Courtyard Montessori Preschool Blog

The Wedding of Mr and Mrs Martin - 31/12/11

2012-01-26T14:37:00.000+13:00

Our Christmas Party

2011-11-28T12:50:00.000+13:00

What a beautiful day for a picnic at preschool! Perfect for friends and family to gather together to relax and celebrate the festive season.

There was face painting for everyone...

and sometimes there was a little wait.

The sandpit was open for everyone young and old to mix and mingle.

Shad Rutherford arrived to provide some entertainment.

Then the anticipated Santa arrived.

With all the gifts handed out and Santa's sacks empty, it was time for him to go. So with a last present of a lolly scramble, he was off to visit other good little boys and girls.

With Santa gone the presents were unwrapped and the fun and games began!

Our excursion to the A & P Show

2011-11-10T16:31:00.000+13:00

On Wednesday the 9th November Courtyard Montessori had an exciting excursion to the annual A & P Show. The children were all very excited as we climbed aboard the 'big bus' to start our trip!

Yay, we arrived! Now it was time to explore....

Talking to the horses

Stopping for a snack

Sitting on the embankment watching the horses

...and then the motorbikes!!

We loved riding on the tractors and other farm equipment

We watched the wood chopping

Visiting the farmyard

Some of us found it a little smelly!!!

Playball

2011-11-02T14:42:00.000+13:00

Every Wednesday afternoon, The Playball team come to the Courtyard and teach the children ball skills that add to their confidence with physically active play. The children seem to be loving this experience and are very attentive and enjoy the chance to have a good workout with coaches Ali, Janine and Cathy.

Sophia and Antonie are working together in the game 'Body Balance'

The children are moving together with a ball between them.

"Both hands on the ball"

"Scoop up the ball and roll it along the ground"

"Put the ball down and put both your elbows on it"

The children are making tunnels with their legs for the ball trains to go through.

Courtyard Montessori's Annual Variety Show 2011

2011-10-28T12:29:00.000+13:00

To start the show the children sung and acted
'E toru nga mea' and the 'Kiwi Bird' song.

Then with some inspriation from the All Blacks the extended day children performed the Haka.

Following this act was the full day children who danced to 'Around the Apple Tree'.

Mmmm after looking at all those apples we started to get a little peckish for the next performance of

'The very hungry caterpillar' by the afternoon children.

Watch out fruit, Angus the hungry caterpillar is looking for some food.

Now it was time for the boogie down at the jungle dance where the room 2 children entertained the crowd with 'Giraffe's can't dance.'

Paula the giraffe tried to steal the show but the children danced expertly to the waltz, rock'n'roll, tango, cha-cha and Scottish reel music.

The final children's act was room 1's interpentation of 'Fly, Fly, Witchy' and ended with all the goulish creatures out trick or treating.

Now every year at the Courtyard Montessori production, the teachers perform a little skit to entertain and delight the parents and children. This year 'Room on a broom' was presented and received many laughs as the teachers hurtled around the stage on a witches broom stick.

Wow, what another fantiastic show put on by the children and staff.

An Early Spring Treat

2011-08-19T12:37:00.000+12:00

Paula brought two 5 day old lambs to preschool last week. They need feeding lots!

Paula showed the children how to measure and mix up the powder before pouring it into the bottles.

The children will all have the opportunity to feed the lambs.
They are really hungry!

Now the lambs have full tummies it's time for a sleep in the sun.

Mid-Winter Breakfast

2011-07-15T11:05:00.000+12:00

The smell of sausages, pancakes and waffles filled the frosty morning air as the children and families arrived for the annual mid-winter breakfast.

With teachers manning the BBQ, waffle iron and electric frying pans, children and families lined up to receive a delicious breakfast treat. Mmmmmm....yummy!

When breakfast was finished and tummies were full it was time for fun and games with friends.

Happy holidays to everyone. Keep warm, happy and safe and look forward to seeing everyone on Monday 1 August.

Potters at Work

2011-07-05T15:40:00.000+12:00

This term, some of our older children have been attending pottery classes each Monday afternoon. The children have walked down Selwyn Street to Celia's home where she has a studio set up for pottery. The children have enjoyed this experience and each week they have made a variety of things from the clay. Some of these creations have included, ladybirds, turtles and snails. The children have been shown how to manipulate the clay and use a type of clay glue to attach arms, legs etc. They have also been introduced to different tools that help add texture to their work.

The children have thoroughly enjoyed learning the process of pottery and Celia has 'fired' their work each week, so they all have some memories of their pottery adventures.

Making Apple Juice-An Autumn Treat

2011-05-20T14:44:00.000+12:00

This week we were the lucky recipients of a trolley full of windfall apples...

These apples came from an apple tree and were falling, ripened onto the ground.

A family harvested the apples and gave them to us.

We sliced the apples...

We juiced the apples...

We drank the sweet, healthy apple juice. Yum!

'Round and round the apple tree,

pick up the apples 1, 2, 3

put them in your basket carefully, save them in the pantry for your family.

'cause in the middle of the Winter time,

apple juice sure tastes fine.

Thank the wind and the honey bee,

for the healthful harvest of the apple tree'.

An Interactive Language Experience:

2011-03-31T15:25:00.000+13:00

The children at Courtyard were visited by an interactive story teller from the South Library. All children enjoyed exploring different stories through a variety of mediums and prompts.

The children laughed and giggled at this delightful book.

The eye catching puppets were enjoyed by all and made for fantastic conversations.

Bugs Birds, Frogs and a Rabbit at Preschool

2011-03-28T15:10:00.000+13:00

The children from extended and full day were very excited to have a visit from 'The Bug Lady' today. She shared her many and varied types of bugs, a little parrot, frog and even a rabbit. The children were given the opportunity to hold some of these and enjoyed the interactive experience.

