Josh's fishing tale

Josh went fishing with his Dad and Brayden and Oliver on the weekend.
This is Josh's description of his fish;

"There was a sharp thing up on hims head and it had a purple tummy and it was too splashy and it had black eyes"

Josh told me that he caught his fish with his fishing rod and the fish was really big. "This big" he demonstrates holding his arms wide. "It was a Rory" (A Parore - Black Snapper).

I asked Josh where he caught his fish and he told me;

"At this one where sand is and I just caught it. It was strong as. There were lots of boats".

Josh's Dad, Andy, showed me a photo on his phone of the fish Josh caught and it was big. Andy said that it was big enough to eat but Josh told him the fish was too splashy and to put it back.

Josh has a real interest in fishing and often looks through the fishing magazines we have at KIDSPACE pointing out the different fish, rods and fish hooks. He is off to try his luck again this weekend at the Fishing and Game Open Day.

Good Luck Josh

Rie

'EB' the bunny

Over the last few weeks, Lepa has been bringing her bunny 'EB', into KIDSPACE. The children have had so much fun with EB so far. They look forward to Lepa bringing it in on Thursday's. EB is very friendly and loves the children. He enjoys running through the grass and bushes, and hiding under Squeezy's hutch. Cleo and Mana were captured in a photo, spending some time with EB on the hill. He stayed still as they gently patted his back and touched his soft fur.

The children like to find grass, carrots and apples to feed EB, and watch as he runs around. It is great to see the children taking care of his wellbeing, just like they do with Squeezy.

Ainslee

Jack's creative artwork

One morning last week, Jack took a real interest in the painting that I set up in the art room. He liked the look of the bright primary colours and began on his painting straight away. Jack used red, green and orange. Once he had finished, I could tell straight away what he had painted, and began asking him about it. "It's traffic lights!" he told me. I asked him where he had seen them, and he told me that he sees them on the roads all the time.

I asked Jack if he knew what the colours represented. "Red is stop", he said. "And green is...?", I said. "Go!", he replied. He was a little unsure with what orange was, and I told him that it meant to slow down and try and stop safely.

Jack then began telling me that ambulance and police can go straight through any of the lights because they are always in a hurry and it is an emergency.

Jack then moved on to painting a rainbow. carefully choosing the colours he wanted, and taking extra care in painting it in an arch shape.

I enjoyed having these conversations with Jack, and loved that he was able to share his knowledge from the wider community, with me, and express it through his art work. Fantastic work Jack!

Ainslee

Lexi's rock painting

Lexi took an interest in rock painting one day last week. The idea came from Zoe, as she brought in a big rock from home that she had been painting over the weekend.

This sparked an interest with Lexi and Emily. Lexi said to me 'Ainslee, I want to paint a rock!'. I suggested that she look for one down at the rock path. A few moments later, she came back looking chuffed that she had found a rock. Emily was a few steps behind her, also holding a rock. As this interest grew, I added more newspaper to the table and got a wider range of paint and brushes. The rock painted lasted til morning tea time, and then after.

Lexi decided to paint her rock green. She then noticed that she needed to paint the other side, but she couldn't turn it over as it was wet. So we came to the conclusion that she could wait for it to dry and then come back later to paint the other side. Lexi was happy to return to her painting later on that day.

Children's spontaneous play and ideas are recognised as valuable learning (Te Whariki).

Ainslee

Socialising in the sandpit

Ainslee

Exploring the water and sand

Ainslee

Making Canadian flags

In preparation for visiting the Canadian rugby team to watch them train, we made flags to show our support. I put red paint on the table and the laminated canadian flag for the children to use as a guide. Emily, Zoe, Hannah, Charlie, Isabella and Ruby took a real interest. The great thing about this experience is that the children showed individual creativity and varied perception of what a flag should look like.

Charlie decided to carefully look at the flag and paint slowly, to get it as close as possible to the printed one, even doing a Mabel leaf in the middle.

Zoe wanted to paint her whole piece of paper red, except for one of the corners that she left white.

Ruby wanted to make the red strips on the side much bigger, with a smaller 'flower' in the middle.

Once these had dried over night, we found some pieces of wood in the carpentry area, and stapled them to it, to hold as flags for when we watched the rugby. The children were very proud of what they made, and enjoyed taking them along to the game. For the children that didn't visit the rugby but made a flag, they have wanted them in their profile book.

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

Face painting fun

Ruby, Hoah, Emily, Ataahua, Donnagh, Jack, Lexi, Rionagh

One morning, I asked the children 'who would like their face painted?'. "Meeeeeeeeeeee", was the response I got from a number of children. As I collected the paints and brushes, the children crowded around the wooden seating in the middle of the playground. I painted Ruby and Emily's first as they had shown an interest right at the beginning. The whole dynamics of the atmosphere outside, and the children's play changed. As the children transformed into lions, cats, tigers, and butterflies, their imagaination ran wild. The children were roaming around like the animal their face was painted as (most of the children were tigers as they liked what other children had been painted as). The children had the choice of many different colours, so we had yellow noses, purple whiskers, green eyes etc. The children had a great sense of fun, and it provided them with more opportunities to interact with each other and play 'made up' games together.

