April 2024
Kia ora koutou
Just like that, we have nearly finished term one. This year we have decided to send newsletters out at the end of each term. Hanna sends weekly emails, keeping families up to date with what is happening and the teaching team have been sharing a lot on our private Facebook page. Make sure if you haven’t requested to go on this page, that you do. It’s a great way to kept informed and see what has been happening. Feel free to get family members to add as well.
‘’Moa Kids Family Page’’
We have had lots of new families start this year, a big welcome to all our new families. Everyone is settling in really well to Moa and it’s so nice to have you join the Moa whānau.
Thankyou to all the families that came along to our first whānau evening. Our annual ‘’Fish and chip’’ family picnic. This is always a super low key event, where it is a great way for our new families to meet everyone. The children always love to come back to Moa after hours, its is always so exciting for them.
We are heading into the school holidays; can families please make sure they have emailed in if you are going to be away. Just a reminder we will be closed Thursday 25th April for Anzac. If you are taking advantage of the Thursday and planning to have the Friday off, for an extra-long weekend, please email through. It’s good to know numbers, so I can plan for my relief staff.
It's that time of year when our families are planning to head back to UK, Ireland and other places to visit family this winter. It is really important that you let me know when this is happening and for how long. This is so we can work out a plan getting you back in, especially if it’s longer than 3 week 4 weeks. Please feel free to come and have a chat with me if you have any further questions around this.
We have lots of our friends turning 5 over the year. We have a very large waitlist at Moa, so our system automatically has the children leaving when they are 5. It is really important we have your child’s last day dates in our system. If you are planning on sending your child later on, and not on the cohort entry they would normally start on, this is absolutely fine, please just make us aware of this, so we can plan for it.
With new families joining Moa, it’s a good time to explain about us being a community-based preschool and what that is all about. With being a non-profit preschool, we are required to have an active governance committee which is made up of parents. We meet once a month, which is normally the third Monday of the month, here at the centre @7.30pm, or sometimes online.
It means every year at our AGM (May) we look for new families to come onto this. We will be looking for new families to join us this year. If anyone is interested, or would love to pop along to a meeting to see what it is all about, please come and see me. We have a great brochure that explains the roles and I am happy to have a chat with people and explain a bit more.
With Moa Kids being a not-for-profit community-based centre, fundraising events play a very important part in our way of life. It is really important that all our fundraising events are supported by our families.
Thank you to everyone who supported the quiz night we held in February. Whether you helped on the night, going along with a group, donating, baking, all the support helps these events be successful. Emma and the fundraising committee did a wonderful job sorting this and putting in on. It was a very successful event and we raised nearly $7,000 for the night, which is very exciting for our plan to put solar panels on our roof. This means int total over the last 6/8 months, we have raised nearly $15,000 towards this, which is amazing and we can now look at starting this process. Watch this space.
Remember my door is always open. My personal Moa email is Hayley.flanagan@moakids.org.nz if you would prefer to send an email straight to me.
Nga mihi maioha
Hayley
Reminders:
Lunch boxes: You have most probably noticed the very full lunchbox shelf in the preschool. We would really appreciate it if all children’s lunch boxes, drink bottles and food containers could be named, as well as food that needs to go in the fridge. There is a permanent marker attached to the basket for the food that needs to be kept in the fridge.
Nut Free Zone: Moa Kids is a “nut free” zone. Lately we have been noticing a lot of nut products coming in cashews, almonds, peanut butter sandwiches etc. Please can you remember that we are a nut free zone when you are making your child’s lunch. We have had children start this year with high allergies to nuts.
Lost Property: We have a large amount of lost property. Please come and have a look to see if the treasures and clothing belong to your family. The lost property is in the foyer. Please name all clothing that comes to preschool as this really helps us to return clothing and hats back to the correct person.
Away sick: It is that time of the year where winter bugs are upon us. Moa families are always so good and keeping their children off when there are not 100%. This is a good reminder coming into winter to please email or call in the morning if your child is off sick.
New person picking up: As part of our policy at Moa if anyone new is picking up your child and they have not been in before, even though they are on the pickup list and your children know them, we will ask them for ID on that first pick up, and match it to the name you have given. This is of course for safety. Please email through and keep us informed if there is going to be someone new coming in.
Show and tell: Each child who attends the preschool room has a show and tell day. This is the day where they can bring in something special to show their peers. We know lots of our friends like to bring in toys and often it is the same toy from the week before. We are not saying no toys, but if parents could get the children to have a think of something different each time, this will help their child when they get up to talk about their “show and tell”. Remember that you are most welcome to email in any photos of what they have been getting up to over the weekend. This goes down really well and the children normally have lots to say about it. Can you please remember to take home your child’s show and tell item? The basket seems very full.
Nappies: Some parents choose to bring a bag of nappies in for their child and we let the families know when they are running low by writing on the daily role sheet. Please make sure when you see “please bring nappies” that you bring them in as soon as you can. We have emergency nappies if children run out, but these need to be replaced if used. We unfortunately are not in the position to be supplying nappies to children.
Bread bags: Please bring in any used bread bags for the preschool. These are used for toileting and come in very handy.
Going away on holiday: Please make sure you have emailed through these days. Moa gives each child Three weeks a year Holiday fees, which is 50% off the normal rate. We need to be emailed and informed to put this discount on.
Governance Committee
The next Governance Committee meeting will be the AGM in May.
Preschool News
Kia ora, what a very busy term we have had, with lots of learning happening in the preschool room. The tamariki have been enjoying our culture, language and identity project, there have been many items coming in, such as Evie brought in real fish and fish eggs to share with the tamariki, which was a fantastic connection to home as Evie’s Dad works in a salmon hatchery, as well as all the wonderful holiday pictures.
