A tree climbing adventure.

15th November 2012 by Nicolette

Aren’t these gorgeous photos? You were very excited at the prospect of coming to play in the back yard for a change. Today there were lots of children in the backyard. Some playing football, many searching for monsters and others looking at the garden but you girls chose to climb the big tree. “We love climbing trees” you tell me. I like the way you made room for each other and helped each other up the tree. It was ‘team work’. You also knew how to climb down—whew!

I ran to grab the camera because I suddenly saw what a great photo this would make. Thank you for staying carefully where you were. When I show you the pictures you all said “Wow!” I think you liked them. “What do you know about climbing trees?” I ask.
“They are tall” “It’s fun” “You have to hold on”. Indeed this is true.

Did you know that when you climb a tree it is most safe to only use the biggest, strongest branches? I learnt that when I was little. We have a story at Kindergarten about a tree. It is called “The apple tree” The children play so many different games with this one apple tree. Maybe we can read it.

Do you have trees at home? Do you climb them?

Reflection: The girls are learning about negotiation; who goes first and who goes where. They are communicating with each other both verbally and non-verbally as they climb, sit and talk. They take part in conversations in a new setting which gives them new topics and ideas for discussion.

They are learning how to take care of themselves and keep safe as they choose where the best place is to hold on and negotiate the tree with careful footing.

The children are learning motor skills as they manipulate and gain control of their

bodies, building strength and balance.

Changing play areas at Kindergarten opens children up to new ideas and games. It allows children to be creative and have an element of change and surprise from their every day routine.

Grayson shares his ideas about eclipses

Thanks to Grayson and his family for including us in their wonderings about the recent eclipse.  Some of us liked checking it out on line too-  3 News had some great clips of what it looked like around the country.....

Thinking about Tama the turtle...

Teachers never cease to be amazed by the range of ways children choose to investigate something they are interested in... and how they choose to make sense of what they have found out. Here we see  great use of language skills, logic, digital documentation and art media to sift and sort our ideas about  our Kindergarten turtle.

Promoting literacy......

We like a great story at Petone Kindergarten.... Here's the start to one we love to do at mat time. Plenty of predictable text we can interact with. The enjoyment of literacy in the context of everyday life is one of the treasures children can learn. Don't we all investigate things with more energy if we are keen on it?  We aren't the only ones who like this story about 'Fly Fly Witchy' ... here's a school group performing  it .... courtesy of 'You tube'.

Whats on in the current programme?

Supporting a whole range of interests.....

Kindergarten explorers

Grayson vs. The Log

Grayson, today you joined us out in the back yard. Finally we can go there again because the weather is warmer and the grass is dry. As the other children explored the garden you were happy to practice your soccer kicking and goal shooting. You talked to me about how you can get the ball in the goal, "the log is the goal-keeper". You told be about how your favourite player, ”the best player ever”, is Wayne Rooney. I asked if you would like me to record your score and so we began. By the time we finished you had scored 30 goals!!! I am so impressed with your stamina (that means how long you stay and practice) and your ball control skills. You tell me that you can throw the ball on the ground and kick it at home, " and sometimes it goes over the fence!".

Wayne Rooney is Grayson’s favourite player!  He plays for Manchester United and for the England National team. He is number 10 and according to Wikipedia he is England’s youngest ever goal scorer. Rooney is a Striker which means he is the one who scores most of the goals.  Rooney has earned 78 national caps and scored 32 goals for England —that’s pretty cool!

 What learning is happening here? 

Grayson is teaching us about his interests - which extends and reinforces his own knowledge. He is consolidating and practicing his physical skills while communicating quite specific information. A next step could be for him to teach another child - or even a group - some of the basic skills that he has already mastered. 

  We are starting off gently - and Grayson is our star because we have permission for him to appear in our blog. We would love to be able to include as many as possible of the children in our posts so that we can blog events and special occasions as well as individual stories.