What to do with the empty boxes??

 My oh my the tamariki enjoyed working together in teams to a twist to our normal ball process art.

Process art is as the name suggests all about the process and not the result.

 

The challenge- keeping the golf balls inside the boxes.

First, without a ball our tamariki practised how to work as a team and move the box together in a swaying motion, up and down, side to side.

Then we started with one ball and figured out how to roll it to each other. One went up and one went down. We quickly found that the balls were on the floor more than the box so Kaiako Laura came up with a plan.

A timer. Carefully placed on the table the challenge began...

" Can you work together to keep the ball inside the box for the two minute timer."

Focused and determined and somewhat magically our tamariki rose to the challenge! 5 minutes was the longest amount of time our teams were able to do this style of art which i thought was a pretty awesome effort!

So much learning:

Working together for a common goal.

Tracking the ball and moving our body accordingly.- Bilateral skills - left brain right brain. 

Moving and challenging ourselves physically.

Partnering up with different friends that we wouldn't normally play with- encouraging social skills. 

Building on what we know- we have done this as an activity many times solo so this was adding extra complexity.

Communicating with one another- cheering each other on, giving advice (taking advice), sharing in the success of others. 

Creating art- expressing ourselves with paint.

Learning alongside others.

Brown Bear Brown Bear what do you see?

 

Over the last few weeks, the children have been interested in exploring a few of our favorite stories at Uxbridge.  We have been using Vivid and paint as a art medium last year which the children enjoy.  Check out some of the art works we have created. The children are  really interested in exploring making finger puppets and practicing their scissor skills. These activities really emphasizes that we can explore the love of literacy  throughout the various areas of play. We cannot wait to see where this love of stories will lead at Uxbridge. 

Meet our New Pet - Tails the tadpole

Blake had been talking a lot about his new tadpoles at home and when we mentioned how we would love a pet tadpole at kindy, he turned up the very next day with tails.  Wow, we were super super excited!  what a special gift for us!  Now we get to enjoy the wonder of the life cycle of a frog at kindy too, how cool is that!

We had a tank just perfect for him..... And some of our friends helped up tails new home.  

Now we can watch and observe the changes as tails goes through the different stages on his journey to becoming a frog.  We can learn more about our new pet from books and puzzles too and we will make sure we take responsibility to care for him, providing him with all the things he needs like a clean and safe home and food.  Thank you again Blake for this wonderful gift. We all love him already!

A Chinese New Year Celebration!

Celebrating Chinese New Year with Noodles!!

A time to come together, cook together and celebrate the Chinese New Year!  The tamariki helped prepare, grating the ginger, garlic, carrot and veges, then cooked the noodles, adding /soya sauce and a little water.  We had to be careful as the frypan was very hot!  The aroma was sensational!  But not as delicious as the noodles.....  Some had a go using chopsticks... others a spoon, either way there was slurping all around as we enjoyed our scrumptious cooking.

Challenging ourselves on the cargo net

Hanging in the playground was a super challenge cargo net for all those wanting it... this was an obstacle course action day.

Balancing kinder boards, navigating climbing frames, jumping over hurdles and jumping onto the crash mat and the cargo net. 

As always it’s interesting to stand back and watch the tamariki tackle the challenges with their own unique flare.

Some found the cargo net too wobbly and left it at that, others wobbled around a while and went sideways. Some trialed and left then came back again to try some more and others stuck at it until they got to the top. The most out of the box way I saw the cargo net used was to rolly polie through the lower square and to sit and and swing on, through the day when it was empty others used it to throw balls through the squares of the net. 

As an added challenge the mister went on and some tried to climb with that. 

This sort of play develops large muscles and strength, balance, it helps children practise social skills like turn taking, encouragement of others and sharing in friends successes !  

Xīnnián hǎo (新年好) - Happy Chinese New Year!

 A time for celebration! Xīnnián hǎo (新年好) - Happy Chinese New Year! 

The Year of the Dragon

The Chinese New Year, which is also known as the Spring Festival or Lunar New Year is celebrated by millions of people around the world. Houses are decorated with lanterns, red message banners and New Year pictures, there are parades through the streets with music, acrobatics, and dragon dances, Other traditions include having a family reunion dinner on Lunar New Year’s Eve and distributing red envelopes with money to children. The festivities continue for two weeks, finishing with a lantern festival, which signals the end of the New Year celebration period. This year, it is from February 10th to the 25th.   

We have had a wonderful time filling the centre with festive decorations, activities and experiences.........

We made lanterns to decorate the classroom, shared the story of the great race and talked about what animal we would be, the dancing dragon even made an exhibition at Uxbridge!!