Wk21, 27th to 31st May 2019

Dear Friends and Family,

Welcome to our weekly overview for week 21.

Our focus for the week was to continue improving our writing skills and pencil management / control skills. We have approached this by offering many play-based activities to extend and develop the children’s fine motor skills.

We also provided many opportunities throughout the week to practice our writing. Tracing letters, numbers and shapes. Children also enjoyed practice writing numbers on the whiteboard.

To revise our alphabet, we used worksheets to help us trace the letters and the children wee required to fill in the missing letters. The children’s literacy is certainly on the improve. Well done Butterflies and keep up the great work.

Extending on our interest of animals found in the savanna, we played charades. Someone would come out to the front of the class to act out and animal, while the rest of the class would attempt to guess the animal. Our objective is to develop the children’s confidence being the centre of attention in front of the class. Once the children become comfortable and confident with acting gesture, we will follow with speech which is usually a little more challenging.

The children are now starting to showcase in a practical way their learning to date by setting up our environment for musical chairs. They first need a headcount of students. We don’t always agree during our first pass. We have a lead counter followed by someone to verify. If there is a discrepancy someone else is chosen to verify the count. This process is followed until the headcount is confirmed. Once this task is completed, we source the chairs LESS one. A chair count is then verified. Now the chairs need to be setup in two line, ensuring the environment is safe having nothing nearby we can bump into or trip over. An excellent display of collaboration and transferring skills and knowledge which has been learnt to perform a function in a socially acceptable manner. Great work Butterflies.

The children are still finding ways of enjoying our outdoor play area extending their gross motor skills whilst further building their confidence. Our usual favourites where in use, the Cargo Net, Slippery Dip, Rock Climbing Wall, Rope Climbing Wall and Monkey Bars. Our risk takers were ever so present managing to climb on top on the monkey bars, climb trees and use the seesaw by standing on it rocking from side to side…..who said you needed two people to enjoy the seesaw?

We often just race around from one task to the next without taking a moment to appreciate what we have. So, there is a part in this week’s collage where that brief moment was taken and we wanted to share it with you.

The children are enjoying playing hide and seek. Practicing their counting, hypothesising best places to hide, problem solving how to position themselves to effectively hide from the peers, following rules, perseverance to keep searching until you find your peers and the pure joy and excitement finding someone and being found. The children now play hide and seek in the class, not only outdoors……not sure there are too many places to effectively hide in our butterfly room, but hey, the children are enjoying the experience and that’s what matters!!

The children enjoyed threading based activities which help their fine motor skills. Our problem solver where drawn to the usual Mobilo, Connector Squares and Wooden Blocks which showcased some amazing towers using a variety of shapes. We also had puzzles out with varying levels of complexity and magnetic wooden blocks. The magnetic wooden blocks through an extra dimension of challenge to the construction process and that is the element of attraction and repulsion just to keep things interesting.

But, no matter how old you are, when you feel the need to pamper yourself, I understand there is nothing quite like shopping. By looking at the children in our retail environment I believe there may be merit in this claim……not sure what the dynamics will be like during the sales though!! The children are understanding the difference between the person working in the shop and the customer. Who is responsible for paying and who is responsible to provide the products? So, what does the shop owner need to do if they want to make more money I ask? Sell more is the reply…..impressive!!

Our Meditation/quiet time is nearing its end in our daily routine. As we continue with our school readiness program, we cease the rest time after lunch commencing July. During the second half of the year the children will be directed to read a book after lunch, to allow the food to settle and then be allowed to play as they would in Primary School. After their lunch break, they will return to the butterfly room for a little class time prior to finishing for the day.

Hmmm, can you guess who got into something they shouldn't have....no, it wasn't a Butterfly, it was a li'l Caterpillar.