Adrian at Kindy on Mondays

More dancing at St AndrewsEpsom ECC

Connor has great dance moves

It's great that the boys have really got into dancing with Adrian here

Dancing is what we do now!

Representing dance on paper

dancing bears by Anaya

Dancing bears by Olivia

Goldilocks and the three bears

Working with Adrian Smith - Dancer

Adrian Smith is our community artist this term. He is coming to work with the children in the area of dance. 

At Adrian's first session with us he introduced the idea of pathways - moving in different ways - zigzags, curvy, straight
We moved in these ways taking care to be aware of each other and not coming into contact with anyone.
We talked about these concepts with the children on other days and Bella surprised us with this representation of moving around without touching anyone.

We had on the observation table an artist model with a tutu on it.
We have been thinking about a provocation of Imogen's - 'How do you draw a tutu?'
On this day the sun was casting very sharp shadows on the paper.
Farah drew around the shadow creating an intriguing shape.

These two photos are of the children dancing "Circus Horses' from New Wave Folk Dancing.
The children are divided into 3 groups who move according to the 3 sections of music -
galloping, cantering and trotting.

Tanya, storyteller extraordinaire comes to Kindy

Tanya is the first of the community artists to be visiting our centre as part of the MAPS Research project from Auckland University and NZ Tertiary College.

This video was made on her first visit to our centre
http://youtu.be/ElgGQ3PFh2U

Click on this link to view it

Visit to Kindy by Jim Wheeler, sculptor

Jim Wheeler was one of the sculptors whose work was on display at the Botanic Garden. 

Object of devotion

We invited him to come to Kindy to talk to us about his work and Olivia welcomed him wearing our Korowai

He brought lots of his work to show us and we had LOTS of questions for him.

All his works reflect his love for the New Zealand flora and fauna

We learnt so much about the process of making his sculptures. It was much different than we expected. He starts by making a small model then progresses to a bigger one then a bigger one – we thought he would just make the one big one!

He showed us on his computer how he had made his work in the Botanic Garden

We loved the wooden bird that he made

Samuel farewelled Jim and gave him a present

Thanks Jim!

The Daisy Blanket - or is it a Daisy Chain?

The Daisy Blanket at the Sculpture trail at the Botanic Garden was a favourite with all the children

So we worked out how to make our own using plastic bags brought into Kindy by our families

It took a lot of concentration to make a daisy but ...it was possible!

When we had enough we tied them all together and took them outside 

We tried them in different places around the Kindy

Then after a while our Daisy Chain was left for other interesting things to pursue at Kindy!

Our trip to the Botanic Garden to view the Sculpture Trail

On 10th Feb 2012 we set off on a bus to see the sculpture trail at the Botanic garden.
The sculpture trail is a biennial event at the gardens and is only open over the summer.

We went into the visitors centre and saw the mini sculptures  before heading off to have morning tea

It's amazing how hungry one gets after a bus ride!
then off we went to look at all sculptures.

Barnacles in the water!

We all loved the bird sculptures by Bing Dawe

Jeff Thomson's work - renamed 'Marshmellows' by our children!

The bird watcher

The tropical forest in the Children's Garden (designed by Jill Rice)
had very welcome 'rain'.

Peter Lange's brick dinghy is a permanent exhibit at the gardens  but it was a definite favourite!

'The Bivvy' caught the imagination of many children - it almost turned into a competition -
 how many children can you fit into a bivvy?

100 spades went into this spikey flower!

It was a really hot day and by lunch time we were all exhausted!