the swing thinking that maybe that was the problem, he then said Jump Tyler jump! So Tyler jumped, Hauiti held the swing but still they had no luck.

Hauiti gave it one more shot and tried to lift his friend onto the swing and Tyler jumped, but still they had no luck so Hauiti called me and said..."Cassandra Tyler cant get on the swing can you help him"

And so I did. Hauiti asked if he could use my camera to take a photo of his friend, and what a great photo he took. I was so proud of Hauiti and Tylers perseverance today, it would have been so easy for them to have given up a lot sooner and asked for help. Instead they worked together, with Hauiti problem solving and supporting his friend. When Tyler finally made it onto the swing he wasn't the only one with a great big smile, Hauiti and I had one too!

Written by Cassandra