Planting our strawberry plants

Through our professional development we met Alison who is a true inspiration for us. Recently she came to visit, and while she was here she promised to return and bring us some strawberry plants from out of her garden. True to her word she returned last Tuesday and brought the strawberry plants with her. I set off into the children's 'Secret Garden' with some very willing helpers. We undid the newspaper around the strawberry plants and counted 29 of them. I stood there watching as Ollie, Jacob, Liam and Frasier started planting the strawberry plants. They each knew what to do. I was amazed at how quickly they were working and what a brilliant job they were doing too! They had everything in hand so I thought to myself I may as well take a video and share with you the planting of our strawberries. Frasier and I can't wait for summer and the strawberries to be ready for eating. Maybe Ollie, Jacob and Liam would like to come back and visit us in the summer school holidays to taste the strawberries they have planted. We would love to have you come and share your school stories with us.

Discoveries with soap and water

Today I heard a lot of laughter at the sink as Ollie and Frasier were supposedly washing their hands. What fun they were having as they discover and develop their own understanding of the properties of bubbles and water. Here is their video to share with you

Happy Father's Day!

To celebrate Father's Day, Gerald, Ollie's dad, came to assist in our Father's Day evening and showed us all, teachers included, how to use some power tools to make wooden plaques.

Here is some of the dads that came along. They shared fish and chips and had a few drinks to ensure adequate energy levels to get to work on their creations. Each dad demonstrated their creative side with enthusiasm and pride as they lovingly inscribed their child's name into their plaque.

Here is a photostory of our Father's Day evening - Enjoy!

Domino Fun!

Yesterday I saw Frasier sorting out the domino blocks and asked him if I could play dominoes with him. We asked Carolina if she would like to join us and the three of us started to play. Soon other children came and joined us each time waiting for a new game to start. Tamariki came and went and Carolina stayed the whole one and a half hours we played. Through dominoes the children are able to develop their numeracy skills as well as social skills like turn taking and helping their friends when they are stuck.

The Bungy Jumping Mclean Boys!

Our magnificent tall buildings!

Here are a sample of some of the magnificent towers and buildings the children have been building around the centre. There are lots of negotiations taking place as children work together to construct buildings. Problem solving when things don't quite go according to plan, and amazing to watch is the way they turn roads or build around friend's buildings so they don't impact on their friends imaginary personal space. Often they join seperate individual buildings together to make a much larger creation or link buildings with bridges. Since visiting the Sky Tower we have more and more magnificent towers and of course Sky Towers and other buildings being built around the centre. We also have a wall display of more of the childrens magnificent block creations in the block area at the centre.

Happy Birthday Bo!

Happy birthday number 3, Bo!

Bo's Special Day

No more sleeps until you turn three

For today is your special day and you will see

How much fun being three can be.

With love from all your teachers and friends at Learning Curves.

New Lynn Assembly Visit

Today, the four year olds visited New Lynn Primary School for the first time.Before going to the School we thought it might be a great idea to walk down to the Olympic park and have our morning tea, since it was such a sunny day.The children also got a chance to explore on the wonderful and challenging equipment, as well as the teachers.After all our fun, it was a short walk to the School where we attended the new entrant assembly.It was great to feel so welcomed and participate in the assembly.Thank you very much New Lynn Primary!

Carpentry Corner

The carpentry hut is a fairly new resource and is immensely popular with all the children as you can see from pictures below. I have just been on a brilliant course about creative carpentry and have gained immense Knowledge and fresh ideas which i hope to implement very shortly. However i am looking for a few resources and hope maybe someone can help, i would love to access an old spa pool cover i know it sounds unusual but it would be great to get one ,also any branches from cut trees or tree trunks that have been cut in your back garden would be appreciated. Thanks in advance for your support and if any parents or whanau wish to join us in the carpentry hut you are more than welcome, we are always looking for tips and advice just let me know and i will arrange something thanks again. Carole

Kite Fying in the Park!

It was such a glorious day today we took the two and three year olds for a walk to the park. We took along the kite, balls and our picnic lunch. We had an awesome time! Have a look at the story!