Week13 Term1

Our last week of a very looong first term!

Georgia, Milly, Trent and Idan playing ball

On Monday Georgia got a group of interested children practicing the skills of Ripper Rugby after so many of our tamariki had their first game of the season on Saturday. Ball skills, team dynamics and working together were all part of the fun! Georgia Holt from Central Southland College joined us for the day on work experience to get a taste for a career path in Early Childhood Education.

Tuesday. Today we celebrated Jack Crean's and Trent Tokana's Kindy Birthdays. The tamariki had a great time in the sandpit working together to get the water flowing out of the sandpit and down the path. Soon we had a mighty river that everyone found a use for - filling their buckets with water, washing the mobilo, or having a good splash! The Discovery Time group hung their bird feeders from the trees in the hope that our feathered friends will be well fed over the term break.

Idan, Mackenzie, Jorjia, Emma, and Mason constructing the river

Sally hanging the bird feeders

Wednesday. Today we celebrated Sophie Chambers and Nicholas Hammond's Kindy Birthdays.

TF Group:
We welcome Paige Ankerson and family this week to the TF Group. Thank you to all our wonderful parents who did their cleaning duties and spent the day here on Friday helping out with end of Term tidy up. Many hands really do make work - PLEASE if you were unable to lend a hand this term to put your name down next term.

What a GREAT NIGHT OUT with the Winton Kindergarten families on Thursday night at Provence organised by Rachel Reed on behalf of the Parent Group. Thank you to all the parents who made the effort to come along, everyone is raving about what fun the night was! PLEASE support your Kindergarten through attending these special events, and what better way to meet the parents of your child's peers that will be their friends for life!! Something to think about as we look towards Term 2 and continuing with our dispositional focus "That's what friends are for!"

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE - HAVE A RELAXING BREAK SEE YOU TERM 2 MONDAY 6TH MAY

Week 12 Term 1

Our second last week of the Term...where is the year going! The children have been introduced to Sebastian the Monster, a YouTube Clip that Pam Wilson from Kindergartens South told us about. With this Term's dispositional focus around "That's what friends are for" we are working on articulating the virtues of friendships, following on from last year's planning around Kindness. The clip, "It's not a Monster it's me!" depicts a lonely Monster searching for someone to call a friend. The children have had great debate this week regarding how to be a friend and are now actively seeking out peers they see who may be feeling lonely and inviting them to join in their play or offer some kind words - awesome!

We have sooo many amazing artists here at Winton Kindergarten and this week with the dye we really got to see lots of expression and creativity as the children mixed the colours, combined drawing with the black markers with painting with dye, and really enjoyed exploring with their senses.

Olivia concentrating hard

The Moov Hoist that a group of children worked on alongside Judy and Sally over the past couple of weeks is now complete. This came about with the intense fascination with racing cars among the boys; and the suggestion to make their own racing pit workshop came to fruition. Hard work, team work, and perseverance really does pay off. Well done to everyone who lent a hand, offered support, and followed this project through to completion!

Ruby, Mason, Poppy and Bayden working on the Hoist

We have had a fire drill with the MTW Group and earthquake drill with the TF Group this week. Ka pai to the TF Group who had lots of knowledge about keeping our self safe in the event of an emergency. What a shame the "earthquake" destroyed our sky scraper in the block corner!

Oh no Rylie!! The Sky Scraper collapsed in our "Earthquake" drill today! Thanks Aidan, Sophie, Dante and Mum for your quick response clearing the site for our safety!

What wonderful end of session mat times we have had with the TF Group this week. A BIG thanks to ALL the parents for joining in with the stretchy cord song - the children loved having everyone participate in this special time of day - keep it up whanau!!


Happy School Days Ngaarrgii Walker off to Winton School.

Teresa and her Dad participating in end of session mat time today

TF Group end of day mat time - what fun!!

Week 11 Term 1

MTW Group:

Off to see Bex at the Night and Day!

