The rock fairies have been

Today the rock fairies found a rock and delivered it to kindergarten to create a special seat where children (and adults) can sit to remember Logan. Logan LOVED the sandpit, so we think it is just the right place to sit and contemplate. Zac and Nathan certainly thought so. We will have the official unveiling on Wednesday as we have a bar-b-que lunch to remember Logan and raise asthma awareness. We hope that lots of people can join us at 11.45am for lunch and red balloons.

BDK is part of a research project related to hearing

You may have seen an item on One News today about the monitoring of the noise levels in early childhood centres. You will see a monitor on our back wall that looks a little bit like traffic lights. The green light is OK noise. The orange light is just okay. The red light indicates that the noise level is too high and will damage our hearing. We look forward to seeing how it goes.

A visit from whaea Jill

Our busy day on Friday included a visit from whaea Jill from Te Tahawai marae. Whaea Jill told us what the marae would look like and she how will greet us onto the marae by calling us in Maori. We then joined whaea Jill in a waiata. We are looking forward to our visit on Friday.

Making connections through skype

After assembly it was off to Room 9, Miss Cotman's classroom. For a while we have been discussing how we can build a closer relationship between Botany Downs School and our kindergarten. The school is next door, yet we don't always have time to connect ... but what better way to do it than through skype. The objective on this visit was to have to meet all the children and to have a look around the room so we would recognise everything when we skyped. Miss Cotman and her class sang us a song and we looked at ourselves on skype. We know that Miss Cotman is cool because she has a Mickey Mouse tee shirt, and Mickey is Bronwyn's boyfriend.
The next step in our foray into skyping is to be a return visit from Miss Cotman's class (some of our ex students). From there we plan to skype every Friday. We will tell you about it o the blog. We are very excited.

A great assembly at Botany Downs School

Once again we were welcomed to Botany Downs School assembly. This is part of our transition to school programme. Today it was the turn of Room 23 to take assembly. Thank you for the great welcome, we loved the poster. We enjoyed looking at your planets and we liked your play. Josh said that he liked the National Anthem.

Preparing plaster for carving

In the past weeks the children have been examining the patterns and forms in Maori carving. Angela worked with the children to mix plaster ... and when it was dry the children were able to carve their creation.

practical pathways to learning

Throughout our programme we encourage children to participate in the practical aspects of related to the running of the kindergarten. In this instance Sean and Ben were assisting in moving a sandstone rock from the car to the kindergarten in preparation for carving. It was hard work! Sean, what a great job you did. Ben, what a great job you did clearing the way. Thank you.