From Farm to table!

We are so proud, our girls have started laying!!  We have been patiently watching, waiting, feeding, watering, cuddling and caring for our beautiful chickens in the anticipation of them laying and they finally have!!  It has been super exciting checking the nesting box each day to see if they have laid and at the moment we having been getting 3 a day!!  The children have each had the opportunity to take an egg home to cook and eat and we have loved sharing our pictures of what we made..... boiled, scrambled, fried, baked, cookies, French toast...… Watching them grow has been such a rewarding experience for everyone involved and a fantastic way to connect the farm-to-table process and understand where our food comes from.  With all these wonderful eggs we are getting each day, we may have to get our bake on!!

Swing painting - Process Art

 Swing Painting - A fabulous, active, process art - A little bit messy but a lot of fun!  What a different way to be creative and expressive!!

Swinging back and forth, the children got to experiment and explore how to paint on the cardboard.  As usual our idea's can often be different from the children's as they chose to do this experience and paint in different ways.  Some used the paint brushes as they swung back and forth and some decided to really have a sensory experience using their feet and hands.

Super Hero Breathing

Supporting children to learn skills to regulate their emotions. 

As a team we are developing more ideas to support children in being able to self regulate their emotions and help them through tricky times during playing and learning with others.  

Here we are practising our 

Superman breathing – inhale through your nose and pull both of your fists into your sides, then exhale through your mouth and pretend to push off and fly with one arm outstretched. Hulk breathing – slowly inhale through your nose and raise both arms above your head (like a bodybuilder posing to show off their arms) then exhale through your mouth and squeeze your arms back down as you crouch towards the floor. 

Being a super hero breather also helps build self confidence, which in turn will encourage you to take risks, try new things and believe in your abilities. 

Having the confidence children are also better equipped to handle challenges and setbacks. They are more likely to persevere in the face of obstacles and view failures as opportunities for growth just like a superhero. This resilience is a valuable real life Superhero Skill that can serve them well throughout their lives.

Wow, everyone had such great focus and really enjoyed  participating in these breathing exercises, Kapai to Mahi! 

Spring Planting

Spring has sprung, the sun is shining and so it was the time for planting flowers and some herbs in our garden. Today we planted an arrange of flowers in our fairy garden, adding a bit of colour and beauty to our environment, a place for the fairies, insects and gnomes to enjoy and of course for our friends the bees.  They are growing alongside seeds we scattered earlier that will hopefully with a bit of love, water and sunshine that give us a beautiful display come summer. In the herb garden, we got busy weeding and planting some rosemary, lemon balm, thyme and lavender just perfect for our kitchen cooking and potions.

Science in a Van

Recently here at Uxbridge we have been getting tokens for showing kindness towards one another, being helpful and caring for others and our environment.  We have been basing this around the book 'Have You Filled a bucket Today?' We put our tokens into a bucket and filled the bucket up.  Once our bucket  was filled our reward was a special visit from science in a van.  

All of the the children thoroughly enjoyed the bubble show which also included some science experiments too.  We talked about mixtures and reactions and got to see some huge bubbles.  There was certainly lots of laughter and excitement from our children which was wonderful to see!  

Take Action For Nature - Uxbridge Warriors

 Uxbridge Takes Action for Nature.  

At our kindy we take pride of who we are.    As a centre we spend a lot of time exploring out in our community and feel proud as we wear our new green vests that let everyone know who we are.  

This week as part of Conservation week we have been focusing on teaching and reminding our Tamariki why it is important  look after our world, and how rubbish that is dropped can affect a lot of things in our world. 

The children and Kaiako took turns using the rubbish grabbers as well as all wearing gloves to protect us as we carefully picked up litter and placed it in our re-usable rubbish bag.  We had so many compliments from people up in the village and lots of smiles. 

On both walks we found lots of coffee cups,, chippie packets, cans and lids.  Whilst walking down Selwyn Road, we noticed a big manhole, and the children confidently shared that the water from the rain goes down the drain and also rubbish can.  "It then travels down to our beach and into the ocean and the sea animals will get sick (said Mr 4 year old). 

Children's Voices. 

"We picked up rubbish because we want to save our planet"

"Because we don't want our planet to get dirty"

"The water to the beach, the rubbish will go to the beach and make the sea animals sick"

"To take care of the animals so they don't get sick".

"There are not to many rubbish bins anymore at the beach"

"To save our planet and town otherwise it wont be safe".