grace kindergarten

22 September 2017

 Dear parents and whanau

What a fun term it has been with the disco being such a success. It was lovely connecting with the families and we made $694.80 towards some additional outdoor equipment. Thank you to Gejo for the Bollywood dance training, Michael Machin for being our MC and all of the parents who volunteered their time selling items and contributing to the setup, cleanup etc.

Mrs McGee will be absent for the last week of term and for the first two weeks of term 4 due to an overseas holiday, Pansy Wee will take over her role during this time. We have our popular and regular reliever, Esther van der Voorn, relieving for us so will still have the consistency of teachers that the children are familiar with.

This week the Older Tamariki session had a wonderful trip to the Marine Education Centre and aquarium at Island bay. The children so enjoyed being able to touch a variety of starfish and sea creatures plus were able to climb the ladder to feed the fish.

We will be having Ngaio Primary entertaining the Older Tamariki Session with Kapa Haka, Chorale and Band items on Thursday 21^st September.

Next week we will be having a ‘Fancy Dress-up day’ so please dress up as anything fancy. We will also be having a fancy morning tea with icecream parfaits.

The Young Tamariki Session will have their dress-up day on Wed 27th September and the Older Tamariki Session on Thursday 28^th September.

Please welcome the following new families to join our Grace Kindy family.

A big Grace welcome to the Abraham family, the Bergstrom family, another child from the Hearn family, the Manswell family, the Ng family and another child from the Machin family.

Health and Safety

We have become aware some of our neighbouring schools have reported concerns about people acting suspiciously.  School children have reported different instances where unknown adults have approached them.  We wanted to remind our families to take care during the holidays and please consider this when letting children move about within our neighbourhoods.

Lastly we wanted to remind you that use of the church driveway is not permitted to either drop off or pick up children.  Our driveway is very narrow and steep making it incredibly difficult to see little people.  Thank you for your co-operation in this matter.

Programme

For the Older Tamariki Session we celebrated Tongan Language week with some lovely interesting phrases and artifacts supplied by the Finau family.

We have also woven into our programme some additional Te Reo during the Mãori Language week and have been concentrating on the children learning phrases such as ‘ Kei te pēhea koe?‘ (How are you?) and ‘Kei hea to tina?‘ (Where is your lunchbox?).

Parent Help

A reminder to please put your name on our parent help roster. This is a great opportunity to connect with your child and their friends whilst providing much appreciated help for the session.

We are requiring each family of the Younger Tamariki Session to put their name down to two parent helps each.

Also for the families of the Older Tamariki Session to put their names down for three parent helps each.

 Teacher Goals/Reviews and Professional Development

If you would like to view Miss Goodman’s recently published research into ‘Children’s Engagement with Their Learning Using E-portfolios’ please go to http://www.pecerajournal.com

Praying for you

Each week the teachers pray for your children. If you have a specific prayer need for your child or for your family please pop into our prayer container (on the sign in table) or speak to one of the teachers. Alternatively feel free to send us an email.

We will happily include that in our weekly prayer time.

Lunchboxes

Please label your child’s drink bottle and their lunchboxes. A sharpie can be used from the teachers’ office.

Please make sure there are no products containing nuts in your child’s lunch. This includes no peanut butter sandwiches and muesli bars containing nuts.

Winter Clothing

This continues to be a very changeable time of the year, so please remember to make sure that your child has access to a warm sweatshirt or jacket for outside play, if it isn’t raining.

Waiting List

Please grab some flyers, from our sign-in table, if you know of friends and family who might be interested in joining the Grace Kindy family.

May God bless you and your children.

Kind Regards from the

Grace Kindergarten Teachers

The Term Dates for this year are as follow:

Please check out and ‘like’ our facebook page (you don’t need to be a member to see it). It contains all of our updates, plus if you like or follow it you can receive updates to your newsfeeds.

7th August 2017

Dear parents and whanau

Welcome back to term 3. The children have been so settled after the school holidays and we are all looking forward to an exciting term ahead. Please mark in your diary Friday the 1^st of September, as this is our most enjoyed kindergarten fundraising disco. This will be held here at kindy from 5.30pm to 7pm complete with moving disco lights.

