Our adventures with Mymo the monkey!!!

Mymo's adventures develops co-ordination, balance, flexibility, strength and fine/gross motor skills, most importantly it's just plain fun!!!!  Today we followed Mymo on an adventure, using our imagination as we engaged in music, fun and fitness activities.  What a great rainy day activity!!!!

Kids about their mums.......

When creating our mothers day cards this year, we asked the children lots of different questions about their mums.  We had some really gorgeous answers that we thought we would share...............

My mum is really good at?
Hanging out the washing, making fish cakes, sleeping, fixing cars.

My Mum's favourite thing to do is?
Give me cuddles, kiss me, clean the house.

My Mum looks prettiest when she?
Is just at home, is on holiday, is at the playground, takes her hair tie out, puts her lipstick on and has a dress.

I love my mum because?
She looks so beautiful, she's so cute, she gives me lollies, she's helpful, she's so wonderful.

Growing Butterflies

For the last few months in Phoenix House, we have been studying and following the life cycle of the butterfly. We have lots of big, tall swan plants out in our KCC Garden and now we are lucky enough to have our own little swan plants inside the classroom.

We have learnt about each stage in the butterfly life cycle and we have seen it happen, up close and personal, watching each stage and often seeing all of the stages happening in sync with one another..

"There is one, two, three chrysalis's" - Kyla

This morning we saw our first baby break out from its chrysalis and it was so beautiful, "I can see the wing through the cocoon...Look!" - Evan

We decided that we needed to give our baby a name before we set it free..."Sophie" the butterfly. At mat time we all sat in a circle and said our goodbyes to Sophie before we put her outside to let her finish drying her wings before she flew away.

We still have two more chrysalis's and three more caterpillars on our plant before the season comes to an end.

What a beautiful experience for all of the children and teachers in Phoenix House!

A Message for mum on Mothers Day.......

When asking our children what they love most about their mums, these are the responses we got..... HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!

"Origami" the Paper folding art...today children were very much interested in making wood pecker by folding the paper. They have learnt how to make the objects with the paper, later on I saw they were trying to make woodpecker independently.How exciting!!

The Firemen visit KCC!!!!

With our interest in community helpers toward the end of last year we called upon the fire service to come along and introduce their "Get Out, Stay Out" preschool programme with our tamariki.  Matt from the fire department came and then promised us if we practised our song everyday we might just get a visit from the Howick Fire Department!!! Well today was our lucky day and we were all so excited to see the big red fire truck drive in.  

Fireman Andrew sat us all on the mat and gave us a quiz us on fire safety.  The teachers were so impressed with what super good memories our children had and the awesome  and correct answers we were giving, Well done Phoenix House children.  Then we had to help firefighter Morgan put on his correct uniform for work....  boots, trousers, jacket, mask, helmet, gloves and most importantly his oxygen tank to help him breathe.  They have such a lot of safety gear they need to wear to protect them in a fire.

Outside we saw the fire truck up close and even had a peep inside.  Such a long way from the ground but we weren't scared.  Then fireman Theo said because we had been such awesome listeners,  we were allowed to have a squirt of the hose, how cool is that!!! 

A big thanks to the Howick Fire Department for visiting today.  The children certainly were in awe of their Hero's and together we all learnt a lot more about one of our very important helpers in the Community.

Fire Visit 2015 on PhotoPeach

"Lest we forget" Commemorating 100 Years at Phoenix House

ANZAC day activities...........

This week we have been doing lots of activities for Anzac Day in remembrance of the Australian and New Zealand soldier's who fought in the war.  As we are commemorating the centenary we set up a special memorial on our Phoenix tree.  All of the children contributed to the memorial in some way whether it was their handprint or helping paint the poppies.  At mat-time we spoke about us about what ANZAC stands for, why we have a public holiday and wear red poppies. We have certainly learnt a lot about New Zealand History this week!!