Mr Alligator, snap, snap, snap

Welcome to KIDSPACE Jay

Ra whanau ki a Taneesha

We celebrated Taneesha's 3rd birthday on 19 August. We took a lovely video of the children all singing Happy Birthday and Taneesha blowing out her candles. Unfortunately, after several attempts we have been unsuccessful in loading the video onto the blog.

Happy Birthday Taneesha!

The Show

This morning, the older girls were enjoying dancing to some music. They had dressed up, put all the drums in a row and were busy dancing to the groove.

After a while they decided they wanted to share this with the rest of the children, so they set about tidying up the place and inviting

everyone to their show.

After a few nervous giggles, they introduced the show to the children (The Little Mermaid song, Under The Sea).

Then they showed their stuff! They danced and danced and danced to all the children's delight. In fact, when the song came to the end, the little children called out, "Again, again."

After a round of Rockin' Robin, everybody got up and joined in to the song She'll Be Comming Round The Mountain.

Kai pai girls for having confidence to show your special skills to everyone.

We all enjoyed it!

Rachel

Happy Birthday Cian

Cian celebrated his 3rd Birthday at KIDSPACE on Tuesday 23rd, with both his Nana and Grandad here also. They stayed for morning tea before heading back home to Keri Keri

Children follow in parent's footsteps

Children follow in their parent's behaviour footsteps

New research from the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research and The University of Western Australia shows that parents have an important role to play in teaching their children to understand another person's feelings and point of view.

Lead researcher Brad Farrant from the Telethon Institute said the research investigated the factors that facilitate the development of positive social behaviour in four to six year old children.

"We found that mothers who have higher levels of empathy were more likely to encourage their children to think how others might be feeling, which in turn was associated with greater development of empathy skills in the child," Dr Farrant said,

"Quite simply, mothers who more regularly take the perspective of others are more likely to encourage their children to do the same."

Dr Farrant said children with more advanced perspective-taking skills behave more positively with other people.

"Parents can promote the development of their child's perspective-taking skills by encouraging their child to take the perspective of other children. This could be as simple as asking the child to think about why another child might be angry with them," Dr Farrant said.

The results were drawn from a study of children from three primary schools in Perth's Western and Southern suburbs.

Dr Farrant said these latest findings reinforce the importance of parents in modelling good social behaviour in early childhood. It supports previous research that found that warm and responsive parenting in infancy also promotes the development of prosocial behaviour.

(Source: Telethon Institute for Child Health Research: Infant and Child Development)

Welcome to KIDPSACE Lepa

Happy 4th Birthday Hannah

Irene, Rie and Tamara share blogging with E.I.T students

This Week at KIDSPACE

Welcome back to KIDSPACE Marley

Cleo assists Brayden to eat his lunch.

Ruby's puppy Tika visits KIDSPACE.

Our Whaanau afternoon

Parent - Teacher Meetings

The notice will be going up next week for whanau to indicate your preferred time if you would like a meeting with two of our teachers.

Meetings will be held on Monday 12 September and Wednesday 14 September from 4.30 pm.

These meetings are always very positive and we really value this time to share information between KIDSPACE and home. It helps us to provide better learning experiences for your child through getting to know your family better. This is a wonderful opportunity to solely focus on your child for 15 minutes with teachers who a vitally interested in your child.

Ra whanau ki a Ahlyna

Today we celebrated Ahlyna's birthday at KIDSPACE. The teachers and children all sang 'Happy Birthday' and Ahlyna blew out her two candles.

Spotty the Lamb

Last week Isabella and Emily spent lengthy periods sharing their stories of when Spotty the lamb came to stay. They were very excited about the fact that they got to feed Spotty milk from a bottle, but also stressed the fact that they both missed her since her return to her owners.

After several days of hearing Isabella and Emily's tales of the lamb, I suggested they bring a photo to show their friends at KIDSPACE, which they were very eager to do, however there was a little problem, they had not yet been printed.

Today on arrival at KIDSPACE, Zilda, Isabella and Emily's mum, informed me that the girls were very proactive in reminding her about these precious photos, and suggested we view them from the camera instead, and that is what we did.

After setting up the laptop and camera, we sat down to view these much talked about photos, and before long a large audience had congregated around the screen. Isabella and Emily did a wonderful job of narrating as we flicked through the photos, and not only did we get shown Spotty, the girls very proudly told us a story about the time they stayed on a marae, and showed us the relevant photos.

It was wonderful to hear stories about the girls experiences outside KIDSPACE, and I thank Zilda for allowing Isabella and Emily to share some of them with us.

Ruby's Picture

This morning I set up a range of coloured paints on the deck outside. I put small tipped brushes with the paints. Ruby took an interest in the paints and appeared to have a clear idea of what she wanted to paint. She sat down and began choosing her colours and adding the details to the paper. After a few moments, I asked Ruby about her painting. I could tell that she was eager to share, but she kept saying, "It's a special secret and I'll tell you when I have finished it".

