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

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

Trip to Nelson Park School to visit Donnagh

Teddy bears picnic

Click to enlarge

Ainslee

Tea party at Emily and Isabella's house

(Click to enlarge)

Ainslee

Living Legends Planting Day

Be a Legend! Planting Day Saturday 24 September at Ahuriri Estuary
As well as being a wonderful opportunity to learn about conservation from the experts,the day will be a fun one; you may even get to meet a Rugby Legend!

We are looking at registering a KIDSPACE group for this event, so if you are interested in joining us, please add your name and approximate number of adults and children, to the comments section of this blog post or to the Paper 4 Trees notice on the noticeboard.
Irene

Rugby World Cup - Teams Flags

On Friday I introduced to the children, the flags of the 20 teams that are playing in the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand. Hannah, Libby, and Cian showed an interest as soon as I had the laminator out. The children helped me to put the flags in laminating pockets. A few moments later, Donnagh, Luke, Joshua, and Ruby joined us. Donnagh was eager to find the Irsh flag. He held it up proud! Luke took responsibility for feeding the pockets into the laminator. As we feed each flag in, the children asked which country it was for, and this gave me an opportunity to give the children knowledge about other countries and how they are involved in the RWC. Cian liked the flag of Wales as it had a dragon on it and the children thought the flag of Argentina was funny because it has a sun on it! We talked about the New Zealand flag of course, and Ruby noticed that the NZ flag and Australia flag were similar. Good comparison!

We have proudly displayed the 20 flags in the foyer of KIDSPACE. Many learning opportunites had by the children.

Ainslee

Community Concert

After seeing a write up in the weekly paper about the Onekawa School holiday programme putting on a concert for invited guests, both Rie and Irene had the idea to phone up and see if we could get an invite for our children. It was agreed that we could attend their rehearsal. Although it was a very brief rehearsal, our children enjoyed the occasion of sitting on the tiered seating and later having their afternoon tea alongside the older children. We dodged the showers of rain and managed to stay dry getting there and back.

Happy Birthday Monica

Ainslee

Red Nose Day

Click on photo to enlarge.

Red Nose Day is a national fundraising campaign that celebrates our communities, embraces the light-hearted Kiwi culture, and supports children across New Zealand. A simple idea created over two decades ago, the campaign encourages everyone to let go, laugh, and be silly...all for a serious cause.

On Friday 15th July it was Red Nose Day in New Zealand. As part of celebrating and drawing awareness to the day, I got the laptop out with the children, and googled the trademark Red Nose song. "You make the whole world smile with your little button nose". Starting off with just Jaz, Emily and Rionagh many more children came over and showed an interest and were asking questions. We were listening and watching the song sung by Anika Moa. When the song finished, the children kept asking for it to be played again and again. We then got the red face paint out and painted our little noses red! The children had so much fun!

Ainslee

Happy 2nd Birthday Brayden

Double click to enlarge

Happy 5th Birthday Acacia

Ainslee

A trip in to town...

On the 5th of January we had just a small group of children at KIDSPACE, so Ainslee, Kerry and Rochelle took Shaydn, Lyrique, Jaz, Aimee, Mollie, Jorja and Akasha for a trip into town! We packed morning tea and headed down to the bus stop. Our first stop was the Napier Library were we enjoyed our morning tea under a shady tree, waiting excitedly for the Council Chambers to open. Just before 10.30 we made our way up stairs and lifts, ready to watch Zappo the Magician!! We found a good spot, in amongst other children, parents and families. Zappo had lots of funny things to show and tell. He had a parrot puppet and told stories. Zappo invited some children one at a time up the front to play little tricks on them as well. His last trick was to cover a rabbit hutch with 'magic blankets' and after he said a spell, and pulled the covers off, there was a little fluffy rabbit! Shaydn, Jorja, Lyrique and Mollie were so intrigued and interested and were watching and listening all the way through. Jaz, Aimee and Akasha (the younger children), sat very well, and enjoyed being in the atmosphere of things and watching different people interact.

After the show had finished, we headed over to the Marine Parade playground, where we had our lunch from our lunchboxes and a big drink of water. We had a big play on the playground afterwards as well! Slides, tunnels, swings, ladders kept the children energised and happy! After we packed up from the park, it was nearly time to head back to the bus stop. But not until we had stopped for an ice cream at Lick-it!. The children chose their flavours and we sat outside in the sun eating ice creams before heading back on the bus.

Children develop interest and pleasure in discovering an unfamiliar wider world where the people, images, objects, languages, sounds, smells and tastes are different from those at home (Belonging, Te Whariki).

