Handwashing and Nose blowing with Karyn

Karyn Cardno the Public Health Nurse came in today to answer parent questions, and talk to the children about handwashing and noseblowing.

It's important to wash your hands properly, and to take your time while washing them.

Karyn suggested to help us take our time that we have a handwashing song.

My favourite (to the tune of happy birthday) is.

I'm washing my hands

to make them all clean

I don't want my ihu (nose)

all snotty and green.

Karyn also talked to us about sneezing into your elbow when you need to sneeze.

Then she talked to us about how to blow your nose. Remember to bin those used tissues, not just pocket them.

Thanks Karyn

Extras

Here's a link to a poster (word format) on how to wash your hands.
http://www.minedu.govt.nz/~/media/MinEdu/Files/EducationSectors/Schools/PandemicPlanning/7HealthAndHygiene/HowtoWashYourHands1.doc

This is the one we have up on the walls, you might like to print it for home.

A question, when do you think you need to wash your hands? The poster lists ten occasions, one for each digit on both hands. Have a think then check on the poster to see if you got them all.

Also if you're planning overseas travel you might want to check

http://www.safetravel.govt.nz/

As well if you're interested in swine flu read up on it at

http://www.moh.govt.nz/influenza-a-h1n1

Finally my thoughts

While everyone describes swine flu as mild in most cases, but likely to infect a lot more people than seasonal flu, at home you might want to think about having enough food put aside that if you can't get to the shops for some reason for a week you will still have enough. Also think about how much sick and annual leave you have accumlated. If it's not much, do you need to put enough money aside so that if you can't get into work for a week or two because of school and worksite closures you'll have enough. Also if you do get a bad case, do you know who to contact to get help for you and have you arranged emergency back up care for your children?

These are all things to think about.

David

Are your voting details correct?

Time to update and make sure your voting details are correct as all registered voters, will receive notification this week, from the Chief Electoral Office, that postal voting on the non-binding referendum on child discipline will be occurring between July 31 and August 21.

While the referendum is non binding it's well worth also taking the time now to inform yourself on both sides of the issue.

The question is
"Should a smack, as a part of good parental correction, be a criminal offence in New Zealand?"

If you google "child discipline referendum" - pages from New Zealand, you should get a good overview of the cases for both Yes and No.

I hope everyone takes the time to make an informed choice and discusses this at home before voting.

David

What's up this week.

Sharon started the week with cool tri-coloured play dough, it managed to stay three colours till Wednesday but by Thursday it had become purple, which was interesting as we all had different ideas what colour it would blend to, and we were all wrong.Outside the balance boards and carpentry have continued and Sam's working on a new model ride in firetruck with a cherry picker arm.Inside we've been having a go at brain teasers. They help hand eye coordination, thinking and fine motor skills but most of all teach perseverance.Four bears and some friends (e wha nga pea ma) decided they needed real porridge for their play so out came the measuring cups, the oats, the salt and the water. We carefully read the recipe, matched up the measures and then took turns to mix the mixture. While we stirred we counted to tekau and then tekau ma rima, so we'd all have the same amount of turns.

Then while we cooked and stirred I told the story of the magic porridge pot.

Cooked I put the hot porridge into cups and we added honey from out bear shaped squeeze me honey pot. Then I told the bears to "go for a walk while the porridge cooled down."
But oh no when the bears got back all they found were knocked over chairs, messed up beds and four empty cups with dirty spoons.
After the initial shock the head bear soon started looking around for suspicious characters, and sure enough there was a teacher looking guilty in the kitchen, me hiding four cups of porridge behind me. Yum the bears ate it all up, a happy ending indeed. It was time, this week, to clean out the mealy worm container and transfer them into some nice fresh chicken mash. But every time we' thought we'd picked them all out, we'd move some meal and find some more.
This was great for fine motor, hand eye coordination, and we think it has potential for a fairground stall. Who can find the most meal worms in a minute.
Emily decided she needed to take home a pot for her, a pot for her brothers and one for her mum. James decided he needed a pot for each of his family to.
Hunter rabbit came to visit us, and hopped around inside and out before going to have a munch on the grass.
Joshua brought in a hedgehog his dog had disturbed in it's nest, so we fed it up and found it a nice new, quiet place to hibernate.I caught these musicians hard at it and just couldn't resist making a demo tape.
We've also had a few children away with coughs, chicken pox and tummy bugs. Sam still kept in touch with us though, skyping the kindergarten several times to find out what his friends have been up to this week.

Isobel's also been skyping from home, practising for when she goes to see her auntie so she can let us know all her exciting news.

My wife Cindy came in and skyped her sister in Eltham, bringing our son Ben in to see his cousin at Eltham Kindergarten.

Skype has lots of potential to be unlocked.

Watch out for our evening with Diane Levy fundraiser, as we crack down to raising the money we need for our playground rennovations. The committee are putting a huge effort into this and I should have info for it up on the blog soon.

Information on influenza is out via email and newsletter this week. I've included a copy on the blogs side bar, so do read it.
David

Butterfly Songs

It was a cold morning. We tried to launch our hot air balloon but just a breath to much wind for it. Then Isobel came in, she had found a Monarch butterfly frozen in the car park, and when she picked it up the warmth of her hands had brought it back to life.

She showed it to the kids at Eltham Kindergarten using Skype but then it flew up to the ceiling so Isobel created a song to sing it down.

She sang it through lunch time, then after lunch we followed up on this with lots of exploring sound outside making butterfly songs and one monarch a kahukura and one yellow admiral a kahukowhai actually appeared!

I found an old hose pipe and started playing this like a trumpet. Jack got the plastic horn from inside and played that, then we started to get into percussive sounds around the environment

Taratoa got right into the music and kept calling me over to see the new things he'd found to beat out a rhythm on.

Josh found the most interesting thing in the end, my stomach.

Hannah made this, "like a kite, these flap in the wind."

David

Other happenings

More inspiration from "Getting ready for school", out at the carpentry we made wobble boards. This helps stimulate the vestibular system in the ears as they learn to balance. Sitting still is the hardest feat of balancing. Our locusts are munching every bit of grass with give them, and we've having to brush of the frost each morning to find it for them now. Do bring in some blade grass if you have some.
We got one of the males out and had hold of him, (Emily's been fascinated since we let her brothers take some dead ones to school and wanted one for her and one for James R.) We watched him jump and watched him fly, and learnt he's more ticklish than scary.

Our old flip boards we made have also been having good use, while tree climbing and the rope trolley continue outside along with rolling wheels down the hill and jumping.

Inside pizza's have been cooked, while block building, board games, photography (Harriet wanted to take close ups so I showed her how to use the macro flower, lots of close ups followed), puzzles, playdough, white board books and hullabaloo continue to be popular.

David

Ambulance Visit

Kate and Lily have been learning how to bandage everything, especially each other. So Jo invited the local ambulance crew dup to the kindergarten so that the children could experience the ambulance and find out about what their crews do.

Having a chance to look at one first hand can help make any future experiences positive.

The siren wasn't to loud, we even wanted it again when they asked.

We had our blood pressure checked, learnt about the oxygen, the towels and of course had a go with bandages. Thanks Sue and Sarah.

David

Power Source

Our wind maker, which we used with our weather vanes when the wind had stopped, turns out to be a pretty good power source when the wind is blowing. Now to adapt it onto some strandbeast legs.

I've also made Ollie some wooden strandbeast parts, because "I need eight legs," and we'll try and put that together when I get the right bolts. In the meanwhile Ollie had to redrill the holes today as I'd made them to small, by about 1mm.

David.