Wk14, 8th to 12th April 2019

Dear Family and Friends,

Welcome to an overview of highlights for week 14.

During this week’s group times, our Butterflies continue to build on the knowledge of the alphabet. Our focus for the week were the letters P, Q and R as well as revising random letters from previous weeks. The children enjoy listening to and watching, Letter Land stories to help us recognise the new letters, their sound and words which begin with the focus letter. We had a special treat this week, Hudson’s mother Hannah, donated a Paw Paw to the kindy for the children to sample the look, feel and taste. I was so proud of ALL the children as they wee all willing to try a sample, many of which kept coming back numerous times. The important takeaway for the children was to overcome the uncertainty of trying new food and the pleasant surprise which comes from new experiences.

The children conducted their own circle time as they practiced their letter recognition, assisting each other when peers were unable to identify a letter.

The children continue practicing their writing, by initially tracing the letters P, Q and R eventually working down the page writing the letter freehand.

We enjoyed craft filling in one of the “n” letters with coloured rice and colouring in the other “n” on the page. With the letter O the children were requested to colour both letters in. There are several development areas which were extended by this activity. My main focus was to evaluate whether the children were able to follow a simple instruction. A few were but many still required guidance and reassurance.

To assist the children continue building on their ability to follow instruction, Miss Renee introduced them to a board game. She explained the rules and provided the children with an opportunity to play the game following the explained rules. It was pleasing to see the children who were able to comprehend and retain the rules, assist their peers by explaining the rules when they weren’t followed. Excellent activity to continue building the children’s comprehension skills, memory recall and expressive language.

While the children went about their work, they had the privilege of being entertained by two pianists. Thank you for your soothing sounds tickling the ivory.

The children enjoyed their letter hunt, working through various tiles looking for letters contained in their names as they continue to build on their letter recognition.

To challenge and build on their design and construction capabilities, the children chose to test themselves with a variety of resources. But the favourites for the week seemed to be Konnect Stix, Lego, Mobilo and even Cup Stacking.

Our doll house had new tenants this week, a family of bears. Actually, it was more like a community of bears. Despite the bears presence, the conversations still reflected those of humans and their interactions in a typical house hold. Mums, dads and Children seem to behave in a predictable fashion whether you’re a bear or human. Mums looking after the children and cooking and dads always seem to be at work. The stereotypical view is changing however as there is the odd dad who cooks and the odd mum who works…. nothing odd about that as I cook, clean and work!!

Our budding authors enjoyed craft their art of story telling not in print, but with the creative use of a felt board. You can’t beat the magic of witnessing the felt board come alive with all its’s characters in their landscape of choice.

The children continue to develop their gross motor skills with the use of the rope and rock climbing walls. Our hand eye coordination where also extended and further developed with a little ball throwing and catching. Catching a variety of low and high ball tosses. For advanced catching the ball was thrown in front, behind and to the side of the children to encourage them to move their feet as they attempt to catch the ball.

Playdough also offered children with extended periods to kneed and shape their creative structures. The best aspect of playdough is, if the final product doesn’t quite look the way you mentally pictured it, simple, you squish it all together and start the process again. Sometimes I believe there is more fun in squishing than making. Another creative activity which was popular was swat painting. Improving the children’s hand eye coordination by applying paint on a swatter and at arm’s length, hit a piece of paper with the swatter to apply the paint. The novelty of this application is a real drawcard for our adventurous artists.