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