Mairtown Kindergarten

Recently I have being doing some reading about play and what valuable learning children develop from it. When I think of play it encompasses a huge amount of development for children including, learning social and motor skills and cognitive thinking.

“In play a child always behaves beyond his average age, above his daily behaviour. In play it is as though he were a head taller than himself.” (Lev Vygotsky)

As a teacher every day I observe children learning through their play in a variety of ways, whether it be solitary play, onlooker play, parallel play, associative play, social play, motor-physical play, constructive play, expressive play, fantasy play or cooperative play.

“When you asked me what I did in school today and I say ‘I just played.’ Please don’t misunderstand me. For you see, I am learning as I play. I am learning to enjoy and be successful in my work. Today I am a child and my work is play.” (Anita Wadley, 1974)

There are so many benefits of play and I couldn’t agree more with Anderson-McNamee (2010) where she explains, “Play is an essential and critical part of all children’s development. Play allows children to be creative while developing their own imaginations. Play is how children learn to socialize, to think, to solve problems, to mature and most importantly, to have fun. Play connects children with their imagination, their environment, their parents and family and the world.”

I would like to share this link to a short video titled “One morning at kindergarten” as it is a wonderful explanation of the nuances of learning within an early childhood setting.

Video - click here to view

Ngā mihi

Susie

This morning we had the opportunity to partake in a very special celebration with our children and families – a tea party to applaud Christine for being awarded with a National Excellence in Teaching Award - NEiTA.

Last week Christine (accompanied by her lovely husband Mat) flew to Wellington to join twenty-four other teachers from across the education sector to receive regional awards for excellence in teaching and leadership in the Grand Hall, Parliament Buildings.

Christine’s nomination for this award came from community recognition of her exemplary teaching skills. Christine is well known as a thoughtful, purposeful and intentional teacher who promotes professionalism in Early Childhood Education. Christine’s work with children is underpinned by affection; this disposition of care and attention was confirmed again today when Liliana (5 years) stated, “She’s a good teacher to all of us and we love her so much!”

Christine chats with reporters from The Advocate

As you can imagine, preparing for a ‘surprise’ at kindergarten is never an easy task! However with the combined effort, aroha and energy of our kindergarten team and families, a truly wonderful tea party was prepared.

Kai tables were transformed with layers of white tablecloths, lace and vases bursting with colourful flowers. Fine china and teapots were collected, shared and laid out on the table alongside platters, plates and pedestals laden with the most delicious assortment of treats. Centre to all this mouth-watering fare was a truly sumptuous cake.

Christine was seated at the head of the tables in a beautifully adorned ‘princess chair’, she was surrounded by parents (past and present) her team, local media and our tamariki – Christine’s teaching community to which she has given her heart and her thinking.

“there is nothing more beautiful in life

than celebrating the talents, dreams,

joys, and accomplishments of another being

to see - and call attention to - the best in someone else...”

―Kate Mullane Robertson

The NEiTA Awards were established by ASG Education Programs New Zealand 18 years ago to promote excellence in teaching. In the 2014 programme booklet NEiTA’s Chief Executive John Velegrinis states: “Today’s recipients are teachers and education leaders of the highest calibre. It is so heartening to meet teaching professionals who are so committed to bringing out the best in our children academically and socially. Their record of achievement in going above and beyond to help students’ reach their full potential is outstanding.” (NEiTA programme, 2014)

Here at Mairtown we continued to feel truly blessed to work alongside such an aspiring and dedicated professional. Congratulations Christine, you make us so proud!

Some reflections from the children on why Christine received a 'best teacher award':

"She helps other people - she helps on the Nature Programme - I went on the Nature Programme with her, we walked to the Magic Tree" - Kate

"I like playing with her in the sandpit" - Tyler C

"Christine does great painting. Her's nice, she's the nicest in the whole world" - Livia

"She listens to us...and she understands" - London-Rose

"I like when she's playing with children" - Maria

Me te mihi nui, na Kim

A few weeks ago I posted a blog (here) discussing some inquiry work the children had been conducting on trees. When posting a blog it is sometimes easy for you – the reader – to think that that’s the end of the topic, the children have done their learning and we as the teachers are moving onto new areas of inquiry. Of course this does sometimes happen, but often the inquiry continues, becoming more in-depth and more complex. As work progresses more problems are naturally presented, more theories shared and more understanding is created.

This is what has been happening with our work on trees, and is what I am going to share with you through this post.

In my last post I shared some of the wonderful drawings children created whilst working on the topic of trees. Since then I have introduced clay to the resources on offer to further extend the children’s current knowledge and understandings.

Having worked extensively on their drawings of trees (which the children are still choosing to re-visit independently), the children have found they are now able to make extremely complex tree sculptures.

All the tree sculptures began the same way, with an armature to help the clay from collapsing, but the children then choose very different materials with which to represent their trees. These varied from wire, sequins, beads, real leaves, fallen branches and string.

Working with clay can be viewed as a language for exploring and communicating ideas. Like drawing, clay work enables children to make their ideas visible – but in three dimensions. Different materials present different possibilities and so enable children to extend ideas.

As the children worked with their clay, we discussed what we had already discovered about trees and continued to share our ideas. One of the biggest challenges with the clay trees was getting the branches to stay on and the tree to stand upright. Interestingly this led to some in-depth discussion about the different shapes of trees, how the wind and storms can blow trees down and how the roots help support the tree in the ground.

Investigations can involve more than gathering knowledge about topics. They offer us ways to nurture children’s imagination and spirit and their potential as morally aware, critically thinking citizens (Kolbe, 2005).

Now, after this brief sharing of ideas on the role of roots, I encouraged the children back to thinking more deeply about root systems. I wanted to deepen their investigations, so whilst working alongside the children I was keen to challenge their ideas, provoke their thinking whilst also co-exploring along with them.

What hidden worlds are under trees? was one of my questions. As you can see from the children’s conversations below, worms were a popular choice of discussion and once again I decided to offer the children drawing materials.

Drawing is central to investigations as it involves materials that make it easy for children to generate ideas quickly (Kolbe)

A sole tree with worms coming out of the grass

Water sucked up by roots

What hidden worlds are under trees?

Taika ‘Snails’
Mia ‘And slugs’
Khaia ‘And even worms, I see them’
Tyler C ‘And sometimes snakes’
Mason 'Cicada bugs too and we have a bug at home that crawls on the grass, it's purple but I don't know what it's called'.
Tyler M ‘Dirt, lots and lots of dirt and beetle bugs’
Mia ‘And there’s water in the dirt’

Why is there water in the dirt?
Mia ‘It’s from the rain’

Worms amongst the roots

Taika ‘When you give water to trees, they drink it, they get food’

How else do trees get food?
Tyler M ‘Some people put food on the trees and its like compost.
Kayden ‘Worms are in compost’
Tyler M ‘Worms go into the compost. If people have yucky food the worms eat it and then it turns into compost and feeds the plants’
Kayden ‘Worms wiggle with their bodies under the trees and make holes’
Khaia ‘And you know, worms eat the leaves to make food’
Tyler M ‘Compost? But food needs to rot down to make compost’

So how do worms help make compost and food for the trees?
Khaia ‘Erm…. so I think garden worms eat leaves, hey I know, it's when the

Tree surrounded by worms

leaves fall on the ground.’
Taika ‘The worms go into the tree roots. So the worms eat the trees then make more food. They eat the leaves and eat all through the leaves. The food is in the ground’
Liliana ‘Yes, that’s right. The food is in the ground and the roots. It comes from the soil because of the compost when you throw it out, it makes food for the trees that go into the roots. It’s all the garbage from the bin – worms give us good things. The leaves transform into their tummies and crack open and then the leaves turn into food and its drinked up from the roots’
Kate ‘I’ll show you how it works by drawing it. The leaf goes into the worms mouth, then the leaf's coming out of the tummy and it then pours into compost in the ground’.

