People Places and Things

Kia Ora everyone. Just a little note to say that our thoughts are with everyone who has been affected by the Christchurch Earthquake. We wish all our families well and we hope your friends, families or loved ones are all safe in that region. Just for your information, we have conducted our own earthquake drill at kindergarten this week too. It has been a wonderful busy learning time at kindergarten. We have been actively involved and exploring about our environment especially butterflies, canaries, nature and even special visitors.We have enjoyed lots of music activities, drama, literacy and numeracy too. Active Movement promoting balance, turn-taking , hand eye co-ordination & using our muscles , big & small continues to be an exciting focus in our programme too.We hope you enjoy a wee snippet of kindergarten life as told in pictures. Kia Kaha.

Fly, fly...butterfly

On Thursday our numbers trebled with the arrival of Concord School children, staff and helpers for morning tea and to spend some time with us as part of their 'Big Day Out!' After feeling a little apprehensive as to how it would go, we were delighted with the outcome as children mingled together, chatted, showed each other around, shared activities and learning experiences and all in all had a fun time. In fact some of our children with older siblings visiting were reluctant to say 'Goodbye.' We hope to foster this relationship further with senior school children visiting us on a regular basis to share further learning. There is great excitement this week as the first 3 butterflies (kahuku)hatch from their cocoons/chrysalis....what a fascinating experience for us all as they emerge, stretch and slowly pump up their wings eventually building enough strength to make those first tentative attempts to fly. Eventually they are off, fluttering over the bushes to explore their new world. What a fabulous learning opportunity - witnessing the complete life cycle of the monarch.. .....egg > caterpillar > cocoon > butterfly!

Wind Beneath Our Wings

Hi again everyone. Wow! We are well into week 2 of our new term. What a fantastic time we have been having at kindergarten. This week's blog is dedicated to all the wonderful creatures great and small like butterflies, canaries and super heroes. We now two canaries at kindergarten. Thanks to Shiloh's family for our new beautiful feathered friend. We have had more caterpillars turning into cocoons this past week so now we are eagerly awaiting the monarch butterflies to emerge. Congratulations to everyone at Concord Kindergarten as we are featured in SPORT OTAGO - Activate magazine (Summer 2011). News and pictures about our Gold Award are in page 5. The online article can also be accessed at http://www.sportotago.co.nz/

Watch this space for more exciting happenings...

From The Teaching Team- Helen, Jude, Donna & Gerry

Happy New Year Everyone!

Welcome back to another full year of learning fun and a special welcome to Jude McLeod who is relieving with us for 2011 and also to new families who have joined us. Already in residence before the children arrived were 6 monarch butterfly caterpillars and we are all fascinated by their development as they munch their way through our swan plants growing bigger each day .................already 3 are in their cocoons. Watch this space for more progress on their development. Children are currently revisiting their play and learning through video camera and TV adding a further dimension to our use of technology. There is something special about seeing yourself on 'the big screen.' You can see the delight on their faces!

Christmas greetings

Well it's the festive season again.We hope you all have a restful and safe holiday break. A busy closure to the learning year with the working bee, committee bbq and finally the Christmas lunch.

Thanks to you all for your hard work and committment (during the year) to this awesome learning community.

Ho!Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas everyone :)

What a Whale of a Time

Thanks to everyone who came along to make our trip to Kettle Park such a success. We enjoyed the bus trip and explored new developments in our beautiful city by driving past our soon to be completed new stadium too.Active movement was the highlight with the dinosaur slide, whale, swings and wide open spaces too. Here are some photos of our fun end of term outing. Cheers and thanks to all our parents/whanau who came along today:)

December treasures

Hi everyone. Wow where do we start? We have been so busy at kindergarten with active movement, gardening, mosaics, favourite toy day, learning more about the diverse cultures in our community as well as more exciting activities before the end of term.

Some important dates to remember will be

* Our trip to Kettle Park (Dinosaur Park) via Dunedin Stadium on Friday 10th Dec 2010

*BBQ for all families and whanau, visit from Santa & Christmas Raffle Draw 14th Dec 2010

*End of year Picnic for all children 16th Dec 2010

*Last Day of term 17th Dec 2010

We look forward to see you all at the above events :)

Mosaics and Christmas Countdown

Mosaics (1) This week children are creating their own designs for pavers for our outdoor area. The process will continue over a few weeks so all children will have the oportunity to be involved. As you can see by the photos they will be part of the complete process - from carting them in from the car right through to deciding where they will be laid in the ground......so watch our blog for progress.

Friday 3 December - Time to put up our christmas tree and decorate it ......

Sunday 5 December - The Santa Parade - we know many of our families will be there!

Fun happenings

Lots of further opportunities to explore active movement when Amanda from Sports Otago visited to present the gold award accreditation. All that hard effort finally paid off!

Some children have loved the sensory experience of Nevaeh's gelli baff.

During the week we have taken the chance to explore our wider world when Maja and Sophia's papa/dad taked with us about Germany. Rajneesh (Rachel's mum) brought some very tasty Fijian/Indian cuisine for us all to try. There was even dessert and many went back for seconds! Thank you Sascha and Rajneesh and families for bringing something of your cultural identity into our learning community.

Kia Ora and Hello

Hi yet another week has gone by. Time flies... our programme has included incorporating Kaupapa Maori with Senior Teacher Lee & Kaumatua Huata. We learnt some fun interesting facts and songs and our very own mihi too.

We have enjoyed more growing, planting and care of fruit and vege plants including tomato, strawberry and sunflower seedlings too. See you here on Thursday 11.30am as we receive our GOLD accreditation from Sport Otago. Bring a plate of yummy , healthy food to share. Here are some photos for your viewing pleasure :)