Making decorations

December has arrived, it is less than three weeks till the end of term, and it is time to start thinking about celebrating Christmas at Mairtown (if we’re honest the children have been talking about Christmas for several weeks already!).

This week we began to make some simple decorations from sticks and wooden beads.

We believe in providing real tools for children to use in their constructions; nothing is more frustrating and discouraging than a child using equipment which prevents him or her from achieving their aims and plans.

Exposing young children to using real tools, with real materials and for a real purpose can help to foster their creativity, imagination, self-esteem, problem solving and ability to successfully assess risks.

The children began by either using the saw or secateurs to cut sticks into varying lengths. This lead to some wonderful conversations between the group of children, as to which were the smallest sticks, the next biggest, the largest and so on, we then lined them up according to size (a great demonstration of promoting mathematical language and concepts in early childhood).

Next came the trickier part and for most of the children the most exciting, it was time to get the drill out! Due to the fact that the sticks were narrow and wobbly, this was an area where I as the teacher supported their learning, either by holding the sticks steady or helping to hold the heavy drill while the children squeezed the trigger.

As we all worked the children shared their knowledge of drills including how drills work, what they can be used for and some rather interesting stories from home! All the children were very responsible and respectful, they helped and supported each other in their achievements and took a great deal of pride in their accomplishments.

Ryan admitted “This is really hard hard work”, but he persevered and saw the task through from start to completion, remaining focused the whole time.

Thinking independently (being able to work and learn from others in reciprocal situations).

Finally it was time to thread our sticks onto some ribbon in size order, placing a bead in between each one. Threading with a needle involves fine motor development, hand eye co-ordination and the use of a pincer grip. With this grip, a child uses only their thumb and index finger to hold and manipulate small objects; the development of this grip is essential for holding a pen/pencil and for successful writing later.

Some children have decided to leave their Christmas trees in their natural state, whilst others have wanted to paint them. Whichever way, I’m sure you’ll agree they look great, and make fantastic but simple Christmas decorations.

Christine

Celebrating Christine

Yesterday we had a surprise celebration to congratulate Christine on her exemplary completion of the teachers registration process.

Christine graduated from Auckland University in July 2010 and over the past two years has been working through the requirements of a provisionally registered teacher. This process requires lots of written self reflection and providing examples of your teaching practice. As you can imagine from the incredible blog posts which you have the pleasure to read, Christine's pedagogy and reflective practice are of the highest standard. She is now a fully registered teacher.

At whānau time we announced to Christine that we had prepared a surprise for her.

"How come I didn't know about this?" Christine questioned the children, and Leah responded "We're not telling, cause it's a surprise for you!"

Christine was then honoured with flowers and adorned with purple silk and three lolly leis from Helena, Pesiki and Joel.

Samuel gave Christine a book of drawings and thoughts on behalf of many of the children and some of our families. Inside were some heartfelt words including:

"Christine is the bestest teacher cause I do art
with her and I play with her" - Rinah 

"Christine is nice" - Eve

"I like playing hide and seek with her in the bush" - Kaleb


"Christine, Thank you for making every child at Kindy feel special and loved and unique. You always take time to listen to 1,000,000 different stories from all the kids and I know you genuinely enjoy it! Thank you."

"Congrats Christine, what an awesome achievement, You are a fantastic teacher and part of a fantastic team. We are so privledged to have you in our girls lives. Many thanks".

"So totally happy for you Christine!!! You absolutely deserve to reap the rewards of all your hard work and dedication! You are a special person with a special gift, and thank you for sharing it with my son".

The gifts were quickly followed by some lovely hugs.

Then it was time to enjoy a celebration treat, ice cream and strawberries!

Earlier in the day one parent reflected on her relationship with Christine, "I can't believe that she has only been teaching for two years, she is so wise!" We couldn't agree more, Christine is a rare gem and we are so honoured to have her in our Kindergarten community.

Kim, Zair, Donna and Sarah

Explorations with Rakau

Over the past 5 weeks we have had the pleasure of having Israel (Izy) Tahere join our team whilst completing his final teaching practicum. Amongst other skills and talents Izy has shared with us at kindergarten, he has also made use of our expansive pile of manuka to introduce the children to Mau Rākau.

 

Mau Rākau means to ‘bear a weapon’ and is traditionally learning about sacred Maori warfare and taonga in particular, weapons such as taiaha, patu and mere.

For young children introducing the methods of Mau Rākau through a combination of stick activities and physical challenges helps them to develop confidence and competence in body awareness and fundamental movement skills whilst learning and exploring through traditional tikanga Maori assessment.

Interacting in the spirit of ako (reciprocal learning), traditionally tukana/teina, Izy first coached the children through simple instructions in mau taiaha.

