What a start to the new year. Lots of change and lots of new. We started in our new room, where Minasan used to be. We also have more pre-kindys in the room this year, and we have before and after-school Kindy. The children have settled into the routine well, and we are working well together in the room.
School Holidays:
We started the year with the January school holidays, so we had fun-themed days. The popular days were disco day, messy play, camping, cooking and science day. This gave the children opportunities to get to know the new room and experience lots of fun and excitement.
News:
To get to know the new children better, we encouraged them to bring in something special from home that means something to them or something they are interested in. We had children bring in photographs of favourite places, sensory toys, favourite books, dolls, etc. Many of the children brought in news and confidently stood up in front of the class to share about their news. This developed their confidence in speaking and listening to others. We also learnt about questioning.
Bible study:
This term we have been learning that Jesus loves us so much, and no matter what we do or what happens. We are also learning how to love like Jesus by being kind and caring to our friends. We learnt about the time when Jesus showed his love towards his disciples by washing their feet. We loved this idea and decided to show love to each other by washing each other’s feet. We also learnt that we can show love in other ways by sharing the toys, helping new friends with showing them the room and routines, helping to pack away and set up.
First day in Kindy/ Koorlongka:
The start of Kindy is a big transition in a child’s life. They are starting a new school part-time, part-time in a new room (Koorlongka) at childcare. In Koorlongka, we try to ease the anxiety by asking them to reflect on their first day at kindy or Koorlongka. Ask them to draw a picture of a moment, and the teachers would write about it. We also ask them to reflect on how they felt throughout the day. The children enjoyed this process and felt calm in their reflections.
Transition people:
Another activity we do to ease the transition is for everyone to decorate a paper person with their face on it. We have photos of the children playing in Koorlongka and photos of children playing in the SCBC Kindy classrooms. The children then drew pictures of their houses on the other two rooms.
The children then move their paper person to the room that they will be in for the day. This also allows children to see where their friends that they made last year in Kodomo are for the day. Some may be in Koorlongka, some at school, and some at home for the day. This process helped ease the anxiety of where they are in the day, which friends will be with them and where their other friends are.
Kiddo Program: Balance
Kiddo is our physical literacy program, which teaches fundamental movement skills through fun games. This term, we have been working on our balance skills. We have improved our ability to hold a balance on one leg for longer and hold different tricky balance poses. Our balance has improved during our gymnastic sessions as we move along the beams without holding the teacher’s hand. We put our balance skills to the test when we went to nature play. This was a challenge to balance on the ropes and logs.
Syllables:
Syllables are a skill we start to teach every year. This year, the children used stickees on a discovery table to help practise this skill on their own. They would choose a stickee, tap out the syllables and then place it on the correct number/picture prompt. The children loved the stickees and talked about what their favourite fruit or vegetable was. We also used the Diana rigg syllable time resources to teach the children the skill at mat times.
Writing and recognising the letters in our name:
This year, we have focused a lot on writing the pre-writing shapes and starting to trace and write the letters in our name. We have done this in many ways, like writing on whiteboard tables, whiteboard sheets, in sand, and with playdough. We also did lots of different activities with finding and ordering the letters in our name. Like finding the right lettered blocks, cutting out letters and glueing them in the right order, finding the right sticker letters and stamping letters into playdough.
Sorting: More/less and the same:
The children have become great sorters. We have been learning how to sort collections of items in different ways. Learning to recognise similarities and differences in objects. Once the groups are made, we extend their learning by thinking about which group has more objects, less objects and if there are any groups that have the same amount of objects.
Measuring for height:
We have a shelf in the room that has many different items that we can use to measure our height or measure the length of something. We learnt that some measuring items use numbers and others use objects. For example, we used blocks to measure the height of our creations, or we used ribbon to measure the length of tables, chairs, etc. We also used measuring tapes and height charts to measure our height. We also then cut ribbon to our heights and put them up next to each other on the wall to compare and see who was the tallest and who was the shortest in our class.
Aeroplane:
This year, the children have been talking about where they have gone on holidays and how they have been in an aeroplane. So, we decided to set up an aeroplane dramatic play area for the children to explore and reenact their plane flight to the holiday. Lots of friends went to Bali, Africa (to see the animals), Japan, etc. We watched videos of children going on a real plane and the processes they go through to get on the plane, like scanning their luggage, going through screens, getting their tickets scanned, etc.
World Wetlands Day:
On the 2nd February, it was World Wetlands Day. This day looked at what is happening to our wetlands and how we can protect them and the animals that live there. We researched about what wetlands look like in Australia, the animals that live there and what is happening. We then created a wetlands scene in the room and created our favourite animals. Many children loved the snake. We also talked about how we can protect the wetlands by putting our rubbish in the bin.
Sea Week:
From the 2nd to the 13th March, we celebrated sea week. This week, we created a sea-themed play table where we could role-play with our favourite animals. We talked about how water is very important to animals and us and brainstormed the many ways we use water. We also talked about how we can save water by turning the taps off, being careful with our drink bottles, having baths, etc.
What fun we have had so far this year. We are finishing the term with Harmony Week, Purple Day, Wear It Wild Day and Easter. We hope you all have a wonderful Easter break, and we will see you next term.
Mrs Ralph
Pre-Kindy & Kindy Teacher
