Dancing Queens

We had such a fun morning today and the best part of the morning was the funky dancing!  A Black Eyed Peas song came in and had all the children up on their feet shaking their hips and waving around scarves.  Kirsty started to jump along to the song so they children followed and we had Ruby with two feet off the ground!  Dancing was great for the children to explore how their bodies can move and groove.  We will find another song tomorrow that the children will want to get up and dance too.

Frosty Mornings....

Our Favourite Book Is...

Happy Birthday Evan!

Our new stampers

Today our new farm animal stampers arrived in the mail! It was so cool to unwrap them and use them in the paint. We also made little heart stampers with some cardboard rolls. The children had so much fun this morning and the artwork was awesome!

Beads and Bowls!

Last night when Kirsty was doing her shopping she came across different colored strings of beads. With a flash of inspiration she brought a pack which contained 5 strings of beads. They were blue, red, green, gold and purple!
When Kirsty got to Village Kids this morning, she put them into some metal bowls that we have in our family play.

 Firstly Logan saw them and lay down by the bowls exploring the way they felt as they slipped through his fingers.

 Then as the rest of the children turned up, they had fun wearing them, transferring them from one bowl to another, making different sounds with them as they banged against the bowls and feeling the beads between their fingers.

 Ruby played with the beads for so long and she was really transfixed by them. She especially liked taking them out of one bowl and slowly lowering them into another bowl. I watched as she would then put another bowl on top and 'hide' the beads.

Such simple objects coupled with an everyday objects has transfixed the children at Village Kids today and they have had so much fun, I think we will need more beads and bowls!

What to do on a Sunny Day?

What a beautiful week we have had.  The sun has been shining so today we decided to get out and about and go for a walk to the Village.  Bex, Greer, Corey, Logan, Addison and I all went.  We first went for a look in the shop windows than wandered a bit further until we reached the library. We walked a full circle around the village, saying hello to all the passer buys and meeting a few familiar faces along the way as well as many cute dogs! It was great to get out into the community and to see what other people get up to on a Thursday.Watch this space as we cant wait to go or our next walk!

What Have We Found?

Mrs Whippy visits Village Kids...again!

This afternoon we had two special visitors at Village Kids. It was Donna and Rachael from Kereru House Mrs Whippy! What a treat it was. They brought their striped boxes and little containers full of goodies and made the children their own special ice creams with sprinkles and a lolly. We didn't have to pay for our ice creams like the children next door though. They had a treasure hunt to find 'Whippy Dollars' and then they purchased their ice creams with their lucky find! Our children really enjoyed their special visit - I hope next holidays they will visit again!

Logan and Ruby dance!

This afternoon we played some action songs on the ipod and Logan and Ruby were really keen to dance and do the actions to the songs. First we had The Fancy Dance. "I can stamp my feet, I can wriggle my thumbs, I can pat my cheeks, I can rub my tum. I can reach up high,

I can clap my hands,

I can wink one eye and do the fancy dance...wriggle from the bottom,

wriggle to the top, Fancy Dance wriggle, fancy dance stop! Then the next song was "Throw the bean bag and catch". Logan really enjoyed this one! "Put a bean bag on your head,

and walk around the room!

Put it on your finger!

Put it on your foot!

Put it on you knee (er..tummy?)!

Action songs like this are a fantastic way for children to learn their body parts and for them to gain confidence in what their bodies can do and how they work!

Yay for Easter part 2!

We have been really getting into the spirit of Easter here today.
We made Easter cupcakes, danced to Mrs. Bunny and had fun having bunny facepainting.
I hope the children all get a visit from the Easter Bunny and everyone has a great weekend.

Yay For Easter!

Hot Cross Buns

To get the children into the Easter spirit we made some Hot Cross Buns for afternoon tea. It was a bit of a process but the children loved being involved and following it from start to finish. First we made the dough. The children tipped, poured and mixed ingredients in a bowl. After it was all mixed in, Bex kneaded the mixture into a dough and left it to rest. The mixture over time doubled in size and needed a few extra special ingredients....sultanas and chocolate chips!
The delicious homemade Hot Cross Buns were cooked in the oven and ready in time for afternoon tea and enjoyed by all!

Children's Book Day...

It was raining today so we couldn't go to the library to read stories and have our picnic morning tea!
Instead we lay some blankets and cushions on the floor, got out the big books and read some stories at the centre.
The children really enjoyed sitting and lying down listening to the stories.
We hope that in a few weeks time the weather will be good enough for us to go for the walk and have our picnic!