Construction has been a big interest at Mt Royal for over a month now and we love to see how the children are developing and coming up with new ways all on their own to extend their interest/knowledge in construction. These photos show the development of one building into a whole city called ‘St Lukes Mall City’. The project was developed over two days showing great passion and commitment from our children.
L– It was a quiet day and you decided to sit down and connect the joiners together. You built a very tall building and together we counted how many joiners you had used together we counted 30. L I would say the number then you would repeat it after me.
After we had built the tower I decided to extend your interest by challenging you with a sorting learning experience. We took all the joiners off the board and I put one colour of each joiner on the board. We went through the colours and you were a bit unsure of a couple but with a bit of guidance you told me all the colours, well done!
L after we had been through the colours I asked you if you could match the joiners by colour to the ones on the board? L you were a bit unsure of what I was asking but once I showed you what I wanted there was no stopping you and you easily accomplished the task. After you had sorted the joiners accordingly into colours it was obvious that some colours were a lot taller than others. L I decided to challenge you even further by asking you which tower was the tallest? You easily pointed to the white tower and told me “this one.” Then I asked you which tower was the smallest? You replied “that one” and pointed to the yellow tower, great work!
What I think L is learning…L is gaining confidence in his ability to follow instructions. He is working on extending his math knowledge through one to one counting and colour recognition.
Pathways and Possibilities
L is showing an interest in math so I would like to offer him math exploration learning experiences. For example the teddy sorting game where we can explore colour, shape and patterns.
Whanau Voice-Does L interest in math extend to home?
Kia Ora!
It is 2016 and our children are showing an interest in worms! The children love to go on ‘worm hunts’ and when they find them they love to photograph the worms. Keep an eye out for their ongoing development in this. 
The children had a great time exploring the puddles after we had experienced some rain. There was not only jumping but an abundance of mud pies to taste, yummy. The older children drew patterns in the mud and attempted to write letters. A great natural resource!
The children did a wonderful job of creating a vegetable patch. Our vegetables are thriving and we hope soon to be rewarded with the benefits of all our hard work! The children check on the vegetables everyday and ask if they need to be watered.
Celebrating Easter, ANZAC and Mother’s day has been an important part of our programme. The children were interested in pirates, Peter Pan and Captain Hook. This interest came to a close with the construction and painting of a Pirate ship, which was created from banana boxes. The left over banana boxes created a lot of space for our children to use their imagination.
Our next interest was construction. The children liked measuring their construction, so our next programme is developing into measuring (math’s). M brought his measuring tape from home; this provoked a deeper interest in measuring and numbers. We will continue to explore where this interest will go. Please feel free to bring a measuring item from home.
If your child has a special interest that a parent wishes to share with us, please let the team know, so that we can incorporate this into your child’s programme.
Thanks
Team Mt Royal
As the days are getting colder, and with the loss of daylight savings (hope everyone enjoyed their extra hour sleep-in) we’re all starting to dress warmer. We ask still that you send your child into the centre with three full changes of clothes in their bag. With the weather turning, it’s even more important that the children can change into something warm and dry after playing in the damp sandpit. From the beginning of winter, we will be insisting that children wear warm hats outside, such as knitted hat or hoods, just as we have been insisting that they wear sun hats in the hot months.
It is with such delight that the teachers at Mt Royal and parents formally welcome our new staff member Hailey.
Hailey will be a great contribution to strengthen our programme.
Thank you to Jenifer and L for sharing your wonderful story book about your tramping trip. The children were especially interested in the cave that L noticed on his trip. This inspired us to make a cave with the banana boxes we already had.
We would also like to say a big thank you to the families who have contributed into all aspects of our service. Kazue for making the origami poster for our cultural wall, Isis for helping solve our computer problems and collecting pine cones, Greg for picking our avocados, Hailey for donating a box of Kiwi fruit, Jane for donating Feijoas, Karina for donation of resources, Gingerbread cake and dress-ups with accessories and to Alaina for donation of a variety of toys.
This month is Matariki! We will have a variety of experiences to celebrate the Maori New year.
