Waffles and Bird Feeders

Last week for our Exploration Time Discovery session we made delicious waffles and delicious (for the birds) pine-cone bird feeders.

We had three waffle makers for our waffles and used this waffle recipe, it made close to 20 waffles so if you want to make less waffles try this website. We poured maple syrup or golden syrup over our waffles and the children enjoyed eating them up quickly before the syrup dripped everywhere. 

We have made these bird feeders before and the birds love them. Because we had lots of expired peanut butter donated to us the children coated their pine-cone in peanut butter before rolling it in bird seed. You can use margarine if there are concerns about nut allergies. 

 

The birds went nuts for their bird feeders and they were stripped of peanut butter and bird seed within 4 days. 

Winter Wonderland

The day before our Winter Wonderland Discovery session it snowed overnight and when we came to school in the morning the hills around Upper Hutt were covered in a white blanket of snow. Perfect timing for our session and for lots of descriptive winter writing too!

The children had a great time exploring lots of winter themed activities. I particularly loved the snowmen made out of polystyrene cups with a cupcake case hat and sorting some winter clothes into washing baskets.

Discovery...

We have Discovery every Wednesday morning. Each session involves our three new-entrant classrooms meeting together and exploring activities based around a theme. Our pre-school visitors also join us for Discovery and it provides them with a time to visit school with the support of a parent or caregiver. Our visitors are called Mountaineers, they are scaling the heights of learning.

We choose themes based on special events during the term or topics the children have expressed an interest in. There is no shortage of ideas about what we want to discover. Each session is carefully planned to provide the children with a variety of experiences. We plan art and crafts, writing and reading activities, colouring, cutting activities, counting and number activities, sensory experiences, roleplay, cooking and food experiences, and cooperative experiences.  

When the bell goes in the morning we all meet together in one classroom share our class greetings, at Totara Park School we a very lucky that our Junior classrooms are joined by folding glass doors, so on Discovery mornings we fold the doors back and have a large space for the children to explore. After the roll the teachers share some of the activities that are available and talk about the types of behaviour that we are encouraging.

During the session the children can visit any classroom and complete or participate the activities that they are interested in. We are very lucky to have extra parent help and teacher aide time during Discovery and our Mountaineers parents are encouraged to spend some time with their children which help them to feel more comfortable at school. It can be pretty scary during the first visit and having Mum, Dad, or Nana there makes it a lot easier.

After our session we tidy up together and sit back down on the mat to share about what the children have discovered and how they worked together. 

Then .... 

.... it's morning tea time!

Click on the Discovery and Mountaineers labels to find out more about what we do during Discovery, or check out the Starting School and Transition to School Book pages at the top of the blog.

Happy Matariki!

The Matariki stars start to rise at the end of May and the beginning of June, we celebrated Matariki a few days early (it traditionally begins on the the first day of the new moon following its rising - this year on the 28 June). Matariki is the traditional Maori new year, many years ago Matariki signified the end of the harvest and was a time of plenty.

We celebrated Matariki for Discovery with lots of star art  and craft, including making telescopes and making special Matariki star biscuits to eat.

We were very lucky to have a parent bring in lots of biscuits, icing, and special edible stars to feast on during our session, and the children really enjoyed icing and decorating their biscuit. 

When our Mountaineers (pre-school visitors) start Discovery with us we encourage parents or caregivers to stay to and help their children. Parental support makes a huge difference to the ease at which children  transition to school. The parents that stay for Discovery are always willing to help out and we appreciate the support they provide for their own children and others. Some of the activities we choose for Discovery can provide a challenge for some children to complete and a supportive hand from an adult to complete a tricky task is always helpful and appreciated.

Here is a short clip explaining one of the myths behind Matariki.

Christmas Craft - 3D Paper Snowflakes

Check out our amazing giant paper snowflakes. 

The children worked together and practised their wonderful cutting skills to make these. By the end of the session several children were teaching and helping their classmates fold, cut, and sellotape. (And look at my new blue shelves in the background!)

