Pōwhiri hoki - Welcome back

It’s nice to be back and catch up with the children’s holiday news! I hope you all enjoyed the festive season

(seems such a long time ago) and have all had a quality break with friends and whānau.

2015 is shaping up to be another busy year for everyone as we undertake some substantial developments

and events e.g. A children’s Well-being Night (details below), a marae stay for teachers and hopefully a visit

for children, a new building to embark on (now that we have been granted the Resource consent) and a

comprehensive enviroschool plan with a trip to Talbot Forest coming up. Following our next Board meeting

in February the updated Strategic Plan and the 2015 Annual Plan will be uploading onto Educa for you to

view.

Next Wednesday 4th February Des Ellery, professional photographer is coming to preschool. All willing

children who attend on that day will have individual photos taken and a group photo at 11am. We

encourage you to bring your children in to be part of the 2015 Preschool photo. Everyone is welcome to

come along during the morning for individual photos as well.

Georgia Morland, the student teacher who was training in the Pihinga room last year is now studying an

early childhood course through the Open Polytech and will be in training with us once a week during term

time with the Tuakana group.

A reminder to all parents, caregivers and whānau that we have an open door policy and you are welcome to

stay at preschool for as long as you like, or even pop in and join us for lunch sometime! You are welcome to

chat to the teachers any time about your child’s day or their learning and development but please be

conscious that teachers are expected to spend quality time with the children.

Sue Cooper

Senior Head Teacher

January Newsletter 6 High Street, Geraldine.

Phone: (03)6939133.

Email: geraldinepreschool@xtra.co.nz

Website:www.geraldinepreschool.co.nz

WELCOME/HAERE MAI

We wish to welcome Benjamin Aker, Luca Kimura and James Earl

and their whānau to Geraldine Preschool.

We welcome Peter Heaslip to preschool for regularly reading sessions with

the children. Peter is world renown within the Early Childhood sector and

since his semi-retirement to Geraldine we have developed a great

friendship with him…. And accasionally seek a bit of advice.

Teacher Profile

(A new section that helps you get to know the teachers a little better and an extension to the teachers

profiles on Educa)

Introducing……Gina MacDonald

What do you love about working at Geraldine Preschool?

So many things, the sense of whanaungatanga (family) we have here, the amazing learning

that takes place and the fun we all have while being here. The girls I work with, we are a

great team and the fantastic children and parents that make everyday different and

challenging.

If Sue gave you next week off work, what would you do?

Well obviously Sue was giving me a bonus with the week off so I would be off to the Greek

Islands for a week !! All completely for educational purposes.

Who’s your favourite famous person and why?

Beyonce !! Mainly because I’m sure we were separated at birth, I mean looks wise we are

like identical twins and when it comes to dancing and singing we are both amazing.

What’s the best compliment you’ve ever had?

A friend commenting once that I’m both crazy, hyper, caring and lazy all at the same time

but most of all I’m a great Mum and friend.

If you had 10 extra dollars what would you do with it?

Coffee and chocolate cake from Plums ….and no I’m not sharing

What’s your favourite quote or saying?

“Go hard or go home!”

What would you like people to know about you?

I am a bit of an adrenalin junkie….I love a good dare or challenge

Pihinga News Welcome back everyone. We hope you had a wonderful break over the Christmas and New Year

period. We have all come back refreshed and have noticed that the children have come back

refreshed as well.

Some of our children have come back from the holidays

with some new physical skills they have accomplished,

such as walking and crawling and with new discoveries and

interests. We have been encouraging these children to

actively explore these skills and interests in a safe

environment, where they can practice, extend and

consolidate these.

We have been encouraging positive interactions with our

older children. As teachers and parents, we need to role

model these positive interactions such as sharing, asking

to have a turn, acknowledging when a child has been

patient in waiting for their turn, and offering solutions

when there is conflict which cannot be sorted amongst

themselves. We have been role modelling these with the

children, as well as showing them how to interact safely with the younger children.

