Christmas Crafts

This morning we were lucky enough to have Rebecca, George's Mum join us for the morning.

She brought with her some christmas tree templates that the children thoroughly enjoyed decorating with all sorts of special decorations.

Lots of children joined Rebecca at the table and joined in to decorate their very own christmas tree. Some children stayed at the table for long periods of time, persevering as they created and perfected the art of decorating while using lots of different typres of art equipment. Glitter was a favourite that was used by all to add some 'sparkle' to their christmas tree!

We love having family members or even members of the community come into kindergarten and share their special skills or toanga/treasures with us. 

Kia ora mo to awhi - Thank you for your help Rebecca

Visiting Geraldine Primary School

This morning Louise met a small group of children at school for their first school visit! These children are part of a small group who will be turning 5 over the christmas period and beginning their time at school in term 1.

On arrival to their class room the children joined others on the mat for a welcome and a story with their new teacher. There were some familiar faces who joined them in the class room, some friends who have recently finished kindergarten and started their time at school! Ka rawe - how lovely. This visit is put in place to support children with their transition to school. Seeing, feeling and experiences a small part of the school day will help them get a feel for what their time at school will be like (in conjunction with other visits with mum or dad). These visits reinforces and strengthens whanaungatana/relationships, a value that is important to us here at Geraldine kindergarten.

Its dance time!

This afternoon Charlotte shared with us that she wanted to dance to the frozen song.

The music began to play and Ashleigh introduced some ribbons that she could use as she danced to the music. It wasn't long before Tyla took note of Charlotte's play and naturally became involved. 

The music continued to play and other children watched and then became involved as they felt comfortable to do so. He rawe tēnā - This is great! Some joined in using the ribbons and others were happy to use their bodies and move to the music.

It was interesting watching and talking with the small group about the movements they were making as the music play. As the music began to play, slow in pace the children moved their bodies slowly. But as the song got faster so did the dancing and movement of the ribbons the children held in their hands.

Exploring paint mediums

Today at kindergarten we had some exciting ways to paint that some of our children have not explored before. Inside Ashleigh set up the record player, some round paper and two bottles of paint on a table. When the children started arriving they were very interested in what this machine was and what it was going to be used for.

Ashleigh spent some time explaining to some of the children that we write our names on the back of a piece of paper, then place it on the machine, pushing the start button to make the machine spin, the exciting part was squirting the paint onto the paper and then using a paint brush to spread it around as the record player spun. After a period of time the children took over Ashleigh's kaiako/ teacher role and taught each other how to paint with this exciting piece of equipment. As the children discovered more about the machine they found a speed button, discovering that they could make it spin faster or slower as they painted their pictures, lots of experimenting on how this would effect the look of each picture was seen happening. This is very creative ,he tino auaha tēnei

As children managed their impulsivity as they waited for a turn parents and the children explored what the record player originally was used for, some saying it was for big CDs to go on, there was mention of how that is how parents used to listen to their music, the children thought this was very funny.

Outside the exploration continued with some children exploring painting ice. They were very interested in how the paint looked and what happened to the colours as they painted the ice and it began to melt. The children spent a period of time exploring painting the holes and cavities that formed as the ice melted. Ben shared "we are exploring" as the painted different colours onto the last small bits of ice. What fantastic fun was had as the children explored different ways to paint.

Taking responsible risks.

Today some of our afternoon children spend a period of time testing out their jumping skills, with some purposeful placing of mats below steps, that we know the children love jumping of.

We started our risk taking by jumping off the smallest step of them all, as we worked together on our safety skills we talked alot about waiting for the child who has just jumped to move off the mat. Showing manaakitanga/ care and respect for our friends is highly respected here at kindergarten, and we were fantastic at practicing this skill.

After jumping off the bottom step a few of our children decided they would take a risk and jump from our middle step, some got up on the step and decided it was a little bit high, others took a responsible risk and jumped down.

After lots of practicing it was exciting to see some of our children take an even bigger risk, climbing to the highest step to challenge their own skills to see if they could safely jump from here onto the mat below! Kātahi nā te tamaiti mōhio, ko koE, what a clever child you are.

Toia te waka – mahia te mahi, be actively involved, and the children in afternoon kindergarten were  actively involved in taking risks this afternoon. Ka pai, well done.

Exploring Origami

Our children have been showing an interest in making planes with paper.

To extend this interest and explore another culture we invited some Japanese students from the high school , to share other creative ways of folding paper .. Origami. 

We had to really persevere and strive for accuracy as we carefully followed the steps. It was also fun to explore our own ideas and create our own origami designs like Hanna's candle. 

He tino auaha tenei , this is very creative! 

Apple Muffins

This afternoon Tash, Maddie's mum, came in to do some baking. Numeracy and literacy skills were put to the test as the recipe was written out. Then the children drew around their hands as a reminder to wash them/ horoi o ringa ringa, before they started baking. That’s good thinking, he pai koe ki te whakaaro pena.

Then the tamariki worked interdependently to mix the ingredients together. Great turn taking, sharing and managing their impulsivity was seen happening around the busy table.

Then finally, we tasted the yummy apple muffins at mat time while listening to a story. 

It was wonderful to see so many children enjoy in the proces and be actively involved/ mahia te mahi.

We apprecitte whānau coming in and spending time at Kindergarten. This supports our core value of whanaungatanga/relationships.