Term 4 Week 5

Armistice Day
On Tuesday we went to Anzac Oval to take part in the Armistice Day service at 11am, marking the end of WW1. The children had their faces painted with red poppies, wore poppies over their hearts, and we made a wreath at Kindy as well as James Shaw bringing one along to lay at the Memorial Gates. The Southland Times were there and we made the front page of Wednesday's paper. Over the week the group watched footage of WW1, had big discussions about war and soldiers, and revisited our learning on Wednesday at Story Time where the children retold their day and illustrated their stories in our big book. We talked about what bravery meant...Isaac Ellis shared: "You don't like being here but you need to stay there." We plan to go into this more during Discovery Time next week. A big thanks to our helpers. Did you receive a smilebox for this?? Send me an email if you didn't get it please.

Forest Kindy
Thanks to our helpers this week Greg Wright and Petra Laughton. We headed to the Troll Bridge and collected treasures for making Xmas decorations later in the term, followed by morning tea, before heading back to kindy for 11am.

Growing our own
This week we have been busy planting lettuce seeds, hanging tomato plants, and strawberries. We have to keep a close eye on our four-legged friend Rupert who is quite fond of our new plants...What a rascal you are!!

And a warm welcome to Callum Lyall and family who join our TF Group this week.

Parent Group Meeting next Wednesday night.

Term 4 Week 4

Limehills School Wild West Pet Show Day
What a fun filled day we had at Limehills - did everyone receive a Smilebox for this? I've also send through smileboxes this week for our Lochiel trip last Wednesday and Winton School Pet Day on Friday for families that attended... Send me an email if you missed receiving these :) A big thanks to all our Parent Helpers, and to everyone for getting into the spirit of things and dressing up!

Ava Chapman and Ella Henry

Max, Porter, Jovi Chavez, Matthew Cairns, Oliver Davis, Fletcher Scott and Corran Mee

Tingah-Bell Faalologo and Tahi Payne

Christina, Sally & Judy

Sophie Eade and Rachel Cooper

Ben Robson - Howdy partner!

Sarah "Butterfly" Crowe

Forest Kindy
Welcome to Casey Laffey who joined the group today. Thanks to Paula Cairns and Anna Ellis our helpers this week.

Amazing Me Programme
This week the children have watched DVD2 in the Amazing Me series. This DVD looks at keeping our self safe, knowing our contact details and where we live, road safety - stop, look, listen and decide, and about taking responsibility for our actions - stop, think, and act.

Rachel Cooper
Today is Rachel's last day with us. She has been a valued member of the teaching team and we wish her well for a fulfilling career as an early childhood educator. You will make a fabulous teacher Rachel, you should be proud of all your hard work, tino pai to mahi!

Term 4 Week 3

A BIG surprise at Kindy this week!
Wow, we just love our new handmade table that arrived last Friday...We have had so many comments from children and families, with Casey Laffey exclaiming "It feels like a real family!!!" as the group sat around the table for lunch on Tuesday. With the new table, we had to rethink our entrance area, that can often get quite congested. We have now moved the sign in sheet to outside the front door in front of the whiteboard noticeboard. And all other important notices and the Parent Help Roster (still needing some dates filled please) are on the wooden desk in front of the Parent Pockets. We have such a huge appreciation of natural aesthetics, and continuing with our new-look Kindy is the up cycled outdoor table kindly made by the Begg family a couple of years ago, that Sally had sanded and oiled for us to bring inside and use as our new children's sign-in table and puzzle table - it looks amazing well done Sal!

The re-vamped log table, now our puzzle and children's sign-in table - looks awesome!

Sign-in desk and notice board

Notices, permission sheets, Parent Help Roster table below the Parent Pockets

Our beautiful hand-crafted table

ARTWALK @ THE HIDEAWAY
In other exciting news, we have entered our Polyfest Art into the Artwalk @ The Hideaway, who are hosting an art and sculpture exhibition in their gardens/venues, in conjunction with the Southland Art Society Inc. Opening exhibition is this Sunday, with a festival of entertainment, music, wine/beer and food stalls, as well as judging and public voting - we would really love as much support as possible!! The event will run from Sunday the 2nd November - 9th November, 11am-4pm daily. A wonderful opportunity to showcase our talented children and families within our local community. Prize giving is scheduled for 3pm approx on this Sunday.

