GIFTS FOR PARENTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 135, 5 December 1939, Page 14

GIFTS FOR PARENTS

KINDERGARTEN YULETIDE

PARTIES

. i The first of the Kindergarten Assoj ciation's Chrirtmas parties was held on i Saturday, when parents and friends ■J of the Taranaki Street Kindergarten i joined in the children's celebrations. The Trades Hall was transformed for the occasion. A glittering, laden Christmas tree held a toy for each child, carefully chosen for that particular child. The stage. was a picture, set out for the children's afternoon tea with brightly-decked small tables and coloured chairs, each with a coloured hat awaiting its small occupier. The front of the stage was a mass of gailycoloured flowers. In welcoming the large number of guests, Miss Wilson, principal of the Free Kindergartens, referred to the added responsibility Miss Scott (director of Taranaki Street Kindergarten) had undertaken during November at the Exhibition Kindergarten. She spoke enthusiastically of the way Miss Scott's staff had carried on the work at Taranaki Street during her absence. Miss Wilson said that' this party represented "Miss N Scott's silver wedding in ■ Kindergarten" \ and congratulated her -on the freshness and inspiration she still brought to her work. Her name was revered by hundreds in; the community—some of whom had been to kindergarten as children and now had children of their own at Taranaki Street. The children played their Kindergarten songs and games—the naturalness of their behaviour in front of so many onlookers being a tribute to the unselfconsciousness Kindergarten aims to retain in the children. One of the high lights of the party was the giving by the children to their parerts of the little gifts they had made. "There is'one for mother and there's one for dad," was the song that told that loving hands and a child's heart had produced the gailycoloured pictures and painted tins, etc. The kindergarten recognises that the child needs to be given opportunity to give as well as to receive—thus the Christmas party, a lovely climax to a year's happy activity, brings the com- ' plete joy of giving and receiving. j A delightful afternoon tea was I served to guests by members of the Taranaki Street Mothers' Club. Among those present were Mrs. Peter Fraser, Mrs. D. C. Peacock, Mrs. L. Gilbert,Mrs. J. Murray, Mr. Arnold Campbell, the Rev. and Mrs. Squires, Miss Ford, Mrs. Dowsett, several members of the kindergarten staff, and some hundred and fifty parents and friends. A DELIGHT TO WATCH. Gifts were also presented by the children to their parents at the party held last night in St. Thomas's Hall, by the Newtown Free Kindergarten. A tall, green Christmas tree was hung with glittering novelties and festooned with tinsel, and parents and friends filled the hall. . The party was opened by Mrs. J. A. Doctor, president of the Wellington Free Kindergarten Association. Miss Scott attended in the absence of Miss Wilson, and Miss Molly Vickery, director of the kindergarten, and Miss Rigg, assistant director, supervised the children's programme. The programme included a song of welcome to the guests, the singing of old nursery I rhymes, and the singing, unaccompan-! ied, with actions "Away in a Manger." The -ages of the children ranged from two years and nine months to five years, and they were a delight to watch. After the parents had received their gifts the children sat down to a party tea. The parents also had tea and afterwards the little ones received their gifts. Altogether it was a very happy and delightful occasion for everyone.