Our Christmas Lunch

Today we had a shared lunch with our families to celebrate Christmas!
It was cool to sit and chat with the families that came and to share in good food during this festive season.
We also shared our gingerbread house that we made. It was yummy and we have big plans for our gingerbread house next year! And we have all year to practice and hone our house building skills.
This week all the children also took home little gifts that they made for their parents.
The Moreporks Team would like to wish all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Merry Christmas!

This came across the email today and we just wanted to share it with you all.
The Morepork Team would like to wish all our families and friends a Merry Christmas and a safe New Year.

(copy and paste this into your browser)
http://ak.imgag.com/imgag/product/preview/flash/pdShell.swf?ihost=http://ak.imgag.com/imgag&brandldrPath=/product/full/el/&cardNum=/product/full/ap/3173936/graphic1

Our obstacle course

It was raining today so Gemma set the obstacle course up on the deck instead!
It was cool watching the children navigate their way around the course. The different pieces of equipment gave the children different challenges as they had to move from a hard surface to a soft foam surface.
The end of the obstacle course was a ramp. It was intended that the children would walk down the ramp but the children decided to scoot and shimmy down the ramp on their bottoms.
After a while we changed the obstacle course around, which is the beauty of our equipment that isn't fixed in one place! The children had renewed interest in the obstacle course and found different ways to navigate through the equipment.

Obstacle courses are fantastic as they allow the children the practice and master their gross motor skills and learn to play with and alongside others as well as turn taking and negotiation.

Busy Babies in the Sandpit

It was a beautiful morning and the children were ready for outside play after applying sunblock and putting on their hats. They headed outside and straight for the sandpit.
All the children were so involved in their own play that I could sit back and watch all the learning that was happening. I saw:
Stuart was controlling the hose, filling up his friends buckets and making the water squirt in many directions. It was great to see Stuart trying out and working on his theories of hoses and water.
Manaia was busy cooking with the play kitchen and the pots and pans. It was nice to see Manaia acting out experiences she would be involved in at home, and also entering into dramatic play. We also had Holly, Jack and Amelia making a right mess in the water trough. Together they added water from the hose Stuart was holding and sand from under their feet to make cold wet mud!! The children loved mixing it around and filling up the cake tins making mud pies. An excellent way to explore the properties and textures of water and sand.



The children were busy all morning and worked so well alongside each other. I hope that we can again turn on the hose in the sandpit this week and make some delicious mud pies again!!

Christmas Family BBQ - Wednesday 8th Dec

This evening we had our Annual Family Christmas BBQ.
It was great to see all the families come along and share this time with us. Paul made his world famous ham, which we had with coleslaw on buns. The children loved their sausages in bread with sauce and Marilyn put together yummy platters of strawberries and scorched almonds for dessert!
This night is a highlight on our social calendars and we can't wait for Christmas to roll around each year! Its our way of saying thank you to the parents and families for supporting us and celebrating the year together.

Christmas Artists

Today the children got into the festive spirit on the deck and created some beautiful christmas tree prints.
They used traditional christmas colours; red and green and topped it off with glitter.
They were really proud of their prints and so were we!
We are going to display them on our wall for all to see!

Who's hu?

Today on the deck, there was a basket of shoes.
Wow! A basket full of discoveries!
The children had a fantastic time trying all the shoes on and swapping shoes with each other.
We tried on green sparkly shoes, pink boots, blue sparkly shoes, bright red shoes and even each others shoes!

Playing dress ups allows the children to explore with different roles in their play. Children practice turn taking and negiotation as they swap shoes with each other.

November Newsletter

Send in the clowns - 25 November 2010

Today was it Samara's birthday.
Samara and her family came to Village Kids and celebrated with us! There was surprise too - Lulu the Clown!
Lulu the Clown was cool! She gave all the children stamps, had a camera that took squirting photos and had an umbrella that rained confetti.
Lulu also made all the children special balloons. She made swords, heart wands, mice and dogs.
Then we all sat down and shared some yummy party food!
It was such a neat morning and we felt so special to be able to celebrate this special day with Samara.

Fish'n'Chips in the park

On Friday the 19th we all went to the park for fish'n'chips.

We all had a great time sitting on our blankets and sharing in good food and good conversation.


It was even cooler that we had our fish'n'chips at the park because after dinner we were able to play with our friends on the playground.


At Village Kids we enable children and their families to be active participants in our community, and enable children to learn and grow as part of a community.

Our favourite song!!!

The favourite song at the moment is "Jack in the box". Our student teacher Erena showed us the chords and we have been playing it on our ukuleles ever since. The children just love doing the actions to the songs - especially the jumping!

Actions songs are a fantastic way for children to learn the fundamental physical skills they need as they get older. Action songs also allow the children to play and learn alongside others and learn about their bodies, which is one of the key components in our curriculum.

