"M" For Monkey Bread

The children enjoyed making Monkey Bread by mixing the flour, sugar, butter, bananas and raisins. They explored the different textures during the process and they loved the taste of it. All the children said, "We want to make the Monkey Bread again."
The children demonstrated the virtues of co-operation and curiosity throughout the activity.

Nursery News

Farewell to Alaita, the Head Teacher in the Nursery area since the centre opened.
Farewell to Millar and Elliot who have moved up to the Toddlers. Welcome to Jasper who will be starting with us in the Pukeko Room.

The Planning Programme for the Nursery rooms have virtues within it. The Tuatara children have confidence and gentleness as their virtues. Look at some of the photos with the children at play.

Don't forget to bring in your immunisation updates and your new phone/address details.
Also check out our blogsite with awesome pictures from the centre.

Mothers' Day Open Morning

Come one and all to our Open Morning for Mums on Thursday the 8th of May from 9 untill 11.00 a.m. This is a special morning just for you, to come in at your leisure and spend some time with your child. Even if you can only spare fifteen or twenty minutes, do come in as the children enjoy having their family share in their learning experiences. A good excuse to leave the office for a while!

Morning tea will be provided in the staff room. This will give you a chance to catch up with other mums while having your morning cuppa!

See you there...Shona and all the Bayfield Staff

Anzac Day tribute from the Preschool

Several of the children noticed Karen's Anzac Day poppy and asked her about it. She explained some of the meaning of Anzac Day to them and they decided to make their own poppies. Here is the display in the Weka Room.....our own tribute to the fallen on Anzac Day. "Lest we Forget".

Nursery Visit From O.T.

Our Pukeko Teacher, Jo, has a pet rabbit called "O.T." He visited us last Thursday. The children in the Pukeko and Tuatara rooms were very excited to see him running and hopping around. They liked touching and feeling his soft fur. The children were all very gentle and displayed this virtue.
See the attached photos of Jo and the children with O.T..

Preschool - Missing Treasure

During the letter "J" week for the object box, against my better judgement, I let my child take his "James" from the Thomas the Tank Engine Set.
Despite the fact that Margaret kindly labelled it with his name, it has disappeared and never made it home. (My own fault, I know)
It is easy to recognise as it is a "Special edition" called Buzz Buzz. It looks like a regular James train but has yellow bees on his nose.
I would appreciate it if anyone finds this treasure if it could be returned to either the teachers in Preschool or reception.
Many thanks
A Preschool Parent

Kea Room painters of the week

"Painters of the week"

David, Samuel, Stefan, Imogen and Curtis are enjoying painting near Cindy in the morning. Then outside David and Imogen continued to paint. "What are you painting, Imogen?" "a Cookie" she says. David says "I'm painting me" and he begins to laugh. The fence painting and dancing continued on until lunch. What fun they are all having. Check out the link to the photos below.

Farewell to Laura and Thomas who will be starting Preschool next week". If you have time, take a look at our planning board in the room.

http://picasaweb.google.com/bayfieldeec/KeaRoomPaintersOfTheWeek

Weka room planning

Check out Preschool's new planning wall. We have made a few changes to how we implement and incorporate the children's interests. Our planning is now based on three main virtues. This month's virtues choices are co-operation, enthusiasm and respect. This means all activities and routines throughout the day encourage the children's language and behaviour to reflect these virtues. Lately the children have been interested in what they want to be when they grown up. Also, because of the new office reception desk that they have all shown an interest in, we have changed our beautiful family corner into a wonderful Preschool office, allowing the children to use the different resources that a regular office would have. Beside the office we have started an occupation wall which we hope will motivate the childen to bring photos of what their parents do as an occupation and what they might like to do themselves when they grow up.

Entertainment Books are here!!

Our yearly Entertainment Books have arrived!!! You can take your book home and please return it (or hopefully the money to purchase it) by the end of the week ie 11th April. Please support our centre by purchasing one of these books. For $65 you will gain $$$$$ hundreds of dollars worth of entertainment, restaurant and cafe vouchers throughout Auckland. Those who purchase them every year will tell you that you will gain your money back in the first 1 or 2 uses of the book. They really are amazing value!! We are hoping that the profit from the sale of these books will purchase a new lap top for the teachers to use for their profile books and assessments. Please help support our cause!

Thank you.

Shona
PS there are spare books available if you need them, but get in quick as they go fast and any returns go back out the door pretty quickly....

Nursery trip to Lollipops

Today the Tuatara Room went on their trip to Lollipops Playland. All the children were happy to walk down to the bus, some with rather confused looks on their faces. We all loaded into the bus an off we went. All the children had a great bus ride pointing out the windows at other buses, trucks, water and boats. Once we arrived at Lollipops we all got off the bus and went in the doors and we all got a green sticker on our tops. With huge smiles and still some confused looks all the children went off to explore, even the teachers and parents went on to the playground. We threw balls around in the ball pit. Leo had great fun lying in the balls. A few of the children were brave enough to go down the slide. We all had a great time climbing and bouncing, throwing balls, riding in cars and even having a turn on the merry go round. the bus trip home was very quiet and we had a couple of sleepy children.

http://picasaweb.google.com/bayfieldeec/NurseryTripToLollipops

Volcanoes in the Toddler Sandpit

Our Volcano made in the afternoon...

In the sandpit area Thomas, Louis, Kairo, Ivy and Charlotte were helping me to build a sandcastle. For some reason we started talking about volcanoes so then I decided to make a volcano with the children, using baking soda and vinegar. When we mixed the two substances and dye together, the children were all amazed at the volcano and how it was bubbling up. It was an exciting activity that most of the children came over to have a look at and when some of the children actually smelt the vinegar they did not like the smell!


http://picasaweb.google.com/bayfieldeec/VolcanoesInTheToddlerPlayground

Devonport Trip from last week

Dear Preschool parents

One of our preschool parents who went on the trip took a WHOLE LOT of photos. Be prepared to spend time looking at them (there's around 100!!!!). But they are awesome.

Enjoy!!


http://picasaweb.google.com/bayfieldeec/DevonportPreschoolTrip

J for Jelly in Preschool

As you may be aware, the "Object Box" is working very successfully in Preschool. The children continue to bring wonderful objects from home that start with the appropriate letter for the week. Together, they gain a lot of enjoyment, playing and learning with these interesting new objects.

The Weka teachers have decided to expand on this interest by incorporating the "Object Box" letter into our weekly cooking time. This way both children and teachers can experiment with lots of different types of food. This week it is "J" for Jelly.

Have a look below for some colourful photos.

http://picasaweb.google.com/bayfieldeec/JForJellyForPreschool

Pukeko and Tuatara Room Holistic play

The Pukeko children had great fun with pots, pans and pretend fruit and vegies. Even the Tuatara children joined in. Mathew and Sophie were banging and stirring the pots with spoons, filling up and emptying the containers and pots, learning the concepts and differences between more or less, big and small.

http://picasaweb.google.com/bayfieldeec/HolisticPlayInTheTuataraAndPukekoRo