Merry Xmas Everyone

What a fantastic & exciting night ... fish n chips, the amazing illusions from our visiting magician along with the sound of the fire engine siren, and the arrival of (you guessed it) - Santa Claus.  It was great to see Santa - as we all know how busy he is and to watch the children's faces light up with amazement & excitement was ... magic. Thanks for taking the time to call in Santa.  A BIG thanks to everyone who was able to come along and with that ... a very Merry Xmas (remember not to eat tooooo much) and a safe holiday break to everyone.  And just to let everyone know ... our new permanent teacher, beginning 27 Jan 2009 is Kylie Arnesen.  Kylie is very very excited about joining us all at Winton Kindergarten ... we look forward to a year of staff stability.

Friday Fun !!!!!

What a fantastic morning.    Hot Potato, Hot Potato (you had to be there)  has never sounded more charismatic, until you jive & jump to it's beat whilst holding a HUGEEEE parachute.  Thanks to the Invercargill Gym Club for such a fantastic morning ... getting out of that foam pit was pretty amazing.  And who has it that had the crazy foam fight ... (clue:  wasn't any of the children).  Check out the video ... my first attempt, so a little bit blurry.

And off to the Fire Station.  Hoses, ladders, fans, lights and not forgetting that amazing water display (even the bus got a free wash).  What a great day. A thanks to our official Photographer for the day: Georgia Robertson(some great action shots Georgia - Well Done)).  And a BIG thanks to allll the parents who were able to come along.  Without you we could not have gone.

Check out the slide show on Monday on the iMac on Monday.  

P.S.  And Jack, those boots were made for ....  a special person to grow into them!!!

'WORM JUICE FOR SALE'

Our kindy gardens are starting to look both colourful & productive (except for the lettuces). Guess who has been eating the lettuces?  We have tomatoes growing, radishes, carrots, cucumbers, sugar peas ... what else could we plant?  And of course, as all gardens do ... they need a bit of TLC.  The boys have been busy aerating the soil and keeping the garden looking great.  And not forgetting our Worm Farm.  We have collected 15 jars of worm juice which is a great natural nutrient for gardens (especially roses).  For Sale @ $2 a jar. 

Keeping Ourselves Safe

As part of our All About Me programme this week we have looked at 'Keeping Ourselves Safe'. Our Fire & Earthquake drills have prompted some wonderful discussion, especially about where our safe places are at home ... and where did we meet when there is a Fire or Earthquake.  Something you might like to discuss as a family.  Thanks to all our families for your input - the children now are able to share with us their Road/Street name & Rapid/Number and are beginning to share their phone numbers.  Well Done everyone.   We had a visit on Wednesday by Riley's Dad and our local Police Constable Greg Smith.  We had a great discussion about 'Keeping Ourselves Safe' before checking out the Police Car and especially the siren.  It was louddddddd ...

Check your Kindy pockets this week - we have a bus trip planned for Fri 5 Dec to the Invercargill Fire Station & as part of our Healthy Heart perspective a trip to the Invercargill Gym Club.   Next week we will begin making our Xmas decorations and put up our Xmas tree.  Have a great week.

SHOW US YOUR ..... GARDEN TOOLS.

A BIG thanks to everyone who was able to come along to our Working Bee on Saturday.  What a great turn out.  Lots of hard work, a few laughs and the drinks at the end of the day, went down a treat (literally).  Our outdoor area looks fabulous.  Thanks to Connor Ballantyne for capturing some 'working bee' moments on our kindy digi  ... the slide show also provided a few laughs.  And just to finish off, has anyone got a spare couple of trailer loads of chunky mulch ... to put onto the garden along the east fence?

And with that ... along came some budding gardeners from our afternoon group.  Our seeds we planted earlier in the term, have now changed ... into plants (obviously with lots of TLC from home). Thanks for sharing them with us.  We hope to make ourselves more sustainable, in supplying morning & afternoon tea for the children ... fresh from our own La Potager garden.

 

Crazy Dayssssss at Kindy

Thanks for coming along to both our crazy days ... Freaky Friday and Wacky Wednesday.  There were certainly some 'Awesome' outfits.  And a BIGGG thanks for making some fantastic 'freaky' morning tea .... green piklets, strawberries dipped in blood (aka icing) and also our 'wacky' afternoon tea ... feet shaped tarts (the food kind), gingerbread men with wacky shoes on ... ie alot of effort was put into making and creating.  And of course who could not forget all those 'freaky'and 'wacky' painted faces.  Thanks for making it such a special day. Check out our slide show for more pics.

'I Am Awesome'

This week we have begun our All About Me programme (for our Morning children).  'I Am Awesome' has been our focus.  Developing children's self esteem and getting them to recognise their own personal strengths.  Thanks to those who have brought in photos ... they are now proudly displayed under the 'Awesome Umbrella' (Kekno group) & the 'Awesome Tree' (Hoiho group).  Keep the photos coming in.   'A Bright Star' is a song we have been learning each morning, which again is a creative way for children to playfully recognise how special they are.  Check out all our 'I Am Awesome' pictures ... there are some great pictorial stories to be shared.

