Welcome to term 4

Welcome back to all our children and their families/Whanau, we are going to have a great term 4!

We also welcome Heidi to Mairtown. Heidi is a student teacher in her second year with the Open Polytechnic. We are lucky enough to have Heidi with us for the next five weeks, so come and say hello and introduce yourself.








A quick update on our art auction, after all the costs we have raised an amazing $1600. Well done everyone, this is fantastic and will be such big help in funding our outdoor development. Thank you once again for helping to make this such a successful event for Mairtown Kindergarten.

On the subject of outdoor development, we have had some work taking place during these last holidays. Around the Whare a stunning mosaic pathway has been laid and two macrocarpa benches have been made. We have had contractors Steve Bowling in to complete the work, and lay the grey, green and white stones individually to make up the koru design. 

.


Zoë "I like how it goes around the little house. You can also twirl around on it".
Eva "It looks like pretty...I like the seats".
Kye "I like all the stones".
Grace "The patterns are really nice".

We have some more planting around the pathway to do which will hopefully be finished in the next week. Please add your comments, we would love to hear how you think our outdoor environment is looking and progressing.



Christine

Art Auction Fundraiser

Last night saw us all at the Old Library hosting our annual fundraiser, this year an 'art auction'. Several weeks ago we sent canvases home with parents/Whanau and friends and asked them to get creative. Local Northland artists also kindly donated some work, leading to a huge variety in art; from photographic prints, clothing, stitched canvases to sculptures - there was something for everyone.

The children at Kindergarten also created spectacular works using Hundertwasser and Joan Miró as their inspiration.




It was a hugely successful and enjoyable night. All our donated canvases got sold. There were even a few bidding wars, some between family members!

There are so many thank yous we need to say. The families, Whanau and friends of Mairtown Kindergarten are amazing, we obviously could not have done this without you taking the time to complete your art and turn up to bid on the night. Also a huge thanks to Anna and Tracy who spent most of Friday arranging the art on the walls - it looked fabulous. Thank you to all our parent group for taking photographs, placing road signs on verges, helping set up.....the list goes on. Thanks to Glenn our fabulous auctioneer for the night, he was great at keeping everything going smoothly and adding his own sense of humour to the occasion. Thank you to Richard, Joel and Kirsty for organising and manning the bar and to Phoebe who held up each piece of art so we all knew what we were bidding on. I am sure there are many other thank yous I've missed out, lots of people arrived saw a job that needed doing and got stuck in - everyones contribution was what made it such a successful evening.

We're not sure just how much we've managed to raise yet, we will keep you all uptodate, but all profits will go towards upgrading our outdoor environment at Kindergarten.

Christine

Self-portraits

 Last week we began working on self-portraits with the children. By using mirrors we have encouraged children to look closely at themselves, for instance the curl of their hair, the angle of their chin or the curves around their eyes. The children have shown a real interest in this type of drawing, and it has extended well into this week, with more and more work being done everyday.

As the children looked closely at their faces it provoked a lot of discussion. The children noticed and chatted about the fact that although they all have two eyes, two ears, one nose, lips, eyebrows etc, their faces are all so different from each others.



"Your own face in a mirror is surely one of the most fascinating things to draw" (Kolbe, 2005)

Have a look a selection of some of the great self-portrait work done.

Jessie -May "I need to draw long hair like mine is long"

Jacob "I have brown eyes, big ones

Grace "My face is round not oval. My eyes are an oval and circle too!"

Valin"Check out my mouth and my lip"

Kiedis "These are my stone teeth. It's for eating big guy's like bad guys really hard!"

Lucy-May

Juliet

Azariah

Katie

Daniel "I have greeny eyes so I can look at everything. I have ears so I can listen"

Elizabeth "Daddy even loves my blue eyes. My face is like a circle"

Brearna

Christine

Blocks and more blocks....

Last week we took delivery of some of some beautiful  new colourful blocks (poro rākau) from Grimms in Germany. Since then they have proved to be extremely popular will all the children, and have been used in a variety of creative and imaginative ways. We have seen some stunning work created.

Blocks are a great resource and assist in increasing mathematical and scientific concepts as children count, match, sort, group, add, subtract, divide, measure and classify.

Emma counts on all the tiles in this photograph.

Concentration

Purposefulness

Collaboration and co-operation

Blocks allow for recognition and discovery of symmetry, patterns, volume, area, depth, width and height.

Sheridan’s colour coordinated patterned tower took lots of planning and determination.

Children also develop an understanding about construction theories, such as balance and gravity.

Many of the constructions the children have built have been complex, requiring  experimentation and problem solving.

The blocks have even extended dramatic and imaginative play. In this photograph they become caves for Hvar’s animals.

We have even used them at group time for learning and remembering our colours and shapes in reo Maori.

“Homai koa te tapawha ma – bring me the white square”

We love our new resources – I wonder what other uses the children will invent for them?

Christine