Water sucked up by a tree through its roots

Next to the root system of a tree there is a whole hidden world - rabbits, ants and worms

Drawing demonstrating the 'hidden world' under the trees: roots, worms, ant, snails, slugs and cicada bugs.

I just love these conversations. I have been so privileged to be able to listen to the children’s understandings evolve and expand as they think deeply about a topic. I can’t wait to see where their work on trees will take them (and me) to next!

'Water moves from the rain to the ground, into the roots and then...up up to the leaves'

Nga mihi, Christine

The outdoor environment is a great place for children to challenge themselves and learn to take responsible risks. The teaching team recognised the benefits of having longer parallel bars and commissioned a local engineering shop to manufacture these. When the longer parallel bars arrived at kindergarten and were introduced to the children they appeared keen to have a turn to show what they can do or challenge themselves to try something new.

“Movement is at the very core of how children develop intellectually, emotionally, socially, and of course, physically. A moving child is a learning child”. (Gill Connell, Moving Smart, 2011).

The addition of longer parallel bars has created plenty of opportunities for our tamariki to physically and mentally challenge themselves. It is a fantastic resource as it can be physically demanding, provides opportunities to take responsible risks, as well as use their imaginations.

“Adventurers and enquiring minds are nurtured from the early years, they are encouraged to keep trying, never rescued but expected to go further, to seek new ways of thinking and doing. Adventurers are encouraged to be dreamers, to think of what is possible, to challenge what is known and unknown”. (National Quality Standards, 2013).

Over time I have been privileged to observe our tamariki build their confidence to explore and test their own capacities to challenge themselves to let go while hanging upside down, stand on top of the bars or find different ways to get across the parallel bars.

According to Koringa Hihiko Active Movement “Children love to hang, swing and climb and it’s great for them. These active movements experiences help to develop strong muscles in the shoulders, arms, hands and fingers (upper body strength).” (Sport and Recreation New Zealand, 2012).

I enjoy observing the children build and develop their muscle control and strength to be physically able to move and hang on the parallel bars in different ways than previously able. The look of accomplishment and celebrating success on a child face is priceless.

“Face a challenge and find joy in the capacity to meet it”. Ayn Rand.

Here are some comments from the children.

“I’m a koala bear sleeping in the day time”. Payton

“Doing flips, flips are easy peasy”. Tiaki

“I got up here by myself”. Kayla

“I’m going to swing on these bars, tricks are good, it’s my favourite thing to do”. Peter

“Slippee, slide across on my bum”. Wyatt

“I can flip upside down and let both hands touch the ground”. Liam

“You know I can stand up here ‘cause I did gymnastics”. Livia

“Look, I’m not scared standing up here”. Khaia

“…the more risks you allow children to take, the better they learn to take care of themselves. If you never let them take any risks, then I believe they become very prone to injury. I like the type of child who takes risks. Better by far than the one who never does so.” Roald Dahl

Ngā mihi, Susie

I’m definitely not a winter person; give me the summer any day! There is however one aspect of winter at Mairtown Kindergarten that I love, and anticipate almost as much as the children - ‘Fire Thursday’!

As soon as the weather cools we start to plan our fire days, fondly known by the children as ‘Fire Thursday’, due of course, to the fact that we hold our fires on Thursday mornings.

The creation of fire is an essential factor of a Nature programme. It is one of the four elements and provides opportunities for children to experience success and self-accomplishment when starting a fire from scratch that will ultimately cook food.

This is our third year of having weekly fires during the winter months at Mairtown, and we have clearly seen the benefits it offers to our children.

There are obviously significant risks associated with fires, and we take very seriously our roles as teachers to plan and manage for these carefully. We engage in a great deal of discussion about these risks for a few weeks before we begin our fires; the children sharing their ideas of what they anticipate as dangers, and the children who were at kindergarten last year remembering our all important ‘safety bubble’.

Drawing the safety bubble

The safety bubble is an area that we draw around the fire in chalk, marking out a clearly defined zone. The children know that no one apart from the teachers are allowed inside the safety bubble.

Keeping warm

Fire can provide a wide range of learning opportunities for young children including:
•Mathematical and science concepts - Preparing a fire with paper and laying
wood for a base.
•Science concepts – how heat changes objects.
•Cooking – with use of hand held paddles and pokers.
•Ethic of care in looking after your friends.
•Health and safety and how to manage risks.
•Working together as a collaborative community.

Pikelets - delicious!!

So far this year we have cooked some delicious homemade bread, toasted some marshmallows, made pikelets and this week cooked sausages.

Time for tasting!

Lighting the fire

It is always interesting to talk to the children after these events to hear their reflections.

‘Reflection is remembering with analysis. When we engage children in reflection, we encourage them to go beyond merely reporting what they’ve done. We also help them become aware of what they learned in the process, what was interesting, how they feel about it, and what they can do to build on or extend the experience. Reflection consolidates knowledge so it can be generalized to other situations, thereby leading to further prediction and evaluation. ‘ (Epstein, 2003)

Madison's fire drawing

Thinking about our fire Thursdays:
Kayden ‘The wood makes the fire’
Madison ‘The flames make a tricky pattern’
Kayden ‘We have fires and we can eat things’
Emma ‘And it’s also so we get warm. If its cold and not sunny we make a fire’
Kayden ‘Fires are bright so they make light’Emma ‘Hey, but only the teachers put it out’
Kayden ‘You can’t go in the bubble, only the teachers. The bubble is a round circle’

Madison ‘And we put chairs around the fire, the flames look like they dance’
Kayden ‘I think the flames look like teeth’
Kate ‘Hmm, the chairs are so we get don’t get bored of standing up cooking’
Emma ‘And we mustn’t touch the fire or we’ll get burned’
Tyler M ‘We know a lot about fires!’

Ngā mihi, Christine

In early childhood play is a child’s world and allows the child to be a child whilst they develop and acquire knowledge and skills in a completely holistic way. As early childhood teachers we know and support the theory that children learn through play (self-directed learning). When children are active participants in experiences that are important to them play cultivates meaning and purpose; therefore as stated in Te Whāriki ‘The learner and the learning environment – are closely connected, and the curriculum applies to both” (1996, pg. 19).

So, how does the context of play best support children’s early mathematical experiences at kindergarten?

Mathematics/Pāngarau “is the exploration and use of patterns and relationships in quantities, space and time. Statistics is the exploration and use of patterns and relationships in data. These two disciplines are related but different ways of thinking and solving problems. Both equip students with effective means for investigating, interpreting, explaining, and making sense of the world in which they live” (Kei Tua o Te Pae, 2009, pg. 2).

