Farewell to Liz

Today said farewell to Liz who has been a teacher at Geraldine Kindergarten for 7 years!

We celebrated with a scheduled Easter Hunt in the Talbot Forest but due to the weather conditions we stayed at Kindergarten and shared a chocolate egg.  

The children exclaimed as they opened their egg, "Its a beehive!"  And there was also a suggestion that maybe a little chicken could be inside (The children were very cautious eating upon hearing that!)

No reira , the little chickens have hatched ! Yes, they have hatched under the expert guidance of Brownie.  And it has been Liz's guidance and knowledge that has made it  possible for children and adults alike to experience the  caring  and  nurturing of animals supporting resilience.

    Lifting Brownie gently...

    ...hearing  the cheeps...

   And there were  five!

Congratulations Brownie!  Tu meke, ka rawe! How fantastic and great! 

Ashleigh is kindly taking the nga hei hei home in the holidays.  They will grow so much in a fortnight!

East hunt today - Cancelled

We have decided not to take the walk up the forest  today due to the wet weather  and wet ground conditions.  But we will still take a egg  hunt around at the Kindergarten  during the morning. 

We thank all those who were  helping out and  hope  that you  can join us here  this  morning.

Kia ora

Disco photos

  Dressing up was  the best!

   We are very classy!

 Shake! Rattle!  And Roll!

  Let's do it again next year!

Its Disco Time

This week children have been in disco mode as we prepare for the Junior Disco tomorrow night.

Today children have been busy decorating biscuits to have at the disco, and the hardest part has been managing our impulsivity and not nibble at them untill tomororw. Dance moves are being practised each day and everyone is very excited.

Children have been contributing songs that they would like to dance to at the disco - of corse Jump Jam songs like Who Let the Dogs Out are at the top of the list, but children have requested songs like the Crazy Frog song, Bob th Builder, High 5 and ballet music.

This is a great event for all of the children between the ages of 3 and 6 to come together and have some fun! We hope to see you all there :)

Proud Story Tellers

This morning a small group of children found a calendar, it wasn't any old calendar it had kittens on it.

Together they flicked through the pages of the calendar and found kitten after kitten on each page, one page inparticular was held open for some time and children stood around describing it....

The children were asked "If this kitten had a name what could it be?"

                                 and "Tell me more about the kitten?"

Lilley, Seven, Sienna and Alycia came up with some creative names and ideas that we wrote down to make a story about the kittens. This continued through the whole calendar with each page being cut out and described - name, age and often what they like to do or play with.

Have a read of the story in the photo below, each kitten had to be labelled so that everyone would know their name. Children took pride in presenting their work on the wall and listening to their story be re-told to their friends who gathered around. He kupu ataahua - a lovely story.

I'm sure you will all agree that the children have done a wonderful job imagining and creating their story about kittens.

Disco Countdown!

The children were busy this week creating  a disco countdown poster, spending time with Ashleigh exploring how it could be done and then creating their master piece. 

They decided to layer the numbers over top of each other and then each morning we can take the top number off to reveal how many more sleeps are left.

We will have it displayed at kindergarten each day so remember to have a look with your children.

Investigating our Mihi

Ko Mt Peel te maunga     

Ko Orari te awa

Ko Jed Ahau 

 Ko Mt Peel te maunga

We have been creating a discussion with all the children about our mihi we say every morning when we come together at kotahitanga.  We posed the question,

"What is the name of your mountain that is close to you, where you live, or where you come from?" 

  Ko Orari te awa 

The children were quiet and didn't quite know how to answer or contribute what they were thinking.  We named the Four Peaks, Mt Peel, and Blue Mountain.  Jed recognised the names and wanted to say a mountain but decided to go home and check with Mum and Dad.

  Ko Jed Ahau 

We are exploring other mountains and rivers that you and your children are associated with or where you come from. We would love to know if you and your children associate with different mountains and rivers so that we can get more specific with our childrens Mihi.