Fiordland Kindergarten

Worm harvesting at Fiordland Kindergarten

2011-11-15T10:47:00.004+13:00

It was time to harvest our worms from the worm farm

Georgia said "I picked the worms up and put them in a bucket and we just put the worms in the dirt - the extra dirt went onto the garden. The worms felt squishy - one worm I found was stuck in a wee hole in the worm farm."

Poppy said "I was getting the slaters and beetles and putting them in the bug house. The worms I was playing with them and putting them in the box. The worms felt skinny and wet and stuff. The slaters felt like not wet they were dry they tickled a little bit. There was dirt and sticks - we took the sticks out. We put all the dirt in the blue bucket and then in the glashouse.

Fiordland Kindergarten - Nature time

2011-11-15T10:41:00.003+13:00

There has been much excitement at Kindergarten - Jasper has had his ducklings visiting and we have been finding out all about Kiwi.

The teachers thought it was time we hatched out some more chickens - so we sourced some fertile eggs and they have now been in the incubator for 4 days. Only 17 days to go and then hopefully we will have some chickens! Yaaaay!

Jasper and the three ducklings

2011-11-09T15:00:00.004+13:00

Jasper loves birds! He was very lucky to be part of a group that released the first kiwi onto Pomona Island and now his homehas become a safe place forducklings that have lost their mums. Jasper has three ducklings,Wilson, Steven and Billy. We have been very lucky and all three ducklings have visited us here at Kindy.

All Blacks

2011-09-09T11:29:00.002+12:00

We have been learning about the countries playing in the rugby World Cup. To show our support for the All Blacks every time they play we are going to dress in black and white. Go the All Blacks!!

Rugby world cup flags at Fiordland Kindergarten

2011-09-06T10:05:00.005+12:00

We are all very excited with all the visitors coming to New Zealand for the rugby world cup.

The teachers thought it would be a great idea for us to find out about the countries that are playing rugby in the tournament - So we were all given a country to study . Here we are all standing by the country's flag that we are studying.

We all made our own flag, some of them were very tricky to make. Michelle, Briar's Mother sewed them all up and then we strung them across the Kindergarten. We are all very proud of them, and we have found out so much about our country and those that are visiting.

Hunter and Hannah are both studying Romania

Beth is concentrating very hard when she was painting her flag from Samoa. She wore a lava lava to show us.

Soon we are going to have a shared lunch where we are going to bring a food from our country to share with our family and friends. Charlie doesn't know where he is going to find a zebra though (he is studying Namibia).

Fiordland Kindergarten has fun in the snow

2011-08-25T10:38:00.005+12:00

Wednesday 17th August

The Kindergarten is open today and there is lots of snow everywhere to play in. We had great fun using the sandpit toys in the snow. We also went over to the School grounds to make snowballs. Here are some stories from the children.

Kaylee: "We made a snowman with a pile of snow. A pine cone for his nose instead of a carrot. Instead of mushrooms for his eyes we used milk bottle tops. We used a stick for his arms and for his mouth a little stick. And for his hat we used a pot lid."

Briar: "We made a snowman with Kaylee. We used a stick for the snowman's arm. It was fun playing in the snow. My hands got cold from the snow."

Nate: "I made a snow castle with snow and a bucket. I put snow in the bucket then tipped it out and it looked like a castle."

Isabella: "I'm rolling a big snowball and I made it too big so I couldn't roll it. I almost rolled it near the school. I got wet and cold hands. I ran inside to get my hands warm."

Harry: "We rolling the snow cos we were making a big snowball in the School grounds. It was cold and it was easy and then it was hard. Jack, Hunter and me rolled the snow."

Snow at Fiordland Kindergarten

2011-08-25T09:48:00.008+12:00

The Snow started falling on Sunday 14th August. The Kindergarten and Schools were closed for two days due to the snow. Here are some of the photos Judy took of the Kindergarten covered in snow on those days. It looked like a winter wonderland. The snow was between 11cm - 17cm deep.

Tapping in Fiordland

2011-07-07T11:24:00.002+12:00

Leading on from the Disco the children are still very excited about dancing. We decided to ask Georgia's older sister Louise to come in and perform one of her tap dancing routines. Louise arrived put on her amazing costume and danced for the children. They were star stuck and completely spell bound through the whole performance and couldn't keep their eyes off her feet.

Disco

2011-07-07T11:12:00.000+12:00

Lukas getting into the theme of crazy hair for the disco.

