Little Treehouse Kindergarten

MATARIKI DISCO
Our children are getting very excited about our upcoming disco in 8 more sleeps! There is a lot of discussion about big brothers and sisters coming to kindy and what children are planning to wear. The tamariki have been busy practicing some new songs and some familiar old ones every day which we are excited to share with our families. We have been learning about the 9 stars of Matariki and have introduced some speaking parts to incorporate with our music and we have been so impressed with how quickly these children have learnt their line. We have also been busy updating our playlist with all the children's suggestions and making some decorations for the evening reflecting the 9 stars of Matariki.

We hope you can all join us for a fun evening at kindy next Friday 26th June 5.30-7pm

MATARIKI DISCO
Our Matariki disco is next Friday 26th June from 5.30pm to 7pm. The children have been busy today making our invitation to share with families. The anticpation is building as we practice our Matariki songs and make decorations for this special evening. We hope to see you all there.

AUCKLAND MUSEUM VOLCANO ADVENTURES
Today we had a visit from Natasha and Geeta from the Auckland Musuem where the children taught all about the power of volcanoes! Through a hands-on interactive learning programme we uncovered the science behind volcanoes. We learnt how to identify the different parts of a volcano, created a scientific eruption, explored volcanic rocks and learnt what to do in an earthquake. We enjoyed song and dance and a vibrant Māori story that celebrate these magnificent forces of nature.

Making volcanoes and eruptions has always been an activity requested by children so this learning supported this interest and helped us to extend children's learning. We have also enjoyed lots of volcanoes in the sandpit over the last few weeks, made our own paper mache volcano and enjoyed volcano inspired art and craft activities. We will look forward to seeing how our learning continues over the coming weeks.

SAMOAN LANGUAGE WEEK
This week we have been celebrating Samoan Language week by exploring lots of Samoan language at mat times and enjoying learning some new Samoan songs at music. Our daily set ups have also focused on Samoan culture through fabric, tapa cloth and arts and crafts activities.

Today we were lucky enough to have Henry (Lily’s Dad) come and spend some time with us at morning tea time. He brought along his guitar and shared some great songs with us such as A, E, I, O, U, Sa’valiali and Mili Mili Patia. We also learnt some valuable words including Talofa (Hello), Tofa (Bye), Fa’amolemole (Please) & Faa’afetai (Thankyou). Thank you Henry for giving your time so generously to sharing your Samoan heritage with us at kindy.

BUSY IN THE GARDEN
With the lovely sunny days that we have been fortunate to have throughout May our garden has been florishing and there have been lots of opportunities to spend time in the garden with the children. The children are great kaitiaki of our garden, nurturing it every day with watering and feeding of fresh compost and worm juice when available. Our lettuces that were planted earlier in the year have been continuing to provide us with lettuces to enjoy and we have noticed that our strawberry plants are already starting to fruit and we even had a red strawberry to pick this week, well before the traditional strawberry season.

The children have also been learning all about kiwifruit in their Know Me Eat Me programme, learning about the different varies, how they got their name and what an important part they play in supporting our health and digestion.

Lets hope that the beautiful sunny days continue!

PYJAMA DAY
Today we had a cosy day at kindy wearing our pyjama’s as we celebrated our annual pyjama day. Our bedtime friends joined us for the day and we enjoyed introducing them to our friends, sharing lots of stories in cosy spaces together and a relaxing time enjoying teddy bear yoga. Children have kindly been bringing in new pyjamas from home to help those in need over winter through the Kindness Collective Pyjama Project. Thank you for to all of our families for supporting this initative and extending kindness within our wider community.

NATURE EXPLORATION
Today our 4 year old Wise Owls had an amazing sunny autumn day for their nature exploration to Mt Hobson. They enjoyed a picnic lunch, music on the mountain, followed the map to their favourite destinations and had fun storytelling The Three Billy Goat's Gruff at the 'troll bridge', the perfect prop for our story!

STORY TELLING
We are currently exploring drama and story telling at kindy and today the children have been enjoying lots of opportunities for story telling. They have been re-enacting the story of the three little pigs through a simple provocation as well as re-enacting the story at mat time. They have also been revisiting our learning from earlier in the week about the three Billy Goat's Gruff through a creative art provocation. The puppet theatre has been busy all week with endless stories to be told and 'shows' to enjoy through the use of our puppets.

We will look forward to exploring other story telling and drama opportunities over the weeks ahead.

ANZAC DAY CELEBRATIONS
Today at kindy we celebrated ANZAC day by participating in lots of Anzac crafts, making poppies at the glue gun table, art easels and the collage table. We created poppies out of playdough and made some yummy ANZAC biscuits which we all got to enjoy for morning tea. During our mat time children learnt about ANZAC day, why we celebrate it and we shared a story about ANZAC Ted. Earlier in the week we also had the privilege of seeing Hugo's great grandfathers 4 medals that he received for fighting in World War II and some photos of his Grand Pop Russell and his Army Battalion.

We wish all of our kindergarten community a lovely ANZAC day tomorrow and an extra special long weekend together.

CELEBRATING WORLD BOOK DAY
Today we are having a fun day at kindy celebrating world book day by dressing up as our favourite book characters and sharing our favourite books at kindy. We have lots of different book characters at kindy including a dragon, panda, bear, mouse, cats, dinosaurs, princesses, Where’s Wally and so much more. The teachers shared a favourite kindy book by being all the Colour Monsters.

Nurturing a love of books is an important part of our curriculum on a daily basis at kindy so spending the day enjoying books and the characters they create is a fun way to spend the day at kindy.