Picnic With Kent

Written by: Kate

A big focus for our 4-year-olds has been working on making good choices on the way they behave and of course displaying good learner qualities. Their collective effort have not gone unnoticed this year. Each time our children in the Kauri room proactively show exemplary behaviour such as tidying up, showing kindness to others, participating in discussions or actively listening, to name a few, they receive a token in the form of ‘fluffies’ which goes into the special Fluffy Jar.

On one occasion, to acknowledge the hard work the children have put into filling up the Fluffy Jar, our magical and cuddly Saint Kentigern Bear Kent and the teachers organised a special celebratory picnic in Term 2. Kent wrote an invitation to each child asking them to bring their favourite teddy along to the picnic which was held at the old Girls’ School playground.

The children were very excited to go on this picnic with their teddies and friends. There was yet another surprise during the picnic; each of them received a packet of ‘Tiny Teddies’ to enjoy with a personalised note from Kent! The children were thrilled, and once they finished eating the special treat, they went off to play on the playground.

The children really enjoyed the morning celebrating their collective success in filling up the Fluffy Jar. Earning ‘fluffies’ as individuals for the collective good of the entire class helped foster initiative, responsibility, teamwork, empowerment, motivation and perseverance, all key to inculcating our Saint Kentigern values.

As a teaching team we recognise that the children have the potential to rise up to expectations that we set for them. As for the children, they relish the sense of accomplishment and the encouragement from the teachers when they earnt a fluffy for the jar.

Here are some words about what the fluffy jar means to the children:

“You can put fluffies in there when you do a good job” – Dylan

“When you are sharing and playing kindly with each other you may get a special fluffy” – Rio

“If you make sensible choices you will get chosen to out a special fluffy in the jar” – Emily

“You can use your initiative which means you do something good when no one tells you” -Lexi

“When you choose a special fluffy your friends guess the name in Maori” – Amelia