Fiordland Rocks

2011-07-07T10:53:00.003+12:00

Last week we had our Kindy Disco, the theme was crazy hair. The week before the disco we got Katherine, the local hip hop teacher, in to teach the children a hip hop routine to perform in front of their whanau and friends. They were blown away by how well the children danced, it was the best disco ever. Everyone got into the theme including some of the parents!

Brooke said "I didn't dance much but I liked the lights and the music."

Lucy said "Me and my sister Grace went to the disco. I love dancing, I had pink hair."

Lukas said "We danced and I showed mum the who let the dogs out dance that Katherine taught me."

Beth said "I brang four people, Hannah, me, Rosie and May."

Callum said "I had green hair so did Zac and Tom. I danced with Kaylee."

Toni said "I had funny hair."

Creative Buildings

2011-06-24T10:38:00.009+12:00

June 2011

We moved the block building area to the other end of the Kindergarten and we noticed that the girls took a greater interest in building. Here are some images of their amazing architecture.

Martha's Story: "My building is a zookeeper for where animals live that don't have a family or have lost their house and dumped into a toy box by accident. The Sparkle building is for the sparkles because they shine because they are beautiful. We put a sign by the building because we don't want anyone to break it. They don't it break because it will break the plastic toys."

More of the Easter Hunt

2011-05-05T11:29:00.002+12:00

During the hunt Callum spotted some thing special on his Dad's back. After looking at it Callum put it onto a plant.

Easter Hunt

2011-05-05T11:21:00.002+12:00

To finish off the term we decided to go on an Easter egg hunt. Ivon Wilson Park was the perfect place to go. The Nature Discovery children got to show the other children the special spots they have around the park. Local Doc officers put tracking gear onto three birds that they hid all over the park. Using the transmitters the children listened to the beeping to see when they were close. The birds were hidden in some funny places and in their nest was an easter egg treat for everyone. What a surprise!

Insects in Fiordland

2011-04-12T09:29:00.003+12:00

Work started this week on our insect house. Most children had a turn hammering and sawing to make the house. Tony liked banging the nails and collecting the bark for it at Nature Discovery. Arthur found it tricky hammering the nails in but still had lots of fun helping. We can't wait for the insects to arrive and make it their home. Maybe now our rocks will be safe on our pathway.

Fiordland Kindergarten red and black day

2011-03-04T10:12:00.005+13:00

Debbie said " Today is red and black day because there was a big earthquake in Christchurch. The children have no kindy or schools to go to, they will be sad"

Lucy said " There was an earthquake in Christchurch, we put red and black on to remember all the children that don't have kindy's to go to".

Hamish said "We are wearing red and black because there was an earthquake and we have to help all the people."

Harry Mc "In Christchurch they are hurting, and some are lost"

Kaylee said "we are wearing red and black 'cos there was an earthquake, "

Lukas said "Cos there was a big earthquake in Christchurch, the money will make the kids feel better so they can get toys and TV's. We are lucky cos we've got TV's."

Sage said "Because there was a big Earthquake in Christchurch. People died it's very sad."

Agustin "because christchurch is broke, the houses fall, because of the earthquake.

Charlie said "because about the earthquake in Christchurch, some people died and some people didn't die, we want make them happy"

Lucas T "because there was a big earthquake, some people got blood and some people died, but Gabe my friend was all right, his house wasn't broken. We want to help them."

Nate said "we are wearing red and black 'cos there was an earthquake, some people died and some people didn't - we need to give them money because we can help them and make them happy - and to get them out of the houses" Maybe they don't want to go there any more - they didn't know the earthquake was going to come - all the rocks came down., and some houses got broken"

Jordan said "It's red and black day because of the earthquake it was a bad one, lots of people have been killed '

Ben said "There was a big earthquake in Christchurch the bedroom was falling down our house wasn't falling down here.'

Today we all wore red and gave a donation to help all the children and their families in Christchurch who have been in the earthquake.

James's Rainbow Bottles

2011-03-01T09:51:00.006+13:00

28th February 2011

James's Story: "I filled them up with the water in the bottles with the jug. The water was blue and red and it turned pink and purple and blue. I put blue water in the red water and it maked purple. When the sun came out it made shine. It was amazing - whakahirahira. It looked like a rainbow."

James spent much time at this activity, adding more blue water to the bottles to change the shades of colour. Each time the sun came from behind the clouds, James would sit back with such wonderment and awe etched all over his face.

