Rock Cimbing Adventure!

Watch our confident and capable children as they climb to great heights!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The Day That Henry Came to Play

Thank you so much to Finlay and his mum for bringing Henry, their much loved dog, in to the centre to meet us. This was an experience that we will cherish.

Tip: Enlarge the photos by clicking on the page.

By Mandy

Celebrating World Children's Day

Today, we are celebrating World Children's Day(which is Saturday 21st November, 2009) by having a Fancy Dress Party! On Wednesday we made Crunchie Ice Cream. On Thursday we went for a walk and got Strawberries to go with the ice cream. What a fantastic day we are having. The children have made fairy wands, played with balloons and bubbles, and watched a Movie, Over the Hedge, while having dessert. It was very yummy... This afternoon the children are enjoying dancing to their favourite music outside on the deck! What a great day our tamariki are having! Ka Pai everyone!

Tūpeke motokā

Tūpeke motokā

Movement has been a big part of our planning story this year, and hotwheels have been a big part of this movement. Today the boys were experimenting with angles and height, using early mathematical concepts as they built ramps for their cars.

Making Crunchie Ice Cream

Make a Smilebox recipe

Music,Music everywhere

Make a Smilebox slideshow

A toy piano was brought to share with friends and before you know it there is music every where. Sharing is always fun

Happy Birthday Ziggy

Make a Smilebox postcard

Some of the girls decided to throw Ziggy a birthday party they built him a wonderful house and inside they created a party with lots of yummy things to eat. Listen to them sing happy birthday to him as he blows out the candles on his cake.

Josh's amazing perseverance with his towers!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Petipeti moana for my Papa

Today Hannah wanted to paint a picture for her Papa. She used two colours to make a jellyfish (petipeti moana).

We didn't know the maori word for jellyfish and so Mandy looked it up on the internet and found petipeti moana.

Hannah wanted to send her papa an email of "a smiley face. HEAPS!"

Perhaps we can send your Papa HEAPS of smiley faces another day, Hannah.

By Mandy

ULearn Conference 2009

At the beginning of October, Marlise, Catherine (from our Kinross Street centre) and I went to Christchurch for the annual Ulearn conference which focusses on ICT (Information and Computer Technology) with new and exciting ways to use the technology with our young children. The conference is for all sectors in education and it is one of the only conferences in New Zealand that all sectors attend. We had a great time and learned lots of fun things, including new ways to use the blog, how to use Skype and stay in touch with friends all around the world and a multitude of other innovative ways to use technology. As always, parent support and feedback is important to us and valued and so please offer tips, advise or if you have any concerns.

Here we are at the conference dinner. The theme was 'let the sun shine in...' I think we did the Early Childhood sector proud with our costumes.

By Mandy

(With the help of Catherine from Kinross Street)