16 Dec 2011

What a GREAT last week we all have had. The fine weather meant a little bit of water fun for the afternoon children ... a Water Slide. Our Term Planning ... Will I or Won't I? meant just that. But once the wet smiley faces came charging back for another turn ... Won't I? didn't seem to be an issue. Great fun was had by all ... and Tks for a lovely shared lunch to farewell Ginny ... GREAT DAY !!!

And to finish off the year for our Morning children ... Let's Go Bush !!! Our Bush Walk meant we are now beginning to notice different fauna & foliage ...

Kelan noticed some of the ferns had the same leaves but were different colours of green ... some lighter some darker. And we DID find the biggest tree. Next year we will see if we can identify it ... it was HUGE!!! Santa Claus marked the end of our trail & he even left us some treats ... how did he know we were out & about?

Tks for a great day out everyone & a BIG tks to all the Parents who were able to come along not just today but on all our Outdoor excursions.

Have a neat Xmas & a safe summer holiday break. See you all back in 2012. We will be back on

Jan 24 2012!!!

Welcome to Winton Kindy ... Lloyd Esler

What a great morning we have had today ... A visit by Lloyd Esler 'The Bug man' meant we were able to get up close & very personal with some common & some very rare BUGS. What a neat way to involve the children in the 'Wonders of Nature'. If you find any bugs @ home bring them along ... we can digi them & send them through to Lloyd to identify them - another wonderful way to include ICT into our programme. Oh I just about forgot ... we even had another visitor ... of the feathery kind. Whilst Lloyd was talking to us a Wood Pigeon decided to 'pop in' for a drink of water out of the sandpit ... how about that?

And after Lloyd left us we got stuck in & made Damper to have for lunch ... recipe available on request.

Next week is our last week @ Kindy ... we finish Kindy on the 16 Dec & return 24 Jan 2012

Have a great weekend ... slip,slop,slap & wrap !!!

Make your own digital slideshow

Will I or Won't I?

Five Little Monkeys swinging in a tree ...

Well actually maybe it's Riley Chapman, Ben Fitchett & Daniel McDonald. Can you hear any birds or smell the pine smell of the conifer boys? What about the afternoon sun ... can you see it in the sky? Risk taking in action ... great to see the boys setting their own challenges, making conscious choices where to place their feet & taking in the vista! And check out those proud faces !!! The other thing to think about is how our new Wilderness Area is also going to support LOTS of outdoor learning opportunities for the children. Have you had an opportunity to check out the Landscape Plan? A get-together for EVERYONE (both afternoon & morning families) will be held on Thur 24 Nov @ 12.30pm to form a working party to formulate ideas shared last term & work alongside Pukerau Nurseries ... it is EXCITING !!!

Our Friday morning Nature Discovery Programme is now into week 3. The outdoor environment provides such a genre of learning experiences. Today Jamal Gerken finds something interesting in the Silver Birch trees & with that we also found UNDER the tree some seedlings ... so we potted them up. The programme is providing opportunities for children to SLOW down & check out the world ... right @ our doorstep. It has been GREAT. A BIG thank-you to Jordyn Johnson's family for sourcing more log stumps ... they enabled Jamal to see things more closely, they have been a real hit for children to 'balance' on as they step from one stump to another & provide more seating around the 'fire-pit'. Tks Ben !!! The weather has set us some challenges over the last 3 weeks & unfortunately our Forest Hill trip had to be cancelled today ... but all is NOT lost we have rescheduled for Fri 25. We CAN'T go without helpers & although the weather was against us today we also didn't have enough helpers to go. The children WERE disappointed. Can you spare 2 or 3 hours next Fri to come along & help. Let Judy, Kylie or Ginny know.

And this week we also have introduced to Discovery Time (morning Kindy kids) our iPad2. Wow we can see some wonderful potential in this amazing learning tool. Children developmentally at this stage are VERY kinesthetic ... so what better way to learn than to TOUCH the touch screen & find out what happens. Kara whiua atu ... Give it a go! We are the FIRST Kindergarten to introduce such an amazing teaching tool in Southland !!! Find out more @ our Celebration of Learning evening on Thur 8 Dec - invitations will be in Parent Pockets shortly ... book your babysitter & be prepared to come along and be inspired !!! Also a BIG tks for making Jacqui Burns (2nd Year Student - Otago University College of Education - Sthld Campus) so WELCOME. Jacqui will be with us for another 2 weeks. We have also welcomed other teaching colleagues, over the last two weeks, who have come along to check out our 'Discovery Time' @ Winton Kindy ... our initiatives are having a real impact on ALL our 22 other Kindergartens in Southland & beyond!