Piwaiwaka Stew

2011-02-17T11:17:00.002+13:00

More photos...We have the moths fluttering by, some of the characters in the stew pot and one of Mia fantail getting her make up done. The Production was performed at the end of last year but memories are ever lasting and the children since returning to Kindergarten are still singing the songs and wanting to watch themselves on the big screen.

Piwaiwaka Stew

2011-02-17T11:03:00.003+13:00

Here we have more characters from our Production. The Penguin, the Seaweed, the Owl, the Kiwi and the Glowworm. They all loved their costumes and getting their make up on. Hamish loved being a Fly and the actions to his song was his favourite part. The main characters had a lot of lines and songs to learn we were so amazed with how confident they were on stage.

Piwaiwaka Stew

2011-02-17T10:45:00.002+13:00

Wow, what fun we had performing our Production in front of our families and friends. Lucy said "I liked it, being a fantail and going to sleep so the stoat could catch us was my favourite part." Here are the Gecko, the Flies, the Creepy Crawlies, the Worms and Fantails. They all liked dressing up, singing and dancing. Notice that naughty stoat lerking in the background

Piwaiwaka Stew

2010-11-11T10:30:00.003+13:00

This term we have decided to put on a Production, Piwaiwaka Stew. This story is a Kiwi adaption of the Aussie story Wombat Stew. Kirsty has been very busy with the children making the big stew pot while during session we have been practicing our songs, dances and lines.

Pet Day

2010-10-28T09:47:00.004+13:00

Yesterday Te Anau Primary had their annual Pet Day. It was a such a lovely day that our Kindergarten children got to spend some of the morning looking at all the pets.

Niamh said "I liked the cats. They were in cages."

Brooke said "There was rabbits, lambs and dogs. A really really big dog."

Lucy said "I liked all the animals."

James said "There were rabbits. I got to pat the bunny rabbits."

Mikayla said "I got to pat the rabbit and feed the lamb. The lambs were so starving cause they were baaing heaps. We fed them milk. It was fun."

Mia said "The lambs were baaing at the gate."

Georgia said "There was Kune Kune pigs and I got to pat them. They felt soft."

2010-09-14T11:24:00.003+12:00

On Saturday we had the official opening of our new playground, months of hard work finally finished. SDC Mayor Frana Cardno and the children pulled the ribbon and declared our new playground open. After this Mereana Loose blessed the playground and then it was play time.

Dylan "I like the new DOC hut"

Niamh "I liked playing on the slide."

Chris "I like the slide and the monkey bars."

Tallulah "I liked showing mum the monkey bars and everything."

Jacob "I love the new hut."

Everybody enjoyed the new water feature and left a wee bit wet.

Mira's Holiday

2010-07-20T12:19:00.002+12:00

It sure is the season for holidays. Mira is on holiday in Hungary and had a day out in Budapest for her sister's birthday. We think she makes a beautiful butterfly. The roller coaster looks like fun.

Lucas on Holiday

2010-07-20T12:03:00.002+12:00

Lucas is on holiday in Germany. He has sent us some photos of his visit to Lego land. We love Bob the Builder and Batman. After Germany he is heading to Hungry. Thank you Lucas and family for sharing your photos with us.

Happy Birthday Lucy

2010-07-02T10:24:00.002+12:00

Lucy turned 4 last Friday and as a special surprise she won the Bakers Beyond birthday cake through Classic Hits' Bertie Budgie birthday calls.

Lucy said "We went to Invercargill to pick up my Chocolate cake. The cake was yummy, I ate it with Jessica Molloy, my sisters best friend, and my Mum and Dad and my friend Charlie-Rose and my sister. We watched Shrek the Third."

Rosebud Skiing

2010-06-28T10:54:00.004+12:00

Last weekend Rosebud went skiing with her family. Rosebud told me she skied with Spike the Kiwi and Shred the Kea. She is such a good skier that she can even tow her Dad. Rosebub also taught Spike and Shred how to ski. Rosebub enjoyed skiing so much that she even brought her skis to Kindergarten to ski on our wee dumping of snow.

Disco

2010-06-28T10:30:00.003+12:00

On Friday we had our annual Disco. I'm not too sure who had the most fun the parents or the children. The children looked lovely all dressed up in their best clothes.

Liam said "We danced at the disco, we had some food, fish n chips, nuggets and hot dogs." Rosebud really liked the colourful lights.

