Curriculum Goals:

Belonging – Children and their families experience an environment where they know that they have a place.

Exploration – Children experience an environment where their play is valued as meaningful learning and the importance of spontaneous play is recognised. Children experience an environment where they gain confidence in and control of their bodies.

Communication – Children experience an environment where they develop non-verbal communication skills for a range of purposes.Children experience an environment where they develop verbal communication skills for a range of purposes.Children experience an environment where they discover and develop different ways to be creative and expressive.

Story Time

Every day the children and I make time to read stories together, but today was even more special as Priya wanted to take the lead role and read a story to us. One of Priya’s favourite books is “The Wish Cat” its all about Holly, who has a cat flap at her house but no cat…so one day when a star fell from the sky, Holly made a wish….and that is when Tom the cat arrived.  It’s a book that Priya is sure to choose for mat times and will always ask to hear it more than once. But today Priya wanted to share this story with us all, we sat and listened and Priya carefully turned each page to continue with the story. She was very pleased with herself and loved taking the lead today.  What a great story Priya, well done.

What learning is happening here? Today Priya wanted to be the teacher, we all sat around her as she read one of her favourite books, we had lots of words and actions from Priya as she read each page.  Priya was very clever at turning the pages and pointing to the pictures. She was so pleased with her efforts, and we look forward to many more stories from you Priya well done! Pat is very proud of you.

Marble Painting Fun

This afternoon Rohan, Priya, Jax and Pat all went up to the studio to get the marbles and paint so we could do some marble painting. The first step was to choose what colours to use Rohan chose blue and yellow (kikorangi and kowhai) and of course Jax decided he wanted use the same colours as Rohan. Priya was keen to be a part of this learning experience and before long all three of them became very busy concentrating to make sure their marbles stayed inside their container as they tipped and rolled them along the paper creating wonderful patterns. Look at you guys working so hard to create your masterpieces. Rohan told me “thats mine Pat, I did it” Priya was too busy to talk, she was so engrossed in her work, what a fabulous picture you have made!

What learning is happening here? – Rohan, Priya and Jax not only showed great concentration skills, they each made their own choice about what colours they wanted to use. All three children showed amazing hand eye coordination skills, listening and helping one another. Rohan praised his younger peers encouraging them to keep going and the end results for Rohan, Priya and Jax are fabulous marble creations.

The Letter Factory

Today Priya was having fun using the letter factory, she had watched Rohan use this earlier through the day and was very eager to have her turn. It was really good observing Priya as she took a letter from the box and put it into the letter factory.  As she placed the letter in it would sound out the letter and sing a letter rhyme……after a short time Priya was confidently doing the same. This activity is a great way for Priya to learn and sound out each letter in her own and begin letter recognition.