Pikopiko Clyde Quay Kindergarten

Hui with Harold 🦒
This week we had a special hui with Harold the Giraffe and Emma Stove from the Life Education Trust.
Life Education Trust is a
registered charity - empowering tamariki to make healthy choices for their wellbeing.
We learned how to keep ourselves and others safe in our play, using gentle hands and our strong waiting muscles.
The tamariki listened, sang and joined in actively throughout the hui - ka pai!

Celebrating Tupuanuku - one of the whetu/stars in the Matariki
cluster.
This star connects to food
grown and harvested from under the earth.
Nga tamariki/the children peeled kumara - a root vegetable. We roasted the kumara at kai tine.
Not everyone liked it - but good on everyone for trying it - and some liked it lots!
We looked after our noke/worms
by putting the peelings into the worm farms/pamu noke. We are being great kaitiaki for our Pikopiko environment!
Happy Matariki everyone ⭐️

Kia ora e te whānau,
Whakamana / empowerment is one of the values in our Pikopiko kindergarten philosophy.
We see ngā tamariki / children as competent and capable learners. We love to see them feeling safe to explore and discover .

We saw this in action in our carpentry workshop with Martin The Toymake (toymaker.co.nz) this term. Ngā tamariki made little planes.

Carpentry gives opportunity for lots of learning - and fun, as well as critical thinking, problem solving and reasoning in action. Alongside this, the tamariki needed to share resources, work alongside others, understand how to be safe using the tools and exercise their waiting muscles as well!

Once the planes were made, tamariki decorated them. Each one was different - creativity at work! Ka pai tō mahi tamariki ma. 🙂

Pikopiko tamariki have been busy exploring their creativity with a mix of playdough and other resources. What a beautiful combination of objects on this playdough cake that one of our tamariki made for her sister!

What is mahi tahi? It’s collaboration, teamwork, working together. Here are two of our wonderful kindegarten tamariki working together because they didn’t want to spill the water they’d scooped from a bucket into their muffin tray.
Mahi tahi is something we love to use our teaching skills to encourage here at Pikopiko Clyde Quay Kindergarten. 😊
Can you think of an example of mahi tahi/collaboration at home?

Kia ora e te whānau,
Last week ngā tamariki made waka/vehicles with Martin the Toy Maker.
So much learning - critical thinking, problem solving and reasoning in action!
Alongside this the tamariki needed to share resources, work alongside others, understand how to be safe using the tools and exercise their waiting muscles as well!
We love that Martin also sets up other workstations for tamariki to work at independently if they are waiting for a turn at the vehicle making table, or perhaps just want to practice using a screwdriver at the screws-and-screwdriver table, or hammer a nail or five into a piece of wood at the hammer skills area.
This week, ngā tamariki have been painting and adding further decorations to their waka.
Carpentry supports mathematical thinking and understandings. Each waka was different - creativity at work.
Learning to use real tools and completing a project supports whakamana/a feeling of empowerment. This is one of our key values at Pikopiko Kindergarten.
Ka pai tō mahi tamariki ma.

MetService - Te Ratonga Tirorangi

Look at these amazing buildings! Moving the blocks shelf was one of those ‘let’s try it and see what happens’ teaching strategies that often happens just in the moment. Well, we’ve been pleasantly surprised at the renewed interest in the blocks here at Pikopiko!
We have seen lots of imagination, tamariki learning from each other, and mahi tahi (working together) as a result. Isn’t it great when you try something you’re not quite sure of, works out in the end? That’s what early childhood is all about - just trying and giving something a go! 😁