We LOVE CGS. The Pre-School lead the way in starting to decorate the Chester Street fence. The children were able to tell us what they enjoy about their days at Pre-School. Do stop and have a read and even a little tear!

This week we welcome Charlie Curwin and his family to Pre-School.  Charlie has recently arrived from the United Kingdom and is getting used to the the Christchurch way of life.   I am sure the children and parents will make Charlie and his family feel very welcome at our wonderful pre-school.

Today we had a wonderful visit from Sarah, who showed our tamariki how to make Giant Bubbles.  We all were given the opportunity to move the wands to make the bubbles grow bigger and bigger.  If you wish to order any of the wands or mixture, please see Miss Libby - they make great Christmas presents.

Technology plays a role in the Pre-School alongside all our other teaching and learning curriculum domains.  Over the last few weeks we have been using Facetime to connect with Sophie and Grace More in Cromwell, Miss Manson who has recently visited the USA and Mr McGregor (last year's tutor) in  the UK. The tamariki were able to FaceTime and talk to the girls and Miss Manson about what they had been doing.  Sophie and Grace were so excited to show us their home and remind us "how big they are since leaving Christchurch".  Miss Manson even managed to show us some of Disneyland.    

Pre-School enjoys incorporating ICT within our programme and has recently completed an internal evaluation on this topic.   As a team of teachers we looked at what we have available to use currently and how effectively we use it.   We have available iPads, laptops, Osmo coding equipment and Bee Bot robots.  Our documentation and assessment are shared via Storypark, enabling parents and extended family members to be connected with the child's learning.  Our findings after two terms data gathering, researching, gaining children's voice and analysis  indicated that  ICT is able to be used in a variety of ways to strengthen our teaching and learning programme, in particular enabling children to document their own learning and also research information together with teachers and their peers.

Swimming starts on Monday (4 December.)  Please read the notice on Storypark to familiarise yourself with the daily plan.  We will be leaving Pre-School at 9.30am.  If you are running late, please meet us at Graham Condon pools, behind Northlands Mall at Papanui.

The Nativity rehearsals are well and truly in full swing.  The children cannot wait to present their play to you, plus some additional songs they have chosen to sing.  The concert begins at 11.30am on Monday 11 December.  We look forward to seeing you there.  

Please ensure you read all the date and time information in the Co-curricular Notices section, and on the Upcoming Events calendar, as there are  important closure and collection dates of which you need to be aware.

Next week, the Pre-School will be putting a 2017 survey online via Storypark.  We would really appreciate your time to complete the survey as it will help us to reflect on the year and prepare for 2018.  

Have a wonderful last few weeks of term - and remember that sunblock and sun hat each day!