'The sun has got his hat on' - puppet show.

Today our plain wooden hammer house transformed into a beautiful puppet theatre. Whilst looking for music that we could use with the puppets and theatre, the children came across a 'love to sing' CD with the song 'the sun has got his hat on'. This became the inspiration for the rest of the morning.


Making new puppets became an important focus for the children, look at the wonderful bees and beehive stick puppets the children made.

"Puppets have united people of the world through a language unique to puppetry... it is a language that conveys feelings, ideals and passions" (Burn, 1989).

Puppets are great for fostering social interaction, communication, role playing, imagination, listening and much more. They develop leadership, performance and at times the courage to stand in front of our peers. Using puppets makes risk-taking feel a bit safer for children.

Christine

Art work

 
We really enjoy engaging in the creative arts at Mairtown Kindergarten. Last week, Kim gave back to the children some of their completed art work.  Re-offering children their art work provides opportunities to build layers, create depth and add new ideas as they develop their awareness of colours, shapes, forms, texture and lines.


Creating with paint and dyes.

                                 
                                               

Adding depth and layers with gold pen.

 Some of the finished masterpieces

Christine

Wheel-a-thon Fundraiser update

Well our totals are in for the Mairtown Wheel-a-thon. We have raised $1033.11 for the Red Cross,   which we dropped off at Paper Plus yesterday (check out our photo!). Paper Plus are matching Dollar for Dollar any donations made up to $50,000.00 for the Canterbury earthquake appeal. This only runs till the end of March, so we have been able to double our money for Red Cross J - fantastic.

Once again thank you to all of our wonderfully supportive families and Whanau.

Christine

Family feedback....

It is great to have family reflections - especially about our new blog!

Thanks Abbey and Tracy, this is great.

Christine

So…what do the children think of our new blog?

With the blog up and running (with a few posts under our belts!) we knew it was time to show the children what we had done, explain why we are doing it, and get their feedback.

Kim had a chat over group time on Wednesday (23^rd March) explaining what a blog was, and Christine had her computer out for the rest of the morning so any interested children could come and have a look.

We discussed with the children that on the computer is information that can be stored and then used at a later date. We worked together, investigating the blog in small groups - this gave us lots of opportunities to explore, question and communicate our thoughts to each other.

On watching Glenn's singing:

Luke: " There's us. This is great. It's like magic!"

Fergus: "Dad's voice is tiny. Hey the videos are round the wrong way, we sung that song first" (pointing to the second video).

Ryan: "I like this, can I watch the videos of us again? I think I can hear me".

Nelson: "Look, I'm on this, I can see me over there" pointing to himself.

Abbey: "My mum uses a computer. Look I'm in the middle. I can see Jules too".

Brearna: "I saw the caterpillar changing on the computer" at home.

Jayden: "that was on my computer at home".

Christine



 

Monarch Caterpillar Metamorphosis - continued!

We have finally managed to capture the last stage of the Monarch butterfly metamorphosis. We had two butterflies emerge from their chrysalides yesterday, but weren’t quick enough with the camera! We did it today though – well done Zair.

We all had a feeling another butterfly would hatch today. Many of the children had observed one of our chrysalides was very dark in colour with the orange and black of the butterfly wings visible when they arrived at Kindergarten this morning. Quite suddenly, the chrysalis cracked open and very slowly out came the butterfly. As you can see from the video, the wings at first are tiny and wet. The butterfly clings to its chrysalis as ‘hemolymph’ a blood-like substance of insects is pumped through its body and wings. After about one hour the wings are full size, dry and the Monarch butterfly is ready to fly. What an amazing transformation.

Many of the Mairtown children have been totally absorbed by the process, demonstrating great patience as they check on the chrysalides each morning. We have some wonderful observational drawings on display of caterpillars and butterflies at Kindergarten – come and have a look.

Christine

Our visits from Glenn!

We are so lucky to such wonderful and supportive parents and Whanau at Mairtown Kindergarten. Fergus’s dad (Glenn) often pops in, with his guitar and has a little waiata session with the children. Have a look at the videos we took today.

This is a real treat for the children and they really look forward to Glenn coming in; here is what some of them said about Glenn’s visits:

Fergus “I like singing ‘in the jungle’ and ‘the yellow submarine’.

Briah-Rose “I like him coming into Kindy because he sings ‘yellow submarine’ and I like ‘yellow submarine’. I really like singing all the songs”.

Nathan “It’s cool when he comes”.

Brearna “I like the new song, the one Kim sung, it’s ‘this little light of mine”.

Heidi “I like it, I like singing. My favourite is the ‘yellow submarine’”

Music (pūoro) and singing (waiata) encourages a release of physical and emotional energy, expression and creativity. Literacy skills develop with an increasing awareness of how words in songs relate to sounds.

Christine

Wheel-a-thon 2011 - Fundraiser for Canterbury Earthquake

We held our annual wheel-a-thon this year on Wednesday 16th March 2011. What a fabulous day it turned out to be, with lovely hot weather, a sausage sizzle and some yummy ice-blocks. With support from all our families and Whanau we have decided any money raised will be donated to the Red Cross to assist in the Canterbury Earthquake appeal.

Check out the photos of some of our great, speedy and zippy children - ka pai tamariki - thanks for an awesome afternoon.

 

Christine               

Monarch Caterpillar Metamorphosis

What an amazing video that Kim managed to capture today. Our Monarch caterpillars have been of real interest to the children and we have been watching them over the last week turn from caterpillars to chrysalides. How exciting to capture this metamorphosis happening at Kindergarten. Obviously we will continue to watch them, and hope to see the transformation into a Monarch butterfly soon.

Christine