Term 3 Week 2

We are at the end of our second week already! Wow what a busy week here at Winton Kindy! Our greatly anticipated Water Feature FINALLY arrived after months of planning! Pukerau Nurseries have done a fabulous job designing and producing our new feature - check it our next time you are in! The children had a ball on Wednesday watching as the pieces were placed / chainsawed together - and then of course the seal of approval - turning on the tap and getting wet!! A great time to remind all our wonderful families to please pack at least once full set of warm clothes - we do like to get "hands on" with our play and learning!!

Our new water feature gets the seal of approval!!

This week we said a fond farewell to Hamish Russell off to Dipton School and Kelly Rosewarne off to Winton School - Happy 5th Birthday boys!! We welcome Elsie Turrell, Max Laughton and Porter Wright to our TF Group.

Welcome back Turrell family - Hi Elsie!!

Welcome Porter Wright

Welcome Max Laughton to Winton Kindergarten

POLYFEST ART
Congratulations to all our amazing families, our art entry "Home is where the heart is" was selected as a finalist for tonight's Polyfest Awards. A big thanks to everyone who worked alongside their children creating their self portraits for this entry!! The official Opening Ceremony is tonight after the Prize Giving. Great to hear LOTS of families are coming along for this SPECIAL evening! If you are unable to attend do pop into the Art Gallery at the Southland Museum next time you are in town and see all the amazing entries into this year's competition! Our other entries will be on display at the Invercargill Library so do take the time to acknowledge the efforts of our tamariki when you are out and about in town!!

POLYFEST PERFORMANCE
Wow, less than TWO WEEKS until the big on-stage performance at the Civic Theatre on Wednesday 21st August. This week the children were so so busy in the Project Room and at Discovery Time cutting and painting the pui puis! If you are able to spare some time on Tuesday Morning we now need to thread the pui pui with the children, awesome!! Our waiata is coming along, great to hear the children singing them throughout their day at Kindy and at home for their family!

Pui pui making in Discovery Time...Alyssa, Ruby, Jodie and Kate busy in their work!!

Tom Collie arrived at Kindy and noticed we needed a helping hand in the Project Room...Thanks Tom!!

Term 3 Week 1

Welcome back to Term 3 at Winton Kindergarten! We hope everyone enjoyed their time away and come back feeling refreshed for the new term! We have a short 9 week term with LOTS happening!! This week we said Happy School Days to Max Coveney - best wishes for your adventures at Lochiel School and thank you so much for our new fish!! We also welcome new faces to the Kindergarten whanau... Oliver Keith, Milly Watkinson, Isaac Ellis, Sophie Eade and Stella Sutton.

Welcome Isaac Ellis and family

Welcome to Kindy Sophie Eade!

Welcome Stella Sutton! 

Kia Ora Oliver Keith!!

Welcome to Winton Kindergarten Milly Watkinson!

Wow doesn't our Kindy look AMAZING!! Lots of hard work went in over the term break with the Kindy being painted. Our new areas of play, including the dramatic play and music area, literacy area with blackboards, and of course our fancy new lounge suite all make Kindy feel like a new place for the tamariki to play and learn! A BIG thanks to Malcolm Walker, Jenni Cubitt and Rachel Reed for coming in during the break to lend a helping hand getting Kindy ready for the start of Term. We also have new Birthday chairs, sculpted with chainsaw for our tamariki by Bobby Dowling - thanks they look fabulous! We celebrated the new term and our new-look Kindy with cake on Monday and Thursday for Morning Tea - what better way to start things off!! And a Big thank you to our TF Group children and parents for coming along and helping to spread the load of bark chips that arrived today...Many hands make light work!

The Bark Chip Mountain!!

Term Planning: That's what friends are for...
This year we have focused on dispositions around friendship. Over Term 2 we introduced the phrase: "You can't say you can't play" and this was later adapted to continue with: "But you can say you can play!" Awesome! This term we are introducing "Can I play?" At Monday Morning Meeting we had a BIG group discussion around our question and it was unanimously agreed that the response should be "Yes!!!". We talked about inclusion and ways of allowing others to join in on the play and learning...Lots of great ideas and theories! Over the next couple of days we overheard children trying out "Can I play?" and lots of peer discussions around this. Our Problem Solver / Mediators roles have become integral to the successful implementation of our rule/question - a big thanks to William Reid and Sophie Spedding this week! By Wednesday we could see how valuable this one phrase had become, with it already being extended to include "Do you want to play?" - inviting others into our play as well as children asking to join in. Wonderful!

Benjamin and Quilan being kind friends to an injured Freddie

Polyfest:
Polyfest Art: Our Art was taken to the Teachers College on the last day of term for judging...This week we are VERY pleased to have received an email stating that some of our entries have been selected as finalists. We are ALL invited to the Southland Museum and Art Gallery next Friday the 9th of August from 6pm for the Opening Ceremony of the Exhibition and Prize Giving!!! Wow - Winton Kindergarten will be on display in the Museum what an amazing achievement!! PLEASE mark this date on your calendars and come along with the family to share in the special occasion - what a wonderful affirmation of the children's effort and creativity!

Polyfest Lei, representing "I am part of the Community; the Community is part of me" is now complete...Well done to everyone for lending a helping hand, making flowers, weaving the wreath, collecting natural materials and coming in to help the children - this really was a whole community effort!! Keep an eye out around Winton for where our lei will be on display for the wider community to see our work! And check out the Local Newsletter out today where Winton Kindergarten feature!!

Our Lei during production!

