Sensory Play

We know that young children are oriented toward sensory experiences. From birth, children have learned about the world by touching, tasting, smelling, seeing, and hearing. Sensory play also contributes in crucial ways to brain development. Think of it as 'food for the brain'. Stimulating the senses sends signals to children’s brains that help to strengthen neural pathways important for all types of learning. For example, as children explore sensory materials, they develop their sense of touch, which lays the foundation for learning other skills, such as identifying objects by touch, and using fine-motor muscles.
The materials children work with have many sensory attributes - they may be warm or cool, wet or dry, rough or smooth, hard or soft, textured or slimy. Discovering and differentiating these characteristics is a first step in  classification, or sorting - an important part of children's science learning and discovery.
During the week we had a wonderful tub of maize at kindergarten and this term the children have also explored gloop, shaving cream, cloud dough, slime and clay. 

Exploring - talking, sharing, enjoying, being creative, problem-solving
and developing fine motor skills.

How does the maize look and feel?

Great language and discussion...

"I like the way it feels in my hands. It's soft and silky"

"This smells good. It's sweet and slimy" said Emma.

Hannah is busy making discoveries.

Jack made all sorts of patterns with the slime.

Rihannin, Anya and Max exploring the foamy mixture.

Jac, Rihannin and Anya - expressing their creativity.

Kimberly and Heleina are not only exploring, but are learning about sharing and turn-taking.

Daisy uses her sense of smell.

These children made all sorts of shapes with the cloud dough.

Rhys - testing out his ideas.

"This is just like rain" said Daisy.

Get Ready For School - Parent Session

A reminder to our families/whanau that we are holding an information session covering 'Get ready for school' and our 'All About Me' programme. This will be held at the kindergarten at 3pm on Wednesday 8th August. Mandi Rathbone and Catherine Daniels who teach the New Entrants class at Te Kowhai School will be making a short presentation as well. Please put your name on the list in our sign-in area in the morning if you would like to attend the session.

Go The Chiefs!

What is it about the mighty Waikato? First the Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic netball team won the overall competition, then our Olympic rowers won Gold (many train at Karapairo) and on Saturday night our Chiefs
played an outstanding game to win the Super 15 Rugby Final.... yahoo!!
We have had lots of fantastic medal winners at kindergarten this past week too, with children being awarded medals for a range of accomplishments and achievements. It is so good to see them attempting challenges and persisting with difficulty when they are learning new skills.
On Friday we invited children to come to kindergarten in their Chiefs gear or colours to support our team. We played the Mooloo song and Alison did some wonderful face painting. Lachlan's dad Michael arrived with some cow bells (I'm not sure if we should thank him for that!) which were, of course very popular. It was a wonderful day, capping off a very exciting week.

Zoe - Go the Chiefs!

May and Karin

Double trouble....Karin and Tracey

Alex we love your style

Alison paints Emma's face with the Waikato colours

Thomas with a cow bell - my ears are still ringing!

Heleina - a proud Chiefs supporter

Rhys wears the Chiefs colours with pride

Karin and 'the boys'

Stella had the right attitude. "The Chiefs will win" she said. 

Celebrating a great week by singing our National Anthem

Rhys, Lachlan and Tracey...'Go the Chiefs"

Thomas, Rhys, Lachlan, Alex, Megan and Sahsa having a team talk

 -

Mel awards Rhys with a medal - way to go Rhys!

Maori Language Week

Tena Koutou, greetings,
We have been celebrating Maori Language Week. This year Arohatia te Reo is the theme which means cherish the language.We embrace and enjoy our Maori language and culture at kindergarten and our tamariki (children) know many lovely waiata and poi songs which they perform with great enthusiasm. They also love to sing our Natonal Anthem and you can will see some lovely photos below of them with their arms around each other as they sing. At mat time we often say "Kei te pehea koe?" meaning "How are you". "Kei te pai ahau" is the reply we are hoping for meaning "I'm good" or even better "Ka nui te ora" which means "I'm great". We have been reading some of our favourite stories such as 'Mere McGaskill's Boil up', 'The Kuia and the spider', 'Kei te pehea Koe?', Nana Mihi's Rainbow along with Maori myths and Legends. As a special treat we purchased some Rawena Paraoa, a traditional loaf made with potatoes. Because it takes a long time to prepare and cook we decided to buy the loaf but made some Maori Fried Bread to share as well. The plates were empty in no time at all and the children agreed that the bread was really, really good.

Ruby, Alex and Sasha - great friends singing our National Anthem.

Tayla, Aimee and our new friend Emma singing beautifully.

Jac, James, Tyler and Nick - Ka pai to mahi. Great work!

Our enthusiastic helpers mix up the ingredients for the Maori fried bread

Kneading the dough - what great teamwork!

Master chef Megan at work

Rawena Paraoa

We shared the Paraoa outside. It was such a lovely, sunny day.

Kimberly said the bread tasted "really yummy"

A satisfied Stella finishing off the last piece.

How To Leave A Comment On Our Blog

I hope the school holidays are going well for everyone. Our team has been attending Professional Development Courses, so we will be back with lots of fresh ideas next week.
Up until now it has been a bit tricky to leave a comment on our Blog but hopefully you will find it a bit more user-friendly now.
To leave a comment:
You can type straight in to the Leave a message box. Before you can post the comment you will need to put in your name (first name is fine) and an email address. The email address will not show up on the Blog page and is a safety measure. Only our staff will be able to see it.
We welcome your feedback and look forward to reading your thoughts and comments.
Have a great week and enjoy the sunshine.

A Trip To Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World

Due to the on-going interest in the ocean and sea life we planned a trip to Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World in Auckland. The children were so ecxited as they counted down the number of sleeps until the trip. They have especially enjoyed some stories about sea creatures lately including 'Tiddler', 'Commotion in the Ocean' and the ever popular 'Rainbow Fish' book. We have also noticed that the children were sitting down with our non-fiction books to look at all the photos of the sea creatures. The great thing about going to Kelly Tarlton's was that they could identify many of these amazing creatures such as penguins, sting rays, sea horses, sharks, hermit crabs and of course Nemo. Kelly Tarlton's also put on a very good puppet show which was enjoyed by the children and the parents. It was a great day out and provided a valuable learning experience for the children. I'm not sure who looked more sleepy on the way home - the children or the adults!

A rock pool with all sorts of star fish to look at

We had a great view from the conveyor belt

"Look at their bright blue eyes" said Sasha

Fish, fish and more fish

Amanda and Thomas had a good look around

Well hello Mr Hermit Crab

Anya - driving already!

James thought the Hermit crabs were "really cool"

Our clever children knew a lot about the sea creatures, especially sharks like this one

Conor dressed up like a diver

We all enjoyed the puppet show

Did you know that seahorses can change their colours to camouflage themselves?

Watch out for those sharp teeth everyone