How to make your own Sea Salt

"How does salt get into the sea?" - Josh McDonald

Thanks soooo much for your question Joshua McDonald!! Josh has since moved off to school but the children's curiosity to find out continues to buzz!!

Last week Judy managed to find clips about Salt Farms on You Tube and then managed to stumble across a step-by-step movie on how to extract the salt from the water....How cool is that!!

Kylie bought in some sea water on Tuesday and posed a question..."How do you think we will get the salt out of the water?"

Matthew Mansell thought it would be really easy because we could just pick it out with our fingers, but we tried that ... didn't work.

We then referred back to the clip... We had to boil it for 1 hour!! Whoa, that was a long time!!

But, an hour went by, and nothing. We had alot less water - (and we learnt a new word, EVAPORATION) but no salt.

Kylie put it on the range and continued to cook it for another whole hour!! What we found in the bottom of the pot was amazing...lots and lots of chystalysed salt!! Wow how amazing is that!!

After scraping it onto a tray, each child had a taste test...Hmmmm, pretty good actually!!

Another question was asked..."What are we going to do with the salt?"

Caitlin was VERY quick to suggest we put it on some hot chips, because that is what she likes to do with salt at home. Great suggestion Caitlin.

Friday came along and we had potato, parsnip AND kumara chips to prepare, cook and eat. Thanks to all my wonderful helpers today...peeling and chopping all those vegetables was pretty hard work we found out!! Ryan Fitchett deserves a special mention because he persevered and managed to cut ALL the potato chips up for us!! Thanks Ryan :)

I must say, the chips were so good...and the Sea Salt made them taste delicious, what a lovely treat for a Friday and a great way to wrap up the very salty experiment...BUT, we STILL aren't sure how the salt GETS INTO the sea...Does anyone have any ideas? Leave us a comment...We would love to hear from you.

Kylie, Judy and Christina

Green Thumbs...and fingers and toes!!

Have you seen our vegetable plots??? Make sure you check them out as the afternoon group have spent this week preparing, planting and watering the garden in anticipation that we will be able to harvest our very own kindergarten vegetables within the next term....

The children assisted as we worked the soil, made some holes and planted Carrot seeds, Radish seeds and Mesclun salad mix into the first planter.

Wednesday came along and it was time to plant the seedlings, Broccoli, Lettuce and Silverbeet. Yummo!! We will have to keep an eye on Sting as I'm sure he will try to grab a nibble on his travels!!

A group of children also chose to plant their own radish seeds to take home and watch the process of seed cultivation at home...There are still some at Kindergarten, did your child make one?? Check them out on the kitchen counter on Monday and take your one home, cheers!!

What a great opportunity to learn alongside our peers. Some children could also share with the group some of the vegetables that had been planted at their house recently...Awesome!! Joshua Munro shared that he had planted lots of vegetables but he was most excited about the Strawberries!! Guess what Josh, we have Strawberries growing at Kindergarten too. I wonder which ones will be ready first??

If you have a vegetable garden at home, we would love to see photos...another great way to promote discussion amongst the group. And for our families that have some kindergarten radish seed at home, we would LOVE if you could document the process through photos and stories and send them through to us....just a small challenge :)

Cheers guys,

Judy, Kylie and Christina

Check out these amazing 'Thinking Faces' ...

Now we can feel some serious thinking going on in the Project Room ... What could you do today girls ??? Questions & Questioning skills are our focus for Term 4. We already have had a thought provoking question shared: Josh McDonald wants to know 'How does salt get into the sea?' Can anyone help us .... leave us a comment. WE WANT TO FIND OUT MORE !!! Someone mentioned there is a salt farm in Marlborough? Let us know.

It's great to be back ... and it's great to have some warm weather at last. This week in morning meeting (aka Group Time) we have watched the progress of the Chilean Miners. The children have been VERY interested ... again lots of questions: How did they get there? How will they get out? We have shared some video footage before, after & during ... and we have had lengthy discussions about what the miners would need to 'survive'. And of course we have shared some snippets of the Commonwealth games ... GO THE SILVER FERNS (but not forgetting all the other sporting achievements). And of course we had to have a conversation about losing that ... LOG OF WOOD (aka Ranfurly Shield). So lots of discussions about current events ... fantastic.

Our Afternoon group has had LOTS of new faces. A warm welcome to Keira Moodie, Tara Zwies, Timata Ropata & Hannah Price ... great to have you amongst us. Because we have soooo many new children we are wondering in all our Parents could sit with us @ group time @ the end of the day. It provides a more settled & warmth to our end of the day.

The kindy newsletter has been e-mailed out to all our families along with our Term Evaluations ... let us know if you have received them. Would you like a Term Slide Show iDVD? Ask Kylie or Judy. Also we are wanting some ideas for our Term Planning & Programme ie local places to visit, community events or activities, visitors to the town (we were really disappointed about not being aware of Craig Smith (Wonky Donky author) was visiting Winton Library so PLEASE let us know ... we NEED you to share things with us.

Oh .... just about forget. Can you help with sweeping (a weekly roster is displayed on the noticeboard in the foyer) the children DO notice and it is also a great way to show the children how well we look after our Kindergarten & Morning/Afternoon Tea (rosters are currently on the sign-in desk) and also @ the end of the day could you ... grab a broom, clean some brushes, wipe a table, finish a puzzle or rake the sandpit ... anything to help would be GREAT.

Have a great weekend ...

Judy & Kylie