Children taking responsibility

What was in the green tub? Our dolls were looking a litlle bit grubby and when I suggested that they might need a wash I had a lot of children lined up to help. The soap and cloths were brought out and the fun began. Bubbles every where but what fun they had, soaping up the doll, dunking it in the bucket of clean water to wash the bubbles off and the repeating the process. Te Whaariki states in the Strand of Belonging that children will develop skills in caring for the environment ,such as cleaning,fixing, gardening,and helping others with self-care skills. We certainly discovered a fun activity to experience this.

Holiday ideas from the Home and Kindergarten

Holiday Activities List.

 

Thank you to everyone who contributed their favourite activities for our bumper holiday activities list! 

 

The recent coffee session on ‘Play’ was also a great source of ideas and information about play. Our guest speaker, Calvin Mckechnie, from The Incredible Years parenting programme (coming to Geraldine later in 2013), talked to the attendee’s about the importance of quality play.

 

Spending some dedicated time each day playing with your child “helps to build a warm relationship and to create a bank of positive feelings and experiences that can be drawn upon in times of conflict.”(Webster- Stratton, C.) Calvin also reminded us that it is the process of play and not the product which is most important.

 

Play is one of the few areas in their lives where children have complete control and it is they who should lead the way.  Your role is to be an appreciative audience and give your child your complete attention – they will be delighted!

 

We hope you enjoy the holidays and find these ideas helpful:

 

·         Join pinterest.com – a website where you can collect and store things you love – for example find and store lots of play/craft/fun activities to use when you need inspiration

·         A walk in the park  - pick something that you can search for on the walk e.g. find a feather

·         Making forts using furniture round the house and blankets

·         Colouring in or painting – paint something for each other and present it

·         Baking (muffins, cookies, sweet pastries) – let the kids choose the flavours to go into the recipe, let them measure the ingredients and mix together, name the recipe after them going forwards e.g. Jimmy’s jammy muffins

·         Cycling

·         Torch adventures – close the curtains and let the kids loose with a torch

·         Scavenge fruit and nuts (apple trees on the side of the road, brambles at the reservoir etc.) and bake using the fruits of your adventures

·         Play in the park

·         Squishy bags – in a heavy duty plastic bag add hair gel or paste as well as food colouring/glitter. Seal with tape.  Supervise and let the kids enjoy the squishing!

·         Blow bubbles and let the kids chase them round the room trying to catch them

·         Put paint in a zip lock bag and tape to the table.  Let the kids move the paint around and make shapes and designs without the paint leaving the bag

 

 

 

·         Gardening – give them a task such as planting or weeding and issue the tools for the job.  Work alongside them and talk about what you are doing

·         Fill a tray with sand or saw dust and put cars or animal figures in it and let the kids explore

·         Play mini golf on the lawn

·         Play a game of bulrush

·         Carpet picnic on a rainy day

·         Bake potatoes on a bonfire

·         Matchbox rugby

·         Battleship islands

·         Bush walks at Peel Forest

·         Fish and chip supper at Waihi Gorge

·         Egg cartons – put marbles, cotton balls or stones in the grooves.  Use tongs to transfer and pick up (great for fine motor skills)

·         Throwing a Frisbee

·         Building huts in the bush or at the beach

·         Jumping off logs

·         Looking for wild kittens

·         Paper Mache

·         Gather up all the crunchy autumn leaves in the park and run through them, throw them, roll in them

·         Hide and Seek

·         Treasure hunt with a map to follow

·         Hopscotch

·         Collect something on a walk e.g. shells or pinecones and make a display when you get home

·         Make bird feeders using a pinecone, coat in peanut butter and roll in birdseed

·         Make masks and/or hats then dress-up and have a meal wearing the outfits.  Even better if the meal is the same theme as the outfits

·         Put on a play or skit for each other

·         Use chalk outside to draw all over the footpath, driveway etc. and let the art wash away with the rain

·         Get the kids to paint the outside of the house using paint brushes and water – hours of fun and no mess!

·         Act out a story e.g. ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’

·         Play shops – keep old cartons and use pretend money

·         Listen to an audio story – snuggle up under blankets and listen

·         Pretend to be animals or dinosaurs and crawl round the room

·         Make birthday cards for family members

·         Get your child to pick a story idea and some details and then make up a story in your head and tell it to them – great at bedtime

·         Use pillow cases as jumping sacks and have races

·         Play statues to music

·         Watching ‘You Tube’ together

·         Put a scarf in someone’s back pocket and then everyone chases them trying to get the scarf.  The person who gets the scarf becomes ‘it’.

·         Use bean bags as a base and jump onto them from the couch or some other place that isn’t too high – fun with a bit of risk and excitement involved

 

 

Proudly compiled by the Home and Kindergarten Committee for your holiday pleasure!

