Shake, shake, shake

We have a variety of musical instruments at kindy but making our own can be lots of fun. Look at those beautiful maracas we made today. We only needed a few materials to make them, some ping pong balls, spoons, beads, and washi tape. The children were so proud of their creations. Then it was shaking time. We put on the shaker song and followed the instructions to  the song. We shake them up high, down low, and side to side. Then we shake them loudly, softly, slowly, and quickly and explored the sounds they made. What a fun time we had dancing and creating music!

Goldie, Suzy and Nugget- Who laid the egg?

Well what a surprise Nikki had today when she opened up the chicken coop!

Can you spy on the egg in the hay below?

Our girls were born in March and we watched them grow from chicks to hens. Finally, after 5 months we have had our first eggs. We don't know who laid them but it was a lovely investigating, talking about and feeling the eggs. Some of our friends wondered if there were babies inside the eggs? Some thought we could use them in baking. 
Amelia said she couldn't wait to get home to tell her Dad about the eggs.
Hunter and Mason really enjoyed touching the eggs!

Colour mixing

Last week we enjoyed mixing colours. We have a really cool book about colour mixing that the children adore as they use their magic hand to mix colours. 

By providing just the primary colours and white and black the tamariki can experiment with making new colors and making colors lighter and darker. It is fun to guess and predict what will happen to the colours when we put them together and of course what better way to mix them then with our fingers and hands. 

 

Sound and Colour

Something a bit different was set out at the art table today, in line with our current interest exploring sound! We decided to see what would happen if we stretched rubber bands around a tray! Paint was available and the children enjoyed plucking and strumming the tray.

" Why does it make a sound?" Cohen asked

" It splats!" Rylee shouted as she watched the paint splat onto the paper

" I use my finger nail to make it bang."- Sebastian

" Loud and soft." Chloe P repeats some of the language used to describe the sound. She also described , " It makes a sound. It sounds tingling." and that, it certainly did.

Leah enjoyed holding hers like a guitar, strumming the tray sideways before exploring with it flat.

This sort of art is called process art where it's all about the journey rather than the product. The tamariki enjoyed exploring this activity and we had some great conversations using some musical terms and comparing the sound to instruments we knew.

Did it sound like a piano? What does it sound like?

Aria's bird cafe

 Our very good friend Aria finished not long before the holidays as she turned 5. 

As a leaving present for our centre her very clever Dad and Mum made us a Bird feeder - inspired by how many native birds form the local forest joined us and enjoyed eating the bananas when we grew them. 

This bird feeder is truly a work of art with different platforms and hanging vessels. It came with a dried coconut that was a favourite for the birds. We have been researching what fruits and different things they like to eat. 

There has been an abundance of birds enjoying this new feature in our playground and we love to watch them as they chat and play and feed together. 

What a very special present indeed. 

Te Kākano

Today we visited the Matariki Marae and the Howick Library as part of Auckland Councils Te Kākano program. As the weather wasn't fantastic we only stayed at the Marae long enough for a quick karakia to start our day. 

We then made our way over to the Howick library for some morning tea and a Matariki inspired song and story session. Morning tea in the library was quite a novelty for many of our tamariki as they often visit there and know that usually eating is NOT allowed.

Then it was time for some stories and lots of dancing and singing. Some of our tamariki got the opportunity to stand up the front holding some of the props which was great fun. We also enjoyed doing the Matariki Makarena. What a great morning.