Week 10 Term 1

Our wonderful Parents on Tuesday making decorations for the Tea Party

Rachel Reed working her magic

With the Easter Break upon us we have had a Wonderful Wonderland Week filled with celebration and surprise! A big thank you to all the wonder parent help we have had, especially to Rachel Reed, Rachel Crowe, Leevonne Diack, Nicole Hawkes, Cathy Thompson, Carmel Casey - who all pitched in on Tuesday/Wednesday with preparations for the Mad Hatters Tea Party. It is only with the support of our families that special occasions such as these are a success, and you will all agree that our Kindergarten looked amazing on arrival on Wednesday morning! The idea stemmed after introducing the porcelain tea set in the family corner. Tea parties are a daily occurrence so we decided to incorporate this into our Easter celebration by hosting the Mad Hatters Tea Party...Thank you to everyone who got on board; soooo much effort went in to costumes and the morning tea, we have lots of talented home bakers and creators going by yesterday's success!!Along with the Mad Hatters Tea Party the children had a special visit from the Easter Bunny and an Easter Egg Hunt! On display were the children's creations from the week, including egg carton bunnies and Mad Hatter Hats! We even had a visit from the Southland Times, thanks to Anita Batt for organising this - check out today's (Thursday) paper!

The Mad Hatter, Alice 1, Alice 2, The White Rabbit, Georgia another Mad Hatter, and Rachel Reed Party Planner Extraordinaire!

Teresa with her "Mad" Hat - look at the effort, well done!

Tabitha Brock spent the morning with us pouring tea!

Look who paid us a visit at Ivy Russell Reserve!

On Thursday we headed along to Ivy Russell Reserve for an Easter Egg Hunt - again, a fabulous turn out of whanau help on the day! The Easter Bunny paid us another visit, planting laminated eggs around the Reserve for the children to find then exchange for a delicious chocolate egg from the Easter Bunny herself - special mention to Sally for organising this wonderful excursion, AND for wearing the polar fleece bunny costume in such heat! We could not have asked for better weather and it was great to see where we plan to have our own Nature Discovery programme later in the year.

Have a safe and Happy Easter Break, see you Tuesday 2nd April!

Mackenzie, Drew, Easter Bunny, Joshua and Dante take some time out with the Easter Bunny

Week 9 Term 1

This week we have continued with our sea life projects as the children are still enthralled about everything to do with under the ocean. In the Project Room Sally has been working on a story book with illustrations that the children also narrated, as well as making three-dimensional sea creatures that are hanging in front of our mural. Linda introduced the screen printing and the children experienced different art forms while creating beautiful creations that have now gone on display along with the mural/collage on the back wall.

Sienna Breen's Easter Egg masterpiece for display next week!

We are busy making decorations for our Easter Celebrations coming up next week. Invites went out on Wednesday for the MTW Group for our Mad Hatters Tea Party and Alice in Wonderland themed dress up day to be held on Wednesday the 27th of March at Kindergarten. Sally put up the permission sheet on Thursday for our TF Group to head along to Ivy Russell Reserve for a Easter Egg Hunt on Thursday 28th of March! Lots of Parent Help required for ratios please.

Mad Hatters Tea Party Invitations

Reminder no Kindergarten next Friday 29th March (Good Friday) and Monday 1st April (Easter Monday).

Happy School Days to Millie Scott and Charlie Forde!

Week 8 Term 1

Millie and Mackenzie add their contributions to the group sea life collage in the Project Room

This week we have been getting in to the spirit of St Patricks with a tad more green around the place than usual...You may have noticed the green theme on the light box and the lucky four leaf clovers being created in the project room. Our Sea Week really got the children excited about sea life, so to share our ideas the children have been working on a collage in the project room - watch this space for the BIG reveal! Also this week, Sally introduced some big sheets of cardboard that the children have been using as surfboards, skateboards, sledges - all sorts!! This extends on the interest of some of the boys who having been bringing their MacDonald toy skateboards along and making ramps for these.

Bayden and Mason try out the cardboard on the slide!

With the introduction of our tea set there has been a lot of interest in tea parties. Last week we discussed some ideas, and with Easter fast approaching we thought of tying the two together by hosting a "Mad Hatters Tea Party" and other Easter games on the 27th and 28th of March. Rachel Reed is searching for some friendly volunteers to help sew felt hats that the children can then decorate...Please let us know if you are able to lend a hand or have any other great ideas for our celebrations! TF Group we are thinking an Easter Egg hunt may be on the cards!!