Ainslee

Live to tell the tale

Live to tell the tale

Napier Civil Defence Open Day

Saturday 16 October 10am - 2pm

War Memorial Conference Centre, Marine Parade

Get Ready Get Thru
How to get through in an emergency

HB Magpies, Giveaways, Prizes

Fire Engine Visit to KIDSPACE

On wednesday the 25th August, four firemen came to visit us at KIDSPACE, in their big fire engine! This was sparked from Max and Shaydn's interests. Two of the fire fighters came inside and read the children a book called 'Get out, Stay out'... conveying information of what to do if there is a fire. Max had a turn at putting on a children's fire fighters outfit, as one of the other fire fighters put all his gear on. We then went outside and took turns at looking at the fiire engine. In groups of three, the children had a turn looking at the hoses, the big truck and climbing up inside. The things the children seemed to notice most was how big the wheels were and the different equipment there was e.g. helmets, hoses, buttons etc.

Thank you very much to the fire men who came along. We loved having you to visit us. We have since done a fire drill and talked about getting out safely in the event of a fire.

"Children develop knowledge about the role of the wider world, including the fire service" and "children develop an interest and pleasure in discovering an unfamiliar wider world where people, images, objects and sounds are different from those at home (Te Whaariki, Contribution).

Ainslee

Napier Cental School Visit

Last Tuesday (24th August) Napier Central School orchestra and choir visited KIDSPACE! About 50 students attended with the ochestra setting up their wide range of musical instruments on the deck, while the choir waited and watched by the sandpit until it was their time to shine! The KIDSPACE kids sat excitedly on the obstacle mats and grass, watching and taking it all in. Some of the big school kids had a turn to stand up and speak briefly about the musical instrument they were playing. The orchestra played 5 pieces of music for us. All the children in the orchestra all played an important role. The KIDSPACE kids and teachers clapped when they finished and were eagerly waiting for the next one. The choir were up next, singing a range of high and low pitched songs, plus some songs with lead singers singing in the microphones. Some of the KIDSPACE children joined in by doing quack quack actions to one of the songs. Netana was excited to see his big sister after the concert, who played in the orchestra. The attention of the children was really good, as they sat and observed for about half an hour. A very well put together performance.

Ainslee

Visit from Health Nurse

Helen from the Ministry of Health visited us at KIDSPACE today, delivering messages to the children about healthy teeth. She used visual props and bought Dr Rabbit along. She talked to the children about brushing teeth regulary, how much toothpaste to use, healthy eating and drinking plenty of water. Some of the children, including Jack, Shaydn, Ataahua and Acacia had a turn at brushing the big set of teeth. I hope the parents found the note from the nurse in the lunch boxes :)

Ainslee

Farm at the End of the Road production

On Tuesday 22nd June, Monica and myself (along with our great parent helper Kelly, Caelyn's mum) took a group of nine children to the Capital E production 'Farm at the End of the Road' at the Municipal Theatre. Maia, Caelyn, Eneri, Ruby, Donnagh, Kian, Oly and Libby were ready and waiting to catch the 9am bus, just a one minute walk down the road from KIDSPACE, which took us just outside the Napier Library. From there we held hands with our buddies and made our way down to the theatre. We met Charlie there, and had morning tea on the grass before the show started. We went inside and found the usher lady who showed us to our seats. It was a very fun and exciting atmosphere for the children. The theatre was packed full with children, teachers and other adults. The children's faces were priceless when the show began. Puppets, singing, musical instruments, acting, props, and familiar items and songs from nursery rhymes kept the children very entertained. After 50 minutes of fun and excitement, we made our way out of the theatre and off to Marine Parade. We sat on the grass in the sun for some early lunch and talked about all the things we enjoyed about the show! We walked back through town, observing the business of town, shops, people and roads before catching the 12pm bus back to KIDSPACE. A very fun outing had by all.


Thank you to Kelly Rakei for being our parent helper for this trip.


AInslee

Matariki New Year planting

For Matariki- Maaori New Year we planted new pot plant petipeti (flowers).

Jess, Max, Charlie, Eneri and Kian helped to add potting mixture to our hanging baskets, pulling out the old dead petipeti with a koko (shovel).

We selected different coloured pansies to press into the one (soil). These where coloured whero (red), kowhai (yellow) orange (karaka) and tawa (purple). Lastly we watered them before rehanging.

We plan to plant more seeds to whakanui (celebrate) Matariki, as this is a time to plant crops, prepare and take action for the Maaori New Year.

"Nga kai o Matariki naana i ae ake ki runga- Makariki scoops up the food".

Jessie

Our trip to two local art galleries

As a follow on from some of the children's developing interest in visual arts, Irene and I took Libby, Eneri and Ruby to visit some of our local art galleries in Ahuriri. After a quick stop off at Irene's house for some hot chocolate and pikelets for morning tea (and a sneak peak at James' and Irene's own art collection), we drove down to Ahuriri. The children took a clipboard each with plenty of paper and bucket full of pencils and felts to get creative. In each of the galleries the children drew inspiration from very different pieces of art, and began to get a wider understanding of visual arts as more than just painting. We had a fantastic morning and the children came back to KIDSPACE with a collection of their own masterpieces.

Jess