Poi and Joshua

Last Blog Post for Term 3 08

What an amazing term it has been. Term 3 saw the brief introduction of our new teacher, Dee Myhre before she set off on her big adventure to Europe. We have been lucky enough to have Wendy Small as our reliever extraordinaire. Wendy has become a valuable part of our teaching team and our Manaia Kindergarten family and we will miss her heaps! Our amazing blogging ripple as spread far and wide and with Beverly's family spending time in Tuscany, Italy, blogging, it was all too much for Beverly! Seeing their photos and reading their stories of life in Italy was just too good an opportunity to miss - not to mention it was her Father's 70th Birthday. Off Beverly went on her adventure to the UK and Italy. In comes Eleanor - Eleanor is simply amazing. Our valued and reliable reliever throughout the year steps up yet again to join us. Tracey, like Eleanor, continues to step back in when needed, fitting us in alongside her family life and studies to be a midwife! Beverly and I absolutely appreciate that we have incredible relievers who are such a part of our Kindergarten team.

It's been an incredible term - will definitely be remembered for the rain and mud! (Was absolutely wonderful to actually PLAY on the grass today!) We have welcomed new children and their families and enjoyed an incredible amount of learning together. Thanks so much to all of our supportive families and friends. A special thanks also to our families and friends far and wide who keep in constant touch through our blog. Your comments are truly valued and inspirational to the children and team at Manaia Kindergarten.

During the holidays I will work on getting our concert movie and photos on the blog so keep an eye out... Wish us luck for our presentation at "Celebrating Northland's Tamariki" conference and for our keynote presentation at ULearn08 in Christchurch. Enjoy your holidays.
The Manaia Team

Look Beverly - The grass is dry!

Jessi and Poi's adventures

Have you heard???

Guess what these children are working on??? Invitations for a very special event! On Friday we are planning to have a Manaia Kindergarten Concert, followed by a shared lunch to farewell Wendy, our VERY SPECIAL Teacher. Have you got your invitation? The children have been thinking hard about what they would like to perform at the concert. We came up with lots of different ideas today and then decided to make the invitations. The words for the invitation were all decided on by the children and made by a team of Daniel, Milly, Lucy, Freya, Holly and Noah. We will practise for our concert this week and look forward to sharing our songs and dances with you all on Friday. Come along and see us in action and farewell Wendy with us.

Poi at Megs

Parua Bay Talent Quest 08

A long time ago we heard Parua Bay School were planning a Talent Quest and we were invited to enter... We thought hard about the songs and dances we would like to perform - it was a tough decision. We practised lots of songs and dances, especialy Poi E, Te Aroha, Gorillas in the Zoo and Knees Up Mother Brown. We found out we could only do two songs so a decision needed to me made. We decided on Poi E and Knees Up Mother Brown so everyone who wanted to could join in. WOW what a night, 17 Kindergarten children up on stage and ready to share their talents with the Parua Bay community. We were VERY PROUD of our Manaia Kindergarten children as they sang and danced their hearts out on stage. It was great to then watch the children of Parua Bay sing, dance, play instruments and tell jokes. A great family night. Thanks to Parua Bay School for inviting us. Perhaps we can have a Talent Quest of our own next term and invite our families along to watch...

Poi and Noah's adventures

Poi had her first bike ride at Pataua Beach with Noah. How lucky to explore our amazing Whangarei Heads Beaches. Thanks Noah for taking Poi on such a great adventure. Have a listen as Noah tells us all about Poi at his house...

Toasting Pizza in Tuscany

Ok - so it was a bit cool on our first day - thus the jacket. But read more about our evening of pizza here.

Cruising the Thames

I have had a very nice time with my Mum and Dad on their Canal boat in the UK. We had wanted to cruise the Oxford canals but first they had to get up the big Thames river to get to Oxford. Unfortunately there was a lot of water and it was rushing down too fast. They had red warnings up and we were told not to travel up the Thames. We did move a little bit, but it was sometimes a bit scarey. So in the end we stopped in Addingdon. There were some beautiful spots along the Thames on our long canal boat so I thought I would share some photos with you... here they go.

Steering from the back of the long boat.

Holding the boat in the lock (more on that on my own blog - later)

Moored beside a meadow of cows in the early morning mist.

Hope all is going well at Kindergarten. It looks like Poi is having some great adventures.

Poi goes bush with Ari!

Poi is having so many amazing adventures with the children of Manaia Kindergarten. I hope Madeline is keeping up to date with Poi and his sleep overs at everyones houses. It must be time to create a blog for Poi too!

Poi visits Jack's Farm

Feeding the Birds of Manaia

We have two bird houses at Manaia Kindergarten - we hoped by feeding the birds in their very own houses they would stay away from our kai table...

Everyday children climb the ladder to put food up for the birds in their little house. Sometimes bird seed and other days bread...

Then, we have to stand back and wait patiently for the birds to discover our offerings..

Yesterday Wendy thought she was a National Geographic Photographer as she caught this photo of a bird in flight with a piece of bread in its mouth...

This is another photo taken by Wendy - the view from the birds house! Aren't they lucky! Unfortunatley no matter how much we feed the birds they still like to flock around our kai table and pick up all of our crumbs!!

Hi from Brunei

I am sitting in an internet cafe in Brunei. I have just been on a free tour around the city and seen mosques with real gold domes on the top (you can see a picture here - I took some photos but am not able to put them onto the blog yet). I have one coming in the post to you.
I have 10hrs in Brunei and then a 15hr flight to the UK. Hope you all have a great week. I will try and post again when I can.
Cheers
Beverly

Glorious Mud!

What a lot of fun we had today at Kindergarten! Check out the movie below to see...

Poi visits Zara's house...

Meet Poi - our new friend at Kindergarten

It was Madeline's last day at Manaia Kindergarten and her family wanted to buy us all something special. We talked about what we needed and thought another "take home friend" would be great. Ekko is in great demand and it's a long time to wait to have a turn... Now we have Ekko and Poi the Panda to have turns at going home to our houses. Poi the Panda spent her first weekend at Madeline's house to celebrate Madeline's 5th birthday party. How lucky! Check out the movie of all the fun Poi had. THANKS HEAPS to the Whittam family for bringing Poi along to our Kindergarten. We will take extra special care of her. Good Luck at school Madeline.