Unicorn, Unicon -- Zebra!

This morning a game of unicorn, unicorn - zebra was initiated. A twist on an all time favourtie game, duck, duck - goose. Āe mārika - How about that! So the children made a small circle and Ginny took the lead by saying that she was going to start. So she walked around the circle tapping a child while saying unicorn, and tapping another while saying unicorn again. She continued around the circle doing this until she changed the word - "zebra" she called out before running off around the circle while some of the children laughed. She had called zebra when touching Pippa so she too jumped up and began chasing Ginny around the circle.

The children laughed togther as they used the language or unicorn and zebra in their game, a very creative twist to a game we know well. This is just one example of how the children are enjoying playing with lagnauge in their play, being creative with how they form words but also using different words to describe their play or just like today, finding humour with words!

Exploring Our New Ukeleles

This morning at Kotahitanga (our morning group time) the teaching team introduced to the children our new ukeleles.

A conversation was had about how Manaakitanga/care and respect looks when we are using our ukeleles at kindergarten and the children shared their ideas....

Wintrow shared that we will be "keeping it safe". 

"When you finished using it put it bac" Elliot shared.

"Put it up there or in the cover" Alice added pointing to our ukelele stand.

"If someone used a hammer it might break" James shared with us very thoughtfully.

"Yeah you would say kiato (stop)" Elliot added to support James' idea.

Just some of the children's ideas are shared above.  He aha o whakaro? What do you think? 

After kotahintaga some children enjoyed spending some time with Sandra as she tuned them. This was a great opportunity for children to also be supported with holding the ukeleles before they explored the different sounds they could make while using them. Digby even shared his musical talent as he sung a song about the colour purple while strumming the cords before others joined in by singing along with this new song!

Being Resourceful

Today the tamariki were showing some interesting resourcefulness and expertise with the bungees, trolleys and a scooter. Leo and Elliot were very creative with their use of a crate and a scooter board. Leo tucked himself under the scooter board with Elliot sitting on top. This is very creative. He tino auaha tēnei.

Then lots of persistence was shown as a bungy was attached to a scooter. Zac tried to stand the scooter up and run back to the trolley but the scooter didn't seem to stand up on it's own! It ended up being dragged behind. Ashleigh thought she would help out, wondering if it would work if she stood on it and let Zac tow her. It worked! 

Alice decided she wanted a turn at being towed too. Zac's evolving ideas or working theories allowed others to be actively involved as well. Ensuring lots of open ended resources are available allow the tamariki to be motivated and try out their ideas.

Working together to make hot cross buns

It is nearly Easter time and every morning we can smell the sweet smell of hot cross buns baking at the supermarket.  So today we decided to bake our own buns to eat and share together.  We gathered together and Heather shared her knowledge around what we needed to do to create our own hot cross buns.  We mixed and measured all of the different ingredients striving for accuracy to ensure our measurements were correct for the recipe.

Sometimes it was hard to wait for a turn be we managed our impulsivity and worked together all giving it a go.  There was lots of different ingredients to put in and then we rolled the dough up into balls just like we would with the play dough and left them in a warm place to rise.

After a while they were ready for the next step, we added the crosses and put them in the oven to bake.  Wow the smell was delicious just like the smell from the supermarket but this time we had created the smell and we were going to taste them too.

Gosh the hot cross buns took quite a long time to prepare and there was lots of different steps for us to go through, but by working together and collaborating our ideas and skills we made and shared a very special Easter treat!

Our Wall of Wonder

Over the last week the investiagtors group (our oldest 10 children) have been creating a 'Wall of Wonder' around our current focus of zebras.  We discussed what we already knew about zebras, then put on our thinking faces and did some deep thinking about what we would like to know by posing questions and putting them up on our 'Wall of Wonder'.  Then it was research time as we explored finding the answers to our questions.  We really extended our ideas and knowledge around zebras and learnt some interesting facts.  Of great interest was why do zebras have stripes? Well we discovered that zebras use stripes to camouflage themselves from danger and that under their stripes they have black skin. 

Another of the questions posed was why do zebras have tails? For this question we did some digging into our own knowledge of the natural world.  We thought about why other animals that we knew more about have tails like horses and cows and remembered that they used their tails for flicking away flies and bugs.  So by applying our previous knowledge and making connections to zebras we were able to understand that a zebras tail did the same thing so that was why they needed a tail.  

It was great to research answers to our questions through books and the Internet but it was also amazing to be able to explore our own knowledge and apply it to a new learning situation.

Using our gross motor skills

Today we have been testing out how strong we are. Using our gross motor skills in different ways. 

As we played we tied the ropes onto our tires, some of us used different techniques to pull the tires around the playground. Mahi tahi/ working together was one strategy to get the tire to move while others used a shorter rope. 

From here some of the children persevered with difficulty as they tried to use their arm muscles to get across the monkey bars, something some children have been trying to achieve for a long period of time and others taking a risk to try something new. 

Soft foam shapes were put under the monkey bars to help some children take a responsible risk to give it a go swinging on the monkey bars. When things are difficult don’t give up, ka pakeke te haere kaua e hemo.

Mahi tahi, working together in play.

This week at kindergarten we have had wet cold days, so we have noticed a lot more children inside, constructing great masterpieces in different areas. As we have worked alongside them we have noticed a lot of children working together to achieve a common goal. They all spent time persevering with difficulty as they worked out how their friends could join in their play or until their towers were really tall and they had achieved the goal they set themselves. We work together for maximum impact, Ka mahi ngātahi mo te tukinga nui tonu.

Manaakitanga/ care and respect was evident in all the different activities as children made sure their friends were included and they listened as each other clearly articulated their ideas. Finding humour has been evident in all areas as the children laugh and play together. What a great week we have had so far.