There will be a variety of food available to purchase, as well as glo sticks, stickers etc.

Please look out for a parent help list, which we will display over the next 2 weeks.

Please welcome the following new families to join our Grace Kindy family.

A big Grace welcome to the Blair family, the Lu family, the Mayo family, the Neill family, the Tse family and the Dycus family.

Health and Safety

Please remember to place any medication, such as inhalers and creams into the office. We have laminated reminder signs which can go onto coat hooks to remind the caregiver or parent to collect if necessary.

Programme

For both Sessions we have been looking at our culture.

This theme has been very successful, with the teachers producing a board with their own cultures. We also personally emailed out an invitation to our Older Session families regarding their child reporting about a special family tradition. The children just loved introducing themselves and all have learnt a new word – ‘culture’.

We also had a Cultural dress-up day for both sessions, with the Older Session children making Mãori fry bread.

The Older Session children went to the Nairnville Park Recreation Centre, where they all were involved in an extension gymnastics programme. This was fantastic.

Parent Help

A reminder to please put your name on our parent help roster. This is a great opportunity to connect with your child and their friends whilst providing much appreciated help for the session.

We are requiring each family of the Younger Tamariki Session to put their name down to two parent helps each.

Also for the families of the Older Tamariki Session to put their names down for three parent helps each.

FUNDRAISING COMMITTEE

We have Rachel Machin who has kindly volunteered to restart our fundraising committee.

She would love to have some other parents join her in sharing their fundraising ideas.

 Teacher Goals/Reviews and Professional Development

Mrs Wee has recently attended professional development on the topic of Team Building.

Mrs McGee will be attending a Supervisors Network meeting who are having a guest speaker from the Education Council.

Miss Goodman has had her research into ‘Children’s engagement with on line portfolios’ accepted for publication in the Asia – Pacific Journal of Research in Early Childhood Education for their September edition.

Our ‘Transition to School’ is currently being reviewed by the teachers. Please see the information folder on the sign-in table which contains information about our local schools.

Praying for you

Each week the teachers pray for your children. If you have a specific prayer need for your child or for your family please pop into our prayer container (on the sign in table) or speak to one of the teachers. Alternatively feel free to send us an email.

We will happily include that in our weekly prayer time.

Lunchboxes

Please label your child’s drink bottle and their lunchboxes. A sharpie can be used from the teachers’ office.

Please make sure there are no products containing nuts in your child’s lunch. This includes no peanut butter sandwiches and muesli bars containing nuts.

Winter Clothing

This continues to be a very changeable time of the year, so please remember to make sure that your child has access to a warm sweatshirt or jacket for outside play, if it isn’t raining.

Waiting List

Please grab some flyers, from our sign-in table, if you know of friends and family who might be interested in joining the Grace Kindy family.

May God bless you and your children.

Kind Regards from the

Grace Kindergarten Teachers

The Term Dates for this year are as follow:

Please check out and ‘like’ our facebook page (you don’t need to be a member to see it). It contains all of our updates, plus if you like or follow it you can receive updates to your newsfeeds.

9^th June 2017

 Dear parents and whanau

It’s been another wonderful term, with lots of enthusiastic children singing at the tile and mural opening.  The tiles really do look wonderful on the building and what a great full page photo of our kindy in the local paper, the Independent Herald.

Our Annual Information Evening is being held here at Grace Kindy at 7.30pm on Tuesday 13^th June.

We look forward to seeing you there and having your feedback about our Educational Curriculum which contains Grace Kindy’s Christian philosophy. Supper will be provided.

Please welcome the following new families to join our Grace Kindy family.

A big Grace welcome to the Finau family, the Lukin family, and a sibling from the Rees-Thomas family.

Health and Safety

The repairs to the drainage at the front of the building continue to take time.  OCC is working closely with the Council to ensure forward progress is steadily made.  We ask that you continue to take care when entering and exiting the building.  Please be careful of the uneven surfaces and children need to be closely monitored as you navigate through this area.

Programme

For both Sessions we have been looking at sign language and have learnt lots of new ways of signing for a variety of things, such as ‘rabbit’, ‘lion’, ‘Happy Birthday’ etc.