When children play they are engaged in opportunities and experiences with both the physical and social worlds, through these interactions children continually develop and construct new knowledge and understanding. With a lens on mathematics we believe in providing meaningful context to everyday activities through appropriate resources, pedagogical knowledge and recognising the skills, ideas and interests that children ‘arrive’ with (family/whānau mathematics).

Mathematical provocations can ‘capitalise on young children’s high level of motivation to learn in a self-directed manner’ (Clements, 2001).

When setting up spaces to invite children’s engagement and interest in mathematics we have found that simple yet fun activities, along with an interested and informed teacher can offer powerful learning experiences.

Number stones accompanied by gridded paper invites children to contribute and record (if inclined) their knowledge of number awareness.

Numerical concepts are developed and affirmed when children have opportunities to match objects with complementary numbers.

Providing ample resources provides children with opportunities to divide and sort objects into groups.

Tables set out with baskets of beautiful resources invite children to look for and construct patterns that have a ‘rule’ or relationship.

Grouping and sorting activities offer opportunities for children to practice and confirm numeracy key concepts such as pre-counting, one-to-one counting and counting sets.

When supporting children in their work and explorations with mathematics, we endeavour to be guided by an ‘investigative approach’ meaning that, we aim to foster and promote children’s understanding of mathematics through purposeful, meaningful and inquiry based experiences that are personally interesting to the child.

However, as with any meaningful curriculum context, scaffolding children’s potential learning requires teachers to have a clear content knowledge themselves. When we are informed and knowledgeable we are able to identify children’s current knowledge and then draw on our own skills to further extend their learning.

Mathematics can be ad hoc in early childhood education; it is often referred to as curriculum ‘that is everywhere’. However, I believe with intentional, forward planning early childhood play experiences can offer rich opportunities for children’s pre numeracy and literacy skills. The outcome for our tamariki is life-long learning and achievement.

Nga mihi

Kim

Each year at Kindergarten we celebrate Matariki (Māori new year) with a series of special events. The start of Matariki began this year on June 28^thand to highlight this occasion today we held our regular Matariki Breakfast. Our Matariki breakfast celebration has become a much anticipated event, and thanks to Donna’s skills in the kitchen we had a selection of different foods to share with our whānau and tamariki.

Matariki marks the Maori New Year. The word translates as Mata Riki - Tiny Eyes, or Mata Ariki - Eyes of God.

The children's wonderful menu

Yesterday there was lots of discussion about the breakfast and the children decided to create this fabulous menu. What a welcome this was for our families and friends this morning. As you can see the kai on offer was Yoghurt, Toast, Sausages, Cereals, Fruit Salad, Porridge, Museli, Scrambled Eggs, Weetbix and Baked beans served with either Milo, Coffee or Tea :)

During Matariki, we celebrate our unique place in the world. We give respect to the whenua on which we live, and admiration to our mother earth, Papatūānuku.

Throughout Matariki, we learn about those who came before us. Our history, our family, our bones. Matariki signals growth. It's a time of change. It's a time to prepare, and a time of action. During Matariki, we acknowledge what we have and what we have to give.

Matariki celebrates the diversity of life. It's a celebration of culture, language, spirit and people.

Matariki is our Aotearoa Pacific New Year (Māori Language commission)

Of course we have to mention a big thank you to Donna for all her amazing cooking skills, and to everyone who came and enjoyed a delicious breakfast with us all. This is the last week of the term for us, but when we begin back in term 3 we will continue our Matariki celebrations with our Harvest Day on Tuesday 22^nd July and our annual Hāngi and Lantern Parade (an evening to definitely mark in your dairies) on Friday 25^th July. We also welcome back our lovely teacher Zair, who returns after maternity leave.

Our Matariki breakfast also enabled us to say a sad farewell to Susie. Susie has been with us since October last year as a long-term reliever, yet has become a very much valued and respected member of our team. We have seen Susie grow and blossom so much as a teacher in the time she has been with us at Mairtown, and I know everyone will miss her. Today was a wonderful opportunity to be able to say thank you to Susie for all her hard work, to wish her well in the future and to present her with a lovely gift basket (with items generously donated by our families) as well as a gorgeous card beautifully illustrated by the children.

The Lovely drawings of Susie

Enjoy the holidays and we all look forward to seeing you back for term 3 on Monday 21^st July.

Ngā mihi,

Christine

The 2014 month of Matariki comes to an end next week on the 28^th July. Here at Mairtown we have continued our Matariki celebrations into term three. Yesterday we shared in our annual Harvest Day.

Traditionally, ‘Harvest Days’ are a celebration of food grown on the land; they remind us of all the good things that we receive from Nature and provide an opportunity to share this abundance with others.

Harvest Days are a global tradition and in these modern times I believe they provide a wonderful opportunity to celebrate community and build sustainability.

For Māori, Matariki has always been connected to planting and harvest. “The coming season’s crops were planted according to the portents read in the Matariki star cluster. If the stars were clear and bright, it was a sign that a favourable and productive season lay ahead, and planting would begin in September. If the stars appeared hazy and closely bunched together, a cold winter was in store and planting was put off until October.” (Te Ara)

Harvest

“Matariki happened at the end of harvesting, when food stores were plentiful. The variety of food which had been gathered and preserved ensured an abundant supply for feasting.” (Te Ara)

Ngākai a Matariki, nāna i ao ake ki runga.

The foods of Matariki, by her scooped up.

The focus of our Harvest Day at kindergarten is about sharing our abundance, random acts of kindness and nurturing the body and soul of our community. Our parents and whānau were invited to bring an item to share from their garden or pantry, along with a provocation or thought for the receiver.

On Tuesday morning the gifts were placed on an exchange table inside, and what an abundance of beautiful Northland offerings were received including, freshly squeezed grapefruit juice, citrus, herbs, broccoli, pickles, jams and chutney, cakes, bread and cookies, avocado, macadamia nuts, pumpkin and kumera.

Along with the food came messages and thoughts to nurture the soul:

'A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy' - Albert Einstein

''Happiness is like jam, you can't spread even a little without getting some on yourself' - Mi's family

'Share, care hug like a bear' - Tyler's family

'Keep your face in the sunshine and you can never see the shadow' - Helen Keller

As we farewelled the tamariki for the day they were invited to choose something from the harvest table to take home. The opportunity to take something away had created lots of excitement and anticipation throughout the day; sometimes choices are so tricky!

Lastly I am going to share a little exchange that took place with two of our boys; it beautifully captures the essence of what this day of gifting is all about:

Roman approached Tiaki as he was leaving and opens up his paper bag to show his e hoa (friend) what he had chosen:

Tiaki “Aw what’s that, orange and a big pumpkin and…hey you got some of my parsley!”

Roman “Yeah”

Tiaki “Are you gonna cook that?”

Roman “Nah, my mum is”

Tiaki (looking joyful and laughing) “Aw that’s good!”

“The most important thing to do with children, is to celebrate life”

Helen Fields. MAUMS

Nga mihi

Kim

It is with sadness that I write to let you know that after seventeen years with the Northland Kindergarten Association (15 at Mairtown), Donna has decided to retire from her teaching position to take on a role as a reliever.

Donna has taught many, many tamariki in Whangarei and has friendships that reach far and wide in our community. She is a wonderful person and will be missed for her laughter, sense of fun, care and empathy, and team work.

