Creative Expressions at Kindergarten

Hello, Kia Ora, Talofa Lava, Kia Orana, Namaste,Bonjour,Ni Hao & greetings to all our followers of the blog. We have had a busy time at kindergarten with Breakfast & Pyjama Party here. We have also been actively involved in contributing to our programme with active movement, music, stories,games, art & lots of learning taking place.Our delicious spread included toast, cereals ,milo & fruit just to name a few. Here are a few photos for you.

Our learning journey continues.............

We all love the book 'My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes' and now thanks to Jude bringing along some huge ones we have.......our children hiding in boxes. Well not only hiding - you could almost say there is a mini kindergarten inside a box, as games are played, songs and stories shared and the art area finds a new home as well. Creative skills are evident as the outside is painted and doors and windows added. What is being created at the carpentry area this week? Have a look at our children at work in this area, developing their skills with carpentry tools, literacy (using descriptive language, letters for names etc)) and numeracy (measuring, counting) and experiencing a sense of achievement on completion of their projectsTinkerbell, Bella and Toby, our guinea pigs receive gentle care and loving attention. Some of our children have little or no experience with pets and animals so learning how to care and look after them and our canaries, Whistler and Michael Jackson, is important for building childrens knowledge as well as giving them confidence to handle animals. We have also been exploring the dinosaur world this week, with the discovery of 'dinosaur eggs' and 'bones' in the sand as well as learning about them through books and discussion. Thanks for visiting our blog and sharing in our learning. See you again soon!

Plaster, bugs, school children, and travel...

It has been another busy week, filled with learning fun here at our place. When a child asks 'What is chalk made out of?' it is the perfect opportunity to make our own so we find our plaster of paris and set to work. It is mixed with water and colour added before the children fill the various molds ...hearts, bugs, bears, sea creatures and ice block containers to make sticks of chalk.........Our children have always demonstrated a fascination for bugs and small creatures and these are again a hot topic. With heavy rain earlier in the week the ground is wet and easy to dig so we collect some in a tray and gently trawl through it to see what can be found.........slugs, worms, centipedes, beetles.........and then we investigate how they live, what they eat, etc Mr Turnbull and his class from Concord School arrive on Wednesday morning to share stories and experiences. What great role models - sharing quiet quality time talking and interacting with our children. Thank you for taking the time to walk up that hill and visit us. Our world map/globe is out for us to check out Rarotonga (Gerry is there this week) and also Turkey (where one of our families has gone for a month to visit relatives) Safe travels to you all.

Hi & Kia Ora to all our children , Families/Whanau & Community. It has been a busy term so far with lots of dramatic play, dress-up day on Thursday with favourite fairy-tale or nursery rhyme character. Hint : watch out for Goldilocks & the three bears. We had ladybirds, bumble-bees, Snowhite, Turtle, stars etc turning up too:). We had a great time on Thursday 12th May 2011. Thank you all for your active participation. Our surprise morning tea included porridge & honey sandwiches. Talking about drama, active movement, fun ,weddings and so on... here are a few photos for you. Thank you to all our families, community, teachers and everyone at Dunedin Kindergartens for the beautiful gifts, cards & warm wishes. Gerry & Rob Hunter have had wonderful wedding celebrations & are off to Rarotonga on honeymoon. Kia Kaha :)

Welcome to Term 2 at Concord Kindergarten

Our term is already off to another action packed start - with a particularly strong interest in dramatic play......using puppets, masks, dress-ups and other props and resourses. Yes, Goldilocks is at it again - visiting the house of the 3 Bears and causing mayhem while they are out for a walk (you know how the story goes..............) Thanks to Jude's crocheting skills there are now 5 Little Monkeys causing trouble for Mr Crocodile and as you can see the children are developing some great skills using finger puppets as well as extending and experimenting with language and literacy. This learning was enhanced even further on Friday when one of our Mums sang for us. We were all spell bound by her beautiful voice as she shared songs and waiata with us all. Of course the recent royal events stirred interest in weddings for us all but even more importantly we had a wedding of our own during the term break. Congratulations from us all to Gerry and Rob. We wish you every happiness.