One big block of ice!!

What to do with one big block of ice?  Watch it melt?  Try breaking it with the spoon?  How about drop it from a great height?  Stomp on it?  It was great fun experimenting with our different idea's as we explored the properties of ice!!

Hallie's Kool Aid Playdough recipe!!

The Best most delicious soft smelling playdough ever!!  Thanks Hallie for your christmas gift, we sure did enjoy making it today! 

Here is a copy of the recipe for you to try at home.  We have a few different flavours to try, on today's menu it was grape.

"Mmmn it smells like grape"

Digging for worms!!

Forky

Macy arrived this morning with the idea that she wanted to make Forky from Toy Story 4 movie.
The first thing to do was to get an image of Forky and Macy used the computer to type in the letters of Forky's name into google and BOOM, there he was on the screen. We choose an image that showed us what we would need and printed it out.
Forky proved to be very popular and lots of friends wanted to make theuir own version of Forky...some even made their own Spoony... Thanks for sharing your wonderful ideas with us Macy!

Valentines Day!

Leaf Rubbings

The tamariki were fascinated to see the patterns of the leaves coming through onto the paper as they rubbed their crayons over it. It was quite tricky to run the crayon on the right angle to get the maximum effect but for many they picked it up quickly. 

Some of the leaves had more patterns and lines to observe and some had very distinctive shapes.

The children studied these natural patterns and shapes - taking the time to observe the beauty in something so simple such as a leaf.

 

Glorious gooey gloop

Is it a liquid? Is it a solid? What could it be?

Our tamariki had lots of great ideas, snow, ice cream,  ghost slime and goo.

We also had some great description's of how it feels, smooth, soft, cold and gooey.  Most of all it was fun!!!

Sunflower Seed Breakfast Bar

Our Treaty

With Waitangi Day approaching we decided that it was good time to look at creating a treaty of our own. This will be a list of things that we all agree it is important to do whilst at Uxbridge. To get the process started we shared the story "Little Kiwis Treaty"at bubble time and talked about what a treaty is. We then talked about things that we might include on our treaty. We had some great suggestions including "being cheerful"(Kian), "Being kind" ( Macy) and "playing nicely together" (Sasha). We will continue to gather ideas and build towards creating our Uxbridge treaty. 

It's all about sunflowers!!

What once was a tiny seed, grew to flourish over the holidays into a big tall sunflower.  We had watched with anticipation before christmas as the green stalk grew upwards and developed leaves but alas it did not flower.  Sneaking in throughout the holidays Deanne managed to snap a picture for us to see.

Look at how big it got!  Amazing, How cool!

However as Tawhirimatea blew strong, the sunflower's stake was unable to hold it up, it drooped and then snapped, breaking in two.

The sunflower hardened as it dried out and you see all the small sunflower seeds that made up the middle part of the flower.  We kept the sunflower for the children to see when they returned from holiday.  Our tamariki are naturally interested and curious about the things around them, especially the wonders of nature, so it was no suprise to see everyone come and have a look and investigate closer.

Investigating the sunflower

Leo tells us she has sunflowers at home. "Wow" she says as we look at the tiny sunflower seeds "There are so many".  We used our fingers and started to pull the seeds out.  This was great for working on those fine motor skills.  "It's got stripes" she says with a giggle.

 Chloe comes to help too, this was going to be a big job, one we will probably do over a few days with the help of some more friends.  "Getting them all out now" says Chloe.

Painting sunflowers

We then set up a provocation.... a picture of sunflowers in a meadow..... some paint - yellow, green and brown and painting tools inviting our young artists to look closely at the flowers features - the stem, petals, leave's and center.  Paintings are a way of communicating idea's and feelings.  It helps us learn how to study closely and draw what we see and think.

"These are seeds" says Miane

"Flower, green leaves" says Gracie

Sharing at mat-time

Mat-time was a great opportunity for further discussion..... What had happened to our sunflower?  What did we see?  What did we think?  What did we notice? What did we wonder?

"Lets have a look at these seeds" said teacher Laura.  Using our senses we got to feel, touch, smell.

"What do they look like" asked teacher Laura?   "Black and White"

"What a pattern! Does anyone else know anything that has a black and white pattern?"

Marlo says "A Zebra"

"What shape are they?"

"Curve, circle" says Marlo

"Oval" says Elle

"With a sharp bit" says Cam

"Can anyone look close like a scientist and see anything else" says Teacher Laura

"It's furry" says MacKenzie "Mine has hair"

It was very interesting to hear all the different thoughts and idea's.

"Lets be seeds.  What do our seeds need to grow?" says Teacher Laura

"Water" says Elle. "And sun" says Cam.

We curled up really small and grew when we got watered.

Then our clever teacher Laura, made up a little mat-time song for us, we all joined in the actions. 

I'm a little sunflower

Look and see

Here is my stalk

And here is my leaves

When I see Te Ra

I turn my head

When Te Ra goes down

I go to bed.

We are looking forward to re-visiting our sunflowers again soon.  Perhaps we will plant the sunflower seeds.  Lets see where our learning journey takes us...........

Welcome back to 2020!!

A warm welcome back to Uxbridge and the 2020 Year!! The children have been excited to get back and re-unite with their friends.  We have been emjoying hearing everyone's holiday stories and have certainly been enjoying the beautiful weather with lots of water play, water slides and sprinklers.

Re-uniting with friends and new friendships being developed.

Re-uniting with our pets, pumpkin and the tadpoles.  If you take a look closely you will see one of our tadpoles has started to grow legs!  However only 3 so far?

We are so excited our water pump has been fixed...

And we have added some new pipes to the outdoor area

PLAY, PLAY, PLAY!! 

 We have been so busy, exploring, experimenting, discovering, laughing

We are looking forward to our New Year and our learning journey's ahead.