Celebrating Chinese New Year - The Year of the Horse

Last Friday saw the start of Chinese New Year, representing a time of new beginnings and a fresh start. This is a much anticipated event at Mairtown Kindergarten, and this year, 2014, signifies the year of the horse.












Chinese New Year celebrations take place all over the world and last for around 15 days (this year ending on the 15th February) and we at Mairtown are no exception; we have been holding a few celebrations of our own!

On Friday we began to decorate Kindergarten; we hung traditional red lanterns and even had a go at making some of our own decorations from Ang Pow (red packets). Ang Pow play an important part of Chinese tradition and are extremely auspicious among the Chinese community.

The red colour of the envelope symbolises good luck and is supposed to ward off evil spirits.

Making this diamond shaped decoration required lots of patience. We followed some instructions that we found online, but despite its simple structure, the folding and lining up of the envelopes was complex and tricky. What a great way for us to practice following a process from start to finish, combined with a little trial and error too!

Chinese New Year is a time of celebration, reunion, forgiveness, sharing and thanksgiving.

As we gave the children their Ang Pow we were careful to uphold the tradition of passing the envelope with two hands and also of receiving it with two hands, palms facing upwards. Traditionally Ang Pow are given to children with money inside, our children were delighted to find a chocolate coin in theirs.

Ang Pow is a gift of money, which symbolises blessings, good luck, good health and success.

Next came our Chinese banquet. We are so fortunate at Mairtown to have connections to one of our past families who also happen to own a local takeaway business. They prepared a delicious feast for all our children and whānau to share consisting of noodles, fried rice, prawn crackers, beef and black bean, chicken and cashew – yum!

‘The connections we make, the actions we take, and the questions we ask each other are vital to how we develop a competent approach to culture in its many variations.’ (Shackwell, Early Childhood Australia)

This week we have continued our research and discoveries into the Chinese New Year, and observed how it instinctively integrates itself into our programme.  We have looked at the Chinese symbols used in art and writing and even practiced our own.










Plum blossom is another symbol linked to the Chinese New Year and was a wonderful resource to consider in our art studio as we continued our discussions today.

The plum blossom symbol is tied directly to the Chinese New Year, representing courage and hope. It is also much admired for blooming on bare branches during the cold winter months.

A simple combination of black Indian ink and water colour paints made some beautiful yet delicate blossom pictures.

With a few more days to go, no doubt Chinese New Year will continue to integrate itself further into our work at Kindergarten. But for now - Gung Hay Fat Choy - 恭禧發財 - Happy Chinese New Year.

Christine

Woodblock Print Making

Recently we have purchased woodcut-printing blocks to add to the resources available in our arts programme. These beautiful blocks are hand made in Rajasthan (India) by master carvers who create the intricate and precise designs by striking well placed chisels with metal bars. This ancient technique has remained unchanged for hundreds of years; it is laborious and intensive. Back at Kindergarten we are truly thankful for the artists/carvers time and effort, as the results for the print maker are absolutely gorgeous!

Printmaking enables children to explore different techniques and to see cause and effect in action more dramatically than with simply painting or drawing. What excites children into making print after print? Artist and author Ursula Kolbe (2007) believes that it is a seductive mix of physical action, expectation and surprise.

 

Each of these wooden stamps are a different size, shape and weight, and require the children to work purposefully with their hand actions to make a successful print. At first many of the children made quick stamp movements reenacting the same sequence for printing with a rubber stamp pad, however working with ink and woodcut stamps requires slowing down and precision; the children quickly discovered that by dabbing, pressing and pausing to hold the stamps on the paper for longer, clear and un-broken marks were left behind.

This thinking is demonstrated in Kate’s following explanation;

 “I’m going to hold this here (on the ink) for ten seconds; 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 and then on my paper for 100 seconds! It’s gonna make the lines all black”

When children begin printing, they concentrate on mastering the action involved, and tend to print quite randomly. They delight in repeating actions to investigate cause and effect (Kolbe, 2007).

As their skills develop, children begin to organize, assemble and combine their shapes. Marcus used a stem-patterned stamp to create ‘borders’ around other images whilst Mason used the same stamp to create a series of repeated pattern.

One of the joys of participating in children’s print making (through the roll of an observer) is noticing the anticipation and often surprise as children lift the woodblocks from the paper surface to observe what is underneath. Printing is often unpredictable; you never quite know what is going to happen and the results are often not what you expect. It is a great reminder that for children the pleasure in making art is in the process of discovery and not generally the results.

Nga mihi

Kim

Nau mai haere mai, welcome to Kindergarten in 2014

Welcome to a fresh new year at Kindergarten. It is lovely to be back, to see all our children return relaxed and refreshed, and also to welcome two new tamariki and their whanau - Zayne and Ngaio.

Our blog is a great way for everyone to see the programme and curriculum we offer at Mairtown Kindergarten. With each weekly post we focus on the children's learning, their ideas and inspirations; it is an excellent forum for gaining new knowledge and understanding about your children's learning at Kindergarten, and the value of early childhood education in general. So, remember to check back weekly for our posts and updates, we also love to hear any comments you may have - or even some suggestions - don't be shy, we really do love your thoughts and input!

Christine

Making Connections with Nature

One of my professional development goals over this last year as a teacher was to write an article, with the hope of having it published.

A passion of mine, and of the other teachers at Mairtown, is the environment that we provide for our attending children. The environment both inside and out should be carefully planned to engage children, to develop their curiosity, to develop their imagination and sense of wonder, ideally all within a nature based framework and curriculum.

I just wanted to share with you the article I wrote titled 'Making Connections with Nature', which I am excited to say has been published in both 'The Space' magazine and the most recent edition of 'The Education Gazette'.

Here is a copy from 'The Space' for those that may like to read it :)

 

Merry Christmas and a happy new year,

Christine

End of Year Celebration Picnic

Amazingly, we have reached the final week of kindergarten for the year, before our Christmas break.

To celebrate the past year, the achievements of our children and contributions from our whānau, last Thursday we held a picnic party at Mair Park.

It was glorious summer weather and so wonderful to see everyone relaxing, families catching up with each other and children playing. Many children arrived in some spectacular fancy dress outfits. What a great effort everyone!

For a bit of fun we also organised some traditional games, an egg and spoon race, sack race and my personal favourite the hula-hoop challenge!

 

We also had a treasure hunt amongst the trees and bushes. It’s great when it's treasure you can eat!

As a little surprise Mr Whippy visited us and handed out delicious cones of ice cream to the children. This was a lovely cooling treat for our hot afternoon, and as Kate told me, “This is just what I needed!”

We finish for the year this Thursday the 19^th December and will return next year on Wednesday 22^nd January. From all of us at Mairtown we wish our children and families a Happy Christmas – enjoy your well-earned holidays. I’d also like to say a huge thank you to all our families and whānau over the year for your help at Kindergarten. All your help - no matter how big or small - is really appreciated and makes a big difference for us as a teaching team. We couldn’t do it without you all!

Finally, good luck and lots of success to our children who are leaving us for school. Although we will miss you all, we know you are all ready for this next step in your education – haere rā! 

Ngā mihi o te Kirihimete me TeTau Hou

A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Nga mihi,
Christine