Over the past 3 weeks, whanau have been very generously bringing in their excess fruit and vegetables.

This year there seems to be an large excess of tomatoes and plums.

Much of the produce have been made available for whanau to take home with them but we have also been processing and preserving some of this excess food with the children.  What a learning experience for the teachers and the children as most of us hadn't seen or done and preserving for many years. We were given recipes from whanau and also looked up some with the children and started the processing.

Children helped to chop up the fruit. This involved concentrating on where the sharp edge of the knife was and making sure that fingers were kept above the blade.  What a wonderful smells were created as the simmering jams, chutneys and relishes gently cooked in the kindergarten stove.

Next thing we need was labels for our preserves. What a great authentic experience for tamariki as they helped create labels.

Thanks to our families for donating the many jars that we ended up using.

We have been able to make Plum jam, Peach and plum jam, Tomato relish, Pasta sauce, Green tomato chutney, Peach and tomato relish, and Marmalade.

With all these preserves, we have been able to set up our own shop and sell these back to our community for a donation.

This has also followed from children's interest in playing shop keepers earlier on in the term. Now children have had the opportunity to participate in a real shop situation, where they created the product, helped with the marketing (sign) and had turns being the shopkeeper.

Money raised from the sales have been put towards fish signs for our drains, and also to help the upkeep of our kai gardens.

THANKYOU to all parents and whanau who participated in many ways, from bring in jars, excess fruit, providing recipes and purchasing our preserves (and probably in other ways too).

What a great show that captivated the children.

Thankyou to Science in a Van.

This 30 minute show encouraged tamariki to become like a scientists and guess what will happen,

as the words, mixture, separation and reaction were introduced and explained through the world of bubbles.

Little bubbles,  BIG BUBBLES, 

all round and round bubbles.

On the last week of January we had a small truck load of sand delivered.

Fortunately it was able to be tipped next to the sandpit.

With lots of shovels, spades and keen helpers we were able get all the sand into the sandpit within one morning.

THANKYOU EVERYONE.

Buddy has been completed and was named by Katie.

We are now awaiting to find out about Luvsindiar adventures on November 14th as she visits an adults work place

It has been great that many children have been involved in the various stages in dressing 'Buddy'.  This has definitely been a kindergarten community project, where children excitedly show whanau their contributions.

Now we just need to a name for 'Buddy.'

We signed up to be a Buddy Day Creator for Buddy  Day - Friday 14th November.

For more details  www.buddyday.org.nz

These are some examples of children's representational drawings of  nga atua o aotearoa. Their ages range from just turned 3 to 4 1/2 years old.

Children have become familiar with Nga Atua through the book "In the Beginning" by Peter Gossage.

They are getting good at the pronunciation of an atua's full name, eg Tanemahuta and Haumiatiketike, and are aware of how they help look our natural environment.

It is wonderful to see how they have captured the unique features of each Atua in their own way.

A couple of the children initially said that the Atua was too hard to draw. It was when they looked at the illustration in small sections (eg,first the eyes, then mouth) that they discovered the it was easier than they thought.  The process for the children involved braking down the whole Atua into smaller sections that were formed from different shapes - circles, lines, squares.

Prime Minister John Key and MP Judith Collins visited our unique one-stop family support venue at Takanini Child and Family Centre on 8 August 2014

Open since the beginning of 2014, the complex is housed in building that include a range of eco- features including passive ventilation systems, solar panels that generate electricity which can be put back into the grid, and water tanks used for irrigation and flushing of toilets.

Our brand-new early learning centre on this site enjoys a north-facing building that is bathed in natural light and opens out onto a large playground featuring natural materials and play spaces for all ages, an area for community gardens and an orchard.

