Origami Art

Today Maya’s mum Chihiro came to teach us origami. Origami is the art of paper-folding. In Japanese, "ori" means folding and "gami" means paper. Our children were keen to try this art experience, folding square papers into dogs, cats, frogs, and ships. Thank you Chihiro for offering to share your skills and culture with our children.

 

Story Writing

The tamariki have been very creative with their story writing books. It has been wonderful to see the progress of their imagines coming out in a literal form. 

Some of the children have been using pictures to prompt their story writing while some draw on prior knowledge or form their idea's from their wonderful imaginations. 

It has been neat to see some of the stories have reoccurring characters appear too. 

'Mahi Pai tamariki!!

Mat Time Drama

Drama games offer our Tamariki a chance to be involved in using their imaginations together as a large group. This kind of collective imagination has a power all of its own. We often use Story songs such as the magic play dough or the Gingerbread man as another way of exploring story telling as well as following the actions to use our bodies in different ways. Games such as the magic box give opportunities for leadership as this game involves offers (the child suggesting the animal which is inside the box) and acceptance (as the group then becomes the suggested animal). This is a safe way for Tamariki to begin to express ideas and lead as there is a 100% guarantee that their idea will be accepted and used by the group. These types of games are also a good chance for Kaiako to encourage non verbal communication as a way of expressing an idea showing that by the way you move, the expression on your face and how you hold your body you can communicate to others that you are a cat, a snake, a kangaroo or even a dragon! 

 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

 A box was laid out downstairs...what was inside?

 A green furry space rocket?

 A hippo pretending to be a green ballerina? 

An frog with a giraffes neck wearing a fluffy green suit?

No... Definitely not. It was our very own Christmas tree!

Lucky we had some expert helpers who all contributed to making our tree come to life!

"I'm a tree look" Gracie said as she held the top above her head!

"I can help" Rory came along keen to get into it!

Cece was quick to match the colours at the bottom of the branches to put them in the right spots!

Ted let us know that the branches are prickily!

It's all about the fluffing of the tree. We had wonderful fluffers spreading out the branches to look full.

"It's missing the star!" Gracie said and Deanne was quick to show the group the blue sparkly star for the top. All were impressed....BUT...."It's not got decorations!" Zac pointed out.

Luckily, we could fix that! Check out the gorgeous baubles the tamariki have made.

And her it is...our very own Christmas tree.

Full of our beautiful, smiley tamariki. 

The Uxbridge Zoo

We moved the tables upstairs and laid a long piece of paper  on the floor awaiting the children's ideas.

It wasn't long before a Zoo was being made. Take a look at this collaboration. What was wonderful about this activity station was that once the tamariki had drawn the environments, some children came along afterwards and enjoyed playing with the animals in imaginary games, even though the other children had made them. They were enjoying each others efforts. It gave a sense of pride to the ones that drew the picture,  that another child enjoyed their creation so much! Isn't that special.

Rory has been enjoying the Selfish Crocodile book so it was no surprise that he drew an environment for the Croc!

Hallie is drawing a magnificent tree for her chimps. Look at that detail!

Stevie,Ava and Ted drew an Icy area for  the penguin.

Ted spent the whole afternoon upstairs enjoying this Zoo. He made connections to the books available " Sharp teeth, chomp,chomp" He said before placing the crocodile ontop of the Selfish Crocodile book- "Look the same!" Clever connections Ted

Emma loved doing drawings with all of the colours and spent time placing the lids on both sides of the pens.

The giraffes are happy...Look at all those leaves they have to eat! Ava was to thank for that.

Ava mulls over what environment she will make next.

How do we make an enclosure? How resourceful are Chloe and Stevie bringing in a hula hoop to form the perfect circle! Cool idea.

Process Scones

On the menu was scones for one today. We enjoyed process cooking which as you guessed it, is all about the process rather than the product.  Process Cooking enables children to make their own food item from start to finish, rather than a larger recipe that we all share. 

Cooking helps with measuring skills, communication skills as we do it together, it helps children learn skills to promote independence and confidence.
Take a look at our super chefs.

"It's squishy"- Gracie said as she rubbed her ingredients together

"1 Tablespoon of Flour"

" 15 mls of milk into the mix"

" I like cheese."-Aria announced

 Children could pick between a sweet or savory scone.

"A pinch of baking powder"

As you can see, the final result was varied. Into the oven they went.

"I'll save mine"- Chloe said

I asked Eric what his tasted like- "Cheese"- he said

These scones looked delicious. Yum!

Gracie decided her blueberry scone wasn't for her " It tastes like slime."
Macy wasn't a fan of the taste of hers but enjoyed the process. 

Awesome mahi tamariki!
We can't wait to try this again.