GOOD FRIENDS

Te Kira, Maia, and Sarah have been enjoying each others company of late, and it is clearly evident by these photos. Te Kira placed herself on the rope swing and began swinging herself, however it was not long before she was joined by Maia and Sarah who were eager to have a turn too. I watched as they discussed and negotiated who would have a turn and when. It was wonderful to observe the girls' ability in communicating their ideas and the mutual respect for each other among the group. This is an example of the many interactions that occur between children during the day at KIDSPACE.
Te Kira, Maia, and Sarah are developing responsive and reciprocal skills, such as turn-taking and offering as well as the capacity to discuss and negotiate rules, rights, and fairness.
Monica

FUN TOGETHER

The value of swinging

 
Jessie

The Weather Today

As part of our preparation for the Winter Wonderland Day the children learnt this weather song. Ask them to sing it for you.

Kei te hukapapa, it's frosty today,

Kei te hukapapa, it's frosty today,

Kei te hukapapa, it's frosty today,

Tomorrow there might be huka - snow!

Kei te makariri, it's cold today,

Kei te makariri, it's cold today,

Kei te makariri, it's cold today,

Tomorrow there might be ua - rain!

Kei te hauhau, it's windy today,

Kei te hauhau, it's windy today,

Kei te hauhau, it's windy today,

Because it's takurua - winter!

WINTER WONDERLAND day

Photos on our blog of WINTER WONDERLAND day, out next week- once we have downloaded all photos taken on the many cameras we used to record this day!
Jessie

Gloop

Tamara

Teachers goals

At the moment we (the teacher's) are working on our Te reo Maori so we can become more knowledgeable. At staff meetings we are going to start practicing our pepeha's/ mihi where we came from, who our parents are, what is our mountain and river. And working together on more phrases.


Tamara:)

Paige and Noah being great friends

 

Tamara

Sandpit is...my place to be

 

Tamara

A picture says a thousand words!!!

 

Tamara

0609 June Newsletter

Double Click to view full size

WINTER WONDERLAND day

This Thursday 25th June, we are celebrating all things cold and wintery by having a Winter WONDERLAND day.

 

Today a few children had a go at the games and activities we will be doing on Thursday.

We practised gumboot throwing, Chardanae's mum Jamie showed the children how to throw a gumboot even further! Some children threw under arm, some over their heads, like Jasper and a few even kicked the gumboot from off their foot!

We also started on our decorations, cutting snow flakes with scissors, as Theo and Irene show.

So see you all then, on Thursday in Winter theme dress up for our WINTER WONDERLAND day.

Jessie

Help us name our white bird (manu)

We need help from whanau to name our (white) bird. 

Our grey (Perky look-a-like) bird's name is Bo, as in Botanical Gardens from which they came. 

Please discuss ideas with your children and let the teachers know or better still add as a comment on our whanau blog! Then we can vote and decide. Kia ora!

E peke

Laker, Charlie and Eneri didn't choose to walk the plank and ladder or slide down the slide that was set up outside, but to peke (jump) from one to the other instead. They jumped together, counting down and bending their knees to spring up or said "ready, steady, go!"  There was lots of laughing and getting back up on the planks if one tama (boy) jumped or fell off too soon. They watched each other to make sure they could all jump the same way at the same time. There was lots of arms out for balance and eyes to the ground to watch their own taking off and landing, to be safe. All three showed great physical ability.

"The children's range of physical skills is extended through access to such equipment as skipping roapes, balls, racquets, bats and balance boards", Exploration, Te Whaariki.

Jessie

Our tent

Maia and Sarah worked on their tent before and after morning tea this morning. They made their tent from scarves, putting the circle stools underneath to build their tent up. Sarah tipped out all of the scarves from the hanging basket onto the floor, and side by side Maia and Sarah worked to shake and spread out each scarf over the scarf tent. When posing for this photo the girls chose to say "kiwi". This was Sarah's idea as they didn't want to say "scarf", or "cheese".  Together they worked hard and had their mind set on the tent task the whole time, showing great team work, planning, constructing, turn taking, and contribution.  A very colourful tent indeed!

"For young children the programme provides successful, enjoyable experiences in non-tradional pursuits, for example girls with construction materials and in 'fixing' roles", Contribution, Te Whaariki.

Towards the end of their tent making Sarah and Maia let Chardanae join in. During tidy up time before lunch Maia put away all the stools and Chardanae picked up all the scarves.

Jessie

New Lego at KIDSPACE

 

This is our new Lego from Irene, we unwrapped the Lego from small clear bags on Friday. Inside the bags where leaves,  boards, flowers, tree trunks, water and dinosaur shaped pieces.  We built the trees, made homes for the dinsoaurs and used our older Lego to mix and match with our new dinosaur Lego. We took turns to have two dinosaurs each, so everyone could use them. Thanks Irene.

Jessie

New equipment at KIDSPACE

 

On Friday James visited us for the afternoon, bringing a brown paper parcel with him. He let us open the parcel, inside was a Maxamex construction set. We helped make a Teddy Bear's Racing Car. This construction set can build up to 69 different machines and objects, what will we make next?- a dragon, Police car or snow scooter? Thanks James.