Jacob danced with his Dad and told us that he got all dressed up in a shirt and jeans.

Oscar and Jordan had fun dancing together to Mamma Mia.

Jorja's favourite part was eating fish n chips.

Chloe liked eating the fish n chips and dancing with Mum. "I liked swinging in her arms and having lots of fun. Mum had lots of fun."

Manapouri and Te Anau Airport

2010-06-08T10:50:00.004+12:00

What a way to wind up our investigation into things that fly by visiting our local airport. The children would like to share their thoughts with you. Gabbie liked sitting in the plane and Jorja liked the bus ride there. Seth told me "The plane was very noisy and so was the gun on the motor bike they used to scare the birds." Lucy liked getting the lolly at the end of our visit, they were yummy air plane ones. May and Liam pretended to be planes and had lots of fun flying around. Thank you to everyone for making this trip very enjoyable.

Baking Time

2010-05-20T12:20:00.003+12:00

This week is Allergy Awareness Week, so in acknowledgement of our children that have a gluten allergy we decided to make some gluten free Chocolate Chip biscuits. Thank you to Jorja and her family for supplying the recipe and the ingredients.

Ali's Moth

2010-05-05T14:42:00.004+12:00

While visiting his Grandad, Ali found and caught a white moth. The next day he brought his moth into Kindergarten to show us. It was the prefect opportunity to get a real close up view, so we stuck it under our digital microscope and viewed it on the computer screen. Ali was amazed at it's big long tongue and how the wings looked. Here are Ali's photo's to share with you.

Flooding in Fiordland

2010-04-28T14:47:00.003+12:00

It has been very exciting in the Te Anau basin over the last few days. We have had lots of rain that has caused a wee bit of surface flooding. It was a great opportunity to get some amazing photos. Here are our families photos to share with you.

Button Up In Fiordland

2010-03-25T08:59:00.003+13:00

Catherine designed a eco-friendly board game that she said was inspired by the knowledge that our Kindergarten children knew about our local environment.

On the 19th March, Catherine came to Kindergarten and presented us with our very own "Button Up In Fiordland" game.

Catherine showed Judy (a teacher),Lisa, Liam, Sophie and Lena how to play the game. It was a great game, we all had fun playing it.

Lisa said, "Catherine gave us a button player game. There were New Zealand animals and birds. We had stones to move around the game. If you land on a stoat you will need to give one button back. If you land on a bird you will get three buttons or one button for a trout. I liked playing the game. I got 6 buttons and Sophie got 7 buttons."

Thank you Catherine.

Rope Bridge Opening

2010-03-05T09:44:00.002+13:00

Last year we started redeveloping our playground and after much work and dedication by Jane and other parents we officially opened the first completed structure. It was our new and very challenging Rope Bridge. Rosebud pulled the ribbon and declared it open. All children were very keen to give it a go. There was plenty of wobbles and laughs. We can't wait for the rest of the playground to be completed.

Sailing in Fiordland

2010-02-16T16:24:00.003+13:00

After watching footage of Zayla's Dad Crayfishing on a boat, boats are featuring in the children's play. We managed to get a plastic optimist yacht for the day and the children had lots of fun playing on it and learning about hiking, rudders and tillers. Next we decided to make our own boats out of walnut shells and Jenny, one of our teachers, brought in little steam boats that we watched and heard putting around the water tough.

The Day A Crayfish Came To Visit

2010-02-05T12:31:00.004+13:00

Franki's Dad brought in a crayfish for us to look at. We put it on the floor so we could all observe what it would do. It didn't move much but we could see it's mouth open and shut. Here are some comments from the children.

Jack "I didn't know there were nippers but then I noticed there were nippers."

Rosebud "I saw it's moth open. It was orange. It had claws."

Liam "It had some legs and it had a long nose and some long ears. It was that big. It moved it's tail."

Katelyn "It opened it's mouth. I saw his tail and it went up and down. At the end of his tail it was a little bit bent cos he had nippers."

Franki "My Dad brought a crayfish to Kindy. It was actually stinky when I came up close. When I came close up the eyes were quite big and the feelers were long."

Fiordland Kindergarten

2010-02-01T10:12:00.003+13:00

What a wonderful and busy start we have had back at Kindergarten. The children arrived to find the beans had grown, the tomato plants had tomatoes on them and the zucchini's needed a good drink. We really loved eating the beans. Over the weekend we had a visitor who ate a lot of plums off our tree. The cheeky possum left the stones and his mess to let us know he enjoyed the feed! Now we have a cage to try and catch him, watch this space.

