Mathematics at Kindergarten

This term the teaching team are conducting a short term self-review on Maths. We began by brainstorming what we thought maths was and came up with a range of terms around this curriculum domain. We have found that aspects such as number and shape have been bought to the forefront in our practise and incorporated into play with children. Today children were using a foam shapes to build castles and converstaions were had about the different shapes being used. This knowledge was then shared around other parts of the kindergarten, like when Alycia went over to the swing, held it up and said "look.. its a smily face... its a half circle!" Akex and Scott were also sharing their knowledge around measurement, more specifically height as they stood up tall beside each other - Alex couldn't believe that he was a whole head taller than Scott! PLEASE NOTE: We are having difficulty uploading photos at the moment - so sorry that we can't share the fun photos with you to make these learning expereiences even more visiable!We will see if this works next week.

Frosty Mornings

Yesterday morning at we had a lot of fun exploring what we had left in the trough over night - it froze!! Te makariri hoki - How cold it is! !

Plastic cups filled with water, dye and a plastic bug. The water was frozen inside each cup as well as the water around the cups. This left a hole in the ice where the cups were lifted out of the trough! Children enjoyed using their fingers to feel the cold ice, putting their fingers into the holes and swirling around the water as it slowly melted on the bottom of the trough.

It didn't take long before all of colours were mixed together in the trough. The droppers were used ever so carefully transfer these colours into the container of fresh snow that was alongside the trough. The colours that they children made were watched closely as they absorbed into the snow and spread. Lets see what tomorrow morning will bring...

Our snowy morning

What a fun and unusual morning we had at kindergarten today.
With only 18 children that soon dropped to 15 as the snow came in quite heavy we spent the morning doing things that we don't normally do.I like that,he pai tena ki ahau!

Putting on our coats and going out to explore the snow and gather data through all our senses was a priority. Then we made popcorn and set up kindergarten so it looked like we were at the movies and we watched a funny movie " The Cat in the Hat".

Stay warm and safe over the weekend and we will see you back on Monday ,hopefully with the sun back too.

Kindergarten open today (Friday 21st)

Morning the kindergarten is open today but we are working with reduced staff due to 3 permanent staff and 1 reliever that are affected by the road closures and snow around Fairlie.

In session this morning will be Tracey, Louise with Helen's support.

afternoon cancelled

Hi afternoon kindergarten cancelled today

Please check later on about morning kindergaten tomorrow

Conditions Deteriorated

Kindergarten closed for Morning session due to road conditions.

Will evaluate afternoon session at 11am to see if afternoon session will go ahead.

Please listen to radio FM too.

Kindergarten Open

Good Morning

Geraldine Kindergarten open today, but please be aware of the road conditions.

Harvesting and cooking the hua whenua/vegetables

This morning Louise braved the elements and went exploring in her vege garden to see what she could harvest to share with us at kindergarten.
Louise found yams, potatoes,carrots and swede ( in her paddock). Yummy Louise!
A small group of children were very interested in preparing the vegetables to eat . Alex's expertise in striving for accuracy was essential  in the cutting up of the vegetables.
When children's senses were heightened by the smell and sight of the cooking a large group became engaged and took responsibility for the final stages the cooking and the sharing.
Kia ora mo tou awhina, thank you for helping.

Exploring the legends of Matariki

There are lots of different legends about the stars of Matariki but today we explored the korero of "The Seven Fish"
We dramatised this story each taking a role as either the audience,an ika( fish) ,Tataraimaka ( the giant fisherman) or Tane the God of Light.
The legend we dramatised went like this....

Long,long ago a mother ika told her tamariki to keep close to the rocks and not swim out into the open sea where it was dangerous and where Tataraimaka ,a giant was out fishing.
One day however they forgot their mother's warning and swam out into the deep sea. Then there was a major disaster when the seven ika were caught in the net of Tataraimaka.
Tane the God of Light was looking down on the ika and felt sorry for them so he pulled the net away from Tataraimaka and pulled it into the sky .
The seven ika are now called matariki and you can see matariki in early June.The ingoa/names of the six stars are Toheti,Toheta,Tupuanuku,Tupuarangi,Ururangi and Waipuna-a-rangi. One star remains nameless so that if you are ever feeling lonely you can put your own ingoa on the seventh star so it always remains close to you.