Jessie

Swine 'flu - What can you do?

The three main MoH recommendations for stopping the spread of germs are:

Wash your hands regularly and thoroughly and help your children to do the same:

• Wet your hands with water and apply soap.
• Rub hands to make a lather and scrub all surfaces.
• Continue for 20 seconds.
• Rinse hands well under running water.
• Dry your hands.
• If possible use a towel to turn off the tap.

Avoiding contact with sick people and reducing time spent in crowed settings

Covering coughs and sneezes

Signs and symptoms of the new Influenza A (H1N1) virus are similar to the symptoms of seasonal flu and can include: 

• fever
• cough
• sore throat
• runny or stuffy nose
• body aches
• headache
• chills
• fatigue.

Some people also experience diarrhoea and vomiting.

Influenza H1N1 Update

Parents should be assured that at KIDSPACE we have in place a Pandemic Plan and have reviewed our Pandemic kit developed during the Bird 'flu scare. We are also keeping up with developments daily. We have taken extra precautions to minimise virus transference.
Now that we have cases of community infected Swine Flu in New Zealand (whilst they may be at this stage centered outside Hawkes Bay) we would urge all parents to follow the MoH guidelines and keep their children at home if they are showing signs of flu like illness. This way we can minimise the impact of the H1N1 virus at KIDSPACE and in the wider community. While the virus is currently classed as mild to medium, it is the lack of immunity that increases its potential to cause harm.

We appreciate that keeping your child home can cause issues for parents, however, we do ask that you follow the MoH guidelines and keep your child home if they are ill. If you are unwell yourself, please stay away from KIDSPACE, ie. do not come in to drop off your child. We really appreciate you co-operation in this matter.

If you would like further advice, or you or your child are showing signs of sickness, phone the MoH free phone 0800 611 116. This KIDSPACE blog now has a link to the Ministry of Health Influenza Update (see LINKS in right hand column). There is also information in our notice board beside the sign in sheet.

Squelch, squish, shlop, plop

 

Tamara

4000 and rising!

Check out the blog counter - over 4000 hits! The world map is looking interesting too. I wonder if we could get some red dots in other parts of the world?

My reflection

 

By Tamara

Secret Garden

Sarah .B

JoJo The Clown

WOW, check out Max!!
Jude brought in her dress-up box today and Max found the 'Jojo the clown' outfit. Max must have seen Jojo on t.v because he immediately began to sing 'hey Jojo, what do you know, we all wanna know what you did today". Max loved dressing up and pretending to be someone else. "You look very cool Max!" Sarah.B

KIDSPACE new birds

 

 

Oh Such Perseverance.

The outdoors was set up with lots of climbing equipment, and after watching some of the older children walk the narrow plank Netana decided to give it a go himself.
Initially, he chose to cross with assistance from me, again and again, backwards and forwards, until gaining confidence to go it alone. Well, all the perseverance paid off as it wasn't long before he no longer wanted or needed my hand, instead choosing to go it alone.
Netana looked very proud of himself and what he had achieved, and was very eager to show his newly learnt skill to his KIDSPACE friends. Monica

Happy Birthday Isabel

Ladder swinging

"I was dropping on a ladder, my feet went on the ground", said Charlie.

"I was just swinging off that thing, the swing ladder, the wood ladder", said Trya.

"Jessie is holding the ladder, because, so the ladder can't hurt us in our face and bonk us. Jasper likes swinging on it", said Tyra.

"Tyra is about to touch the floor, the mat with her body", said Charlie.

This is Tyra and Charlie's story of using the ladder swing in the deck area today, when it was raining outside. They uploaded these photos to our blog when Jed, an interviewer and camera man from CORE Education visited us as part of making a Ministry of Education dvd for teachers to use about blogging. Elijah, Sarah and Laker helped to click the mouse and attach the photos also.

Jessie

Teachers goals

At the moment we (the teacher's) are working on our te reo Maori so we can become more knowledgeable. At staff meetings we are going to start practicing our pepeha's/ mihi where we came from, who our parents are, what is our mountain and river. And working together on more phrases.


Tamara:)

Reading stories

 

Click to enlarge

Tamara

Happy Birthday Max

 

Click to enlarge

Tamara

Creepy Crawlies

 

Click to enlarge

By Tamara

Oly's SHOES

Trip to ANIMALZ pet shop

On Friday Sarah, Ruby, Max G, Sophie, Noah, Oly, Louise and myself went for a walk to ANIMALZ pet shop. It was a really nice experience to go for a walk, get some fresh air and get out and about in the community. Ruby got really exited when she saw big trucks on the road and she would say, "woo, look at that big truck, Tamara". At the pet shop we saw budgies, kittens, fish and a dog being groomed. When Noah saw all the fish tanks he got SOOOO!!! excited, he squealed and squealed. Max G was very taken by the little mouse cages. Oly liked the look of those cute little kittens, Sophie, Ruby and Sarah liked watching the dog as he was being trimmed. I really enjoyed this trip and I could tell the children thrived on it too. It is so valuable for the KIDSPACE children to go on excurisons to see what's going on in their wider world.

Tamara.