Kindergarten Awareness week Day 1- Keeping Ambury Farm clean and rubbish free.

Today is the first day of Kindergarten Awareness Week and the focus is "Sustainable communities".
Ambury Farm is very much a part of our community  and today we took the rubbish bags and went through the areas where there had been enjoying the farm barbecue and play areas to make sure there was no rubbish left. Ambury Farm is a regional farm park and visitors must "Pack in and Pack out" i.e. take their rubbish with them but some hadn't and we found a big black bag of rubbish.

Early on we watched the truck come and take the lambs away to be food!!This is a working farm so sometimes the questions and events are hard to answer!!especially for city kids who think meat comes from the supermarket.

Then there was just time for  a juicie on the rocks before we walked back to kindergarten. 
We found after such a hot sunny day we really needed to water our garden too.

We are an Enviroschools kindergarten

We are an Enviroschools kindergarten and as part of the kaupapa of building a community of learners we have included the sustainable jobs in the job list. Now the children help to bottle the worm pee, empty the worm food into the worm farm and put the compost into the compost tumbler. They take these jobs VERY seriously and really want to be the one on the board to do these jobs.

Kindergarten at the Farm on Mondays: Exploring the mud

Our destination was the covered area, past the frame, to spend the morning exploring the foreshore. The tide was SO far out - it had almost disappeared from sight. There was mud everywhere, lovely, lovely, wet mud just right for running in, digging in and finding crabs, shells, prawn looking animals and even an amazing heron skeleton.

We had so much fun we really didn't want to leave. But leave we did, returning all the living creatures to their homes and wandered home up through the paddocks, past Bella Donna and back to kindergarten. These experiences will remain with us for a very, very long time.

Kindergarten at the farm

We have always enjoyed a close association with Ambury Farm and  over the course of the last year have been considering ways in which we can strengthen our ties with the farm and deepen the experience of visiting the farm.

At the end of 2010, we initiated discussion with Ambury Farm about the possibility of visiting the farm one day a week, giving us more time to explore the natural features the farm has to offer us.

We wish to explore features of the farm in more depth in keeping with our focus on sustainability and the environment. Some of the educational outcomes we envisage resulting from these visits, linked to all learning areas across both the early childhood and school curriculum, are:

·      building connections to the land and areas of local significance individually and to Maori

·      experiencing aspects of being part of a group and a community

·      strengthening concepts of self and increasing confidence and capabilities

·      caring for the environment

·      awareness of wide natural spaces

·      the ability to relate to others outside the kindergarten environment and take responsibility

·      awareness that rules are different in different settings

·      enjoying the challenge that comes from viewing and exploring unfamiliar surroundings

·  participate and enjoy walking as a healthy and normal exercise

We believe Kindergarten at the farm on Mondays is an exciting opportunity and will provide fantastic learning experiences for children and adults alike.

Today was the first 'Kindergarten at the Farm' morning and we arranged to meet the children at the farm and spend the morning in different areas each time. For the first Kindergarten at the Farm (Ambury Farm) we took tents and went to the camping ground.

The children explored the 'bush' finding slaters, snail shells, interesting shaped sticks, a birds nest and leaves and flax. It was all a fabulous learning experience. Children worked together exploring and playing with children they might not normally play with within the kindergarten playground. It was a fantastic relationship building event. Our parent helpers got a chance to get to know each other too. And then it was up through the paddocks for the long walk home. Just a great day!!!!