We have said goodbye to Breanna, Lucy, Liam, Toby, Ollie, Ruby, Tamatea, Toby and Zac. They

have all transitioned through to the Hōpara group during December and January. On the other

hand we welcome James Earl and Arthur Drennan to our room, and we are expecting some more

children to start in the near future.

The children have been enjoying some messy

play and water play experiences. Our plants are

well watered by the children, and this is a daily

occurrence that the children look forward to

helping with. We will be introducing the children

to lots of sensory experiences over the next

month or so.

Helen, Robyn and Gina

Hōpara News

With the start of a new year, the Hōpara group have welcomed several new children to our group.

We would like to extend a huge, very warm nau mai, haere mai to Tamatea, Toby, Breanna, Lucy and

Liam and their whānau to the Hōpara group. This month we are working on further developing the

Hōpara group’s sense of belonging, and making the Hōpara group and even more exciting and

engaging group to be a part of. We will be

exploring and discovering with all of our senses,

through fun learning experiences such as

experimenting with scented and coloured water,

sensory slime and corn flour goop, baking and

cooking, climbing and obstacle courses. We have

been, along with the Tuakana group, working on

our awareness of how we use water. We have

discussed it being a precious resource, and not

wasting it by tipping it out of the water trough or

running it out of the water fountain.

On Thursday 5th Feb we are holding a Teddy Bear’s Picnic. We would love all of the children to bring

in their teddy bears on that day, and be prepared for a day of teddy inspired activities. There have

been some fantastic conversations stemming from our preparations for this day, particularly around

what children thought teddy bears might eat. Some of the children’s suggestions included ice cream,

cake, tomatoes, fruit, honey and grass. It’s great to see our teddies are making some healthy food

choices, as well as having some treats.

Until next time,

Emily, Jen and Tess

The Hōpara teaching team

Tuakana News

Tēnā koutou,

Our new year started well and busy with a lot of activities and projects. Beginning with conversations about

what the children did over the holidays like camping, fishing and travelling. Many children told us about their

experiences and they wanted to re-play the experience through make-believe play. We put out our tent to

pretend that we were camping, some children were fishing and catching imaginary fish, and others loved to

pack up bags and get to a holiday home or have a picnic.

Having the water usage restriction throughout our community urged us to learn more about how we can save

our water. Luckily we have our rainwater tank filled with some water, so we could water our garden sparingly.

Looking at photos of Lake Opuha made us and the children very water conscious! We don’t think we will be

having a water slide out anytime soon…

We have been looking at life cycles of different life forms as well. For instance, the flowers in the wild flower

garden are seeding now, and we have been talking about what happens after the flowers: seeds and then new

plants in the next season. The other day, Leo brought to preschool an empty cicada shell he found in Talbot

Forest. He shared it as his news at mat time, and afterwards we watched a movie clip of cicada’s life cycle

narrated by David Attenborough. It was pretty fascinating to know that cicadas stay underground for 17 years!

We also got three swan plants donated by Helen Stamps (Gemma’s Mum) and planted them outside the

windows by the mat area. Hopefully, Monarch butterflies will find them and we will be able to observe the life

cycle of the butterfly!

Also many children have been working hard on their writing

skills. They are very excited about learning to recognise letters

and being able to write them. The practice (play) took place not

only on pieces of paper but also on the concrete (with chalk), or

on the sand… wherever they could draw a line! One day George

wrote us a recipe of making waffles that he had made with

Martin who stays with the Brown family. So we asked if Martin

could come in and make some for us at preschool, and he did!

Oh the waffles tasted delicious, and the lucky children who got

to taste them were very happy.

Watching a movie about cicada’s life cycle.

Baking Zucchini Chocolate Cake!

Baking is one of the most rewarding learning

experiences in our preschool, and we have been

doing quite a bit this month. Cooking activities often

involve maths skills (counting, measuring, etc),

literacy skills (reading & following instructions),

science concepts (change of physical properties,

etc), social skills (turn taking, helping others), and

self-management skills (not to poke a finger into

cake mixture to lick it ), clean up cooking utensils,

etc.). Since we had zucchini plants growing in our garden, and since some children decided they wouldn’t like

eating it because the fruit looked like a cucumber, the zucchini was baked into a chocolate cake! Oh it was a

very moist and tasty cake! Those children who said they wouldn’t like it didn’t complain… they loved eating it!

