A new friendship forming

Lately I have noticed that Zoe and Lukah are beginning to form a new friendship. When I arrived on Tuesday morning, the girls were building with the blocks together, and I heard some of the conversations they were having. They were talking very nicely to one another, and showed good listening skills.

After morning tea that day, I saw the girls playing at the play dough table. Zoe has made lots of things with playdough before, and she was showing Lukah all the things you can do with dough.

It's nice to see Zoe and Lukah forming a friendship and enjoying interactions with each other.

Ainslee

Making morning tea

Last Thursday morning I had lots of children wanting to help me with preparing morning tea, so into the art-room we went to make banana muffins. Morning tea was a bit late but this didn't matter as the children had the opportunity to engage in a valuable learning experience. Baking integrates a range of concepts. These include maths concepts such as numeracy, measurement, and volume; science concepts such as chemistry and physics. We talked about how substances change texture and shape when different ingredients are added and also how temperature effects the finished product. The children enjoyed having input into preparing our kai and sharing this with the rest of the KIDSPACE whanau.

Rie

Exploring our bodies

Best of friends

Puppet show

Exploring the water and sand

Ainslee

Trip to Park Island

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

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

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

Poesy's painting experience

Poesy had a wonderful learning experience yesterday. In just a nappy and KIDSPACE t-shirt, Poesy explored paint and messy play!

To begin with, I just tipped the paint in front of Poesy's legs (within reach), to see what she would do. Not fazed by it, Poesy used only one finger to dip it in the paint, and do a taste test. Not bothered by the taste she started to use her hands a bit more. I used my fingers to smear some paint on her feet and on her leg. Poesy liked the feel of it. She began to copy me. She dipped her hands in the paint and stared at her hands in fascination. I then introduced some orange colour and Poesy watched as orange spots dripped onto the green. She knew straight away where the new paint was, and what to do with it, because she picked up a huge clump of it.

I then introduced some little flower stampers and a roller. Straight away, Poesy took an interest in these. Nanny Monica even put a flower on her head, and she loved it. This is a special experience for Poesy, as well as her teachers. I was excited to watch her explore, be curious and amused and simply having fun getting messy! At one point, Poesy had an audience as some of the older girls were so excited to watch her 'paint', and thought it was cute that she had paint on her nappy. After Poesy had finshed exploring the paint, we ran a warm bath in the bathroom and she enjoyed splashing in there and getting all nice and clean before a bottle and bed :)

Infants/young children see, hear and participate in creative and expressive happenings in their own way, for example, by putting their hands in paint, clapping their hands and enjoying creative actions (Te Whariki, Communication).

Ainslee

Planetarium Visit

Today we took a group of older children to visit the Planetarium at Napier Boys High. This was an extension of our Matariki celebrations. We got to see the Seven Sisters constellation that the Maori associate with Matariki. First we watched a DVD about astronauts in their rocket ship in space. The children thought this was really funny as it demonstrated what happens when there is no gravity to hold things down like on earth. Watching the astronuauts eat their kai was especially funny. Next we went into the planetarium and Gary operated his special equipment to replicate the night sky at 6pm tonight. He then gave a very informative presentation about the planets, stars and constellations that are showing in the night sky at the moment. This learning experience provided the children with an opportunity to explore about science, physics and the world around them in a meaningful context.

Rie

Another happy tale...

After spending time with Donnagh reading stories on the couch, he continued to read books. Noah took an interest and sat up on the couch with him. Donnagh really liked the book 'Another happy tale', about the new born baby being raised on a farm with the baby pigs. When I was reading with Donnagh previous to this, he had requested this book three times, so it appears to be a favourite. He was excited to share it with Noah and point out his favourite parts of the story. A number of times I heard the boys laughing, while engrossed in the story. I could see that they were getting pleasure from reading through the book and exploring the pictures together.

Children develop an expectation that words, pictures and books can amuse, delight, comfort, illuminate, inform and excite (Communication goal three, Te Whaariki).

Ainslee

Best of mates

Noah and Joshua are such great mates. Every chance they get, they are playing together. The imagination between those two boys is amazing. They make up their own games and simply love being boisterous.

Ainslee

Re-visiting the paints

The other day I took some photos of Jak playing with the paint pottles on the concrete. This reminded me of the learning story I wrote about Jak's interest in paints, at the beginning of April. After the paints were set up outside, Jak enjoyed choosing a pottle and a brush, and transporting it away from the table. He does this everytime I see him participating in 'painting'. Another thing I documented Jak doing, was eating it!! He had it smeared all over his face... but this time he put his hands in it first, before going in to eat it.

I love watching Jak play, because it shows me the importance of engaging young children in a range of experiences, from an early age. He is curious, inquisitive and confident, and loves exploring, and this is evident in both this photo story and the learning story I wrote in April.

Ainslee

Construction time

Recently KIDSPACE purchased some interlocking building blocks. The children have eagerly been waiting to build with the blocks but these had to be oiled first and storage arranged. Finally, today is the day. "Yay" Donnagh said when he arrived and found this out. Donnagh, Rionagh, Taneesha and Cian promptly set about creating with the blocks. As other children arrived at the centre they became interested and were quick to join in. What a team effort. It was great to observe the children working together and using social skills such as turn-taking, sharing and co-operation. The children are also exploring maths concepts such as big, small, tall, wide, long and counting as well as developing cognitive skills such as problem-solving.

Tino pai to mahi tamariki ma!!

written by Rie

Swinging Mad

As a lot of us are aware, Taneesha is very passionate about the swing in the sandpit. At almost any opportunity she can get she is on that swing. She has mastered the skill of getting herself onto the swing and taking off with a hiss and a roar. She has no limits to the height she likes to go (as high as possible). Taneesha has very developed upper body strength. She can hold herself up on the swing for a very long time, swinging herself backwards and forwards. Not only is she strengthening her muscles and gross motor skills, but she is also learning about social concepts such as sharing and turn taking. Over time I have noticed Taneesha is more happy to share the swing with other children as she is now more aware she will get another turn soon.

Tino pai rawa Taneesha!

Tamara

New addition to KIDSPACE family

We have a new addition to KIDSPACE this week - my 6 week old baby guinea pig has arrived. He is a lovely grey-white colour and is very cute. All the children have enjoyed taking turns in giving him cuddles, supporting him settling into KIDSPACE. The children also enjoyed making him guinea pig cookies, consisting of banana, carrot, honey, pellets and rolled oats - YUM! Over the next couple of days the children will decide on a name for our new pet.

Ann, February.

All aboard

This morning the children used their imagination and creative skills to transform a collection of giant lego and foam shapes into a bus. Rie was the designated driver to start with, taking the children wherever they wanted to go. We ended up going to the beach, the swimming pools, ice skating and the lolly factory. Exciting!
We had to keep making our bus longer as more children lined up with their money for a ticket so they could join us on our magical, mystery tour.

Rie - 3 Feb 2010