Check out what we got up to last Term!!!

Yep ... we have a glitch. We logged back onto the BLOG to see that the newsletter wasn't there. We will keep trying ... anyway we are trying this week to put on our Term Evaluations ... here goes !!!

Thanks to everyone who came along to our AGM last night ... we plan to have a get together on Fri 12 Mar at 6.30pm venue to be confirmed. Keep this date free - Order your babysitter NOW, we want to have LOTS of our families come along.

AGM - Wed 17 Feb 7pm @ Kindy

Here is our newsletter ... hard copy is located above the sign-in desk ...

AGM - Wed 17 Feb 7pm @ Kindy

JUST A REMINDER WE NEED LOTSSSS OF NEW FACES AT OUR AGM ... COME ALONG AND HELP US TO MAKE OUR KINDY THE BEST WE CAN BE.

Here is our latest newsletter ...

WELCOME BACK EVERYONE

Wow 2010 - it seems not long ago we were welcoming in the new millennium ... my how time flies. Great to see everyone back and it's been great catching up with all the children's Xmas & holiday news.

A special welcome to all our new families. In saying that we would LOVE to see some new faces @ our AGM - keep 17 Feb 7pm pencilled into your diary. We have a number of existing committee members leaving and we need some new faces & ideas to fill those gaps. The roles within the committee have changed over the last few years ... albeit alot of the boring bits are now done by Judy, so committees can be more social (some parents are still talking about our van trip to the Cabbage Tree!!!). Some initiatives also, are to invite speakers to the Kindy (this year our thoughts were to invite along New Entrants teachers to talk about the Transition to School and I wondered if we could maybe invite Helen Campbell who works @ the College of Education who wrote a wonderful article in the Sthld Times last year on encouraging Literacy competencies). Something to think about ... Kindergarten is all about encouraging and supporting our families (who are an intrical part of what makes Kindergarten unique) ... so we do NEED your input !!! Also a BIG thanks to our committee for organising all the Xmas celebrations for the children at the end of the term. Check out the Term Slide show for some great pics of all our Term 4 happenings.

Parent Help roster ... choose a day that suits ... it is located by the Sign-In Desk. Thanks to Carmel Casey who has kindly volunteered to compile the roster ... and Margaret Scully who has kindly volunteered to check our Morning/Afternoon supplies each day. Thanks for that.

Sweeping roster ... choose a Friday that suits. Keeping our Kindy tidy & well kept creates a 'WOW" factor for not just the children & families but everyone. So PLEASE help out with the sweeping, when you can ... remember 'Many hands make light Work'. We hope to set a date for a working bee at our AGM - will keep you posted with a date.

Keep an eye out for ARTWORK around our Kindy walls (the elephant painting is pretty cool). Kylie Skeggs is an Invercargill artist and we asked if she could showcase some of her work ... of course she said YES. Some of you may have seen some of her work ... Kylie had her artwork displayed in Aqua on Winton Open Day.

We plan to e-mail our newsletter out to everyone ... let us know if you don't receive it (we may not have your current e-mail address).

We have some new visitors to Kindy ... some caterpillars & tadpoles. The children are always fascinated with metamorphosis ... and all the life-cycle changes so check them all out.

We have LOTS of Worm Juice for sale ... great for every ones Veggie & Flower garden. $2 a jar - all proceeds go towards our Morning/Afternoon Tea fund.

Introducing our first Artist....Lyn Taylor

Well, what a hit!! Lyn Taylor came with BIG bags of goodies and many of us were VERY curious to see what was in those bags. She had bought in giant pine cones, paint, and glitter to make very amazing Christmas decorations.

Lyn explained the process, while the children listened intently. Great to see everyone showing such awesome respect for our visitor.

The concentration that showed on the children's faces while they made sure all the pieces on the pine cone had 'white snow' on them was priceless!

Once they were all covered, we got to sprinkle glitter all

over the cone. I think this might have been the children's favourite part!

Lyn was very kind and left some of her pinecones (which came all the way from Tekapo) to share with the afternoon kindy kids too!

I just think it's so special to be able to share our Kindergarten with members of the community! Keep checking the board for upcoming visiting artists. And if you know anyone that could share some of their talents with us, we would love it if they could come along.

My goodness...Look how busy we have been!!

The beginning of the week saw the Kindergarten children go...BALLOON CRAZY! We were lucky enough to have all the balloons donated to us from the Winton Open Day. How lucky were we? The chidlren certainly enjoyed them and I think being able to pop them was one of the hightlights! A big thanks to the organisers for your generosity, it was greatly appreciated!!

Also this week, our art term focus is well underway and with Christmas fast approaching we are developing our artistic ability and creating some masterpeices that could possibly be used as Christmas presents for the children's family...SHHH, it's a surprise!

So ripping was on the agenda, lots and lots of ripping!!! Using a fantastic idea out of a recent 'Littles' magazine, the children (both morning and afternoon) began the process of making their very own paper mache bowls.

By ripping up LOADS of coloured paper we will work on creating bowls for each child to take home as a Christmas gift. Morning children are already well through the process with many colouful bowls drying on the project room window sill. I must say, they look fabulous! Afternoon children next week will work on soaking their ripped up paper and mixing in the glue...Can't Wait!

Don't forget to check out all the wonderful happenings in the Kindergarten, and if anyone knows of any local artists that could come in and share some of their knowledge, of just 'create' with the children let either Judy or Kylie know.

Thanks and keep creating,

Kylie and Judy!

Tour of Southland - GO GO GO!!!

Tour of Southland is once again upon us...

What an awesome event for Southland!

We trundled out the door at Kindergarten and made our way down to the starting line.

We even managed to source some flags from Power Net (one of the major sponsors of the event). Thanks Deklyn for handing them out.

The Main St of Winton was certainly filled with heaps of hustle and bustle...the bikers were doing their warm-ups, police cars were making sure everyone was safe, and it was so cool to see some familiar faces from both Winton School and St Thomas' School there too :) !

Be sure to check out the news on the telly and the local newspapers...Winton Kindergarten might make an appearance!!

Thanks to everyone who joined us,we couldn't do it without you!

Once the Tour of Southland had departed we ventured down to see Willie Solomon at the library, he is soooo cool and the children were fixated on all the stories he shared with us...wasn't it lucky that he managed to find his pie!! I wonder if there were still some of those bees in there.....

We invited Willie to come and visit Winton Kindergarten too, so keep an eye out for when he is scheduled to visit!

Great day had by all, now we just need to get prepared for Limehills pet day on Monday!!

Can't wait