Donna's last day with us will be on September 12th.

If you have a passion for providing excellence in Early Childhood Education, love your career and want to make a difference in the lives of children and their families here is your chance to join our team of dedicated professionals (beautifully illustrated above).

For more information please click on this link here:

Nga mihi nui
Kim

Last term I began some work with a group of children on the topic of lions. We looked at photographs of lions (using one of my favourite books 'A Shadow falls' - photography by Nick Brandt). We also examined lion models, spent time sharing our current knowledge on lions and went on to complete some observational drawings.

Lion Before Storm, Sitting Profile Masai Mara 2006

Observational or representational drawing is a method of encouraging children to ‘think deeply’ about any given subject. It encourages children to look closely at, and to communicate what they see; with it,children really‘learn to see’ (Kolbe, 2005).

As the children began their first drawings on lions I initially encouraged them to draw what they knew about lions. All these elements that we noticed, we then talked about. As the children worked, I often repeated the same words, ‘look and draw, look and draw’ - thereby encouraging them to spend time on their work - by occasionally looking, stopping and thinking.

The initial art pieces were wonderful and the knowledge the children shared as a group amazed me. Several days later however came the holidays. Over this two week break I was lucky enough to attend a conference where I was reminded of the value in children being able to re-visit their work, of repetition and of continuity of learning. Ready and eager to go at the beginning of a new term, and with my own new learning and knowledge at the forefront of my mind, I again invited these same children back to re-visit and continue their earlier work with lions.

In early childhood education we are aware that, ‘Effective learning usually occurs over time as children practice and master new skills, concepts and techniques. It is rare that significant learning just ‘happens’;  new learning typically builds on previous knowledge and experience. For this reason, effective learning environments plan for and build in continuity, predictability and repetition’ (NQS-PLP, 2012).

As the children looked again at the lion pictures, models, photographs and our own past drawings of lions, they were all eager to share their understandings, and wanted to complete some further observational drawings.Once again we talked about what we noticed – ‘How come some lions have lots of fur? What’s this called? Why don’t lion cubs have manes?’ I also encouraged the children to draw some of their past and new knowledge through my own questioning with them, ‘Remember how you thought the lions fur looked soft, how you would draw that?

‘Such extended learning experiences not only engage children in meaningful and absorbing play, but also promote higher level thinking as children recall and make connections to what has been done previously, plan ahead, and review and evaluate their thinking along the way…If we continually change the materials, experiences and resources that children work  with, then we risk short-changing children’s experiences’ (NQS-PLP, 2012).

Some of the children’s conversations (24.6.14)

Kate: Lions have four legs, two at the front and two at the back. I can see the boy one has more hair. The lion has scratched it's face when it’s fighting.

Teacher: Why do the boy or male lions have more hair?

Payton: Because the girls don’t grow it.

Reese: The boys have a lot of hair that you can’t see the ears, but I think they do have ears.

Mia: That’s called a mane. The girls ones don’t have manes so they can look more beautiful, and so the boys can look like boys.

London-Rose: They have brown skin under the fur and brown legs.

Emma: They have a big round head.

London-Rose: And their whiskers are straight.

Sharlotte: See, some of the mane goes down onto its tummy. The boy lions have long hairs and the girls have short.

Kayden: But the boys and girls have hair on the ends of their tails.

And after re-visiting – a later conversation as we began to examine the face of lions (23-28.7.14)

Payton: The female lions have no hair, but they do have whiskers on the top of their eyebrows. The eyes of a lion are oval shaped, this is a girl lion.

Hezekiah: You mean it’s a female lion, I’ve just learnt that word.

Kate: The eyes are half oval half heart. The nose is out more than ours. There’s fur at the end of the tail. Hmm…this needs me to think, it’s hard to think. The legs are one in front of the other, the back legs look bigger than the front legs. The tummy is curvy on a real lion.

Hezekiah: Those are whiskers and they come out those dots on the face.

Payton: Lions have different noses to us.

Kayden: Shall we draw it, you need to look to draw?’

Peter: Lions are brave and they roar.

Wyatt: They have really loud roars.

London-Rose: And they roar to save their babies.

Wyatt: And leopards…you know lions eat meat.

London-Rose: Yeah, and stuff from people’s bodies like their brains!

Kayden: Lions fight, they fight other lions.

Art is an ideal medium to help children process new information. With art they can manipulate concepts, put ideas into reality, create images that represent thoughts, and make tangible new concepts for all to see (Wardle, 2000). Art is the medium through which young children work out experiences, add personal feelings, and record solutions and judgements (Engel, 1995). Combine this with all the children sharing ideas and gaining each others' perspectives, along with them re-visiting and revising their work, and we see how children move to new levels of awareness. My role here as the teacher was to act as a guide, one where I was careful not to impose my adult ideas and beliefs upon the children.

‘Connections and continuity between learning experiences ... make learning more meaningful’ (DEEWR, 2009).

Now lets look at the drawings completed over this period of time, I think you'll clearly notice how the later art work - completed after a months break - shows far more intricate and finer detail. Along with all our conversations together, art becomes a way in which we can clearly see learning in motion. We can see how, for children, knowledge develops with the continuity of learning through both repetition and re-visiting.

On drawing 2, we can see that this child becomes very aware of the lions heavy furry mane (how it is large in comparison to the lions face), how the mane grows down the lions back, the outer lid and inner pupil of the lion’s eye, the lion’s ears are apparent, his lion has sharp teeth, whiskers near the lions mouth (along with the small ducts the whiskers grow out of), this lion has a much longer tail and claws on each of its four paws.

Again if we consider these two drawings (the first drawn in June and the second July) the added detail on this child's second drawing is evident. It is especially noticeable around the lion's face with the addition of the fine whiskers, delicate hairs above the eyes and the small furry patch under the lion's mouth.

And finally, examine these two drawings. The differences in the drawings indicate the new levels of awareness this child has reached. We can see on this child's second piece of work that the legs are drawn with more detail and shape and have the addition of paws (compared to the earlier stick legs) and there is also significantly more features added to the lions face.

I would love to show you more of the children's work, but I realise this may then turn into the longest post I have ever written! I hope however, you have enjoyed the few examples I have been able to share.

Hei konā mai i roto i ngā mihi,

Christine

On Friday 8th of August we celebrated our annual Hangi at kindergarten. The Hangi is usually part of our Matariki events; however due to the weather we had to postpone the date and what a great decision it was, as the weather on Friday was just awesome. Ranginui must have been taking care of us as though it showered twice, neither of these downfalls effected our festivities.

Our Hangi is a highly anticipated event, from the beginning to the end of the day the focus is on working together, sharing, making connections and caring for each other as we collaborate in the creation of a delicious feast and experience.

Taika helps to put meat in the Hangi basket

At the heart of our Hangi is the Te Ao Māori principal of whanaungatanga. Whanaungatanga recognises that people are taonga (treasures) and are part of a larger collective; therefore it is our relationships with each other and how we care and nurture these connections that is most important.

Roman carries his lantern

Paul Hirini describes whanaungatanga "as a value, which reinforces the commitment whānau members have to each other. Such commitment is expressed through the process of caring, sharing, respecting, helping, assisting and nurturing" (MOE)

Tiaki holds his sparkler

Ritchie (2012) also states that "Whanaungatanga recognises the centrality of whānau and relationships to early childhood care and education, and is consistent with the Te Whariki principle of Family and Community/Whānau."

