Ka kite Kim

Today we farewelled a valuable member of our team...Kim. One of her favourite books is 'The terrible underpants' so that was the theme of the day.

 

Leading up to the day the children had been busy creating a variety of underpant pictures to put on display around the kindergarten.                                                                      

Everyone was invited to wear a pair of underpants over their clothes and we had a very special pair of underpants for Kim to wear. Included in the celebrations was a delicious shared lunch with a terrible underpants cake (Mahi pai Jess!)                                                                                     

Kim will be sadly missed by the children, parents and teaching team. We wish her all the best for her new teaching position at Mason Ave kindergarten. Ka kite Kim. 

 Written by Donna 24.09.2014

Buns in the camp oven

Today Taylor's Dad, Nik prepared some bread dough at home so we could cook buns in the camp oven over the campfire at Nature Discovery. From previous campfire experiences we knew that we needed to have really good embers to cook the buns so we started the fire a little earlier than usual. We sat around the campfire chatting as we patiently waited for the buns to cook. Nik put some bacon on the hotplate to accompany the buns. Yum!

This experience really reinforces the closeness Nature Discovery provides between the children, teachers and parents. At Tuakau Kindergarten we identify whanaungatanga - process of establishing relationships, relating to others as valuable where families and extended whanau are partners in their children's learning and experiences. The buns were delicious. Thanks Nik!

Written by Donna 16.09.2014

Fairy Houses

 Today a variety of natural resources were provided on the deck along with two Fairy books for provocation. Louise and Sacha, Celeste, Evie worked really hard designing and creating their own fairy houses. This required some quite complex thinking and problem solving around the construction but the results were awesome. Louise's construction was in the shape of a cube while Sacha's was more like a teepee. Each house was original in design with a variety of special features such as a ladder, TV, a window and even a hanging light. The children's eye hand co-ordination was challenged as they held resources in place while using the glue gun at the same time. Once the children had finished their creations they put them on the grass topped table where their fairy friends were waiting.
It was interesting to see that some children were only interested in creating the fairy houses and happily left them on the table for others to play with. Other children, like Taylor were only interested in playing with the fairies and houses that others had made while Evie and Louise did both.
Evie and Taylor played together for a long time with the children's creations and the fairies, role playing Elsa and Anna, the characters from Frozen using their imaginations and  memory recall in their play.
    

The use of natural resources supports our involvement in Enviroschoools as well as our Nature Discovery programme and provided children with a variety of opportunities to extend their learning depending on individual interests and strengths.


                                                                                        Written by Dianne

Catch and Release

Today at Nature Discovery we decided to have another go at catching eels in Grayson's hinaki. On our way to Nature Discovery we had stopped off at the butchers shop for some eel meat.  Our butchers love hearing about how we take the children eeling and generously keep us well stocked in suitable meat. Today it was sausages and mutton. We loaded up the hinaki and Armani asked if she could toss it in and she did a great job, taking care not to topple in with it!. Then we had to wait...a long time so some of us disappeared up the hill to go sliding and abseiling.

After a while the excited call came to say that we had an eel, most of us rushed to investigate the catch. Some of us were comparing it in size to previous eels and we all agreed it was a baby one and nowhere near the size of our old friend Barnaby. As we let it go were able to see how its slime helps it to move across the mud so it can make it back to the stream. 

Through our eeling adventures our tamariki continue to develop a deeper understanding about eels, their habitat and how to treat them with respect. With each visit we are rewarded with some fantastic eels and they are now getting used to hearing us and will often come up close to the edge of the pool to get a closer look.

  

The swing was also popular today with Grayson, Hauiti and Serj creating a little game around it, there was so much laughter and fun that I just had to include this little movie.

Written by Cassandra

Visit to the Community Garden

Over the last three years we have been working towards building a reciprocal relationship with our local Community garden. We regularly take the children to the garden to see what is growing, pick flowers and simply just to have fun running around enjoying the garden. We also pick vegetables and use this fresh produce in our cooking back at kindergarten. To give back to the Community garden we have helped with the gardening, planted some seedlings and have made a large mosaic sign for the front.

Today we spent some time at the Community Garden digging over the leek bed pulling the weeds out. This sits well with our commitment as an Enviroschool, caring for our environment. It is also developing links between kindergarten and the wider world as the children help maintain the gardens and kindergarten environment.

Left: Caitlin uses the spade to turn the soil over.

Right: Sheryl pulls the unwanted weeds out of the garden.

Written by Donna  29.08.2014

Addisons first day at Nature Discovery

Nature Discovery offers our tamariki the opportunity to experience risk, challenge and a chance to push themselves out of their comfort zone.

Today was Addison's first day at Nature Discovery and she embraced all the challenges that faced her with courage.

Addison was fascinated by the eel we caught in Grayson's hinaki, at first she was a little reluctant to touch it but with a little encouragement gave it a go and much to her surprise she liked it!

 

Addison also gave abseiling a go, she told me she was scared and too frightened to try. I reassured her and said its good to feel fear but to be brave and just try. Addison did just that she made it all the way to the bottom and up again, once at the top she was a little shaky and sat with me. As I gave her a cuddle I could feel her heart beating hard and fast. I think sometimes its easy to forget just how scary and challenging some things are for the first time. I was so proud of Addison for finding her inner strength to push through her fear and accomplish the tasks she set for herself today and also the way her friends supported her during her 'scary' moments . I can see she will have a great journey with us on Nature Discovery.

Written by Cassandra

 

 



Looking after our Environment

We are extremely proud to be part of the Enviroschools programme and encourage our children to care for and respect our environment. This expectation is documented in our kindergarten Treaty/Care code that has been created with the children.

The children regularly demonstrate this care and respect in numerous ways.
Yesterday, Chocolates cage (our rabbit) had been moved and there was some long grass left where it had been. Today out came the lawnmower and the children set to work taking turns to mow the lawn.
 

 

 

After taking his turn to mow, Lakhan found a broom and swept the grass clippings from the concrete.

 

 

Armani helped out by sweeping up the piles of grass clippings and sand that Lakhan had created. What a great team effort!

 

 

With spring just around the corner, last week Ava, Bonnie and Armani helped to weed and replant the garden.

 We believe that by providing children with real and purposeful experiences helps them to develop a sense of belonging and a belief that their contributions are valued and appreciated. 

 

 

 

Written by Dianne