Inspired Art

Jayda painted a colourful background and then splattered different colours onto the foreground.  Then she added a few hand prints.  The result that anyone would be proud to frame and hang in their lounge room.

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Isabel’s painting was inspired by our experience with mapping after Bush Kinder.  The learning from Bush Kinder just keeps reappearing every day.

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The Power of Sorry!

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Hailee’s shoe ended up in a tree on the other side of the boundry fence this week.  There was a discussion between the three child involved.  Other children came along to join in.  They said, “If xxxx threw the shoe in the tree then let’s throw xxxx in the tree.”  They tried to pick xxxx up.  XXXX said “No, no!”

Hailee said, “Everyone STOP!  He said sorry.”

Everyone stopped and we all learnt about the power of ‘sorry’ for both parties.

Help from the Swan Hill Shire

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAWe had a visit from Jenny who works with the Swan Hill Shire.  Jenny came to Manangatang to investigate the rubbish that we found dumped at Bush Kinder.  We showed her the photos and then we drew roughly where the rubbish was on a map for her to find.

Jenny explained to us the if the rubbish had any names for identification on it, then the Shire would contact the people involved and ask them to clean up the mess themselves.

If they don’t clean up the rubbish then the will be fined. (ie. have to pay money)

If Jenny can’t identify the owners of the rubbish, the Shire Workers will come down and clean it up and we will go out and help them.

Thank you to Jenny and the Swan Hill Shire for responding to our letter in such an prompt and interactive way.

 

 

 

 

Measuring Rain

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We have had a rain gauge in our playgroung since the holidays.  Last week it rain for the first time.  Cooper went straight to the gauge.  We measured 3mm.  Cooper and I discussed that we had had more rain at our farms than in town.  While we are hoping that we miss the rain for the next few weeks to finish our grain harvest – if it does rain we will be looking forward to measuring it.  Next year we might keep a rainfall record.

Obstacle Course

Last week Tay, Cheyenne and Lachlan made an obstacle course.  They played on it for the whole session.

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Other children quickly joined in.  During Morning Meeting this week I asked the children if anyone would like to design an obstacle course.  I drew on the white board to show them how to represent the cquipment the children used from last week.  We had a discussion about safety and the little changes the teachers made to ensure it was safe.

Hailee wanted to do this.  She drew her plan.

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We took a photo of the plan and took it outside with us.  She instructed the teachers  on how to place the equipment.  (We had to put the ladders the right way!)  Hailee was the first to have a go.  The most challenging part was walking on the see saw.  There were a few spills – but no tears.

Hopefully over the next few weeks we will have some more children wanting to have a go at setting an obstacle course for the group.  They may even try this activity at home.  Let us know if they do!

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Ring Those Bells

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For the last two days we have had Maddy to replace Mrs Gayle.  Maddy taught us a new song from our favourite CD “Bonkers Beat”.  It is called “Ring Those Bells”  Maddy also taught the children the signing to go with the song.  This could become our new favourite song.  Thanks for the two days Maddy.  It was fun.

Tooth Fairy

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA  Anders lost a tooth at Pre School last week.  This is the second tooth he has lost.  We asked him if he could write a letter to the tooth fairy asking him to leave the tooth for a Pre School experiment.

He wasn’ t sure about this.  He took the tooth home for a think.  The tooth came back this week.  The tooth fairy was fine with the idea.

We put the tooth into a plastic cup with some coke.  What do you think will happen?

“It will go black.”

“If we wash it in water it will go white again.”

After 24 hours the tooth has gone considerably brown.

We will keep it in the coke over the next four days and see what happens.

Then we will try to wash it clean in water.

Drop Tail Lizards

Our dry creek bed is the perfect habitat for Drop-tail Lizards.  Hailee has a theory that if she sings to them, they come to her.  She certainally seems to find a lot so she may be right.  Hailee and Cooper had a container set up and Hailee was singing a ‘special song’ to try to catch the lizard.  It didn’t work – the lizards were there but wouldn’t get into the container.  They persisted with this for over 20 minutes.

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DUPLO

With finding from LMPA we purchased some DUPLO Community and World People.  These people added significantly to the language being used during DUPLO play.  Hailee said, “Look a zoo keeper.”  I said, “How do you know?” and she said, “Look it says ‘zoo’ here.”  Zoo was printed on the back of the lady.  Kyle found a car on a DUPLO card he wanted me to build.  He said, “Look here is the map.” Obviously linking pictorial instructions too the maps we drew last week.  I said, “Oh bring me the ‘instructions’ and find all the bits and we will do it together.”  Finding the bits involved discussion between the children about size, thickness and colour.  They were also refering back to the instructions to check they had it right.  Later they found intructions for a harder structure and they were counting to see how many small light blue squares they needed.  Complex learning indeeed!

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Scarf Fun

Cooper found the tub of scarves again today.  He made a cape with the red one.  Lachlan got out the yellow one he wore a lot during the first half of the year.  He said, “My cape.  I haven’t seen it for years!!” The girls used them for dress ups.  They also put scarves on their heads.  Then they got the dolls and wrapped them in scarves.  Isabel said “Baby Jesus.”  With not long to go until the end of the year and it is great to see the children revisiting favourite activities.  Who knows when they will ever get to play with scarves again once they leave Pre School.

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