Jonathan and Beverly go fishing

What an awesome experience. Jonathan and his family invited me to go fishing with them. It was the Whangarei Heads Primary School Funky Fishing fundraiser. I met Jonathan's family at Pataua Bridge early in the morning and off we went - through the estury and out to the deep blue sea. What a fantastic day it was. The water was a bit choppy but the sun shone and shone. And the fish took the bait.

Jonathan tells the story in his own words. Watch and then using the comments section, share your Funky fishing Competition stories.

Screen prints

We worked on screen printing last week. Often we use shapes but last week we tried drawing pictures to print. What great ideas you all came up with. You drew some very neat pictures and I helped with the cutting out so that we could capture the uniqueness of your art. Screen printing is great for teaching us all of the steps in a process.

1 We need to draw the picture
2 That picture is cut out
3 We place the cut out picture on some paper
4 We lower the screen
5 We put paint on the screen
6 We spread the paint with a squeegy so that it covers the whole screen
7 We lift the screen and watch the masterpiece emerge!

It is great for us to explore working with a process, learning the steps involved and enjoying the result of taking a bit more time to complete the work. I think that your screen prints are awesome!!

Our New Teacher - Rochelle

Last week our new teacher Rochelle began at Manaia Kindergarten. We held a Whakatau to welcome her. A Whakatau (informal powhari) is a special Maori welcome for a new person in a community. Our tangata whenua, along with our community, felt that this was a fitting process for the welcoming of our long awaited new teacher. It was wonderful to have our tangata whenua support our community in this process as we learnt about the protocols and practices of Maori alongside them. Danny, a Dad in our community, was our Kiakorero (speaker), and Arvay from the Kindergarten association and related to the tangata whenua of this area, was our Kaikaranga (caller). She called our visitors, Rochelle and her Kindergarten - the people of Te Timatatanga o te Matauranga (kindergarten) into the School Hall. Danny spoke on behalf of our community and we all sung a waiata to support him. The kaikorero from Te Timatatanga o Te Matauranga also spoke and they too sung a waiata. We were priviledged to have the kindergarten association's general manager, Richard, and our senior teacher, Barbara supporting this special event.

It was a great time for our two kindergartens to get to know eachother, for the children and families to learn more about Rochelle before she began her work with us, and for Rochelle's old Kindergarten to know where Rochelle was going to work, and to farewell her.

Because this was a sacred event photos were not taken. However below is a short movie about our time as two kindergartens together, and Rochelle's first week at Manaia Kindergarten.
Rochelle has settled into our Kindergarten with the full support of the children and the community and we all look forward to getting to know Rochelle better and for her contributions to our learning and development.

TJs Campervan Holiday

Last year TJ brought his Campervan to Kindergarten for us all to see. We were able to go inside and check it out. We talked about how wonderful it would be to have a holiday in a campervan and TJ shared with us some of his holiday stories.

This year TJ and his family had a summer holiday in the campervan and they shared the photos with the teachers at Kindergarten. Now you have an opportunity to hear about TJs Campervan Holiday as he tells you about it in his movie with his photos.

The Rocket takes off - with vinegar and baking soda

Thank you Flynn for sharing your rocket experiment with us. It was OUT OF THIS WORLD - or at least it almost went out of this world. We watched as the mixture of backing soda and vinegar bubbled and fizzed in the rocket's cylinders. It looked just like our volcanoes in the sandpit. But this time the mixture was contained in the rocket and had no where to flow out. The pressure built and built until - PUFF Bang wizz. "Check it out for real" as the saying goes at Kindergarten. Watch the video and feel welcomed to leave a comment to help explain this scientific wonder.

There is a large group of children interested in science experiments - so keep a look out for more on the blog and families feel free to come to kindergarten to share other ideas.