Countdown to Christmas!

25, 24, 23, 22, 21 ...... It all started in early December with the decoration of our Christmas tree and of course over the next few days 'presents' are wrapped (and unwrapped by those who can't wait!!) Dough decorations are made, baked and painted ready to go home to take pride of place on family trees. There is great excitement at our Family BBQ on 4 December when Santa makes a surprise visit. There are 'Candy Canes' for all and a chance to have photos taken with Santa and share those 'christmas wish lists!' Thanks Santa - Yes, we have been good!

Christmas celebrations continued with our trip to 'Chipmunks' on the 14th of December to share a fun morning exploring the many physical challenges of their playground. We have all worked up an appetite and are ready to tuck into our 'Party Packs' for lunch before climbing aboard the bus for the trip back to kindergarten.

Now with only 11 Sleeps to go .................. Our Christmas Raffle is drawn on 16 December - Congratulations to all our winners. Kindergarten closes on Friday 18 December and last but not least a big thank you to all our families and supporters in 2009.

Merry Christmas and have a safe, relaxing summer break. We will see you back on 26 January 2010.

How does this work?

Exploration and hands on learning is the key to finding out how things work and Shiloh is doing just that. After filling his bucket with sand he attaches the handle of the bucket to the hook on the pulley and the action really begins with just a little distraction as he investigates the chain on the sandpit box along the way. See for yourself.

Friday 4th December

Christmas Party On Friday the 4th of November children, families and teachers gathered at kindergarten for our end of year Christmas party/BBQ. A sausage sizzle was provided by our fantastic committee and following this Santa managed to fit us in to his busy schedule........the children were super excited to see him and managed to get their Christmas wish lists in on time. A slideshow of the evening follows.

Friday 27th November

Fabulous Friday! Today was the last day of posting for our college students Shannon and Jaide so we decided to have a 'fun Friday'. First thing this morning Shannon did some puff painting with the children, this involved making a special paint mixture with self raising flour and a range of other ingredients. Once the mixture was complete the children then painted on their pages which were then placed in the microwave. Shannon operated the microwave whilst the children counted down from ten and then like magic the paint had risen all over the page, the children were just fascinated by this whole process. After the puff painting was complete it was time to make piklets for morning tea, topped with cream and jam, YUM-O! Take a look at the slide show below for pictures from these two experiences.

Wednesday 18th November

TURTLE POWER! We were lucky enough to have Sheyanne, (Maja's Mum) pop in this morning with some special visitors. Bert and Ernie were visitors with a difference, let's just say they were not of the human kind. Bert and Ernie are snake neck turtles and very unique characters. As Sheyanne arrived with the turtles all of the children eagerly made their way to the mat to greet their visitors. Let's just say it was a little difficult to stay sitting in a circle with two little creatures making their way across the mat, this really was very exciting. Sheyanne talked to the children about where the turtles live and what they eat, we even witnessed a live screening of feeding time. Sheyanne dropped a block of dried fish into the tank and the children observed with great intent as the turtles ate. The children were lucky enough to touch the turtles with careful supervision, they had hard slippery shells. All-in-all this was a great group experience and there was much discussion about the turtles for the remainder of the day. Maja was able to share her pets from home with her friends here at kindergarten and all of the children were able to get up close and personal with a turtle, making links to the wider world. What fascinating little creatures!

Friday 13th November

Running Fun!!! The children have been having running races amongst themselves all week at kindergarten. Chalk lines on the footpath have marked the start and finish lines and the children have been organising these races amongst themselves. Today for something different we thought it would be fun to burn off some energy before mat time and have some all in running races, we even opened the middle gates and had a teacher supervising at the end gates where our new finish line was. The children were very excited and enthusiastic as they raced to the end gate, so much so that they turned around and ran back again. We had a girls race a boys race and then an all in race. All of the children happily participated, and this follows alongside our emphasis on active movement and nutrition. Take a look at the videoclip from the all in race.

Wednesday 4th November

Motorbike Mania!

Of late the children have shown a real interest in motorbikes. Daily we hear the rumblings of motorbikes from the next door neighbours and the children race to the gate to get a glimpse of the bike making it's way down the road. Beck's our third year student did a little research and alongside bringing books and information on motorbikes into the kindergarten she managed to talk Mike one of our parents and motorbike enthusiasts into bringing his bike along to kindergarten.

Mike talked to the children about the importance of wearing the correct safety gear when riding a motorbike and the need to have a motorbike licence. The children had a great time getting up close and personal with a real motorbike. It was the talk at kindergarten for the rest of the week, the children are already asking when Mike will be back with his bike. Take a look at the slideshow which captures some of the children involved in this experience.

Friday 30th October

HANDS UP FOR LEARNING! WORLD TEACHERS DAY Friday 30 October

Teachers Matter!!!!

Gardeners Galore!

