Oanaka Educare - Early Childcare Centre - Wanaka

February 16

2012-02-15T14:38:00.000-08:00

It's painting time in the Weka room!

Using the electric drill! go Sam!

Water play

Making the new dinosaur puzzle

Making a home for our froggie visitor! Thanks George (it was found in his swimming pool)!

Learning to hypothesizing and experiment with making 'strawberry juice'

Caterpillar to chrysalis

2012-02-09T16:30:00.000-08:00

First the caterpillar hangs in a 'J' shape...

Then it finally moves around and stretches itself out just before the chrysalis making process happens...

The caterpillar's skin splits from the head and underneath is what will be the emerald green chrysalis!

The caterpillar wriggles and wriggles it's skin up it's body

Until the skin reaches the end, then it falls off!

The chrysalis spends the next few minutes wriggling and wriggling, until it makes itself into the proper chrysalis shape.

We had a look at and compared a chrysalis that had formed a few days ago and the new chrysalis, to see what it would eventually look like!

Just a few more minutes and it will be ready!

Now we wait and watch as underneath a beautiful butterfly forms!

beeeeessss!

2012-01-30T13:29:00.000-08:00

Enger's parents are bee keepers so today she brought in a display bee hive for us to look at. It was super exciting, we learnt lots about how bees make honey and what the worker bees do and what the queen bee does. We had to search really hard but we found the queen bee (she was bigger than the rest and had a black mark on her head). Enger showed us the bee keepers suit and how to use the smoker, which we all had a turn with.Then in the afternoon, the Kahu children sat down to watch 'Bee Movie' which Finley had brought in for us to watch! What a great Friday it was!

25 January

2012-01-24T11:59:00.000-08:00

Happy 4th birthday Charlie!

Treasure hunt!

Making ICE CREAM!!!!

Eating our ice cream...and crepes!

Showing off our breakdance moves

Abseiling with Enger!

Climbing the tyres

Enjoying a quiet story in the corner

Fun in the sandpit!

Peak-a-boo!

Thursday 12 Jan

2012-01-11T17:24:00.000-08:00

Welcome back after a very hot christmas and new years holiday (if you were in Wanaka!) We look forward to a fantastic year ahead of us!

New dress ups in the Weka room

Isaac making a race track for the cars

Nathaniel sitting, watching the chickens (mama chicken and her chicks are here visiting us from Vicky's house).

Harvesting our potoatoes

Wow, the sunflowers grew sooo much while we were on holiday!

20 December

2011-12-19T14:37:00.000-08:00

Only 5 more days until christmas! Another year over, and what a great year it has been! Full of fun, excitement, creativity, investigations, excursions, laughter, water play, messy play and loads loads more! We will be closed from the 23rd December until the 4th January so we will see you all after a well deserved christmas break! Have a fantastic holiday and have heaps of fun with your wonderful children!

Sooty gets a loving pat from George and Georgia

Kat brought her dog Sky in for the Weka children to help give her a wash

The Weka room had a water day - the children LOVED it!

We built a rock wall

We made yummy biscuits for our christmas party

And santa came to our christmas party - He arrived on a digger!!!!

We have been making puppets

And using the new drill!

And making meringues!

And decorating our christmas tree

And we had a visit from some wonderful people, teaching us to use african drums!

We were really good at keeping the beat

We also had a Bob the builder day!

We built an awesome frame house

JoJo really looked the part!

And then we had late snack in the finished frame house!

last day of November!

2011-11-29T14:29:00.000-08:00

Great Balancing Millie!

More science experiments in the Kahu room

Where is Jed hiding??

November 23

2011-11-22T14:33:00.000-08:00

Water Play!

I'm a big girl now!

Come out, come out Jed!

Happy 3rd Birthday Summer!

carpentry queen

carpentry king

Concentrating very hard at making pom poms

The finished product

At last, the paper mache dinosaur is complete!

Thursday 17 Nov

2011-11-16T18:38:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's been a while since the last update so here is a bunch of photos showing you what we have been doing here at Oanaka @ Riverside over the past few weeks!

The Kahu room got a new piano!

Painting paper mache dinosaurs

Cleaning paua shells

Making paua shell decorations

science experiements - using vinegar and baking soda to blow up a balloon!

Practicing number recognition and writing

making our own sandwiches for afternoon tea - with our own lettuce from the garden!

And helping our friends make theirs

some of the kahu children are helping a kea kid accross the plank

Washing the boats

We said Happy 3rd birthday to William - who has now transitioned through to the Kahu room!

Catching bubbles!

Testing out the mud pit

What does it feel like Georgia?

Finding little hidey holes!

Yay! I can sit up now!!

The Weka children are great friends!

We said happy 1st birthday to Eli

Checking out our profile books!

We also said happy 1st birthday to Kaitlyn!

More Bubbles!!