A nice quiet start to the week with Easter Monday and the majority of children away on Tuesday. The group of 8 made the most of the low ratios by heading down to New World to purchase ingredients for baking biscuits for the Red Puppy Appeal on Friday. While at the supermarket we took part in the Easter Egg hunt, finding all 8 clues and being rewarded with an Easter egg at the end! We then walked along to Anzac Oval before making our way back to Kindergarten for Ivy's farewell mat time.
On Wednesday we welcomed back the rest of the group and it was great to hear all about their adventures over the Easter break.

Easter Egg Hunt at New World - Nicholas, Lochie, Devon, Logan, Mackenzie, Ivy, Rylie and Olivia

TF Group:
On Thursday we baked our guide dog biscuits and decorated paper bags to put them in.
Today we decorated the biscuits before the children and their families had the opportunity to purchase these for a donation to the Red Puppy Appeal at the end of the day. Thank you to everyone who purchased biscuits, we raised $79.10 for the Appeal - fabulous!

Happy School Days Ivy Solis

Rylie ready to decorate her Red Puppy Biscuit

The decorated bags and biscuits for the Red Puppy Appeal

Sienna and Elyssa decorating their biscuits

Week 10 Term 1

Our wonderful Parents on Tuesday making decorations for the Tea Party

Rachel Reed working her magic

With the Easter Break upon us we have had a Wonderful Wonderland Week filled with celebration and surprise! A big thank you to all the wonder parent help we have had, especially to Rachel Reed, Rachel Crowe, Leevonne Diack, Nicole Hawkes, Cathy Thompson, Carmel Casey - who all pitched in on Tuesday/Wednesday with preparations for the Mad Hatters Tea Party. It is only with the support of our families that special occasions such as these are a success, and you will all agree that our Kindergarten looked amazing on arrival on Wednesday morning! The idea stemmed after introducing the porcelain tea set in the family corner. Tea parties are a daily occurrence so we decided to incorporate this into our Easter celebration by hosting the Mad Hatters Tea Party...Thank you to everyone who got on board; soooo much effort went in to costumes and the morning tea, we have lots of talented home bakers and creators going by yesterday's success!!Along with the Mad Hatters Tea Party the children had a special visit from the Easter Bunny and an Easter Egg Hunt! On display were the children's creations from the week, including egg carton bunnies and Mad Hatter Hats! We even had a visit from the Southland Times, thanks to Anita Batt for organising this - check out today's (Thursday) paper!

The Mad Hatter, Alice 1, Alice 2, The White Rabbit, Georgia another Mad Hatter, and Rachel Reed Party Planner Extraordinaire!

Teresa with her "Mad" Hat - look at the effort, well done!

Tabitha Brock spent the morning with us pouring tea!

Look who paid us a visit at Ivy Russell Reserve!

On Thursday we headed along to Ivy Russell Reserve for an Easter Egg Hunt - again, a fabulous turn out of whanau help on the day! The Easter Bunny paid us another visit, planting laminated eggs around the Reserve for the children to find then exchange for a delicious chocolate egg from the Easter Bunny herself - special mention to Sally for organising this wonderful excursion, AND for wearing the polar fleece bunny costume in such heat! We could not have asked for better weather and it was great to see where we plan to have our own Nature Discovery programme later in the year.

Have a safe and Happy Easter Break, see you Tuesday 2nd April!

Mackenzie, Drew, Easter Bunny, Joshua and Dante take some time out with the Easter Bunny

Week 9 Term 1

This week we have continued with our sea life projects as the children are still enthralled about everything to do with under the ocean. In the Project Room Sally has been working on a story book with illustrations that the children also narrated, as well as making three-dimensional sea creatures that are hanging in front of our mural. Linda introduced the screen printing and the children experienced different art forms while creating beautiful creations that have now gone on display along with the mural/collage on the back wall.

Sienna Breen's Easter Egg masterpiece for display next week!

