Term 1 Week 11

Noticing the Extraordinary in the Ordinary

Did you notice something spectacular happening in the sky on Tuesday morning?!  Some of us did here at kindy and what a sight to behold it was! Judy engaged nga tamariki in group discussions with a photo of the Winton skyline.  Our early risers shared they had noticed the amazing sky too.  However, the sky appeared not as it normally did, rather it appeared like "waves" and "on fire!" Perhaps Ranginui, the Sky Father, wanted our attention because later that morning we had rain, so much rain!!!  How did we make the most of the rain?  Play in it of course!  Check out how much water we collected in just 2 hours in the photo below!  Kaiako strive to find opportunities to engage tamariki in experiences where we can share our amazement and wonder of the natural world around us ... helping to strengthen our appreciation of our beautiful world. Take the time to slow down and really look around you, you too will notice the 'extraordinary the in ordinary'.




Let the Easter Preparations Begin!

How do you celebrate Easter?  Group discussions uncovered we all spend Easter in our own special way, unique to our family.   Some children attend Church, some eat loads of Easter eggs, and some stay home to relax!  At Kindy ... Easter means to us an opportunity to celebrate with our tamariki and whanau. And celebrate ... we DID!  Thank goodness we had many little hands to prepare for our Easter Extravaganza. Nga tamariki set to work with Christina on Monday morning and created an outstanding eco inspired centrepiece for our kai table.



How will the Easter Bunny know where Kind is?  We set to work creating invitations and signs.



The Eco-Easter Excitement Continues at Forest Kindy

Amongst the heavy rain on Tuesday nga tamariki managed to keep their excitement for Easter alive. Did you see Easter Bunny hopping around the Reserve ... you DID!?? Lucky and amazingly enough the Easter Bunny's home was discovered.  Fancy that!  This was a great opportunity to leave an invitation at the Easter Bunny's home and a carrot too, as a sign of appreciation.

Easter Extravaganza!! 

The eco centrepiece created an ambient mood as we gathered around our kai table, anticipating the arrival of the Easter Bunny!  Everyone was so kind in sharing their plate of kai with friends and whanau.  What a treat..or a feast to be more exact! And then guess what happened!  While we were eating our shared kai the EASTER BUNNY ARRIVED!!!

News Flash ...  Easter Bunny Visits Kindy!!

Nga tamariki received fluffy bunny cuddles and chocolate Easter eggs!! That's not all!! The Easter Bunny sent us on an Easter Egg Hunt. Thanks for sharing the eggs to make sure everyone had one.




Happy Easter everyone!  Have a fantastic and safe break, see you back on Tuesday.

The Teaching Team

Term 1 Week 10

Culture of Winton Kindy

This week we have been sharing our thoughts on "Culture". What is Culture? What does it mean to your family?A question we posed on our Facebook Page...
For us at Kindy, "Culture" is what makes us the unique group that we are - our routines and rituals, and values and our aspirations, our acceptance of others, and of course celebrating diversity. Following on from St Patricks Day, we shared some Irish Dancing YouTube Clips and began to join in and recreate our own dance studio! We began to decorate Kindy - all good parties need decoration- and we hung flags of the world around. This got us to thinking about the significance of flags - what is a flag for? Culture is Symbolic representation - symbols and markings that mean something to us. And so we began to design our own flags, reflecting  on our own family culture...what makes our family special? What do we like to do as a family? What is our culture? These were then added to our decorations to share with everyone. And on Thursday night we share a special evening, organised by the fabulous Parent Group, the Winton Kindy "Culture Night".
Culture means food! And my, what delicious delicacies we had, paying tribute to the many corners of the Earth that our families defend.
Culture means dance and costume! The Central Southland College Kapahaka Group were invited in to perform, sharing two waiata with us - a very moving moment.
Culture means coming together and living as one - welcome to the Winton Kindy Culture.





What an amazing night last night ... we have a slideshow on the BIG screen of our night.  Tks to the Parent Group for organising the Culture Night which included an invitation to the Central Southland College (CSC) Kapa Haka group to perform - tks Gemma Dodds (President).    Kindness has been a value we have shared ALL term so a kind gesture was to make & share some homemade treats - the Parent Group made some truffles, chocolate & fudge as a thank-you tribute to our Kapa Haka performers!

Tks Mille Price for sharing our thank-you treats to the CSC Kapa Haka performers!

Ashton Kemp, Charles De Thierry, Rubee Gerken & Mila Briggs lead our Karakia Kai before sharing a cultural evening meal!

Fossilisation

Fossil  learning about the the historical and cultural contexts of the world around us! Our Palaeontologists continue their investigations with Linda on a Monday we we take a closer look at rock formations, "casts", "imprints" and creating our own fossils!

The Forest Kindy Culture

The special spaces and places of Forest Kindy continue to evolve as the Forest Kinky gang create their own unique culture at Ivy Russell Reserve. Our routines and rituals, the roles within the group,  landmarks, the legends and the shared understanding of what it means to be a part of this group culture...resonates with our Reggio Emilia Inspired Pedagogical Approach...That we are "Individuals within a group, not a group of individuals".

Working with Light and shadow - Culture passed on through story telling

Cultural beliefs and practises shared through the magic of retell. Story making and story creating.

Designing our Obstacle Course

Our Thur/Fri group have spent this morning designing their own Challenge Course. What do 3-4 year olds understand or believe a challenge is?   How do they  appreciate directionality & functionality?   We saw today how animated everyone was!  We look forward to seeing what/how this will progress!

Easter Extravaganza

Next week is Easter week.  Our thoughts were to create a group Easter table centre piece & have an Easter shared morning tea on Wed & Thur. Can you bring along some morning tea Easter kai on Wed & Thur.

We also wondered about getting some naturalistic Easter bags to put our Easter treats into Wed & Thur (Easter Egg Hunt).  Here's a challenge ... we have the hessian ... we need  six Mum's to sew some bags (10) to put all our Easter treats into!

                                                  CAN YOU HELP? 

Have a GREAT weekend ... see you all next week!

The Teaching Team!