Polyfest Performance: Wednesday 21st August. We can confirm our Polyfest stage performance at the Civic Theatre will be on Wednesday 21st August at 10:15am...More details to follow. We will need LOTS of volunteers on the day, as well as for costume making in the build up to the event. For many of the children this will be their first time on stage - what a milestone! Please do come along and support us and tell family and friends to come down to the Civic and see Winton Kindergarten on stage!

One of our new Birthday Chairs!!

Looking through the new arch way - thanks Rachel Reed!

Week 10 Term 2

Wow we are now at the end of our Term 2...Where is the year going!! A BIG thank you to all our amazing families who pitched in with the end of term clean up - if you haven't managed to lend a hand yet, the Parent Group would LOVE to see you at Kindy tonight 7pm to continue with the tidy up at getting walls cleared for our big paint job during the term break - thanks! If you are not able to come along tonight, do join in tomorrow during session - lets keep your Kindy looking amazing for your children.

This week we fare welled Sienna Hunter, Devon Thompson, Laura Warren, Rylie Johnstone and Bayden Cooper who all start school at the beginning of Term 3...Happy School Days!!

Celebration of Learning Evening...
A big thank you to all who made it along on Tuesday night for this term's Celebration of Learning. What a wonderful turn out of families, so special to see the children's efforts show cased either through our montage of photos on the Smilebox slide show, Polyfest Art Contributions and other displays around the the Kindy. This term we continued with our dispositional focus, "That's what friends are for" and introduced the motto, "You can't say you can't play". The children are increasingly using this to promote inclusive play and to support positive social interactions - awesome! Our photo montage looked back over the term at some wonderful "friendship virtues" eg, sharing, caring, helping, patience, empathy, sympathy, support, kindness. Another component of our slide show included photos taken by the children. When we think about, "What does a 21st Century Learner look like?" ICT is an integral part of this. This term we introduced a digital camera for the children's use and have witnessed their competencies and creativity evolve over time and with practice. Lots of wonderful snap shots around the Kindy of people, places and things! The Sir Ken Robinson YouTube clip that we watched at the Celebration of Learning Evening left parents with more questions than answers...Perfect. Time to reflect on what we value when we think of the future and about the skills and dispositions our children will need to have in order to navigate their way through this unknown territory! Lots for us all to think about...

Our families watching the Sir Ken Robinson YouTube clip at the Celebration of Learning Evening 

Polyfest

Rachel Reed demonstrating how to make wreaths for the lei with Kate, Ruby, Jodie and Sophie

The children's Polyfest Art contributions gained some wonderful accolades from families at our Celebration of Learning Evening - everyone should be proud of the effort they and their children have put in! If anyone is heading to Invercargill tomorrow we would LOVE to hear from you as there are a number of Art pieces needing transported to Teachers College on Nelson St before 4pm - if you are willing and able to help us this would be much appreciated! Last year the Winton Kindergarten families had some of their Polyfest Art on display at the Art Gallery in the Southland Museum after taking out top placings in their respective sections...Next term there will be an official prize giving evening held in Invercargill...keep an eye out for details next term - such an amazing night for the whole family. Week 4 in Term 3 will be our Polyfest Performance (for the MTW Group) @ the Civic Theatre Invercargill - details to follow next term...We will be on the look out for LOTS of volunteers in the build up, for costume making (have you got any ideas to share??) and for help on the day. Also the Lei is due the first Friday back if you would like to contribute in Week 1, see Sally.

Nature Discovery
Due to lack of parent support our Nurtured by Nature Programme is on hold at this stage. Lots of logistics, time, effort, and money has already been spent on initiating this wonderful programme. However, it's long term success and viability rests on the commitment made by our Kindy families. We look forward in anticipation to starting this later in the term...Do mark on your calendars to watch the Sunday programme on the 28th of July where the Fiordland Kindergarten's Nature Discovery will be showcased - such an inspiration for us as we look at setting the culture for our own Nature Programme.

We hope all our families enjoy a relaxing and rejuvenating term break and come back feeling refreshed for yet another actioned packed term of learning and memory making!

The TF Group enjoying an apple at the end of a busy morning today!

Thank you to the Adendorff family for bringing in LOTS of natural resources collected at Ohai for Kindy

Week 9 Term 2

The second last week of the term is over and we look ahead to a busy final week with our Celebration of Learning Evening on Tuesday night. A BIG thank you too all who have RSVP for this.

Polyfest
This week we have been putting our "Home is where the Heart is" self-portraits together, along with families written responses to: "What is special about your child, your family, and the Winton Community?" into book format to accompany our Art Entry. What an amazing effort our families have put in. Thank you to Rachel Reed for creating the birch heart-shaped frame. Sally, Georgia and the Discovery Time children headed down to New World to collect hand prints from the public for "Our Heart of Southland" Art Entry that Sally have been busy promoting within the community - you may have noticed surveys out around local businesses asking for positive comments/values that makes the Winton Community an awesome place for families.  Also our Community Lei is starting to take shape...Rachel Reed and some of the MTW Group begun the first section with the making of small wreaths to entwine around the lei...Watch this space! We will be show casing the children's work on Tuesday night at our Celebration of Learning before these are taken to the College of Education for judging on Friday next week. Winning entries will be put on display at the Southland Museum and Art Gallery - we wait in anticipation!

Earthquake and Fire Drills
This week both the MTW Group and TF Group have had practice Earthquake and Fire Drills. Well done children on getting to our safe place and listening to hear your name being called out!

Albie Reed's self portrait

Sienna Breen's self portrait

Drew Anderson-Kereti's self portrait

We welcome Freddy Reed to our TF Group this week.

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