A Trip to The Library

 Today we took a small group of children to the Howick library for a music and story session. We were very lucky that there was a special guest  visiting today, author Dorothy Laing was there to share her book "What noise does a giraffe make?" It was such a great experience for our tamariki to hear a book read by its author and to have to opportunity to ask questions afterwards. Andy the librarian was also there and led us in some singing and dancing and read us another story after Dorothy had finished. As always a big thanks to the Howick Library for inviting us. We are very lucky to have such a great resource close to our centre

 

Lest we forget

 Sharing the message and story of ANZAC is an important part of our New Zealand Heritage. 

The tamariki decorated some beautiful poppy flowers to make a wreath display on the window. 

We also made some yummy ANZAC biscuits. We had a korero about why we make ANAZAC biscuits at this time of the year and how the soldiers used to love receiving and eating them when they were away. 

The children were a great help and everyone found them delicious. 

Tomorrow we will visit the library for as special ANZAC story time. 

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM!

Going Under

 

It's Yoga Time!!

We have been our exploring our body following the journey of Taha Tinana. This has included learning about our body inside and out and about our physical movement. As part of this we were excited to have Rochelle Fleming from Core Strength Pilates studio on Uxbridge Road join us for two children's yoga sessions.

Yoga is a fantastic tool for tamariki to explore their bodies, hearts and minds, release energy and learn how to calm and focus their minds.  It benefits the body by offering balance and flexibility and strengthens our lungs.

We started off exploring our favourite characters and animals through fun yoga poses, then continued with some different yoga games.

What an engaging fun two mornings of Yoga!

On board the yoga train...... choo choo!.  The train driver (leader) gets to choose a pose at each stop.  Zac chose butterfly, Leo the leopard, Scottie the dancer and Stevie the unicorn.

The next game was....

What's the time Mrs Wolf?

1'Oclock - we took one step forward and struck a pose.

What's the time Mrs Wolf?

DINNER TIME!!!

  There were screams  of laughter as we ran for our lives.

Can you guess what yoga pose we are doing?  

Am I a unicorn, tree, lion, starfish, dog, aero plane????

Uxbridge's Pony

 Lots of our tamariki have been involved in imaginary play around horses and ponies lately so we thought that it might be fun for them to have a try at riding in a real saddle.  The saddle was set up on one of our trestles so it was high enough to ride on but low enough to be easy for every one to get on and off safely. As everybody took turns at hoping on and off and sitting in the saddle Nikki explained how to do some riding exercises like leaning forward to touch the "horses" neck and backwards to touch its tail, trying to lean down to touch our toes and swinging our legs over the saddle and turning our bodies so that we faced first to the side then the back then the other side and back to the front (around the world). These are all things that she teaches to her junior riders at Pony Club.  There was also time for lots of imaginary play with our horse. As we were having so much fun we were also developing our balance and confidence in balancing, flexibility and core strength. 

The balloon challange

Challenging ourselves and testing our bodies capabilities and limits is an important part of physical development. If we continue to complete 'safe' and familiar physical movements then we are not pushing ourselves to further develop our physical movements and skills. A challenge is something we enjoy, it brings with it a sense of personal achievement and gives the tamariki a sense of being capable and competent. These perceptions of ourselves contribute to our Mana tangata - our character and perception of ourselves as we build Hiringa, - determination/perseverance/persistence. 

In this balloon challenge the tamariki set goals on which colour balloon they would jump and reach for. We took photo's of them in action and also videoed them in slow motion so they could watch back their physical movement. Often if they did not reach the balloon and then watched their video or saw the photo they were able to see just how close or what direction they needed to move in and then when they tried again they reached their target. What a great tool of reflection the photo's and video proved to be.

Ka rawe o mahi tamariki!!!