2014 begins with creative spirit !

During the holiday break, the teachers all attended a day of professional development meeting which included some wonderfully inspiring guest speakers.  Among them was a senior lecturer from Victoria University, Lisa Terreni, whose research has focused on 'Creativity and the arts in Early Childhood' and how visual art can be used to enhance young children's thinking, communication and multi-literacy skills.
Teachers often come from these lectures feeling inspired and ready to start the new year with a new vigor and enthusiasm to explore the possibilities of visual art.

We acknowledge that the arts encompasses such a broad area and can be represented with music, song, drama, dance, craft and story telling.

We are supported by our Early childhood curriculum, Te Whariki, which states that, "children will experience an environment where they discover and develop different ways to be creative and expressive. Children will develop familiarity with a variety of types of music, art dance, and drama as expressions of feeling, mood, situation, occasion and culture." (Communication, Goal 4) 

With all these factors buzzing around in our heads we are now looking at our creative arts with a different lens and while we take this journey of creativity and discovery slowly, we are observing the same enthusiasm and creative spirit is there in our children too.

We see in the following photos how these children were provided with some coloured wool soaked in glue with tweezers and encouraged to make a picture.  They were encouraged to draw their design first then stick on the glue.  We noticed that while these children could have copied a design I showed as an example, each child had their own unique creative ideas.

 

There is always an easel available to paint on either outside or inside.  It is fun to create alongside a friend or to work independently.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ryan used the painting easel as an opportunity to visually communicate the scene of his exciting weekend when he went on a boat fishing and caught the biggest fish! 

This is only a snippet of the first weeks of term one in 2014.
It is exciting to think we are only just beginning this journey of sharing our creative spirit with you.

Keep watching this space!

 

 



Christmas Family Picnic at Glamorgan Kindergarten

It was a perfect evening for our annual Christmas Picnic celebration and so wonderful to see so many of our families come along with their picnic blankets and food, to celebrate the end of a another great year and of course the Christmas season.

 

 

 

 Santa  and his Elf arrived and greeted everyone and was almost swamped by the children.

 

 

 

 
 

 

Lucky that Santa is used to being so admired and he greeted shook hands and said hello to al the excited children as he slowly made his way inside.

 

Delfina gave Santa hi five....

 

Everyone gathered inside for some carol singing by the children and present giving.

Oh, there's something about that Santa!

I saw Chrissy kissing Santa Claus, underneath the mistletoe last night..... ;)

 

 

 



 

It was so great to see such a wonderful turnout of our families for our Christmas Picnic at Glamorgan Kindergarten.

Thank you everyone for your participation, contribution and support during this year.

Also we would like to acknowledge  and thank our wonderful parents of the committee for all their voluntary hard work and fundraising this year.  It is very much appreciated by us all.

 

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a safe, relaxing and happy New Year!

We look forward to seeing you all in 2014