Dear Parents of Pohutukawa Kindergarten Glendowie.
A very warm welcome to Hugo, Tautahi, Sofia, Ted, Logan and their Whānau joining our Pohutukawa Kindergarten community this term.
Staff news
- A huge CONGRATULATIONS to Alyse for graduating and is now a registered ECE teacher. We are so proud of you!
- Natasha’s last day before going on maternity leave will be the 26th
- Emi is coming back after 2years of maternity leave and bringing the gorgeous Mina. She will be starting on Monday 29th
- Roslyn (who has been teaching at Ellerslie) will be joining the Glendowie team later in the term.
Kia Ora everyone, My name is Emi. As some of you know, I have been on maternity leave since November 2020 and I am really excited to inform you that I am getting back to work with you soon. My first day back in kindy will be on August 29. Thank all of you for having me back into your community and I am looking forward to seeing/meeting you all there. Warm regards, Emi
Te Whāriki (Early Childhood Curriculum)
Te Whāriki is our basis for Early Education and what we as a team and Kindergarten refer to in all that we do. Each newsletter we will share one of the 5 ‘strands’ with you.
Communication: Children will experience an environment where the language and symbols of children’s own and other cultures are promoted and protected. This is through learning opportunities for verbal and non-verbal skills, understanding oral language, experiencing stories and symbols in their own and other cultures, and discovering different ways to be creative and expressive using a wide range of materials and modes.
Winter Season
With these cold snaps we have been having and wet weather, please remember to pack extra warm clothing for your child, a jacket when needed and gumboots. We continue to run an indoor/outdoor programme through all months of the year as we feel passionate about learning in our outdoor space and connecting with nature, whatever that brings. We do encourage our tamariki to wear a jacket for outside play.
Winter bugs
We have really appreciated all the communication you have provided when your child has been sick and keeping them home for them to get better and help keep our Kaiako and tamariki at Kindy well too.
Children’s sign in and out
After covid, we are aware that it is a bit hard to get back into routine to sign your child in and out. Please make sure that you are doing this as it is a requirement from the Ministry and it is our safety list if we need to do a drill.
Kai times
We have a couple of children with severe peanut allergies. Please be mindful what your child has in their lunch box as we are a nut-free Kindy.
We’d also like to remind you of the Ministry’s food regulations in relation to reducing food-choking in ECE. Each parent has been provided with the Ministry’s booklet. If you would like another, please let us know. Some high-risk food they recommend to exclude are: whole nuts, large seed e.g. pumpkin, hard or chewy sweets or lollies, crisps, chippies and corn chips. Hard rice crackers, dried fruit, sausages, saveloys and cheerios, popcorn and marshmallows.
Reflection on Term 2
We were very excited to be back in orange and seeing you all come indoors to drop off and pick up your children. We brought back our baking day on Wednesday afternoons which was a weekly highlight. In our last newsletter we mentioned ‘Collaboration’ (a strand from our curriculum Te Whāriki). We’ve seen such lovely tukana-teina relationships between our older and younger tamariki, our older ones looking after our younger children, and we also observed and documented some great group play and problem solving projects between all our tamariki of various ages. We had a focus on Mathematics for our afternoon programme and had so much lovely feedback from our parents about what their children have been telling them what they had been learning at home. We are so pleased at how engaged and involved our Puāwai tamariki have been in their participation and in their own learning growth. We’ve had some great fun days such as our wheels days, pyjama days, and our disco and have more planned for this coming term!
Kindy is growing!!
With our numbers growing, we are now at the stage where we are going to split our tamariki into the Huero Room (seedling) and Puāwai room (blossom). This has already started by where your child is putting their bags in the morning. (Puāwai children hooks are now outside in the covered deck area).
This term we will be implementing separate mat-times and kai times as well! During the morning and after morning tea, each play space will be available to all children as per normal.
Dates/Events – (Term 3: 25th July – 30th September)
- Literacy info night(Date to be confirmed)
- Wacky Wednesday – 17th August
- Topsy Turvy – 18th August
- Natasha’s maternity farewell, morning tea -26th August
- Mum’s night – 23rd September
Playball stars
Playball will run on Tuesday afternoons at 2:30-3:15pm as an after kindy opportunity. You can look on the website www.playball.co.nz or ask Sarah for more information.
Sarah – Incredible Years Review
Sarah was able to attend The Incredible years evidence-based program for teachers over the last 5months. The objective is to help support, minimise and prevent young children’s behaviour problems and promote their social, emotional, and academic competence. This programme focuses on positive relationships being the foundation, then using proactive teaching strategies such as Social Coaching, Selective Ignoring, Non-Verbal Cues, Academic Coaching, Emotional Coaching, Proximal Praise, Positive Forecasting, Compliments, Incentives, When …… then ……, Attention, Praise and Encouragement. “Every behaviour is a child communicating!” therefore understanding the ‘why’ through the relationships is important in supporting each individual child.
If you would like to discuss this more or have some information, please feel free to catch up with Sarah.
We look forward to what Term 3 has in store for us and our tamariki!
The Pohutukawa Glendowie team.
