Franklin turns 4

Our turtle, Franklin is very much a part of our daily programme ... so it goes without saying that we would celebrate his birthday. This year Franklin turned 4. Niki's son Archie asked, "Does that mean he can be a a school turtle next year when he turns 5?" I don't think so, Archie, we love our Frankie too much. We were blown away with the stunning 'turtle food'. It seems that this is another thing that you can find on Google. Lily came to kindergarten bearing a special present for Franklin ... two very scrumptious prawns. Thank you Lily.

Who sank the boat?

Following Frankie's birthday party we were left with an abundance of balloons. One very cool balloon activity is acting out the story 'Who sank the boat?' Having read the story we turned a table upside down, placed balloons underneath then counted how many children could hop on the upturned table before the balloons popped. Sometimes the balloons pop right away ... and sometimes we can all hop on and we have to jump up and down before they pop. On this occasion it took nine children to pop the balloons. But who sank the boat?

A weighing kind of a day

Our guinea pig babies are now 5 days old and are growing fast. As one of the children commented on how little they were we thought that this was the right moment to check out their weight. With the help from some kitchen scales provided by Kathie's Mum we set about weighing the babies. The one with the tuft weighed in at 140 grams, while the other guinea pig was 10 grams lighter at 130 grams. It won't be long and we will be able to sex them and see if our prediction that the heaviest guinea pig might be a boy is correct. While the scales were in action we decided to weigh Franklin. He weighed in at a healthy 510 grams.

Our new arrivals have their first school visit

Last week the Mrs Lala and the children from room 19 came to kindergarten to donate us some shredded paper and so wood. We always love these connections with Botany Downs school. While they were visiting we mentioned that our guinea pig was about to have babies. The children were so excited that we promised to bring the babies over for a visit when they arrived. I asked the children where Room 19 was. They decided that they would draw a map and that Baneet would bring it to kindergarten when she came to collect her sister. What a great map with excellent written instructions as well. Wednesday was the day that suited us all for a visit. Mia, Jessica and Jayden helped to put Cookie and the babies into a carry cage. We packed our map. The weather looked a bit dodgy so we needed to get the show on the road. We remembered to take the snuggle bags too. As we we passed Room 10 Mrs Richards called out to us to see if we could visit their classroom too. Mrs Richards knew about the babies because her grandson Connor comes to our kindergarten. There were so many of our old kindergarten children in the class that we just about knew everyone .... and of course, Archie's Mum is a teacher at our kindergarten. Then it was time to look at the map again and follow the directions to Room 19. What an accurate map. Thanks room 19. Mia, Jessica and Jayden helped to show the guinea pigs to the children. We discussed their size, what they eat and how they are different to rabbits. We even talked about the fact that people in South America eat guinea pigs! What great sharing.

We mustn't forget to focus some attention on the proud Dad

Everyday Lily brings food for the guinea pigs ... and everyday she goes into the guinea pig grotto to share the food amongst the guinea pigs.

The afternoon children meet the cute guinea pig babies

It was time for the afternoon children to get up close and personal with our beautiful guinea pig babies tucked up together in their snuggle bag.

Our kindergarten swap with Somerville kindergarten

We have been counting down the sleeps ... and finally the day arrived! What a buzz of excitement in the air! For those of you who do not know what a kindergarten swap is .... its as simple as this. We all got on the bus and went to Somerville kindergarten for the morning, then we waved good bye to the children from Somerville kindergarten as they boarded the bus to spend the morning at our kindergarten. What a fabulous morning. Fun for the children. Professional development for the teacher. And fantastic support from our wonderful kindergarten parents as they provided supervision to meet required ratios for trips.

How cute is cute?

Two beautiful babies greeted us this morning. We are so lucky.

Cookie - mother to be

Lily's snuggle bags

Madison's jaguar

The jaguar continued

The jaguar continued

Mother and son adventures

Irme-Lee mastering a skill

Jacob's train

Gryffyn's scarecrow

Enthusiasm for playing with the tree house continues

This morning the children chose to have the army at the tree house. What a great addition to our kindergarten environment.

The tree house comes to life

Building the tree house has been the children's focus over the past couple of weeks. Now it is time for the children to show us how they would like to use it. Today Emma took the princesses to explore the tree house. Gryffyn looked a little perplexed and asked ..."but where are the boys?" so we went in search of some knights and dragons. i wonder what will happen at the tree house tomorrow?

Check out our tree house!

At our morning meeting with Steve we talked about what we were going to build on our tree house today. Steve drew a plan on the board and we added our ideas. Ladders seemed to be the most popular idea so Steve and his helpers got down to work. First the roof had to be finished and then we had to find suitable wood to make the ladder. Luckily there was a big branch that was just right to saw up make the ladder.
We are all delighted with our awesome tree house. (Even if we did challenge Steve a bit by using mixed media.) We think it looks perfect and can't wait to put it to use. Thanks Steve!
Now we need to decided where the finished product will live permanently.

Tomorrow is a Steve Day

Tomorrow is a Steve Day. That's the cry that went up today. We discussed where we needed to move to with the tree house and the decision was almost unanimous. "We need some ladders." "We need a straight ladder to go up, not a wobbly string one," said Milan. Logan said, "We can make a ladder up to the roof so we can fix it if it gets broken." The children spent the moring drawing their ladders.

Building the Eiffel Tower

As Madison continues to show her enthusiasm for things relating to the Eiffel Tower it was time to see what Google would tell us about the Eiffel Tower. In our search we came across a set of games called 'Hector at the Eiffel Tower.' On of the choices in this site was a set of three puzzles all relating to the Eiffel Tower - a daylight picture, a night time picture and a structural picture. To do the puzzles requires precise manipulation of the key pad mouse of the laptop. Initially Madison was tentative and a little frustrated with her ability to manipulate the mouse. However, as these photos show, within minutes she had all the necessary skills under control. Well done Madison.

The Rain Forest Cafe

On a previous blog comment I told the children about the Rain Forest Cafe that I visited in London. What a fabulous place. I wished that I could whip home and get all the children to share this great experience. The next best thing was to take a wee video ... not great light and sound but you get the idea ....

Welcome back Bronwyn

What a lovely welcome back after my three weeks away at a conference in Strasbourg. What a lot I had to catch up on. Just as well we have portfolios to track the adventures at kindergarten.

The Tree House takes shape.

Steve was greeted by an enthusiastic group of helpers keen to get on and build our tree house. It was a beautiful sunny morning the perfect sort of day to work outside. The next platform was added and the roof almost completed. At the end mat time we discussed what would happen next. Will we put sides on and if so what will they be made of. There were a few suggestions........
maybe sticks or perhaps sticks with flax woven through them. We need to get our thinking caps on before next Tuesday and decide what else our tree house needs. How will the creatures who live in the house get up and down to the different levels? Where will the tree house be put when it's finished?

Enjoying the Tree House.

The tree house has already become a popular addition to the kindergarten even though we haven't finished it completely. We are really looking forward to working on it with Steve tomorrow!

Working in the Art Gallery

The tree house begins

There was a real buzz in the air this morning when everyone arrived and saw the awesome branch Steve had brought in to start the tree house. It was such a lovely morning that we had our morning meeting with Steve outside where we could all look at the branch.

Milan had brought in his tool belt and tape measure ready to get to work. His tape measure was very useful when Steve was measuring up smaller branches to build the first platform on the tree house.

This morning we used a bow saw to cut the branches, a jig saw to cut around the ply wood and a battery powered screw driver. Roll on next Tuesday so we can continue our project.