Wow! It has been a while since my last blog!! This is because the Spies family has been away on holidays to Singapore and the UK! We had the most amazing time meeting our family in sunny England! That's right, the Summer this year in England was awesome. Blue sky, hot days and busy, busy places. The children were on their long holidays in that part of the world and there were people everywhere! The parks, the beaches, museums, cafes and restaurants were packed with families and tourists. But it was just great to see lots of people out and about enjoying their Summer holidays. My boys had so much fun with both set of grandparents, as my parents also came from Brazil to meet us. It was really magical. And let's not forget our wee holiday in Singapore, let me just say - a great stopover to break a bit of the long journey to the other side of the globe. Singapore has lots to do for all ages. But the best part was heading to the rides at Universal Studios and other attractions in Sentosa Island. The Singapore Zoo is a must see! I also enjoyed the Singapore Flyer and the Gardens by the Bay - a futuristic garden complex. Truly amazing! But hey, we are now back and looking forward to all the changes I'm planning for the International Children's Group.

Here is an achievement that's for all of us to be proud of - The International Children's Group is a finalist in the Wellington Airport Regional Community Awards 2013 - Kapiti District. This is really awesome guys and I would like to thank all the families involved in this project and also all the help from our community to make it such a success. A special thank you to my husband who always supported my crazy ideas and put me foward for this award. Fingers crossed now to watch the winners!!

         

And last but not least a few photos from our last meeting in June where we talked about... Singapore!

It was great to end the meeting with a communal lunch serving Singapore noodles. Great to talk about all the Asian spices and typical food with the kids. They seem to enjoy it better when they are eating at the same time! (Who doesn't?) That's an idea for our future meetings as well - end with a lunch with traditional food from that particular country we talk about. Yum!!!!

                            


                            


                                               

                             

MAY MEETING


In May we talked about "Charities around the World".

We've contacted a few charities, local and worldwide, to see how we could help.
We received a lot of material from Red Cross, Unicef and World Vision showing what they do around the world. The children saw pictures of places in Africa, India and lots of other countries where volunteers help in schools, hospitals and changing the lives of people around small villages. This was a great start for our conversation and to make our group think how we could help.

We also had the chance to visit Thrifty Place, a second-hand shop located downstairs of our hall, and talk to the volunteers about what they do with the donations they receive and how they help the local community.

Our group also collected clothes, shoes, children's items and house items to donate to 3 charities: Foster Hope - a New Zealand charity which provides basics for children going into foster care. Dress for Success - a charity based in  Wellington that promotes the economic independence of women by providing professional work attire, a network of support, and career development tools to help them thrive in work and in life. Red Cross Refugee Services - a charity part of the Red Cross, helping refugees families arriving in New Zealand to build a new life.

It was really great to see the children getting involved in our Charity talk and I really hope they start thinking more about those in need and how lucky we are living in a peaceful country with schools for everyone, clean water and a healthy environment.

                Showing pictures and locating places on the World Map

                                                      Sorting out donations  

                      Dropping off donations to Jess Anderson from Foster Hope

April Meeting

In April we talked about the United Kingdom and Ireland. We started a new way to talk about the countries and its culture with "flash cards" featuring different aspects of that particular country - music, sports, capital city, continent etc. It provides the children with basic knowledge of that culture and then we move on to a specific topic and talk further or have a game/fun activity around it so the children learn and participate at the same time.

We talked about the Scottish Bagpipes and went to the Scotts Hall across the park to watch it being played. What an amazing instrument! You sure need to fill your lungs with lots of air to play it!! We also watched the Scottish Highland Dance and the children had the opportunity to try some of the instruments and big drums. So, thank you so much to the Kapiti Coast Pipes & Drums for providing the children with lots of fun!

We then came back to the Hall where a group of Irish Dancers was waiting for us to do a presentation. Check out our pictures below for these and other activities we had on the day. The meeting ended with Arts and Crafts where the children made beautiful crowns and swords for the Kings and Queens of England! Thank you to everyone who helped this month to put the programme together.

Annette Wardle from the Kapiti Coast Pipes & Drums playing the Bagpipe 

The children enjoying the beautiful sound of the bagpipe

The Scottish Highland Dancers

We had a great time trying all the different instruments, specially the big drums!!!

                                         

                        

                                

Back to the Hall for the Irish Dance presentation

Sean talking about Wales

March Meeting

Wow!! What a great Brazilian Carnival Party we had in March! Thank you so much for all those who came, helped and enjoyed it. It was loads of fun. The party started at 10am with Second Hand Stalls, Face Painting provided by local artist "Daisy Design" and Arts and Crafts for the kids provided by "Craft Garden". We also had a "Colouring Competition" and a "Best Costume Competition" - thank you Megan from Whitakers and the Brazilian Embassy for the prizes! At 10.30am we had our usual talk about the country chosen for the month - this month, Brazil! At 11.30am we had the amazing Capoeira Group with Perere showing the children this cool Brazilian Martial Art that mixes rhythm, dance and drums. Check out the pictures and video below. And to end the party, Wellington Batucada, a drumming group from Wellington, came to play Brazilian samba. The music, the beat, the people, their smiles, they were all amazing sending a wonderful vibe to all of us! I would like to add a huge thank you to our group members who helped on the day and also for their baking! Thank you to Cafe no 6 who was also part of this event supplying yummie food, and thank you to Dave Hipkins for helping with our sausage sizzle! I hope you all enjoyed as much as I did, here are some pictures of the day:

Ben manning one of the Second Hand Stalls. Well Done, Ben!!

Colouring Competition and the girls from Craft Garden at the back

Talking about Brazil

The Costume competition... and the winner is.... Kohurangi!!

Capoeira demonstration

It was great to see the kids joining in too!

Wellington Batucada playing outside in a beautiful sunny day. Awesome!

Having the Brazilian Ambassador and his wife at the event was great!

February Meeting

Here is our first meeting of 2013! With the children getting so good at our Continents Game we decided to take a little trip to Wellington to visit Te Papa and learn a little bit more about the Continental Drift and how our planet used to look a few million years ago! It was great to see the children trying to find their own countries on the map which looked quite different from what they look like now. Thank you Te Papa for putting a presentation together for us and answering all our questions. Check out the pictures from the day below:

Meeting at the Hall for some games before going to Te Papa

"Match the Country with its Continent"!!

If we don't know where that country belongs we look at the map

 Great work guys!!

  

Where does this country go?

At Te Papa for a great presentation about Continental Drift and Tectonic Plates

Can we make an earthquake?

Are the Continents still moving?

Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Geothermal Activities are all caused by Tectonic Plates

A Giant World Puzzle!!

Nearly there....

All done!

Our March meeting will be loads of fun!! We are planning a Brazilian Carnival Party! Watch this space!

The International Children’s Group

invites you to a

    Brazilian Party

.Capoeira
(with Mestre Perere)
.Arts & Crafts
(with Craft Garden)
.Music
(with Wellington Batucada)
.Face Painting 
(with Daisy Design)
.Food

and a second hand stall with baby and children’s
clothes!!

Come dressed up for lots of fun!

Saturday, 2^nd March. 10am – 2pm
Uniting Church, Raumati Beach

Entry by Koha