With our Older session we have looked at friendships, how to make friends and ways of contributing to a group. The teachers have acted out a variety of skits to demonstrate. We have also had discussions with the children about how Jesus taught us the importance of including people and showing love.

Maths concepts for the Older Session continues, last week we looked at predicting and forming theories, volume, pattern and shapes

The Older session children are also about to look at the topic of culture and each individual family’s culture. Please look out for your child’s cultural invitation which will be emailed out to you later in the week, along with some ideas of what your child could bring in.

Please see our blue learning snapshot board for some examples of learning during term 2.

Parent Help

A reminder to please put your name on our parent help roster. This is a great opportunity to connect with your child and their friends whilst providing much appreciated help for the session.

We are requiring each family of the Younger Tamariki Session to put their name down to two parent helps each.

Also for the families of the Older Tamariki Session to put their names down for three parent helps each.

FUNDRAISING COMMITTEE

Is there a parent who would please help us with ‘Scholastic Book orders’. This is a great way of fundraising books for our kindy.

We would love to form a fundraising committee, who would help plan for fundraising events during the year. Please see one of the teachers if you are interested.

 Teacher Goals/Reviews and Professional Development

Mrs Wee has recently attended professional development on the topic of ‘cultures within NZ’.

Mrs McGee will be attending A Supervisors network meeting.

Miss Goodman will be attending a workshop regarding ‘challenging behaviours in children’.

Praying for you

Each week the teachers pray for your children. If you have a specific prayer need for your child or for your family please pop into our prayer container (on the sign in table) or speak to one of the teachers. Alternatively feel free to send us an email.

We will happily include that in our weekly prayer time.

Lunchboxes

Please label your child’s drink bottle and their lunchboxes. A sharpie can be used from the teachers’ office.

Please make sure there are no products containing nuts in your child’s lunch. This includes no peanut butter sandwiches and muesli bars containing nuts.

Winter Clothing

This has been a very changeable time of the year, so please remember to make sure that your child has access to a warm sweatshirt or jacket for outside play, if it isn’t raining.

Waiting List

Please grab some flyers, from our sign-in table, if you know of friends and family who might be interested in joining the Grace Kindy family.

May God bless you and your children.

Kind Regards from the

Grace Kindergarten Teachers

The Term Dates for this year are as follow:

Please check out and ‘like’ our facebook page (you don’t need to be a member to see it). It contains all of our updates, plus if you like or follow it you can

8^th February 2017

 Dear parents and whanau

It has been a fantastic start to 2017 here at Grace kindy. All of the new children who started with us have settled in so well and are enjoying exploring the variety of activities we provide and new friendships.

Mrs Wee (Pansy) will be back with us on Monday. In the meantime, we have had our wonderful reliever Esther who is very familiar with our children and the programme we are running.

At present our rolls are full, however if you know of a family who would like to go on our waiting list we would suggest that they fill in a waiting list form as soon as possible to avoid any disappointment.

We would like to give a big thank you to Charlotte, Helen, Meg and Jillian who have supported the children and their families to decorate their tile previously purchased from our tile fundraiser. We are looking forward to these wonderful creations being put on display.

Please welcome the following new families to join our Grace Kindy family.

A big Grace welcome to the Cole family, the Craig family, the Gejo family, the Lucas family, the MacLeod family and a sibling from the Musson family.

Programme

For both Sessions we are currently looking at the theme of ‘Shapes’ in the environment and shapes we can form. Such as koru designs, math’s concepts, letters and numbers and our bodies being made up of shapes.

We have also been focusing on the Maori culture (Waitangi Day), with the children enthusiastically participating in activities such as, using rakau sticks to a variety of waiata, flax weaving and cultural stories. Also participating in discussions about how God loves different cultures and the creativity that comes with each cultural celebration.

We have been doing baking in the form of making Maori bread and fry bread.

If you have some ideas for Maori based activities or have a contact who is involved in kapa haka etc (this could be your own older child) we would love to hear from you about ways we can provide our children with Maori cultural experiences.

Please see our blue learning snapshot board and information boards, at the side of the sign-in table for examples of the children’s leaning.

