Winters day feast

Last week when some of the children were busy making mince Abigail come up to me and asked if we could make cheese rolls. So today because it was a freezing cold day we decided what beter thing to do than to share a fresh batch of home made cheese rolls.  That’s a good idea ,ke tahi te whakaaro pai. 

The children worked interependently to make the cheese roll mix and then to spread the mix onto the bread and roll them up. When the ceese rolls were ready we called all the children to the mat to spend time together sharing the product we had worked together to make. 

When we had finished eating the yummy cheese rolls the children had some fun singing 'Five cheese rolls in the bakers shop' some children got to pretend to be cheese rolls while others payed Louise some money to take a 'cheese roll' away. 

The children all managed their impulsivity as they waited to be chosen to take part in the fun song Louise was singing and acting out with the children. 

Mahia te mahi Be actively involved

Hockey continues to be popular at kindergarten and there was plenty of interest when we brought out the ice hockey set for the first time in the afternoon. It was well utilised by the tamariki inside. Eye hand co-ordination was tested as the tamariki had a go at trying to hit the balls. Sometimes they rolled under shelves and lots of problem solving was used to figure out how to reach them. Turns out the curved blade is perfect for fishing the ball out! This links in with our current group planning to encourage more problem solving with this age group.

For some children this was a new experience but they bravely gave it a go. This shows our afternoon children   can take risks with their learning. By being brave, they can be actively involved, discover and explore something new. They learn it's ok to make mistakes when learning but through humour, fun and persisting, they can achieve great results. These are important habits to learn. Tino pai! 

Discovering Taonga/ Treasure

An enthusiastic group of explorers made an exciting discovery in the sandpit as they dug for " treasure" this morning .  

They found ... "real treasure!"  one child excitedly shared . Wonderment and awe was clearly visible on the faces of the discoverers when they dug up a basket of stones and shells that had been missing, clearly buried on a different day . 

Working together , mahi tahi and sharing the excitement of a real discovery,  kept this group engaged for a long period of time. 

Preparing hua whenua!

Grace's  Mum, Andrea offered to bring in her pineapple cutter and work with the children to prepare the fruit for kotahitanga.  

After cutting the top of the pineapple off Andrea grinned because she noticed the fruit was quite soft and she was wondereing how well the expereince was going to go. The  cutter sunk into the middle core and lots of juice began to overflow much to the chidlren's delight. 

The juice was eagerly drunk as the pulp was spooned from the rusk of the pineapple.

Andrea smiled again as she said, "Nathan (her husband) says I always choose the wrong one!"  

Too soft, too hard, the children experience the wonderment and awe the technology brings in food preparation.  Kia ora, Andrea! 

Problem solvers in the Afternoon

Jacob and Nathaniel just adore pullling the trolley around the playground. And their play has now moved to pulling all the trolley's around the playground!

They have worked out that the handles can hook onto the axle underneath but the boys were puzzled because placing the handle under the other, the back trolley didn't move.

Jacob was happy to watch Nathaniel try again and then Val offered her help and quietly showed that the handle need to be pushed under and then pushed to the side.

The smiles grew  and off the trolley's went together. Tino pai Val!  But another problem had to be solved because when they went around  the corner the  trolleys came apart again!  

Not giving up!  Perseverance to the forefront! They hooked it up again and away they went! 

Kia kaha nga tama!  Success breeds delight and playfulness!

Ice Hockey Vs Field Hockey

Sandra arrived with a large bag over  her shoulder filled with ice hockey gear. In comparison Ashleigh arrived with her very much smaller field hockey bag  to show the children the differences in the sporting codes. 

Ruby, Addy and Chloe were nominated as the next junior ice hockey team for Sandra to coach!

The children also got a chance to participate in a simple hockey drill as they expertly pushed the puck back to Sandra.  And they  were very clear stating the rule of 'sticks on ice'.  Manaakitanga/ care and respect is valued at Kindergarten.

Our tamariki are amazing as they give things a go and as kaiako/teachers share what they do beyond the Kindergarten, children get to know that they do things away from their work place!

Lets play hockey!

Recently we have borrowed some resources from WAVE that is run by the South Canterbury District Health Board, children have enjoyed using these resources and today were introduced to a bag of hockey sticks and balls.

Some children got a stick from the bag and began to use them to move the ball around. Some children pushed the ball around on their stick while others hit it as hard as they could. Ashleigh (our very own hockey player) supported the children to hold their stick in the 'right' way to support their strength when holding the stick.

After spending some time exploring the possibilities with the sticks Ashleigh decided that it was time for a team talk after noticing lots of children swinging their sticks above their heads. So we all gathered together and talked about using the hockey sticks in a safe way, all suggesting ways that we can keep ourselves and others safe - we linked this to one of our key values here at Kindergarten manaakitanga/care and respect. 

It wasn't long before we began making plans for tomorrow (or next week):

-  children decided that we needed numbers to make teams. Jed said we need paper and pens to do this.

-  we need two teams that are different colours

-  Isaac said he wants to be the captain

He pai koe ki te whakaaro pēnā - Thats good thinking!

So next week the teaching team are going to use have these pn offer to play with while using the children's ideas outlined above. We will remind them of these and help build upon their ideas and understandings of what it means to be a team/in a team and even be the captain of a team.

Keep an eye out next week to see where the children take this interest.