Nature Discovery

2009-11-30T15:00:00.003+13:00

At Fiordland Kindergarten we have just started a Nature Discovery programme. Every Wednesday we take ten children out into nature for the whole session. Here are some of there comments:

Hannah "I like playing hide 'n' seek in the the trees."

Amie "Me too that's my favourite"

Summer "I like climbing on the trees."

Nico "I liked building a fire."

Fishing in Fiordland

2009-11-10T13:14:00.004+13:00

Sid entered the fishing competition. This is his story.

"I caught the fish in Manapouri Lake - my Dad took me in our boat - I just took one second then I went back home.

It was the biggest brown trout and I won a fishing rod.

Lisa's Japanese Kindergarten

2009-11-06T10:04:00.002+13:00

II went to Japan for 2 months. I went to the zoo and to Disneyland and the aquarium and to a Japanese kindy. At kindy I saw one monkey bars but I didn't play with it. I had three pairs of shoes, one for outside, one for the toilet and one for inside. At Disneyland I went on heaps of rides and to the small world. There were heaps of dolls there, and they were reading and singing. We stayed in a hotel for a few days, it was hot. There was heaps of fish at the aquarium and heaps of people. There was heaps of baby clown fish. At the zoo there wasn't any Pandas but there was a giraffe. When I came back I showed a video of my Japanese kindy to my friends at Fiordland Kindergarten.

Tom wins in the Fishing Contest

2009-10-30T10:34:00.005+13:00

Tom entered the Fishing Contest at Labour Weekend. This what Tom told us about his wonderful time.

"I went with my Dad, Grandad, Callum and Ellie on my Grandad's boat and caught a fish on the fishing rod that I won at the fishing contest last year. It was a Rainbow trout and it was as big as a little dinosaur. It was bumpy on the boat and after the fish that Grandad caught, we nearly falled it. I won a prize for the longest and fattest fish, it was a new tackle box with double sides to keep fishing lures inside."

Blakes Holiday

2009-10-15T11:02:00.003+13:00

Blake's Holiday Photos

We went in Dads work truck and picked up the crashed van. We went on a bush walk and on a boat to get back home. Peaches is my pet lamb, she back on the farm at Sid's house now.

Team Work

2009-09-21T15:01:00.002+12:00

Team Work is very much part of our Kindergarten culture.

The video shows just some of the work the children have done together to reach a common goal.

A group of children found a use for a piece of hosing. They used it to try and lift a child off the ground using the swing pole as a pulley system - after several attempts at finding a small child to volunteer Keanu took up the challenge and yay they managed to lift him.

The children again used the hose this time to haul a tyre up the slide and when all was clear let it roll back down. Then it was back to work again to do it all over again.

That hose came to the fore again with the children using it to pull themselves up on to the platform, sometimes a helping hand from a friend was needed

The children worked together to move the cable reels to make a new pattern to climb and jump on.

We are very proud of our children who all do such a fantastic job of working together - Ka pai!!!

2009-09-01T10:04:00.003+12:00

Due to popular demand here is our yummy muffin recipe.

2 Cups of Flour 100g Butter

4 Tsp of Baking Powder 1 Cup Milk

1/2 Tsp of Salt 1 Egg

1/2 Cup Sugar White Chocolate

1-1 1/2 Cups Frozen Fruit

Sift first 3 dry ingredients in a bowl. Add sugar, fruit and Chocolate. In another bowl combine melted butter, milk and egg. Add this to the dry ingredients. Fold mixture, flour should be damp not smooth. Place into buttered tins, Bake 180 for 12-15mins.

Ours were a lovely purple colour because everyone had a stir, they still tasted yummy!

2009-08-21T10:26:00.003+12:00

The children have been interested in planet earth and space so on Thursday 13th August we went on a trip to the Planetarium. Here are the children's stories.

Georgia "I liked when the planets were moving around. And I liked the shooting stars and the flying pony."

Liam "I liked the shooting stars."

Tom "I liked the astronauts coming up to scare me. I liked the stars and the shooting stars, they are the size of a grain of sand. I liked everything."

Scarlett "I liked the stars and the planets. My favourite planet was Jupiter it had more than 20 moons."

Seal pup

2009-08-12T08:15:00.003+12:00

this is the seal pup that jumped on the DOC boat, that Tom's Dad was on after the big 7.8 magnitude earthquake - we think to escape the big tides that happened after the quake.

