Shark song-Mako

Ngaa kupu Maori ---literal translation via dictionary----Translation----
Mako haere roto wai - Shark moving in water - The shark moves in the water
Kimihia tana kai -looking his prey -To find its prey
Ngaa hua o te moana e - the fruits of the sea -the fish of the sea
Ngaa hua o te moana e - the fruits of the sea -the fish of the sea

Mako niho nui e -Shark teeth big -It's teeth are huge and sharp
Ka wehi ngaa ika e -scaring the fish -All fish are scared
Kei kainga e te mako nui e -lest eat! by the shark big -that they will be eaten
Kei kainga e te mako nui e -lest eat! by the shark big -that they will be eaten

Upoko weriweri -head ugly -ugly headed
Tinana korikori e -body curvy -curvy body

Taana mootoro haere - it's stealthy movement - as it steathily moves
he haere ohorere e - moving to suprise- to surprise its prey
Hei kai i nga ika iti e - let it be for, food the fishes little- to eat the little fish


From Waiata koohungahunga 6
double vowel = long vowel sound, can't seem to get macrons working.

Birthday Song

Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear Name
Happy birthday to you

Hari huri tau kia koe
(happy turning year, let to happen, you)
Hari huri tau kia koe
Hari huri tau kia Name
Hari huri tau kia koe

May your birthdays be bright
And filled with delight
Happy birthday dear Name
Happy birthday to you.

How to blow your nose.

With all the coughs and colds around, Kim Merwood came in today and taught us about why we need to blow our noses (sniffing can lead to blocked eustachian tubes and glue ear). She taught us about blowing one nostril at a time and not ot pick, sniff, wipe or lick or noses.

She let us post her picture and she even had a little song for us.

Parent Evening David's Talk

David’s Talk
Skills children take with them and a bit on Blogging

Two questions I hope to answer:
How our does the Early Childhood Curriculum link to school?
How is Kindergarten preparing children for school and life?

The New New Zealand school curriculum can be found here.
http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/the_new_zealand_curriculum
The New Zealand Early Childhood curriculum can be found here.
http://www.minedu.govt.nz/index.cfm?layout=document&documentid=3567&data=l


School curriculum on left Links from Earlychildhood curriculum on right.


The Vision of the New Zealand School curriculum is that children will be:

• Confident> Empowerment/ Whakamana
• Connected> Relationships / Ngã Hononga
• Actively involved> Family and community/ Whãnau Tangata
• Lifelong learners> Holistic development/ Kotahitanga

Corresponding principles of the early childhood curriculum on the right.

The school curriculum expects children will develop the Values of:
• Excellence: Perseverance, aiming high
• Innovation, Inquiry and curiosity :Reflection , curiosity
• Diversity: Respect, openness.
• Equity: Fairness
• Community and Participation: Caring, Helpfulness
• Ecological sustainability: Caring, cleanliness,
• Integrity: Honesty, responsibility
Corresponding EC virtues on the right.

The school curriculum expects children will be competent to:
• Think about and make sense of the world: Exploration -Mana Aotüroa
• Use Language, Symbols and Texts: Communication –Mana Reo
• Manage Self: Well Being –Mana Atua
• Relate to others: Belonging –Mana Whenua
• Participate and Contribute: Contribution –Mana Tangata

Corresponding EC strands on the right.

Subject Learning areas.
• Technology: Learn the uses of and how to use technology from scissors and sewing machines to cameras and computers. Remembering the technology we use today may not reflect the technology in use in 20 years time.
• Mathematics: Learn about counting, number concept, shape, patterns, size, matching, adding and taking away.
• English: Stories, books, language rich environment, pre writing skills
• Language: Stories, symbols and words of other cultures.
• Health and P.E.: Looking after yourself (toilet, dressing, eating etc), exercise, balance, coordination
• The Arts: Using their senses to explore and feel the world, expressing feelings through movement, symbols, colour, song, sound etc.
• Science: Using their senses to explore and think about the world. Develop and test theories.
• Social Science: Learning how to make friends, interact with others

In Early childhood all these areas are covered in a holistic way, examples on the right.

Part 2

A closer look at pre writing skills
How do you teach a child to write?
Do you just give them a pen and teach them?
Of course not.
Like everything in life you need to do the preparation work first if you want to get a good result.