Parent Help

A reminder to please put your name on our parent help roster. This is a great opportunity to connect with your child and their friends whilst providing much appreciated help for the session.

We are requiring each family of the Younger Tamariki Session to put their name down to two parent helps each.

Also for the families of the Older Tamariki Session to put their names down for three parent helps each.

FUNDRAISING COMMITTEE

We would love to form a fundraising committee, who would help plan for fundraising events during the year. Please see one of the teachers if you are interested.

Entertainment books and Scholastic Book orders. Is there two people who would be willing to do the orders for these fundraising opportunities.

Health and Safety

We have quite a dangerous intersection, if wanting to turn right, at the end of our street (Khandallah rd/Ngatoto st). As there are regularly near misses at this blind corner we advise you to turn right into Khandallah rd from another street.

FOR THE SAFETY OF ALL CHILDREN

Please ensure that all kindergarten children are kept out of the kitchen.

Please help to ensure that the main door into kindy is shut at all times.

Please report to the Head Teacher any damaged building or equipment noticed.

Please keep walk ways clear of blocks/toys etc (to bathroom, to outside door, around red construction table and around the children’s bags).

Teacher Goals/Reviews and Professional Development

The teachers will be reviewing the following this year:

*Areas of play to extend children’s thinking and creativity (art, blocks, science).

*Continuing with our profile book communication review.

*Ways of encouraging the whanau of Maori children, as well as our community, to contribute to our bi-cultural curriculum.

Praying for you

Each week the teachers pray for your children. If you have a specific prayer need for your child or for your family please pop into our prayer container (on the sign in table) or speak to one of the teachers. Alternatively feel free to send us an email.

We will happily include that in our weekly prayer time.

Lunchboxes

Please label your child’s drink bottle and their lunchboxes. A sharpie can be used from the teachers’ office.

Please make sure there are no products containing nuts in your child’s lunch. This includes no peanut butter sandwiches and muesli bars containing nuts.

Summer Clothing

This has been a very changeable time of the year, so please remember to make sure that your child has access to a warm sweatshirt or jacket for outside play, if it isn’t raining.

Please apply sunblock to your child before the start of the session, we have sunblock available on the sign-in table. We will reapply sunblock to the Older Tamariki children early on the afternoon.

A sunhat will be required for outdoor play during term 1.

Please note that we have a selection of Grace Kindergarten’s sunhats and tee-shirts available for purchase.

Waiting List

Please grab some flyers, from our sign-in table, if you know of friends and family who might be interested in joining the Grace Kindy family.

May God bless you and your children.

Kind Regards from the

Grace Kindergarten Teachers

The Term Dates for this year are as follow:

Please check out and ‘like’ our facebook page (you don’t need to be a member to see it). It contains all of our updates, plus if you like or follow it you can receive updates to your newsfeeds.

22 November 2016

Dear parents and whanau

We are having such a fun term with lots of excited children, busy practicing for the upcoming Christmas Show on Friday 2^nd December at 6pm (THIS FRIDAY). They have also enthusiastically been making wonderful stars and Angel props to decorate the hall.

We have booked in a puppet show for the 8^th December at 12.30pm.

This will be held during the Older Tamariki Session.

We have decided this year to also open this up for the families of our Younger Session. Children from this Younger Session will need to have a parent with them however.

The cost is $5 per child.

Kindergarten Morning tea.  Thank you to Helen and Merridith who kindly hosted a successful parent’s morning tea.

We would like to give an enormous thanks to Mel and Sam Lienert, who supported us at the disco and provided the fantastic lighting from their company, Prolight.

Please welcome the following new families to join our Grace Kindy family.     A big Grace welcome to the Edwards family and the Leah family.

Our Programme

The children have enjoyed looking at the theme of ‘Growing’. This includes the fruit of the spirit and exploring the physical world around us.

Within this topic we have now also included earthquakes. Revisiting what we do if there is an earthquake, exploring with blocks what happens in an earthquake and empowering the children through being able to pray. We, as a teaching team, feel so blessed with the children’s prayers of thanks and also that they chose to pray for people who are feeling scared or who have been hurt.

