We were very lucky to have Helen Griffiths, local author of well loved book Ross the Cat come and read it to us, as well as share some interesting facts about fantastic felines. We thank you whānau for your donations of pet food for the SPCA. I wonder…have you bumped into Ross at Pukekura Park? If you haven’t yet…keep your eye out for him as he loves lots of attention and snuggles!

We are vey lucky to be invited annually to Vogeltown School to participate in what we call the “Tryathlon” with everyone trying and giving it there very best. It is great to see our children participating in cycling and running, supported by a senior class member of Vogeltown School. A big thank you to Vogeltown School we love our special relationship with you.

Tēnā koutou, what a fabulous ako experience we all had on our visit to Govett-Brewster Len Lye Art Gallery. We explored making shadow puppets out of recycled materials in the Gallery classroom. After exploring exhibits of Len Lye and other artists. Our focus was looking at movement, materials and the impressions and feelings these evoked within us. We practiced story telling through looking at picture images and moving our bodies to the rhythm of the sculptures. Then we produced our very own shadow puppetry show from the puppets that we created. The aim was to draw attention to sustainability and send a message to look after our oceans and to protect our environment from discarded plastics and other rubbish.

Before returning to Kindergarten on the Number 6 city council bus we visited Puke Ariki library. To enjoy more activities and to listen to stories. What a wonderful thought provoking adventure we all had. A big thank you to our wonderful whānau helpers for your support. 

The weather wasn’t meant to be as good as it was, but Tamanuiterā was smiling down on us that day and for that we are thankful. It is always a treasured occasion for us when we are able to bring everybody together to share kai, stories, laughter and strengthen our whanaungatanga ~ a shared sense of belonging. Thank you to everybody for all the delicious food provided, and we hope in return you enjoyed the pumpkin soup and other goodies on offer. 

In preparation for our special whakanui we were kindly donated a couple of pumpkins, and along with some squash we collectively prepared the soup; chopping, roasting, peeling and cooking ~ such wonderful team work. We also prepared some feijoa chutney, made from the fruit of our feijoa trees in our Manu garden. This year the tamariki worked so hard on practicing our daily mihi ~ Whakataka te hau and the Matariki Macarena to perform for you on the morning. They all really enjoyed it and were so proud of themselves. We know how proud you were too. 

Amongst all these preparations we were also collecting food for Food Bank and once again, you were all so generous. We really appreciate your contribution towards this valuable community resource. Thank you so much. Arohanui.

What a wonderful adventure we had on our excursion to Puke Ariki. We caught a public bus from Manu, for some children it was their first time having a ride on a bus this in itself was exciting. Our first stop at Puke Ariki was the Library, everyone settled down making themselves comfortable on cushions and listened to stories read by the librarians. They engaged us with puppetry, rhymes and opportunities for movement and music, before we independently explored the many facilities in the children’s section. What a great way to foster our love for literacy and language.

We then gathered our belongings and took a ride in the lift to the top floor and walked across the glass bridge. This took us over the road and into the Museum. We put our bags into a cage so we could all became detectives through participating in the great Ruru hunt.  Armed with our clues and our teams we set off to explore the many exhibits. Enjoying interacting with many interesting areas we gained lots of new information and marked off our Ruru sheet as we followed the clues and found the items. What a fabulous morning we had out in our community in a literacy rich environment.

Americarna is a local event that happens here in New Plymouth each year. It is lovely to return to these sort of gatherings that in the past the pandemic had prevented us all being involved in. 

This year Mountain View Summerset Rest Home invited us down to join in their festivities. We walked down to the Rest Home stopping on the way for a quick play at the playground. When we arrived we had our morning tea. As we waited in anticipation for the cars our tamariki were kindly given an ice block to enjoy. The cars pulled up right in front of us and slowly drove past. We waved the American flags that our children had busily made in the last few weeks at kindergarten, along with some new American flags that we were given. The children talked about their favourite cars pointing out makes, models and colours. What a marvellous way to explore our local community and be part of the festivities. 

On our way back to kindergarten we stopped for a longer play at the playground before walking back up the hill to kindergarten. A big thank you to all our wonderful helpers making this excursion possible.

On a beautiful September Forest day we were able to finally plant our very own āporo rākau at the community orchard Sheppards Bush Reserve. This was very timely as it coincided with conservation week. After planting our tree we picked up litter found on our pathway throughout the bush. It was sad to see just how much litter there was. Together we are learning to be kaitiake of the community space.

We are already looking forward to the time when we can sit under our tree to eat the delicious apples it will produce in the future.

Ko te whenua the waiu mo nga uri whakatipu – The land will provide sustenance for future generations.

This years celebration of Puanga was embedded in our curriculum through the sharing of stories, the growing, harvesting and preparation of kai and through the many art works the tamariki produced. A wonderful time was had by all…

We all know how important it is to be safe around water, especially during the summer months when many of us spend time at our local beaches and swimming pools. With this in mind, alongside many conversations we had with our tamariki about water safety, we invited some local surf lifeguards to come and visit the kindergarten to share information and play some little nipper games.

Kia ora koutou,

Recently we circulated a questionnaire relating to our internal review on resilience. We would like thank all of you who responded. We received some great feedback and it’s wonderful to see how you observe resilience for your child/children. A majority of whānau indicated that they were interested in learning more about how to support and develop resilience. Please find attached a couple of research articles relating to the subject, with particular focus on the early years. Once again thank you for your on-going support.

Ngā mihi nui