Nau mai ki tenei wiki Kōrero. What a few weeks it has been! It is exciting to be opening all of our kindergartens, along with our other services, on Monday. The Association staff will also be returning to the main offices in Porirua and Whanganui. For some you will have loved the last 7 weeks, others may have struggled. This rāhui has confirmed the amazing adaptability and resilience of our staff. Thank you! Naku te rourou nau te rourou ka ora ai te iwi With your basket and my basket the people will live Jane 
He Whānau Manaaki Kindergartens – COVID-19 update #18 (replacing today's email) Message to Parents and Whānau, and examples of communication Here is a message to parents and whānau for you to send out to enable them to prepare for next week. Please make sure you send it out using your normal channels of communication. Also in this Kōrero, we’ve tried to include information and examples of what other teams have done, to help you in working with your own community. Cleaning We have had a number of questions around cleaning under level 2 - Hand sanitiser units on the wall are in the process of being delivered and installed for Monday. If you don’t have one installed by Monday please use a small bottle of hand sanitiser and let Jane Braun know and she will follow up
- Cleaning products and hand sanitiser are also in the process of being delivered for Monday
- Wipes – some kindergartens, due to supply issues, will receive wipes that do not have the disinfectant in them even though they are anti-bacterial:
- If you have received ‘Anti-bacterial Wavy Wipes’ you need to use these wipes with the disinfectant spray you have or with your usual bleach solution
- If you have received wipes that are called Oxivir Wipes these have disinfectant embedded in them
- Both types of wipes can be used for 200 cleans and we suggest that you use one wipe per day and then dispose of them
- Please refer back to the Level 2 Kindergarten Pack for our key messages about cleaning.
Thermometers We have mailed out liquid crystal thermometers to each kindergarten, so you should receive them by next week at the latest. A liquid crystal thermometer is a type of thermometer that contains heat-sensitive (thermochromic) liquid crystals in a plastic strip that change colour(brightest) to indicate different temperatures. here will be 3 strips per kindergarten, and they need to be stuck on to hard surfaces in the internal play space. Things to note: - They need to be placed about 1m above floor level.
- You should spread the placement of them around the kindergarten. For example, if your play space is a rectangle, place one either end plus one in the middle.
- If you are operate with one door open to the outdoor area which the majority of you will be, then it’s best to place a strip 3+ metres from the opening, but not directly opposite the open door.
Please understand the strip temperature gauges are a temperature indicator only. If you are concerned about the temperature in your facility, email Peni Lupeni.Aitogi@wmkindergartens.org.nz). Learning Support - Requests for Information Some teams have received requests from Learning Support about policies and procedures related to returning to Level 2. We are currently working with Learning Support to provide much of that from the Association Office, rather than individual kindergartens needing to respond. So if you have received these requests, don’t respond at this stage, and we’ll let you know what to do as soon as we’ve sorted something. Last Email Update tomorrow and the Budget Today the Government will present the Budget. We will communicate any relevant udpates from that Budget in tomorrows email. Tomorrow will be our last Email Update for the foreseeable future :-). We’ll go back to communicating through the Kōrero from next week.
Heading Back To The Workplace Monday, the return to work under Level 2, will be a day full of excitement for some while for others it might cause anxieties. Here are some tips for returning to work that you might find useful. 
Talking To Children We have received lots of questions about how to talk to children about the virus when they return to kindergarten. You will have already received lots of really good resources to use with them. Here are another couple: There have been a number of childrens' books written about Covid, some are free to download from the internet. Here is one you might want to read with your tamariki. It is called Super Felix and is a storybook designed to help kids everywhere make sense of COVID-19 and talk about it with their parents. Follow Felix as he overcomes his fear of the virus, and learns what superpowers he has to help save the day.
Zooming To The Masses!! Yesterday was the first time all of the WM office staff "got together" for an office meeting since the rāhui began. While it was in "cyber world" it was certainly great to see all of our work mates. There were over 50 of us on the Zoom meeting and surprisingly with that number we managed it very well!! We are all looking forward to catching up for real on Monday. 
Cool Things Keep Happening Under Level 3 children returned to their Etu Ao homebased educators. Here you will see our TONI Ardua, teaching Ava-Reign how to wash her hands properly. Great stuff! The transport team have been working through the rāhui delivering vouchers and food parcels to our families. Since the return of the children to our homebased services the team have been delivering lunches to the TONI educators homes for the children in their care. Here our Transport Team Leader, Moz, delivers lunches. 
To help the tamariki and their whānau return to kindergarten on Monday the team at Una Williams have prepared this video and shared it with their community. Check it out!
Staying Connected 
Last week the team at Doris Nicholson made up and delivered packs to all of their children. The packs included puzzles, art supplies, books, beads for threading and games. They even put in scrap books so they could all make a story about lock down and how it was for them. The team are hoping to publish these scrapbooks when they return. Here is some feedback and photos from one of their families. Arts and craft day today Nevaeh has decided she wanted to make her self a birthday hat she was very happy with herself, using the wonderful resources you guys made up for us! Thank you all you are all so lovely, and Nevaeh can’t wait to come back.  
During the lockdown time the teaching team at Churton Park Kindergarten has been using the Zoom effectively to connect with whānau and deliver distance learning. They have held a virtual morning tea with 32 families participating and a celebration for one of their children who has just turned 5. The mother and child were very happy and appreciated that the team took this major event seriously during the rāhui.  
Amelie Bernhardt from Brooklyn Kindergarten shared a very cool video with her kindergarten community of her training her chickens! Check it out, it's pretty amazing! Cottle Kindergarten have prepared this power point to help their children and families with their return to kindergarten. This has been uploaded to the Teachers'Toolbox in StoryPark.
Feedback It is great to hear all the feedback our teams have been getting from their communities, we love hearing about it and love sharing it. Here is some more for this week: - Thanks for the info. Have appreciated your communication throughout and for your commitment to staying connected with our tamariki. Counting down until Monday!
- Thank you for all the planning you have put in as a team. Ellie is so excited to see you all next week ❤️
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