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

Week 4 Term 2

MTW Group:
We welcome Amelia Young to the MTW Group this week.

SNOW!

Logan with one of the snowman..Before losing his nose!

What fun we had on Tuesday and Wednesday outside making the most of the snow! Great to see so many children with warm jackets, hats, scarfs and gloves - remember there is no such thing as bad weather, learning through the senses is an experience in itself! The children felt the freezing cold snow with their hands, the cold breeze on their cheeks, and the excitement only this white stuff can bring!! We had two snowmen built throughout the day - this took a lot of effort as we transported snow and found objects to dress them in...I wonder where the carrot ended up as when we arrived back on Wednesday morning one of the snowmen was missing his nose!

Albie and Jessica taking shelter from the snow 

Pink Ribbon Morning Tea

Pink Ribbon Morning Tea

On Wednesday Jane Campbell organised a Pink Ribbon Morning Tea to raise money for the Breast Cancer Foundation. Everyone looked amazing dressed in pink - even the boys got on board - tu meke awesome! Jane made pink ribbons for all the children and pledged to donate an extra dollar for every child dressed in pink - thank you Jane. We had Sarina come in and face paint and lots of parents join in on the fun coming dressed in pink and staying for morning tea with the children. We had soooo many pink cupcakes and other pink treats for shared kai - thank you to everyone for supporting the cause.

Sarina face painting on Pink Ribbon Day

Congratulations to Ruby Diack on winning the Pig Colouring In Competition following last week's visit to see the Batt's pigs.

TF Group:

Charlie, Tristin and Tom set off for an early morning shot

We welcome Benjamin Hose to the TF Group this week and Paige Walker who joined us last Friday.
We have a few keen duck shooters getting around the Kindy - you may not have seen these guys as they are well disguised in there camo paint and mai mais! We also supported Pink Ribbon with face painting on Friday and our donations jar available for families to contribute to the cause. Judy and a group of children shared the Ginger Bread Man by Tania Batt and following this Judy asked the children to draw the fox...This was quite interesting lots of great ideas! They also drew what a wish looked like - quite abstract for children, even as adults this is hard to articulate!


Welcome Paige Walker and family

Welcome Benjamin Hose

Week 3 Term 2

This week we welcomed Cohen Davis and Dante Wharf to MTW Group.

RUPERT THE RABBIT

Sophie and Logan give Rupert a gentle pat

We also welcomed our new four-legged friend on Tuesday - a pet rabbit! The children had a big discussion at Morning Meeting on Monday about caring for our new friend - awesome! On Wednesday we drew Rupert's name out of the box after the children shared what they would like our bunny to be called. The TF Group shared a story at end of day mat time about Peter Rabbit and all the yummy vegetables he liked to eat out of the garden which gave us some good ideas about what we might be able to feed our rabbit - awesome!

BEN THE RAINBOW BEAR

Hamish tucking in Rainbow Bear

On Monday we had Amanda relieving for Judy. Amanda brought with her Rainbow Bear who will be spending the next few days out at Winton Kindergarten learning about our routines, children and teachers. Thank you to all the children who have welcomed Rainbow Bear and shown him around Kindy.




GOLD FISH

Milly, Ablie, Jessica and Hamish farewelling the gold fish

On Monday we arrived back at Kindy to find one of our Gold fish had passed away. Our student Georgia and a group of children had a big talk about what we could do and they decided to bury the fish in the garden after saying a karakia and farewell. Some children painted pictures to accompany the burial site as well as constructing a cross. The children comforted each other and it was amazing to see and hear the empathy and understanding of loss and grief the children shared. Friendships were so integral at this sad time.

POLYFEST
Meeke has kindly offered to come in and support us in our Polyfest quest by singing waiata along to his guitar. The children are very excited about learning new songs in Te Reo and all the actions! Our Kindergartens South Waiata is coming along nicely with the children starting to pick up on some of the words and phrases. This week we have introduced Tohoro Nui (Whale song), reintroduced from last year's Polyfest performance Kapo kapo nga whetu (Twinkle twinkle little star) and other waiata that you will hear over the coming weeks as we learn the lyrics! We also have tshirt templates for the children and their families to create their own designs and return for entering on to the Polyfest 2013 design competition - check your parent pockets next week!


TRIP TO SEE THE BATT'S PIGS

Anita reading to the children

On Wednesday morning we ventured out on our walk down to Alyssa Batt's place to visit her pigs Sour and Pepper. The idea stemmed from giving the children an appreciation of where our food scraps go as part of our sustainability "reduce, reuse, recycle" commitment. The fact that the children place their food scraps in the pig bucket that Alyssa's parents collect for their pigs - why not go and see the pigs that we are feeding - awesome! The children had a great time feeding the pigs bread and cabbage kindly donated by Sienna Hunter's family. Anita shared a story about pigs with the children and showed them their tusks/teeth that the vet had removed while the group ate their morning tea - thank you Anita for the baking delicious! Thank you to all the parents who were able to came along on the day to help out we can't have our "out and abouts" without your support. This was also a fitting opportunity to reiterate our road safety rules from the previous week - "Stop Look Listen and Decide". Everyone had a fabulous time, even in the rain!