Christmas is such a wonderful highlight and a time of celebration, with lots of our very enthusiastic children joining the teachers to retell the Christmas nativity story in a variety of ways. Such as acting it out, providing their ideas of the nativity story and revisiting some of the amazing miracles Jesus did as a man.

We have also been explaining what some of the words in the Christmas songs mean in… ‘away in a manager’, what a ‘one horse open sleigh’ and ‘bells on bob tails ring’ looks like.

TILE FUNDRAISER

Thank you Charlotte and Meg for the tile fundraiser. The tiles are amazing and will be your chance at having your child’s name on their own special tile being displayed on the fence. Please see the signup sheet on the sign in desk.

Teacher Goals/Reviews and Professional Development

Pip McGee attended a Professional network meeting and Pansy Wee attended a Teachers meeting this week. This helps us to connect and discuss relevant topics with other teachers from around the Wellington region.

Praying for you

Each week the teachers pray for your children. If you have a specific prayer need for your child or for your family please pop into our prayer container (on the sign in table) or speak to one of the teachers. Alternatively feel free to send us an email.
We will happily include that in our weekly prayer time.

Summer Clothing

We are worried about children getting sunburnt shoulders outside when wearing singlets or sleeveless dresses. We would like to encourage parents to ensure that their children are wearing t-shirts that cover shoulders, including under dresses.

We would also like your feedback on whether we should make this part of our SunSmart policy,

Sunhats are required for outdoor play during term 4.
Please note that we have a selection of Grace Kindergarten’s sunhats and tee-shirts available for purchase.

As this is still a very changeable time of the year please remember to make sure that your child still has access to a warm sweatshirt or jacket for outside play.

Parent Help
A reminder to please put your name on our parent help roster. This is a great opportunity to connect with your child and their friends whilst providing much appreciated help for the session.

Waiting List

Please make sure that all siblings who are going to attend our kindergarten over the next year are put onto our waiting list.

We have a possible vacancy towards the end of term 1 2017 in our Younger Tamariki Session. Please grab some flyers, from our sign-in table, if you know of friends and family who might be interested in joining the Grace Kindy family or visiting us.

May God bless you and comfort any fear you or your children may be feeling regarding the earthquakes and flooding over the recent weeks.

Kind Regards from the
Grace Kindergarten Teachers

Reminder

The last day for the end of term for the Older Tamariki Session is Thursday 15^th December.

The last day for the end of this term for the Younger Tamariki Session is Friday 16^th December.  

The Term Dates for 2017 are as follow:

Please check out and ‘like’ our facebook page (you don’t need to be a member to see it). It contains all of our updates, plus if you like or follow it you can receive updates to your newsfeeds.

8th July 2016

Dear parents and whanau

We are so very happy to be enjoying the lovely new entrance into our kindy and the done up walkway/hall that we can use for a variety of wet day activities.

Thank you to the wonderful kindergarten parents who helped us to achieve this through our working bee etc.

What a wonderful celebration day we had with the kindergarten children, who sang so proudly to their parents and the visitors to our kindy and the OCC church.

Parent’s morning tea

You are invited to drop in for a cuppa on

Tuesday 2nd August between 9am and 10am in the church hall.

Tea, coffee and a little baking will be provided (please feel free to bring a sweet treat to share if you would like to).

We would like to welcome the following new family to join our Grace Kindy family.

A big Grace welcome to the Macdonald family.

Programme

We have been looking at the ‘Matariki’ constellation, planets and space. We also have had a focus on Māori stories, waiata and learning some additional Te Reo to incorporate the Māori Language week theme.

Our Christian theme has been ‘God the creator’ connecting this with Matariki and how God has made us different which pleases him but that the love we show from within is what he loves to see (what makes us beautiful to God).

We have had a PJ day for both sessions, this includes the Older Tamariki Children making a fresh fruit salad. We turned the ‘sharing room’ into a little observatory so we could view our paper machē planets with torches. Space sounds including a countdown to blast off were also used to create a wonderful atmosphere.

The Older Tamariki Sessions’ bus trip to the aquarium, at the Marine Education Centre, was fantastic. The children just loved being able to hold the starfish etc.

