Thank you for 2017!

On Friday we celebrated 2017 with our ‘End of Year Celebration’ at Mair Park! Thank you to all of those who could make it along! It was so lovely to see all the children having so much fun together, whānau connecting and just enjoying an evening out! It was yet another Kindergarten event that made my heart feel so happy!

Getting ready for the treasure hunt

Our special visitor arrives... Elf Mike

With the end of the year wrapping up I would just like to say a huge thank you! Thank you to our beautiful children who make each day a joy, who teach us so much, who keep us on our toes and who warm our hearts! Thank you to all our wonderful kindergarten whānau who support our community, who invest time, help us with fundraising, who attend our events and far most importantly, for sharing your beautiful children with us. Thank you to the gorgeous teachers that I work alongside for all your care and love that you share with our children and their whānau, for your endless hard work to be the best teachers you can be, for your support and for your fun loving attitude towards work and life! Susie, Sarah, Christine, Amy and Anne, I appreciate you all so much!

Racing to the playground

Elf Mike making taking messages for Santa

To our children, their whānau and the teachers, you all make Mairtown Kindergarten the special place that it is! We are ending the year farewelling 10 of our kindergarten whānau, please take care and keep in touch! 

Going on a treasure hunt for chocolate gold coins!

So once again thank you for 2017! I look forward to reconnecting in 2018! I hope you all have a beautiful summer holiday and enjoy spending quality time with friends and family. Treasure this special time, create memories and have fun! 

Happy summer holidays.

Kindest regards

Zair

The Magic of Christmas

Christmas is such a special time of year, with many different meanings for each whānau. Being in the southern hemisphere, a “Kiwi Christmas” coincides with the arrival of summer. Days are longer, the sun is shining, more time is spent outside in our beautiful natural environment, and most importantly perhaps, is that the arrival of the festive season means we have more time to spend with whānau.

At Mairtown Kindergarten we have several Christmas rituals that have grown naturally over the years and have become a treasured and welcome part of the fabric of our Kindergarten community. The older children remember from the past years celebrations and eagerly anticipate the arrival of the Christmas season.

"Rituals play an important role in society. Rituals remind us of what is important and provide a sense of stability and continuity in our lives" 

(Cathy Stucker, 2009)

Each year at the beginning of December the children put up and decorate our Gratitude Tree. The families then write on a photo of their child a heartfelt message of gratitude and these are hung on our tree – the most meaningful decorations of all. We also have an advent calendar with one draw being opened each day at whānau time and inside each one is a beautiful bauble for our Gratitude tree, because a little bit of sparkle never goes astray!

One of our most eagerly anticipated Christmas rituals is our “Christmas Tree Walk”. We have been participating in the Festival of Christmas Trees since we were invited by our local church several years ago. This is an event where community groups are all invited to decorate a designated tree at the beginning of December, and they remain on display within the church until the arrival of Christmas. With such a large number of trees being decorated as the popularity of the festival has grown over the years, it makes a spectacular display!

The children have been working on many different creative decorations in the weeks leading up to December. A large number of children made unique and individual fairies and angels, children decorated baubles and added their thoughts and ideas about Christmas, we sourced natural materials such as feathers and pinecones and repurposed them into decorations, and some children painted Christmas themed rocks.

Today was the day that the children’s creativity was able to be fully admired as we came together as a group to walk to the church and admire our Mairtown Kindergarten Christmas Tree, along with all of the other interesting and diversely decorated trees on display for the festival. We were welcomed to the church and were able to listen to the Christmas Story. We then showed our appreciation by performing two Christmas songs for our hosts. We were treated to some delicious kai which we shared in the glow of the Christmas trees.

While we were working with the children over the last few weeks, either in small groups or individually to create the decorations, it was a great opportunity to talk with them about what Christmas means to them. Below are some of their words.

What are some special things you do with your family at Christmas time?

Ryker: We make paper decorations with Mum and Kayden.

Ezra: We give presents to other people who don’t have any presents. Toys and stuff that we buy from the shops.

Gus: We put the decorations on the tree and decorate the house with all the decorations. Golden ones and green things with red. Santa comes through our fire and I think he can’t fit because its got a little hole in it.

Amelia: We save some treats for Santa and put them on our table. Santa eats the treats at night. We don’t hear a crunching but we see the presents.

Blue: Pancakes!

Lachlan: We wear costumes for Christmas. I am a ninja turtle and my Mum and Dad are power rangers.

Aris: We decorate the tree. The angel goes at the top and the star goes next to the angel. We got some big socks that came in the mail to hang by the chimney and its got our names on it. 

Liam: I love Christmas time! I like getting presents and having chocolate. I like playing with people like Lachlan.

Freya: I love making presents for everyone. I love to give my Mum and Pop presents. I love surfing in the waves on Christmas morning.