Isn't he cute!!!!

Sophie releasing the Robins

2009-07-29T11:00:00.002+12:00

I went on a boat to an island. I went with the man who drove the boat and Mum and Dad. Timmy and Jessie came to. I got to hold the Robins. The Robin flew out of my hand and then I sat on a mat. We had a picnic and then I came home. I liked holding the Robins, they felt tickly. After the Robins we went home.

The big earthquake

2009-07-28T15:44:00.003+12:00

After our big 7.8 earthquake the children had lots of stories to tell us. Here are some of their comments.

Maggie-"Greer slept right through the earthquake. I was awake on the bottom bunk and my mum got me and the electricity went off. My dad made the electricity come back on cause he fixes things."

Tom- "I feeled it in my top bunk. One of my pillows feel off the bed. Dad was at Resolution Island where the earthquake started a seal jumped on his boat."

Nico-"Nothing falled down and my bed was moving. I went under my bed."

Tayla- "I didn't wake up. No damage but one of my toys blowed outside.

2009-06-25T15:09:00.003+12:00

Two weeks ago the children arrived at Kindergarten to find the outdoor area covered in snow. Leroy ran outside grabbed a truck and wanted to do a friction game. He was joined by Jessica and Blake who wanted to be part of his friction game. Here is their story.

Finding out about Friction

2009-06-09T10:11:00.003+12:00

Mrs Holland from Waihopai School had seen Tom on our blog and left a comment. She told us that she was teaching her class about friction, we decided we wanted to learn about this too. We discovered some websites that let us test out different surfaces and speed. We learnt about what happens when we have too much friction and what happens we have no friction. We wanted to do our own experiments at kindergarten so we used the sandpit and the slides outside, inside we created our own tracks by using the carpet, lino and table top surfaces. What a lot of fun we had. Websites were www.scienceunleashed.ie/games/scooter.swf and www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages8_9/friction.shtml

Autumn in Te Anau

2009-05-25T15:38:00.003+12:00

Autumn has come to Te Anau, the children decided to record what they can see in the Kindergarten playground. Our expert photographers took these amazing shots, showing their interpretation of Autumn. Some of the children took advantage of the huge pile of leaves that we had collected. A little bit wet but so much fun!

Tom's stick insect

2009-05-08T10:11:00.003+12:00

We went to Nana and Grandad's beach house at Riverton last weekend. I was playing around in the back garden when I spotted a large insect climbing on the blue compost bin outside. I picked it up with a peg and took it inside to show Mum and Dad. Mum told me it was a stick insect and Dad found a container to put it in. We went searching for some leaves to put in the container with the stick insect.

We took it home in the car to Te Anau. That night we looked in Dad's book to read about stick insects. It said it liked to eat Manuka - so Dad took me outside in the dark in my pyjamas to get some Manuka for my stick insect to eat.

It slept in my bedroom. In the morning it went to kindy with me. I called it Twiggy. The kindy kids in investigators group looked at it and we looked up stick insects on the computer. We think it was a spiny stick insect.

I let it crawl up my face. It felt like sheep's wool.

by Tom

Our Pirate Treasure Hunt

2009-04-28T15:27:00.003+12:00

Answers to Kew Kindergarten about chickens

2009-04-28T10:56:00.006+12:00

Tayla said "Keep them warm - use a light. They need to be keeped in a box"

Noah said "Feed them grain. They need a box to stay in so they don't run away or escape."

Mitchell said "Give them lots of water. Hold them with two hands so they don't fly away. Hold them gently. Hands around their wings so they don't fly away."

Piper said "Chickens need love."

George said "Chickens need food and water and hold them up carefully."

Tayla said "They don't like loud and scary noises. It makes them frightened and they will run away.

Robin Release on Pomona Island Lake Manapouri

2009-04-28T10:43:00.010+12:00

Mrs Shaw's husband Hunter sent us these photos of him transferring Robins from an island on the west coast to Pomona island on Lake Manapouri. Many people have spent the last few years killing all the rats, mice, possums, deer and stoats off the island to make it safe for birds like the robins to live there.

He flew by helicopter to collect them. The people had caught them and had them in special boxes. He flew back to Pomona where he let them go to their new home.

Our chickens have grown

2009-04-28T10:29:00.003+12:00

Our chickens have grown

They are now at Mrs Shaw's farm - here they are meeting her dogs.

