Ambury Farm Day 2009

It's spring again and with spring comes Ambury Farm day at our farm. Yesterday we were at the farm - where there was pony rides, tractor rides, wood chopping, sheep shearing, cow milking, live bands and much more...

...Including our Kindergarten sausage sizzle - one of our big fundraisers for the year. We barbecued all day long and sold lots of sausages, lollies and drinks. Thank-you to everyone who helped and supported this Kindergarten fundraiser - it was a very successful fundraiser and way of showcasing the Kindergarten in the community.

On Vacation... more pics

On vacation... at Jemma's house

Hi everyone, we are all safe and sound on holiday : ) we are having a great time, getting lots of cuddles and we have grown so much... you will be amazed! See you soon. We miss you.

On Vacation...

Hi everyone, we're on holiday too...



and we're going for runs everyday, learning to jump and trying lots of new things.

From Biscuit and the babies
P.S. We love grass!

They've arrived!!! 4 new babies

Well what a surprise, our Biscuit has had 4 beautiful new babies.

She was looking fatter but when Carol came on Sunday at 5p.m.  there was no sign that she was about to give birth. When we arrived in the morning on Monday there they were!!  

They are just perfect - covered in fur, one white, two biscuit coloured and one white and stone coloured. They are perfectly formed, running about and very capable, just like our children.

Stoney coloured baby...

We spent the day yesterday popping back to the cage just to watch, they are very very cute and the children are waiting to be able to have a cuddle. No names yet...

The twins...

The white one...

Check back here for more... as they grow! 

Mentor buddies

Buddies visit Kindergarten

Since September last year we have had a project involving Mangere Bridge School and some of their year 5 children. These children become buddies for our children transitioning to that school and visit once a week to spend time with an individual child and build a relationship that will carry over into the school. Once the kindergarten child goes to school this person becomes their "read - to" buddy at school each day. We have had 22 over the time since September and currently have 7 buddies visiting on Wednesday.

The buddies have portfolios too and spend time with their kindergarten child revisiting learning and events in their lives.
This has been just such a great support to children transitioning to school. One little girl added her school buddy to her birthday party list before anyone else, another changed her mind completely about going to school when she had initially decided she really didn't need to go to school and it has also created unexpected links between the junior and senior schools.

We have now begun a similar buddy programme with Waterlea School and have 7 buddies visiting on Friday. It makes for a busy week but it has been an extremely positive addition to our transition project and to supporting learning for both kindergarten and school children.

Working bee

Hi...
It rained and drizzled and rained again on Saturday when we had the working bee planned. But as it's Auckland ( and it rains anyway) and we had a trailer load of topsoil to get off the donated trailer we went ahead and worked. We are building a native garden behind the kindergarten as inspiration to be viewed through our art room windows.
So we dug and leveled and prepared the site under Stephanie's expert guidance. We have a plan designed by MIT landscape gardening students and are working to that.

It is starting to look like good growing for ferns and pungas, cabbage trees and other natives and we are excited it is beginning to take shape.
Thanks to our dedicated workers who came in the rain. It was a muddy job but they just got on and did it!

Farewell Cameron

Hi Again...

Our trip to Ambury Farm to remember and farewell Cameron the Clydesdale took place at the end of July. We took Martin and Dawn's bus down the road and went straight to watch the cow being milked . When the cow was done we went out and made butter!!! It was fun shaking the jar and hard work.

Then we had morning tea and set off round the farm to look at the lambs and check out Cameron's grave.

We had flowers and a bowl of carrots and apples - Cameron's favourite food and we sat and talked about Cameron and crunched the carrots and apples." I liked Cameron cos he was kind" and "cos he liked carrots".

Then we walked back to the front to the covered area past the sheep and the chickens ( we feed both), had another morning tea to sustain us and caught the bus back up the long hill to Kindergarten. We usually walk and it felt very strange catching the bus but we were worried about wet days and a short day too. thanks to Janine for arranging our visit.