Term 3 Week 10

Ecological Adventures - Solving the mystery of the Tui!

This week we have entered our Tui mahi into the Winton Spring Flower Show to share our ecological investigations with the wider community. Our display - beautiful vibrant Tui perched in the towering tree branches, accompanied by their friends the Pukeko (following along from the tale Tu Meke Tui), our Tui Bird Feeder, and offerings of Kowhai seeds and pods to encourage locals to plant their own Tui-friendly trees to help support our Tui population! Charlie McPherson: "The Tui like the Kowhai because the nectar is sooo sweet!" I wonder why Charlie?

EARTHQUAKE!

Over the past two weeks we have been holding practice fire and earthquake drills with all children. Not only have we been actively holding drills, but also sharing the "why?" ..."Why are we doing this? There's not a REAL emergency!" Although this is true, the best way to know how to keep ourselves safe in a real emergency situation, is to be PREPARED! Civil Defence Stan the Dog shares child-friendly information about earthquake safety that we have shared with the children. Following our drills, and waiting for the "All clear!" we head outside to our "Safe Place". Do you have a safe place at home? Does your child  know what to do and where to go in an emergency?What about your contact details? Does your child know your address? Phone number? All important information in any emergency. Next term we begin our "Amazing Me- Keeping Our Self Safe Programme" in an ecologigal way of knowing ... knowing who we are, where we live!!!  In the meantime, perhaps use the term break as an opportunity to discuss these things as a family. Nga mihi.

Kowhai for Kindy!!! Eco-Incentives...

A fitting way to finish our Term - a Term filled with eco-adventures, discoveries, of kaitiakitanga and of environmental stewardship.  Our recycling efforts of the past year have been recognised through the "Paper for Schools" initiative. We have earned seven trees of our choice - guess what we have chosen?  Of course, the beautiful Kowhai...in years to come we will home @ Winton Kindergarten our Native Tui.







Have a well-earned break for the next two weeks! Keep an eye out for our friendly Tui and send us your pics! Clue...the Winton Spring Flower Show will be filled with beautiful Tui!
See you back the week of the 15th of October for our final Term of 2018 - gosh, the year is just flying by!

Welcome to Lochiel School Pet Show

Tks Lochiel School for inviting us along today ... LOTS of learning today - body & brain syncing & agility - eye tracking, balancing, eye/hand & eye/foot co-ordination.  Face painting, pedicures, funky hair, home baking & of course just at the end of our morning before we left some pets  ... dogs & fluffy lambs - Spring is definitely upon us!  Tks to all our parents who could come along this morn - great morning - great memories!

End of term ... tks to everyone who helped with cleaning, shifting the furniture & to those helping in our playground Spring Clean in the Term Break -  it is appreciated.  Term 4 starts Mon 15 Oct.  See you then!

 

Term 3 Week 9

Principles of Kaitiakitanga - Investigation Continue: Where have the Tui Birds gone? 
During our Monday morning hui/meeting we shared our weekend 'Tui Challenge' findings and guess what!? Charlie & whanau discovered Tui in Thompson Bush, Rupeni has Tui birds pictured at his home entranceway & not forgetting his 'Tui friend' who joined us for the day - thanks Rupeni!  Archie shared his bird book which had an awesome NZ native bird sheet.  This sparked more curiosity...keep reading to find out more!


Te Wananga Time/Discussion Time
Archie's NZ native bird sheet sparked the groups intrigue to further explore during Te Wananga Time.  Tamariki asked, "That's a kiwi but...what's that one?" Kaiako recognised this as an opportunity for more group research - what are our other NZ Native birds? AND how do we uphold our Kaitiakitanga responsibilities - how can we help care for them? During Conversation Week - Department of Conversation 15-23 Sept, we understand "doing our part" to help support our native birds & wildlife is crucial.

You can help at home too, click on the link: Conservation Week - Take Action in your Own Backyard

How can we be great Kaitiakitanga? - Let's investigate!
Our group research uncovered a deeper understanding of Kea, Tui, & our special native bird Kiwi! We uncovered that kiwis can't fly making them an easier prey for predators.  But hold on...what are predators? Our native puppets made for a suspenseful puppet show as the 'possum predator' was a pest to our small friend Kiwi, especially baby bird eggs!! And that Kea is such a cheeky Kea & you can find a lot of them in Fiordland! But! You can't feed Keas because they might forget how to feed themselves if 'humans' feed them all the time, what will happen when 'humans' aren't around & do birds really eat human food? NO!!


Exploring NZ Native Birds
While manipulating clay bird sculptures nga tamariki were provoked to share their own 'bird stories' from home...like seeing an Owl/Ruru at night...really!??  We've learnt Ruru/Owl are nocturnal! Our Thurs/Fri Group "Explorers" joined in too!



Can Tui & Pukeko Birds be Friends?..."YES!"
Reading through the Youtube Tumeke Tui story we discovered not only kiwi birds can't fly, but also Pukeko...well they prefer spend their day by swamps rather than fly. But if the the Tui & Pukeko can't spend both of their days flying together, how can they be friends?  They can sing to each other! This inspired us to add some additional mahi to our art entry for the Winton Spring Flower Show - Pukeko! Watch this space!




Tao Tuhura - Where have the Tui Birds gone?
The Forest kindy whanau welcomed Marley this week. Using our new bird resource (thanks Archie!) nga tamariki did some tracking & found what appeared to be an egg..maybe a kiwi egg!?? As Kaitiakitanga we worked together to help build a protective nest around the egg, hoping the egg would be safe from 'predators.'  AND check out all the kowhai seeds that were collected, surely if everyone in Winton plants these kowhai seeds we'll grow enough trees for our Tui birds to come back!?

**Proud AS**
Be sure to read your child's ecological reflections!

"What kind of bird came from this egg!?"
Toni, Marley's Mum, shared her ostrich egg with nga tamariki. We discovered that Toni has kept the hollowed out ostrich egg safe since she was 8 years-old! Wow!! Thanks Toni!


Department of Conservation - Conservation Week
Kaitiakitanga - Thank you to Taylor and Maddie for taking ALL our soft plastics from Kindy to be recycled using the depot bin at Winton New World!


Celebration of Learning - Family Night
Thanks for coming along to celebrate our Polyfest success! And remember to see Becks Koro if you'd like to join our Winton Kindy Parent Group, the more the merrier!


Thanks Jasmine & Skylar, we can't wait to use your bird whistles next week!


Explorers Group (Thurs/Fri) are off to Lochiel School Pet Day next Friday if we can get 3 more parent helpers.

One more week of kindy to go!

Enjoy the weekend everyone,
The Teaching Team :)