On behalf of the team I want to say a huge thank you to our parents, whānau and tamariki for helping to make this such a special day. We also want to acknowledge Glen Davidson (our local library bus driver and musician extraordinaire) for supporting us again this year with our fireside sing-along and lantern parade.

Once again, Christine has created a wonderful video that truly captures the essence, care and energy of this wonderful day of social interaction and celebration, enjoy!

E hoa ma, ina te ora o te tangata

My friends, this is the essence of life

Noho ora mai
Kim

At Mairtown Kindergarten we love to foster and celebrate the beauty and wonder of our children’s great imaginations. We support this play through lots of thoughtful planning and intentionally by setting up an environment that is beautiful, inspiring and full of open-ended resources.
At present some of our most frequently used inside resources include the colourful scarves, and the wooden castle pieces and figurines.
There is always a lot of imaginary play happening with these resources and the children that are involved are often deeply engaged with one another, creating a world of drama and delight around the roles of the princes, princesses, knights and dragons.

After recognising this popular play and listening to the wonderful dialogue between the children it was evident that imaginative play was alive and well. I decided to ask the children about why they like to dress up and pretend to be these characters.

“When I pretend to be a princess it makes me feel good, like I can do anything I want, like I can sing heaps of songs.” (London-Rose)

“Pretending to be things is good because if you want to be something you can. It’s fun!” (Khaia)

“When I’m a princess I like to play with Maria. We be mums and queens. We pretend to be something. It makes me happy.” (Payton)

“You know when I am a princess I’m not actually Korari, I’m Princess Alice! That is my pretend name I like.” (Korari)

To extend on this interest I decided to incorporate the children’s love for dressing up, with their love for playing the castle and royal figurines by personalising this play space. I took photos of the children dressed up and made small figurines to play with in the castle area.
Some children also drew pictures of kingdoms and these were used as back drops. This was all set up after the children had gone for the day and when they returned in the morning new levels of magical play and interaction began.

“Wow, this looks so beautiful here!” (Kate)

“Oh, this is a little tiny me. Can I play with me? I am being a beautiful princess” (Emma)

“I am the only boy one, the only prince. I might be the king too!” (Wyatt)

“We are playing princesses and Madison and I are being witches.” (London-Rose)

“They turn into witches, they do the bad things but then the other princesses make them stop doing the bad.” (Khaia)

“I like being this little person, I am playing with all my little friends. We have a castle to all play in as little ones together.” (Maria)

Over the past week more children have become interested in their tiny friends and have engaged in lots of imaginary play and story-telling.

“Look Zeke, I see all these people, they are our friends and they are little people in this castle. Let’s play with them!” (Matteo)

So these lovely little Kindergarten Prince and Princesses have been wonderful for creating many opportunities for extending on our children’s interest in imaginary play. This type of play allows children to explore the magic of being creative with their ideas and knowledge in a safe but meaningful way. The world of royalty is an imaginary place for our children, however the roles that they chose to play with in them are boarder line realistic for them. For example playing with other children’s figurines that they usually would do in real life. Or playing roles that are familiar to them like being a Mum Princess with a baby as they have a little baby living in their household at home.

Davis (2011) acknowledges that, “Imaginative play is essentially when children are role playing and are acting out various experiences they may have had or something that is of some interest to them. They are experimenting with decision making on how to behave and are also practising their social skills. Children learn from experience: from what happens around them, from what they see, hear, smell, taste and touch. To absorb those experiences and make sense of the world, they need to be engaged in imaginary play.”

The joy, magic and creativity that happens during this type of play is so wonderful to be a part of. Children are incredibly good at being free and thinking outside the box through their play. As a teacher of young children I feel blessed to be privy to the value imaginary play and the important role it plays in terms of lifelong learning. It is great for helping develop strategies that support problem solving in real life situations.

Harris (2002) gives a great example of how imaginary play gives children skills that will support them in the future, “... suppose we think of pretend play and fantasy as something that’s quite characteristic of young children—it makes them playful and endearing but doesn’t really contribute to their later cognitive development and by adulthood it has in some sense disappeared. I tried to argue that this is wrong. Human beings have a gift for fantasy, which shows itself at a very early age and then continues to make all sorts of contributions to our intellectual and emotional life throughout the lifespan.To give you some examples, imagination helps us to make causal judgments about how things might have turned out differently. If something goes wrong in life, then we ask ourselves where we went wrong. The imagination allows us to engage in thinking about alternatives in this prosaic form.In making moral judgments we also think about alternatives. We look at something that has happened and we ask how it could have been done better or differently. And again we are exercising our imagination.”

Imaginary play is important work for our children and as teachers it is so important that we foster this. We do this here by providing beautiful, interesting spaces full of resources that capture the imagination. The Princes and Princesses of the Mairtown Kingdom are on a journey, learning about their worlds, expressing their knowledge, ideas and thoughts whilst having fun along the way.

Written by Zair Taylor

Anyone who lives in Northland will of course be very aware of just how much rain we have seen over the last few weeks. This rain is something that our ‘nature programme’ children have also been extremely conscious of.

This little blog story begins three weeks ago when Kim and the children discovered a very large muddy patch at Mair Park. This find was quite unexpected and the mud patch was so large, that it was not only fascinating but also extremely tempting. Honestly, who couldn’t resist getting stuck right into this?

Creating mud angels.

The sensorial feeling of playing in mud is irresistible to some children. Mud is soothing, cool, dense and rich and quite unlike any other element to explore in play.

Oh dear - it's easy to loose your boots in the mud.

Trying to pull out the stuck boots.

‘When you engage the whole body, along with the senses – learning comes naturally’ (Angela Hanscom)

The following week was my turn as the teacher on the nature programme. I was pretty excited, as the children had spent the whole week telling me all about this mud patch, and how much they were looking forward to revisiting it. That week we immediately headed there – and guess what – it couldn’t really be called mud anymore. In fact the mud had transformed into one of the largest puddles we had all ever seen. It was such a surprise that initially we all stood around the edge of the puddle wondering what to do, then one brave child decided she was going to venture in, and oops fell straight over onto her bottom. This caused such delight, and encouraged the other children to head into the puddle to jump, splash, sit down, chat, and just generally just have a fantastic time immersed in the water and mud.

The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful

E.E. Cummings

Then last Friday was Donna’s turn as the teacher, and once again the children had told her they wanted to go and visit the mud. Many were wondering and guessing what it would look like this week. I only wish I had been there myself – look at these fantastic photos – the children in just three weeks have gone from being slightly tentative and possibly a little apprehensive at times to being almost completely immersed, head to toe, in the mud; so much so they needed to help each other to get out with a rope. What an experience this must have been. We have all engaged in this type of play ourselves as children, but sometimes it’s easy to forget the delight that comes from doing something so incredible and exhilarating for the first time. When was the last time you did something for the first time, I wonder?

Mud connects us directly with the natural world. It lets our children get up close and personal with nature, discovering different mud in different places, the creatures that live in the mud and the plants that grow in it. We all need to recognise that you can't expect the next generation to love nature without letting them experience it to its fullest.

