28th May 2015
Dear parents and whanau
There is a lot of excitement again with the children, from both of the sessions, now that the new church hall construction is well under way. We are encouraging the children to express their ideas, describe and predict what will happen next with lots of problem solving questions.
With this regained interest in building, our older children have been busy drawing up and labeling their own building plans. Their fantastic outdoor and indoor house plans will soon be displayed for parents to view.
We would like to welcome the following new families to join our Grace Kindy family. A big Grace welcome to Sofia (mum Amy and dad Oliver), Maliha (mum Amy and dad Daniel) and Huntley (mum Suzanne and dad Steve)).
This week is ‘Samoan Language Week’ so we are taking this great opportunity to engage the children with the Samoan culture through a discovery area set up, through songs, stories and with our older children making coconut buns to share with the younger session. A special thanks to Opeta and Noga who have helped the teachers in learning some new songs and a Samoan Grace. Also to Splendira who has shared some Samoan items, including a precious Fale Samoa (traditional model of a house).
We are currently encouraging early literacy by engaging the children to act out stories and through storytelling. They have been enjoying learning new ways of using creativity and literacy for a purpose, such as writing words and making Mother’s day cards.
Our Christian theme this term for both sessions is ‘Serving like Jesus’. We have also had the older Tamariki session children involved in making ‘prayer and praise’ rocks for making up the building foundation of the new church hall. The teachers recently attended a professional development day on additional ways of implementing our Christian culture in creative ways.
Grace Kindergarten Annual Update
Please join us for dessert and an update about Grace kindergarten. The proposed layout of our enlarged playground will also be presented for discussion.
Parent Help
The start time for parent help for the later part of the Younger Tamariki Session is now 11.00am.
Artistic parent wanted for mural
We are currently thinking about adding a mural to our new playground, once extended. If you are able to help us with this we would really appreciate your assistance. Please see one of the teachers.
Waiting List
We will have a couple of spots available for our Younger Tamariki session, during the middle of the year. Please grab some flyers if you know of friends and family who might be interested in joining the Grace Kindy family.
Entertainment Books
Please support our kindergarten’s fundraising efforts for our new playground by purchasing and encouraging friends to purchase an entertainment book.
Help Needed
We are looking for someone to kindly volunteer to sand and paint the legs of our water play troughs. Paint and sandpaper will be supplied.
Any donations of tissues are greatly appreciated, especially with the chilly mornings now approaching.
The Term Dates for this year are as follow:
| Term | Start | End |
| One | Monday 26th January | Thursday 2nd April |
| Two | Monday 20th April | Friday 3rd July |
| Three | Monday 20th July | Friday 25th September |
| Four | Monday 12th October | TBC |
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