Kia ora koutou,
I hope you are all well. As we are now in winter season, may I continue encourage everyone to prioritise health by getting enough rest, stay active and eating nourishing food.
We would like to welcome Rizki, our student teacher who will be with us until the end of June. Rizki is a student of Te Rito Maioha and have had experience teaching in early childhood in her home country, Indonesia. She is also employed as a reliever in Kindergarten.
BUSY TAMARIKI KARORI KIDS
1. Samoan Language Week
Our celebration of Samoa Language Week, or Fa’amanatuina o le Vaiaso o le Gagana Samoa was productive. Our kaiako engaged in a variety of activities that highlighted the rich cultural heritage of Samoa. The Centre was filled with vibrant decorations, traditional Samoan music, and the joyful sounds of children learning and speaking Samoan phrases. During thunderbirds, our kaiako Mercy told the legend of coconut tree - Sina and the Eel. This tree provided the people with coconuts, a vital resource. Mercy showed us how to use a traditional tool to peel coconut. Thanks to Kaiako contribution in making the Samoan language week meaningful to our tamariki and kaiako. | Learning Outcomes (Te Ara Whānui Whāriki and NELP) 1a. Making connections between people, places and things in their world | te waihanga hononga 1b. Learning priorities: Have high aspirations for every learner/ākonga, and support these by partnering with their whānau and communities to design and deliver education that responds to their needs, and sustains their identities, languages and cultures.
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2. Going for Walks
We continue to go for regular walks. Our walks often lead us down to various streets of Karori even to the place where our tamariki reside, recently we also had the pleasure of exploring Karori park and it as was an absolute delight to see our tamariki having so much fun. Our regular visit to the library is also a fun learning experience as we learn Te reo and other special events in the community.
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2a. Keeping themselves healthy and caring for themselves | te oranga nui
2b. Enjoy hearing and retelling stories.
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3. World Environmental Day
For this month, we celebrated the world environment day at Karori kids. This is to continue help our tamariki understand the importance of looking after our environment. We started the day by sweeping away fallen leaves, then followed by digging our pile of rubbish in our backyard and found many objects that did not belong in a rubbish bin. At mat time, Debbie went into details about recycling paper and cardboards, used paper will be melt and made into new paper to save trees. At the end of the day, we also made a huge cleaning up the Centre which ended up getting a skip bin to declutter the Centre.
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3a. Make sense of the world around them by generating and refining working theories/ te rangahau me te 3b. Use different strategies to reason and solve problems. |
4. Matariki preparation We continue to prepare our tamariki for the Matariki night. We have been practicing our waiata and play. We are now in the process of preparing our tamariki’s costumes and props. During Thunderbirds this week, our kaiako have been deepening children’s knowledge about the legends of Maui and of Maui's aunty Mahuika the goddess of Fire. This initiative will continue to broaden our tamariki’s understanding about Maori values and practices.
| 4a. Making connections between people, places and things in their world | te waihanga hononga 4b.Learning priorities: Have high aspirations for every learner/ākonga, and support these by partnering with their whānau and communities to design and deliver education that responds to their needs, and sustains their identities, languages and cultures.
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4. Philippines Independence Day Gina and Mercy will lead the Philippine’s Independence Day. Different experiences will be provided for our tamariki to continue expose them with the different cultures we have at Karori Kids. These experiences include: introducing Philippines flag, folklore dance, native food and other important culture in the Philippines.
| 5a. Learning priorities: Have high aspirations for every learner/ākonga, and support these by partnering with their whānau and communities to design and deliver education that responds to their needs, and sustains their identities, languages and cultures. 5b. Making connections between people, places and things in their world | te waihanga hononga
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6. Learning Te reo. We continue to encourage our tamariki and kaiako ko learn Te reo Maori. Recently, Debbie has been finding opportunities to introduce phrases and whakatauki in our Centre. Please see our board for Te reo phrases and whakatauki.
| 6a. Meaningfully incorporate te reo Māori and tikanga Māori into the everyday life of the place of learning
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7. Art and Crafts The art and crafts are also popular this month. Our tamariki have enthusiastically took the opportunity to explore their creativity through cutting, gluing and selecting favourite items for their collages. For this month, we have had a lot of tamariki who have into collaging. During these learning moments, the tamariki exhibit levels of concentration and enjoyment as they explore various materials and textures | 7a. Recognising print symbols and concepts and using them with enjoyment, meaning and purpose | he kōrero tuhituhi 7b. Express themselves and their ideas with a range of different materials and modes. 7c. Play, imagine, invent and experiment.
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Workshops/Seminars
Mercy attended a workshop on Mercy attended “Strengthening Partnership, families centred practice in ECE setting.”
The PD is an addition knowledge for the kaiako to strengthen partnership with parents.
Reminders:
Reminders about providing us a copy of the 4 years old immunisation records.
Please ensure your children wear appropriate walking shoes for our regular walks.
Please continue to encourage your children not to bring toys to the Centre
Dates to remember:
18th June, Tuesday- Trip to Te Papa for the 3 to 4 years old
27th of June, Thursday-Matariki Night
23rd July-24th Sept (every Tuesday)- Tumbling Tots
Internal evaluation
“How is the language, culture and identity of all whānau empowered at Karori Kids?
3 Indicators that were used:
A. Parents believe that the teachers are responsive to language, culture and language of the families and tamariki.
B. The Kaiako are responsive to language, culture and language of the families and tamariki.
C. Assessment reflects the language, culture and identity of children and whanau.
Based on parents’ voices: although there is progress these are some areas that kaiako need to improve on:
-Kaiako connects your child’s learning in the ECE setting with experiences at home and familiar setting
- The kaiako reflects knowledge about the features of your child’s local area/ their family background is viewed positively in the Centre.
Based on teacher’s voices: The following areas need to be enhanced:
-Cultural background is reflected in your child’s individual plan and learning progress.
-Connecting child’s learning in the ECE setting with experiences at home and familiar cultural communities.
-Knowledgeable about the features of the child’s local area/their family background is viewed positively in the Centre
Assessment
In terms of assessment, there has been a significant improvement in the quality of teacher documentation. Previously (October 2023), the learning stories are rated on the embedding stage and compare it to March it shifted to sustaining level. This finding displays an increase of awareness amongst kaiako about the importance of empowering tamariki and whānau with their documentation.
Furthermore, the areas that we still need to improve on consist of: reflecting knowledge about the features of a child’s local area; opportunities in understanding cultural heritages and partnerships to Te Tiriti o Waitangi | Treaty of Waitangi; and contains continuity showing that the learning foundation of the child is founded from her cultural background.
Overall, the results demonstrate the significant progress of empowering the language, culture and identity of all whānau at Karori Kids.
General
Finally, as I always say, it is your tireless efforts and initiatives and providing valuable insights significantly contributed to the success of Karori Kids. We deepely appreciate the time, enegy and passion you investment here in our Centre.
“ Naku te rourou nau te rourou ka ora ai te iwi
With your basket and my basket the people will live
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