Playing with mud and water is“not only loads of fun, but blends together science, art, math, social studies, sensory input, and language by providing opportunities to accomplish, communicate, conserve, cooperate, create, count, facilitate, differentiate (size, shape, amount, colour), discover, explore, express, converse, initiate, and be gleeful” (Zavitkovsky, 1996)

There is certainly something invigorating about plunging your hands or feet into the earth that creates a connectedness between humans and mother nature that we can feel. Here is a short collection of photos and videos from the last three weeks of the nature programme. I hope it makes you want to get your gum boots out (or your bare feet) and go and find a large muddy puddle!

Hei konā mai i roto i ngā mihi,

Christine

On Saturday 8^th of November six months of visioning, planning and preparation came together when we met up with children, families and friends at Mair Park for our Poohsticks fundraising event.

In case you are feeling a little perplexed about what ‘Poohsticks’ is all about here is a wee explanation:

"The trick is to drop the stick in a 'twitchy' sort of way" Eeyore

Poohsticks is a sport first mentioned in the House at Pooh Corner, a Winnie-the Pooh book by A.A Milne. Poohsticks is traditionally played when each player drops a chosen stick over the up-stream side of a bridge into a river, the winner is the person whose stick emerges first from under the bridge(The enchanted 100 acre wood).

Poohsticks is a bit of a favourite game for children who attend our weekly Nature Programme, so when we were visioning innovative fundraising ideas earlier in the year; this concept became a group favourite.

It was an absolutely fantastic day, we were blessed with glorious weather and thanks to the excellent pre planning skills of one of our Dad’s (thanks Phil!) our Poohsticks race down the river captured the turn of the tide.

Hopeful winners lined the bank of Hatea River to countdown the start and then watch all two hundred and fifty of our Poohsticks be dropped from the Mair Park Bridge.

On the river we had dads Nigel and Dave ready in kayak’s to assist stranded sticks and capture the winning numbers as they crossed the finish line.

It was nearly a photo finish!

On the completion of the race participants were enticed back up to Mair Park to partake in delicious kai options (including Choice Blocks and Latino Coffee) and be entertained by local musicians Ryan Karaka with Lex and Jay and Tauraroa School Jazz band In the Foyer.

Thanks to the generosity of so many local businesses we also had five Poohsticks prizes and thirty three spot prizes to give away! It was so wonderful watching so much joyfulness being spread amongst community.

On behalf of the teaching team, I want to say a heartfelt thanks to everyone who has supported us in making this such a successful family day. We also want to acknowledge our parent support group: Katie, Emma, Kirsty, Yvette, Karla and Michelle who have worked so hard behind to scenes in preparing for this day, also Sarah who has organised so much of the administration.

What has been most affirming for me is how lucky we are in our kindergarten community to be able to draw on the wealth of knowledge and skills of our attending community. When we all do a little bit, we have a lot to celebrate. The monies raised from this event will be used to re-develop an area of our outside playscape.

‘We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give’

- Winston Churchill

The beautiful images captured in this blogpost were kindly supplied by two of our families; Thank you Sam Cotterill - Craig and Colleen Smith.

Noho ora mai

Kim

Traditionally art is an important aspect of many early childhood programmes, and one we utilise a great deal at Mairtown. Historically, the father of kindergarten, Friedrich Froebel, believed that young children should be involved in both making their own art and enjoying the art of others…as this encouraged each child's "full and all-sided development" (Froebel, 1826). These are certainly wise words and a good reminder that children should have opportunities not only to create their own art, but also to enjoy viewing the skills and talents of other artists.

An artist the children at Mairtown are very familiar with is that of FriedensreichHundertwasser. Hundertwasser tends to appeal to children, he uses a lot of bright colours, often leaving no hint of the white paper he began with. He also represents many aspects of his work, in an almost child like manner (for instance his lollipop trees) and as the children of Mairtown know, Hundertwasser was not a believer in straight lines. These factors make him a natural choice to study and to use as a provocation for the children to create their own Hundertwasser inspired pieces.

Each year at Mairtown, as part of our fundraising, art created by the children is used to make calendars, cards, diaries and notebooks - and yes - our inspiration for this years work was Hundertwasser.

We began our work by using black vivid on white paper, adding colour with a selection of dyes. When this had dried the children highlighted aspects of their work with gold and silver pen, this layering process really adds a depth and vibrancy to the finished pieces.

What I really loved about supporting the children in their Hundertwasser inspired work was how I was able to work one-on-one with the children. I was able to share with them my interpretations, and listen to their opinions on Hundertwasser’s work. Many children told me stories about what they felt was happening in his pictures; I listened to some wonderfully imaginative almost fairy tale like stories and sometimes clearly stories based on the children’s own personal experiences, or past exposure to different artwork and artists.

‘Children’s interest in making art is increased if adults encourage them to talk about art and artists – who artists are and how they make things.’ (Douglas, Schwartz and Taylor, 1981)

Every child was able to look at a large selection of Hundertwasser’s work, and pick one that they were drawn towards – it was so interesting to view the art piece they choose through their eyes; how they noticed different aspects of the images and what these may be compared to my thinking, how they asked such interesting questions, and ultimately how at the end of completing their own work, all the children at Mairtown created pieces that are unique and so totally different from one another.

‘Art generates a Love of Learning and creativity; it develops a willingness to explore what has not existed before. Art teaches risk taking, learning from one’s mistakes, and being open to other possibilities. Children who are creative are also curious and passionate about knowing more…art develops the whole brain’ (Drawing on earth)

As a teacher I like to provoke thinking amongst adults as well as children. One aspect of art that I am passionate about is that I believe art is not and should not be restrictive. I feel that children’s work has to demonstrate their individuality in order to be classed as art. For instance, if children all produce something that looks the same then surely this does nothing to foster their creativity or imagination. If children struggle to recognise their own work, then at the end of the day, I don’t feel that this is truly art or that I am fulfilling my role as a teacher.

Here is a selection of some of the children's stunning, and completely individualised work:

The young child doesn’t critique his work – he paints freely and with pleasure, enjoying the fine and gross motor experience of moving paint over paper and watching lines, shapes, and colours come to life. Art puts a child in the “driver’s seat” and provides freedom: the freedom of choice, thought, and feeling.

Art work in the form of calendars, diaries, notebooks and cards can be ordered from kindergarten up to Friday 21^stNovember 2014.

Hei konā mai,
Christine

Lately I have noticed lots of different house structures being built around kindergarten. This then lead to lots of discussions around what some of the children’s homes are like. We reflected on what they look liked, colours, shapes, gardens etc.

With this in mind I had found some pictures of house drawings to extend on this emerging interest. One image featured a whole variety of different magical kinds of houses with details like cupcake doors, starry exteriors, button shaped windows and chimneys shooting out rainbows and hearts.

The children noticed these unusual details right away and from here we began to talk about if we could have any kind of house in the whole entire world what it would be.

Kayden; “I would have a cupcake door house. If you walk through the door it would taste like strawberries.”

"When patterns are broken, new worlds emerge." -Tuli Kupferberg

The beautiful dialogue that the children shared with each other and myself was a great example of how free children’s ideas and thoughts can be. Their houses didn’t have to be like anything that had seen before, they could be the shape of flowers or smell like cupcakes. They could be coloured like a rainbow or in the shape of a flower.

