"Stretch-n- Grow"

On every Wednesday, Leisha, our “Stretch-n-Grow” instructor visits us to do music and movement activities. “Stretch-n-Grow” is a comprehensive early childhood physical education, nutrition and wellness enrichment programme, designed to develop and promote good health and fitness habits in young children. This programme embodies the principles of early childhood curriculum, TeWhaariki.
The children had awesome fun when Leisha did ‘catching the bugs with peg’ activity. Leisha also talked to the children about different muscles in the human body and did movement activities to strengthen them. The children felt their hearts racing after the work out and were appreciated for their efforts with a special stamp.

Rugby Dress Up Day at Preschool!

It was amazing that All Blacks made into the final in the Rugby world Cup 2011sporting event. In order to support All Blacks, we celebrated our second “Rugby” dress up day and our littlies were excited about this day. They couldn’t wait to hop on the Biggest Bouncy Castle. They chanted “Go All Blacks Go!” as they jumped on the bouncy castle. Without a doubt, it was a great day of fun and laughter.

French Class this week!

Today, the children had great fun when French class happened in the staff room. They revised their knowledge about the fruits, colours, body parts in French through songs and memory games. The children participated very enthusiastically identifying the objects, when the teacher asked them in French. They identified different colours by spotting the objects in the room. Then they learnt new words in French about the vegetables. They learnt the names of peas, carrots, cabbage and tomato in French. The children had great fun learning new words and showed love for learning (Belonging 2:1).

Little fire men at work!

We are having new tadpole friends soon in preschool!

Lately the children have shown interest in frogs. They looked over the project that we did last summer on frogs and tadpoles and been through the life cycle of Green golden bell frogs. 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. Even though, the children wanted to have tadpoles that turn into different kind of frogs such as tree frog or southern bell( they have examined the life cycle of Green Golden Bell frog before) , the children were made aware of the fact that it is impossible to know what kind of frogs the tadpoles turn into by looking at them as in their early stage of development.
Yet we still carried on with this project as the children were very excited to have tadpole friends in preschool.
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) (exploration 1:2).

Why is the Snail in the turtle tank?

How did the project emerge?

Today, we had lots of fun outside having ‘Tiny Tim’, fish and sea snail together. The children were fascinated to find a new creature and they wondered “why is the snail in the turtle tank?” Matthew said, “I never saw a live snail inside the water”. Annabelle said, “I saw heaps of snails in my garden and they look different to this sea snail”. I said, “Sea snails keep the tank clean by eating the waste off the turtle tank”.
Children were very curious about the Sea Snails and wanted to know more about them. We will be extending children's interest in this area through providing first hand experiences.