"Can we make gingerbread men"

It was mid morning and Cleo's mum had dropped her off.  She sat in the art room and ate her ginger bread man.  Paige had noticed this and approached me and said, "Tamara can we please make ginger bread men?",  I replied, "Sure, after morning tea we can."  Paige smiled.  Once morning tea was finished I gathered all the ingredients together. Gradually word got out that we were doing some baking.  Lots of children flocked to the table.  We had Seth, Paige, Lexi, Jaz, Anika, Taneesha, Ruby, Rionagh, Cleo, Ahlyna and Lucas, who all helped with the baking process. There were lots of repeated questions from Lexi and Ruby. "Can I have a turn?, Can I have a turn?."  I reiterated that we would all get a turn at doing something.  Ruby continued to ask.  "Remember what I said Ruby",  I replied.  She said, "Oh, yeah."  Paige stayed right to the end of the baking process.  Even when lunch was ready she continued to roll the dough and cut out more ginger bread.  We measured out the sugar, flour, baking soda, milk and ginger.   The children were very eager and enjoying this baking experience.  What a great opportunity it was to gain practice in early mathematical skills, like measuring, quantity and volume.  They built on language concepts such as, 'Fill to the top'; 'fill half a cup'; 'a quarter of a cup'.  These are all skills that can be learnt through baking.  The children were able to communicate with each other, practice listening skills, turn take, learn patience and be involved.

Tamara

Decorating our biscuits

We're going on a Squeezy hunt

The children were playing outside, when Ruby noticed Squeezy in the bushes. His favourite place to play! Ruby quite likes Squeezy and enjoys looking after him and feeding him.  When he was spotted in the grass bushes, it turned into a game.  Although it wasn't time to find Squeezy and put him away, it turned into a 'find Squeezy' game.

The children began diving and crawling in and out of the bushes, trying to find him.  After a few minutes, they stopped looking for him and pretended to be him!  Ruby and Joshua were the instigators of it all, with Marley, Cian and Lucas not far behind.

Its important for children's self-esteem and sense of humour/fun, that we recognise the value of spontanous play.

Ainslee

Working together

Ruby and Lukah have formed quite a lovely friendship. The other day I observed them working together to set up the see-saw.

Ruby is so good at organising others. She had a plan in mind and had enlisted Lukah to help her achieve this task.

The girls had originally stacked the blocks up a bit too high. My first impulse was to step in and make them aware of this but I decided to wait and see what happened.

Once Lukah and Ruby had worked together to lift the top on the seesaw they discovered that it was difficult for the second person to get on. I expected one of them to ask for my help lifting them on but no.
"It's too high" Ruby decided "We have to make it lower"
So again with great teamwork they set about lifting the top off again and removing one block so that the seesaw was lower. They were now able to get on and off with ease and happily seesawed away.

Tino pai too mahi kotiro!

I was really impressed with the way Ruby was able to problem-solve and communicate her ideas with Lukah. Lukah understood exactly what Ruby was trying to achieve and willingly worked alongside her.
Rie

The Easter Egg hunt

Click to Enlarge!

Easter bunny

Meghan painted some of the chidren's faces like Easter bunnies for our centre Easter celebrations. They held the Easter basket with eggs when they had a photo, which they had decorated earlier in the morning. Have a look at their bunny faces don't they look fantastic.
Click to enlarge!

Tamara

Easter visit to Bardowie

Last Thursday Tamara and Rie took a small group of children to visit the residents at Bardowie Retirement Complex. We took some easter bunny biscuits that we had baked and decorated the day before and were given some special easter treats in return. The children entertained the residents with a few golden oldie tunes which they sang along with us. Paige, Seth and Lexi were very comfortable in this environment, chatting away to different people. Paige proudly showed her sparkly shoes to one of the ladies who also loves shoes. It is great to have the opportunity to visit places in our community like Bardowie and build relationships with them. Visiting Bardowie is becoming a regular event now and the staff and residents often ask after children that have come on previous visits.

Rie

Science fun

Climbing, jumping and sliding on the deck

During our rainy days last week, the children enjoyed playing on the climbing blocks, slide and jumping mats. I captured photos of Paige, Marley, Scarlett, Anika, Ahlyna, Seth, Jaz, Milan and Max and Cleo challenging themselves on the obstacles, and working along side each other. There was a lot of encouragement for using paitence, turn taking and 'your words' as all of the children were so eager to have a turn.

It's important that children still have the opportunity to 'burn off some energy' on these rainy inside days.

Ainslee

Ruby's piglet and bear story

Ainslee

Just in time for the school holidays

Amazing deal in April at the Napier Toy Library.
Only $15 for a THREE month Trial Membership.
Huge range of toys & equipment for Babies, Pre-school & Primary age children. It’s like Christmas every week but so much cheaper!
58 West Quay, Ahuriri, Car Park entry behind Shed 2
Open Tues 9:30am-1pm, Wed 3:30-6pm & Sat 9:30am-1pm ph 8355951