Helping entertain the Weka children!

16 Sept - 4th Octorber

2011-10-03T18:46:00.000-07:00

The Kahu Room went on a walk up the path behind the centre

All hold hands with your buddy!

Wow, we got to do some serious bush walking!

We made a teepee with the sticks and branches we gathered on our walk

The teepee is used daily by the children

The Kahu children have also been working on their sewing skills!

Making puppets and bags!

Wow, lots of fun with sensory exploration in the Kea room!

Creating tracks and roads with the blocks

The new ambulance/fire truck/police car borrowed from the toy library has been a huge hit!

The weka children (and teachers) have enjoyed the new chair!

Anika putting the babies to bed

Looking after our friends!

23 August- 16 September

2011-09-15T14:09:00.000-07:00

Austin and Astrid say hi to their sister through the window in the fence!

Kaitlyn experiences her first snow day at Oanaka @ Riverside

Georgia gets straight into helping clear the snow off the path

The Weka room gets a little help from Andy

Once again, Georgia lends a helping hand!

Billy tests out the home made bridge over the bike track

Lucas also lends a hand to push all the snow off the track

Summer and Cole spend some quiet time with our friendly bunny Sooty

"Of course we can fit two on the swivel bike"!

Riley works on his skateboard tricks

The children in the Kahu room are working together to create a huge block zoo for the animals

Harris and Luke decided that they would spend most of today hugging each other!

Jack, with a little help from mum, hits the slope!

Jack S, decides that he can do better than sledding down the slope, he would ride his bike down!

Wheeeeee! two on a sled is way more fun than by yourself!

Oanaka@ Riverside August 23

2011-08-22T21:54:00.000-07:00

Wow! So much has been happening over the last few weeks here at Oanaka @ Riverside!

We got snow in our playground!!!!

We had a snowball fight with our new teacher Vicky!

And also threw snowballs at Sara!

Vicky bought in her flute which Harris was lucky enough to have a turn at playing!

We have been having fun playing with the garage in the Kea room

We have been making sure our new seeds that we planted have lots of sun and water

We have been making a new volcano and watching it explode!

We have said goodbye to our good friend Soffe as she goes off to school!

We have been washing our dolls

We have been painting beautiful pictures - as well as our faces!

We have been playing games of rugby in the sun - preparing ourselves for the World cup!

We have been hanging out in the sandpit

We have been having fun on the new rocking horse in the Weka room

And...we have been body painting!

Whew!!! What a lot of fun and exciting things we have been getting up to! I can't wait to see what the awesome teachers here at Riverside come up with next for us to do!

1 August 2011

2011-07-31T22:02:00.000-07:00

Playing the new guitars Lizzie made for us! Now we can be real rock stars!

On a quiet Friday afternoon, The Kahu room were lucky enough to get to go on an excursion to the park!

Jo Jo is a real daredevil!

Tommy spend hours making an enclosure for the dinosaurs and elephants!

Nathaniel has conquered the blue bridge!

After a morning helping Becky bake muffins, a big drink of water was needed!

Georgia and George laxing out on the couch!

Kaitlin has begun crawling!

Anika decided the best way to put the baby to bed was to get in the cot herself!

Oanaka @ Riverside 26th July

2011-07-25T13:48:00.000-07:00

Baxter the builder, can we fix it? Yes we can!

Face painting in the Kahu room evolved into a full performance!

The performers even had a back up band!

Taylor has really enjoyed trying to work out how to drive the new swivel car!

Magnus creating a Stickle brick masterpiece!

A bit of quiet time, reading together.

Trinity is always so gentle towards her friends in the Weka room!

Georgia puzzling over the puzzles

Oanaka @ Riverside 19 July

2011-07-18T20:40:00.000-07:00

THE WEKA ROOM

George is learning how his body moves and how it fits into small spaces!

Painting is still a favourite activity for Connor

The children are enjoying more challenging activities in the Weka room

THE KEA ROOM

Yes, Oanaka @ Riverside got hit with the rain! Quinn is testing out how deep the puddle is...

Helping each other out - that's what we like to see!

Quinn, the skater boy!

THE KAHU ROOM

Emily made a fantastic plane - complete with a furry tail...

Creating more challenging obstacle courses for each other!

The Kahu room hair salon!

Sleding down the icy hill on frosty mornings!

New update from Riverside

2011-07-04T18:54:00.000-07:00

The Weka room (infants) have been working on helping and encouraging the children with 'Problem Solving'.

"Children feel confident in taking some responsibility for enquiring and for testing ideas to solve problems"

"Children are encouraged to identify and describe problems and helped to make connections and relationships to solve them"

"Children develop reflective and creative thinking as they contribute ideas and try them out with others"

"Children try out original and innovative ideas and exercise their imaginations to solve problems"

The Kea room (toddlers)have been encouraging the children's creativity

"Children experience an environment where they discover and develop different ways to be creative and expressive"

The Kahu room (preschool) have been working on Exploration with the children

"Children experience an environment where they gain confidence in and control of their bodies"

"Children experience an environment where they learn strategies for active exploration, thinking and reasoning"

Connor Street "Where Are You?"