We are busy making decorations for our Easter Celebrations coming up next week. Invites went out on Wednesday for the MTW Group for our Mad Hatters Tea Party and Alice in Wonderland themed dress up day to be held on Wednesday the 27th of March at Kindergarten. Sally put up the permission sheet on Thursday for our TF Group to head along to Ivy Russell Reserve for a Easter Egg Hunt on Thursday 28th of March! Lots of Parent Help required for ratios please.

Mad Hatters Tea Party Invitations

Reminder no Kindergarten next Friday 29th March (Good Friday) and Monday 1st April (Easter Monday).

Happy School Days to Millie Scott and Charlie Forde!

Week 8 Term 1

Millie and Mackenzie add their contributions to the group sea life collage in the Project Room

This week we have been getting in to the spirit of St Patricks with a tad more green around the place than usual...You may have noticed the green theme on the light box and the lucky four leaf clovers being created in the project room. Our Sea Week really got the children excited about sea life, so to share our ideas the children have been working on a collage in the project room - watch this space for the BIG reveal! Also this week, Sally introduced some big sheets of cardboard that the children have been using as surfboards, skateboards, sledges - all sorts!! This extends on the interest of some of the boys who having been bringing their MacDonald toy skateboards along and making ramps for these.

Bayden and Mason try out the cardboard on the slide!

With the introduction of our tea set there has been a lot of interest in tea parties. Last week we discussed some ideas, and with Easter fast approaching we thought of tying the two together by hosting a "Mad Hatters Tea Party" and other Easter games on the 27th and 28th of March. Rachel Reed is searching for some friendly volunteers to help sew felt hats that the children can then decorate...Please let us know if you are able to lend a hand or have any other great ideas for our celebrations! TF Group we are thinking an Easter Egg hunt may be on the cards!!

Thank you for my birthday surprise this week, I felt very special sitting on the birthday chair!

Please remember to bring Library Bag/Books on Wednesday

Library Book Day - A friendly reminder that each Wednesday is Library Book Day where the children bring back their reading bag and books to exchange for new books. We seem to have quite a few children not bringing their reading bags and this means we have a lot less books to circulate. Can you please check at home for any Winton Kindergarten Books - these will have our stamp on the inside cover, and bring along next week. Our Library system is a great way to encourage children to appreciate and take responsibility for the books and improve literacy language skills through the sharing of stories.

Happy School Days to Pippa Sutton who is off to Winton School next week.

Welcome to Leila and Ileina Chandler Bringins to our TF Group - lots of fun in the boat!

Welcome to Dante to our TF Group - thanks for helping construct the new table!

Week 7 Term 1

Well done to everyone who took part in the Winton Fun Run on Sunday. And a BIG congratulations to  Judy who came 2nd in the 10km bike ride - awesome work! It was a fabulous day and something our community can be proud of - the children are already speaking about what they will enter in next year!

SEA WEEK

Drew gets her boots off ready to go splashing in the water play!

Emma having a blast "At Sea"

This week is Sea Week. You will have noticed the Kindergarten getting involved in the theme with Judy bringing in a frozen crayfish on Monday that we cooked up for lunch, although not many were keen for a taste test!! The fishing game has been popular, as well as the sea life puzzles, sea story books, seaweed on the light box, and art table displays. Sally brought in bubble mixture and the children made their own metal wands to blow bubbles similar to the air bubbles we make when breathing under water! One of our goldfish eyes have bulged this week drawing lots of attention and conversation around what has caused such a phenomenon - check out the children's ideas on the fish tank!

Joshua - our newest Digger Operator!

This week we introduced a china tea set to the family corner alongside the antique treasures Rachel Reed donated after the Winton Garage Sale, with the perspective that children should have beautiful quality resources in their environment. The children are enjoying lots of tea parties this week! Some of the girls requested that we have "real" drinks in the tea cups, so to tie in with Sea Week (in the broadest sense!) we had hot chocolates with chocolate FISH on Tuesday morning - what a hit!

Happy School Days to Savanna Fletcher who heads off to Winton School on Monday.

Welcome to Dante Wharf, Drew Anderson-Kereti, Emma Cubitt, and Joshua Short who joined out TF Group this week.