Bush Kinder – Week 3

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The second group of school children joined us for Bush Kinder this week. This really helps us with our transition to school next year as we get to know the children and teachers who will be at ‘big school’ when we get there. This week we cooked scones in the camp ovens on the fire. We had to collect lots of sticks and get the coals just right. The scones were a little burnt on the bottom – but they were still delicious! We also had another go at cooking marshmallows for the new group.
We added to the cubbies built last week and found a stumpy tail lizard and a red back spider. We went for a big walk armed with rubbish bag to help Rene collect rubbish from around the Rec Reserve. We found so much rubbish. She rewarded us with a zooper dooper each!
Thank you to Mrs MacKenzie and the school children for participating in our Bush Kinder program again this year. It gives us so many more children to play with.

Setting the Table

The children love to help teachers prepare the fruit for morning tea each day. Sometimes they also want to help set the tables up. We have placemats for all the children with their names and photos to help this process. This week Amelia asked if she could set the table and Steven wanted to help too. I really enjoyed listening to the discussion as they went through the placemats to decide who was here and therefore who to set a place for at the table. Then there was the one to one matching of giving every placemat a plate. Well done children!

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Drawing Stories

This weeks theme for Drawing Stories was ‘Bush Kinder’. The children had to verbally share what they were going to draw about, then the drew and then they told the story to a teacher – who recorded it on their drawings.

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This process gives children an opportunity to share what they know – and it is usually more than the teachers anticipate.

Echidnas

We are reading Aboriginal legends with our Bush Kinder play and this week we read “How the Echidna got it’s Spikes”. We made echidnas with air dry modelling clay and match sticks. The clay was cold and slimy and it stuck to everything!

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Snow Play

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Mrs Grant brought us back some snow to play with on Tuesday. We added plastic digging equipment and animals that live in the snow and ice into our play. We had a good discussion about how we had to make the most of this opportunity today because it wouldn’t be here tomorrow. Why? Because it will melt of course. And over the course of the day the children watched the snow melt in the sun. It felt very cold and we had to warm our hands on towels. We also enjoy a story called “A Snowy Day”.

Dot Paintings

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We have been learning about the Aboriginal culture through our Bush Kinder experiences this term. This week we tried Aboriginal dot paintings. We used special dot painting bottles that Mrs Grant brought in Yallara to do this. Aidan’s Dad had a traditional canvas of an Aboriginal painting and we used this for inspiration. It took strong hand muscles and lots of patients to work on our painting. The teachers had a go too. We all decided that we should have breaks in this activity and come back too it another day if we get tired. We also read a story that showed us examples of how Aboriginal people depict stories with symbols in their paintings.

Bush Kinder – Week 2

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We all look forward to a visit from Willie Hannah – Cultural Officer – at Bush Kinder. Today Luke was the first to notice Willie’s car arriving. He called out “Willie” and all the children raced back to base camp.

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The children were interested in building cabbies this week. With the help of adults they made a ‘Humpy’ style cubby and a few stick cubbies. We will add to these over the weeks. The girls made them homely with the addition of flowers.

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Bella took great notice of the native flora and Isabel made grass seed soup.

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Some of the boys made a ‘Booby Trap’

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And Jasper did some serious collecting. He found a sandwich press. “Mrs Grant! I’ve found something to toast our marshmallows in!”

Can’t wait for next week!

Bush Kinder – Week 1

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Aunty Rose is an Aboriginal Elder and also Brock’s Great Grandma. Aunty Rose visited Bush Kinder this week and told us a story about how the boy turned into a koala.

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The children loved climbing and sliding down the piles of dirt. They became the scene for many games.

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On our first week of Bush Kinder we spent a lot of time creating our campsite, collecting wood, becoming familiar in our surrounds. Mrs Gayle, Mrs Vine and Ms Jayne took us for a big walk.