To learn to write you first need:
• Hand Strength and dexterity
• Forearm and shoulder strength
• Muscle coordination
• Developed senses
• Hand / eye coordination
• Knowledge of words and sounds
(Is it a pump or a bump?)

These skills develop
• As the body matures
• Through observation
• Through experiences
• Through practise

Children Develop them
• Through play. Play is children trying things out.
• One Step at a time (picture a stair)
• Children’s minds and bodies are keyed to develop skills when they’re ready, not before and with more difficulty afterwards.
• Our role is to watch for signs of when a child is ready to explore an idea, develop a skill or a step towards a skill and then to support them with opportunities to do so and experiences around it.

As an exercise think about the following activities around the kindergarten.
See saw, goldfish, bubbles, climbing, hopscotch, swings, scissors, road signs, balls.

How do they develop the skills to
Read, write, do maths, make friends?

Thanks for reading

Remember to make comments on the blog!

David.


Pre writing skills – here’s a link to a website that discusses these.
http://www.otworks.ca/otworks_page.asp?pageID=711

Parents Evening- What Children Learn at Kindergarten

What a great evening 18/6/8, we hooked up the laptop to the T.V. to give power point assisted presentations, used posters, photo’s and displays.
After drinks and nibbles and a getting to know you session that started a 7pm we moved onto the presentations.

Adrianne introduced us.
Then Monica spoke on what makes up our Curriculum and on how we assess learning via learning stories.
Then David spoke on the links to school and the fundamental skills children develop at Kindergarten.
Next Jo presented the virtues and learning dispositions.
Adrianne talked on the community of learners.
Glynis from Massey followed up with a Q & A session.

After a bit more of that so important informal sharing time we wound it up at 9:30pm

Feedback
-Really Good, advertise it, let parents on the waiting list know, this is valuable information.
-Let schools know.
-We as parents need information on what we should take to school. (Take your child’s profile)
-Have more of these
-Great Night. Put every thing across really, really well. Got a lot from it. Well worth it. Think about it, it is a critical part of their education. Went home and talked to my husband about it.
-Thanks for this. It was a great informative night, please do it again.
-You are all stars. What an awesome and informative night, thankyou.

-We think we need a bigger screen!

Thankyou to every one who turned up, 22 people all together.

More photo's up on our display at Kindergarten.

Thoughtful Quotes

Here are some quotes that you might find thought provoking. I am not sure who said them, but well worth reading anyway.

"Children's learning is not measured by what they take home. The emphasis is on the process of 'doing' or 'experiencing' rather than the end result."

"Why give a child one answer when there may be 100 possibilities."

Play with Me
I tried to teach my child with books;
She gave me only dirty looks.
I tried to teach my child with words;
They passed her by, oft unheard.
Disparingly I turned aside,
"How shall I teach this child?" I cried.
Into my hands she put the key;
"Come" she said, "Play with me."

"To best prepare your child for being a 5 year old, just let them be 4."

Matariki

What a busy week we've had. Thursday was Matariki and we prepared a scrumptious lunch of coleslaw, foil baked potatoes and fish. We were given kiwifruit as well but it's still ripening. As it was we had enough potatoes left for everyone to take one home, still wrapped and and still warm two hours later.

Lots of positive feed back from the children. One said it was the first time she'd had cabbage, another (who'd had three servings of fish) wanted to know when we were having potatoes again as he "really like the fish." One girl had three servings of coleslaw (as I did myself) Only a few didn't try it and as with anything new we'll keep on cooking.

Then Adrianne made apple crumble on Friday with custard and this also went down well.

Adrianne is keen to try a roast meal next, and with the local matariki fireworks not due till the 20th why not.

It will be a busy month coming up, with half the team off to first aid revalidation in Hastings, an early childhood cluster group meeting in Napier, the association 80th in Hastings, associate teacher refresher course continuing online and in napier, and a trip planned, all leading into upto 6 days of professional development for some of us as in the term break professional time.

While it'll be busy don't forget the parents night 7:30 on Wednesday the 18th of June, let us know if you're coming!

Finally outside lots of carpentry with little logs being sawn up for wheels (more needed please) and inside 5 children asking to work on model aeroplane kit sets. (Tricky work for most of them matching the numbers on the plan to the unmarked pieces then locating where they should go on the diagram.)

This is a great exercise in finding out about how much number awareness and mental agility children have developed at at the puzzle table.