With all the excitement of the Olympics happening at the moment, we were very lucky to have Kayla’s Grandad, Ramesh Patel, come to kindy for our mat time. Ramesh won a gold medal as a member of the New Zealand Mens’ Hockey Team at the Montreal Olympics in 1976. Ramesh showed us his precious gold medal and we were allowed to touch it and even try it on!

Ramesh had been to three Olympics and told us about his experiences and answered our questions. We talked about how there are three different levels on the podium for the people who finish first, second and third. We also talked about the colours of each medal and wondered about the reason for gold being the first place! Ramesh also explained a bit about how to play hockey and together with Kayla gave us a demonstration.

Afterwards many children felt inspired to make their own medals at the art table – deciding what sports they would like to win! Perhaps we will see some of them at the Olympics one day in the future!

One of our children, Mason, took his medal home and together with his family, made a video message to send to their good friend, Emma Twigg. He told Emma that he had made a gold medal at kindergarten and he hoped that she would ‘go for gold’ in her race and get a gold medal too! It was very exciting to see that Emma did just that and won a gold medal the very next day!