Mau rakau is a traditional martial art which develops both weaponry and physical skills.

Practicing strikes and evasion techniques. 

Tuakana-teina refers to the relationship between an older (tuakana) and a younger (teina) person and is specific to teaching and learning

in the Māori context.

As the children’s confidence and repertoire of skills developed, so too did the ‘possibilities’ of use with the rakau (sticks).

Co-ordinating balance and posture and developing discipline in movement

These next images show the children using rakau on the ground to create an obstacle challenge for jumping, hopping, and running and also getting their heart rates pumping!

As the children jumped between the sticks they chanted in reo, and made connections to the earth "whenua, awa, whenua, awa, whenua" 

By being physically involved in the game alongside the children, Izy set the stakes high, this encouraged on-going determination (Hiringa) and persistence for some our children.

Look at David as he follows Izy’s lead and jumps from a press up crouch across the sticks. Pai rawa!

Mau Rākau is not only an innovative addition to our curriculum but more importantly a culturally relevant art form that empowers the children with ways of knowing and being maori by nurturing wairua, mana and kaupapa maori.

Kim Townsend

Investigating water beads

Today at Kindergarten we underwent some investigations with water beads. For those of you that are unsure what these are they are non-toxic polymer balls - often used by florists - that grow several sizes when soaked in water.

Although I knew what was going to happen, I was careful not to tell the children; I wanted them to be able wonder, hypothesis, ask questions and experience this dramatic transformation with no idea of what was to come, a great way to involve children in scientific thinking.

First, of course, we had to prepare the water beads. We tipped four packets (blue and clear) into a perspex box and added the correct amount of water. At first nothing happened, but slowly the children started to notice some subtle changes.

As their teacher I took the opportunity to simply wonder alongside the children about these changes, working to record their thinking and their fantastic descriptive language.

“Oh look it’s getting bigger, it’s starting to feel squishy…why are they getting bigger…we don’t know…cause it’s wet in there? Does the water make them bigger, I think yes, yes it does…they’ve grown from the water…I think they have filled themselves up with water…we are growing these…they are flowers, look, they look like flowers…they were so really really small and now they’re getting bigger…oh they are so beautiful…hey you are right when you look at them under water they are flowers…you can’t see the white as they are white just like water…hey I found something invisible…when the white ones are under the water I can feel them…they are so pretty”

I think you can see from this conversation between Levi, April, Ryan T, Rinah and Makenzie that they were totally engaged in their investigations of the beads, both physically and mentally .

Looking at, exploring and feeling the different textures of the beads.

Curiosity

Involvement

‘Science for young children should involve asking questions, probing for answers, conducting investigations, and collecting data… children should be engaged both physically and mentally in investigating and manipulating elements in their environment’ (Chaille & Britain, 2003 and Wilson, 2008)

Christine

A week of celebrating food and whānau

 

Last week we were lucky enough to have Janelle, Joel’s Mum, come and share her wonderful cooking skills with us. Janelle has a Chinese background and offered to teach us how to make delicious Chinese pork dumplings and fried noodles.

This was an experience that the children loved being a part of. They helped with the preparation of the vegetables for the noodles, chopping them into small pieces. Janelle then role modelled how to make the dumplings. This required lots of concentration and fine motor skills as the children carefully put a small amount of pork mince on rice paper and pinched it together.

 

 

 

It was lovely to see a lot of the children tasting the dumplings and noodles. Trying different types of foods opens up opportunities for our children to experience different cultures.

 

 

Thank you so much Janelle for sharing your skills with us and thank you to Risini for your help as well.

We love celebrating our families heritage and customs and especially love the many choices of food that is a part of this. We welcome with open arms anyone else who would like to share their cultural customs with us at Mairtown Kindergarten.

 

“Through experiences like these children develop an interest and pleasure in discovering an unfamiliar wider world where the people, images, objects, languages, sounds and smells are different from those at home" (Te Whariki).

Now, on the following day we had another celebration, a shared kai! All our families were invited to come to Kindergarten as we celebrated the beginning of term 4 and where we were able to welcome all our new families. We also welcome Izy who is student teacher with us for four weeks, and the return of Zair from her maternity leave.

 

Shared kai’s are something that the Mairtown Kindergarten team value greatly. They help foster our strong relationships with our families and build on our sense of community.  Our families have also the chance to get to know one another or have a quick catch up. The sharing of food is always a joyous occasion and is part of ‘OUR’ culture here at Mairtown.

 

                                                                     

“For many people, including Māori, kai is a very important part of culture because gathering, preparing and sharing kai shows hospitality and respect for visitors. It’s universally acknowledged that food, and the culture and customs around it, create a sense of community.”



Zair