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Frogs on a log!

In preschool, we’ve been working on increasing our knowledge about NZ frogs. We were fortunate enough to watch the frog metamorphosis. After our tadpoles turned into frogs, children enjoyed making a “Frog Terrarium”, by placing big rocks and logs inside the tank. Without a doubt, our frogs loved the terrarium we made and here is the proof.

our frog's kingdom

We were very excited to see our frog jumping in our preschool. He enjoyed looking at all the things we got in the room and he was very happy to get the attention from his human friends.

digital fun!

Digital microscopes are fun! Children are naturally curious and digital microscopes allow the children to explore their world- a world they cannot see!


The best part of digital microscopes is that you can set your imagination free and can create more than 200 times the original size of anything you look at. This Digital Microscope will help in creating and capturing images, and also it can record videos and images in your computer. It is fun to learn the procedure and ordinary images can be turned into the astonishing ones. The digital microscopes are perfect for early childhood settings to satisfy young curious minds. These microscopes also allow teachers to plan engaging, stimulating and unique learning opportunities.

Our preschool turned into a big scientific laboratory when Nikita set up the Digital microscope. The children were very excited to see this piece of equipment magnifying the little things. They brought in interesting objects like leaves, small florets, plastic bugs to view them enlarged with clear detail. The children explored the items of their interest and were amazed (exploration 2:3). We encouraged the children to bring dead insects to explore their body parts and also minute interesting objects for further learning.

Emelia's pets

Emelia brought in her two pet frogs from home to show everyone in preschool. The children were very excited to see them as these frogs are from the tadpoles we had last summer. They were very happy to meet their old friends and explored the frogs thoroughly. The children in the transition group learnt many things about Green Golden Bell frogs. They learnt that these frogs are introduced from Australia and are allowed to keep them as pets, but not the native frogs of NZ. We also learnt about other introduced frogs such as Southern Bells and Brown Tree Frogs by searching the internet. It was a great learning experience for the children in the transition group (Contribution 2:3).

Introduced frogs of Nz

Native frogs of NZ

New Zealand Frogs

We learnt a lot about native frogs of NZ and also introduced frogs of NZ.

The Preschool do the Haka!

Today the preschool children were practising the Haka! They all put on their best game faces and did so well...Maybe we have some future All Blacks in our midst!

oops!it jumped out!

Oops! It jumped out!

This morning as usual, we placed our tadpoles in their feeding bowl and fed them the fish flakes. Suddenly, we noticed that the tadpole with four legs jumped onto the top of the bowl. The children screamed with excitement, “The tadpole jumped out of the water. It’s a frog now”. Harry asked, “It is not going to die as he is not in the water anymore?” I explained that as the tadpoles grow more legs, they start to develop lungs that enable them to breathe air outside the water. Matthew said, “The tadpoles are like fish. They stay in the water all the time”.

I explained to the children that the tadpoles have gills that help them to breathe inside the water and once the tadpoles turn into frogs, they don’t have gills any more.

What a great learning experience!

Mickey's adventures

   Have you seen the adventures that Mickey has had over the past three weeks? The children were chosen for Mickey's adventures when they displayed the virtues of respect, helpfulness and caring.

why is one tadpole missing?

What happened to one of the tadpoles?




Today, we noticed that there were only six tadpoles left in the tank when we started off with seven tadpoles. The children were puzzled and thought of what might have happened to the missing tadpole. By doing so, they demonstrated good understanding of the situation, which is why one tadpole is missing. We brainstormed about different things tadpoles eat and watched the videos of tadpoles eating different things. After watching the videos, children came to the understanding that one of the tadpoles might got sick and died and then eaten by the other tadpoles.

Weekend magic

This morning, we were all amazed to see a tadpole with four legs. Matthew said, “It’s going to turn to a frog soon”. Matthew’s mum Sarah talked to us about her experiences of raising tadpoles when she was in the school and she said that her tadpoles were turned into “Brown Tree Frogs”. We can’t wait to find out what kind of frog our tadpole with four legs is going to turn to.

our frog friends

These frogs are called Green and Golden Bells. Emelia brought them to preschool and all the children explored and learnt many things about these frogs.

A visit from our old friends

Emelia brought in her two pet frogs from home to show everyone in preschool. The children were very excited to see them as these frogs came from the tadpoles we had last summer. They were very happy to meet their old friends and explored the frogs thoroughly. Thank you Emelia for looking after the frogs and Well Done!

The Amazing letter A

The object box is back in Preschool! We are returning to having letters of the week, and are starting with 'A'. Have a look round at home with your child and see if you can identify some things that begin with this letter. If possible, bring one or two of these in to place in our object box. We will go through the 'A' things at mat time and return them to your child at the end of the week.
We are looking forward to seeing what A for Awesome things come in during the week!

predator or friend?

Predator or a friend?

This morning, Matthew asked “what would happen if we put Tiny Tim in the tank with the tadpoles?” The children watched on eagerly as Rachel put Tiny Tim in the feeding bowl together with the tadpoles. It was a surprise to see that Tiny Tim was swimming around with the tadpoles eating the flakes, and not the tadpoles, that Rachel and the children fed to them all.



It seems that Tiny Tim is not the predator, but just a friendly turtle like we knew he would be!!

Nursery News 2-6 August

Last week was quite a wet week, but the children in the Nursery didn't let this slow them down! We managed to keep ourselves busy with art play, music and movement time, and when the sun decided to show up on Friday we made the most of it by doing as much as we could in the playground!

Have a look at the Daily Diaries to see the children in action.

Monday 2 August



Tuesday 3 August



Wednesday 4 August



Thursday 5 August



Friday 6 August

tadpoles and frogs

Lately the children have shown interest in frogs. They looked over the project that we did last summer on frogs and tadpoles. The children wanted to have some tadpoles in Preschool. This interest was strengthened when we read “Big changes for tiny tadpole” at mat time. The children brainstormed what they would like to learn throughout the investigation. The children were made aware of the fact that some of the tadpoles won’t turn into frogs because it was winter, yet we still carried on with this project as it is a great learning experience for the children to practically understand why tadpoles might not turn into frogs in winter. We decided that we will provide a warm environment for the tadpoles by placing them in a glass container and putting that container into the turtle tank where the water temperature is maintained at 25 degrees using the heater. We are hopeful that this will create a warm environment for our tadpoles.
The curiosity of children about tadpoles and frogs led to this amazing project. We believe that raising tadpoles and watching them emerge into adult frogs is a fascinating experience. This process is called “Metamorphosis” (change of form).
To extend the children’s interest further, we will get more information through reading books and searching the internet.

Ice cream cartons please!!

Dear parents

The preschool children are planting at the moment and we are desperate for ice cream cartons for our new seedlings.  We would also like to tidy up our resource room and these plastic containers are perfect for what we need.  Please give all containers to Shona or one of the preschool teachers.
Thanks so much!