Wednesday 28 October

With Spring well underway it is time to get back into the garden and plant some vegetables and of course there are many enthusiastic young gardeners ready to help. With the soil already dug over and silver beet, cabbage, corn, lettuce, pumpkin and tomato plants purchased it's time to get to work. Holes are dug, plants put in, soil packed around them and pressed down firmly and finally they are watered. It's all quite straightforward . In fact the most challenging part with so many willing helpers is to avoid stepping on the plants and each other!

As well as working together co-operatively children achieve a real sense of pride as they watch their plants grow and thrive under their ongoing care, not to mention the 'yummy' vegetables they are able to share when they are ready. Part of our kindergarten culture is to strongly encourage healthy food at all times and through growing their own vegetables children are developing an understanding of being able to do this themselves - food does not just come from the supermarket.

Thursday 10th September

Following alongside our ‘sea theme’ I thought it would be fun to do some screen printing today with sea life cut-outs. The children really enjoyed this process and it is broken down as follows. (Also see slide show below for pictures). Step one involved the children selecting the sea creatures they wanted to print and arrange them on their page. Step two involved the children placing the screen over their page and then for the fun part.....adding the paint. You can see in the slide show pictures how the children spread the paint across the screen. Step three......once the screen is evenly covered in paint it is then lifted and the children carefully peel their page off the screen. Their print is then revealed and hung to dry. Step four, the last in the process involved the children washing the different cut-outs so they can be used again. The children worked together to wash and dry the cut-outs they used. Overall this was a great experience for all involved I must admit it took me back to some of the things I enjoyed doing as a young child. As you can see there was much skill involved in this process and it was great to see all of the children involved follow the process from beginning to end with minimal guidance from myself, I just had to try and keep up with the rapid pace in which they were producing their prints. Although the children worked independently on their pictures they had to work co-operatively sharing the paints, cut-outs and cleaning the cut-outs at the end and they all did this really well. The children explored with new and different media and produced some great prints!

Friday 4th September

Fun in the sun!

I thought it would be fun today to revisit a game the children really enjoy, 'duck, duck, goose'. It has been quite some time since we have played but the sun was shining in the outdoors today so what better time to play. I quickly ran over the instructions with the children and they were keen and eager to get started. Before I knew it they were running the show themselves, I stood back and become the observer. Check out the video!

Friday 28th August

Reviewing this past week... This week has been another busy week at kindergarten. There has been loads happening in the programme and the weather has been on our side so the children have made the most of the outdoors. Spring is definitely on its way!!! On Tuesday we had a family luncheon which we had a great turn out for. ‘Kat Anna Fiddle’ joined us for this luncheon and both children and parent’s enjoyed the production on healthy eating. We have put together a short slideshow of what some of the children have been doing this week.

Wednesday 26th August

Swinging with a difference....

Observing the children on the swing today took me back to my own childhood. I can remember I used to love my brother twisting the swing as I held on tight ready for the release and the spinning that was to follow. The children can often be found on the swing twisting one another as far as the swing will allow and then the unravelling follows. Today Coby and Sean were doing just that and Coby asked me if I would take some photos. As well as several photos I managed to take a short video clip of the boys having loads of fun. I must say I was even lining up for a turn.

Thursday 20th August

Spike & Friends Thursday seen more visitors at kindergarten...... Spike and his friends from Swim Station arrived just after morning tea. The children were very curious about these visitors as they made their way to the mat area. After a little preparation Spike and his friends emerged from the office and greeted the children on the mat. The focus of this session was water safety. The session was very interactive and the children discussed various things from safety around the pool area to what happens during swimming lessons. This video captures a snippet of the session with some of the children participating in lessons out of the water.

Tuesday 18th August

Belinda & Amby This week at kindergarten has been very busy and we have been lucky to have some special visitors. Belinda and Amby from St John visited on Tuesday and talked to the children about the different emergency services in our community. Particular emphasis was placed on St John and the role of paramedics and doctors. Belinda shared a story with the children about Amby the ambulance and the children were lucky enough to explore with some of the equipment that can be found in an ambulance. This was a great session that the children are still talking about.

Thursday 13th August

Everyday's a Birthday!

This week has been a week of birthday celebrations for Catie, Carly, Kyla and Nevaeh. It seems everyday is a birthday, I think we would all like it if this really was the case so long as we didn't have to turn another year older everyday. I'm guessing this week they have already celebrated a lifetime of birthdays and had loads of fun doing so, oh the joys of imaginary play. These girls have been busy in the sandpit all week making cakes and party food for each of their birthdays. Today again they were singing loudly and blowing out their candles together. This video captures their celebrations.

Tuesday 11th August

Rainy Day Fun The downpour outside this morning meant that the indoor environment was a hive of activity. Our children love sensory/messy exploration they are certainly not afraid to get their hands dirty. I managed to get some video footage of a small group of children at the paint table doing some finger painting. They enjoyed running their hands through the paint and making patterns on the table. Check it out!