The Younger Tamariki Session will be incorporating an ‘extension group’ for the five oldest children from next term. The outcomes we aim to achieve are, developing concentration, gaining additional confidence in sharing ideas and listening to each other’s ideas, basic literacy and, at times, further extending their fine motor skills. These are skills that we are also developing with the children currently in our Older Tamariki Session.

Entertainment Books

Entertainment books are still available for purchase. Please see one of the kindergarten teachers re purchasing options.

Teacher Goals/Reviews and Professional Development

Nicola Goodman will be speaking at the ECNZ conference in Hamilton regarding her research paper into ‘children’s engagement with their learning using online portfolios.

Praying for you

Each week the teachers pray for your children. If you have a specific prayer need for your child or for your family please pop into our prayer container (on the sign in table) or speak to one of the teachers. Alternatively feel free to send us an email.

We will happily include that in our weekly prayer time.

Winter Clothing

Please remember to make sure that your child has access to a warm sweatshirt or jacket for outside play, if it isn’t raining.

Parent Help

A reminder to please put your name on our parent help roster. This is a great opportunity to connect with your child and their friends whilst providing much appreciated help for the session.

Waiting List

We have an available spot for our Younger Tamariki session at present.

Please grab some flyers, from our sign-in table, if you know of friends and family who might be interested in joining the Grace Kindy family.

Help Needed

Is there someone in your family that would be willing to help us with some small maintenance jobs? We are needing some shelves installed in a small cupboard for our puzzles and board games.

May God bless you all in the coming weeks ahead.

Kind Regards from the

Grace Kindergarten Teachers

The Term Dates for this year are as follow:

Please check out and ‘like’ our facebook page (you don’t need to be a member to see it). It contains all of our updates, plus if you like or follow it you can receive updates to your newsfeeds.

25^th May 2016

Dear parents and whanau

What a fun and busy term we are having. There have been lots of finishing work being done to our kindy foyer and all looks to be on target for the Kindy and Church Open day celebrating the new church facility, on Saturday 11^th June starting at 1pm.

The kindy will be open in a reduced capacity for all our visitors to check out what we do, and there will be some other activities for the children in addition to this. The official ceremony begins at 2pm and our kindy children are very excited to be involved in this by singing ‘God made the earth, God made the sky…’

Justin Lester will be officially opening the facility followed by afternoon tea being served at 2.45pm providing an extra opportunity to mix and mingle.

Parent help spots not yet filled in for the term. A reminder that parents are required for two parent help duties per term for the Younger Tamariki Session and two to three 3 duties per term for the Older Tamariki Session.

Road works and parking

On Monday it is forecast for the replacement of the water mains in Ngatoto St to reach outside our kindergarten. Potentially this will mean very limited parking outside on the road.

During the peak drop off, 8.30am to 9am, the teachers will endeavor to provide a drop-off for parents who are wishing to sign the children in at our main doorway, and have the teachers take their child into kindy for them. After 9.15am you can park for 5min, down the driveway, while you enter the kindergarten to drop-off or pick up your child.

If you would like to spend more than 5 minutes in our kindergarten during this time you will need to park up on the road.

Please note the parking of cars down our driveway will only be temporary due to the roadworks.

Working Bee

Our Kindergarten working bee will be held this Sunday at 12.30pm

Thank you Pete Rhodes-Robinson who has spent most nights painting our kindergarten entrance hall, including doors.

Thank you also to Mark Williams, Matt Wet, Simon Gill, Hamish Mowat, Rhys Musson and James Rees-Thomas who heightened our playground fence.

Programme

We are having a focus, for both of the sessions, on ‘Children gaining the ability to be creative and expressive’. Through this theme the children have been actively learning sign language, exploring acting out stories, using props to make up their own stories. Plus drawing their own illustrations to express their ideas.

Please check the Blue Learning snapshot board for some of the older children’s responses to our planning. Please also check out the notice board (by the kitchen door) for examples of how we encourage our younger children to learn with and alongside others.

Entertainment Books

Entertainment books are still available for purchase. Please see one of the kindergarten teachers re purchasing options.

Teacher Goals/Reviews and Professional Development

Mrs McGee attended a Health and Safety Course plus a Supervisors Network meeting.