 Here is a You Tube tutorial.

Paper Snowflakes 2013

These paper snowflakes are falling in Room 4. This was a great cutting activity, and each snowflake is completely different to its neighbour. Just like real snowflakes.

We also enjoyed this snowflake cutting activity on the interactive whiteboard.

Winter Wonderland

 Our new winter wonderland grotto is waiting for those ready to brave the cold!

 We explored our new (to us) light box.

 We used tongs to sort these winter marbles and soft cotton wool balls into muffin tins.

 We cut out paper snowflakes.

 Who is hibernating under these leaves for the winter?

 We made playdough snowmen.

 One of our favourite activities was making this Season Spinner.

 We dressed paper dolls in warm winter clothes, this paper doll is wearing leather boots and winter mittens.

 We made winter decorations using milk bottle lids and plenty of glitter.

Discovery is always a highlight of my week and it was great to see the children happy and excited for our first Discovery session of term 3. We had lots of new visitors today and some of our mountaineers from last term are now big school children. I was very proud to see our J-Block children showing the pre-school mountaineers how we do things at school and helping them to discover the different experiences on offer.

Happy Matariki

 We celebrated Matariki today for our Discovery session. Matariki is a group of seven stars (the Pleiades) found in the winter sky just before dawn and signals the start of the Maori new year.

Check out my Matariki post from last year. 

We made happy matariki door hangers to hang on our doors at night.

 

We made Maori kites. Flying kites connects the land and the sky. Our kites won't be able to fly, but the children had a great time cutting flax to the correct lengths and stapling the flax onto a cardboard frame. This type of kite is our attempt at a Manu Taratahi design.

We made recycled poi from newspaper and a plastic bag. Wrap a ball of newspaper in a piece of plastic cut from a plastic bag, then tie on a piece of string.

We also watched some traditional Maori poi dances on the interactive whiteboard. This song is a classic!

We cut stars from sparkly playdough.

We stamped stars on black paper. Some children stamped just seven stars for the seven stars of Matariki, but this artist stamped a whole sky full.

 

We made tiki necklaces. This was one of the most popular activities, and they were worn all day!

Bird Feeders

Our first Mountaineers Discovery session this term was all about winter - and during winter birds can get pretty hungry. One of our Discovery activities was making bird feeders.

 The children smeared margarine all over the outside of a small pine cone and rolled it in bird seed. The bird feeders were hung outside for the birds to feast on when there are no children about. You can use peanut butter or lard for the bird seed to stick to, but we used margarine at school, that way we don't need to worry about peanut allergies.
(Another teacher in our block of classrooms came up with this great activity!)

It was great to see lots of new Mountaineers join our session (we call our pre-school visitors Mountaineers - because they are scaling the heights of learning). Part of establishing a feeling of belonging and inclusiveness at our school includes displaying each child's name and photo on our Mountaineers photo board. Today I was busy taking photos of lots of lovely new smiling faces. When our Mountaineers turn 5 and start school, their photo is moved from the visitor part of the wall to join their new teacher and classmates photos.

Snowflakes

Snowflakes

Snowflakes are our friends
They descend when winter comes
Making white blankets

By Kaitlyn Guenther

I have my fingers crossed that we will have snow at school again this year (but it seems unlikely). So we have been reading this beautiful haiku together this week to get us in the mood for winter. I love the picture my mind creates when I read this, and the children in my class were able to imagine their own mind picture. One girl talked about how her mind saw the snow covering everything, "softy and fluffy, like a blanket".  

(Click here for a pdf of the poem.)

 We made paper snowflakes today to decorate the classroom with our descriptive winter words. 

I told the class that they had to make at least one snowflake for our classroom and any others they made they could take home. Some children enjoyed cutting and unfolding their snowflakes so much, they made one for each member of their family.

The great thing about this activity is the instant result, a few cuts and you have something quite pretty (or interesting) when you unfold your paper. The children felt successful, and that is something I love to encourage!