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

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

Being with Squeezy

Charlotte pointed over to the guinea pig hutch from the deck. I asked, "Do you want to go over and have a look?" she replied, "yes". We went and had a look at Squeezy. Charlotte suggested that she have a hold, so I went and got a towel off the line. We made our way over to the new chair on the deck and Charlotte had a cuddle with Squeezy. She patted him gently noting how soft he was. Jak then came along and took an interest in Squeezy, patting his soft fur and ears. After this, Charlotte decided to move away and Jak got a little closer. He continously patted Squeezy's fur and at one point pushed down on Squeezy a few times so I reminded him to be gentle which he was. I could see that Jak and Charlotte enjoyed this little quiet time observing and cuddling Squeezy.

It's great for children to experience looking after pets, it provides them with an experience to show empathy and care for animals.

Tamara

Te Mahi Kai- the Language of Food

This week is Maaori Language Week, and the focus for this year is Te Mahi Kai- the language of food.
These two new karakia kai we are learning...

Our special thank you
Mo tenai kai
Mo te maunga
Mo te moana
Tatou tiaki e
--------
Thank you for our food
Thank you for our mountain
Thank you for our sea
Keep us safe
(From Kathleen Reed and Bellblock Shildcare in Taranaki)

Karakia kai- Blessing of food
E to matou matua
Whakapaingia enei kai
Hei oranga mo o matou tinana
Whangai o matou wairau
Ki te taro o te ora
Nou hoki nga mea katoa
Amene
--------
Dear Lord
Bless this food
As it provides nourishment for our bodies
Provide nourishment also to our spiritual well-being
With the bread of everlasting life
The most important thing of all
Amen
(From Otahuhu Motessori Preschool in Auckland)

Jessie

Whaanau Weaving Evening

On Wednesday 21st of July, from 7 to 8.30pm we had our Whaanau Weaving Evening at KIDSPACE. Thank you to the parents and grandparents who attended. We welcomed Rev Marie McDonald, who blessed our art room 3 years ago, to say a karakia to the group and share some of her knowledge and the tikanga around harakeke. Things like cutting it on an angle, returning the unwanted trimmings back to the flax bush, and not to step over harakeke, nor work with it while pregnant etc. Jess took a group to demonstrate making a ki (ball) and Rie took a group making putiputi (flowers). Tamara's dad helped Bridie, Tamara and Monica to make a kai bowl. We interacted and learnt by watching and doing (just like our tamariki do). We had some drinks and nibbles towards and the end, while sharing what we had made.

Ainslee

Teddy Bear's picnic

This is the day we had A Teddy Bear's Picnic. In preparation we made a sign with children drawing crayon bears, love hearts, shoes, a table cloth, a green lady and food. These drawings were to invite bears to attend our picnic. We baked muffins with Rochelle, biscuits with Ainslee and bread cases too all in bear mouth sized pieces. Bears made their own necklaces with Ann in the morning and after the picnic helped to build and paint a new ramp for Murphy and Jo-Jo to enter their hutch by. We also read "The Teddy Bear's Picnic" story all week.

"Children develop a playful interest in repetitive sounds and words, aspects of language such as rhythm, rhyme, and alliteration, and an enjoyment of nonsense stories and rhymes", Communication, Te Whaariki.

Jessie

Mixing up ingredients

This afternoon we mixed up brightly coloured muffins. Charlie requested black coloured muffins, but then the group settled for blue and red coloured muffins. Kian broke and stirred in the eggs, Paige had a good mix together with the wooden spoon, while Noah waited for his turn. Harry waited for a long time to combine the muffin mixture with blue food colouring, and Charlie sift the flour. These muffins we wrapped up and named to be taken home.

Jessie

Matariki head bands

The children were looking at Maori designs to use for Matariki art work. Maia decided to make a head band and decorated it with Maori patterns. A lot of other children joined in, wanting head bands of their own. Everyone had a lot of fun making their own designs, measuring their heads to make sure they would fit and wearing the head bands around KIDSPACE. These photos show Caelyn finishing hers off with some help from Rachel. Libby and Alana are wearing theirs proudly while they play.

Rachel

See-saw

Keita, big sister Alana and Libby enjoyed each others company on the see-saw today. Alana did lots of smiling. Keita had to be reminded to hold on and Libby said "get my photo too".

These friends are showing"... an increased ability to determine their own actions and make their own choices", Well-Being, Te Whaariki.

Jessie

Ice Age

These are our brave (and well dressed) 'ice and frost finders'. Together with Charlie, Donnagh, Eneri and Rionagh we found frost on the water trough lid and ice in the pot plant trays.

We talked about frost, how it is cold and made of water. Also about how it could be found in the shade where no warm sun had yet been. Donnagh said "oh yea, we have frost on our lawn at home". Charlie and Eneri drew shapes in the frost, Eneri commenting "my finger is frozen!" then they all, with Rionagh joining in sampling the frost and went on to find and eat ice in the pot plant trays and reels in the sandpit also.

"Children develop the knowledge that playing with ideas and materials, with no objective in mind, can be enjoyable, creative, and valid approach to learning", Exploration, Te Whaariki.

Jessie

Noah's cousins

Noah's Nan Sonia and cousin's Maisey and Tyler visited at the end of the day, one day last week.

They sang 'Ring-a-Ring-a-Rosie' at the top of the hill. Jack, Keita then later Libby joined in too, as they where laughing and having so much fun!

These special cousins played outside for a long time before moving in to discover our bookshelf, supermarket trolley and ride-on bugs.

"Children develop an understanding of the links between the early childhood education setting and the known and familiar wider world through people that are the same as at home", Belonging, Te Whaariki.

We look forward to Maisey and Tyler visiting again with Nan Sonia.

Jessie