Other Happenings

Kate designed a fibre optic light, she knew what she wanted and gave us great directions.

Some technical support was needed at the end, it turned out after testing each of the circuit components we had a dead bulb, we quickly found another one.

Kate was not completely happy with the end product however because the light didn't shine up from the middle and out through the fibres. So this one looks like it'll need a revisit. Any one got an old fibre optic light at home they want to donate?Various carpentry projects continue, ladders, planes, dog houses.

Drawings, especially of people and shapes have been very popular.

The committee have arranged for the council to repaint the parking lines. This will be happening Tuesday. Today the council came up and made a very thorough, and much watched, job of cleaning prior to painting.

Earlier in the week Sam finished his net. Now to test it out!

Cleaning time for the locust house saw us all busy trying to sort several hundred baby locusts, from 2mm to 30mm, in a range of colours out of the old grass.

Whoops we missed one. Can you see it. (Right hand side of rim.)

Catching some flies for the frogs I noticed this fly on a window. Can you tell it's been to Kindergarten? I wonder who caught it earlier?

Adrianne, Sharon and myself all attended a meeting with the local new entrants teachers, where we reviewed the DVD "Getting Ready for School." It is well worth a look and we should have some copies for borrowing shortly. We'll try and arrange a parent evening to showcase it.

We've just got the new "Ours" DVD all about New Zealand. We spotted they had a drone fly they called a bee, and pollen they called nectar in the DVD (we let them know), but apart from that it looks great, and we'll have flyers out for you soon if you want to order a copy.

We now have some CD's with four of our favourite songs, you can purchase.

Clean up time, a suggestion has come in from a parent that we could probably use some parent help tidying up at the end of the day. We raised this at the committee, and as a result we will have a board up of ways parents can help out around the kindergarten up for people who are interested to read and help out with.

David

Balloon Jumping Balls

Our bean bag sprung a small leak, so I quickly picked up the balls, using a balloon rubbed on my head to generate static. (Because they always jump off the shovel.) When I went to brush them into the bin I found they jumped around the balloon. I couldn't even get close sometimes before they would jump. What a great game. I showed the kids and we all had fun.

Art happenings

Butterflies have been a popular art subject, this one was a multimedia one, drawing on many different skills and a lot of peer collaboration.

One of our photo artists has done a series of flower shots

She also has many other interesting shots.One of our boys did a series of studies of his hand.

What's been happening.

Many new toys purchased with our raffle money, our cyprus tree (which had the start of rot forming) was not able to be saved and we had to have a tree surgeon come and take it out over the holidays. A big thank you to the dads who came to chop up the rounds afterwards.

In the playground jumping as been really popular all term. Sometimes we even jump while holding an egg on a spoon.

Four of the children continue their keen interest in photography, this shot by one of our artists, captures the autumn feel of the kindergarten and the big piles of leaves that we are transporting, sculpting, covering, making rain with and jumping in. We may have to do another photo art exhibit.

Sometimes looking at our blog, it must look like we're flat out all the time (and we often are), but we do also take the time to kick back and enjoy the view.

We still have the odd baby cricket (their house needs insulating and has gotten too cold) and now have baby locusts again, but we still need more food for the frogs. Hopefully the article I put in the paper exploring potential ways to make money from crickets and turn a pest to profit will see oppertunties for our farmers and more crickets brought in before the cold weather finishes them. After all many things once considered valueless are now earning big bucks, just look at manuka honey.

If someone tells you something can't be done, it just means they haven't figured out a way yet, so you won't have much competition when you start.

If some one tells you something is too hard, they just mean that with enough effort it can be done, and with enough thought, experimentation and practise, it can even be done easily.

David.

Dr Knickerbocker

We went to see Mike Jackson and his son perform on Wednesday. What brilliant artists. Mike played a large variety of instruments, dulcimer, ocarina, harmonica, ukulele, bodhran, accordian and melodian. Many of them came in different sizes and through out his show he introduced the children naturally to the difference size makes in instruments. Without ever needing to specifically point this out. Rhythm was another feature he introduced in a lovely natural way.
With many changes in pace, Mike taught us to juggle, and showed us string games. Here is his long earred dog below. He made it with his eyes closed, it even goes for a walk.
Today after lunch, after many requests before lunch for Mike's Cd, we put on his youtube video on the t.v.. This also got many repeats. Mike used lots of humour, many traditional songs the children could join in with and produced a wonderful kind caring, hilarious and educational show we'd all recommend.
David

I want to make a net to catch fish.

