Term 3, Week 3

Eco-Literacy: Energy

This week the children have continued their inquiry "How do you make light bulbs glow?" through discussions over the past few weeks instigated by a light bulb Penina brought in.  From looking at the light bulb, to some hands-on investigations with Annabelle's idea of static electricity, to now experimenting with 'Brain Box'.

'Brain box' provokes more hands-on inquiry based learning as the children have connected and tested different ways to create movement, sound and light. Circuits has become part of their everyday vocubalary ... fantastic! This learning has supported our children's literacy and numeracy knowledge as they followed the instruction booklet and connected the numbered pieces.

Some fabulous learning has been happening here!!!

Say Cheese!!

A big thank you to Megan Graham for the beautiful photo's she took on Wednesday and Thursday morning!! Megan has done an awesome job as she captured the children at play and had some great conversations with them as she made them feel at ease with the camera. Come in and check out your child's photo on display at Kindy.

Order forms are also available and must be completed before the 28th August 2017.

Where Do Stories Live?

As we continue to build on our understanding and investigations of stories the children have continued to have a closer look at leaves. To support this learning this week they have been constructing their own leaves using cooper wire on the light box. It has been great observing and supporting this learning as the children have closely examined the leaves and manipulated the wire to create their very own. This experience has also built our Eco-Literacy as the children have continued to use language such as 'the bones of leaves', and 'the veins of leaves'.

From a continuation of last weeks Hobbit Home creations and inspiration from Sophie Mitchell, she had created a book telling her Hobbit Home creation story. This may inspire you, and your child to create their own story of their Hobbit Home. Tino Pai Sophie!!!

Experimenting With H2O

This week Elle has had a wonderful H2O experience outside to explore! 

We have been lucky enough to receive a kind gift of syringes and pipes from Grasmere Kindy. This created an awesome opportunity for the children to get involved in water play!! This sensory experience provided the perfect environment for a wee competition as the children teamed up and raced to see who could fill their bucket first. Problem solving, working as a team, exploring their senses and strengthen their communication - all included in such a playful context.

Ka mau te wehe!!

Eco Warriors

On Wednesday afternoon the children were alerted to a "tweet, tweet, tweet". "There's a bird on the road, come quick!!" Sophie alerted. Judy went out of Kindy and carefully walked onto the road to collect the bird just before another car came past!! The children were then invited to have a closer look at the bird. They all thought Bradley's bird cage would make a nice home for it while it recovered, aren't they kind!! 

But once the bird was in the cage it got a fright and tried to fly away. Unfortunately the bird could not fly as well as it had hoped and it landed on the ground under a tree across the road. Some of our Kindy children kept a close eye on the bird until Judy brought it back over on her bike ride back to Kindy. We then all gathered and discussed what we could do to help the bird. There were some fabulous ideas and one of them was to feed it. Judy had kindly collected some worms from home for it; we also gave it some bird seed and water. During our discussions we wondered why the bird can't fly. This got us all thinking and posed a new question...."How do birds know how to fly?" 

- We can't wait for you all to share your ideas with us next week!!

Luckily at the end of the day a familiar resident vet came to our aid ..... Pennia's Mum - Skye!!

Skye kindly gave our bird a check up and came to the prognosis - a sore head. No broken wings or legs, which was great to hear!!

On Thursday there was no bird to be found at Kindy, so lets hope it has found it's way back home :) 

Forest Kindy

A big warm welcome to Kaydin White who's joined the Forest Kindy Team!!

This week at Ivy Russell Reserve while our Forest Kindy children were exploring they spotted some moss! "Lets get some for our Hobbit Home!" Thank you Forest Kindy friends!!

As they searched for more they also came across other creatures which grow in the forest like beetles. 

As the explorations continued they came across some trees which had recently been cut down, this provided a great opportunity for the tamariki to explore the veins of the trees. The children also kindly collected some saw dust for our pal Rupert.

What a fabulous explorers we have here at Winton Kindy!!

Whenua ki uta, Whenua Ki tai
Celebrate The Environment

We are so proud and honoured to announce that our art display has been selected as a finalist in this years Polyfest Art competition. Thank you to all of our contributing families and tamariki. 

This is awesome!!!!

The awards ceremony is held at the Southland Museum on Friday 18th August @ 6pm if you are keen to come along and take part of this special occasion please let us know and write your name down at Kindy.

Well done team!!

Don't forget about our Polyfest Dress rehearsal next Wednesday 16th @ 10.30am, at St Thomas School!!

Have a great week!!!

From your Winton Kindy Teaching Team :)