Setting up our display on Thursday and Friday afternoon

The stunning marque and gardens of the Hideaway

Forest Kindy
Thanks to Jaimee Mitchell and Greg Wright our Parent Helpers this week. This week we farewelled Kourtney Mitchell from the group and welcomed Tingah-Bell Faalologo

Little Red Rocking Hood
Wow, what a fabulous morning out at Lochiel School watching their production dress rehearsal - Little Red Rocking Hood. "Once upon a time there was a dancer named Red Rocking Hood who loved to rock and roll. Every weekend she would make her way to her Granny's Soda Shop to 'rock around the clock'. However, the mean and selfish Wolf O'Malley, already on the run from the police, was hatching a plot to take her away and make her dance on stages far away, so he could pocket all the money from her performances. But things don't quite go according to his plan....." Check out the photos below of the very talented, many ex-Kindy, Lochiel School children.

Winton School Pet Show Day
Today we headed along to the Winton School Pet Day where we got to catch up with many of our old kindy friends and enjoy the morning meeting all the special Pets, crafts, floral art and displays on show. Well done Winton School, what a fun day - so many pets and entries! A big thank you to all our helpers.

Term 4 Week 2

Happy School Days to Alice Henderson and Libby Mitchell off to Winton School.

Travelling Tuataras
On Monday the group were captivated by the Travelling Tuatara performance...Storytelling through performance and child participation got everyone involved in the narratives and songs by Jill and Brian of Rotorua...check out the fun we had!!

Forest Kindy
Our first Forest Kindy of the Term got off to a fabulous start with SEVEN new faces joining the group. Welcome to Isaac Ellis, Oliver Keith, Matthew Cairns, Porter Wright, Max Laughton, Freddie Reed and Sophie Eade! A big thank you to Megs Mitchell and Mike Crowe our Parent Helpers this week. Our current Programme Planning on Narratives extends to our Forest Kindy Programme also, with our three "experienced" Forest Kindy Kids (Libby, Sarah and Kourtney) leading the group to the Dragons Den and our hut (now known as "The Kindy Castle"). Here the group were immersed in the magic of imagination, with prior knowledge and learning being brought to life as they searched for dragon eggs - and finding them!! It was not long before the boys were in detailed discussions about knights, dragons, and kings and queens once more - wow, this all started back with Elena Gwynn in Term 1 who found the dragons nest at Forest Kindy. We soon had six boys/knights protecting the hut/castle, as the labourers - Megs and Mike, made some running repairs. Wow, we were so excited that out hut had lasted five weeks since our last Forest Kindy day, and all that wind. After morning tea, calls for "HELP!" could be faintly heard coming from the heart of the forest! Uh oh!! Libby and myself had "somehow" got ourselves lost...Luckily we had already established with the group what we do in such a scenario! Libby reminded me of our rules - stay where we are, call for HELP until help arrives! Everyone came to look for us, and Mike reminded the rescue party about the importance of staying together. Being in the heart of the forest was something new for everyone, and we began to notice all its beauty and magic...MORE dragons eggs; some were even hatched! We found "The world's biggest tree" that had fallen over recently, and looked for huhu grubbs and insects inside its rotting bark. Matthew was deep in thought, and had a question for us, "How do we know where to go?" ...We looked around ... Trees everywhere ... Was it this way? ... Or that? LOTS of ideas were thrown around, with Sophie telling us we need to look for the sunlight. We talked about direction and about finding clues...What did we notice on the way in that could help us figure out our location? Mike showed us the Compass App in his phone and along with Sarah, lead us out of the bush following the needle pointing "N" - North.

Some special visitors...
Yesterday we have had some fluffy friends join us, thanks to the Thorburns. Four ducklings on Thursday - affectionately named by the children: Blacky, Whitey, Orangey, and Baby!

Upcoming events - notices went out this week for these:
Wednesday 29th October: Lochiel School "Little Red Rocking Hood" Production
Friday 31st October: Winton School Pet Show Day
Monday 3rd November: Limehills School "Wild West" Pet Show Day
  Thank you to those who have committed to being Parent Helps for these events, we are still needing more helpers for all 3 days for these special trips to go ahead. Please check your calendars and send us an email if you are able to help out - a big thanks!