Whales at Doubtful Sound

2009-04-28T10:20:00.005+12:00

Rosebud's Mum Jane sent these photos to us of some special whales called Arnoux's Beaked Whales that were seen in Doubtful sound recently.

2009-03-18T11:18:00.006+13:00

"Mica the clown had funny glasses that went ouch into his eyes" said Tayla.

"He juggled the balls -sometimes they fell down" said Sophie.

"It made me laugh when the dog jumped through his arms" said Mitchell.

"The clown was funny. 'cos he hammered onto his nose" said Summer

"He could talk, I think they do talk", I think some clowns talk" said Tayla

"the umbrella - he said it would stay up but it fell down" said Will

We painted our faces to look like clowns too!

Our chickens have hatched

2009-03-16T14:43:00.010+13:00

Our chickens have hatched and are growing fast. At the beginning of February we put the eggs in the egg turner inside the incubator, and then counted down 21 days until they hatched. Seven of the eggs hatched, Just like everything we had read and seen they were wet and tired. but soon they were dry and fluffy and we got to have a hold. Nearly three weeks later they have grown wings and are starting to get their grown up feathers. they like to sit on our knees or perch on our shoulders. We have been weighing and measuring them to see how fast they are growing.

Sunflowers

2009-02-16T16:09:00.003+13:00

Back in October we planted some sunflower seedlings in different spots around our garden to see how they would they grow. We numbered our sunflowers 1 through to 6 and every week we measured them. Before we measured the flowers the children by visualisation would predict which flower would be the tallest through to the smallest. Once all predictions were given we measured the flowers first with a ruler then with a measuring tape. We recorded the measurements of each flower and the children loved comparing their guesses with the actual results. The numbers on the measuring tape became a huge interest for the children and they would look at the number on the tape and tell me what the number was. This got challenging as the numbers grew but it was a lot of fun. Over the holidays the sunflowers really grew and in the first week back one of the children came rushing in from outside to tell us that number two was the biggest flower. This rekindled the measuring aspect of growing the flowers. The children made sure we had our paper to record their guess and the actual measurement. Once the flowers were at peak height we measured them one last time.We decided that our sunflower experiment could be recorded by a bar graph. The children helped draw a rough copy then we made a good one for our planning board. The bar graph was a brilliant visual representation of the differing heights and the children could easily read it and tell us which was the smallest and heighest. The measuring aspect continues to be a huge interest for the children and they are now measuring everything in and around the kindergarten.

Bush Walk 2008

2009-02-09T16:48:00.003+13:00

At the end of last term we explored our local bush. We walked across the control gates and the beginning of the Kepler Walking track.

We saw our beautiful native trees and ferns and even discovered a birds nest hiding in the moss. Walking along the track we looked out for the pink triangles that told us there was a stoat trap near by. We didn't find any stoats.

Worms

2008-10-28T10:44:00.008+13:00

We have had lots of rain and our worm farm was full of worm juice. We turned on the tap and filled up the containers. We then took the juice over to our vegetable garden and fed our vegetables - we hope they will grow big and strong.

We saw that there were too many worms and they had made lots of yummy soil from all the food scraps we had fed them. So we put the worms in little piles in the sun, on top of some plastic card.

The worms don't like the sun so they all went to the bottom of the piles so we were able to catch them and put them back in the worm farm. Some of the worms can go to new worm farms and the yummy soil that they made we put on the vegetable garden.

The worms were very wiggly and slimy!!

Tom on holiday

2008-09-24T10:07:00.004+12:00

Tom has been having a holiday travelling around the South Island. He has sent us photos and one day we Skyped and talked to him. Many of the children could recognise the places you have been.

We thought it was very exciting that you got to go down into a cave and see some real Moa bones!

Barnard the Kakapo

2008-09-24T10:01:00.004+12:00

Fergus was very lucky he got to see Barnard the kakapo, when he was being transferred between Codfish and Anchor Islands. He had to be very quiet so that he did not frighten him.

Kiwi

2008-09-24T09:37:00.004+12:00

Hannah from DOC came to see us to tell us all about Kiiwi. She showed us photos of Kiwi, we learnt that they have very long beaks with the nostrils right at the end, with whiskers just like a cat. They have very strong feet that when they are big they can keep nasty stoats away. Their feathers are long and soft and feel more like fur than feathers, they keep the kiwi warm. They lay gigantic eggs and the Dad is the one that sits on it the most until it hatches.
We love Kiwi

Kindergarten Olympics

2008-08-26T10:11:00.003+12:00

We watched the olympics on the big screen at Kindergarten, we were very excited about all the things the athletes were doing and the medals that we won.
We talked at group time about some of the things we could do at Kindergarten like the athletes did at the real games. We did horse jumping, long jump, high jump, balancing and throwing activities.

