Our chicken's lay an egg at Uxbridge!

On Thursday Mel brought three of our lovely chickens in to visit. The tamariki were all so excited to see them... and what a surprise we all got when we found that one of them had laid an egg! This was the first egg they had ever laid so it was really special for us that this happened here where they were born. We all got to hold the egg at mat time and cracked it open to see what was inside!!

'PJ's and Pizza

Matariki is about having fun, sharing kai and celebrating together. Our tamariki have suggested many ways we can celebrate Matariki together which is where our Pyjama party idea started. We had a cosy and snug day all wearing our pyjama's. We made spaghetti and cheese Pizza's for lunch, we even made our own pizza dough and did some pizza pictures. One of our friends made a good point that we could not have a party without cupcakes so we baked some up and had fun decorating them for afternoon tea. We  also had a request for 'Little Kiwi' to come to Uxbridge and guess what...he came to our party!! We had a fun Matariki Mat time with songs, games and stories all with little Kiwi!
He aha te ra nui!

Bottled Matariki Star Necklaces!

Today we made bottled necklaces with stars, beads and glitter.  It was like the night sky all wrapped up in a special bottle for us to treasure.  We have been sharing in the stories of Matariki during the month of June and we have learnt all about the seven stars of Matariki.  As we made our treasured bottles and placed our stars in we counted, tahi, rua, toru, wha, rima, ono, whitu. Great counting in Te Reo!  Such tiny stars too, it was a great opportunity to work on our fine motor skills.

We had lots of different colour threads to choose from, Mawhero, kakariki, whero, kikorangi, and pangu.  We were so proud of our special taonga we had made and shared it with our whanau when it was time to go home.

My Taonga Treasure!

We have a special book in our Library that is called "My special Taonga"  A Taonga is a special gift or treasure.  Tane who goes to Kohunga Reo which is a kindy just like Uxbridge says the thing he likes doing the best is playing with clay.  Tane loves to make worms, and he explains just how to do it "I take a small bit of clay and roll it between my hands.  I roll it into a long skinny worm" he says.  His whaea is very impressed with his worms and then shows Tane how to make a Taonga from the clay worms.  The pictures in the book along with the story was a wonderful provocation today enticing our tamariki to make their own special Taonga too just like Tane. 

 We took a small bit of clay and rolled it between our hands, then rolled it on the tray to make a long skinny worm

Elle loves sensory play and using clay is another medium for her to explore.  The wet clay stuck to our fingers, it was great fun.

Rolling, rolling, back and forward we go

"A really long worm" says Jack

Elle follows the pictures in the book to then roll her clay worm into a spiral - "it looks like a snail" she says

Sienna decides to make a really big one, a gift for her mummy.  We go on the hunt for some natural treasures to decorate it.

Once our Taonga is dry, we can give them away to someone special.  These Taonga have been made with such care and  love, they are so beautiful and so special, they will be treasured forever.

Harvesting some of our garden and making way for new growth!

Look at what we got from our winter garden!!!!We harvested, washed and chopped the vegetables that were ready. Then Nikki blanched them in some hot water for us to try! They were delicious!! We cant wait for more vegetables to grow big enough to eat! 

Taini teaches us a new waita!!

On the 4th July UELC in conjuction with the Matariki Marae and the Uxbridge Arts Centre we will be hosting and welcoming other preschools within the area to a special Matariki Celebration.  This is our first time hosting and what an honour!  Taini came to visit to teach us the waiata so we can practice our singing for the big day.  This is a special song that was written especially by Taini and teaches us about Matariki.