2011-07-03T23:50:00.000-07:00

"Where are you?" Well you may ask, I say! For some unexpected reason the last posting has ended up in cyber-space somewhere...I can see it but whether or not you internet explorers can remains to be seen! I'll need to get onto my 'problem-solver' (a capable parent here at Connor Street) to assist me. Meanwhile... here's a taste of what's been happening in our wee corner of the world:

Exploring technology in the Kanuka (infants) Room

Being brave and holding the vaccum by myself!

Curiosity got the better of the rest of us...we came to see for ourselves

Making yummy food for the frozen Wanaka birds (Kowhai/Kahikatea playground)

Putting the concoction into a pinecone ready to hang from a tree

The finished product ready and waiting for the birds

Chilling out at the top of the hill

Making yet another huge construction in the sandpit

Here's looking at you kid - different lenses in the Kahikatea Room (preschool)

Thanks for bearing with me, the technologically challenged one, yet again. Perhaps I should be taking lessons from my Riverside counterpart????

Come on snow, come on snow!!!!

2011-06-22T14:49:00.000-07:00

We have been waiting and waiting (along with the rest of New Zealand) for some snow to arrive!!! But unfortunatly it looks as though we might be waiting longer than expected. Luckily we have lots of fun things to do at Educare while we wait!

Baking a yummy morning tea

Having a good old fashioned game of Kiwi Cricket!

Practicing our bat and ball skills

Writing letters with our friends to post in the letter box

Helping Andrea weed the over grown garden!

Testing out the new tight rope!

Sooty gets it have a visit to the Weka room, much to the children's delight!

Sensory exploration

Finger painting!!

Feeding the ducks - a favourite past time for the Weka room children!

June 10th 2011

2011-06-09T21:45:00.000-07:00

hmmm, seemed like a great idea at the time didnt it Georgia?!

Where is your nose?

Where are your ears?

Macy relaxing with Sooty

Wonderful dancing Nieve!

The Kahu kids enjoying the new maps!

What country is this?!

Practising our hand eye coordination with the new bat and balls.

Thank you!

2011-06-02T13:56:00.000-07:00

Oanaka@ riverside would like to thank the wonderful "Stars in your eyes" people for their kind donation! We purchased some fantastic musical instruments with the money!

A visit From the Fire Truck!

2011-05-16T19:29:00.000-07:00

Oanaka @ Riverside was lucky enough to get a visit from a fire truck today!!

We all dressed up as a 'hero' (because fire men are our heroes!)

The staff were good sorts and got into the dressing up!

Spiderman Luke!

Thomas in his awsome tiger costume!

Connor wearing Thomas' undies over his pants! Good work!

Rock Star George!

Peguin Mace - Adorable!

Michael wearing his cape

George gets a ride in the Fire truck!

The Kahu kids get to go up into the fire truck and have a look around!

The fire man showed us where all the fire hoses were kept

After the fire men came and talked to us about fire safety, they drove the fire truck passed the fence, with the sirens going!

We all stood at the fence and watched and waved as the fire truck drove by!

What a great day it was!

The new vege garden!

2011-05-11T21:02:00.000-07:00

While the Kea and Kahu rooms have been watching the concrete trucks and the building going on in the washing line area, the Weka room have been having a bit of fun themselves - with paint!

"Do I have paint on my face?"

It looks like Connor is enjoying the painting!

After a hard days painting, a decent rest is in order!

Meanwhile, over the fence......

The new vegetable garden is getting made!

Going through everything with a fine tooth comb, making sure that everything is in order!

Then it got even more exciting when the concrete truck came to visit!

These guys got front row seats!

We also had to make a ramp at the edge of the sand pit and we were allowed to put out feet and hand print in the concrete!

The finished product.

Next came all the stones!

Luckily we had so many great helpers to get the stones over the fence into the washing line/vege garden area!

"Bob the builder, can we fix it?!"

April - May 2011

2011-05-05T19:01:00.000-07:00

The Weka room children have been enjoying the new swiss ball and mini trampoline!

We have some new 'themed' boxes in the Kahu room full of florist and hairdressing equipment - the children have loved getting really involved in it!

After a week or so in the Weka room, the trampoline made it over the fence to the big playground - the children over here have also throughly enjoyed having a bounce on it!

The children in both the Kea and Kahu rooms have really been enjoying partaking in mat times. The kahu room do a music time in the afternoons which the children have really been getting into! They love to sing and dance!!