Don't forget our 'Freaky Friday' is this Friday (Fri 31 Oct) for all our Morning children (we will  also will have a shared morning tea so could you bring along something 'freaky' to eat) and for our Afternoon children 'Wacky Wednesday' to be held 5 November (notices will be in your parent pockets this week).  Have a nice long weekend everyone ... 

Haere Mai - Welcome Back everyone

Thanks to all the children for sharing their Term break stories with us ... and yes it has been a busy time with lambing and calving for all our rural families.

Check out our Term slide show ... there are some wonderful memoirs.  Spare a minute to sit down for a quick catch-up on all the happenings from last term.  My gosh we were busy.

Also check your parent pockets ... the Kindergarten newsletter, Term evaluations & 'Littles' magazines have all been distributed this week.

And just a quick reminder ... Kindy Photos this Tuesday ie Tue 21 Oct.

Judy  

Lots of new members ...

Welcome to all our new members and a BIG thanks for completing our surveys - the response has been fantastic. The term has been a busy one (as always), have a neat break and we will see you all, Term 4 - 13 October 2008.

Judy & Paul

PHOTO's on our BLOG... :)

Hey everyone, just learning to attach photos' to our BLOG. 

Matariki, Sophie, and Brooklyn were playing in the sandpit in term three.

GREAT FRIENDS... well done :)

PLEASE tell us what else you would like to hear about on our Blog? This is aimed to be a two way communication tool, so please send your comments. THANKS

Till Next time 

Paul 

Paul's FIRST Blog

Hi ALL

I am learning to use the blog, and just wanted to test this before we make our grand launch in the start of term four. I hope way of communication can enable you to get all the notices and stuff you need to hear but don't have time to get in the brief time you are in kindergarten. It is also a great way to keep our parents informed who are unable to come to pick-up or drop-off their children at kindergarten. 

Look forward to keeping you up to date in this format too

Cheers

PAUL 

'That's what friends are for ..."

Our Disposition based Term Planning for both morning and afternoon groups is to build around establishing new relationships ... with both Paul (our new fantastic teacher) and Judy, which will provide more continuity (ie LOTS of relief teachers over the past two terms).  With an appreciation for children to develop positive strategies & skills for initiating, maintaining, and enjoying trusting relationships with others  ie Trustfulness - and more intrinsically ... to be a friend.  What does it mean 'to be a friend'? and 'What exactly do friends do?'  A great discussion topic ... we would love you to ask your child and share with us any discussions you may have.  It will also sit nicely with our next term planning which will be a programme called 'All About Me' (similiar to 'Amazing Me') which is in collaboration with the NZ Police & builds onto the 'Keeping Yourself Safe' programme in Primary Schools.

We also begin Conservation Week next week and have some new 'friends' arrive ... a clue

'They are wiggly'.   I wonder what they could be?  Will keep you updated !!!

Welcome to Our world

International Day

Wow everyone -  you looked fantastic !!!  We had China, Indonesia, UK, Australia, Vietnam, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Spain, Japan and USA represented, along with many other countries ... 

The 'My World' map has been a wonderful resource as we located all our international teachers/relievers; Paul from Canada & relievers Beks from UK, Connie from Brisbane & Bronwyn off to Australia.  We are now very familiar with many countries around the world.   And yes McKenzie ... Antartica is a country ... oh so cold but as we saw on the 'Marching with Penguin's' DVD they don't seem to mind the cold!!!  I wonder why?

Check out our Term Slide Show for all the individual photos from our International Day and all the things we have been up to over the Term 2 2008 ...

We have a new visitor at Kindergarten. What do you think it is?   Along with all our bugs & insects children have been discovering in the playground we have also created our own 'Bugs Life Terrarium' we have had some wonderful group discussions on habitats (what a cool word)?  I wonder what they eat?  Maybe we could Google it? 

Snapshots of our 'Enviro Fun Day' @ Lochiel School

Check out these pics.  Some of the fun filled activities from our morning at Lochiel School. Check out our slide show - which has more pics on display @ kindy.

What's that Wiggling !!!

Wow Thomas what have you found.  

Thomas Henderson has brought along something 'wiggly' he found at home.  I wonder what it could be? Let's find out!!!

We placed it under the computer microscope ... and found a hairy body and 6 hairy legs with very sharp claws.  '... they need sharp claws to hold onto things'.  I think you are quite right Thomas.  We looked in some reference books and looked in Wikipedia on the computer and found out that it had been a Huhu grub, but now had changed into a Huhu beetle.  And we learned a new work metamorphosis - pretty magic really.  On Wikipedia we even saw some people eating the grubs and beetles ... YUCK.  I wonder what they taste like???   (Rumour is the grubs taste like Peanut Butter - anyone game to try!!!).

Thanks for sharing your beetle with us Thomas.  

Now do you think we could return it to it's home.  Where does it live?  Who would we ask or where could we find out?