Wyatt; “You could have anything like a rugby house, a cone house! A cone house would be so funny. Or a flower house. You would go in the stick and the petals would be the rooms.”

Khaia; “I am going to have an Elsa house. Elsa would live with me inside it. I might also have a Ninja Turtle house. That would be so awesome.”

"A child with a healthy imagination often views the world with a vivid and engaging viewpoint. This perspective can enable a youngster to experience a passionate childhood and grow up to be a creative and enterprising individual, able to solve problems and find success." (Amanda Hermes)

Some of the children decided to turn their creative thoughts into drawings. Using art to explore and express their ideas is a great way for children to extend on their ideas and language around the subject. In this case the more the children drew the more dialogue was shared about their housing desires. Their imaginations came to life the more they discussed their ideas, creating lots of joy for all involved.

"Imagination helps children grow up to be adults who are creative thinkers. Adults who were imaginative children often become problem solvers, innovators and creative thinkers."
(Jamie L. Herbert)

Payton; “My special house would have lots of stripes of colours. My background in my bedroom would be rainbow, and Ninja turtles and blue. When I see other houses I see no ones with lots of colours. My house at home is white with a black house.”

Nyla; “I would love a cupcake house. My house has spot windows because I’m not sure how to draw square ones but circle ones are interesting aye. The pink window is my bedroom and my room is pink.”

Peter; “I wish I had a car house like this one. I have wheels on it and a front door too. That’s my room. It’s bigger for my car bed. I’ve got a car balloon too.”

“Children are all different. Each child has unique qualities and a unique style. Some draw profusely, others infrequently, but all constantly seek to make sense of themselves and their world. And in this quest, it turns out that drawing is a powerful tool.” (Kolbe)

Wyatt, "You know I have decided I want to live in an ice-cream cone house. But it will have to be an up-side down cone with the ice-cream on the top. That would be the yummy bedrooms! Man, I would just love this to be my actual house right now."

Charlie; “My house is a love heart house. In my love heart house is my love heart room with lots of love heart strawberries. My house is big as. I think I could maybe build this all by myself.”

Emma, "I am drawing a few flower houses because I want so many lovely flower houses. This one has a flower person body, with a door down the bottom and up the stairs. See these are the so many stairs in my flower person house."

Sharlotte; “I have a lollie-pop house with a leopard outside. The leopard has food. My roof would taste so good like lollie-pops.”

Some of the children extended their interest into creating 3D models of their houses. This then inspired other children to create their own masterpieces. It is always so lovely watching children discover how they can make their ideas come to life not only through 2D art but also by turning their thoughts in structures.

Sienna; “This is my button door house with a nest for baby birds to live in on the top. Look at my flowers and buttons in my garden. I don’t think those are in my garden at my house. I want to show this to my Mum and Dad.”

Tyler, "This is my rainbow chimney house with so many rainbow rooms. I have made it a garage which will have a diving board on top of it here and a car for the people who live here to drive. Its so big aye. It even has a drive way and a flower tree in the garden and another small house for friends to stay at. This has taken me so long to make, like days and days. My family will love it I think."

Emma; “My flower has me in my flower house. I am so big because I am an adult in my house. To get in my house first you go through the little door, you jump up on these lines and get to the windows. I sleep right up here. It smells really nice. This is like fairy world, do you want to live in fairy world? To get into my house you just walk up this beautiful path to the door.”

Ben, "You know that this house is going to be so tall with and ice block door. Yum, yum, yum. Would you like to come to my ice block house?"

Reese, “I just think that having a heart door on my house would be so nice. It would be a door with lots of love for people. My house is going to have so many treasurers hiding in it for my family and friends. You just have to go through this special side door.”

Being able to work alongside children is such a treasure. Their openness to thinking creatively is refreshing and such a pleasure to be a part of. A little bit of nonsense and imagination is such a delightful thing. I wish that one day I can visit a house with a cupcake door that tasted sweet... the
thought of that is just so joyful.

"I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life's realities." -Theodore Geisel

Ngā mihi nui, Zair

Tēnākoutou,

This is just a small post from me - Christine - wishing to share with you all something a little special; something that I would love all our whānau and community to read and to be a part of.

It begins with a small story. After being nominated and winning a regional and national NEiTA award earlier this year, I was contacted by ASG and asked if I'd liked to be interviewed for one of their magazines.

ASG has always been a very proud supporter of quality teaching and the education sector in both Australia and New Zealand. It is ASG who formed the National Excellence in Teaching Awards (NEiTA) in New Zealand in 1996 and have since also launched a magazine.

The magazine they were referring to, is - Early Horizons– this is written for early childhood teachers and is aimed at further supporting the early childhood sector. It is a wonderful example of a publication that celebrates the joy of early learning for young children.

It was a huge honour to be asked for an interview for this publication, and the topic the journalist chose to talk to me about was our wonderful nature programme that we run on Friday mornings at Mair Park.

So, here it is, I have lots of copies available at Kindergarten for anyone who would like to see or read it in print - but otherwise click HERE for a link to an electronic copy.

I would love to have your feedback on the article; this is a programme all the teachers have worked so very hard at establishing and maintaining. We are also so privileged to have such fabulous support from all our whānau who help on Friday mornings, as well as Sarah (who incidentally was the fabulous photographer for this article). As a teaching team we are able to see first hand just how much the children of Mairtown love the nature programme, and how they blossom and flourish down in our beautiful Mair Park.

Hei konā mai,

Christine

After much enthusiasm and anticipation on Friday the 27^th November 2014 we went on an adventure to Kiwi North and grounds. The miserable forecast and weather didn’t dampen our spirits. There was a buzz of excitement amongst the children, the wonderful part of going on excursions is getting out in the community as there is so much to see, explore, discover and experience.

Once we locked up kindergarten we all boarded the bus and had an enjoyable ride to Kiwi North. Upon arriving it had thankfully stopped raining, so we had a picnic morning tea. Some of the children found interesting places to eat including on the boulders.

“Excursions are valuable for everyone – children, educators and the community, for children to build a strong sense of themselves within the community and to make meaningful connections with the world outside the gate.” Ingrid Maack, 2011

Shirley from Kiwi North gave us a guided tour around the kiwi house. She gave lots of detailed information about our treasured icon bird, for example, we learnt how the kiwi’s nostrils are at the end of the beak. Then it was time to go on an adventure into the darkness of the kiwi house, we were delighted to watch the kiwi running around and foraging for food. What a special treat to be so close to the kiwi and watch their movements.

“Everyone likes birds. What wild creature is more accessible to our eyes and ears, as close to us and everyone in the world, as universal as a bird? People must feel that the natural world is important and valuable and beautiful and wonderful and an amazement and a pleasure.” David Attenborough

Kevin introduced us to their tuatara called ‘Flash’, we learnt lots of interesting facts about New Zealand’s dinosaur including that Flash is only four years old, and they don’t know if Flash is a boy or girl, which they won’t find out until Flash is around ten years old.

“Here is your country. Cherish the natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children’s children.” Theodore Roosevelt

While adventuring we discovered a big hill which was fantastic fun to run or roll down. We also discovered the miniature train tracks; these were particularly tricky to balance on. Our excursion was a great educational experience which gave further opportunities to investigate and explore while extending our children’s interest with birds especially the kiwi.