Easter Time

2011-04-19T19:40:00.000-07:00

The children at Oanaka @ Riverside have been partaking in a few easter activites. We have been painting a lot of eggs and making Hot Cross Buns! yummmm

Seeing as its also autumn time, we went hunting for some of the beautful leaves that have fallen off the trees, and made our very own tree.

The Weka room have been having fun watching the new bunny rabbit Sooty. He likes to squeeze under the gate and explore the infants room playground - I think it must be lot calmer for him in there than out in the big kids playground!

March - April!

2011-04-13T20:55:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the newest member of the Oanaka @ Riverside Crew - Sooty the Bunny Rabbit!

Sooty is almost two months old and arrived from Dunedin in the weekend, he lived in this cage for a few nights before arriving at Educare!

Then he was introduced to our resident Guinea pig, Jed. They hit it off straight away!

The children were all very excited to take a peek at Jed and Sooty playing together!

It turns out, Sooty is very adventurous and left the hutch to explore the playground!

Then Jed decided it was safe and he followed his new friend out into the playground as well! The children were all very good at sitting or lying down and waiting until the bunny or guinea pig came up to them. We don't want to scare them so they don't come out to visit us anymore!

Some were even lucky enough to get a hold - Sooty really liked all the gentle pats he got - he even closed his eyes and had a wee nap at one point!

The Kanuka Room, Connor Street, March 2011

2011-03-26T14:44:00.001-07:00

A Day Kanuka Room (ages 3-18mths)

Learning that pictures and words tell a story

Helping a friend get organised

Exploring nature on an excursion

Practising the art of hiding

Stalking Omi...silently

Creating (and tasting) a masterpiece

Being courageous

Concentrating hard

Enjoying the feel of textures

Sharing equipment and co-operating

Refuelling and taking a well earned break

Discovering new places to explore

March

2011-03-09T14:38:00.000-08:00

The Kea room children have been working on physically challenging themselves. Especially on the monkey bars!

The Kahu room have been working on their artwork for the A&P show!

The children in the Weka room have been enjoying the shell filled with balls and...Bubbles!! Hours of fun to be had!

In the summer time , when the weather is fine!

2011-02-17T13:46:00.000-08:00

Jed the Guinea pig enjoying the shade from the flax!

Ollie the Schnauzer came for a visit in the sun!

6 Little speckled frogs sat on a speckled log, eating the most delicious grubs, yum yum!!

checking out the frog and tadpole!

Doing some painting outside in the sun

Mmmm tasty paint!

Butterflies!

2011-01-30T13:24:00.000-08:00

Here at Oanaka @ Riverside, we recently got some new swan plants for each of our three rooms. Each plant had a few baby caterpillars on it already. It has been awsome seeing the childrens fascination with the caterpillars and the life cycle of the butterfly - some of us were even lucky enough to see the caterpillars turn into a chrysialis and watch the butterfly hatch out a week or so later! Each butterfly had a big send off as we took the plant outside with all the children, we watched and waved as it flapped its wings and flew away!

We are also planning on getting a few hens for our centre aswell so we are looking forward to learning about a new life cycle with the children and learning more about how to care for different animals!

WELCOME BACK!

2011-01-09T19:27:00.000-08:00

Welcome back everybody, all of us here at Oanaka Educare Connor Street and Riverside hope you all had a fantastic holiday period! We all look forward to an great 2011!
So far we have gotten off to a great start and we are glad that the weather is back to being super sunny again!

We have been lucky at Oanaka@ Riverside and have just erected a brand new shade sail in the middle of the playground so that looks like it will be a great, shady place to play while outside enjoying the weather!

Merry Chirstmas

2010-12-20T17:11:00.000-08:00

Finally we have someone to work on updating our blog (hopefully) weekly so you can check out what fun and exciting things we have been up to at Oanaka EduCare lately!

The weather has been very hot over the past month or so (as i'm sure you are all very aware of!) and we have been invloved in alot of water play activites with the children to keep them cool. At Oanaka @ Riverside we held a special 'Messy and Water play day'. This included lots of gloop, slime, mud, sprinklers, water pipes and even a waterslide!

Seeing as Chirstmas is literally just around the corner, over the past few weeks we have been having a lot of fun getting into the chirstmas spirit by singing lots of chirstmas carols, doing a lot of Christmas activites and making lots of christmas decorations with the children,

We would all like to wish you a very merry Chirstmas and we hope you all have loads of fun with your children over the holiday period!

Welcome to our new Blog!

2010-09-22T23:31:00.000-07:00

We will start using this page to upload the latest photos and news from both Oanaka EduCare centres. We are really excited about using this blog as it means teachers can make regular updates instead of asking for our webmaster to update our website for us. So here is hoping you will be able to see events as they happen or shortly after. We would love feedback to let us know what you would like to see.

Cheers from Dot, Sandie and the Oanaka team.