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Little Kiwi and the Echo

2008-08-25T13:04:00.003+12:00

On the 2nd august 2008 we performed our Production of Little Kiwi and the Echo to the Te Anau Community.
Mrs Crouchley wrote the play and the songs. Many people helped us and it was a great community Event.

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Kindy Disco

2008-07-16T11:47:00.005+12:00

On June 20th we held our annual Disco which has become the social event of the year. We all got dressed up in our dancing clothes and boogied the night away.
We had fish, chicken nuggets, mini hotdogs and chips for our supper.
We had a slide show of everyone playing at Kindergarten on the data projector to show our Mums and Dads what we do at Kindy. We also performed some circle dances for our parents.
We all had a great time.

Long finned tuna

2008-05-30T12:31:00.002+12:00

One of the children caught an eel, the children then acted this out in their play. We then decided to research some more information out about eels, because we really didn't know much about them. The eels we find here are called Long finned tuna. They can live 80 to 100 years before they swim out into the ocean and migrate to the warm waters near Tonga and Samoa to lay their eggs. The young eels float on the ocean currents all the way back to New Zealand. When they smell the fresh water they swim toward it and then up the rivers and streams to eat and grow old.
We found out that they go slimy when they are frightened.
The tuna in our waters can't get to the sea because of the dams across our rivers so some of the local people now catch the old eels and then release them over the other side of the dams into the rivers so that they can swim to the sea.

We made our own lakes and rivers, lakes and a dam in the sandpit, and our own eels so that we could pretend to rescue the tuna and release them so they could swim out into the ocean.

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Capture and release of native birds in Fiordland

2008-04-18T15:36:00.003+12:00

Timmy and Sophie's Dad Murray and Aunt Megan went into Fiordland to capture and release native birds - robins, tieke, mohua, bellbirds. They used mist nets to capture them and meal worms for bait. They sent us some photos of what happened and we looked at them in the big screen.
Megan came to visit and talked to us about what was happening in the photos and showed us all the things they did to capture and release the birds. We hope that the birds will be safe now from stoats and other predators.

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Fancy dress our favourite book character

2008-04-17T11:40:00.000+12:00

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Takahe at Murchison Mountains

2008-04-09T16:05:00.001+12:00

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Our Chickens

2008-04-03T14:34:00.009+13:00

their wings started to grow really fast and soon they could fly out of their special box.

This one liked to sit on our foot.

Mrs shaw took them home for the weekend. She had a special house for them BUT something made a big hole in the cage and ate them all up

We think it must have been a nasty stoat. We will hatch some more chickens in the spring.

Incubating Eggs

2008-04-03T14:18:00.008+13:00

Over the 21 days that it took the eggs to incubate we looked up some internet sites to see what might be happening inside our eggs.

Tarn who used to work for DOC and helped look after some of our native birds
showed us how to candle eggs by putting a torch up to them when we were in a dark room, we could just see the chickens inside.

On day 21 we came to Kindergarten and there was a crack in one of the eggs, we watched it over the morning and just as the internet and books had told us the egg hatched and a very wet and tired chicen emerged. We were all very excited.

Hatching Chickens

2008-02-14T12:31:00.003+13:00

Recently we purchased a new incubator so we could hatch chickens at Kindergarten. Some of the children who had hens at home brought along eggs to put in the incubator. We have 31 eggs so we hope to have many little chicks hatching soon. We learnt that the eggs need to be kept warm and that it takes 21 days for them to hatch. Everyday we cross off the days on our calendar. If all goes well they should hatch on or about the 28th of February. Wish us luck!!!!

Trip to the wildlife park December '07

2008-02-14T10:52:00.017+13:00

We travelled by bus to the park where Catherine and her daughter were waiting for us with some food for the birds
We saw kea, parakeet, kereru, takahe and charlie the kaka. the ducks were hiding from us, but we saw some geese

It was a wonderful way to finish the year - the birds has such beautiful feathers and were very colourful.

Our data projector is up and running

2007-08-31T10:44:00.000+12:00