Back at kindergarten it was great to reflect with our children what their favourite part of our excursion was, here are some comments and drawings;

Emma: “I loved seeing the kiwi’s. I saw one pecking at some food it had a very long, long, long, long, long, long, long beak; it pecked the food off the ground. Seeing the kiwi was amazing.”

Peter: “Seeing kiwi and tuatara, I thought it was going to run away.”
Charlize: “I saw one kiwi, it was looking for food in its cage, it ran away.”
Roman: “Lots of kiwi’s 1,2,3,4,5, its dark only a blue light on.”
Charlie: “All the fun things, I saw two kiwi, a person fed the kiwi.”
Tyler: “Going with my mummy and seeing the kiwi in the dark, one was by the tree.”
Mercia: “I liked the bus ride with my Mum.”
Wyatt: “I liked seeing that lizard thing what was it called? Oh yeah it’s a tuatara its name is Flash and it was four."

Braeden: “I liked seeing the skeleton dinosaur (tuatara).”

Max: “Kiwi’s, they were eating their dinner, sometimes the kiwi ran away.”

Kayla: “My favourite part was seeing the kiwi, it was dark, it was digging for some food.”
Sienna: “Seeing the kiwi’s.”
Cameron: “On the bus with Mum. The kiwi.”
Tiaki: “The bus, going past my house I saw it out the window.”
Payton: “The kiwis they were running around and the tuatara was called Flash.”
Reese: “I liked the bus ride and I liked the tuatara when we come out. It was called Flash and its four like me, I loved it. I really, really, really liked everything.”
Nyla: Going on the bus with my Mummy, Reese and Max. I liked seeing the kiwi.”

A very big thank you to all our helpers and whānau who were all so willing and able; without your support this excursion wouldn’t have been possible. Also thank you to Robbie from Ritchies, he was our friendly bus driver. This trip was made possible by all the fabulous fundraising efforts early in the year.

Ngā mihi nui

Susie

This week is the last of our calendar year at kindergarten before we all go on to enjoy a highly anticipated summer holiday. December is always a special time for us, there is an air of festivity and excitement in the children and lots of wide eyed stories to share.

This year we have had the opportunity to widen our Christmas celebrations, through an invitation to participate in a community 'Festival of Christmas Trees', organised by the St John’s Golden church.

The church provided twenty trees to be decorated by a variety of community groups, and thanks to Taika’s nana Raewyn (one of the organisers), we were lucky enough to be asked to decorate one.

The purpose of the Christmas tree display is to showcase some of the community groups in Whangarei. When we were deciding what style to decorate our tree, we felt this would be a wonderful opportunity to create a Christmas display that highlighted the philosophy of our kindergarten.

“At Mairtown Kindergarten we believe in providing opportunities for children to learn to love and connect with nature. We feel this enables children to become motivated to care for and to develop respect for our community, our natural world and for all living things” (Alford, 2014).

The decorations on our tree were all created and designed by our tamariki, using a combination of natural, recycled and up-cycled materials including, twig stars, sliced oranges (that are fed to hungry birds when taken down), sparkly ‘bomby knockers’, glitter dipped feathers and peg fairies. Our children are wonderfully clever and just love opportunities to work with resources in creative and imaginative ways.

“Creativity is not the finding of a thing, but the making of something out of it after it is found.” James Russell Lowell

When the decorations were complete Susie, Christine, Zair and my-self went down the road to dress our beautiful tree, it looks so stunning, and although there are 19 other attractively decorated trees in the church, we all agreed that our children’s work was truly the most wonderful!

On December 4^th, our kindergarten whānau took a hikoi to view the Festival of Christmas trees. It was a beautiful sunny day to take a short stroll up Kamo Road with friends and family.

At St John’s Golden church we were welcomed in by Raewyn and Beryl and invited into view the display. The church looked wonderful with such an array of design, style, colour and lights. Raewyn had also prepared a delicious snack of shortbread for the tamariki, and in acknowledgement of their time and care the children gifted two beautifully sung Christmas carols in return.

One idea of community denotes ‘common unity’, or participating in a common purpose. Having the opportunity to contribute to the beautiful display in the St John’s Golden church has been a real treat for our tamariki and whānau. Creating decorations collaboratively has enriched our children’s learning; however I believe the most important feature of this story is the opportunity for our tamariki to share magic and wonderment with others in community. The true joy of the Christmas season is the love and memories shared with our family and friends.

Fill your life with experiences, not things. Have stories to tell, not stuff to show.

Meri Kirihimete ki a koe me te whānau – Merry Christmas to you and your family

Kim Townsend

Almost a year ago Christine, Susie and I attended a thought-provoking presentation facilitated by International Play Advisor (Outdoor Play and Learning: OPAL) and Play England trustee, Michael Follet. Michael has a vision to improve all aspects of children’s play opportunities and is an advocate for creating the ‘best conditions’ for children to be engaged in open ended, creative play.

If you ever have the opportunity to hear Michael speak, seize the moment, he is knowledgeable, witty and most importantly passionate about his work and vision. His presentation was a steely reminder of our role as teachers (and parents) to protect and promote the value of play as a vehicle for learning. Whilst many topics were discussed and covered in his workshop one that totally piqued my interest was his introduction to ‘Playpods‘ in Primary Schools.

Playpods are basically shipping containers FULL of recycled objects and materials that children can use and manipulate for the purpose of their play. At kindergarten (as in many places) we often refer to these open ended objects as ‘Loose parts’.

“Loose parts can be moved, carried, combined, redesigned, lined up, taken apart and put back together" (Surrey County Council, 2012)

“Loose parts are flexible elements within a play environment. They are the fuel which feeds the fireof children’s imaginations and playful intentions” (OPAL, 2014)

Loose parts have always been viewed and loved as a necessary resource in our programme however, as I sat in Michael’s presentation I started to visualise and ponder what might evolve in our children's play if we created a designated play space (or our interpretation of a Playpod) for some of our loose parts at kindergarten.

It was time for some team planning!

Our Playpod is an un-used avocado bin and is housed on our grass area. The loose parts provided have been chosen by the team after a brain storming session on objects that we know and felt would further support children’s creative thinking. Our objective with the Playpod was to offer a mix of new and already favoured materials and in keeping with the theory of loose parts, we would offer lots of the same items.

“The greater the diversity of loose parts offered to children, the greater the range of play interactions. These interactions enable open ended exploration through play leading to learning by doing” (The children’s scrapstore, 2014).

On the 9^th of September our Playpod was ‘officially opened’, this was an exciting morning for children and teachers alike; we were really excited to observe how the children would choose to explore and interact with this new space and the tamariki were in full resourceful thinking mode!

“When children have opportuniites to play with ideas in different situations and with a variety of resources, they discover connections and come to new and better understanding and ways of doing things” (Surrey County Council, 2012)

We are now five weeks down the track of having a Playpod in our playscape. As envisaged, this wonderful edition to the children’s choices for self-directed play has been a hub of activity.

As PlayEngland (2014) states “the capacity and ability of children’s play is inexhaustible” this giant box of treasures promotes creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, sustained engagement and supports our children’s schema’s. We just love it!

See you in term four!

Nga mihi nui
Kim

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