There is a space below to leave a comment ... we LOVE to get your feedback !!!

Welcome to Nature Discovery

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Well what an amazing day!! I think the highlight was when Caleb found his space around the campfire and said "Oh I'm sooo happy!" How cool is that!! And yes, we knew the weather that we were greeted with today would push some boundaries but the children just LOVED it!!

It's time we spent more time with our children outdoors, doing all those things that I'm sure many of you remember doing as children...building huts, fishing, jumping in puddles and yes the list goes on and on.

Unfortunately the introduction of television, PlayStation's and computers have dis empowered many young children's abilities to appreciate all the possibilities the great outdoors can provide.

So every Friday we will be outside, yes even on days like today when we had...rain, hail, snow, wind and the odd ray of sunshine!! So please please please make sure your children have appropriate clothing!! Hats, gloves, scarves, jackets, socks, shoes. There is a great saying that goes, "There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing". And parents we welcome you to join us, remember you are your child's role model and even when it's cold outside, bring your jacket along and join us...outside.

Check out this very cool smilebox as a tribute for a very cool day!

Kylie & Judy

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It's coming together ...

Throughout the 'All About Me' & the 'Keeping Ourselves Safe' programme this term we have learnt our addresses & phone numbers (in case we need help) and we have also looked at different houses & homes throughout the world. We found a YouTube clip that showed some very funky architecturally designed houses and also a clip of building an igloo, so guess

what !!! Yep...we need some more milk containers - and PLEASE clean them before bringing them in. It is a Project that 'Discovery Time' people have started and we will continue to build & develop more architectural concepts & ideas next term ... we thought we would show you ALL our work so far !!!

Hey have a great Term Break ... keep safe & we will see you all back @ Kindy on Tue 25 Oct. Also a BIG tks to our Parents who came into Kindy this week and helped give all our toys & furniture & our Kindy a really good clean ... FANTASTIC !!!

Judy, Kylie & Ginny

Daffodil days ...

Autumn Flower Show

Sept 2011

Wow ... The organizers were amazed at all the children's daffodil pictures. And what a wonderful back drop ... hundreds of prized daffodils on display. The children's pictures were created over a number of days in the Project Room by the morning children (our Project Room continues to be a place of creativity - check out what we are creating with all those recycled 2l milk bottles you have been bringing along) and a follow on from our Daffodil Day in August. We used mixed media ... dye & colourflow a new media we have been working with - the vibrancy of the pictures are so very very eye-catching. We took the children to the Memorial Hall on Friday & parents have also shared that they had popped in to check out all the children's pics ... fantastic!!! The organisers popped into Kindy today & expressed there tks & congratulations on some amazing work. We are planning to display the children's pictures back @ Kindy, before displaying them around the town. We want everyone to know what inspirational & creative kids we have got !!! These are definitely something to keep as a momento - of Kindergarten days.

What a great term we have had. We will watch video 5 (last video) of the All About Me programme and that brings us to the end of 'Keeping Ourselves Safe' programme. Evaluations will be placed into everyone's Parent Pockets ... please take a minute to complete it - it helps us to continually improve the programme.

End of Term is on Fri ... Can you help with our 'End of Term Tidy-Up'? And Term 4 begins Tue 25 Oct.

Hair there & everywhere

'Ten seeds' ... a story we introduced last term when we were planting our beans for Matariki. We had LOTS of excited children showing us (tks for all your e-mails) how their bean seed had changed - from a seed, to a seedling, to a plant. Sooooo we had another thought ... what else could we make/create using seeds - we asked everyone to bring along an old tin (some tins were decorated with collage pics & drawings - fantastic), we found some muslin, some wheat (tks to Brooklyn Day) and we began to make our 'Wheat Heads'. Kylie sourced a YouTube clip to share with the children & it gave us an idea of what exactly we were making ... if you get a minute log onto YouTube & type in 'Grass Heads'. Oh and remember, those three things all seeds need to grow ... Water, Sun & LOVE (actually we all need that I think) ... send in your pics to show us how your 'Wheat Head' is growing !!!

The afternoon children have also helped us relocate our Planter boxes ... I don't know about 'green fingers' but there were certainly some 'muddy fingers'. This is a very very very hands on way for children to get 'hooked' into the excitement of 'growing your own fruit & veggies'. Anyone got any ideas on what to plant in our planters?

