Saturday, 13 April 2013

We say goodbye and thank you to our wonderful landscape builders, Dan, Adam and Rob

We have learnt so much from watching each stage of our playground develop and we have been very fortunate to have wonderful builders such as Dan, Rob and Adam who have worked so hard in the sweltering heat at times to get our outdoor upgrade finished. We have appreciated the time they have taken to stop and listen and answer all our questions, to engage in friendly and informative conversations with all our children. The children have witnessed such great role models hard at work, using all sorts of machinery and tools which has inspired some wonderful investigations and meaningful learning, conversation groups, detailed drawings and re-ignited interest in carpentry and other kinds of constructive activities. We had a special morning tea to show our thanks and appreciation. The children sung a special song to the tune of the wheels on the bus, with lyrics adjusted to describe our builders. "The builders at Kindy,... ...work very hard, ...go hammer, hammer, hammer ... go saw, saw, saw ... go dig, dig, dig ... are very strong You get the idea! Unfortunately Dan was unable to attend our morning tea. Apart from being the Boss of the tradesmen, Dan was the our ukulele playing expert who often played with us and with the children. He even attended one of our mat times to play along with us all. Thanks Dan But early in term 2 we will be having an official opening of our playground which he will try to come to. All the children and their families are invited, it will be an exciting event which the committee are planning, so keep an eye out for more details to come. So... We give a huge big THANK YOU to our wonderful builders, Dan, Rob, and Adam (and of course Gin, Adam's dog) We are all going to miss having them around.

Wednesday, 10 April 2013

Miller's Grandfather visits with his Mandolin

It was such a pleasure to have Grant Hope-Ede, Miller's Grandfather visit us today. He was kind enough to bring along several of his Mandolins for the children to hear and experience. Who knew there were so many different varieties of Mandolins, each with a different sound. Miller watched his Granddad proudly as he demonstrated how many strings the Mandolin has and how it is played with a pick. Mr Hope-Ede played a little tune for the children were listened very nicely the sound of the beautiful music. The children had the opportunity to hold each mandolin and have a little play themselves. Even the teachers were keen to have a play! Mr Hope-Ede even had a go at playing the instrument that one of the children had made themselves at the carpentry table. This group of children were very keen to ask more questions about the mandolin in this special case. It had a different shape, sound and patterns on it, and it looked more like a guitar than the others. Thank you to Mr Hope-Ede for coming along to share his wonderful instruments with us, and to Emma for organising it. And thank you to Miller for sharing his Grandfather with us.

Thursday, 4 April 2013

A visitor just in time for Easter

We were delighted to have a visitor to our Kindergarten... Mr Bat Rabbit Bat Rabbit is a Flemish Giant who is not actually fully grown yet! Wow, How big will he be when he is full grown! Thank you to Nic and Daniel for bringing your gorgeous rabbit to kindergarten for everyone to meet and enjoy a pat.