Searching for cicada shells happens on a regular basis here at Mt Royal. This afternoon I joined C, E, T, L and T as they searched for some. We found a plastic container in the shed that C said would be ‘just right’ to hold the shells in. We started off in the garden where the lemon and feijoa trees grow – a cicada shell was spotted on the trunk of the feijoa tree and hastily placed in the collection container. We then found some ladybugs on the lemon tree leaves and E and L really wanted to hold them on the leaves. Our search then continued under the slide and along the fence under the avocado tree and then carried on to by the pirate ship. We found 8 cicada shells all up and decided to take them inside to show the rest of our friends.
Great team work and cooperation happening here – everybody had the same goal in mind and had a lovely time exploring the garden together.
By Ally – March 2015
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Transition to School Programme: What has been happening?
Having our children feel confident and prepared for starting school is very important to us – we have a number of experiences and activities happening in the centre on a daily basis to support this important transition. These experiences are available for all of the children in the centre to partake in regardless of their age – if they show an interest in activity, we do our best to support and foster them.
Here are some the experiences we have at Mt Royal to support the children’s smooth transition to school:
We have three mat times per day. During these mat times the children are encouraged to take turns at talking and to raise a quiet hand if they wish to share something. We also talk about keeping our hands to ourselves and respecting each other’s ideas. Children are encouraged to participate in the different experiences during mat times such as sharing news, singing, magnetic stories and songs, books, movement and dance. There are many opportunities to stimulate the children’s curiosity and for them to ask questions.
Being able to look after yourself is very important – we give plenty of opportunities and time for the children to practice their self-help and self-care skills when eating, toileting, washing and dressing. We also talk about being able to recognise the indicators of hunger, thirst, sickness and tiredness and how to respond to these symptoms if they occur and to ask for help if it is needed. Emotional well-being is an essential part of being a good learner so we, as teachers, ensure that the children feel safe and that their fears are taken seriously. Children are given opportunities to express their different emotions and make their own choices within the necessary limits. Behaviour management is a consistent practice within the centre to prevent confusion, conflict and contradiction. Rules about harming each other or the environment and regularly talked about as part of the programme so that children are aware of them and have an understanding of the reason for these rules.
Experiences that assist the development of literacy and numeracy skills are consistently a part of our learning environment. We have a writing table which is available at any time of the day and well supplied with paper, felt tips and pencils. Lots of great learning happens at this table such as book making, story-telling, letter and number formation and recognition. There are also opportunities for the children to develop their fine-motor skills with the use of different tools such as scissors, cello-tape, staplers and hole-punchers.
Whenever one of our children has a school visit, we encourage them to share their experience with us and, if they feel comfortable, talk about it with their friends at mat time. We ask about their new teacher, any new friends they may have met, their classroom, the playground and uniforms.
We provide experiences that support the children’s:
By Ally – February 2015
It all started with the children listening to The very Hungry Caterpillar story book. A page was turned and there was a deep sense of silence in the room. All the children had enchanted looks on their faces. “O there is a chrysalis in the book!” said J. A chrysalis on a stick was taken from the book and put just above the window. What magic there can be in a story book. In just under an hour, the chrysalis hatched. All the children were so fascinated to see this experience happen. Over the weeks each child had a special way to express their interest in our investigation into the cycle of the butterfly. E especially enjoyed painting the leaves for the egg to sit on, for the wall display, and she painted an mazing picture of a caterpillar. P especially enjoyed painting a chrysalis. H and V especially enjoyed painting the moon, that was in the first page of the story book. H was also most interested in painting our story box. I especially enjoyed drawing a great butterfly and using clay to make a butterfly. B especially enjoyed making his own story of a caterpillar and painting his story on paper. J especially enjoyed drawing a chrysalis for our story box and painting the leaves. N especially enjoyed drawing a sun from the story book, for our story box. M used his interest in mobilo to make a mobilo butterfly. N used crayons to draw a great butterfly. B was most interested in creating patterns on his chrysalis for the wall display.
Possibilities and opportunities– Let us continue to support the children’s interests and creativity skills, and continue to see where this interests develops to.
Date: Feb 2015 Teacher: Mary-Louise
