Welcome to Discovery Time ...

Wow ... Discovery Time has begun. Seven of our oldest morning children have been invited into the Project Room to share & extend their thoughts & ideas, to complete mini projects & to participate in shared group activities. Discovery Time is on a Mon, Wed & Fri 11:30am - 12pm. This week we have discussed rules & expectations & shared some current interests. Jack shared he was enjoying lots of games @ his house so he has spent the last two days making up a game board & a score board for bowling ...

Rylan shared he was interested in Dinosaurs & Dora (not together though obviously) and so was Elizabeth. So Elizabeth & Rylan & have spent the last two days on the computer helping each other navigate around Dora the Explorer adventure. And Hunter has begun to create his TransAlpine train route that included going through tunnels & around hazards ... Fantastic. And on Friday Jack brought in Pictureka ... what a hoot. It was a great challenge we had to find things before the timer ran out. Thanks for bringing it along Jack.

Discovery Time has indeed been a BIG success this week ... feel free to post some comments. We would love to hear what the children have to say.

You learn something new everyday!

After a bit of searching I have figured out how to post videos to the Blog from You Tube.  Now just to figure out how to post our own Kindergarten movies/videos on here...
Bear with me everyone!  Remember to share any websites and videos that you find at home that you think the children will enjoy at kindergarten.
Cheers,
Kylie and Judy!

I'm Going On A Bear Hunt.

How does a snail make it's trail??

The afternoon children have been full of intrigue with the snail that has made it's home at Winton Kindergarten over the past week. What magnificent trails he...or maybe it's a she...has made!! And my goodness, what interesting hiding places she has managed to find.

Troy, from our morning session managed to find her in the office, up on the blinds of all places. How on earth did she get there.   We have managed to find out that snail's move very very slowly, and their snail pace can change depending on how much slime is on their 'foot', the large muscle that moves along the ground.

She has also been found under the computer desk...upside-down I might add. On the carpet, leaving a beautiful glistening trail behind her. I think she also found a friend, as she had found a possie on the book 'Who made the trail?' which we had read during afternoon group time this week.

Sam, Molly, and Malachi have developed a particular interest and come to kindergarten each session in search of the snail...

Did you know that a snail can carry it's house on it's back? Imagine if we had to do that too, I think I would move slowly as well.

We would love to continue to foster the ever present curiosity that children posess so if you have any interesting artifacts at your house bring them along to Kindergarten to share. A big thanks to Josh McDonald for bringing in his Stag, Himalayan Thar, Chamois and wild pig skulls (complete with antlers, horns and tusks) to share, we were VERY intrigued! Josh was wondering what the horns were for, maybe we could find out!

Where can we find ..... ??

Hunting

Bears
Fishing

The Titanic

These are some of the things that the children at Winton Kindergarten would like to find out about.  They have also been pondering questions....

"Why does a Tiger run?" - Jonty

"How do cows know it's milking time?" - Bryant

"How do seagulls fly?" - Troy

"Why do drums bang?" - Eddie

"Why do elephants drink?" - Acacia

"How do cows drink?" - Josh C.

"Where can we find more bugs?" - Kason

"What's a snail trail?" - Malachi

Among our discussions we have also posed the question..."Where can we find this 'stuff' out?"  We really do have some great researchers among us, and it's amazing how easy it is to find out facts about the wider world.  However, maybe you could ask these questions to your littlies and see what ideas they are able to come up with...Kids say the darnedest things as they say!
Feel free to post any ideas on here, we look forward to hearing the children's words of wisdom.

A big thanks to Sam Robson for taking our mystery photos...any ideas what they could be....?

Malachi, Matthew and Molly show a great deal of curiosity as they watch the snail make it's 'trail' on the black paper.  I wonder where that snail got to??

200 hits in one week!!  That has to be a record, keep it up guys,

Cheers

Kylie and Judy!

Welcome and Haere Mai to all our new bloggers!

What a great turn out we had for our 'Celebration of Learning' evening last Thursday night.  Great to see so many of you interested in what we have been working on over the past few months.
I hope you have found logging on a simple process, if you ever have any problems, just let either Judy or I know, and we will work with you to help.
Be sure to keep checking the blog regularly to keep fully informed with what we have been working on during the week.
It's great to see so many newbies logged on and we look forward to lots of comments!!

Keep up the blogging people, and an added bonus...to all who are able to get on and STAY on the blog, look forward to a special treat during the week :)

Ka kite ano,
Kylie and Judy!

Can we turn a box into a boat????

Sure we can!!  George, Ethan and Josh were got straight to work during the first week back of term.  They were on a mission to build their very own fishing rods.  With much persistence and perserverance, as well as quite alot of team work, their rods were made.  But, how could we have fisherman without a fishing boat I hear you ask?  I posed the idea of building our very own Kindergarten fishing boat, to which I got a unanimous "YEAH!"
So the challenge was set, Kylie managed to source a BIG box from Lodge Electrical and presented in to the children the following day.  Judy posed a challenge.  How would we turn such a big box into a boat.  There is absolutely now way would could she thought!!
Well, eyes lit up and many of the children took up the challenge...of course we could turn a box into a boat!!
Dylan, George, Angus, Cameron and Josh M. discussed things that we might need on our boat.
"Windows", said George, "and a ladder", suggested Cameron.  And Dylan came up with the great idea of needing an anchor "so the boat doesn't float away".  Great thinking guys.
We also managed to source information and photographs from 'Google' and 'You Tube', what great researchers we are!
The project took lots and lots of days and many of the children were very eager to take the boat out for a spin.  However it was still under construction, and it would probably sink!!
Once the boat was complete with lights, a ladder, portholes, a flag, a steering wheel and of course, the paint job it was launched and it looked amazing.  Judy was suitably impressed.  Yes we can turn a box into a boat!!
A big thanks to all who assisted with the construction of the boat.  It did look amazing!!  Unfortunately I don't know whether the anchor was quite strong enough as when we arrived at kindergaten on Monday morning the boat had been ripped from the sea in the gale force winds. 

Man I'm glad none of the children got caught in those waves!!

Ka kite ano,

Kylie and Judy