As I sat closely, watching Ruby at work, and assisting other children, Ruby kept looking over at me and giving me a cheeky smile, as if she was checking that I was still watching her. Once she had completed her picture, Ruby was ready to tell me all about it. "It's allllll about circles". "Circles and the moon AND the planets". I looked at Ruby's picture carefully as she pointed out which part was the moon and where the planets were. I told Ruby that I really liked her picture, particulary the colours she used, and how many planets she fitted onto her paper. I asked Ruby where she remembered seeing the moon and planets from, and she said, "Ainslee, I even went in your car, dont you remember?" Ruby was referring to the planetarium visit we went on in July. Ruby told me that she laid back in the chair and watched as the moon and planets and stars moved past.

I love the way Ruby has portrayed the new knowledge she gained from the planetarium visit into her painted picture. Fantastic work Ruby!

Ainslee

Shooting hoops

On Friday morning, while Paige and I were getting the bag of balls out of the shed, we found a plastic ring with a handle, that looked like a hoop when held up. Paige instantly associated it with a hoop for shooting balls, and took an interest. I suggested we find some cellotape and tape it to a wooden post to practice shooting balls in the hoop.

Paige was excited and starting collecting as many balls as she could. Once I had taped it up, I discovered it was actually a big bubble blower... but it still did the trick as a hoop. Paige began throwing the ball up to the hoop, and then got ready to catch it, whichever way it landed.

Within seconds, Rionagh joined in on the ball throwing. Then Libby, Jack, Donnagh and Cian. They were all throwing the ball at the hoop, and suprisingly not getting in each others way. The children knew which ball they had thrown and which ball to chase after. This experience provided the children with the opportunity to practice their ball skills, including, throwing, catching, hand eye co-ordination, balance, throwing over head etc. As well as the social/fun aspect, it was a fun spontaneous experience that the children were able to join in on together. It wasn't just restricted to 3 and 4 year old children; Rionagh showed that she was very confident and competent in throwing the ball too! Tino pai to mahi e tamariki.

I did have a 2 minute video to add with the post but I'm having trouble uploading it. Hopefully I can post it shortly.

Ainslee

This week at KIDSPACE

Measles Outbreak

We currently have a few cases of CHICKEN POX, however the Ministry of Education has today issued a notice to schools and early childhood centres about an outbreak of measles, mostly in the Auckland region, but also 27 recent cases in Hawkes Bay.

Measles symptoms

Measles is a highly infectious disease and is more serious than many people realise. Symptoms include fever, rash, cough, red eyes and a runny nose, and then a rash which develops after about 3 days. Complications include middle ear infections, pneumonia, and, more rarely, encephalitis or brain inflammation, and about one in ten people need to be hospitalised.

The best measles prevention is the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine which is free for all New Zealand children.

This this the link to the above MOE notice

www.minedu.govt.nz/HealthMeaslesUpdates

Irene

Charlie Draws

Exploring Snow

Through this experience they are having opportunities to explore science,

watching as the solid snow turns into liquid. They experienced what

happens when they suck on snow, they get water where they are

learning cause and effect.

Tamara

Our KIDSPACE song

We have had a few parents wanting the words to our KIDSPACE song so here they are.......

To the tune of, 'I would love to teach the world to sing'

We are the kids of KIDSPACE
We love to laugh and play
We are the kids of KIDSPACE
We have fun throughout the day

Ko Maatou ngaa tamariki,
o Te matauranga e,
Ki te mau Te Aroha, me te takaro
Ko matou ngaa tamariki, o Te Matauranga e
Ki te mau Te Aroha, i ngaa wa Katoa


Happy singing

Tamara

Winter wonderland day

On Wednesday 27th July, we held a Winter Wonderland day at KIDSPACE. We invited children to dress in 'wintery' clothes, and we had all sorts of outfits on the day. Pyjamas, jackets, hats, beanies, gloves, scarves, slippers, gumboots, ski boots, goggles, dresses etc, plus all the new KIDSPACE outfits including the dinosaur and tiger suits.

The centre was decorated with blue fairy lights and the children thought it was was magical. We had a shared morning tea including banana chocolate chip muffins, cherrios, sausage rolls, a range of fruit and warm milo! On the tables at morning tea time, we had ring tin frozen ice with flowers, leaves and grass frosted through it. I think there was even a plastic spider or two hidden amongst them.

A fun day had by all.
Ainslee

Fun with Fingerpaint

Recently, I had the pleasure of watching Brayden explore the texture of fingerpaint that had been placed on the table outside. Upon noticing the bright red mass, he approached looking a little cautious, however, after placing his finger into it several times he soon realised there was nothing to fear.

Brayden certainly appeared to be enjoying this experience, as he poked and prodded, and rubbed his hands through the paint, then picking up handfuls and squeezing the mixture through his little fingers.

Through this experience Brayden is developing strategies for actively exploring, and making sense of the world by using his body, including active exploration with all the senses, and the use of tools, materials, and equipment to extend skills. He is also developing a perception that he is capable of acquiring new interests and abilities, not to mention the fun that was had.

Monica