We also learning about history of New Zealand around Treaty of Waitangi, not too much in details, but more for

the children to understand where and how Māori people got to Aotearoa, and how European settlers came

about later. We will be working on our centre mihi, Te reo Māori, learning more about tikanga Māori to

acknowledge the importance of Waitangi Day.

Hei konā mai - Goodbye for now

Naomi, Jacqui, Rachel, and Tarsha

Calendar of events

Des Ellery Photography –

Wednesday 4th February

starting at 8.30am.

Group photo at 11am.

Teddy Bear Day – Thursday

5th February

Children’s Well-being Night

– Thursday 19th February @

7.30pm.

A message from Geraldine Primary… If you intend to send your child/children to

Geraldine Primary School it is very helpful if you enrol them as early as possible.

Geraldine Primary is now zoned. If you are unsure if you are within their zone please

ring the school to clarify. Ph. 6938208

A little bit about our curriculum and what children are learning

Children learn how to:

interact with new people and form relationships

trust adults and other children

play and learn with people outside their immediate family

take turns and negotiate

take part in learning experiences in a group

ask questions and find out more.

These types of skills enhance what your child has already learned at home and helps them develop into a positive, confident and capable individual. They also form a strong foundation for later learning.

Children’s Well being Night

Thursday 19th February, 7.30pm

We invite you and the community to our first ever Children’s

Well being night. We have representatives from a variety of

organisations that will share their knowledge for a few

minutes each and then you will have the opportunity to speak

with any of these experts.

The following services have indicated their attendance so far:

Podiatrist, New Entrant teacher, Arowhenua Health Services,

Nurse, Speech Therapist, Social Worker, Plunket, Idea

Services and IRD.

Every one of our preschool families will benefit from

attending as this will be a very informative, and social

evening. There has never been a parent/caregiver

‘professional development’ opportunity like this…so many

experts to answer all your questions!!

We encourage you to spead the word.

Te Whāriki curriculum framework

Te Whāriki is the curriculum framework for our preschool. It covers the education and care of children from birth to school age and is used by most New Zealand ECE services to guide children’s learning opportunities. The literal meaning of Te Whāriki is ‘the woven mat’. ECE services use the curriculum’s principles and strands to weave a learning programme for your child. Your child’s strengths and interests, all the things they learn as part of their family, and the service’s learning opportunities are all woven together to contribute to your child’s unique learning story. This early learning story forms the beginning of your child’s learning journey to share with your family, other ECE services and eventually school.

Aspirations for your child Te Whāriki is based on the aspirations that children grow up:

as competent and confident learners and communicators

healthy in mind, body and spirit

secure in their sense of belonging

secure in the knowledge that they make a valued contribution to society.

Te Whāriki’s broad principles The four broad principles of Te Whāriki are:

Empowerment. Children will be empowered to learn and grow

Holistic development. Children learn and grow in a holistic way. Their intellectual, social, cultural, physical, emotional and spiritual learning is interwoven across all their experiences

Family and community. A child’s family and community are recognised as part of the learning experience

Relationships. Children learn through positive relationships with people, places and things.

Five learning strands Te Whāriki’s four principles are interwoven with these learning areas:

Mana atua wellbeing

Mana tangata contribution

Mana whenua belonging

Mana reo communication

Mana aotūroa exploration. Because learning happens everywhere and all the time, the connections children make about their learning between home and their ECE service helps them build strong learning foundations. When teachers and family/whānau work together, you can all help your child learn how to:

reflect on different ways of doing things

make links across time and place

develop different kinds of relationships

see different points of view. These experiences enrich children’s lives and provide them with the knowledge, skills and outlook they need to tackle new challenges. All the everyday things you do at home with your child helps their learning and can be linked to the principles and strands of Te Whāriki. If you are interested in learning more about Te Whāriki we have documents available for you to read.