Te Kakano

The Uxbridge Arts Centre has  invited us to join them for te Kakano programme. It was an event organised by Uxbridge Arts centre specially for the children. First, we walked to the Marae next door for a Powhiri. We were then invited to sit down together for kai/food. Then we went Uxbridge Arts Centre for an art activity. There we learnt about colours in the  Maori language while  participating in an creative art activity. Next we went to the library for story time. It was a great interactive story time  all about Manu (birds) and Heki (eggs).  We learnt about native birds in Maori, and enjoyed the puppets and practiced a beautiful  waiata called “Nga Manu A Tane”. We were excited to see  a Kiwi egg which was displayed at the library. It was a fun and educational experience for our tamariki.

This was a great opportunity for our tamariki to explore our creative community and learn more about Te Ao Maori. Visits to places outside the kindy can provide tamariki with new experiences and increase their understanding of the world around them. They learn to question and explore, understand what’s going on around them and learn new words based on what they see. It can also help tamariki  to become more confident in social situations and feel part of the community they live in.

Easter Celebrations 2018!!

The Kindy Easter celebration was so much fun!  All our Uxbridge Whanau were invited to help us mark the occasion of Easter with fun, laughter, face painting and food!  Celebrations provide a perfect place for all our individual families to come together, get to know one another and share a fun time - and there was plenty of fun to be had!  We enjoyed some play time before eating our dinner of pizza and chips.  Once the food had settled, it was time for the egg hunt!  Paper eggs were hidden all over Kindy, and once each child found one, they were able to swap it for a special treat from the one and only Easter Bunny!!!  Thank you so much for coming along to our Easter celebration! Easter Party 2018 on PhotoPeach

The chickens come for a visit!!

Today we had a visit from our chickens!  All the tamariki were so excited to see how much they had grown.  We also noticed that they have started to grow feathers.  We will continue to see them as they grow, as Mel will be bringing them in regularly.  This experience has helped the children to understand the life of a chicken, starting at the egg stage and continuing until now.  They are 3 weeks old, and a lot more active and loud.  As they continue to grow, we will see more changes in their appearance and needs.  They will eat a wider variety of food, and be able to explore Kindy further.            

Making Hot Cross Buns!!

Easter was around the corner. The first thought that came to mind was hot cross buns. It sounded delicious. I searched for a easy recipe for us to follow. First, we washed our hands and got ourselves prepared for baking. Next we started to follow the recipe. We measured all the dry ingredients and put it into a bowl and began to mix. Then we chopped the butter into cubes and put it into the bowl and  rubbed in the butter with our finger tips.  We warmed the milk and beat the eggs and poured those into the dried ingredients. Then we slowly kneaded the ingredients together to form a sticky dough. Once the dough was formed each of us got a piece of dough  which we continued to knead using our hands and arms. We then shaped the dough into buns on a floured surface. Once the dough was nice and smooth we placed them on the baking tray, covered them with cling film and left them to rise for about 45 minutes to 1 hour so that it would double in size. When the buns had risen we piped crosses on top of each bun. Then it was time to bake them. We baked them for  12—15 minutes until they had risen up and had turned into a golden colour. We could not wait until they were ready. Once they were done we bushed golden syrup over them, and then ate them for lunch. They were so tasty!

There were lots of  scientific learning happened  during this process. observing the reaction of the dough in the oven was an entertaining scientific experience for the children to see. Learning maths concepts while  measuring the ingredients is an valuable  learning experience and questions such as what made the dough rise encouraged their critical thinking.  

Happy Easter everyone!!!

Our Certificate!! We did it!!

Fly Swat Painting!!

We Grew it!!

Before Christmas, we planted a cucumber plant.  It has had a hard life, with no real attention over the holidays, and an extremely hot dry spot to live.  Since returning from our holidays, we have been showing it a lot of aroha.  Regular watering, assistance helping it climb, and using our gentle hands when playing near by.  All our love and attention has finally paid off with the production of two beautiful cucumbers.

We have been watching them grow over the last few weeks, and today it was finally time to pick them and use them in our cucumber sandwiches.  We picked and washed the cucumbers, before sitting down with our bread to butter it and arrange our sliced cucumbers.

Spreading the butter was quite difficult, as we needed to use the muscles in our hands and arms to position the knife and spread just enough over the bread.  Using our muscles to do this, was great practice for when we need these muscles to hold a pencil and form letters.

 

 

 

 

 

Our cucumber sandwiches were absolutely delicious, and gave us a lot of food for thought around caring for our environment, and all within it.  Without our love and care of our cucumber plant, it wouldn't have produced these cucumbers to nourish us.  Experiences where Tamariki are able to have a part in the production and preparation of food, contributes to their understanding about Papatuanuku, and the world around them, and that their actions directly impact the plants ability to produce food that they can eat.

Fairy Flakes

We were so lucky to have Fairy Flakes visit us here at Uxbridge.  There were a lot of fairy discussions before Fairy Flakes arrived with the children talking about fairy gardens and the tooth fairy and as some of the children dressed up as fairies the excitement of the upcoming show grew. The children were so engrossed in the performance and laughter filled the room as she amazed us with her tricks and jokes. We all loved the colour book she had where the colours disappeared and came back again and were left questioning how she made a Daddy rope and Mummy rope and baby rope all become one big long rope and back to normal size again just using her fingers for scissors.  It was wonderful to see the children following her instructions and joining in with the show as she used many special helpers along the way. A big thank you to our wonderful families for nominating us for this prize on Facebook! What a 'fairy' good time!!

Through entertainment performances such as Fairy Flakes the children are exposed to being creative in a new platform. They gain ideas on how be creative and expressive through imaginative play, storytelling, drama and music. They also broaden their sense of fun and humor as they have fun alongside one another