We also welcome Shayni (Jizzy’s daughter) who will be with us on Wednesdays as part of the student Gateway program.  For 2 hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays we are also privileged to have Palemia and Louna volunteer to teach the children Tongan songs, read stories and play games with them.  

What’s going on at the Corner???

Listening to the teachers discuss their holiday adventures we realised how many connections and same places we went to.  We thought it would be great to create a Holiday display wall so we all could find out more about what every family did in the holidays.  It is amazing listening to your children’s holiday stories and relating to where they have been, so PLEASE add to our wall anyway you like.   We will be giving our sheets to help inspire you.
It’s hot, I’m sure you’re all noticed, we have been doing lots of water play including our well loved waterside into a little pool of water.  Please pack your child’s togs/swimmers so our wet clothes are limited.
Once again we will be having our summer Whanau Gathering on Friday 19 February from 5 – 6.30pm.  It is a wonderful relaxed occasion to eat and socialise together with all our children and their families.   We will provide barbecued sausages and ask if you could all bring a plate to share.

This year we are continuing our successful Parent Dinners, one each term, as it provides an opportunity for new parents to meet others, others a night of adult conversations and for us teachers to discover more about your family. The dinner will be on Friday 26 March, with the restaurant still to be confirmed.  We have a list of suitable babysitters if you need one.
After talking with a couple of our parents  about movies we wondered if there is interest in our Pukeko community for a Film Club.  The idea so far is to pick a movie new release or classic and put it on our big screen.  With a few nibbles and bringing your own chairs or beanbags it’s a cheap social night out. What do you think???

February is Bikewise Month so we thought we should have two Bike Days on Wednesday 24th and Thursday 25st February for the children to ride their bikes or vehicles around our kindy carpark.  We did this a couple of years ago and it was lots of fun. Grandpa Gary was our policeman, checking the safety of each bike and child.  

So far the children’s interests have included their holiday adventures, and a fascination with insects and bugs as well as our tadpoles as they slowly change into frogs.  Thank you Axel and his family for looking after them over the holidays.  Our new dress-ups have created lots of mermaid and butterfly play and lots of experimenting in the art area.

Have you seen our garden recently, after all the hard work of planting and looking after  mother nature is looking after us.  Many morning teas menus have
included tomatoes of different variety, cucumbers, beans, carrots, sugar snap peas and strawberries.
Thanks for those who diligently filled out our Parent Survey late last year. Unfortunately we only received 9 out of our 36 families.  We will be putting out some more copies soon.
Quite a few of the children’s Profile Books are still at home, please can you bring them back so we can put in more stories. Thanks!
On the 17th of Feb we will be Re-licensed by the Ministry of Education.  This is a new procedure, helping to keep Early Childhood Centres accountable to the Early Childhood new regulations put out in 2008.  There is a copy of the regulations on the Parent Library book shelf beside the double doors. PS if you haven’t shown us your child’s immunisation records and if your child has turned 4 please bring asap as MOE will be looking at those records.
We are planning a Teachers Only Day on Tuesday the 6th April (day after Easter) to review our policies.  They too are on the book shelf if you would like to have a read. (opps we have made a mistake and charged for that day, the money will be credited to term 2’s fees)
After the yearlong contract we did with the Educational Leadership Programme in 09, we as a team have  decided to go back and reflect this year on all the different topics we covered last year and dig a little deeper, reflecting on our teaching practices and procedures. There are day workshops we are attending and other professional development courses but we will be focusing on our research question....”How can create an environment that encourages relational learning?  We will be looking at communication, bi-culturalism, sharing culture, our community and probably a lot more.
Jemima and Fluffy  need homes to stay at in the weekend.  They adore our children but like everyone, they too need some R&R time to chill with a little bit of quiet, rest and great greens.  If you would like two very fat, and very much loved pets for a weekend then talk tot he teachers.
Sunsafe
Now that the weather is very hot we need to make sure the children are safe in the sun.  Please ensure you send your children to kindy with sunblock on in the morning. We supply a natural sunblock that the children must put on after lunch. Hats are essential, please provide a NAMED hat for use at all times.

Up and coming events
Whanau Gathering: Shared dinner at Kindy, Fri 19th 5-6.30pm
Parents Dinner:   Fri 26th March 7.30pm
Bike Days: 24th and 25th Feb
Teacher only day: Tues 6th April
Holidays:  10th to 18th April 2010

God Bless,
Cathy, Gina, Diane,Corina, Gary, Jody and Dianne.