Butterflies galore

Our Amazing Dancers

A few weeks ago some of our girls were in a dance show. Today we sat down and watched a cd of the production.

We all enjoyed hearing about the show, and seeing our clever girls dancing. We were also shown some of their whanau who were involved as well.

The girls then proudly showed us their moves and some of the others had a great time copying them. Our boys then put on a show for us, with some amazing moves!

It was lovely that our children were so excited to share this experience with us, and that other children really enjoyed watching and copying them.

Using Technology

Our chrysalises

Our New Fountain

Our first cabbage

The Tui's were so excited to find their first cabbage that had grown in our vegetable garden, after all our hard work we were finally being rewarded. The children helped to pick it out of the garden then they all sat down to watch the teachers cut it open. The outer leaves were so big and green, but as we peeled the layers away it became a rich purple colour. It was a great experience to be able to talk about it's colour and how it changed, how it felt and the best part, what it tasted like. The Tui's enjoyed having a wee feast of raw cabbage, once we had all had a taste we took it next door to share with the Pukeko children and teachers. It is great to see the children explore with new unfamiliar foods; and of course we were all rather proud as we grew it right from seed. Well done Tui's; because of your care and attention to our vegetable garden we have produced some awesome fresh vegetables.

Bubbles Galore

Following the snails

Today the Tui's found a snail inside! The children were all very concerned about it being inside so they took it outside and found a nice green leaf to put it on. Once the snail was safely on the leaf the children stayed by his side and made sure nothing else would harm him. The afternoon came and the children remember "the snail on the leaf!", we all went over to see if the snail was OK, and he was not there anymore. We explained that he would have moved around to find his family and friends. The children still look in the garden to see if their friend the snail is still there. It is awesome to see the children showing such empathy and respect for other creatures in our garden, they also love to look after our caterpillars.

Our Perfect Pavlova

This morning we read ‘Mr Mayor’s Pavlova Palaver’ by Lucy Davey. This inspired us to make our own pavalova for afternoon tea.

We separated the eggs and then beat the whites until they were stiff. Then we added the sugar a little bit at a time. Once it looked fluffy and white we added vanilla and vinegar (and a few drops of blue colouring!) and then we poured it onto a baking tray. Then we enjoyed the ‘cooks privilege’ and licked the beaters and bowl.
Once it was cooked, we whipped some cream, and spread it all over the pav before decorating it with strawberries. It was delicious!



This was a great way of linking literacy with real life activities. The children followed the recipe from the book and we discussed what had happened in the story while we baked. The children also had a great sense of pride in their pavlova as we all enjoyed this tasty treat!

November Newsletter

On a hot Hawkes Bay day

The Tui's just love getting wet in the water. Today was such a beautiful day, so we had water in the trough with the boats, watering cans, water wheels, and sea animals.

The children were having a blast practising their pouring and hand control. We were also washing the trucks as well, which made us start singing "the wheels on the bus". We had such a great time outside today filled with many laughs and lots of splashing!

Water play is a great way for children to explore the concept of cold and wet as well as cooling down on a hot day and having fun with their friends.

Developing Dramatic Skills

Cutting with Scissors

Today the children were cutting using the scissors. They had the old scholastic brochures, which they love to cut out their favourite books from. It is so awesome to see the concentration on their faces while cutting; a lot of children poke their tongues out while doing so, it is very cute. Cutting with scissors is great for developing fine motor skills. It is also a starting point for literacy development. Scissors are an awesome way for children to start using their hands and fingers, developing control and grip which are all things needed for holding a pen and writing. We love cutting with scissors; it is great to see the confidence in the children when they are developing their skills. The Tui Room is full of competent and capable learners.

Messy Play Outside

Brainbox

Beautiful Tui's

Musical Exploration

Exploring sound

Stained Glass Windows

The gingerbread house

The Pineapple

We had a pineapple for afternoon tea, so instead of serving it all cut up I thought it would be fun for the children to experience the pineapple. We started off by touching the pineapple and describing what it felt like; the children thought it was hard and prickly. Then they smelt it and they thought it smelt yummy, then I cut the ends off and they were all very pleased with the colour. Finally it was time to taste the pineapple. It was so delicious and juicy that we managed to polish it off without any left overs!!

Using all the senses is a great way to investigate and make discoveries; just the perfect tools for budding young scientists. Roll on summer for all the yummy fruit, we can't wait for more investigating.

Caterpillars everywhere

Meet Stanley

We have had problems with the pesky birds eating our strawberries. The Tui's thought it would be a good idea to make a scarecrow to keep the birds away from our vegetable garden. The children set to work with Carolyn to make the scarecrow and what an awesome job they did. They named him Stanley and helped put him in the garden. The children all made sure he was OK before they left him to do his job.

What a fantastic idea this was, and it was awesome to see the children involved in the whole process.

We all hope Stanley does his job properly so we can enjoy eating our massive red strawberries in the near future.