The Life Cycle of Plants in our Garden

Our interest in seeds has continued to be a focus. The Children have become very aware of seeds within their environment. They understand that seeds serve a purpose and are found around them more often than what they were first aware. We believe that the sunflowers growing in our garden have been a catalyst to discovery learning. The children were amazed by the sheer quantity and size of seeds within the flower. They also discovered that these seeds could be eaten. The children have also been very excited about bringing to kindergarten seeds that they have found at home.

Performance

Recently the children have been interested in performing and we have seen them write their own shows, make props to support, become the director and then film the final production. This interest continues to grow and the teachers are currently providing opportunities for all children to experience performance through re-enacting some of our favourite stories.

Our Trip to Butterfly Creek

On Tuesday 13th March we all set off to Butterfly Creek on the bus. We had to travel a long way....along the motorway, over the harbour bridge and past the sky tower. This was a great challenge for many of the children who had never travelled that far by bus. On arrival at Butterfly Creek we ate our morning tea before heading off to explore the many attractions. First, some of us went for a train ride on the Red Admiral Express train. As we rode on the train we noticed the ducks, geese and pukeko looking for food in their pond environment. As we looked at all the different species of fish in the aquarium section, we searched for Nemo the clown fish. We found Nemo and his brother too! The butterfly house was vey warm and tropical with many colourful butterflies fluttering around, feeding on fruit and flowers. Because the butterflies were so big we could watch them dipping their probus into flowers, feeding on the nectar. If you were lucky, sometimes a butterfly landed on you! We meet Scar and Goldie, the saltwater crocodiles. Scar stayed asleep on the side of his pool while Goldie had a play with a rope and sack in the water. He is about 45 years old and 4.7 meters long! He came from Australia about two and a half years ago. The crocodile keeper shared with us about the strength of the crocodile's jaws and we noticed how huge the crocodile's teeth were. Later some of us got to pat some baby crocodiles that had hatched at Butterfly Creek. The farm section had lots of goats to feed and pat. We looked carefully at their faces and hooves and felt their mouths and tongues on our hands. There were also lovely soft bunnies for us to pat and their babies to look at.    There were some guinea pigs at Butterfly Creek too. Lots of us enjoyed the playground and the trampoline. It gave us the chance to play with our friends in a new environment and explore new equipment. Our trip was loads of fun and we got to see and touch many different types of reptiles, insects, bugs, fish and mammals. This experience helped us to broaden our knowledge of living things and how to treat and care for them.