Our new door

Kia ora rā kōrua. Greetings to you all. We warmly welcome you to term two.

During the holidays we had our beautiful door installed into our family corner.

We were very excited to observe the children’s (and parents) reaction to this final instalment in our family corner up-grade.

Doorways invite exploration. Over the morning children stepped through, then back and through again.

We have also been interested to observe that even though there is an open space right next to the doorway. The children mostly choose to use the door to enter or leave the family corner.

Our early childhood curriculum Te Whāriki reminds us that ‘assessment should be a two way process and that children may also help to decide what should be included in the process of assessing the programme and the curriculum’. Whilst the up-grade was initiated by our teaching team, the children were very involved in the decision and design of the door (You may remember this documented in an earlier post titled ‘planning for possibilities’). Here is a re-cap of some of the children’s ideas:

It needs a window

The window should be green

It needs a handle. One that you hold on to

It needs wood on the window

We need a grown-up door

Our wheels-a-thon fundraising was also used to purchase the door, connecting a link from the children’s and families hard work to a tangible and so far hugely popular instalment into our play environment.

 “What a wonderful door. Love the arch and circles. This will create interesting play opportunities and experiences (colour, light etc)”

“I love the new family corner; it’s so beautiful and creative and will let the kids imaginations run wild. AWESOME JOB LADIES”

“Wow! How wonderful to have such an inviting and engaging space”

“Great door – not too girly. Could be a door to a house or a spaceship”

“looks fantastic – door will create many play options”

“Loving the new family corner! Great for the kids to see the wonderfully creative door that they fundraised so hard to help purchase”

Ko ō tātou tamariki, tō tātou oranga

Our children, our future

Kim

Today we celebrated our last day of term one with a hikoi to Mair Park. This was a fantastic day full of wonderful family involvement. Thank you for everyone who joined us.

 

Wheel-a-thon Family Fundraiser

On Tuesday afternoon we held our annual Wheel-a-thon fundraiser at Kensington Courts, and what a fabulous afternoon we all shared together.

In the morning the children were all excitedly discussing the forthcoming event.

Emma “I’m going to dress in something fancy, with lots of sparkles”.

Jaimee “I’m bringing my bike, my big bike, it’s pink and white, I might decorate my bike”.

We also welcomed lots of manuhiri (visitors) – parents and grandparents – who donated their time - preparing bread and onions for the sausage sizzle, as well as collecting the barbecue and transporting items down to Kensington courts.

By 4pm the courts were bustling and busy, with lots of bikes, scooters, trikes, skates and other wheeled vehicles lined up ready to go.

'Contribution'

'Participation'

‘Purposefulness’

How fantastic to see everyone joining in and ‘wheeling around’ – brothers and sisters, even mums, dads, grandparents and teachers took part - well done everyone!

Some of the bikes and scooters had been embellished with some fantastic decorations, it was clear to see the time, thought and consideration that had gone into making many of the bikes and scooters look wonderful. Tō ātaahua hoki! (Beautiful!)







Events out of Kindergarten are a wonderful way for whānau to mingle and relax with each other, for all of us to socialise over some kai, and for us to catch up with past children and whānau.

Thank you to Candace, Mike, Elena, Risini, John, Deb, Sarah, Laurenţiu and Moana for your support, donations and help; we really couldn’t have done it all without you.

Money raised from the Wheel-a-thon will go towards the door we are having commissioned for our family corner (see our past blog here for the children’s work and design). We will let you know as soon as possible how much we have raised. Thank you to everyone for making it such a thoroughly enjoyable and fun afternoon, and for supporting us in our fundraising at Kindergarten.

"Family and Friends are hidden treasures, seek them and enjoy their riches" Wanda Hope Carter

 

New Project1 from christine alford on Vimeo.
Christine

Great White sharks and a partnership for learning

Our attending children and families arrive at kindergarten with a wealth of knowledge, skills and expertise which are abundant and varied.

Recently we have had the opportunity to share some of these skills when Ben’s Dad Dave offered to come and talk to us about sharks. Dave has a really interesting job; he is a specialist underwater and adventure-sport cameraman and producer.

Ben says, “My dad films sharks, he never kills them, he likes them, he like bears too”

In preparation for Dave’s visit we discussed the children’s current thinking and ideas about sharks; this was prompted by images shown on the projector

Cohen “It’s a great white”

Helena “That’s an angry shark, it has sharp teeth”

Ben “My dad does shark movies”

Christine then opened up the discussion further by asking “How do you think they get the pictures of sharks?”

Jessie-may “You go underwater”

Emma “They use a water camera”

Leah “The sharks have little teeth and eyes that don’t know who you are”

Pesiki “Sharks can jump up and go deep down under water. Sharks are big and whales are bigger. Sharks eat fish so that people can take photos”

Jessie-May “I know how people stay safe from sharks, they hide behind rocks”

These discussion’s naturally led on to exploring and representing more ideas through drawing.

Thinkers

Inquirers

Drawing enables children to transfer their ideas into images.

Christine also provided the children with some photographs from the internet to promote and support thinking and processing, and consolidate ideas.

Knowledge is not given to a passive observer; rather, it must be discovered and constructed by the activity of the individual.” –Jean Piaget

On the morning of Dave’s visit the children were very excited. Imagine diving with a Great White shark!

Dave introduced himself as Ben’s Dad and told us that “I make films, lots of my filming is underwater and one of my favourite things to film is sharks”. Dave then showed us a set of Mako shark teeth. Mako’s have sharp pointed teeth for eating fish.

 

Through images, Dave then made comparisons with the teeth of a Mako and those of a great white. Great Whites have much bigger and triangular teeth; Great Whites eat seals.

Dave has recently returned from a film shoot of Great Whites in the deep south, he showed us many amazing images of Great Whites and also explained to the children how he is able to get these images; through the use of a shark cage and cameras.

We were amazed to notice that the shark cage has a huge open space in the front! This is so that there are no bars blocking the camera shots and means that the cameramen need to sometimes push the sharks back with their hands, a pole or the camera.

When Dave had finished showing his slides, some of the children had questions; they asked about how many different types of sharks there were, how many families of sharks there are, if Dave catches sharks, and if he films other sea animals as well.


Look at how proud Ben felt today!

Dave finished his talk with a video snippet of some of his recent filming. This was wonderful, as the footage totally re-captured the children’s interest and imagination.

Then it was time to for the children to share their art works and drawings of sharks. Thank you Dave for being so thoughtful in your feedback to the children and taking time to notice the many details they had included in their observational drawings.

 Promoting collaborative relationships

The wider world of family and community is an integral part of early childhood education. By inviting our parents and whānau to share their knowledge and expertise in the programme, we are promoting diverse pathways of assessment and education.

Te Whāriki and early childhood policy both emphasise the centrality of parents and whānau as partners in an early childhood setting - ECE Educate, The Ministry of Education

Kim