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Home-Based visited the Wildbase Recovery Centre. What a great place to visit and there was so much to see. We met Suzanne at the gate and she took us around the various spaces and explained what was there. We saw tui, kereru, kaka and heard about things like the Whio or blue duck. There was information to read about different birds.

We had Levity Beet come in and perform an interactive show for us, using many unusual instruments like the Jaw harp and Honkytromblastic as well as a variety of different upcycled instruments.

Lately the children at Milson kindergarten have been enjoying the many opportunities to get active in their local community. Our weekly excursions on the lollipops van allows us to get out into the community and explore. Over the past month we have visited Manawatu Gym and  Flip City and also popped over to Milson School to join them for discovery.

We built a butterfly garden and had lots of monarchs landing and laying eggs, we successfully hatched about nine, or ten and watched several as they came out of the chrysalis, an

We have been working hard to incorporate a bicultural curriculum throughout our environment.  We are lucky enough to have a very talented teacher who has painted our inside mural of Ranginui, Papatuanuku and the Atua.  With our tamariki learning all about this through discussion and storytelling, we decided to create more Atua for our outdoor space.

We have been learning about New Zealand this term including water and land forms. We decided to travel up to Durie Hill in Whanganui so the children could see the amazing views from river to sea.  The bus ride was fun with plenty to see including lots of animals such as ducks, turkeys, deer, horses, and of course cows and sheep.

Near Waitangi Day West End Kindergarten talk about Te Tiriti o Waitangi. We talk about what it means to live together in a safe, happy and fair Aotearoa.  To make this topic authentic we share ideas about "What makes Kindergarten a happy, fun and safe place to be?" Tamariki were confident articulating their ideas and values.

We are very excited to announce our recent success in The Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) which supports partnerships between researchers and educators to improve outcomes for learners.  RKA is the only recipient within the early childhood education sector to be selected for funding in this round.

The magical place of Ahimate Reserve is part of Riverdale Kindergartens harpori and is well explored by our tamariki as we visit our special taonga every fortnight. Our tamariki are learning about what it means to be a kaitiaki, by picking up rubbish or caring for the environment.  We have planted trees, created willow pods and collected resources for our creativity.

What an amazing experience we had today - a sports day designed for us to make some connections with others in our community including Bulls School, Clifton School, All About Children Childcare and Ohakea Childcare. We got to see our brothers and sisters, other whānau members, our old kindergarten friends and meet new friends.