Natural Healing

There was lots of questions about what the clay was when we placed it out this week.  The sponges and sticks are always good accompaniments to manipulate the clay but never thought it would be used for the purpose that Miley and Lucy had in mind.

  Lucy had sore skin and Doctor Miley was using the sponge to apply the clay to the skin to make it "feel better"

Who knows these girls may be on to something!
Ae Miley, he pai ki ahau to manaaki i a Lucy!

What is in our town?

Do we really know what is in our town of Geraldine?  Today our small walking group stopped at the Mini Bus office and Barbara invited us in and showed us where she answers the phone when we phone to book our rides.  Sometimes sitting down and just looking is the best time to share moments and the seats were pai rawa atu to stop and look to see what we could see.

We looked up the road?

I asked what were the cars getting when they drive into the garage?                 The response was loud and clear, "Milk!"

We moved on and went into the bank to see if there was a pig in there and we met the little pink piggy bank and as a bonus the children all got a stamp.  Kia ora for letting us come into the BNZ. 

I laughed when one of the children asked if we were going to buy anything but we did have a very special message to do at the Chemist and we managed to accomplish the task to make our trip to town a purposeful one.

Vegetable soup

What better time than winter to make a pot of vegetable soup especially with it occurring around Matariki  (Maori New Year). The morning children were really keen to help cut the vegetables and it wasn't an easy task with the knives being a bit blunt.  They talked about who had  celery in their lunch and eating vegetables raw. There was a comment about it being tough to cut the vegetables.Kua mahi kahakoe -you have worked hard. The vegetables were put into the slow cooker and it started to send of a lovely aroma.
The comments were when they tried the soup that it was yummy and there were comparisons from children about liking food that was raw but not when it was cooked. It also brought up a chance to bring links in from home, with one parent saying that she went home and made some for their tea.
Families were invited to have a cup of soup at lunch time.
Innes told his Mum that she had to try some and when the children had been released form the mat he went over to her and said 'Don't hurry.'
The afternoon children were also keen to help cut some vegetables up and Riley spent over an hour there taking on the role of the ako (teacher) as he showed some of the children what to do.

Holly's dog Choco comes to visit

Today Holly's dog had to visit the vet next door so another few paces to the right and Choco was able to come and visit us as well.
Choco is a labrador and he is huge! We thought he looked like a minature pony but Holly assured us "He's just my dog!"
Tash ( Holly's Mum) had an awesome idea and drew around Choco's foot and suggested we should draw around ours as well and compare the size and shape. Ke tahi te whakaaro pai, that's a good idea. So we did!

Childrens sand painting

After watching  Ksenyiya  Simonova creating her pictures yesterday with sand we decided that we would introduce it today. Some children were really keen to try this form of art. They had a chance to watch it on the big screen as they created people, cars, volcanoes, hedgehogs and just played. This offered a different tactile experience with many of the children returning to it.

Sand painting

The children were absolutely absorb when I decided to put up a you tube  clip of sand painting that was completed by Kseniya Simonova who won the Ukraine has talent. Caylin commented that 'She's really clever.'

Making apple turnovers.

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There were many capable apple slicers and choppers lining up to help prepare the apples for the pot. Then it was time to cut out the pastry, the smell of stewed apple and cinnamon tickled the taste buds. Emily, Amber, Summer, Lucy, Anna, Michael, Joe and Innes shaped the pastry around the apple, pinched it together and sprinkled sugar on top. Mmmmmm delicious, we enjoyed eating the apple turnovers at lunchtime. Cutting, counting, sprinkling, slicing, turn taking, smelling, tasting, talking, pinching, and enjoying working together-what a lot of learning happens when we bake.