So as the next few weeks of the “silly season” approach and life speeds up in our adult world, I hope you are able to recall the words and thinking of our Kindergarten children. Because, however you choose to celebrate Christmas, it is a time when we seem to make the effort to put the usual hustle and bustle of everyday life aside and create more time for togetherness and making special memories with rituals both at home and at Kindergarten. 

I believe this is the true essence of the season and contributes hugely to that unexplainable “magical” feel of Christmas. This is something that really resonates with children as they are able to come together with their family and add another layer of memories to be treasured far beyond their own childhood years.

Ngā mihi nui and Meri Kirihimete

Amy 

How we support children to take healthy emotional risks

Risk taking is a huge part of what we do at Mairtown, in fact this topic has been previously blogged, however recently my focus has been on supporting children to take healthy emotional risks.

When I was studying to become a teacher I used to think that risk taking was something thrill seekers do, or is someone who is totally fearless.  Actually risk encompasses much more, including physical, emotional and social, what is really important is helping children to learn and identify what are healthy risks and what are unhealthy risks.

At Mairtown kindergarten we are passionate about providing children with a rich learning environment that offers plenty of opportunities to take responsible risks and I believe it’s wonderful for children to discover and learn for themselves what their comfort levels are as it is different for everyone. 

Being able to take an emotional risk requires children to move beyond their comfort zone and push through that funny feeling in their tummy or for others they may feel worried to take that big step forward to speak in front of their peers or take that first step to put pen to paper.

“Being a healthy emotional risk taker enables you to embrace and grow in your life right now”.  (Shakti Sutriasa, 2016).

Those who know me, know how passionate I am about setting up challenging obstacle courses, knowing it might be a bit tricky.  I love to support and encourage children to take a risk, not only physical but emotional as well.  Within our daily practice there are many emotional risk taking scenarios that our children face, for example; feeling brave to ask a peer to play, to help a friend in need, express gratitude and appreciation to others, choosing to be brave to sit with a different peer at the kai tables or being asked to be our ‘kaia’ to lead our morning waiata or to put their hand up to ask a question or taking on a role where they are at the centre of attention and all the focus is on them. It is these opportunities that offer children meaningful lifelong learning that they will carry in their kete of knowledge throughout life.  

There is plenty of research that supports children learning to take risks, Davis and Eppler-Wolff state that Risks – good and bad – are inevitable from birth. Yet, many of us haven’t given much thought to the ways in which risk unfolds. With a toddler’s first step, he is taking the risk of stepping out into the world – literally and figuratively. When a preschooler enters his new class of teachers and children for the first time, he is taking the risks inherent in separating from the only caretakers he’s known. A shy first grader who raises her hand in class to ask a question takes the risk of appearing stupid in front of her peers. She risks feeling embarrassed, or inadequate. Yet her raised hand allows her to take a risk that leads to feelings of self-assertion and self-expression.  (Susan Davis, Ph.D., and Nancy Eppler-Wolff, Ph.D., 2009)

To develop emotional risk taking skills requires children to be confident within themselves and their abilities, to be able to think through problems that they may face and to be able to think positively, also known as a ‘positive growth mind set’.  This is particularly useful in those times when children are finding courage to be brave.  As children learn and develop their skills of taking emotional risks, this results in children who have more resilience and are able to deal with the disappointment that life sometimes has, including having to wait for a swing to be free, or not being chosen to have a turn, for instance, in a game, at that very moment.

Life is all about choices, there are good choices and bad choices, learning to make good choices I believe is vital for all children to learn.  There has been lots of talk at kindergarten about what a good choice is and what a bad choice is, I believe it is never too early to learn such valuable life long skills.  Developing resilience is an extremely useful skill when learning to take emotional risks, this is supported by research that states “Resilience is the ability to steer through serious life challenges and find ways to bounce back and to thrive.  We are born with the capacity for resilience.  But resilience is not something we have or don’t have.  We work on it throughout our lives.  And need to start as early as possible.  Resilience makes a big difference in people’s lives.  People who respond to hardships with resilience are; healthier and live longer, happier in their relationships, more successful in school and work, and less likely to get depressed”.  (Best Start, Government of Canada’s Social Development Partnerships Program, 2012).

At Mairtown we are passionate about providing an environment that allows children plenty of opportunities to be exposed to risk, whether it be physical, emotional, or social.  There is an element of risk in everyday life, this is why I believe it is important for all children to learn the vital skills of risk taking where they are confident in their abilities to assess any potential dangers and be able to spend time to pause and think through what their actions maybe.  As our children leave kindergarten to move onto their next learning journey and throughout the rest of their lives, it is important that they are equipped to be successful learners that can take thoughtful, smart risks and then they will be ready to soar.

Our job is not to inoculate our children against taking risks, but to guide them toward taking good risks. (Susan Davis, Ph.D., and Nancy Eppler-Wolff, Ph.D., 2009)

Mā te wā

Susie