Dear Parents and Friend's,
Welcome to our weekly brief for week 8. We are excited to share with you highlights of our weekly experiences.
The Children enjoyed group work with a difference this week, which was the creation of their GIGANTIC Posters. The group work encouraged co-operation and collaboration as they worked together to navigate who will draw where and what, sharing pens and developing their critical prosocial and conversational skills as they learn to effectively function harmoniously with people who may have different opinions and expectations.
Lego is always a welcomed addition to our learning environment as our construction enthusiasts showcase their creativity, design capability as they construct a variety of products handpicking specific colours and shapes required and when necessary negotiating for that all important piece to complete their work.
Our "Stepping Stones" offer endless enjoyment as we develop and extend our coordination and balance. We will encourage counting the number of steps and naming the colours as the children make their journey across the stepping stones building on our numeracy and literacy skills.
Our dramatic play based activities, such as Doll Houses, Dolls and Cooking in the Cubby and Sandpit encourage children to showcase their understanding of society norms as they make sense of their world. Dramatic Play is an excellent way to expose children to a variety of cultures, customs, practices and behaviours through play with their peers providing an opportunity to reflect on differences which exist and how we can be inclusive through our actions and with our words.
With our busy schedules it is important to offer opportunities to relax and unwind throughout the day. There is nothing more relaxing than chill'n on a day bed with a good book. Where else would you rather be? We want the children to have a love for books and literature and ensuring they are surrounded by books will hopefully help.
Craft, craft and more craft. You can never have enough craft activities. Our week's highlights was painting our large butterfly and then sticking bottle tops to cover our Butterfly. We also enjoyed making paper chatterboxes. This required folding paper numerous times to shape our chatterboxes. The folding precision is a work in progress, but certainly a skill we will continue to develop throughout the year. The children also enjoyed a colouring exercise using a dropper, where the children would draw in coloured water to fill the dropper and then squeezing the dropper to release the coloured water. This application required hand eye coordination to correctly place the dropper in a container in enough coloured water to draw in the required colour and to move the dropper over the desired place on the paper the colour is to be applied gently squeezing to obtain the desired effect.
Pot Plants Pots offer excellent opportunities for children to practice their stacking and balancing skills. Being of plastic construction the children are encouraged to go as low, wide and high as they want stretching their imagination as they try to make what seems impossible ....possible.
The children always enjoy stretching Mr Alf's drawing skills playing Pictionary. The objective is to be the first person to guess what Mr Alf is attempting to draw. The children are becoming so good visualising and predicting what Mr Alf is drawing by correctly guessing before the picture is complete.
The children always enjoy the responsibility of performing tasks to help educators, whether its stacking chairs, preparing tables for lunch or preparing beds for their younger peers. Promoting teamwork and involvement in assisting with our daily routine is an important trait we value and want to continue promoting though out the year.
Our outdoor play equipment continues to provide the children with opportunities to develop strength, balance and co-ordination. As the children's strength develops and confidence builds, the children explore opportunities where they can take increased risk in their play. The Monkey Bars are a favourite and used in a variety of ways. We have the traditional use for those starting to develop the required strength to hold their own body weight and for the more confident, "Increased Risk" by hanging upside down with the use of their legs only. For our adventures summit seekers, they choose to explore a path to the top of the monkey bars where they can enjoy a well earned break by sitting on top of the monkey bars appreciating the views around them. The increased risks taken are an essential part of the children's problem solving skills and development of their confidence.Monkey Bars
Continuing with our risk based play theme, Tree climbing has emerged as another favourite. There are a few rules associated with this activity. one of the main rules is not to climb the tree when the younger children are pleasant as we don't want the younger children attempting to climb the tree taking unnecessary risks. So the only real window to participate in this activity is when the younger children are sleeping. It is pleasing to see the Butterflies take responsibility and follow this rule. Before the tree is climbed, permission must be obtained from the teacher on duty. This too is followed. Well done Butterflies!!
The children are continuing to form new friendships and build on their existing ones as they strengthen and deepen their social participation and involvement.
Group Time provided children with an opportunity to watch a video, participate in singing songs and recalling the associated song movements. The children exercise so many muscles during our large group time as they develop their ability to focus and refrain from being distracted by an increased number of peers.
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