Feeding the pigs and sheep

TF Group
This week we welcome Kamryn Sinclair, Tom Collie and Paige Walker to the Group. Everyone had the opportunity to give our new friend Rupert a big cuddle and we have heard lots of discussion around pets and what to do/not to do. The children have a clear understanding of their responsibilities and it's great to hear the children reminding their peers about treating Rupert with kindness.

Welcome Tom Collie and family 

Welcome Kamryn Sinclair to Winton Kindergarten

Week 2 Term 2

Good Morning Lisa Coveney!

This week we got to off a busy start with Lochie Payne's Kindy Birthday on Monday morning, Bright Sparks Road Safety Road Show on Tuesday and Mason Maguire's Kindy Birthday, then William Light also celebrated his Kindy Birthday on the Wednesday!

Bright Sparks:

Constable Brook teaching us to STOP LOOK AND LISTEN

On Tuesday morning we had the New Zealand Police, Plunket and Road Safety Southland visit Kindy as part of their Bright Sparks campaign. A big thanks to all the parents who attended, got their car seats checked, and took part in the different activities. The seat belt sledge was a huge hit - literally - as the children and teachers got to experience what it felt like to be in a sudden stop at only 7km/hr! Brook from the NZ Police talked to the children about road safety, especially when crossing the road. "STOP, LOOK, AND LISTEN" before crossing was practiced on the roll out Pedestrian crossing. And the importance of driveway safety was reinforced as parents sat in Dot's car and checked the limited visibility of children playing behind the car - the children could NOT be seen until 6metres back! That meant the 15 other children sitting/playing 0-6metres behind the car were not seen by the "driver". And a big thanks to all the children for getting dressed as Bright Sparks - and Lisa Coveney for wearing her blindingly bright jacket - awesome!!

Kelly has a turn on the seat belt sledge

Learning about how important it is to have safe play areas away from cars

Visit to Batt's Pigs: Please note we are heading along to see the Batt's pigs this Wednesday the 22nd. Information is in parent pockets as well as permission form on the sign-in desk. Lots of parent helpers needed please.


TF Group:

Welcome to Kindy Jasmin Johnstone

Welcome to Winton Kindergarten Elora and family

We welcome Jasmin Johnstone and Elora Maganning
to our TF Group this week. The Group had a great time in the sandpit revisiting and recreating their river from last term - again making it stretch all the way across the sandpit and down the foot path!

PARENT GROUP MEETING: Wednesday 22nd May ALL WELCOME

Week 1 Term 2

Welcome back to another Term at Winton Kindergarten! It sounds like everyone has had a nice break and have come back refreshed and ready for lots of fun learning experiences over the next 10 weeks.

Kindergarten Environment:
The tamariki came back to a few changes to their inside environment. The blocks have been moved to make room for the gadget table to also be in the Construction Area. Storytelling is such as large part of the Dramatic Play/ Family Corner that we decided to include the magnetic board and stories with the children's lounge suite. The Listening Post joins the ICT Area beside the Ipad desk, as well as a new Literacy Area where the children have access to writing materials and the magnet letter board. These alternations have received lots of positive feedback seen through the children's play becoming more seamless - defined areas not intruding on quieter spaces, increased interest in previously overlooked areas (especially at the writing table), and sustained play - children engaging and involving them self in learning experiences.

MTW Group:

MTW Group practising our Kindergartens South Waiata

This Term we are introducing our Kindergartens South Waiata to the MTW Group. This will become one of our songs for Polyfest in August as well as our official welcoming song for visitors at Winton Kindergarten. Christina and Sally are working on an iMovie to share with families so children can practice the tune and lyrics at home...Watch this space!

Congratulations to Hamish and Natalie Russell on their prize winning entries in the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind Red Puppy Appeal colouring in competition! The Prime Ministers wife chose the winning masterpieces, and on Monday Hamish and Natalie received their prizes - two Red Puppy soft toys! Well done on your tremendous efforts!

The Group spent a lot of time in the project Room over the week, creating and decorating Mothers Day fridge magnets for this Sunday. A tremendous amount of effort went into their masterpieces as well as in depth discussions about "What makes my Mum special" and "Why it is important to show Mum that we appreciate everything that she does for us". Some thoughts included: "My Mum always loves me even when I don't do what she asks," "Mums looks after us and keep us safe," "Because my Mum is the bestest Mum in the whole world!" Tu meke - awesome!


TF Group:
This week we welcome Leah Langford, Miah McCallum, Izzy Forde, and Alex Kincaid to the Winton Kindergarten. The Group created their own special Mothers Day cards at the Arts and Crafts table alongside Sally. These were put on display for all our wonderful mums to see as they arrived for pick up on Friday afternoon!

Welcome Izzy Forde

Welcome Miah McCallum

Welcome Alex Kincaid

Welcome Leah Langford

Our Resident Artist of the week is Sophie Spedding - check out her Space masterpiece on the easel as you arrive and read her thoughts and ideas about Saturn, Mars, and the Moon. Lots of working theories and knowledge to share with the group - great work Sophie!

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO ALL OUR WONDERFUL PARENTS :)