Newsletter - October

A big welcome to Oli Brain, Nirai Tukai-Johnson, Samuel Pavletich to our Pukeko Corner Family. We farewell Megan to Pahoia School, we know she is well equipped for her journey of learning at school.

A special welcome to our world for Caleb and his family with their new baby girl Gail, and Jethro and his family with their new baby boy Milan. Both families are doing well and the older siblings have many beautiful and sometimes hilarious stories about their new babies.

Grandparents Day

We had an amazing grandparents day. The children loved to show off their grandparents and have them at the kindergarten and show them all the fantastic learning and all their friends here. The food was delicious and the atmosphere was incredible.

The first day was a little slow with many people forgetting about the day... However the next day there was an ovewhelming support of parents and grandparents. When you looked and saw grandparents on the floor doing jigsaw puzzles with the children it was a real tweak on the heart strings. Your children were so proud to be sharing their learning profile books and introducing their grandparents to their teachers. They took on the role of taking responsibility for ensuring their family members understood where they worked and on how much they did do in a kindy morning.

Grandparents Day was a wonderful idea. Thank you to all that suggested we do this in our parent survey. If you have any other ideas that we should try, let us know ans we will absoulutely give it a go.

P.S. The food was amazing!!!

Rugby at the Park

Thanks to Gordy and Shane (Paul's poppa and uncle) we enjoyed a great rugby/fitness training at Moore Park. We were all drilled and skilled in tackling bags, passing the ball, picking the ball up on the run, and discipline, (where on occasion we had to drop to the ground and do press ups because some people weren't listening).

We were treated to being able to go into the senior changing rooms to eat our morning tea, (no one is usually allowed in there until their senior year of rugby playing).

Cathy and the Bump

Cathy was told she would be induced on Tuesday 21st September. That however has been changed to Wednesday 22 September, first thing in the morning, unless some one else needs attention urgently. Our best wishes and prayers are with Cathy and Wade. Our bundle of joy will soon be here. We will keep everyone updated.

Professional Development Teachers

Professional development continures at the highest level here for your teachers. Corina has been spending time talking to new entrant teachers at Katikati Primary and at Pahoia School. She was enquiring whether our children meet the learning expectations of the schools. Her feedback was extremely positive, however there were areas in which we could help our children more. For example: 1) Scissor cutting skills needed more attention with some children, 2) encouraging the ability to use the pincher grip (which is required to hold a pencil), and using lowercase letters in their names. Whanau please support us with these at home with your children.

We have been working actively in these areas by providing learning experiences for the children that increase their use of their thumb and forefinger (development of the pincher grip), new sharp scissors have been ordered and sprinkling of glitter and dust has been preferable to shake containers. It may be a while before we are able to notice any difference. But we are very confident that these pre literacy skills will aid in their learning and future development as confident and competent learners.

TEACHER PROFILE

Jody's proudest moment was gaining her teaching qualification and becoming a mother!!!!

Gina says this!!!!!         Jody always runs at top speed, she races around the kindergarten stting up most of the days experiences, its like she has had coke cola and chocolate laced with coffee for breakfast. She has an unstoppable amount of energy and never ever feels the cold. Jody loves science, she sometimes brings in road kill and dead things from the beach for us to examine. Nose plugs are a must on these occasions!

She is always good for a laugh, she can laugh at herself and I really enjoy her sense of humour.... Jody likes to plant lots of vege seeds, and weed our gardens, however I think her thumb is purple not green!! Ha ha.

Jody is 6ft tall with legs up to her armpits. She has been offered many modelling contracts, but prefers to teach here at Pukeko Corner Kindergarten!!!

Events/Dates

Pukeko Corner 3rd Birthday Celebration - Friday 24th September

Graduates Day - Wednesday 29th September

Term 4 - Starts Monday 11 October and finishes Friday 17th December