We are having a Federal Election in Australia in September and yesterday we had an election of sorts at our Pre School.  Mrs Grant bought three beanie bears and we had to each vote for our favourite to see which bear was the most popular.  The most popular bear will become our mascot and we will take him home with us and on holidays around Victoria, Australia and even the world!

We set up a polling booth and we had to put our names on a chart next to our favourite bear.  Cuddles the Midnight Bear won by one vote from Aussie Bear.  Cuddles will visit your house one night in the near future.  Have fun writing a story about what he gets up to in our Bear Book.

 

 

 

Last Term I attended a workshop on Sensory Integration by Gen Jerob.  Shewas talking about helping children manage themselves by regularly feeding them a sensory diet throughout the day.  We have tried many of these activities and had a positive response from the children.  The sensory diet involves what she terms “Heavy Work”.  This means the children are off their feet (crawling, wriggling, planking, climbing, hanging etc) or need to regain their balance on uneven surfaces.  We also practiced deep breathing at the end to relax.

Here are some photos.  Of course doing it to music is lots more fun.  We use the Rock Ed CD’s

 

 

Do you remember the game of Old Maid from your childhood?  The children at Manangatang and District Pre School discovered this game two months ago and they LOVE it!  We like to play games in small groups for the last 30minutes of each session when we are a little tired.  If parents come early to collect us they join in.

Mrs Gayle loves Old Maid too!  Apart from skills in communication (ie asking for particular cards) and learning (finding matching pairs),  what we are learning most is an important lesson in life.  We are learning to laugh at ourselves (Identity) when things don’t go just right.  When we get the Old Maid card we screw up our faces, say “Oh No!, we laugh and giggle and we learn to accept laughing and giggling from others.  They are not laughing at us – but with us.  Mrs Gayle has modelled this beautifully for the children.

As a group we have had so much fun with this game and we don’t even mind if we lose!