There has been a lot of interest in race cars, videos and racing each other on the bikes around the playground. There have also been tamariki creating pit stops, where they have been tipping their bikes on their sides and fixing the wheels. They have also been colouring the bikes in chalk to resemble their race car nga tae, which also lead to the fantastic wheels day we had the other week. All the tamariki brought in bikes and scooters to race around the playground. This is a great example on how important it is to connect the tamariki interests to learning through play.
We now have an accomplishment tree in the classroom where tamariki are recognized for their learning and contributions to the classroom, this has been created by the tamariki with Edel. The tamariki are noticed when they are building mana in others and being helpful in the classroom and being a kind friend, this also builds up their own mana as they care for others and contribute to a respectful learning environment.
We have had a real interest in constructing in the classroom the tamariki have made all sorts of objects from the resources. This has led into some amazing creations in the art area. There has been some incredible doll houses which Margie has been supporting the tamariki in making, by providing the challenge and the resources needed for the constructing and learning through doing.
Sharleen has been working with the children on making flowers and naming what they are good at on each petal. You will see these near the accomplishment tree, it is amazing learning for tamariki to become more in touch with knowing what they are good at or what they enjoy as this builds on self-worth and identity.
The Kaiako and tamariki have been embarking on a journey of learning their mihi through creating this on paper. We have an amazing pukapuka which sings a waiata all about mihi. The tamariki have been learning this and it’s led into the tamariki creating self-portraits and portraits of mums and dads. They are now moving onto creating a maunga that is significant to them, so watch this space.
There are some portraits already up on the wall that say “Ko wai to ingoa? What is your name? and then they say Ko Maisie toku ingoa, I am Maisie. please have a look they are very good! Emily has been working hard with the tamariki with this. We also are representing our centre mihi through making a mosaic that the tamariki have made.
The tamariki have been working closely with Terehia on making their own taniwha for the centre and this has been an amazing creative experience and learning, a taniwha is a guardian. These are in different spaces around the classroom and the tamariki are very proud of their mahi.
Matt has been working with the tamariki with looking after our frogs as well as a project with growing avocados which any tamariki have been very excited about helping with and they have been bring the avocado seeds in regularly.
There has been a school visit to Sumner this term and we hope to get to Redcliff’s this term as well, this helps the tamariki to understand what school is about and a great time to catch up with all their ehoa that have now gone to school. We hope to get more trips out into the community in the coming months.
We as Kaiako have been completing an emergent evaluation on “Dolphin Club” with the question of “What is the purpose of dolphin club.” There has been some amazing feedback and we are in the planning stage of what we might change and what works well, so watch this space.
We will be planning a celebration on the last day of the school holidays to celebrate and finish up our project of “Culture, language and identity” with this in mind we would love the tamariki to bring in a special person to celebrate with for afternoon tea. More details to follow soon.
Nga mihi
Shay.
(make sure you check out all the amazing photos on our private Facebook page, of the children’s learning this gets posted regularly from the preschool teachers)
Nursery News
Wow, what a great start to the year we have had. We have settled many new tamariki this term. A very warm Moa Welcome to Lennox, Ida, Gabe, Romy, Lola, Eleana and Aleix.
This term we also farewelled Lottie and Tommy in the preschool room. They are both enjoying their time ion the preschool and Tommy is enjoying spending time with his big brother Barnaby.
Anya is also eagerly awaiting the start of her transition visits which being this month. At the end of March, we celebrated Aleix, Gabe and Romy’s first birthdays.
Our current review in the nursery is around how we are providing a stimulating and empowering learning environment for all tamariki. With this review, we have been looking to extend the way we engage tamariki interests and extend their learning. During this term we have loved getting out in the community with our wonderful 6 seater pram!
During this term we have loved getting out in the community with our wonderful 6 seater pram!This pram has been a game changer and allows us to connect with anmd enjoy our local community so much more.
As we head head into the winter months please remember to pack extra layers, changes of clothes and socks. You’re welcome to leave a named jacket and warm hat at Moa if it’s easier. Please remember your childs learning journals are kept above the sign in sheet and you are welcome to take these home to read at any time, we add to them every couple of weeks.
Learning Term 1 Dolphin Club
· Learning the calendar, days of the week, months, seasons, dates.
· Literacy: Upper and lower-case letters
· Te Reo Māori, waiata, karakia, place names
· Project work
· All children brining in a recipe from home and making it with their peers.
Emotional regulation, breathing exercises.
2 Ingredient Lunch Box Scrolls
Makes: 12
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
Scroll Base Recipe
1 Cup Greek Yoghurt
1 1/2 Cups Self Raising Flour + more for dusting
Topping Ideas:
Marmite & Cheese
Cheese, Ham & Pineapple with a tomato sauce base
Grated Apple, cinnamon & brown sugar
Spinach, Feta & Cheese
Cheese, Grated Carrot & Zucchini
Instructions
Preheat Oven to 180C Bake
Prepare an oven tray with baking paper and set aside.
In a medium bowl add the self-raising flour and Greek yoghurt and stir gently to combine
Tip out onto a well-floured surface and begin to knead the dough together
If you feel it is a bit sticky still feel free to sprinkle a little flour at a time and knead again
With a floured rolling pin roll the dough into a rough rectangle shape until approx. 1cm thick.
Add the toppings, err on the side of adding a good amount of flavour rather than less
Beginning on the top long edge roll the dough towards you with dry floured hands, firmly rolling until you reach the bottom edge
Using a sharp knife slice 1-2cm slices and place on the prepared baking tray filling side up.
You may wish to slightly reshape them into a circle
Add more grated cheese to the top if you wish
Bake for 16-22 minutes until golden
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.