Thank you for my birthday surprise this week, I felt very special sitting on the birthday chair!

Please remember to bring Library Bag/Books on Wednesday

Library Book Day - A friendly reminder that each Wednesday is Library Book Day where the children bring back their reading bag and books to exchange for new books. We seem to have quite a few children not bringing their reading bags and this means we have a lot less books to circulate. Can you please check at home for any Winton Kindergarten Books - these will have our stamp on the inside cover, and bring along next week. Our Library system is a great way to encourage children to appreciate and take responsibility for the books and improve literacy language skills through the sharing of stories.

Happy School Days to Pippa Sutton who is off to Winton School next week.

Welcome to Leila and Ileina Chandler Bringins to our TF Group - lots of fun in the boat!

Welcome to Dante to our TF Group - thanks for helping construct the new table!

Week 7 Term 1

Well done to everyone who took part in the Winton Fun Run on Sunday. And a BIG congratulations to  Judy who came 2nd in the 10km bike ride - awesome work! It was a fabulous day and something our community can be proud of - the children are already speaking about what they will enter in next year!

SEA WEEK

Drew gets her boots off ready to go splashing in the water play!

Emma having a blast "At Sea"

This week is Sea Week. You will have noticed the Kindergarten getting involved in the theme with Judy bringing in a frozen crayfish on Monday that we cooked up for lunch, although not many were keen for a taste test!! The fishing game has been popular, as well as the sea life puzzles, sea story books, seaweed on the light box, and art table displays. Sally brought in bubble mixture and the children made their own metal wands to blow bubbles similar to the air bubbles we make when breathing under water! One of our goldfish eyes have bulged this week drawing lots of attention and conversation around what has caused such a phenomenon - check out the children's ideas on the fish tank!

Joshua - our newest Digger Operator!

This week we introduced a china tea set to the family corner alongside the antique treasures Rachel Reed donated after the Winton Garage Sale, with the perspective that children should have beautiful quality resources in their environment. The children are enjoying lots of tea parties this week! Some of the girls requested that we have "real" drinks in the tea cups, so to tie in with Sea Week (in the broadest sense!) we had hot chocolates with chocolate FISH on Tuesday morning - what a hit!

Happy School Days to Savanna Fletcher who heads off to Winton School on Monday.

Welcome to Dante Wharf, Drew Anderson-Kereti, Emma Cubitt, and Joshua Short who joined out TF Group this week.

Week 6 Term 1

This week we said ka kite to Pyper Allan, Declan Schouten and Annabell Patrick who all head off to school next week - best wishes for your new adventures!!

"That's what friends are for"  - check out our planning wall to see what our amazing friends have been up to!

The Birds:
This week Judy and some of the children noticed that our bird feeder has started to attract some friends - in particular a beautiful "mysterious" bird that sings to us if we listen really carefully. Over the week the interest has blossomed as we hear the bird more and more...I wonder if he will still be here after the weekend?? Lots of possible learning pathways - watch this space!


Discovery Time:
This week we were busy making a banner to take down to the Winton Fun Run this Sunday! It's great to hear that so many children and their families are taking part in this community event as well as promoting healthy lifestyles! We look forward to hearing all about it on return next week.

The banner of support made in Discovery Time this week - see you all Sunday!

Construction:
This week a new block resource was introduced and has been a big hit. The clear frosted blocks vary in shape and size and the children have been learning about how to fit these together to make mini architecturally designed model houses - lots of maths and problem solving skills at work here as the children figure out how to build higher without having buildings collapse! Judy and a group of children googled images of crazy house designs on the Internet and now the children are imitating these in their creations - awesome!

TF Group:
On Thursday we celebrated Cedric's 4th birthday - thank you for sharing this special day with us, and your amazing Madagascar themed cake. We had a wonderful mat time and sang Happy Birthday in Te Reo, English, and then Filipino - very cool! We also welcomed Sienna Breen and family to the TF Group this week. A BIG warm Kindy welcome to you!!!

Walter Reed being cared for by his many Mothers while Rachel gives the gardens a much needed spruce up!

 A big welcome to Sienna Breen