A new home for our apple snails

We know that our apple snails grow to the environment they live in and in fact they can grow quite large.  Now that they are getting bigger and not babies anymore, we decided it was time to move!  Luckily enough we had a large tank just perfect for them.  Now what do snails need for a good home?

"Shells and water" Blake said

"Stones" said Raphael

"Toys" said Tyler

"Food" said Owen

And so we began to set their new house up, adding stones, water and their toys (ornaments)

Owen adds the water conditioner to make the water safe for our snails

In they go......

We hope our apple snails enjoy their new home.  Thank you everybody for helping out and being such good kaitiaki!  By caring for our pets tamariki are gaining an understanding and responsibility of what is needed to look after our living things,

Big cats with vivid and dye

Our children at Uxbridge are natural explorers who love to experiment with colours and textures.  We encourage them to learn through hands on activities which promote different learning aspect in a fun way  such as eye-hand coordination, following instructions, and developing fine motor skills 

We spoke about each cats characteristics such as the Lion mane, the whiskers and the patterns on their fur as well as exploring spatial awareness of the size of the paper.  

The use of permanent marker (vivid) allows children to create precise and detailed outlines of their big cats which is exciting to see the uniqueness of each masterpiece come to life as they add the brightly coloured dye.  

This provocation really let the children's self expression shine through and for them to slow down and really study the big cats up close. 

Animal Shadows

Today we ventured into the Jungle .... and the sun was so bright it made some amazing shadows for us to create shadow drawings.  This is another concept to extend the current interest in the animal world.  Through this experience, children can develop their observation skills, spatial reasoning abilities, and scientific thinking.  There was a lot planning and moving our resources to catch the sunshine as it got higher in the sky the position of the shadow moved or disappeared. 

When the children are drawing the shadows, they are encouraged to pay attention to the shapes and angles that are created by light hitting objects in different ways.  This process of exploration and experimentation celebrates and values the child's innate curiosity and creativity.  

Easter 2023!

The excitement was just buzzing at our annual Easter Party!  We had been counting the sleeps all week, super excited about the party and the Easter Bunny coming to Uxbridge.  What a beautiful evening of coming together for everyone! Kindy was all decorated, there was face paint, colouring and a yummy shared dinner of pizza, hot chips and cupcakes for dessert.  The Easter Bunny somehow got stuck in a hole but thankfully he managed to make his way out the next day, visiting us at mat-time for some songs, hi-fives and cuddles.

Thank you so much for coming along to our Easter celebration!