Did You Know?

That the average children’s yogurt contains almost 5 teaspoons of sugar (19 grams)

Praying for you

Each week the teachers pray for your children? If you have a specific prayer need for your child or for your family please speak to one of the teachers or send us an email.

We will happily include that in our weekly prayer time.

Winter Clothing

Please remember to make sure that your child has access to a warm sweatshirt or jacket for outside play, if it isn’t raining.

Parent Help

A reminder to please put your name on our parent help roster. This is a great opportunity to connect with your child and their friends whilst providing much appreciated help for the session.

Waiting List

We have an available spot for our Younger Tamariki session at present.

Please grab some flyers, from our sign-in table, if you know of friends and family who might be interested in joining the Grace Kindy family.

Help Needed

Is there someone in your family that would be willing to help us with some small maintenance jobs? We are needing some shelves and brackets to be installed in our new shed. We also would like some shelves installed in a small cupboard for our puzzles and board games.

May God bless you all in the coming weeks ahead.

Kind regards from the

Grace Kindergarten Teachers

The Term Dates for this year are as follow:

Please check out and ‘like’ our facebook page (you don’t need to be a member to see it). It contains all of our updates, plus if you like or follow it you can receive updates to your newsfeeds.

24^th March 2016

Dear parents and whanau

We would like to wish all of our families a wonderful Easter holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. Here at Grace kindy we have had lots of excited children making gifts to take home and doingart for our walls regarding Easter. The ‘Older Tamariki’ have created a ‘Jesus’ literacy dice and the ‘Younger Tamariki’ have painted a cross canvas.

Please welcome the following new families to join our Grace Kindy family. A big Grace welcome to Aliza Fearnley (mum Tori and dad Andrew) and Arden Monk (mum Jamie and dad David)

Programme

Our major area of interest, for both of the sessions, has been observing our cocoon which produced a lovely Monarch butterfly. We then had the arrival of a second caterpillar.

This time the Older Tamariki session were actually able to witness the caterpillar turning into a cocoon and the dumping of the outer caterpillar skin. A process that only took ten minutes!

We also had a focus on Fiji, with the children being able to view and explore an area especially set up. Thank you to Samuel’s family who brought in some beautiful weaving done by his grandmother. Also to Joel’s mum who organised a box of supplies for a Fijian kindergarten.

While praying for Fiji, the children had some wonderful ideas on what we could pray for God to help with… such as stopping the winds, getting the people to make houses out of bricks, helping people to be able to help the sick and to help people not to feel so scared.

The Older Tamariki went on a walking trip to Nairnville park a few weeks ago. We all had fun doing a variety of running and ball games, followed by playing at the main children’s playground.

Entertainment Books

Please look out, over the next few weeks, for information we will be sending out to you regarding the Entertainment book fundraiser

Teacher Goals/Reviews and Professional Development

Mrs Wee attended a Teachers Network meeting.

During the school holidays the teachers will be reviewing how we incorporate the cultures of our families into our curriculum and planning. This review will also include our Christian culture.

Praying for you

Did you know that each week the teachers pray for your children? If you have a specific prayer need for your child or for your family please speak to one of the teachers or send us an email.

We will happily include that in our weekly prayer time.

Sun Safety

Please remember to bring your child’s sunhat to kindy, also to apply sunblock to your child before their arrival. However if you have forgotten you are welcome to use the kindy sunblock which is on the sign-in table.

Please note that the children will have sunblock reapplied to them by the teachers at 1pm. Please let the teachers know if your child has an allergy to sunblock or if you would rather supply your own sunblock for the afternoon.

Parent Help

A reminder to please put your name on our parent help roster. This is a great opportunity to connect with your child and their friends whilst providing much appreciated help for the session.

Waiting List

We will have a couple of spots available for our Younger Tamariki session, during the later part of the year. Please grab some flyers if you know of friends and family who might be interested in joining the Grace Kindy family.

Help Needed

Is there someone in your family that would be willing to help us with some small maintenance jobs? We are needing some shelves and brackets to be installed in our new shed. We also would like some shelves installed in a small cupboard for our puzzles and board games.

The Term Dates for this year are as follow:

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