Peel Forest Excursion

Although the morning was a little drizzly we decided to go ahead with our trip to Peel Forest as planned. What a wonderful opportunity to see the native bush with droplets of water gently splashing down from leaf to leaf. the birds were happy to be out and singing, especially the fantails and bellbirds. Thank you to all our family/whanau helpers, without your support we wouldn't be able to take the children into such a beautiful and different environment. The sausages and bread were a welcome treat after the walk to the "big tree", not one left! The first group to hold hands around the big tree-head count of 26, the second group was 27, wow how close is that?

Sadly Mr Possum didn't make it to Peel Forest this time (he was left on the couch reading books) and he was not a happy chappy when we returned to Kindergarten. Amethyst said "look at the fog up there on those hills and look at the bananas" ( leaves yellowing) yes they did look like bananas. Find something small something big, something soft fluffy something hard.

 

 

<!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->Hāere ra Peel Forest.We'll be back next year.

Whaia e koe ki te iti kahurangi; ki te tuohu koe, me maunga teitei
Seek the treasure you value most dearly: if you bow your head, let it be to a lofty mountain

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Exploring the canopy of our outside area

Andrea ( James's Mum) came and supported us to explore our outside area through looking at mirrors that we placed just above our noses. It gave us a completely different perspective of the canopy layer of our outdoor "forest" area. We discussed what we could see and will compare this to the forest at Peel Forest when we visit on Friday " I can see Harakeke" exclaimed James. "It looks like harakeke James but that is called Te kouka or the Cabbage Tree" Andrea explained.

"Facetiming" Little Wonders Childcare Centre

On Monday the children in the Rimu Room at Little Wonders ie the 2 to 3 year olds "facetimed" us ( like skype but on our ipads.) It was great for Tracey to catch up with all her old friends but it was Hollie that loved it most and she got to join in mat time.Kia

ora Little Wonders -that was fun!Ka kite ano,see you soon!

GK News Issue 11 by Helen May

Coffee and Kindergarten-" Play Ideas"

Tomorrow ( Monday 8th April) our Home and Kindergarten team are running an interesting workshop on "Play" with lots of ideas that you can use at home and for the holidays.

So everyone is welcome at 1.30pm in the Mackenzie Room at St Andrews church hall ( beside Kindergarten)

AGM's - "Home and Kindergarten" and "Board of Trustees"

It's a busy fortnight with our two very important groups of people, who are the backbone of our Kindergarten, holding their AGM over the next fortnight.


The Home and Kindergarten AGM is being held this Wednesday night at 7.30pm (10th April) at the Kindergarten. This group is primarily responsible for fundraising and have a lot of fun being involved, so it's a great way to get to know other people. So please pop along if you can.


The Geraldine District Free Kindergarten Association Board of Trustees AGM is being held next Wednesday night at 7pm.  (17th April) The Board of Trustees are responsible for the governance of the Kindergarten and nominations for the 8 positions have now closed.


At this AGM the teachers will also be presenting a short, light hearted look at a "Day at Kindergarten" with some delightful "voices" from our children.


So pop these two Wednesday dates in to your diary and we will see you there.

Its Building Time!

This morning Reuben and his Dad arrived at Kindergarten with a van full of wooden frames they had put together for us to create a new whare with here at Kindergarten.

First we all helped to carry the wood down the path so that it could all be laid out and put together. 

Everyone helped to problem solve as we used the numbers on each corner of wood to match those that were on the floor - we called this the plan.

Next was the part we had all been waiting for - using the big power drill to drill each screw in. We each had a few turns at drilling in the nails that were needed to hold our new whare together. 

Perseverance was key in this learning experience as everyone had to wait for a turn with the drill and it took a lot of time to put each wall on before we were able to have the whare completed. For this to happen quickly we had to communicate with clarity and precision as we worked as a team to put it all together.  It didn't take long before we were able to play on the whare just like our old one.

Thanks Glenn for taking the time to come and help us put this together, we really enjoy the influence your expertise has on our learning - especially learning about the new equipment that you introduce to us!

Tēnā koe mō tō awhi – Thank you for your help

The eel / te tuna

What an exciting start back to kindergarten with Colt bringing in an eel/tuna he had caught at the river.
The children were fascinated and it generated lots of conversation as children shared there own experiences and built on their own as they listened to one another with sustained interest.
 Some children took risks and explored the texture of the eel while others were more comfortable engaging in an in depth conversation about eels and their habitat.
Jo shared how he uses "fence posts" to catch eels at home on his farm and both Colt and Jo agreed that eels can come "much bigger and fatter than this one" to the wide eyed surprise of many of the children.
Tomorrow Colt is hoping to bring in an eel that they have smoked for us to try eating.
What a new and exciting experience for many of us.He pai ki ahau to manaaki i a tuna/I liked the way you shared the eel Colt. Thank you Colt and your family for bringing in the eel.