KidZone
Golden Kids’ busy bees buzzing
Elliott's baby meringues
Zienna, left, and teacher Melanie Jones are going on a bear hunt under the bridge. Photo: Jeanine Taylor. JEANINE TAYLOR
Elliott highly recommends taste testing the meringue mixture before baking. Photo: Supplied. SUBMITTED BY LOUISE AND ELLIOTT HOLLEY
During lockdown there was quite a lot of baking done in our household. One afternoon we decided to try making this meringue recipe for dessert. You can make a smaller mixture just by halving the ingredients. Enjoy with whipped cream and/or berry sauce.
Ingredients
6 egg whites 2 cups caster sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla essence 1 teaspon white vinegar 1 teaspoon cornflour Food colouring - any colour you like
Method
Before you start, turn the oven on to 110-120˚C. Put the egg whites in a large bowl (not plastic) - you can use a cake mixer or a hand-held beater - and beat until they form soft peaks. • Then start adding the sugar very slowly while you're still beating. This might take 10 minutes. • Then beat in the vanilla essence, vinegar, cornflour and a few drops of food colouring if you have it. • Spoon out little blobs of the mixture onto a baking tray covered with baking paper. • Bake for around 45 minutes. When the meringues are ready they should lift off the paper easily. • Cool on a rack and then serve. •
TUMEKE LOGGING WAYNE SOLLY Forest & woodlot harvesting Hauler & ground-based bush-rigged excavator Locally-owned operation with local crew
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With the reduction in alert levels, Golden Kids staff have been happy to welcome back their children and their families. Head teacher Sage Andrews spent a lot of time reading through the guidelines and attending online Zoom huis with other early childhood leaders. Getting her head around the many pages of information and putting it all into practice involved a lot of time and energy. “I learned the hard way not to start planning too early when I was bombarded with emails during Level 4 about what Level 3 could look like. I started putting processes into place and then it all changed again.” She then waited for information from the MOE on what Level 1 would look like for the centre. The focus for Golden Kids has been on getting to know the children again and gaining back that sense of belonging for staff, children and their whanau. “A lot can change over two months for younger students,” explained Sage. “They are coming back in and they are walking and talking and have new interests.” To help tamariki and their whanau feel safe about returning, Sage engaged the help of her partner Sam Goffriller to put together a video of what would be happening at Golden Kids when the children returned. They posted this on their online portfolio platform, Storypark. On the teacher-only day prior to returning, Sam added another video of all of the teaching staff welcoming back their tamariki. The children and parents loved it. Many children watched it numerous times. It helped the children to understand what would happen when they got back to Golden Kids and made them and their families feel safe.
Sage Andrews encourages a determined Osher to master climbing up the slide. Photo: Jeanine Taylor.
The children’s response to returning amazed the staff, especially Sage. “They were pretty much jumping through the door and saying goodbye to their parents. It totally surprised us; we were expecting to need to have a lot of extra support. We even had more teachers than normal available and they were just so happy to be back.” Another aspect of making everyone feel safe involved Sage waiting outside, greeting the children and their parents as they arrived and as they left. It was much appreciated by parents and staff, and while Sage got no paperwork done, she helped families to navigate successfully what could have been a stressful time for them. Luckily for Sage, fellow teacher Nicki Cottle knitted beanies and headbands for all of the team during lockdown, and these proved to be invaluable when they worked outdoors. It was a wet afternoon when The GB Weekly visited Golden Kids, but that didn’t stop the over-twos from getting out into the elements and having fun. The under-twos were also enjoying their outdoor covered area, with happy smiles in abundance. The move to Level 1 will help to reduce some of the workload of teachers and teacher aides, who had to clean and wash every surface and resource used at the end of the day. It also means a return to baking, shared morning teas and playdough, the sensory experiences that children really enjoy and learn from. There are a couple of places available for the over-twos at Golden Kids for those that may want to join this buzzing bubble of learning.
Hard wood challenges choppers SUBMITTED
One of the first live sports to take place in the area since lockdown was woodchopping, the Queen's Birthday Challenge, where the axemen compete in a series of one on one knockout races to decide the winner. The wood was very hard, turning most races into a test of endurance, where the usual importance of speed and power of the axemen was replaced in importance by determination and just staying in the race. The women's underhand elimination races saw Courtney Clarke beat Serena Gowland and Louise Nalder in race one and Ashleigh Radford beat Rachael Nalder in race two. Ashleigh prevailed over Courtney in the final to win the series. Another women's race of note was the Nalder sisters racing to sort out the family bragging rights. In an upset result Rachael finished victorious
over Louise. The men's racing had two heats where 1st and 2nd in each would progress to the semi-finals where the knockout phase would begin. In the standings Brian Godsiff beat Ray Biggs in the 1st semi and Dave McEwen beat Dave Gowland in the second. Brian looked to have the final all but won but lost his technique on the second side and let Dave McEwen back in to take out a narrow win. In the underhands Steve Winter beat Ray Biggs in the first semi and Dave Gowland beat Brian Godsiff in the second, which was the closest race of the day taking several replays to decide. Dave then beat Steve in the final to win that event. The Golden Bay Axemens Club would like to thank: Anatoki Salmon, Roots Bar, Telegraph Hotel, Takaka Camping and Cabins and the indefatigable Duncan McKenzie for their help with the event. THE GB WEEKLY, FRIDAY 12 JUNE 2020