'All About Me'

Yep, the All About Me programme is in full swing and we have noticed a big change inchildren's ideas here at Kindergarten and from your comments, there has been a shift at home too. Many children have been excited to share with us..."I can get dressed ALL by myself!" and "Stop, Think and Act" or "I can wash myself now!" Great!! It's good to see that these important messages are being followed along at home.

Throughout the term we have had an array of visitors coming along to support the programme. We had Constable Marty pop in...what a hoot!! He certainly had the children in fits of giggles and managed to get some great messages across in regards to crossing roads, wearing our seatbelts and looking for people in uniform if you need help.

We were also lucky to have Amby the Ambulance and Jo from St John come and see us (thanks to those who bought along their gold coin donation) and they were able to share what we need to do in an emergency and we role played dialling 111. We also discussed what IS an emergency and the importance of calling an adult for help if needed.

A big thanks to Amy and Maddie Bielski for bringing along baby Tuvia who had a bath at Kindergarten. It's a neat way for children to extend on what they have already learnt about washing themselves and the importance of keeping clean and healthy.

Have a great weekend and don't forget to bring along a sock to make a sock puppet next week and your family photos to add to the Whanau tree.

Look who came to visit last Friday!! GO THE ALL BLACKS - World Cup fever 2011

All Blacks HAKA "Kamate" by Gear - with lyrics

Hi all,

We have been asked to perform the Haka during the upcoming All Black-Black out day in Winton on the 2nd of September by the Winton Business Association. So get practicing everyone!!

Polyfest Pride

Yes, we were very proud!! Out of 500+ entries the children's amazing masks depicting characters of the story 'The Seven Fish of Matariki' were chosen to go on display in the Invercargill Museum as part of the Mirihiku Maori & Pacifika trust Polyfest!

I urge ALL our families to check out the exhibition which runs till the 21st of August. There are works of art from Early Childhood level right through to secondary level and it really shows how creative our young people can be when given the right tools and guidance.

Shayla, Caleb, Logan, Xavier and Brooklyn all came along with their families to the official opening on the 5th of August where we were treated to drinks and nibbles, speeches and of course the prizegiving. Congratulations to everyone who won a prize and Winton Kindergarten will be aiming to get one of those next year :)

All the other art works that we entered into the exhibition are on display in the Invercargill Library.

Check out these proud faces as they discover their masks in the exhibition. Great work guys!!

Matariki - 'New beginnings'

What does a seed need to grow?? Water, sun and lots of love!!

The Afternoon Kindergarten children have been dabbling in a little horticulture to celebrate Matariki - the Maori new year, by planting their very own seed to take home and care for.

During Matariki there is an emphasis on new beginnings, planting and replenishing the soil for an upcoming harvest and celebrating through waiata (songs) and stories.

Thanks to all our families who came along to celebrate Matariki with us in the ANZAC oval and don't forget to keep looking after those seeds. Remember all they need is a little water, sun and lots and lots of love!!

Maybe you could send in some photos of their progress as they turn from seed, to shoot, to seedling, to plant ...

Celebrating Matariki!!

What a fabulous night among the stars!! Mother Nature did her absolute best to ensure we had a clear night sky filled will stars and of course that bright moon!! A big thanks to Karaan, Sam Dunn's dad who managed to find the moon in the telescope to share with the children. My goodness it was big...but it wasn't a circle, I wonder where the other half got to??

Children arrived with Mums, Dads, Grandma's and Grandad's all dressed up in their winter woollies...some were even in their P.J.'s all ready to jump into bed when they got back home.

I think the highlight of the night was being able to run around in the dark with torches. I'm sure many of you have many great memories of doing that as a child!!

Takahe group performed "The Seven Fishes of Matariki" to the crowd and were able to show off those AMAZING masks they created earlier in the term!! Then we finished off with our newly learnt song 'Kapo Kapo nga Whetu' (Twinkle, twinkle little star) with both our morning & afternoon groups.

We ventured across the road to warm up with a hot chocolate, marshmallows and chocolate brownie (made with care by the morning kindy kids earlier in the day). A big thanks to Sebastion, Nancy and Jane (Middle Pub) for hosting us and keeping us warm!!

And thanks to all our families who have helped us celebrate Matariki in style...Can't wait for next year!!

Also keep a look out for this weeks publication of 'The Eye'. Mary Witsy our local journalist popped into Kindy last week for a photo shoot with all our 'Matariki' happenings ...

Kylie, Judy & Ginny