Our Butterfly

15 November 2010. Today we were lucky enough to see a caterpillar encase himself in his chrysalis. It was so cool to watch and Amanda was even quick enough to get the camera and flip mino to video it. The video has been sped up (it has sped up the bumps and knocks as well) and for more information, copy and paste the following links into your address bar.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarch_(butterfly) http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/animals/creaturefeature/monarch-butterflies/
This was a rare experience for the children and it demonstrated to them how creatures in our environment live and evolve, as the children have watched the whole life cycle (to this point) and will hopefully get to see the butterflies emerge from their chrysalides.

Big Bubbles 09 November 2010

Yesterday Amanda made a bubble solution and was making big bubbles outside! They were so cool but the bubbles were popping too quickly. We wondered if there was a bubble solution that would last longer. We looked in the Childspace Space magazine for a bubble mixture recipe because Kirsty remembered an article about big bubbles.
We found one and decided to give it a go but it did recommend to sit the bubbles overnight.
This morning the bubble mixture was ready so we went out onto the deck to give it a go and see if this mixture was any better.
The bubbles did last fractionally longer but seemed to pop once they had separated from the bubble wand. We wondered if it was our technique so we swished and flicked (just like Harry Potter and his wand). That worked a little better but not as successful as we hoped. Kirsty then slowed the action right down and the bubbles stayed formed for longer. Fantastic!
Jay, Enzo and Amelia loved watching the bubbles and reaching up to pop them! We saw lots of different colours in the bubbles and they didn't always form perfect round shapes either. They laughed when the bubbles popped and asked "where gone?"





Bubbles challenge the children's knowledge about things in their environment, especially as bubbles look solid but easily pop when touched. Bubbles help children develop working theories about the properties of bubbles and how they are formed.

This is how we make formula...

02 November 2010





Our children have been very interested in family play and have been acting out roles within the family and what routines we follow!
One of the main interests are with the babies. The children love to carry their babies, put their babies to bed and to put them in the high chair.
Today I found an empty formula tin on the bench so I rinsed it out and got the spare bottles from the pantry and gave them to the children to use.
They loved it! It was cool to watch them scooping the formula out of their tin, into their bottles. When they had made their bottles, it was time to wash the dishes :)!

This is a fantastic example of how the children learn so much through observation and through doing! They had so much fun role playing and taking leadership in their play.

Parent Evening 1st November 2010

Tonight we held our parent evening. The theme for the evening was "A day in the life" and we focused on our daily routine and what the learning is behind the children's play.
First off Gemma talked about the inside area and the activities that we usually have inside. We shared the actions for one of our favourite songs "Mrs Bunny". The parents joined in and looked like they had a fun time as well.

Gemma then took us through the non-mobile area and what we like to do on the deck. We made some 'gloop' but only one of our parents were keen to try it!

Then Amanda talked to the parents about the activities we set up outside and made a volcano for the parents. It was so cool!

We also talked about our natural projects such as our willow tunnel and cave as well as our edible garden we have planted.

Stef then spoke to the parent about the routines surrounding nappy changes and sleeping. Some feedback we received after the night ended said that the parents were really happy that we have respectful practices with nappy changes and liked how we followed the children's individual routines when it was bedtime.

To finish the evening off, Kirsty talked to the parents about mealtimes, the routines and practices we follow as well as our centre ICT. Kirsty covered how we encourage independence with handwashing and sitting at the table and a little bit about our journey with the Healthy Heart Award. Then Kirsty spoke about our blogging, emailing and skyping and the value for families, especially the family members that live overseas or in different towns.

The evening was enjoyed by all and great feedback was recieved from all who attended! We can't wait until the next parent evening, I wonder what we will do next time?

October Newsletter

Our Postman Pat!

WOW Beetle-mania!!!!

What an amazing day of discovery and exploration in the world of insects today! It all began with Stuart's discovery of a little black beetle in the sandpit - we watched it as it moved, rolled onto it's back and crawled. Where was it going? What does it eat? Where does it live? Can it fly?

Soon Stu and Jay gathered their courage and were able to pick it up gently, letting it move across their hands and putting it near the fence. There was lots of discussion as they watched as it scuttled away under the fence - running to the other side of the garden to see if they could see it outside the Village Kids fence.

The bug-buzz continued throughout the morning and the children found ants, Steel Blue Ladybirds and spiders! We put these in the bug catchers so we could take a closer look... fascinating! I wonder how long this interest in tiny creatures will last??

Stu, Jay and Amelia were actively exploring the natural world (Strand 5, Te Whaariki), developing ideas about other living creatures and how to care for them. They used their observation skills to look at name the different parts of the beetles body, and to identify that all the insects except the slug have legs! They learned that spiders can be found near webs, and that webs can be found under ledges in the playground!!