Sam wanted to make a net to catch fish. After talking with him I found out what type of net, (I later learned it is called a landing net.)

So together we experimented with tying string to a bamboo rod. Over the weekend I thought about it and decided a frame and weights were needed. So having talked it over with Sam on monday he helped me make a frame, then I helped him to tie the knots.

We discovered Hirini Melbourne's waiata cd had a really good pace for net making and chatted about all sorts of things as we worked. Sam's comment "this is hard work" lead us into mending and recycling broken nets. Recycling is one of Sam's favourite topics. Talking about historical net makers lead us to pause and hit the library books, back at work I told him the story of Kahukura and the net. As we worked others came to watch us. It really make you appreciate the communal effort net fishing is. Tuesday, we changed our method today. Last night researching net making I came across http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF8r-JPIOh8&feature=related . Johnjayrambo11111 shows a real simple way to make nets in this video. Having thought about how to adapt it over night it was down to the river for some willow to form the frame of the net, then down to mitre 10 for some builders line.

I talked to Sam, we watched the video, discussed it and then Sam decided we'd try the new way. We made the frame (learning about willow in the process), cut the strings, hung them and then started to tie them. With a bit of practise and experimentation we developed a technique Sam could use and he set to work. It was hard work, and Sam's perseverance was tremendous, and when he became tired it was a good oppertunity to talk to him about why we need to take breaks, drink water and have some food to help us focus.
sam was away Wednesday, but Thursday saw him asking to do more, when he arrived and again after lunch, "Can I go out to work on my net now?".

He continues to work through the day on it, taking occasional breaks to join in other types of play, drink and eat. I had been having to support Sam with undoing knots and pushing up the knot when it was too big. But today we looked closer at how to push up the knots (to get the right size) and Sam has now mastered this. This is just as well as he's pretty critical of his work, evaluating the guage of the holes with his hand. Making use of the spare willow, I'd collected to experiment on, I made Sam two different tools to try out to see if they would help him loosen any knots he decides needs resizing. He'd tried his finger nails but they hadn't been able to pick them open. We also tried a carpentry nail but found it didn't work. The second tool seems to do the trick, I also made some more for the clay table.
During the day, after mentioning it and having Sam ask about it, I introduced Sam to flax (Harakeke) and since he no longer needed much help, started an experimental net with strips of flax, while also showing him the muka. We also had a look at ocean fishes, looking up some pictures of hoki in my fish book.

David

Be careful how you use praise

On Saturday the 2 of May, we all attended a 9-3 inspiration day at Massey, with the educational Leadership project.
Amongst the points that came up was this gem.

Be careful how you use praise:

Telling your child how bright they are when the succeed has been shown by many studies to make them less likely to choose harder work and also less likely to try when challenged. The idea is because they like to feel smart they stop taking risks and stick to the easy stuff, and if it’s hard they give up because it must be beyond them. It tends to set limits on their intelligence.

Instead praise your child’s effort, “you did that because you worked really hard.” This leads them to understand they can do anything if they put enough effort in, and this has shown to be true for the majority of humans. Indeed it’s been shown 10-15,000hours of practise and you can be a master of anything. Children praised for their effort tend to choose the harder tasks when given a choice, and faced with challenges don’t give up but instead simply work harder. Better yet the brain has been shown to act like a muscle, the more you use it the stronger it gets.

Cloninger says the brain has to learn that frustrating spells can be worked through, a person who grows up getting too frequent rewards will not have persistence, because they’ll quit when the rewards disappear. There’s actually a chemical response in the brain that needs to trained.

So keep praise specific, not general, be proud of their, effort, focus, responsibility, persistence, involvement, kindness etc., rather than just telling them they’re smart or good.

Learn more by looking up the works of Carol Dweck.