iPAD fever!!

Well our new iPAD has certainly been getting a work out during the last couple of weeks as the children become a lot more familiar with the device and how it works.

A big thanks to the Chapman family for recently lending the Kindergarten their iPAD from home so we could check out some 'apps' and find some more that could be suitable for use at Kindergarten. If you are familiar with iPAD, iPHONE or apps and know of some that would be useful here, please let us know so we can have a look.

A recent download...'Bugs & Buttons' has proved very popular and gives children many opportunities to develop early mathematics and early literacy skills.

Children have to pick-up creepy crawlies (using the pincer grip - a skill needed to hold a pencil) and sort them into different containers (maths skills).

They have to catch bugs which is great for hand-eye co-ordination and eye-tracking (early reading) and many many more!! If you can download apps at home this one is highly recommended and was in the top three best children's apps for 2011.

It's great to see technology so alive within the Kindergarten and it really embraces Winton Kindergarten as a hub for 21st century learners!!

A big thanks to the Lion Foundation for providing us with the grant that enabled us to purchase the iPAD for the Kindergarten...They do rock!!

We're going on a Dinosaur hunt, are you afraid?

There has been a lot of interest in dinosaurs over the last few weeks so we thought as an exciting adventure we would go on a dinosaur hunt to out local Forest Hill. We took a bus from kindergarten to Forest Hill, this was some of the children's first ride on a bus ka pai for being so brave. After some afternoon tea and a run around we were all set to set out on our walk through the forest. As we crept through the forest we had to keep our eyes wide open to see if there was any sign of dinosaurs. Shrieks of excitement could be heard throughout the forest "Look a bone, a dinosaur bone" which we found hidden beneath ferns and moss. "What kind of dinosaur has that bone come from?" was a frequently used question. The questions the children asked tied in nicely with our term planning of curiosity. The turnout of parents on this trip was fabulous thanks for coming.

Blue what ... oh Blueberries !!!

What a great day out ... No strawberry picking @ the Strawberry Farm soooo we decided to go Blueberry picking instead. On the bus & away to over to Otautau to meet Paul - Mgr of Blueberry South. As we stopped for morning tea ... we seemed to be in the middle of nowhere ... and we were. Well actually ... we were in the middle of a peat bog !!! Paul could tell us there are 142,000 blueberry bushes on the site ... all at various ages & stages.
Morning tea over then we were off!!! Each with our own ice-cream pottle to fill. Some children weren't sure what picking fruit actually meant & most weren't sure what a blueberry actually looked like. Until we started looking around & under the bushes ... a subtle tug and then a taste test. YUMMY. We spent the morning checking out the spongy terrain, picking & eating & enjoying being out and about. It really has provided a wonderful hands-on opportunity for children to develop an awareness of where some of our produce is actually produced. Now ... what we will we do with ALL those blueberries? Kylie & I have some ideas!!! Check out the slideshow for more pics ...