Christchurch Earthquake February 22nd 2011

2011-03-15T16:58:00.000+13:00

Messages of support from all our friends in Aotearoa.

These are some of the pictures our children drew and wrote about as a record of their experiences in the February 22nd earthquake here in Christchurch 2011.

Anticipating juicy, sweet Strawberries

2010-09-02T16:46:00.003+12:00

Thanks to our fabulous families, today we were the lucky recipients of a box of Strawberry plants. Together the afternoon and extended day children worked alongside each other as we dug out a furrow and added a large sack of horse manure. An enthusiastic worm hunt followed and the pleasure of finding lots of Tiger worms was enjoyed by all our little 'helpers'.

We all agreed that Strawberries are delicious and we are looking forward to a bumper crop. The Strawberry plants were carefully planted by each child and were well watered in anticipation of Spring growth.

Corbin particularly enjoyed hunting for and collecting worms.

A walk out into the community.

2010-08-24T16:06:00.000+12:00

On Monday we had an intimate gathering of 6 children! So Paula and Helen decided to go for a walk to have some fun and excitment on this cold, gloomy winter's day.

Before we headed out we rugged up with coats and hats. Then the full day children joined us and we had a small "Grace and Courtesy" session on how to keep ourselves safe while out walking.

Off we go!

We stopped at the bridge and shared around the bread before throwing it to the waiting ducks.

Once the ducks had gobbled up all the bread, we trundled along to the playground.

Weeeeee! The slide was the favourite part of the playground.

Our Skinks in Room 2 are hungry so we all hunted through the dead leaves looking for any sort of bugs. Unfortunately we didn't find any.

Then it was time to go home, but on the way we had to stop a few times and look at the street numbers. What number was this one?

What a fun afternoon!

Wet weather fun

2010-07-22T16:00:00.000+12:00

We are all very proud of our new covered verandahs. The children love having the new extension to our classrooms. They can keep out of the drizzle and wind, while playing with fun activities like the car track, puzzles and playdough.

However, this new structure has no chance of winning the hearts of our children when there are big puddles in the playround. Instead of staying dry under the cover, some of the children decided to get out in this wet weather and help to sort out our drainage problem. All kitted out with jackets, gumboots, buckets and spades, the water removal began...

It was a tight squeeze but they all managed to fit around the puddle.

Great team work developed as buckets were shared and the role of emptying the dirty water down the drain kept changing.

What fun everyone had on this wet and mucky morning!

Building Extension Progress

2010-07-14T11:29:00.000+12:00

On Friday 2 July when we closed for the holidays the builders arrived to start demolishing the Room 1 steps

The holes were dug for the new support beams and Milla hopped into a hole to see how deep it was

With good weather the progress was steady during the first week of the holidays ...

By Tuesday 13 July we are well on track for finishing the project by the end of the holidays ...

watch this space for photos of the finished building.

Courtyard's Cutural Awaking

2010-06-30T16:32:00.001+12:00

Welcome to a glimpse of our 'Cultural awakening' show.

On the 19th of June 2010 the children and teachers put on a concert to celebrate the many nationalities that our centre represents. This was no easy task! It took everyone a lot of time and effort to create a cultural extravaganza for friends, family and whanau.

It all began with the simple task of supporting children to paint the flags which represented their nations...

Next came the task of praticing all the moves and learning the songs...

rehersals created a little cloak room chaos...

We all praticed walking onto the 'stage' with the flags...

... and lining up with them.

With all the actions, lyric's and positioning perfected, we were ready for the show.

Now all we had to do was perform it!

Welcome to the Courtyard Montessori Preschool 'Cutural Awakening' ceremony!

The children performed their first song...

"If it weren't for your gumboots...."

"Made a bowl of jello...."

Our waiata, 'kahurangi the colour of the sky'...

After all songs were done and dusted, the children went off stage so they could come back as a repesentive for a country.

When everybody was on stage we sung "all you need is love!"

Next came a little excitement, as the teachers did a wee skit for the children.

During 'Stars in their Eyes' they returned to the stage and gave a wee clue as to who they would be.

Then they came running back on stage as... The Wiggles!

And that was the end of that!

Our Rabbits

2010-05-19T08:34:00.002+12:00

This term we have welcomed two new arrivals to our preschool.

The children have named them...

Thumper and...

Pom Pom.

This is their 'Bunny Hilton'.

Thumper and Pom Pom join us in the classroom where they can hop about and explore what the children are up to. The children have learnt how to pat and care for the bunnies.

Joseph the Tip Truck driver

2010-03-31T13:55:00.000+13:00

Joseph wants to be a Tip Truck Driver when he grows up.
We asked the local council road team to pop in to visit us with an empty tip truck, and they did!

Joe climbed into the cab and activated the tipping mechanism...

There was some loose gravel which clattered out of the deck, it was impressive to watch how high the actual deck could be tilted.

We all clapped as Joseph completed a full tilt of the tip truck deck. Yes, we all think Joe can be a Tip Truck driver when he grows up.

Vivien flies the Slovakian Flag

2010-03-26T15:54:00.000+13:00

Vivien arrived at school with the Flag for Slovakia. She was very excited and proud to show it to her teacher. "It's my flag, for my family" she announced. She gathered a group of friends to help her to raise the flag. Later that day she stood beneath the pole as the breeze flew her flag for Slovakia.

Bathing baby Isaac

2010-03-05T13:19:00.008+13:00

Eva’s Mummy Stephanie brought beautiful baby Isaac into school to be bathed.

The children were very gentle and washed baby Isaac clean.

We all agreed that bath time is fun and Stephanie explained the importance of keeping a baby clean and dry.

When bath time was over, William gave baby Isaac a BIG kiss. =)