Week 7&8 Term 2

Such a busy time at Kindy that we have combined Week 7 and 8 Blogs into one! In Week 7 we fare welled Poppy Burdon and Olivia Wilson, and Week 8 we said ka kite to Milly Turrell off on a trip to England before starting school next term. On Wednesday the children made pizzas for morning tea and decorated cupcakes in the afternoon to celenrate Milly's last day - so much fun! Happy School Days girls!

Snow:

Brownie making for Winter Solstice TF Group

Wow we had a second sprinkling of the white stuff last week, and what fun we had making the most of it! Great to see children with their warm hats, jackets, gloves and scarfs heading outdoors and making the most of the conditions!

Winter Solstice:

Lantern making for Winter Solstice TF Group

A BIG thank you to Rachel Reed and the Parent Group for organising, setting up AND cleaning up after our Winter Solstice/Matariki night - and to our parents who helped out with lantern making on Wed/Fri - they looked amazing, and the children's delicious chocolate brownie that they made with Georgia on the last day of her 3 week posting! Everyone who made it along on Friday said how much they enjoyed the Winter Celebrations! Toasting marshmallows around the fire, a delicious pig on the spit, lanterns, star gazing, and sparklers all added to the excitement - the memories of this night will stay with the children for a lifetime! If you were unable to join us PLEASE PLEASE do come along to our next Kindergarten event - our Celebration of Learning Evening on Tuesday the 9th of July from 6pm, and PLEASE RSVP :)

St Thomas School Cross Country:

On Tuesday 25th June we braved the elements and headed along to the St Thomas School Cross Country. Well done to all the children for participating and showing off their athletic abilities - special mention to Albie Reed 1st 4 yr old boys and Sienna Hunter 1st 4 yr old girls!! Some of the pupils and teachers will be coming down to Kindy on Monday morning @9:40am to present certificates to children who were placed 1st/2nd/3rd in the Cross Country - do join us!

Polyfest Self-Portraits Jodie Connell

Polyfest:

Wow, MTW Group  your self portraits look amazing. We are now in the process of collating families contributions on "What is special about me, my family, and Winton community" to accompany the self portraits. Please return your comments to Christina by Monday 1st July. On Wednesday we had Sarina in making lei flowers out of Ohai coal sacks - lots of great ideas!

What a wonderful surprise having Jan Cowan in on Monday and Tuesday this week relieving. Jan brought along her guitar and the children had some wonderful sing-a-longs in the afternoons. On Wednesday we had Carol Pikia reliving and now there is the foundations of a hut construction taking form outside! And thank you to Michelle Connell for coming in on Friday - much appreciated!

Nature Programme:
We look forward in anticipation to our Nurtured By Nature programme starting in Term 3. On Wednesday we had a visit from Clare, Fiordland Kindergarten. Fiordland were the first Kindergarten to implement a Nature Programme four years ago. It's success and popularity has seen Clare presenting nationally and internationally as well as publish their own book - we have just purchased a copy - please take the time to review this amazing resource!

Rupert's Rabbit Residence!

Jeremy McMaster taking measurements of Rupert's Hutch...

Over the past two weekends Kyle Thorburn and his girls have come into Kindy in their weekends to renovate Ruperts hutch with sticks to make it look more natural...One problem - now it is too heavy for the teachers to lift! Georgia had a great idea to get the children to design their own blueprints for getting the cage up on wheels - lots of effort went into these - check out the Project room window for a sample! Georgia's Dad is in the process of constructing something for us!! Watch this space...

A warm welcome to Leo Cameron, Sarah Crowe, William Reid and Haylie Nicholls

toasting marshmallows around the fire

beautiful table displays

pig on a spit for tea!

Week 6 Term 2

Polyfest Art: Self portraits using natural resources

A full on week with FOUR Kindy Birthdays!!! Happy School Days to Idan Aragon, Jorjia Marshall, Charlie and Karta Barnes! This week we have been learning about screen printing and using the paints in ways other than the paintbrush or finger painting. The children have been using leaves to screen print  - looks amazing! On the light box we have the skeleton leaves that the children have worked with to create different patterns as well as taking the time to notice the tiny patterns on each leaf as the light and shadow bring out their individual features. Patterns - something we are really interested in after all our wonderful Polyfest Tshirt Competition entries with Polynesian and Maori designs. Sally took all the entries in last Friday - we wait in anticipation to see how we get on in this category! Our MTW children will be busy over the weekend creating their own self portraits from any natural resources they gather around home/in the community. These are due back my next Wednesday please so that they can be collated for an art entry into Polyfest. Anyone in this group who did not receive their piece of cartridge paper/instructions at end of day mat time on Wednesday please see Christina on Monday - thanks!




Bayden, Kate, and a growing group of children created an animal rescue ship using practically all the blocks and wooden animals in the Kindergarten! The TF Group were sooo impressed that Quilan and Hannah created their own rescue ship beside it before adding to the initial design - wow I wonder what our MTW Group will think when they see the ship on Monday morning!!??

Kia ora Libby Mitchell!

Welcome Jacqlynn Logan to Winton

Welcome to Kindy Elena Gwynn

With lots of birthdays we also have lots of new faces this week. A big warm welcome to Annabelle Chrystall, Jacqlynn Logan, Elena Gwynn, to the MTW Group, and to cousins Kourtney Mitchell and Libby Mitchell in our TF Group.

Annabelle Chrystall meeting Rupert the Rabbit!

Welcome Kourtney and family to Winton Kindy

Week 5 Term 2

A lovely short week this week with Queens Birthday on Monday.

Our 3rd year student Georgia McMaster started her 3 week posting with us on Tuesday. We look forward to her input into the programme during her time with us.

BLOG HITS: Congratulations guys we have reached over 5000 hits on the blog - big thanks to all those who have been logging on and keeping up to date with happenings around Kindy! This week we celebrated by handing out Chocolate Bars to families who were able to log on - tu meke/awesome!

Polyfest:

An example of a Chinese Dragon Kite 

Polyfest preparation is well underway with lots of Waiata each morning and ideas starting to be confirmed for our Lei and Arts entries. "Kei Raro I Te Moana" is a song about a shark, and also features the line "Taniwha taniwha". While we were learning our "Taniwha" faces the idea came to us to make a huge taniwha to take on stage with us - similar to the Chinese Dragon kite is what we are thinking - Can you help with this project?? We will need lots of volunteers eg. - design concepts, materials, construction...Many hands make light work; and fits wonderfully with the theme for Polyfest 2013 "I am a part of the community; the community is part of me".

MTW Group:
This week we celebrated Max McConnachie and Logan Campbell's Kindy birthdays. Max is heading off to Lochiel School and Logan starts at Winton School next week - Happy School Days to you both!

TF Group:
We welcome Megan Bailey and Alice Henderson to our TF Group this week. The children had a practice Fire Drill and an Earthquake Drill, everyone did a great job following instructions and getting to our safe place beside the fence - Does your child know where your safe place is at home in an emergency?? We celebrated Sienna's 4th Birthday today. Thank you for sharing your birthday cake with us at Morning Tea - delicious!

Welcome Alice Henderson, great to have Dad and Aunty with you on your first day!

Happy Birthday Sienna - What a great job mum did making her FIRST cake - amazing!

Welcome Megan Bailey to our TF Group