This venue is unique as it comprises a range of Early Childhood Education and Family Support services:

·        Early Learning Counties Manukau ELCM-Takanini is licensed for 96 children, 12 under 2 years and 84 over 2 years, grouped in four separate play spaces. This service offers 20 hours free for children aged 2,3, 4 and 5 years of age, sessions from 8-12 and 1-5, six hour sessions and long days for working parents from 7.30 to 5.30. A cooked lunch is provided every day for $1. This service is open all year with a only a short closure over Christmas and two days in July to provide our staff with professional development to support the provision of high quality teaching and learning.

·        The Family Service Centre is operated by Great Potentials Foundation where they provide:

Ø  HIPPY Home Instruction for Parents Pre-schoolers and Youngsters

Ø  Counselling

Ø  Budgeting

Ø  Parent courses

Ø  Adult literacy

Ø  Play group from 9-12 every Tuesday and Thursday where parents can come stay and play with their children and have a coffee and meet other parents.

Ø  Health Services including Plunket visits, Diabetics clinic, Women’s Health

Ø  Triple P Parenting Programme

·        The CMKA Play Truck operates a service which goes out into the community to showcase to parents the value of ECE, and provide information about how to support their child learning through play. This service is funded by the Ministry of Education to increase participation in Early Childhood Education in Takanini and Manurewa.

·        CMKA Head Office is located at this site, providing support for all 29 of our kindergarten and early learning centres. 

Toby has been part of our kindergarten for 3 years now.

He was donated from a local family, and is now very much part of our community.

He enjoys roaming free throughout the day, receiving lovingly cuddles and pats from tamariki.

Children also help with letting him out of his cage in the mornings and cleaning of his cage.

Toby enjoys receiving a variety of healthy snacks that are frequently brought in from whanau.

Toby also takes holidays when we do and has been to visit many family homes during his time here.

Our children adore Toby and we hope he will be with us for many years to come.

For three mornings this week children have arrived to discover a thin layer of frost over our boxes and covering the water trough.This has lead to many discussions about temperature, how we keep our body warm withmany layers of clothing, and children's knowledge about season

s.

After two weeks away, some children have discovered some plants were growing in the bark area that surrounds our climbing boxes and swings.

This progressed into a hunt for many more that last a good 15 minutes. There was great delight each time the found another seedling. It also took some skill and care to pull up the seedling without separating it from it's roots. 

Once tamariki were certain that they had removed all the plants, the plants  were then laid out on a table and counted.

Our "bug eyes" have also be re-introduced to tamariki. They have explored these with fascination, describing what they see.

"You look like a monster.  You have lots of eyes."

Off to "Mr McGee and the Biting Flea" show at the Vodafone Event Centre in Manakau.

This was a play presented by Capital E about 6 stories written by Pamela Allen.

On the way there we were fortunate to be able to ride in a long bus where there were plenty of seats for all.

Throughout out the show tamariki were captivated by the songs and dramatic acting.

We had been fortunate to borrow the six stories from the local library so children were familiar with the storylines throughout the play.

Afterward children gave us their comments as well as expressed their ideas and thoughts about the play down on large pieces of paper.

Some of their comments:

"I liked the cow part."

"Mr McGee got a cow, and a girl and cow , BOOF BOOF and then STOMP STOMP"

"That was fun wasn't it." ( when they were moving the stage equipment.)"I liked the cow and when the man was running around with a dress."

"I liked the ducks and the bus."

This week we had Play dough snails going on an adventure with their birthday cake and 4 candles.

They would then venture off with their backpacks on until they found another party to attend.

This venture lasted all day with the child taking the snails home for the adventures to continue.

At the start of the week we arrived at kindergarten to find a "river of leaves" flowing along the concrete path.

"Tawhirimatea is here and blowing" exclaimed a couple of children as they arrived.

So we collected up the leaves and created leaf pile in the middle of the grass.

Laughter and delight followed as tamariki threw bunches of leaves into the air. They then watched them dancing on the breath of Tawhirimatea as the leaves gradually return to the ground. 

Welcome to our very first blog for Papakura North Kindergarten, and the beginning of a new era for us.

We aim to provide a weekly update of some of the many adventures that we take with our tamariki as they learn and develop.